JESUS WANTS A BRIDE -- ARE YOU AVAILABLE?
Mike
Blume
Sunday, March 30, 2003
Ephesians
5:22-32 Wives, submit yourselves unto your
own husbands, as unto the Lord. (23) For the husband is the head
of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour
of the body. (24) Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ,
so [let] the wives [be] to their own husbands in every thing. (25)
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave
himself for it; (26) That he might sanctify and cleanse it with
the washing of water by the word, (27) That he might present
it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such
thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. (28) So
ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife
loveth himself. (29) For no man ever yet hated his own flesh;
but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: (30)
For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. (31)
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined
unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. (32) This is
a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Philippians 3:1-11 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the
same things to you, to me indeed [is] not grievous, but for you [it is] safe.
(2) Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.
(3) For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and
rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. (4)
Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh
that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: (5)
Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, [of] the tribe of Benjamin,
an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; (6)
Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which
is in the law, blameless. (7) But what things were gain to me,
those I counted loss for Christ. (8) Yea doubtless, and I count
all things [but] loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them
[but] dung, that I may win Christ, (9) And be found in him, not
having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through
the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: (10)
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship
of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; (11)
If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
Ephesians speaks of the Lord and His church as a Husband and Wife.
- Even the terms from
Adam and Eve's relationship in Genesis 2 are used by Paul to describe the
Lord and the Church.
- A woman is man's means
of producing children with his name.
- They are required to
become one flesh in order to do that.
- Likewise, the Church
is God's means of producing fruit, in the sense of ministries, in
this world for the Lord.
With that in mind, I
want to say that Christ is looking for a Bride.
Paul spoke of all the
traits of his person that were envied by those believing service to God
was involvement in the Judaic religion.
- Old Testament worship
was very outward oriented.
- It was comprised of
physical rituals for the most part.
- But the New Testament
delved into the aspect of humanity on a much deeper level.
- It hit the heart and
spirit of the matter and of mankind.
Paul abandoned all the
focus in his life that was upon those traits greatly honoured by natural
Israel.
- Why?
- He makes a principle
statement that we can apply to our lives as well, although Paul applied
them to his heritage as a natural Jew.
- "But what things
were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ."
There was a strain of
self-focus in these things Paul listed about his natural heritage under
law.
- One race was better
than the others under Old Testament law.
- But one foreigner could
become part of that race.
- Nevertheless the Israelites
were deemed "higher" in that sense than the other nations.
- And Paul was a Hebrew
child of Hebrew parents.
- But the New Testament
puts no special stress upon Israel or any nation.
All of the tenets of
law and Old Testament put the focus on self.
- And anything gain to
HIM, was loss to CHRIST.
- Ethnic advantages would
cause the Jews to look more upon themselves than they ought, although we
know God did not intend that when He gave law to Israel.
To focus our minds upon
SELF is what the serpent successfully accomplished with Eve.
- Stan knew God would
use mankind to accomplish His will in earth.
- So the devil tried
to "preoccupy" Eve's mind with something other than God's will.
- And the focus he chose
to set her eyes upon was SELF.
- What better way to
get her mind off God's will than to get it on her OWN will?
Gen 3:5-6 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then
your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
(6) And when the woman saw that the tree [was] good for food, and that
it [was] pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make [one] wise,
she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband
with her; and he did eat.
If God requires us to do His will, then our PREOCCUPATION with ourselves
simply makes us UNAVAILABLE to God!
That was satan's goal, and he succeeded!
Paul said whatever is gain to ME, causes my attention to get off everything
else, including God's will.
It reminds me of a salesman who tried selling me some encyclopedias.
- I caught his tactic.
- He did not start by
telling me how much I would have to pay to own the set of books.
- He started to ask me
questions.
- What was my hobby?
- What do I like doing
in my spare time?
- As I started to explain
my greatest pastimes, he looked impressed and amazed.
- And that was intended
to get me to think quite highly of him!
- He did not care less
of what I enjoyed.
- But he made it out
that I was involved in the greatest pastimes one could get involved
with!
- And that was intended
to make it appear that this guy was a newly made fan of mine!
- He was actually interested
in taking my money.
- And he knew that making
me feel good about mySELF, would cause me to more likely give him my money
than by simply asking me for it.
The devil cared less
about how eve could make herself better, let alone make herself as gods.
- But he appealed to
her susceptibility to be lifted up in herself, at her own self-image and
self-focus, in order to achieve what he really wanted!
- The devil was thrown
out of heaven once.
- God's will is done
in heaven.
- You're just not
going to get there with the thoughts to raise up your own kingdom in heaven!
- And he was thrown to
earth.
- And he did not want
to be thrown out of earth as well!
- At least he might rule
the world!
- So he had to move fast
and get man's AVAILABILITY to God messed up, so that God's will would not
drive him from the earth as well!
- So he had the woman
focus upon herself.
The devil knows, to
this day,...
(7) But what things were gain to me, those I counted
loss for Christ.
The devil has successfully put millions of people's attention upon themselves,
and thereby caused them to neglect the will of God!
Paul refused to let the enemy do that with him, even THROUGH RELIGION!
That is the reason we BEGIN our prayers as follows:
Mat 6:9-10 After this manner therefore pray
ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. (10)
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as [it is] in heaven.
Get our attention off SELF, to begin with.
- Or forget having an
effective prayer!
We need to be available
to God for Him to use us.
- And we have to get
our minds off SELF in order to be available.
- God needs a Bride --
are YOU available?
- Or are you too caught
up in yourself?
We need to live entire
lives that are always available to Him.
- What God can do with
us if we were available to Him!
- God calls our "telephones"
and gets a busy signal too many times!
- Unavailable!
- Our minds are on other
things.
Rom 6:13 Neither yield ye your members [as] instruments of unrighteousness
unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the
dead, and your members [as] instruments of righteousness unto God.
Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable unto God, [which is] your reasonable service.
BE A LIVING SACRIFICE!
- Sacrifice SELF
life and be available to Him.
Why?
- (7) But what
things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
Rom 8:5-8 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of
the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
(6) For to be carnally minded [is] death; but to be spiritually minded
[is] life and peace. (7) Because the carnal mind [is] enmity
against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
(8) So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
You cannot please God if you are after the flesh, by having your mind
on fleshly things all the time... especially SELF.
- Being used in God's
Kingdom is absolutely thrilling!
- But a preoccupation
with SELF will hinder God from ever using you!
Keeping up with Fashion
and style is absolutely devastating to the availability God needs in your
life to use you.
- Not only do the fashions
change so much that you could never serve God a moment due to the time required
to follow the trends, but these things put your focus upon SELF.
- Busy signal!
- Unavailable!
- Too caught up in SELF.
Another manner the devil
succeeds in getting us on SELF is by instigating a person to hurt us to severely
that we cannot forget it, and we dwell on it in our minds, and thereby forget
all about doing God's will.
- How many souls have
I seen God use, only to watch them succumb to the devil's ploy to cease
their activity for God by getting them focussed upon how much they were
hurt by another!
- If people can only
see through these demonic tactics!
- Imagine being severely
mistreated by a close person, and thinking, "Satan, you're counting on my
concern over self to get me all caught up in this issue. And then
you will successfully stop me from serving God due to my unavailability
that self-focus puts me into. Well, you're not going to get by with
it! I refuse to let this issue bother me to that degree! God
will see an available soul when He sees me!"
The devil cannot do
ANYTHING to a soul who has lost one's SELF in this manner.
That is what Jesus meant when He said:
Mat 10:39 He that findeth his life shall
lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
Lose your SELF life, for God's will.
- In other words, lose
self focus and self concern.
- Sacrifice self concern
for God's will.
- And you will fin d
it again for eternity!
- God will give you eternal
joy.
- But if you retain it
and refuse to let self focus go, and refuse to be a living sacrifice, making
yourself unavailable to God for His use, you'll lose your soul forever!
Young people, you will
be interested in marriage.
- But watch it, because
you can be more concerned over what mate to find, than God's will.
Mat 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness;
and all these things shall be added unto you.
Whatever is GAIN TO YOU... is LOSS TO CHRIST!
Mark it down!
Lose yourself!
- Do not allow yourself
to be overly concerned with fashion, style and trend!
- Realize God wants availability,
and that requires whatever is gain to YOU to be abandoned.
- Do not allow offenses
from others to eat you up until you cannot stop thinking about them.
- Someone offends you
and you cannot stop thinking about that offense anytime you see the person
or think about the person.
- You are EATEN UP!
- Too concerned over
self.
- Not broken enough.
- Not humble enough.
- Too SELF-focused.
2Co 5:14-15 For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus
judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: (15) And
[that] he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto
themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
We are intended to LIVE FOR HIM.
- If He died for us,
and as a result we can say that we died....
- Then our lives towards
SELF are over!
- We ought to live for
Him!
- That is why Paul said
living sacrificial lives is our reasonable service.
- It only stands to reason
that you do not live for self, if self has died with Him on the cross!
- We still are ourselves,
of course.
- But we do not live
for ourselves!
- And overly being concerned
for SELF through pride or fashion concentration, or even being offended by
someone, simply is living for SELF too much!
- LET IT GO!
Phi 3:8-9 Yea doubtless, and I count all things [but] loss for the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things, and do count them [but] dung, that I may win Christ,
(9) And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is
of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith:
Paul knew that if he wanted to know Christ fully.. in the spiritual
manner as a man and woman physically have relationship in flesh... he would
have to let go of self-preoccupation.
- He wanted to truly
know Christ.
- And we cannot truly
know Christ if we are overly concerned over self.
- Young people who are
here tonight, ... what you could do for God, if you learned this right now!
The high calling of
God is not being a pastor as opposed to an usher.
Phi 3:13-14 Brethren, I count not myself
to have apprehended: but [this] one thing [I do], forgetting those things
which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
(14) I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God
in Christ Jesus.
It is being available to God for His use, through abandonment of self
concern..
Because...
(7) But what things were gain to me, those I counted
loss for Christ.
JESUS WANTS A BRIDE -- ARE YOU... AVAILABLE?
I have seen the devil put saints who were used of
God totally out of commission for months and years!
- Something got them
focused upon self, and God's opportunity to use the person was finished
ever since!
- They were offended.
- They simply became
enamoured over preoccupation with self in some manner.
JESUS WANTS A BRIDE
-- ARE YOU AVAILABLE
Let me lose myself and find it, Lord, in thee!
Lose SELF and dedicate your life to God's
will, and the devil cannot touch you!
The devil attacked Job's possessions and family.
- The devil almost reeled
in unbelief when Job stood up and said, "Naked came I into this world, and
naked shall I leave. Blessed be the name of the Lord!
- The devil cannot understand
someone who denies self so much, since satan was so filled with self-pride,
himself.
- So boggle the mind
of the devil!
- Drive him mad!
- Deny self and truly
love God more than yourself!
- If you love someone,
you will give your life for that person.
- Give it to God in living
dedication and availability to Him.
- Living sacrifices!
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