Sermon Central
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You Are Free To Serve The Lord Series
Contributed by Johnny Creasong on Jul 23, 2007 (message contributor)
Summary: God has set you free on purpose...to serve Him!
You are Free to Serve the Lord!
19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus,
20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body,
21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-- and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
(NIV)
Ty Cobb, all-time baseball great, played 3,033 straight games, and for twelve years led the American League in batting averages. For four years, he batted over 400. He was, arguably, the meanest and most unlikable man ever to play the sport. On his deathbed, July 17, 1961, he accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior. He said, "You tell the boys I’m sorry it was the last part of the ninth that I came to know Christ. I wish it had taken place in the first half of the first.
It is not enough to CONFESS; we must also POSSESS.
22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
(NIV)
vs 22 Growing older is mandatory! From the moment you discover life on Planet Earth, you begin to grow older. Growing up only comes by choice!
There is a great difference between t-ball and Major League Baseball.
The same thing is true spiritually. Professional Baseball managers do not call up players from the T-Ball league. The skill required to play in the big league is far greater the just being able to connect with a ball on the stand and being able to scurry to first base. Big league play requires big league players.
Growing older is mandatory; growing up is optional. But only those who grow up get to play in the Majors! God has no minor league players, no little league players, no T-ball plays. All the players on God’s Team are MAJOR LEAGUE!
9 But you are not like that, for you have been chosen by God himself-- you are priests of the King, you are holy and pure, you are God’s very own-- all this so that you may show to others how God called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
10 Once you were less than nothing; now you are God’s own. Once you knew very little of God’s kindness; now your very lives have been changed by it.
(TLB)
It is not enough to POSSESS; we also must PROFESS.
23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
(NIV)
There are two major bodies of water in the land where Jesus walked. One is the Sea of Galilee, a beautiful lake 13 miles long and 7 ½ miles wide filled with fish and surrounded by lush foliage.
The other body of water is the Dead Sea, 50 miles long and 11 miles wide, the shoreline of which is 1300 feet below sea level. Seven million tons of water evaporate from the Dead Sea every day. The saline or salt content of the water of the Dead Sea ranges from 26-35%, making it 10 times saltier than the oceans of the world. There’s no seaweed or plants of any kind in or around the water. There are no fish or any kind of swimming, squirming creatures living in or near the water. As a matter of fact, what you’ll see on the shores of the Sea is white, crystals of salt covering EVERYTHING. According to extremescience.com, fish accidentally swimming into the waters from one of the several freshwater streams that feed the Sea are killed instantly, their bodies quickly coated with a preserving layer of salt crystals and then tossed onto shore by the wind and waves.
Both the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea are fed by the Jordan River There is really only one difference between these two bodies of water, really only one thing that causes the Sea of Galilee to be beautiful and alive while the Dead Sea is barren and lifeless. The Sea of Galilee has an outlet; the Dead Sea does not! Water flows through the Sea of Galilee. Water flows into the Dead Sea but not out!
