Love Lifted Me
A sermon for Christ’s Church at Monticello January 14, 2007
Gregg A. Nydegger
1 John 3:1-3 (NIV)
1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us,
that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we
will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears,
we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself,
just as he is pure.
Warren Wiersbe – “Behold, what peculiar, out-of-this-world kind of love
the Father has bestowed on us.”
1 John 4:9-10 (NIV)
9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his
one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved
us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Romans 5:6-11 (NIV)
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still
powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though
for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While
we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much
more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!
10 For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled
to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled,
shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this
so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom
we have now received reconciliation.
Ephesians 2:1-7 (NIV)
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and
sins,
2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways
of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is
now at work in those who are disobedient.
3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying
the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.
Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich
in mercy,
5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in
transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with
him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable
riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
WHO WE ARE (V1)
WHO WE ARE (V1)
WHAT WE WILL BE (V2)
WHO WE ARE (V1)
WHAT WE WILL BE (V2)
WHAT WE SHOULD BE NOW (V3)
WHO WE ARE (V1)…
CHILDREN OF GOD
John 1:12-13 (NIV)
12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed
in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—
13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human
decision or a husband's will, but born of God.
Ephesians 1:4b-5 (NIV)
4b In love
5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through
Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—
Romans 8:14-17 (NIV)
14 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are
sons of God.
15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave
again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we
cry, "Abba, Father."
16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we
are God's children.
17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of
God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order
that we may also share in his glory.
1 Corinthians 1:18 (NIV)
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those
who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
WHAT WE WILL BE (V2)…
LIKE HIM
Philippians 3:20-21 (NIV)
20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly
await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,
21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything
under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like
his glorious body.
1 Corinthians 15:42-44a (NIV)
42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead.
The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable;
43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is
sown in weakness, it is raised in power;
44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual
body.
1 Corinthians 15:50-53 (NIV)
50 I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot
inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep,
but we will all be changed—
52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last
trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable,
and we will be changed.
53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable,
and the mortal with immortality.
‘We know’ – Confidence
WHAT WE SHOULD BE NOW (V3)…
PURE
1 John 2:4 (NIV)
4 The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what
he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
1 Peter 1:14-16 (NIV)
14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires
you had when you lived in ignorance.
15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in
all you do;
16 for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."
Warren Wiersbe – “An unbeliever who sins is a creature sinning against his
Creator. A Christian who sins is a child sinning against his Father.
The unbeliever sins against the law; the believer sins against love.”
Copyright 2007 Gregg A. Nydegger