“Who Do I Say Jesus Is, and What Does That Make Me?" By Pastor Andy Giebler April 22nd,
2018 I don't know if this is part
two or a
continuation. Who do men say that I am? Who do I say the Christ is? I
like a
part of it, Kirk, you said, about evaluation. Look and say, how are we
doing?
And, if I could title this, this morning, it's, “What Does That Make
Me?” “Who Do
I Say Jesus Is, and What Does That Make Me?” If I could give it a
subtitle, it
would be, “Self-Evaluation.” So, who is this Jesus to me? Who is this
God that
we serve? Who Is He to me, personally? I want to reference a story in
Numbers: Moses
was leading the people. They're supposed to be going into the Promised
Land.
They're supposed to go in and take it. And God has them send in one
from every
tribe, one man, to go out and spy out the land. Growing up, we used to
sing a
song, in our children's church, and it was, “Twelve men went to spy on
Canaan, ten
were bad and two were good. What did they see when they got to Canaan?
Ten were
bad and two were good. Some saw giants big and tall, some saw grapes in
clusters fall. Some saw God rules over all. Ten were bad and two were
good.” And,
the story says that ten came back and gave an evil report. Now, why did
they
give an evil report? They were sent of God to do this.
They had permission, they were told to go;
they were commissioned to do this. “This
is your land; go take it.” And, in Numbers, thirteen, thirty-three,
their
answer was: Numbers 13:33
And there we
saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come
of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we
were in
their sight. The key there, “…and we were
in our own sight
as grasshoppers…” How do we see ourselves? How do we picture ourselves
in this
relationship with Christ? This God that we serve, this Jesus that we
say, “He
is the Christ, the son of the Living God?” Where do we see ourselves in
that
relationship? In Philippians—I like how Paul puts it, in Philippians,
four,
twelve: Philippians 4:12-13
I know both how
to be abased, and I know how to abound:
every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be
hungry,
both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ
which
strengtheneth me. Paul didn't have an easy
life. Paul had a made
up mind. Paul knew what he was doing. Paul didn't have what we have,
our luxury
of a house, and a garage, and a truck, and a car in the driveway, and
the dog,
and the 2.5 kids; how we look at things. But Paul knew where he was,
and Who he
served, and, he knew where his strength came from. Knowing who we are
to God is
important, because it helps us choose how we live. There's references
throughout the Scriptures to being a servant. And, we have a—we look
for a job,
we go to the boss, we give a resume, and they look at it, and they give
us an
offer, and they choose us. And, then we give—we look at that and we
make a
choice whether to be, basically, a servant to that man, for money. It's
not a
servant as in a bought servant, or a conquered servant, but a choice to
serve
that man. To serve that company, to serve that interest, to do this
task for
money. We'll look at John, fifteen. So, who are we to Christ? How do I
see
myself in a relationship, as a son? As a daughter? An outcast? An heir?
Do I
see myself as weak or strong, empowered, worthy, unworthy? How do I
view myself
in that relationship? I'm going to read John, fifteen, verses fourteen
through sixteen;
Jesus said: John 15:14-16
Ye are my
friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what
his lord
doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard
of my
Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have
chosen
you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and
that your
fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my
name, he
may give it you. So we've been given the
right to be an heir to
the kingdom of God. We have that salvation, we have a promise, we have
a home
prepared for us. And, we look at—how many of you ever had in the back
of your
head, or thought about, or daydreamed about having, getting that email,
or
getting that text from a rich uncle? You know? Yeah, we've all been
there. But,
that ain't going to happen. But this is a promise we have. This isn't
something
we have to fantasize about, or daydream about. We can daydream about
it,
because we know the end of it. We can read the Scriptures, we can read
the
Bible cover to cover, we can pray, we can seek the Spirit of God; we
know the
end of this story. The end of my finances between now and the time till
they
put me in the ground, I have no idea what that story is going to be
like. But
this one, I know. I know that my intention is to leave my children and
my
grandchildren my inheritance. I have no idea between now and the next
few years
what's going to happen. I may leave them a pile of debt, who knows?
I've heard
the saying, “I'm going to spend my grandkids money now.” But, we have
an
inheritance, we have something that’s sure. I look at my parents, and I
wonder
what the inheritance is going to be there. It's just flesh, we don't
know. Because
my dad is living off of his money, and I'm glad he's comfortable; I'm
glad he's
doing what he's doing. If he's happy the rest of his life, so be it, if
I don't
get a penny from him. But I don't know, that's unsure. But I am an heir
of
Christ. Who do I say that I am? Who do I say that God is, and what does
that
make me to Him? Because, if we don't have that Vision, if we don't have
understand that, we don't live in that promise; we don't live in that
understanding of knowing who Christ is. Next part of this, how do I
know? How do I
know if I'm in this? I say God is my Father. We have all the
description of who
God is. Wonderful, counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace, Everlasting
Father, the
Head of the church. Is he the Head of my life? How do I know? John,
three, verse
six. And, this is, it's a spiritual thing. A lot of people look at
their
careers, their life, punch this button, do this, get this job, get this
qualification over here, and some people want to take church as that
type of direction.
But, that's not where this is; this is spiritual. This is something
that we get
on our knees to God and say, “God, fill me.” And, we have a promise,
because
when Jesus died, the veil of the temple was torn (Mark 15:37-38). We
have
access, as the priest had access. We have access to God; we no longer
have to
have a priest go offer a sacrifice. As the church, the body, our body,
a living
sacrifice. Everyday. Doing it for him. That's our sacrifice now. We
come before
God, and God can pour out his Spirit on us without having to take and
kill another
animal for that sin. Because, we have a sacrifice, we have that Perfect
Sacrifice made for us, that no one can top, no one can sacrifice
something that
would be the total end all, except for what God gave us as His Son. And
John, three,
six through eight: John 3:6-8
That which is
born of the flesh is flesh; and that which
is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye
must be
born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the
sound
thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so
is every
one that is born of the Spirit. Born again. We have to start
somewhere.
Nicodemus was a little confused in this story, by, “What? Go back in my
mother's womb and be born again?” This is a choice we make. When women
are
going into labor and having a child, that child has no choice
whatsoever. It's
a done deal. That birth is going to happen. And, sometimes women try to
put it
off, and they say “I want to have it on this date,” not get to the
hospital
fast enough. They had births in taxi cabs, elevators, sports events,
airplanes... Once that process starts, there's no choice in that
matter. But,
this birth, this being born again, being born of the spirit, that's a
choice,
we have to make that. We have to choose to live for God. And it's more
than
just baptism. We talk a lot about baptism; I know we’ve heard a lot
about it,
and that's part of it, that's our birth. But, it's an everyday thing;
it's
living by God's spirit. The birth is just the start. And, unless a
child is
born, that life doesn't truly start. You know, nine months, it's over,
get out.
That's where that's got to start. In our walk with Christ can't start
until that
birth happens. But, that's a choice. And, Romans, six, four, it says: Romans 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism
into death:
that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the
Father,
even so we also should walk in newness of life. So, the spiritual thing,
what's that all
about? It's about living, there, every day. In Romans, eight, sixteen,
it says: Romans 8:16-18
The Spirit
itself beareth witness with our spirit, that
we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God,
and
joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may
be also
glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present
time are
not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. We're born into an eternal
family; we've got
that inheritance. And, I want to bring up one more Scripture that just
references spirituality. We have to walk in the spirit. We can walk in
the
spirit, or walk according to the flesh. Even after we’re born again, we
can
choose to walk outside of our family. A child is born, you know, they
grow up,
they can choose, “Hey, I can leave this family,” at their peril. I
mean, human
beings, I mean, it takes years before child is ready to leave the
family. You
take a one-year-old child, that child cannot exist outside of the
mother and
father's care. It's not going to live. And, even up through sixteen,
seventeen,
eighteen, they're still developing. Of course, I remember back in those
days
well enough to know that I didn't believe it, I thought when I was
sixteen I
was good to go. That's good, I'm done. But, my parents knew better.
They knew
that I needed some things, even if I didn't like it. And as we grow and
as we
decide to stay in this family, and sometimes we walk away from it,
sometimes we
stray out of it, and, just like our parents did, pull us back in,
sometimes
snatch us up and bring us back in. Sometimes in ways that we really
didn't like
to have it done. But our parents knew what was best for us. And, God
knows
what's best for us. And, I'm reminded, going back to this subtitle that
I gave,
the self-evaluation. where am I at? If I'm getting smacked around,
“God, what's
going on here?” Maybe I'm not living inside of the, what my inheritance
is
supposed to be. I'm not living in that family the way I'm supposed to
be. Who
do we say that God is? Who do we say that Christ is? Is He the Head of
the
church? Is He Head of my life? And, I want to reference one more story
before I
close, and it's in Matthew twenty-five. Ten women, virgins, pure,
waiting for
the bridegroom. Five had their lamps trimmed, or had their lamps ready
to go
with oil; five, not so much. The call was made, the bridegroom comes.
Five trimmed
their lamps; five ran out of oil. The five that ran out of oil, said,
“Give us
of yours. Give me what you've got.” Now, I can share things with you,
but I
can't give you of my spirit. I can share with it; I can pray for you.
I've
heard it said, “I can pray for you, but I can't pray for you.” We pray
for
people in the altar; we can pray for you, but we can’t pray for you. I
can't
give you my spirit. I can pray for you; I can let my spirit guide me to
say the
things that I should say. I can let my spirit do the things that would
minister
to you, as well as the rest of you can. I'm looking at a congregation
that,
that I know we're going to continue to grow because our fellowship;
that's her
name, Christian Fellowship. We can give of ourselves to one another,
because we
have the spirit of Christ in us. We know that this is a family. We are
the body
of Christ. And, we have all these things in our body. I have the things
in my
personal body, and we have the things right here in this body. We have
the
things that we need to minister one to another. We have the things we
need to
lift each other up. Kirk talked about all the things in the body of
Christ. I
can't deliver those things, I can't be part of this body, I can be part
of
Christian Fellowship congregation, I can come sit in this chair, I can
come to
your prayer meetings, I can come to your Bible studies, I can do all
those
things, but if I'm not part of Christ, if I'm not living within what
God gave
me, if I'm not following that Spirit, if I'm not walking in the spirit,
and in
Galatians, five, twenty-one through twenty-three, these are the fruits
of the
spirit, I should say fruit of the spirit. We all envision a tree, when
we talk
about a fruit of the spirit, maybe an apple or a pear. But, all these
things
are, we have one fruit, and this fruit is all of these things.
Envyings, can
be, it can be: Galatians 5:21-23
Envyings,
murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such
like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time
past,
that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the
fruit of the Spirit [if I'm a tree and the
fruit
that’s on my vine is of God's Spirit] is
love [does my fruit have love?], joy [do
I have joy? Joy is not happiness. I'm not happy all the time. Go to
work, go
out to go to work, and I got a flat tire, I'm not happy. I've still got
joy, I
still know who God is], peace,
longsuffering [sometimes we want to pray for other people and
their
long-suffering. Sometimes I want to say God, help me with my
long-suffering.
And, sometimes it takes some self-evaluation to look in the mirror and
say, “Where
am I at God?” For every last one of these things, I can say, am I
living in
God's Spirit? Am I walking in the spirit? Am I following it? Am I
living
peaceably? Am I in God's Spirit? Am I lacking long-suffering? Do I
truly have
all of God's spirit that I need? I know I'm stepping on toes, and mine
are
curling back, too. Do I have],
gentleness, goodness, [do I have] faith [Do I
have faith? Am I walking in
God's spirit?], Meekness [am I
walking in God's spirit?], temperance
[am I walking in God's spirit?]: against
such there is no law. My encouragement for us as a
church is that we
continue to walk in the spirit as individuals. Seeking God, seeking
Scriptures out.
Getting into the Word. Sharing it with each other, I want to tell you
right now
that the best fellowship I've had are the ones on Saturday mornings
when we get
together and we put out and we break up and groups and have topics, and
we all
sit down together and put together our own little Bible study on the
spot.
That's some of the best fellowship we have. And, we all feed off of
each other.
That doesn't have to wait for Saturday morning men's fellowship to do
that, and
I'm saying shame on me just as much, because we all need to do that.
But,
getting into the Word, knowing the Word, getting the fellowship. And
then, we
have that, in our lives. I have those gifts. Kirk talked about the
gifts,
talked about the things in our lives. Then, we start to manifest those
things,
then we start to work together as a whole, as a group, as a body.
Because those
things are manifest in your life, not because you're part of a church,
but
because you're walking after God's spirit. And, then God takes those
things to
benefit every last one of us. I get to benefit from you. And, that's my
encouragement for today. Self-evaluation. Who do I say that Jesus is,
and what
does that make me? Amen.
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