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Sunday, May 16,
2010
Give Up
What are you willing to give up, to win
Christ?
If you remember, we are to disengage (disentangle)
from this world, and renounce or give up its thoughts and ways so that we
can be a successful labourer in our Lord’s vineyard.
To worship our God in Spirit and in truth
we can’t remain entangled in the affairs of this life. The flesh and Spirit
are contrary to one another; if you try to serve both you will end up
holding to one lovingly and hating the other. So which one do you want to
hate? Are you willing to die to the things of this life, so that you can be
an able minister of Christ? Many are willing in the beginning, but few
continue to be willing.
Galatians 1:10 For do I now persuade men,
or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not
be the servant of Christ. (KJV)
Galatians 1:10 (from Adam Clarke
Commentary)
Paul well knew that, if he endeavoured to
please man, he could not be the servant of Christ. Can any minor minister
hope to succeed, were even an apostle, had he followed that line, could
not? The interest of Christ and those of this world are so opposite,
that it is impossible to reconcile them; and he who attempts it shows
thereby that he knows neither Christ nor the world, though so deeply
immersed in the spirit of the latter.
When we accepted Christ, we became a new
creation in Him, old things were passed away, given up, and behold all
things became new. And we were given the ministry of reconciliation to
share with others, a ministry that is to be alive and real, known and read
of all men; showing forth a life that portrays Christ in us the hope of
glory, and how this reconciliation is occurring between us and God through
faith; being alive in Christ and dead to this world.
Galatians 2:19-20 For I through the law
am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. (20) I am crucified with
Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the
life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me, and gave himself for me. (KJV)
Galatians 2:19-20 (from Adam
Clarke Commentary)
And this life of faith consists in dying
with Christ to the things of the present world, and expecting, as co-heirs
with Him, the blessings of the eternal world. And who can work all this in
us but only he who lives in us? That man has arrived to a high degree of
mortification, who can say Christ liveth in me, and I am crucified to the
world. Such a one must have renounced not only earthly things, but his own
self also.
Are you willing to give up this life,
your wants and desires, so that you can be an able minister of Christ, that
one more might give up this world in their hearts to experience the love,
joy, peace, and power of Christ in their lives?
My beloved brethren, I encourage you to give
up the world, be a servant of Christ, and receive your crown of
righteousness that is laid up for you in heaven, and not only for you, but
all those who love his appearing which is made possible through you. God
bless.
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