The Blessed Life - Pt. 4 - The Sacred Life Series

The Blessed Life

Part 4 – The Sacred Life

I. Introduction

There are debates about whether luck exists. People try to look for explanations for unusual results. Statements like “The planets aligned for you today or today was just your lucky day” are uttered when a person has no explanation. I don’t know about you, but I am not really interested on waiting for planets to get in some formation or for one particular day! I mean am I only allotted a few “lucky days” in life? I prefer guarantees! So I am completely convinced that a much better way to live is to live blessed! You can rely on luck if you like. I choose to rely on God.

So, we began this series by stating that there are 4 ways we must live in order to step into a blessed life. The first is to live a generous life. If you claim to be a follower of Christ you should be the most generous person on the planet. As you respond to needs in generosity we are guaranteed blessings. We must also live a shared life. It as we share life with others that we find we are blessed because we are not designed to live alone! Then in the last message I challenged you to live a sacrificed life. Take stock of your life and see if following Christ is actually costing you something! Remember if it doesn’t cost it doesn’t count! You will not be blessed unless your life is marked and stretched by sacrifice!

So today, I want to wrap this series up by stating that in order to be blessed you must live a sacred life!

II. Background

Just a quick refresher that reveals God’s desires to bless us! In Genesis 5:1-2 that I read to you last week we discovered that from day one of man’s life on the planet God reveals that He desires to bless us.

Duet. 28:6

6You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.

So as we done each week, I want you to say this with me so that I know we are in agreement . . . “The Generous Life is a Blessed Life. The Shared Life is a Blessed Life. The Sacrificed Life is a Blessed Life! The Sacred Life is a Blessed Life!”

You will recall that I read to you the example given to us by the New Testament Church in Acts 2. We get a glimpse into the sacred aspect of their lives when we are told in verse 46, “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.”

These early believer’s lives were sacred lives. Every day, their pursuit of Jesus played a significant part in their normal activities.

There was no compartmentalization of their lives. Their “Jesus life” spilled over into their everyday life.

I want to remind you of two key passages of Scripture that I believe most modern Christians have failed to live up to or embrace and work out the implications into their lives.

The first is Romans 12:1, “So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.” (We know this as present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable before God, which is your reasonable – expected – service.)

The second is Colossians 3:17, “Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.”

Our lives become sacred when every detail in our lives . . . sleeping, eating working, action . . . become holy and are offered to God.

Here is the challenge. . . the average American Christian and most of the ones sitting in this room right now only view and handle their church life as the sacred part of their lives.

III. Sacred Lives

I want to spend a few moments illustrating for you how most of us live!

Most of us confine Jesus to 9:15-10:30 or 11:15–12:30 on Sunday each week.

We restrict Him from invading other areas of our lives. Most of us have no more of Jesus’ influence in the daily part of our lives than we did on the day we accepted Him as savior!

Use 4 boxes –

a. Church

b. Marriage/Dating

c. Work/School

d. Public/Private

We don’t mind Jesus invading our church life. In fact, if He doesn’t we will look for a new church. If we don’t feel Jesus in that church it is because that church is dead. If you can’t show me the Jesus I want to see the way I want to see Him then I am out of there. So we want Jesus in that box of our lives.