Finding your Spiritual Address - 1

Finding your Spiritual Address - 1

Father, thank You that we have an opportunity to worship You this morning. We love You and want to be able to express to You our love and worship and praise. May our hearts be prepared. Your Spirit lives in us.

This series is titled – Finding Your Spiritual Address.

I went to a preaching class a few weekends ago- Crawford Loritts was teaching it – and all of the members of the class (except me) were final year seminary students. He pounded away at this with the students – each of us has a spiritual address and we need to learn to operate out of that address. The tendency when you get out of school is to imitate a big name preacher that you admire. They are different people when they get up in front of a congregation. There were a couple of preachers several years ago who would say God in a certain way – like GAWD – and everyone coming out of seminary started saying it that way, as if it were some spiritual holiness to start doing that.

But this is true for each of us – we have a spiritual address we are to operate out of – but there are too many who operate out of someone else’s spiritual address – out of someone else’s convictions. When kids move out of the house – there is a necessity that they find their own faith. When they get out on their own, a change happens and a decision point comes. Will this faith be theirs or their parent’s? But so many of us are trying to live someone else’s faith.

Lord, be lifted high in our lives. We need to be able to understand who You are and what You want to accomplish in our lives. Help us to get a fresh big picture of who You created us to be. May Your Spirit take control that we might hear from You.

Jesus – right after he asked if Peter loved him 3 times -

John 21: 19 And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me!”

20 Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; the one who also had leaned back on His bosom at the supper and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?” 21 So Peter seeing him said to Jesus, “Lord, and what about this man?” 22 Jesus said to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!”

We are often overly-concerned about what others think of us. As long as we are concerned about others, we will not be able to discover the assignments that God has for us. It is very specific. We will look at the events, the relationships – the callings and the events of our lives –how God has placed us at this spiritual address.

We will look at some biblical characters and see how God worked in their lives – and to see how He might be working in our own lives. Now, you can’t take it one-for-one – God did this specifically and uniquely – we get in trouble when we do this – to bring a one-to-one correlation from your life to a biblical character.

Take for example Abraham and Isaac. Or Hosea – being told to marry a prostitute. God is not going to tell you to do that. That is obvious – but when there is something we like – we want to take it one-for-one.

Take for instance, Moses. He is raised in Pharaoh’s household – so he gets all the training and education and all the benefits of being wealthy. On the other hand – he is nursed and raised by his own mother – who reminds him of who he is and where he comes from. There was no one else in the world who had the background that Moses had. God had uniquely positioned him to accomplish the task that God had for him. We go on – and he had a significant failure in his life – he murdered someone – and then spends 40 years in the desert. As we look back on our abilities and past – God has prepared you to do a work that no one else can do. There is something that You can do for God that you can do better than anyone else. All that has gone on in your life has prepared you for that.

I was born in Connecticut in 1958. Then we moved to Ohio and I went to Ohio State. There are so many unique things about each of us. It would be like layering quarters in Texas! No, just kidding (see November 4)…

Political leadership – Moses was in the perfect position to arrange Israel’s exodus from Egypt. Then the rest of his leadership is done in the desert – leading Israel through the desert. God prepared him for this task.

Today – what we are focusing on – for us to be able to discover this spiritual address, we need to be able to get over what everybody else is doing and what they think of us.

Everyone has to deal with their wounds and failures in their lives – which we are doing in Men’s Fraternity – we all have baggage – but it needs to be dealt with in a setting where there are one or two people who can help you do this – this has got to take place – you must have somebody who is helping you through the baggage and wounds of life – be it a counselor or a small group – but we are not going to do that here on Sunday mornings.

Now, Paul – 1 Cor. 4:1

1 Cor. 4:1 Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy. 3 But to me it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself. 4 For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord.

Paul dealt with the issue of what others think. And we must deal with it completely. It may come up over and over again – but if you haven’t dealt with that – then you need to start. It will keep you from understanding what God wants from your life. If you worry about what others think about you – in our society we are so consumed with getting others’ approval. Paul dealt with that and put it to rest. There are two ways to deal with that – and the first is not a good way. You see this with guys as they get older. Instead of dealing with it – they just don’t care anymore. If you aren’t aware of it – you are probably doing it! I want to, at some point in my life – just walk into K-mart with a white t-shirt, Bermuda shorts, and white socks and black shoes. That is not what this means.

Paul – servant – not slave, more like attendant – or an officer. A soldier – in battle – needs to do exactly what his officer tells him to do. He is accountable to that person. Maybe like an ambassador – representing a country – that is how we are to be regarded – as representing someone else.

Servant of Christ – ‘belonging to Christ’ – attendants – belonging to Him. We belong to someone else. In one sense, He owns us.

1 Cor. 6:19-20 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

You have been purchased – if you have come to Christ, you are not your own. Your reputation does not matter – Christ’s reputation is what matters. You have been bought with a price – what price? The highest price. He owns you! That is hard for us. – to think we are owned by someone else. That we are not your own. That is weird language for us to consider. You are not your own.

Now, the good news with that… I was watching Amazing Grace – the story of William Wilberforce – who put an end to the slave trade in England and its colonies. When you see these slaves – being owned by someone else – we think that is dreadful. But in a good way – we are owned by the one who gave himself for us. He loved us enough to do that. Our Master is not harsh, He cares for us. He knows our best and wants our best. Until you really believe that – it is impossible to turn the reigns over to Him. We see this in our human relationships. Until we see that someone really loves us, it is hard to let them in. It is a trust issue.

In order to discover this spiritual address thing – we need to be able to place our dreams and ambitions under His control – under His authority. To place our hopes and fears. Does God have permission to choose for you? TO choose for you in everything? In every aspect of life? Have you given Him permission? The reality is, we would like to say yes, but we don’t. There are always areas that we need to do this. You know you haven’t given Him permission fully when the anxieties and fears come in – it is okay – maybe it is finances of health or safety – to get anxious – that is a sign that you may not have given that area fully to Him.

You are not your own – live for His reputation – represent Him well.

1 Cor. 4 – 1-4

To get over what others think of us – we must belong to Christ …and stewards of the mysteries of God. This speaks of a household manager. We don’t belong to ourselves – we belong to Christ – but the assignment we have – a steward – to take care of someone else’s things. His kingdom – His work. It is not our own ministry. I am a steward – a household manager – and we get in trouble when we think it is our work.

Look at Moses -= he understood that he as called to free Israel – and then later – at about age 40 – he thinks it is HIS mission – and then ends up in the desert for 40 years until he could understand that it was God’s mission. When he gets to the burning bush, he is a different man. He is humbled. There are two people in life 0- those who are humbled – and those who will be humbled.

This household manager – is a guy like Joseph. He did not understand how he would fulfill God’s role for him until he became a slave then a household manager. The ministry, the work we do belongs to Christ.

1 Cor. 4:2

Trustworthy = faithful.

We belong to Christ – the ministry belongs to Christ – our job is to be faithful. We belong to another – so we are to be faithful to another. It means this – to discover and take the time to discover what it is He wants us to do. To understand our assignment. Do you know? Do you have a real sense of what He has called you to? It is not good enough to just come to church – it is critical to understand what He has called you to and then to carry it out to the best you can for Him.

If you have an employee – if you don’t get it – you have to ask – like a kid in school – it is your responsibility, if you don’t understand something to ask – and then to carry it out to the best of your ability.

Paul – for me – it is a small thing to be examined by you –

We started this off with Peter – What about him? Being overly concerned about others.

Paul says – it is a small thing – “I could care less that someone has an opinion about me”

“or by any human court” – if you get a summons to court, you’ll be nervous. In fact, I don’t even examine myself – I am conscious of nothing against myself. The one who examines me is the Lord – and that is all that mattered. Paul was playing to an audience of One. You need to play to an audience of One and One only. We belong to Him – the work or ministry is His – we need to be faithful to Him- and He alone has the right to have an opinion.

Let’s pray.