Life part 1
This is the same title as my current sermon series. Because I'm stuck on it. And if you know me at all you know that my pastor once told me if I get stuck on something I should preach it until my heart is empty on it. So that's what I've always done, and that's what I'm going to continue to do. But while I've started the sermon series by focusing on the "everlasting" part of everlasting life, I want to Rant about this idea that I hear floating around sometimes. And basically it goes like this, "My boss is a carpenter." I think I saw it on a bumper sticker. Or maybe a t-shirt. But what it boils down to is the idea that we are working for the Father. And, listen, Jesus more or less said as much in Luke 2:49, "And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" But I think the important word there is "Father's" not "business." He wasn't coming from a place of employer/employee. He was coming from a place of a Son who was invested in the family business. Which is what the word "sonship" is all about. In Romans 8:15, "For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have recieved the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father," the word, "adoption" is number 5206 in Strong's Greek Concordance and it means, "the PLACING as a son." It's not like you weren't part of the family, but now you are. It's about responsibility, and maturity. It's about what Galatians 4:7 says, "Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ." It's about what's in your heart. Are you "working" for God, trying to earn something--servant mentality--or are you taking care of Daddy's business because you love Him, and you know He loves you? Basically, what I'm trying to say in a very roundabout way, is that God is not my boss. God is my life. And to take it a step further, God doesn't just want to be a PART of your life. He wants to BE your life. Because He IS life. Jesus said, "...I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). The way to the Father. The truth about the Father. And the life of the Father. Which, as a Son, is our inheritance. The gift of God. Eternal life. It's not something to earn, because it's not something that CAN be earned. You can't earn a gift. A gift is freely given and must be received. And, look, Jesus used that word again: "No man cometh unto the FATHER but by me." Which makes sense when you understand that eternal life is the unconditional love relationship between Father and Son. How could anyone come to the Father in any other way but through the Son? AS the Son? Jesus said in another place that anybody trying to enter the sheepfold any other way is a thief and a robber. We rob ourselves from the gift we've been given when we try to earn it. We already have it, but we miss out on enjoying it because we're too busy trying to get it. Because we don't know and believe that we have it. Because we still think of Jesus as our boss. And we don't see Him as our life. We still think there are times when, "I'm gonna leave God out of this one." WRONG! He's everywhere all the time. And more than that He lives in you. In Him you live, and move, and have your being. In you HE lives, and moves, and has His being. There is no leaving Him out. Just as He promised to never leave nor forsake you!