Online Sermons
If It's Free Maybe You are the Product
You get what you pay for. You’ll realize that after listening to me today. That’s not the subject, but it’s not far off.
Is anything free? If you think it's FREE then maybe YOU are the PRODUCT (repeat). This is a popular notion since social media started tracking data. Media companies use your data to make money. It’s not free because they profit off your information by targeting you for goods and services. Wonder how they know what ads to show you every time you go to a web browser? But think about it-- advertising, selling out the customer, has been around for a long time. Remember the movie ‘The Christmas Story’ when Ralphie got a FREE decoder for a radio message from the ‘Little Orphan Annie Secret Society’? The decoded message was: “Be Sure to Drink Your Ovaltine”. The secret message was a sales pitch for a not so delicious drink for kids in a “secret club”-- and THEY BOUGHT IT!
Is anything free? If you think it’s FREE then maybe YOU are the PRODUCT.
The free gift of God allows us to obtain a blissful eternity. Upon understanding that the eternal gift, purchased by His blood, is free we come to realize our salvation is the product.
So Let's take a look:
at the world’s perspective,
at God’s perspective and
at our response.
We work for something
Should we profit from our work in this world? What is the Fulfillment of worldly works?
Sustain Life
Sustenance: Must have sustenance right?
Don't work then don't eat 2 Thes 3:10
However Jesus recognized the thousands just wanted free fish with some bread
Pursuit of happiness which may be:
Having a roof over you head and somewhere to sleep
Car
Vacation
Pay for kids college
How many silver spoons can we afford?
Save for retirement
At what point are these riches?
We are rich, so rich in our country we have more trouble balancing it all but that’s the bottom line for worldly works-- balance.
Even with GREAT RICHES AND WISDOM comes much vexation-- reference Solomon Ecc 1:18
If our focus is all about this world
We are short timers, I'm in it for me, I get it while the getting is good.
If that’s your attitude, it's the devil that’s convicted your heart
As we learned from Ecclesiastes-- all is vanity, hevel hevel all is hevel
Old time preachers would say ‘you can’t take it with you’ or ‘you can’t take a Uhaul to heaven’
Ultimately in order to balance we must have Discipline, which requires a moral standard which WE obtain from God.
John 8:32 Know the truth and the truth will set you free
From God we are given a free gift: So what makes salvation free?
John 3:16 God so loved the world that he_____ gave his only begotten son
God gave only the best in order to bless us for eternity
Romans 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
Christ paid, what we could not. He ran the gamut in human form without a mistake.
Rom 6:18 ...even so through one Man’s (CAPITAL M) righteous act the free gift came to all men...
1 Corinthians 6:19-20: Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, FOR YOU WERE BOUGHT WITH A PRICE. So glorify God in your body.
The Godhead gets you back into the fold through grace
If salvation is free THEN YOU ARE the product.
Here’s what blows my mind!
To me, this is evidence of God’s understanding of our psyche. That He predestined us to desire to be with Him, knowing that men tend to seek good and order rather than evil and chaos.
The lifestyle God requires of us is an advertisement to a lost world. An advertisement to do good allowing us to be with Him for eternity and bring as many along with us that will listen. Can you see the omniscience, the predestination, the understanding of a human psyche that wasn’t even in place when the plan was hatched?
So what’s our end of the deal?
New Covenant
Accept a contract that can only be undone by you!
Gal 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage
Jesus is not asking us to do anything that he didn't do, he gave more than us!
He was obedient to the cross
He forfeited the world for our salvation
You can be the Fulfillment if you are obedient
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Love God
Love your neighbor
Love for one another is the culmination of our spiritual family on earth
We must support ONE ANOTHER
Gal 5:13 For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
Speak with one another, uplift one another.
That means we know each other and one another’s needs
There’s no freeloading-- we own our destiny but help one another along the way, everyone needs help at some time, it’s a cursed world!
So what's your status
Do you feel Lost?
Life is a vapor we must engage in meaningful things.
Heb 12:1-2 ...lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus,
Recognize there is a spiritual battle going on around you.
Immerse yourself in scripture, spiritual songs
1 Pet 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
Set some simple goals, get into a pattern, hold yourself accountable
Recognize that anything we are not willing to leave behind could become our idol.
Identify and leave behind bad habits one at a time
Feel God’s blessings
For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:2 ESV
Recognize the trials of life
If you know what must be done to put on Christ what hinders you? It only took a carriage ride for the Eunuch to be convinced.
Uneasy / Treading water / Sipping milk
1 Corinthians 14:20 Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.
Get involved
Don't look back
Looking back makes for crooked paths
Put your hand to the plow--
get to work!
Do not grow weary in doing good 2 Thes 3
Immerse/Surround yourself
Read your bible daily
songs: hold thou my hand
Casual studies
Attendance is a very meager evidence of faith, spend time together, know one another
Have joy...having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. Romans 6:18 ESV
Recognize some wins: more frequent prayers, studies, cards, calls, texts messages
Set some standards, raise the bar, write them down, check yourself, once you realize where you were and progress, it can really be uplifting
If you don't lose some battles then you're not in the fight! --Chris Emerson episode 27
Building up/ working out in faith
More in depth Bible Study
Challenge yourself, figure out how to achieve it
What sharpens iron?
Spend time with
Those that have like minds
Those that challenge
Those that build up
Help toward accountability
2 Thessalonians 3:14?-?15 ESV 14 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: 15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;
In the Spiritual Marathon
Be Obedient for Life
Rom 12 Be a Living sacrifice give and 1 Pet 2 offer spiritual sacrifices to God
1 Peter 2:5 (ESV) 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Rom 12
Do not conform to the world but transformed
Renew you mind to discern the will of God
Be the holy priesthood
where our feet take us, what our eyes see, what our hands do, what our heart loves, what our brains think, and what our mouths take in as well as what comes out of the lips or heart.
Eph 5:2
Ephesians 5:2 (ESV) 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
The “as” that connects “walk in love” to the life Christ lived makes loving as Christ loved a spiritual sacrifice for us as well. Show genuine love, the love with which God loves, to seek what is best for someone else despite the cost to yourself. This sacrifices ego, selfishness, and pride.
Phil 4:18 Financial support as a sacrifice
Philippians 4:18 (ESV) 18 I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.
The Philippian Christians sent a financial gift in support of Paul. The monetary support Paul recognizes as a “sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.” What if we began to see regular giving as “acceptable and pleasing to God”?
Heb 13:15-16
15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
Fruit of the Lips acknowledging God’s name
Do good and share what you have
Phil 2:17 Pouring out Life as a drink offering
2 Cor 2:15 Sweet aroma among those being saved
14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing,
Professing God: proclaim the excellencies of Him
Worship God
Singing as a sweet savor like sacrifice in OT
Say farewell to everything else, put it all at the altar, sacrifice it all, because Christ sacrificed all for you
Christ centered focus on the daily grind culminates in fulfillment of all these things
Blessed relationships in the world
Maybe they're not all obviously fruitful, but if you did the work, then you've done your part. Shake the dust off your feet
Pay the price, take the pearl
Boast in Christ for that which is accomplished
Evangelizing
Be ready
Find your pickup lines
Strike a spark with those of the world
I get frustrated with co-workers but have to remind myself they are God's children and require my patience.
Work those relationships
What is the goal? Eph 4: Perfection
Remove if doing smaller section
So how is that not a free deal for us? We had a debt we couldn’t pay, he paid a debt he did not owe. God gave a free gift allowing us be forgiven the debt with Jesus’ payment.
If you think it’s FREE then maybe YOU are the PRODUCT.
The free gift of God allows us to obtain a blissful eternity. Upon understanding that the eternal gift, purchased by His blood, is free we come to realize our salvation is the product.
Rom 6:20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
Luke 14:33 ESV
Have you accepted God’s grace?
