Being in the Vine - Chapter 9: Absolute Surrender-- means that all our efforts, strength, emotions, menality, and desires are tied to our relationship with Christ. Our daily walk, decisions, and service gain their strength and wisdom by being directly connected to Christ. Dependence on the Vine brings us in direct access to the Father through the Spirit (Ephesians 2:16-18). Being “in the Vine” means communing with Jesus in absolute dependence. He is the one doing the work and we are allowing Him to work in us. We must understand that we are "nothing" and that we have nothing that was not given to us except by the power of God. We depend totally upon God's power to accomplish anything and all things.
Apart from Christ we can do nothing. John 15:5
Example: We are so excited to see how God has brought so many people to attend the worship this week.
(2) We have planned to build a new building for our benevolence center.
Example: God has given the opportunity and the means to build a new building for our benevolence center. We have prayed and He has answered our prayers in this matter.
(3) The missionaries in China have baptized six new converts.
Example: The Lord has expanded His Kingdom with the new births of six new converts in China. The missionaries have been blessed by God in being lead to those whose hearts were touched by His Gospel.
(4) Our collection this week went over budget and we will be sending more money to the missions field.
Example: The Lord has empowered us to send more funding to the missions field through His faithful grace and blessings which exceeded our feeble efforts to budget for His cause.
(5) Our preacher gave us a great sermon this morning.
Example: Our preacher was led by the Spirit to reveal exactly what my heart needed to hear.
(6) The LTC team as gotten off to a great start working with our youth.
Example: God has begun a great work with our youth. The LTC team, has been strengthened and given a great opportunity by God to lead our youth in a closer walk with Christ.
(7) Boy! We sure do have a lot of talent in this congregation.
Example: The Lord has gifted this congregation with members who have grown in their talents and service the the power of the Spirit.
"Acknowledge Him in ALL your ways, and He will direct your paths" If we forget to acknowledge Him in ALL our ways, we will be always directing our own paths....which leads to distruction.
TRANSCENDING requires that we look at everything in a new perspective (with spiritual eyes). This lesson will investigate how we arrive at this new perspective.
DEFINITION:
The term "transcending" in the context of this lesson will be used to mean "to rising above". To transcend in a spiritual sense means to "see beyond" the earthly context and to have enlightened eyes for the eternal consequences events or circumstances. To rise above these "externals" requires a spiritual maturity that we all should strive to attain. Living the Christian life is not possible under your own power. Growing into the likeness of Christ does not take human effort alone. The Holy Spirit works within us to guide us and give us wisdom so that we can participate in this world, yet be unencumbered by this world. The Holy Spirit will produce fruit in the willing heart.
Transcending through the power of Christ allows each "branch" to manifest the glory of Christ. We are not waiting until Judgment Day to enjoy the joy of the Heavenly Life. It is present in His people now because our life is rooted in Christ, the living, heavenly Vine. (Ephesians 1:3). Transcending means close fellowship and communion with Christ, abiding in Christ, and depending on Christ is a necessity of our daily life. Quiet fellowship and quality time with the Vine keeps the connection between our Lord and ourselves vibrant and full of spiritual enlightenment. We can see the difference between living in the Will of God versus asking God's blessings while we live our own will.
Transcending involves see our lives as a "branch":
- Absolute Surrender - total disposal to the will of God
- Being in complete harmony with the Vine
- Growing as a branch because of the Vine
- Bearing fruit to glorify the Vine
- Relying completely upon the Vine
How can we TRANSCEND the earthly influence and RISE ABOVE the cares and temptations of this world?
Jesus is our example. The better we understand His walk on this earth, the better we will understand the challenges we face as Christians. How much do we really understand Christ’s earthly day-to-day journey? How did He approach His day? His problems? His mission? His challenges? If we are truly disciples of Christ (those who are willing to walk the same path that He walked), then we must take time to study and absorb His methods and teachings.
You may have heard a coach say, "Attitude is Everything!" Scripture agrees. Philippians 2:5 -8"Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus" What was Christ's attitude?
"(He) emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. "
Do you still want to be a disciple of Christ?
Since we are to have the same attitude as Christ, lets study the word “attitude” and see what it really entails.
What is an "Attitude"?
ATTITUDE (according to dictionary.com): manner, disposition, feeling, position, etc., with regard to a person or thing; tendency or orientation, especially of the mind
Simply stated, an attitude is a "FILTER" through which we see the world, people, or situations. We all have "filters". We all take in information and process it and then determine how we will fit that information into our "schema", or our perception, or mind map, of the world.
We all see things just a little differently and we all react to things differently. This difference is due to our "filters". Past experiences, knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, choices we make, and peer pressure all play a role in how we maintain our "filters". An attitude is the manifestation of our biases/filters.
We say people have “bad attitudes” if they are pessimistic, condescending, or oppositional. We often wonder why people act in certain ways which are “difficult” for others to tolerate. When people express “bad attitudes” they are secretly disclosing the fact that they have “chosen” to “react” against certain expectations. Your “attitude”, then is your choice. Because attitude is a choice, Paul can request us to “have the attitude of Christ”.
How can we gain Christ’s attitude?
To be like Christ is to KNOW Him: value, imitate, and allow the Spirit to brand (circumcise) His characteristics on our hearts. To have Christ’s attitude, we must lose our own filters/biases which hamper our growth. Personal filters are responsible for the way we devalue some types of people and value others. They are responsible for the way we take in information and pervert it to suit our own tastes. Filters are responsible for hardening our hearts to the cries of the poor and abused. They are responsible for darkening our eyes and closing our ears.
Here is an easy example to demonstrate how filters work. When Jesus performed miracles, some religious leaders called Him Beelzebub while others called Him the Messiah. How could the same event cause two different perceptions? The answer is “filters/attitudes”. The same sun that melts butter hardens clay. The same Lord who healed the sick and whose name was praised by Israel on the day we call “Palm Sunday” was crucified by this same crowd within the same week. What changed?
Filters enter our psyche by way of our mind and then take up residence in our hearts. This is why Paul tells us to “guard our hearts and minds” (Philippians 4:7). Attitudes begin in our minds and end up in our hearts. A tragedy in one family may break a marriage apart while it may strengthen the marriage bond in another family. What is the difference? Filters/Attitudes. God has given us a very special blessing through which we can view the world. It is the “mind of Christ”.
1 Corinthians 2:12-16: 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,
13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.
16 For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.
The Spirit that God has given us, wants to reveal to us the mind of Christ and to wipe away the filters that our carnal nature places in our way. Christ gives us freedom from filters, biases, hatred, malicious attitudes, and behaviors. Our freedom in Christ allows us to remove all prejudices so that we are free to serve all men in all places at all times.
Galatians 5:13: “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”
Harmful filters which we often utilize are “labels”. Usually when we label people we judge them as less worthy of our attention. Labels more than likely hurt and harm: “Lazy, Worthless, Nosey, Conservative, Liberal, Stupid, etc.” These labels tend to dismiss people as being unworthy of our consideration. Christ died to remove labels. The Christian does not have the opportunity to “label” others while serving as the hands and feet of Christ.
Matthew 5:22: "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, 'You good-for-nothing (Racca),' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.”
Our attitude towards others reflects whether the Spirit is melting or hardening our hearts. When we TRANSCEND, we leave behind labels, worries, bitterness, hurt, disappointments, and cares that keep us tied to the carnal nature.
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HELPING OTHERS TRANSCEND Through TRANSFORMING SPEECH
Hebrews 3:1 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.
I Peter 2: 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Christ used Transforming Speech with his Apostles. He called his disciples “sanctified”, “I am the vine &; you are the branches”. He gave them meaning in their lives. He helped to define their character and their goals.
John 6:68 “Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal Life. And we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God”.
Peter gained his very definition of existence through Christ. Because Christ had entrusted Peter with purpose- a transforming mission.
POINTS FOR PARENTS:
Children need to be spoken to using Transforming Speech.
• Parents must speak lovingly and expectantly to children. Patiently with mercy you must let children know that you love them always. But reconfirm the fact that God sees them as holy. Tell them………You are holy. Be holy as your Heavenly Father is holy. You are God’s own possession. Live a life that will glorify God. You are pure in God’s eyes. Live a life of purity for God. Communicate to children WHO THEY ARE. They are loved by God, precious to God, a child of God.
• Parents need to instill in their children a FUTURE: You are special. You have a special mission for God. Children need direction. All children are lost when it comes to understanding the future. You can give them security by continually reminding them that they have a future …. As a servant of God. Begin this process when they are very young. Give them a mission. Ask them to define the mission by listening to their hearts when God speaks through His word.
• Children need GOALS. When they are small you encourage them to take a step…then two steps… then to walk across the room. Children also need spiritual goals. They need to be gently guided through each step of spiritual growth. I find that parents everywhere encourage walking….but often lack the initiative to encourage those spiritual steps in spiritual growth and service.
• Children need confidence. Praise and acknowledge their Faith. When a child expresses faith, exhibits faith as a behavior, when a child volunteers to pray, or expresses Christian characteristics….parents need to be sensitive and alert to acknowledge and praise faith. Christ praised those who exhibited faith.
Luke 7: 9 Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled at him, and turned and said to the multitude that was following Him, "I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith."
We praise children for school work, for sports, for musical talents. They recognize how we respond and see through our reactions the need to perform and receive praise. Do we express the same excitement over their spiritual growth? Do we send the message to our children that our expectations for becoming more like Christ is the MOST important issue in our homes?
• Children need blessings. All through our Old Testaments & even in the New Testament. Every father or mother gave their child a blessing.
• Genesis 27:28, Isaac blesses Jacob.
• Genesis 49:28 Jacob blesses his 12 sons
• Deut. 33:1 Moses blesses all the sons of Israel
• Luke 1:40f Elizabeth blesses Mary & the baby she is carrying
• Luke 1:68 Zacharias blesses his child, John the Baptist
• Luke 2:29 Simeon blesses the baby Jesus
• Luke 2:36 Anna also blesses the baby Jesus
What does it mean to “bless” your children. Offer a prayer of thanksgiving over them. Touch your children and thank God for them. Let them know that they are special and that you expect special and wonderful things from them. Children need concrete words from you.
Paul explains how this happens in the Philippians letter.
Philippians 2:
1 Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion,
2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;
4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;
13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing;
15 so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,
16 holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.
17 But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all.
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Where is Paul when he writes this letter?
Paul’s admonishments include:
• Always be Humble
• Always Glorify Christ
• Always Rejoice
Philippians 3
1 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.
3 for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh,
7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,
9and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,
10that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
11in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
12Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
13Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
15Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you;
18For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ,
19whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.
20For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;
21who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.
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Paul is telling us:
• continuously rejoice.
• recognize that we may have a fulfilling life in Christ while on this earth.
• Heaven is not some grand retirement plan that we suffer for all our lives so we can go there when we die
• he never desired to "Go to Heaven when he died". What did he ALWAYS desire?
• our life on this earth can be rewarding, fulfilling, and truly full of joy and blessings.
• stay focused on what really matters and to count everything else as “rubbish”
• press on, exert effort to attain goals through Jesus Christ
• grow in our relationship (knowing) of Jesus Christ
• continually being transformed by God’s power
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near.
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
7And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
9The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
19And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
20Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
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Paul tells us how to
• guard our hearts and minds
• how to have joy and rise above
• how to transcend through the God of peace and joy
Paul teaches us how to Rise Above Gut Reactions:
Whatever you chew on, you will spew up! How to stop a “gut reaction?”…think on things above.
My Prayer for you:
May God grant you the desire to cultivate a dependence on Christ and confidence in His power to tranfer and transform you. May your heart submit to the Holy Spirit in child-like dependence and confident expectation of transcending to new spiritual heights. May you patiently wait on God, expecting the blessings of hope, joy, and wisdom. May you proactively commit yourself to a relationship with Christ that glorifies Him in all things. And may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds.
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