App
(Go To Meeting)
Tom Fannin—May 4, 2024
- Video | 
- PDF | Audio | [Up]
Here we are just past now the spring Holy Days, Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread. You know, time goes by and here we are now on the countdown to Pentecost. As we start the message, wanted to kind of ask a question:
As we move forward now to Pentecost, do we take time to consider that we belong to God and Jesus Christ, that we are not our own? No, we were purchased. We were redeemed as God's Word says, by the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
We know entering into covenant with Them—God and Jesus Christ—through baptism, allowed us to be in this position with them. Let's see what Peter writes about this:
1 Peter 1:14: "As obedient children, do not conform yourselves to the former lusts, as you did in your ignorance. But according as He Who has called you is Holy, you yourselves also be Holy in all your conduct; for it is written, 'You be Holy because I am Holy.' And if you call upon the Father, Who judges according to each man's work without respect of persons, pass the time of your life's journey in the fear of God; knowing that you were not redeemed by corruptible things, by silver or gold, from your futile way of living, inherited by tradition from your forefathers; but by the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (vs14-19).
We read this, I'm sure all of us, during the Passover and days of Unleavened Bread season as we remembered. you know, what Christ did for us. We remembered our covenant, but do we remember what it took to be redeemed?
We know, as we read here, it took the death of Jesus Christ, His blood that He poured out for the remission of sin. Along with this, we keep in mind that we are to be a Holy people unto God, and we'll look into that a little bit more later in the message. This is something we continually keep in mind is what our conduct should be at this time. Let's go back to what Paul wrote very similar in:
1-Corinthians 6:19: "WHAT! Don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, which you have within you from God, and you are not your own?"
That's what we're going to be focusing on in the message: you are not your own!
Verse 20: "For you were bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."
When you think about this, what a blessing it is for each of us. All of us who are part of the Church to know that we are a possession of God, to be able to say we're not our own! We entered into a covenant, didn't we? We know we cover this one when it comes to baptisms.
Romans 6:11: "In the same way also, you should indeed reckon yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God through Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore, do not let sin rule in your mortal body by obeying it in the lusts thereof. Likewise, do not yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin; rather, yield yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not rule over you because you are not under law, but under grace" (vs 11-14).
Verse 15: "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? MAY IT NEVER BE! Don't you realize that to whom you yield yourselves as servants to obey, you are servants of the one you obey, whether it is of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you" (vs 15-17).
We know that's baptism. The calling we've received, us answering that call and wanting to be in covenant with God and Christ that came from the heart. The desire to do this, the desire to be owned by God!
Verse 18: "And having been delivered from sin, you became the servants of righteousness."
It's good to remember this. Many of you probably remember when you were baptized and some have been baptized in the Church for 40, 50 years and maybe they don't remember everything that was said to them when they were baptized or when they were counseled for baptism.
But one thing that we all agreed to is when we were baptized and after that we would walk differently. We would seek after God and Jesus Christ and do the things that please Them.
- we agreed to do this
- this is something we need to remember
When we think about our lives and these in the physical flesh we're in.
- Who do we want to be owned by?
- What do we want to be owned by?
- What do we want to be controlled by?
- Who do we want to be influenced by?
You know, those are personal decisions we make every day!
Ephesians 2:1: "Now, you were dead in trespasses and sins… [very similar to what we've been reading] …in which you walked in times past according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working within the children of disobedience" (vs 1-2).
We know that Satan is called' the god of this world,' and he certainly guides and influences a lot of what goes on in this world. We know that God allows him to. Satan influences most of the people in this world and what's going on in this world. As Paul writes here, we had our part in that:
Verse 3: "Among whom also we all once had our conduct in the lusts of our flesh, doing the things willed by the flesh and by the mind, and were by nature… [we have this inherited nature within us that comes down from Adam] …the children of wrath, even as the rest of the world. But God, Who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, has made us alive together with Christ. (For you have been saved by grace.) And He has raised us up together and has caused us to sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (vs 3-6).
So, we all had our conduct in these things in the past. But where are we at today? All of us?
- Do we struggle with Who owns us?
- Do we struggle with ourselves, wanting to own part of ourselves still?
- Do we struggle with this world and the influences of the world and all the lust of the flesh?
- Do we struggle with the things out there in this world that Satan is behind a lot of it?
- Do we desire those things?
- Do those things own part of us or take part of us away from God and his ownership of us?
Well, that's a question we all have to answer every day as we examine ourselves. But truly, God wants us to be a total and complete possession for Him, and we need to be mindful of that.
- Why does God need to completely own us? We need to think about why!
- Why does He need to be in control of our lives and directing us in every way?
Jeremiah 17:7: "Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD and whose hope is the LORD."
That's what we're all striving to do is put our total trust in God and look to Him for all things. That's what he desires for us to do.
Verse 8: "For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters; it sends out its roots by the river, and it shall not fear when the heat comes, but its foliage shall be green; and he is not worried in the year of drought, nor will it cease from yielding fruit."
That happens occasionally. There are times where there's drought, wherever it may come from or however it may come. But there are times we face this. But IF we're putting our hope and trust in God as a possession of His, THEN we don't have to worry.
Verse 9: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?"
Yet, us with God's Spirit within us, we have an understanding of what the heart is like, and what motivates the heart. The nature that we inherited, we have an understanding of what this fleshly heart is like.
Verse 10: "I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings."
We need God in charge of our lives and in control of us, because of ourselves! Where would we wind up? We couldn't do it without God and Jesus Christ and without Their Spirit within us!
Jeremiah 10:23: "O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his steps."
It's not in us to do to do these things, to walk by ourselves. The end there would be death. We know the Scripture talks about there's a way that seems right within man's mind. But if it's not the way of God and not directed by God, we know what the end is. So, we need to be owned by God completely, because we can't do it on our own!
We read earlier about 'being Holy as God is.' God certainly is Holy and He wants us to be Holy. Let's read what God says of us or what God thinks of us as His people.
1-Peter 2:9: "But you are a chosen stock, a royal priesthood, a Holy nation, a people for a possession of God…"
That's who we are as the Church, called out ones. We're a people whom He has at this time called. We know there's a purpose for us and we're looking forward to being firstfruits in the Kingdom to rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years.
We are "…a people for a possession of God, that you might proclaim His excellent virtues, Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous Light; who once were not a people, but now are the people of God; who had not received mercy, but now have received mercy. Beloved, I exhort you, as strangers and sojourners, to restrain yourselves from fleshly lusts which war against the soul" (vs 9-11).
You see this message repeated again and again in the New Testament about who we are and who we need to be. Then the separation that we need to have. That's what we're talking about here in the next couple verses. We're going to read about the separation we need to continue to have from this world as possessions of God.
2-Corinthians 6:16: "And what agreement is there between a temple of God and idols? For you are a Temple of the living God, exactly as God said: 'I will dwell in them and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Therefore, come out from the midst of them and be separate,' says the Lord, 'and touch not the unclean, and I will receive you; and I shall be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters,' says the Lord Almighty" (vs 16-18).
So, we are the sons and daughters of God IF the Spirit dwells within us. Certainly it does in all of us who are in covenant, we have received God's Spirit. So, we're literal sons and daughters! That's why we can call out 'Abba Father' as Paul mentioned in Romans.
Another admonishment, here is being owned by God, not being our own, we need to continue to try to separate ourselves from what goes on out here in this world and the things of this world. We get another admonishment here from Paul:
Ephesians 5:6: "Do not let anyone deceive you with vain words…"
Certainly there are a lot of vain words spoken out here in this world. Yet, within the Churches, we also have to be careful of the same thing. Pay attention to what we hear!
"…for because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience" (v 6)—as mentioned earlier about 'the children of disobedience'!
But there's a wrath coming upon everyone who doesn't turn to God and Jesus Christ and repent. We know that time's coming.
Verse 7: "Therefore, do not be joint partakers with them. For you were once darkness; but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of Light, (because the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and Truth)" (vs 7-9).
That's what we need to be considering. The things that are about the Spirit, that are about the power of God. The things that were goodness and Righteousness and Truth exists! That's why we are to separate ourselves!
Verse 10: "Proving what is well pleasing to the Lord; and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them; for it is shameful even to mention the things being done by them in secret. But all of these things being exposed by the Light are openly revealed" (vs 10-13)—to us:
- who have God's Spirit
- who have the Truth
- who have the understanding
These things are revealed to us!
- then we can see them plainly
- then we can move away from these things and repent of what we need to repent of
But that's why we have God's Spirit to help with these things. Again, as his possession!
It's good to think about what goes on in our mind and where our mind act continually and do we struggle within our mind. I think all of us would say that continually there's a struggle within the mind. We have to get control of that. Let's read here what Christ mentioned to the disciples in:
Matthew 16:21: "From that time Jesus began to explain to His disciples that it was necessary for Him to go to Jerusalem, and to suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and to be killed, and to be raised the third day. But after taking Him aside, Peter personally began to rebuke Him, saying, 'God will be favorable to you, Lord. In no way shall this happen to You'" (vs 21-22).
So again, as we talked about earlier, there in our mind, there's a way that seems right! There's a way that maybe we think or perceive things, but that might not be right in God's eyes and Christ's eyes based upon Their Word and the things They tell us to do. So, Peter here is thinking was off.
Verse 23: "Then He turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, because your thoughts are not in accord with the things of God, but the things of men.'" For us, we need to be thinking about:
- Are our thoughts continually in line with God's thoughts?
or
- Are our thoughts in line with the things men think about the things that are according to the flesh?
Verse 24: "And Jesus said to His disciples, 'If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and let him take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life shall lose it; but whoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it'" (vs 24-25).
The key here is as Christ says, "…let him deny himself…" That's part of what we all have to work on is being in the flesh, being carnal at times in our mind. We have to learn to deny ourselves and who we are and have the mind of Christ. Denying ourselves is an important part of this and trying to think continually like God thinks.
Philip. 3—again, the theme being here: we are not our own! We were bought with a price; we belong to God! It's important that we put the past behind, the things that still may be in our mind, the things that trouble us. Sometimes the things maybe we've reverted back to; we need to put the past behind! That's a key point.
God doesn't want things of the past, the things that we've repented of, the things that we've been forgiven of, troubles or whatever they may be in our past lives and who we were! God doesn't want that with us!
Philippians 3:7: "Yet, the things that were gain to me, these things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ."
When you think about Paul's life, and all that he accomplished in life before his calling, he was very jealous. He did accomplish a lot. He was a 'go-getter.'
Verse 8: "But then truly, I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord…"
That's what his mind was on then; all the things in the past to him where he counted them as lost because of the knowledge that he now had of Jesus Christ!
"…for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as dung; that I may gain Christ and may be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is derived from law, but that righteousness, which is by the faith of Christ, the righteousness of God that is based on faith" (vs 8-9).
We need to consider the righteousness that's based on faith thinking about Who owns us, and what it took to be owned by God!
Verse 10: "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection of the dead; not as though I have already received, or have already been perfected; but I am striving…" (vs 10-12).
That's all we do is strive; striving just means putting great effort into it!
"…so that I may also lay hold on that for which I also was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not count myself as having attained; but this one thing I do—forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching forth to the things that are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. So then, let as many as be perfect be of this mind. And if in anything you are otherwise minded, God will reveal even this to you" (vs 12-15).
So again, we have to put the past behind and move forward, and God will reveal to us anything that's going on that we need to be repenting of, or we need to be moving on from, because as His possession He certainly wants us to be doing that.
This is this is a key point for us! But what does God want each one of us to be? That we would be like Him—God and Jesus Christ—They want us to be like They are!
1-Corinthians 13:9: "For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is Perfect has come, then that which is in part shall be set aside. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I reasoned as a child; but when I became a man, I set aside the things of a child" (vs 9-11).
God wants all of us to be growing up; no longer be children, no longer being tossed to and fro.
- He wants us to grow up spiritually
- He wants us to be on the meat of the Word
- He wants us to have more understanding
Verse 12: "For now we see through a glass darkly, but then we shall see face-to-face; now I know in part, but then I shall know exactly as I have been known."
That's what we look forward to and that's what God wants. He wants us to be able to know in full. The more we yield to God and Jesus Christ, the more understanding we do have. That's what we look forward to, being like God and Jesus Christ and knowing Them face-to-face. Knowing more than we know now. That's what we look forward to.
1-Cor. 2—we know these things as we'll read here by God's Spirit.
1-Corinthians 2:9: "But according as it is written, 'The eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.' But God has revealed them to us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things—eventhe deep things of God" (vs 9-10).
God wants us to know more. As His possession and owning us, He wants us to have a better understanding continually in God's Spirit within us helps us to know and understand even the deep things of God. Things the angels look into and want to know.
When we strive to let God completely own us, when we completely trust in God and look to Him:
- Do we understand more?
- Do we know more?
I can say of myself, the more I let God rule within me and the more I look to God, the more I see and understand!
I hope all of us through the recent Holy Day season, keeping Passover in the days of Unleavened Bread, we have a better understanding now. Every year, if we're looking to God and Christ, preparing and studying, doing these things, and yielding, we have a better understanding every year! We should, shouldn't we?
- God's Spirit is great
- It's all powerful
- It leads us into more understanding
So, yes, the more we look to God, and yield to Him, the more understanding we have! Now there are things we need to be doing.
Philippians 2:1: "Now then, if there be any encouragement in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any deep inner affections and compassions, fulfill my joy that you be of the same mind, having the same love, being joined together in soul, minding the one thing" (vs 1-2).
All of us in the Church, hopefully this is the mind that we have, all of us being unified together, all of God's children. But as we read on here, the next three verses, I want to emphasize a three letter word here: let.
Verse 3: "Let nothing be done through contention or vainglory, but in humility, each esteeming the others above himself. Let each one look not only after his own things, but let each one also consider the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (vs 3-5).
This is what we need to be doing is having the mind of Christ and God:
- They want us to have Their mind
- They want us to think like They think
- They want us to have Their heart
But we need to do our part to let these things be so within us.
Colossians 3:15: "And let… [we have to allow it] …the peace of God rule in your hearts..."
Didn't we consider this when we kept the Passover and the days of Unleavened Bread that we considered Christ in the peace that we have through the chastisement that he received? That's brought out in Isa. 53.
The peace we have the chastisement of our peace, Christ took that upon Himself.
Verse 15: "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts… [because we can have that through Christ] …to which you were called into one body, and be thankful. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord" (vs 15-16).
We need to be letting these things in our lives in yielding to these things, because certainly God Spirit within us, God and Jesus Christ in us. They want these things to be with us.
We talked about that there are quite a few things we need to let happen. One thing we need to be careful about is not fighting or resisting God. Can we do that? Well, certainly we can, but we certainly don't want to be doing that!
Isaiah 45:9: "Woe to him who fights with the One Who formed him, a potsherd among the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him who forms it, 'What are you making?' Or your work, 'He has no hands'?"
Let's just remember: we don't want to be resisting God and Christ! We want them to be forming us and working with us as They desire!
As Stephen was talking to the Pharisees before he was stoned, and he told them, 'You always are resisting the Spirit.'
Let's not find ourselves resisting or fighting with the One Who is forming us and working with us to perfect us. Let's be mindful of that.
I want to bring out something else we need to be considering, too. We're going to be reading 1-Peter 5. As we read this, we need to consider the Church, what the Church is, which are 'the called out ones.' What the function of the Church is and our responsibility as individuals in the Church and there are certain things God has structured, and put in place as part as functions within the Body. God and Jesus Christ have set it up this way. We all in the Church need to be mindful of this.
1-Peter 5:1: "The elders who are among you I exhort, even as a fellow elder, and an eyewitness of the sufferings of Christ…"
Peter was there; he was an eyewitness to the these things that happened!
"…and a partaker of the glory that is about to be revealed: Feed the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight not by compulsion, but willingly…" (vs 1-2).
That's how all the elders within the Churches should be conducting themselves, a joyful, willing attitude to serve God's people.
"…not in fondness of dishonest gain, but with an eager attitude" (v 2).
Eager to serve God and serve Christ and serve the brethren. The important thing here is:
Verse 3: "Not as exercising lordship over your possessions…"
Elders within the Churches of God, there are things that have their own that they possess have possession of and they're in control of. But that's not the people of God!
- they don't own the people of God
- they don't possess them
"…but by being examples to the flock of God" (v 3).
That's what the elders should be: examples! Examples have got to be of God in Christ.
Paul talked about himself and he said, 'you follow me as I follow Christ.' Certainly if Paul wasn't following Christ, he wouldn't want anybody to be following him. But 'follow me as I follow Christ' and the elders should be the same way. The ministry is within the Churches of God.
So, I bring this out because we all need to be thinking about that because within the Churches of God. Sometimes we don't see this, but we see the brethren become their possessions. How do you see that? A lot of it's through control! When you see Churches try to control people in their thinking and what they're doing, they're ruling over them!
So they're forgetting that all of God's people belong to God. God owns them! They were redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ!
It's something we need to pay attention to and be mindful of because all the spiritual leaders within the Church of God need to be leading the brethren to Christ continually. To remember that
- we're helpers of joy for the brethren
- for the joy of what we know
- for the joy of what we're called to
- for the joy of what we hope we have
- for the joy of what we look forward to
Everyone, we're all responsible for our own salvation! We're all responsible for working that out with fear and trembling. So yeah, we have to be mindful of Who we are a possession of!
- we're not possessions of men
- we're not possessions of churches or organizations
We're possessions of God! It's up to each of us to recognize that.
We have Christ as our example; He was a possession of God; He was God's only Begotten Son. He was completely obedient to God in every way. He didn't do anything of Himself, did He?
As He was led and directed by God, His Father, and that's why we have Christ as our elder brother and our example to look to.
1-Peter 2:21: "For to this you were called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow in His footsteps."
So, we walk as Christ walked. That's what we agreed to: the walk as Christ walked!
Verse 22: "Who committed no sin; neither was guile found in His mouth; Who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when suffering, He threatened not, but committed Himself to Him Who judges righteously; Who Himself bore our sins within His own body on the tree, so that we, being dead to sins, may live unto righteousness; by Whose stripes you were healed. For you were as sheep going astray, but you have now returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls" (vs 22-25).
So, brethren, an important thing here to bring out again in v 23: "… He threatened not, but committed Himself to Him Who judges righteously…"
Christ was totally committed to God the Father and that's where we need to be in our lives. too. He is totally committed to God. He's His possession.
Psalm 57:1: "Be gracious unto me, O God, be gracious unto me; for my soul trusts in You; yea, in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge until these great troubles pass by."
That's where our minds need to be, you know, totally trusting in God, taking refuge in God until these times pass by and, you know, we know whether we're going to be changed or go to sleep and wait for Christ to call our names and awaken out of the graves, we trust in God and wait for these times to pass by because we know the outcome.
Verse 2: "I will cry to God Most High, to God who fulfills His purpose for me."
There is a purpose for all of us and we look to God as his possession to fulfill that in us.
Verse 3: "He shall send from heaven and save me; He rebukes him who would swallow me up. Selah…. [think on that] …God shall send forth His mercy and His Truth. My soul is among lions; I lie among those who breathe out fire, the sons of men whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword" (vs 3-4).
And yea, in this world we face a lot of different things, don't we, all of us?
Verse 5: "Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let Your glory be above all the earth. They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down; they have dug a pit before me; into the midst of it they have fallen themselves. Selah. My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise" (vs 5-7).
We, too, need to have a fixed heart upon God continually!
So we'll just conclude by saying as we look forward to the next Feast, Pentecost, that we count down to Let's just keep in mind that we're not our own. We were bought with a price, all of us!
Scriptural References:
- 1 Peter 1:14-19
- 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
- Romans 6:11-18
- Ephesians 2:1-6
- Jeremiah 17:7-10
- Jeremiah 10:23
- 1 Peter 2:9-11
- 2 Corinthians 6:16-18
- Ephesians 5:6-13
- Matthew 16:21-25
- Philippians 3:7-15
- 1 Corinthians 13:9-12
- 1 Corinthians 2:9-10
- Philippians 2:1-5
- Colossians 3:15-16
- Isaiah 45:9
- 1 Peter 5:1-3
- 1 Peter 2:21-25
- Psalm 57:1-7
Scripture referenced, not quoted: Isaiah 53
TF:bo/po
Transcribed: 6/23/24
Copyright 2024—All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes, no part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner. This includes electronic and mechanical photocopying or recording, as well as the use of information storage and retrieval systems.
