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LIfe in HD Part 4 from Open Arms Church on Vimeo.
Life in HD: Living At A Higher Level (Part 4)
NOW you are a child of God; live like one spirit, soul, body, in word, deed, and thought.
Romans 8:19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.
1John 3:1-3 1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
Ephesians 5:1-2 1 Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Guard your HEART. Guard your MIND. Govern your BODY and live by the spirit and truth.
Children of God LOVE God and their love compels them to obedience to become like him (conformed to his image). LIVE as Jesus did.
Romans 8:29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
1John 2:3-6 3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
1John 4:16-17 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.
John 14:15 If you love me, you will obey what I command.
Mark 12:29-33 29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.
Children of God love OTHERS.
1John 3:10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.
God’s love in them compels them to MISSION.
1John 5:19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.
2Corinthians 5:14-15 14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
My life is an influence on others for GOOD or evil. To say I love/care for a friend but then act unChristlike is PROOF I don’t love/care for them. Proverbs 17:17
Jesus was the Son of God, the living Word in the flesh. As a child of God you are a living LETTER, a walking talking BIBLE. What is the world reading and learning from your life?
John 1:1, 14 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
2Corinthians 3:3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
Two things you must remember: 1) you will stand before God and be held ACCOUNTABLE for the life you chose to live. You are RESPONSIBLE for the person you will become in this life and the next. You CHOOSE/decide.
Hebrews 9:27 Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,
Matthew 12:36-37 36 But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. 37 For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”
2) Your life influences others TO God or AWAY from God. Will there be blood on your hands?
Ezekiel 33:8-9 8 When I say to the wicked, ‘You wicked person, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade them from their ways, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. 9 But if you do warn the wicked person to turn from their ways and they do not do so, they will die for their sin, though you yourself will be saved.
Remember the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15); Guard your INHERITANCE. You are heirs of God! The kingdom is yours, but a child of God can run away from Fathers house; shipwrecked faith, abandon the faith, become beyond repentance. Ephesians 1:17-19; 1Timothy 1:19; 1Timothy 4:1; 1Timothy 6:10; 1Timothy 6:20-21; 2Timothy 2:17-18; Ezekiel 33:12-20; John 10:10
Romans 8:17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Hebrews 12:16-17 16 See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. 17 Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.
Hebrews 4:6-8 4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age 6 and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. 7 Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. 8 But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.
Fight the good fight! Keep your focus! Trust God. Believe. Obey. PERSEVERE. Don’t grow weary or get deceived. Hold tightly to the word of God and keep it as your mirror or compass to remind you what a child of God is, looks like, does, and the way you are to go! James 1:22-25
Hebrews 12:1-3 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
1John 2:29 If you know that he is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been fathered by him.
1Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
1Peter 2:2-3 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
1Peter 2:11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.
Application: Make a personal growth PLAN. Failure to plan is planning to fail. It should include disciplining yourself in both learning and applying in the context of community.