Dress Up For the Weather
Marathon
This is the story of a man called David! One week before the Amsterdam Marathon he told his friend Chris that he was thinking of running? Christ asked him, so have you been doing any running lately? But he told him not at all! And it turned out that he did not even have good running shoes, so he had to borrow Chris’ shoes! But Chris is Dutch so his shoes were quite big! The race was going to start at 11, knowing that he would be running during lunch time, he decided to have a huge breakfast! So has I hope you have all noticed, we was not prepared at all!The result was: First because he was not used to running, out of the 42km he only ran 5, before he got tired! His stomach was hurting from all the food he was eating, his feet were getting blisters because his shoes did not fit!
Weather
New Zealand is a beautiful place! It is where I was born! The only thing is the weather can be a little bit unpredictable, even in the middle of summer. You can wake up for a beautiful day, decide you want to go out for a picnic, all ready to be lying in the sun! And then guess what?! The weather can change really quickly, if you are unprepared you might get a little bit wet! If you do not come prepared you might have a terrible day instead!Test/Exam
Have you ever wondered how you would do on an exam or test at school, if you decided you would not study at all, decided that you would spent the night before the exam just watching movies all night, and last of all you show up to school without bringing a pen? How do you think you would do?Army
Do you want to hear the story of the soldier who skipped military training, found himself in a war zone, without any protective gear and without any weapons? It kinda ends badly so I will spare you the details!A Christian?
Imagine now a Christian, who can’t tell the difference between Christianity and other religions, who never prays, never reads his Bible, never goes to church! He believe Jesus died for his sins. But when it comes to explaining his faith to others, he does not really feel like he knows enough theology to be any use? When you ask him, what does it mean to be a Christian he is not too sure what to answer?He knows Jesus has saved him? But does not really know what that means and he is not sure if he does something really bad if he will not become unsaved? He does not realize that the Bible is God’s word mankind. The Book that tells us everything we need to know about God, how we can please him, and how to live as a Christian?
After hearing all these different stories of unprepared and unequipped people, how do you think this Christian will finish his Christian life if he is not prepared for the purposes God has for him!?!?
What is a Christian? What is the meaning of life?
Gospel
Let’s go through the Bible to get a Biblical World View – to Understand what Life is all about?Bible Overview
- Gen 1: God created all things Good. So he created Adam and Eve right? And they are in the Garden of Eden with a relationship with God! All is Excellent!- Gen 3: When they disobey him, this relationship has been completely shattered! And the consequence for the world are devastating! We go from a state of perfection, to a state where disease come into the world, with Adam’s sin, death also spread to all men!
- The rest of the Bible is about God actively working through world History to restore mankind and re-establish a relationship with man!
- SO that means all of us? Have you guys heard of John 3:16 For God so loved the World the he gave his only begotten Son that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life!
- So we had a problem of Sin, separating us from God. God has solved the problem by sending Jesus to take the sins of mankind on himself, he died on the cross offereing his perfect life as a perfect sacrifice to pay for all our sin, and now we have it guys! We can now be saved, and have eternal life with God, starting now, and going on forever and ever!
2 Kingdoms
Reading of Eph 6:10-12What we must be aware of is that there are two kingdoms in the Spiritual world! One is the Kingdom of God, the other is the Kingdom of Darkness. These kingdom are at war, as they oppose each other!
Kingdom of Heaven:
Colossians 1:13 God has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,1 Timothy 2:4 Tells us that God wants all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of what Jesus has done for the world!
Kingdom of Darkness
This is Satan’s kingdom, it is opposed to people coming to the knowledge of Christ! And trying to get us to doubt, that God loves us, and doubt that Jesus really died for us!Meaning for us
If we know God’s Kingdom is all about saving people, by getting people to believe in Jesus, what must we all do? One thing we must know is that if we are in the Kingdom of heaven, then we work for God now! So what does that mean?
- We make Jesus known – We become more like him in our personal lives, and we tell the whole world about him!
- Do because the Kingdom of Darkness is opposed to the Kingdom of God, which we belong to it will oppose us. So what do we do to resist?
We Must be Equipped - Full Armor of God
We read on! Eph 6:13 – we wear the full armor of God! God used Jesus to save us from Sin! Now we must use Jesus to defend ourselves and fight!The full armor of God
The Belt of Truth
- There are two aspect to trutho One is knowing the truth about God. Knowing what the Bible teaches so we do not believe lies!
o The second is about living in truth! Not lying, not deceiving people! If you have a secret that creates distance between you and your loved ones! Satan loves to attack people who are on their own because they are more vulnerable!
- We must live in the Truth, knowing the Christ died for all our Sins! We are now Sons of God! What can Satan do to us, if we have God on our side! Because we are in the Kingdom of God, we must be true and sincere!
Breastplate of righteousness
- 2 Cor 5:21 – Because of what Jesus has done, he has made us righteous! His righteousness never changes! Rom 8:1 Tells us that there is no more condemnation for those who are in Christ.- Often Satan will try to deceive you! He will remind you of your sins, and lie to you, try to make you believe that God does not love you, because you are a sinner! But the Bible says other wise: God looks at you, and he sees Jesus’ perfect life that he gave us! On our own we do not do too well, but with Christ, we are righteous!
Shoes for your feet having put on the readiness given by the Gospel of Peace?
- When we know that we are saved based on what God has done for us, instead of what we are capable, it means that we are saved forever! Through Jesus, we know have peace, of knowing that God loves us, and he has reconciled us to him!- Whithout this knowledge we would have no joy, no hope!
- But now we have peace, and we can now be ready to serve God! Remember what that meant to serve God in the Kingdom of God? ….. Make Jesus known!
The shield of faith
- We have a great example of this in Matthew 4, the Devil spites out flaming darts, Jesus stand firm, because he knows his scripture!- The shield is what we use to protect ourselves!
- God does not love you – “Nothing get separate me from the Love of God”. The shield helps us to deflect lies people tell us about us
- The truth helps us understand what lies we believe!
The helmet of Salvation
- Helmet goes on head, where the mind is! It is a battle which begins in the mind. Devil either accusing God to you. Or accusing you before God.- He drives a wedge between you! So that you do not believe his love, you don’t believe his mercy, compassion and grace! When you sin – Satan condemns you saying “God does not want you”!
- Comprehension of Christian salvation, you are protect against these attacks!
The helmet of salvation helps us understand – the gospel and God’s Love
The sword of the Spirit
- The Holy Spirit gave us the Bible, he inspired men to right down God’s words to his people! We can the word of God defensively, and offensively!- We can go back to scripture to read the truth, and defend ourselves from the lies!
- Being part of the Kingdom of God, reading the Word of God, we will grow stronger and stronger against Satan. We can then move to the offensive! We are called as part of the Kingdom of God to make Jesus known! As well as living it in our everyday lives we must proclaim the Gospel, the Good news that even though we have all sinned separating us with God, he has sent his son for us, that we might have eternal life in his name!
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