Temporary Residents part 2
Foreign Relations
(….picking up where we left of in 1 Peter 2 in Part 1, Foreign Policy)
WHAT CAN AN AMBASSADOR EXPECT?
1) NATIVES of a depraved world will behave depravedly. My pastor puts it logically, “Golfers golf. Fishermen fish. And sinners sin.” Duh
♥ Jesus “did not come into the world to condemn men” because He knew we couldn’t help but do what comes naturally to our sin nature. God instead showed us mercy. “For God is kind to the unthankful and evil.”
♥ Have we ever been unthankful? Ever?
2) ANYONE who walks in darkness WILL stumble. Darkness is blinding, even after our eyes “adjust” to it.
♥ You an I are equally susceptible (All have fallen short)
♥ Since you do not know another person’s story, lay off.
BUT WHY does that guy always _____?
Stop right there!
1 Peter 2 describes how to live with people, and NONE of it involves judging a person’s motive.
♥ Only a man’s own spirit can understand that man’s thoughts
♥ Another man’s motives are not your concern. Matthew 7
♥ To decide why a man murdered or a why woman yelled at her kids is stepping into the role of God
SCRIPTURE only tells us how to respond to the fruit of someone’s life—regardless of her motives.
CHRIST showed us HOW to live as temporary residents in this corrupt environment.
♥ Christ was fully Man and fully God
♥ We are fully human and fully God’s chosen; we are Royal family
DUAL CITIZENSHIP
AN AMBASSADOR’S ESTABLISHED IDENTITY
1) My righteousness in Him is un-steal-able (no condition of earth can separate me from His love and no one can snatch me from the Father’s hands)
2) To live out God’s principles and promises requires me to know the Word (The world’s way of doing life falls way short of His way of living abundantly)
3) I have earthly relationship rights. But am I willing to surrender them as Jesus demonstrated?
4) We’ve been given Heavenly authority (Practice and apply it)
“They called Jesus every name in the book!” 1 Peter 2:23 yet He didn’t retaliate because He had committed himself to God who judges righteously.
Vengeance belongs to . . . who?
THINK OF ALL the sins you’ve ever committed and imagine physically carrying the guilt of them on your chest … now imagine the guilt of the entire world and all humanity from the beginning of time piled onto your chest. Could you stand or would you collapse? ⇐ask God for a revelation of this, and it will floor you; no pun intended
Like a thick chain ripped apart, sin’s death-grip on us is broken
NOW IMAGINE…
A planted seed, sprouting and busting through the crust of the earth and into the light.
CHRIST’S LIFE IN YOU cannot help but burst forth out of darkness and into freedom ⇐ this was and is your intended-state.
♥ New life is meant to be manifested on earth because Holy Spirit abides in us
♥ Christ is making His home in our hearts and NOTHING can hold down or hold back His resurrection power—except our unbelief, rebellion, and willful sin
♥ All things are possible
♥ Paradise days are coming, yes, but we are in practice mode
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God wrote the Master Blueprint on our hearts.
Through the Holy Spirit we can learn to live it!
