Getting Clear on Jesus - Talk 8
Speaker Notes - People who are living the New Life in Christ increasingly practice transforming habits that reflect Jesus
Colossians 3:12-17
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Life-changing declarations of New-Life People:
1 - You are Chosen
2 - You are Holy
3 - You are Dearly Loved
Let Justice Roll Down by John Perkins (1976, pages 205-206):
”The Spirit of God worked on me as I lay in that bed. An image formed in my mind. The image of the cross—Christ on the cross. It blotted out everything else in my mind.
This Jesus knew what I had suffered. He understood. And He cared. Because He had experienced it all Himself.
This Jesus, this One who had brought good news directly from God in heaven, had lived what He preached. Yet He was arrested and falsely accused. Like me, He went through an unjust trial. He also faced a lynch mob and got beaten. But even more than that, He was nailed to rough wooden planks and killed. Killed like a common criminal.
At the crucial moment, it seemed to Jesus that even God Himself had deserted Him. The suffering was so great, He cried out in agony. He was dying.
But when He looked at that mob that had lynched Him, He didn’t hate them. He loved them. He forgave them. And He prayed [to] God to forgive them. “Father, forgive these people, for they don’t know what they are doing.”
His enemies hated. But Jesus forgave. I couldn’t get away from that.
The Spirit of God kept working on me and in me until I could say with Jesus, “I forgive them, too.” I promised Him that I would “return good for evil,” not evil for evil. And He gave me the love I knew I would need to fulfill his command to me of “love your enemy.”
Because of Christ, God Himself met me and healed my heart and mind with His love. I knew then what Paul meant when he wrote, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? … Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35, 37–39).
The Spirit of God helped me to really believe what I had so often professed, that only in the love of Christ is there any hope for me, or for those I had once worked so hard for. After that, God gave me the strength and motivation to rise up out of my bed and return to Mendenhall and spread a little more of His love around.
Oh, I know man is bad—depraved. There’s something built into him that makes him want to be superior. If the black man had the advantage, he’d be just as bad, just as bad. So I can’t hate the white man.
The problem is spiritual: black or white, we all need to be born again.
It’s a profound, mysterious truth—Jesus’ concept of love overpowering hate. I may not see its victory in my lifetime. But I know it’s true.
I know it’s true because it happened to me. On that bed, full of bruises and stitches—God made it true in me. He washed my hatred away and replaced it with a love for the white man in rural Mississippi.
I felt strong again. Stronger than ever. What doesn’t destroy me makes me stronger.
I know it’s true.
Because it happened to me.”
Paul’s church: North River Community Church in Pembroke