SERIES: SUBJECT: READING: Discovering Your Place in God's Eternal Purpose Conformed to the Image of Christ Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Introduction: The process of developing Christ like character in every believer begins when God calls us to Himself in a relationship of love. Joh 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 1. He first chooses us; Joh 15:16 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. 2. The results of that relationship forgive us of our sin; settles our sin debt; frees us from its debilitating affects; cleanses us from its pollution; and fits us to be vessels of His love; He puts us in the body of Christ by the Holy Ghost; puts the Holy Ghost in us and does another remarkable thing; He places His Son in us To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: (what an amazing truth! Christ is living in each of our lives!) (Col 1:27) His Son begins to live out His life in us; I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of 1
the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Gal 2:20 ), o That work continues until each believer is "perfect [i.e., complete] in Christ" Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: (Col 1:28). o Notice that Paul recognized that the work he did was not in his own power and wisdom but in the Christ who was working powerfully in Him! Whereunto I also labour, striving according to HIS working, which worketh in me mightily. (Col 1:29), o We can only to fulfill God s eternal purpose when we allow Christ to work in us! o God started that work Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you He will also perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: o Paul told the Galatians, My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, (Gal 4:19), he would labor with God tirelessly on their behalf. Peter reminds us that God is not willing that any should perish, 2Pe 3:9 in any generation or in any part of the world the relationship of love that God initiates in believers continues throughout the rest of their lives. God develops us, equips us, and takes us on mission with Himself into our world. We could study any one of many people in the Bible whom God called to Himself. The most obvious are those He reached out to at the beginning of His earthly ministry; He said to them 18 times "Follow Me!" AS WE follow their lives we can see this eternal 2
purpose of God unfolding. As Jesus called His disciples, He said, "Follow Me!" And they immediately left all and followed Him. To what should we attribute this immediate response? 1. First, Jesus knew that each had been given to Him by the Father. At the close of His life, as He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, He affirmed it this way: Joh 17:6-8 I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. (7) Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. (8) For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. 2. Second, Jesus knew absolutely that it was His assignment from the Father to prepare these men for the Father's eternal purpose. a. That purpose was to take the good news of His great salvation to the ends of the earth. Joh 17:18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. b. After He was crucified and risen from the dead He came to these men He had called and said; Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. (Joh 20:21) 3. While he walked on the earth; Jesus' ministry was teaching His disciples by example as He taught, preached, and healed. a. He also revealed to them the Father, and the Father's 3
purposes and as a result the disciples believed. b. When Jesus returned to the Father, He sent the disciples into the world, in the same way the Father had sent Him into the world. c. They would be working with the indwelling presence of the Father and the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to fulfill the Father's purpose to redeem a lost world to Himself. 4. This is still the Father's way, in each of our lives who believe. a. As the disciples obeyed the Lord in this relationship of love, God turned their world upside down (Acts 17:6). What about now? b. As we look around us we see a time now when in the ebb and flow of the history Christ s work it is losing momentum! c. The older believers who had a passion for souls are not being replaced with converts sharing their burden. One reason for this is the times in which we are living; Society is in moral decline! Another reason is the end time declension of the church; 2Ti 4:3-4 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; (4) And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But let s not forget what we do have! And that is a 4
few churches that are still committed to the truth! As one of those churches we must hear Paul s words to Timothy and take them to heart; 2Ti 4:1-2 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; (2) Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. d. Doing so may not be easy 2Ti 4:5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. All through not everyone is an preacher or an evangelisth everyone is a child of God who in some way can with the help of the indwelling Christ share the Good News with a lost and dyeing world! God reveals His purposes to work through those He calls, and He is doing this in your life also. You have been given to His Son, and His Son knows what the Father has in mind for your life in your world. Thing of someway that Each day God is working; Php 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. First is the desire to will can you recognize them? List some. Then is the ability to do can you sense His power enabling you to answer God s call? Likewise list at least one. 5
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