Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
New England Bible Conference 2004. Your personal sense of destiny. Part 8.
Sunday, August 8, 2004
The Living Bible –
EPH 2:10 It is God Himself who has made us what we are and given us new lives from Christ Jesus; and long ages ago He planned that we should spend these lives in helping others.
2TI 1:8-9, Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me His prisoner; but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,
“God paid a great price for you. So use your body to honor God,” 1CO 6:20.
Through salvation our past has been forgiven, our present is given meaning, and our future is secured.
COL 2:14, God cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us and He has taken it out of the way having nailed it to the cross
It was through the cross that the IOU was cancelled!
Any believer who is so sin conscious and who feels so guilty, unworthy, condemned or ashamed, as far as their relationship with God is concerned, has been blinded by Satan concerning the work of the cross.
HEB 8:12 “For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”
HEB 10:17 “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
MIC 7:18-19, “Who is a God like thee, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? Yes you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.”
PSA 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
ISA 38:17c “For You have cast all their sins behind Your back.”
PSA 103:10 “He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.”
PSA 65:3b “As for our transgressions Thou dost forgive them.”
ISA 43:25 “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake [because of my honor and integrity]. Furthermore, I will not remember your sin.”
PSA 85:2 “You did forgive the iniquity of Your people; You did cover all their sin.”
EZE 16:63 “I will forgive you for all that you have done”
ROM 4:7-8, “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.”
ROM 11:27 He will take away our sins…
1JO 2:12 Your sins are forgiven for His names sake.
The cross reveals the character and nature of a loving, caring and gracious Creator toward His creatures.
The apostle John taught that our loving service to others shows that we are truly saved.
“Our love for each other proves that we have gone from death to life,” 1JO 3:14.
JOH 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”
A “non-serving Christian” is a contradiction in terms.
1PE 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
TIT 2:14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
ROM 7:4 Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God.
If I have no love for others, no desire to serve others, I should question whether Christ is really alive in my life.
“All of you together are Christ’s body, and each one of you is a separate and necessary part of it” –
1CO 12:27 Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.
There are no insignificant ministries in the church. Some are visible and some are behind the scenes, but all are valuable.
Jesus came “to serve” and “to give.”
Those two verbs should define your life on earth.
TLJC taught that spiritual maturity is never an end in itself. Maturity is for ministry!
Study without service leads to spiritual stagnation.
Most of the time we are more interested in “serve us” than service.
The mature follower of TLJC stops asking, “Who’s going to meet my needs?” and starts asking, “Whose needs can I meet?”
MAR 8:35 “For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s shall save it.”
This truth is so important that it is repeated five times in the Gospels; MAR 8:35;
MAT 10:39; 16:25;
LUK 9:24; 17:33.
You are going to give your life for something.
A career, a sport, a hobby, fame, wealth?
What matters is not the duration of your life, but the donation of it.
Not how long you lived, but how you lived.