Choices, chances, and changes
Introduction-
Good Morning
Romans Chapter 12:1-2
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God- this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Apostle Paul throws down the gauntlet to believers-
He says that as a believer of Christ, that we must offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to God .
As believers, we must not conform to this world’s standards but allow God to renew our minds to know and live out God’s will for our lives.
Living sacrifice is not a dead piece of meat on the altar of God but a living person serving God in and through their lives.
Transformation, meaning, that the way you are before Christ is not how Christ wants you to stay.
Is it possible to live a life that is holy?
Is a possible to be entirely sanctified or set apart for God?
Is it possible to live without sin in your life?
Yes it is possible. The only way it is possible is by laying our lives down to the one and only perfect savior and allowing the Holy Spirit of God to empower your life.
Prayer-
Father today, we come to the holy altar of God and ask Lord that you search each one of our hearts that you may remove anything that would draw us away from you. We give you permission to remove, transform, or change anything in our lives. May there be no door that we say you cannot open. In Jesus name! Amen.
3 point message- choices, chances, changes-
Choice- The choices we make and have made in our lives.
About 25 years ago, I left one denomination and came to the Nazarene Church. So I am a Nazarene by choice! I began to look at the polity and doctrine of the Nazarenes and they lined up with how I believed.
If it was good enough for Jesus the Nazarene, it was good for me. (Ha Ha)
There are 16 fundamental truths the church of the Nazarene believe in and practice. (What makes Nazarenes Nazarenes )
I began studying what the Nazarenes were all about. We have 1000’s of churches in USA and there are 8-9 within a 60 mile radius of right here. Many Districts spread over the world. Two closest Districts, the Philadelphia District which Rosedale belongs too is made up of 58 churches and the Mid Atlantic district which begins across the river in New Cumberland and spreads throughout Pa. and Maryland. We are out there.
We are bigger outside of the United States than we are in the US which shows why we are so mission oriented.
When I first became a Nazarene, people use to say you go where? Who? What do they believe? I could not give them a good answer. I had trouble identifying. (I said things like)
Kind of Methodist because of the teachings of John Wesley and Nazarene founder Phineas Bresee was a Methodist minister who believed that there had to be more for a believer.
We have a holiness background
Our closest sister churches are the Wesleyans.
I could not explain the Nazarene church
Here is the official statement of belief- What is a Nazarene.
The church of the Nazarene is an evangelical Christian denomination that shares their beliefs with most protestant Bible believing churches. We are the largest Wesleyan-holiness church in the world and what separates us from our brother and sister churches is our belief in entire Sanctification.
So to go back to the question of is it possible to live a life of holiness- yes with God’s help.
So part of the Article of faith reads-
“We believe that entire sanctification is that act of God, subsequent to regeneration, by which believers are made free from original sin, or depravity, and brought into a state of entire devotion of God, and the holy obedience of love made perfect.”
What the Nazarene’s believe according to the Word of God is that;
We are all born sinners! Because of the fall of man we are born in need of a savior.
We are not good people trying to stay good. We are sinners who are fallen and in need of a savior to redeem us.
Jesus is that Savior- only one way to God and that is through His Son Jesus.
We must be “born again” - we were born into sin and we must have a born again experience through Jesus Christ.
Prevenient Grace is God going after us and drawing us to Himself. (First move)
Convicting Grace is Him showing us that we need a savior. (Our brokenness)
Saving Grace is God providing a way of salvation. (Jesus)
Sanctifying Grace is God setting us apart for his honor and glory working through our lives. (child of God)
Sustaining Grace is God empowering our lives to live it according to His will and ways. (Holy Spirit)
It is God’s grace start to finish. G.R.A.C.E. (God’s riches at Christ expense)
Entire Sanctification is a work of Grace!
You cannot have a sanctifying moment without first coming to Christ- Salvation is the first step to sanctification.
There is more that God wants to do in your life and it begins in becoming a child of God.
Becoming a believer is just the beginning. He desires so much more in our lives.
The best choice you can make is accepting Jesus Christ as savior-
The next best choice you can make is allowing the Holy Spirit of God to work in your life and empower you to do the work that God calls all believers too.
Choices-
We have all made some pretty bad choices- there is not one of us that does not have something they would have changed if they were to get a do over-
I believe that there are many Christians, saved on their way to heaven, limping into heaven because they would not let God empower their lives and did things in their own power instead of the power of God.
Check this out-
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through, May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who calls you is faithful and He will do it.”
You ever wonder why you have good intentions and they seem to fail and you do things that you did not intend to do?
Paul clearly spells it out for us.
Romans 7:15-20
15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
It is the human situation-
Paul is bearing his soul to the readers –
He knew what was right and wanted to do it, yet he could not do it.
He knew what was wrong and the last thing he wanted to do was do it, but yet he did.
He felt like two people were living in the same body. He was haunted by frustration and the inability to do what was right.
It is us doing things in our strength instead of the strength of God working in our lives.
You have to make a choice this morning- The choice to allow God to work in your life.
If you have not made a choice to have Jesus as your savior. That is the first choice you must make.
If you have done that, the second choice is to allow God to work in your life to get out the things that cause you to stumble.
Choices now Chances-
I do not believe in coincidence.
Messages in Sunday school that fit into sermon- not coincidence.
You are not here by coincidence this morning, God intended to speak to you and I this morning and thankfully you are here today. Those that choose to sleep in missed what God had to say to them. It is not God’s fault that we stay up watching a movie and miss an opportunity for God to speak to us.
I look back at all the chances that God gave me to hear his words and learn his lessons from People and situations that he brought before me. I am thankful that some of them stuck- Amen!
I believe the Lord brings people into our lives and we are brought into other people’s lives to make a difference.
Colossians 2:20-23
“Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules. Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch! These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom. With their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.”
If you are trying to live by rules, in your own strength, you will not be all God intends for your life. You are never more free than when you are enslaved in Christ. You are never more alive than you are in Christ.
Colossians 3:1-15 Read from the Bible
God gives us all these chances to draw close to Him. To be more Christ-like. It is not coincidence when it happens. It is intentional and we must be intentional.
We have to make a choice- the choice of allowing God into our lives and allowing the Holy Spirit of god to dwell within us and fill us to overflowing with His Spirit.
We cannot miss the chances He gives us to draw close to Him.
The last one this morning- changes-
Romans 6:22-23
“Now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
One preacher has said- “We were all chained like a slave to a plow and driven to hopelessness by sin but Christ has set us free.”
Change- we should all be allowing God to change things in our life.
We should not be stagnant.
We should be growing in the Lord and dying to self every day. Allowing God’s presence to motivate us to be more Christ-like.
Have you made the right choice? - To be a servant of the Lord- intentional choice. It is not too late as long as you have breath still in your body.
Do you look and see the chances that God has and is giving you to be in your life?
Are you willing to let God do the changes needed in your life? Intentionally.
We cannot do that without His help!
Now here is the big question- Is sanctification only for those going into ministry? Only leaders? No!
Can we actually live a holy and pleasing life for the Lord? Yes! It is for each and everyone of us! It is for all who would receive it and seek out His Holy Spirit for their lives.
Today church, each of us has a choice- Are you tired of the same old same old? Do you want more? Are you willing to say to the Lord, Yes Lord! I want more of you-
Take more of me out and put more of you in my heart.
I must decrease so that He can increase.
If you do that- He will not let you down. He will be faithful and provide all that you need.
I am going to ask you to do something that is not the normal in just a minute-
We live in a broken world, and we are always trying to finds ways to fix it- I am asking you this morning to bring yourself to the Lord. To offer yourself up to the Lord as a living sacrifice. Asking God to search your life and allow Him to make the changes needed. Consecrating yourself to Him and allowing Him to Sanctify you Holy.
That is simply surrendering your life to Him
That is allowing Him to set you apart for His service.
Holy does not mean perfect - it means being more Christ-like and lining up with his perfect plan
In a day and age of name it claim it- I am asking you this morning to humbly come to the Lord and ask His will to be done in your life. Would you ask Him to do that this morning in your life?
He is wanting to empower His people with His Spirit, His strength, doing His will.
Faith is not giving God an assignment and demanding that He do it- it is realizing that you need a savior and then realizing that you need Him to work in your life. You are asking Him to do that this morning.
I am going to ask you to stand and we are going to pray together and then the worship team will close in song.
Prayer-
I am asking Lord that you would empower your saints! I am asking for hearts to be open and totally turn their lives over to you. Surrendering our will for your will and realizing that this will empower us to do what you have called each one of us to do. I surrender Lord all that I am so I can be all that you want me to be. In Jesus Name.
