Choose to Plugin
Message Summary:
Today, our pastor’s pastor, Pastor A.R. Bernard taught us that people often get preoccupied with two extremes: when Jesus is coming back or how to eradicate sin here and now. But in truth, neither of those concerns are ours to control. The most important concern for us is life here on Earth – right now. God has given us the word of God to help us understand and navigate life here. Jesus prayed: “Thy Kingdom come, they will be done… on Earth as it is in Heaven.” God wants to manifest His kingdom here in this life on this Earth. We must understand the original intent of God for his people. And to do that we have to go back to the beginning. Because the present is rooted in the past. You cannot fully understand today if you do not understand what happened yesterday. And to understand what is happening today, we have to be able to compare it to the original intent God had.
Jesus was both historical, in that being God, he had lived every moment of history, and yet, he was also prophetic, because he was enacting things that had been foretold. In his divinity, he knew past, present, and future. Jesus had an eternal perspective, and an omnipresent point of reference. In John 10, when Jesus calls the devil a thief, he had personal experience witnessing the ways he had stolen from, killed and destroyed humanity. He is speaking out of his experience/witness from his capacity to observe all of human history. Jesus contrasts himself to this historical perspective of the thief. While Jesus has seen the way the enemy has attempted to destroy us, he has also been working on our behalf to provide salvation.
Jesus knew that we would need a Savior, because our sin has produced conditions in humanity that have resulted in poverty, hatred, and decay, largely influenced and fueled by our enemy. We lacked abundant life. This is why this message is called More, Better Blues. We sing the blues when conditions are bad – hence, the blues. Humanity has been trapped in the conditions of sins, influenced by an enemy actively working against them. But God had already put in place a plan that would counteract these conditions. But he had to do it in a way, that would be fair and would not defy his own character. He has to provide a solution to the problem that would not defy the freedom of choice he had given to his people.
So God sacrificed his own Son, providing an absolute solution for those corrupt conditions, but his nature demanded he do it in a way that gave his children a choice. They would need to choose to believe in what Jesus did, in this way they would access the grace and forgiven made available to them. God provided and we make a choice. And when we are reborn, God who breathed in us the breath of life, breathing into us his communicable attributes and creativity, spiritually we come back into connection with God. God reconciled us back to himself when we receive Jesus! In essence, we were unplugged by sin, and in Jesus, we are plugged back into the power source! We cannot function the way we were designed to function if we are not plugged into Jesus!
Scriptures:
[John 10:10 NKJV] 10 "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
[Genesis 2:7 NKJV] 7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
Discussion Questions:
Why is it so important that Jesus has an eternal perspective, knowing all things?
Why do we need to know we have an enemy actively working against us?
What is the danger in denying the existence of an enemy at work against us?
Why does it matter that God did not force Jesus on us, but allowed us to choose Jesus?
Why is it true that we will not function the way we were designed to function if we are not plugged into Jesus?
Life Application:
Over the next week, as you study the key scriptures, ask yourself: Are you experiencing abundance in your life? Are you living out of an “abundance mindset”, even as you believe God to manifest his blessings in your life? Are you fighting the more, better dissatisfaction? God made you more than your earthly desires. You are a spirit man. And being spiritual in nature, you will never be fully satisfied by anything external. You will only be fulfilled by internal purpose informed by God!