Believer's Benefits

Introduction: Once again, Discipleship is the process of devoting oneself to a teacher to learn from and become more like them. Over the last five weeks we have been learning about discipleship; how they are made, what God expects from His disciples, what it will cost us to be His disciples. Today we are going to look at the benefits of discipleship.

Over the last five weeks we have been learning about discipleship; how they are made, what God expects from His disciples, what it will cost us to be His disciples. Today we are going to look at the benefits of discipleship.

During the Great Depression men and women were looking for one thing…a job that provided money so they could feed their family. Today, one of the biggest things we look for in a job is the benefit package. What is the insurance like? Does it have profit sharing? Is there a 401k? How many weeks of vacation do I get? The list goes on and on. The higher up in the company you get, the better the benefits seem to get. Private jet, company car, golf memberships to exclusive country clubs. These are pretty amazing benefits. The problem is not everyone gets these benefits, and they can be taken away just as quickly as they were given!

What if someone came to you one day and said: “I have a job for you. But first let me tell you the benefits…I will give you a mansion, you will live in a gated community, you will have an army watching over you, the retirement plan is better than anything you can dream of, all you have to do is believe in me.” We would be crazy not to! These are just some of the The benefits of being a disciple and are given from the moment you accept Christ as your savior and are never taken away! We don’t leave them here when we go, we get to carry these over to glory! They never diminish in size, they only grow as we work harder to become more like Jesus! What a benefit package! Today I want to look at 3 benefits we can see while we are here on earth.

Transition: While the cost of discipleship is great, the benefits are even greater. Every Christian is given 3 benefits upon your personal choice to give your life to Christ.

Romans 15:13 KJV 1900

13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Romans 15

A. The Benefit of Joy

Expound: Where does every good thing originate from? God!

THE GOD OF THE HOPE- In the original language there is a definite article attached to the word hope. That definite article is “the”.

In Jesus says “I will write on him the name of My God

This is awesome because it shows they are the same yet distinct and Paul says this God whom Jesus acknowledges as His God is the creator of the hope in which you believe in.

Jesus Christ is the hope and the only thing that will bring joy.

it doesn’t stop there. Complete joy. When Paul wrote to the Romans he says fill you. This is better translated as complete you will all joy!

It could be said that God wants to joyfully and gladly complete you and completely fill you with joy.

Application: There is a problem though! The problem is us!

We are sinners at our very core!

We have a tendency to look for the worst possible outcomes

We hope for the best but prepare for the worst and that is a slap to the face of God and shows just how little faith we have. God I trust you but just in case you don’t give my what I want, I’m gonna make my own preparations.

We are control freaks! we want to do what we want, when we want to and how we want to do them and that robs us of our joy.

Jesus tells us in

Your joy will be full if you continue to keep His commandments! If your lying, cheating, gossiping, stealing, only doing things halfway to say you did it then your joy will never be full!

John 14:27 NKJV

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

John 15:10–11 KJV 1900

10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. 11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

John 15:10–11 NKJV

10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.

Your joy will be full if you continue to keep His commandments! If your lying, cheating, gossiping, stealing, only doing things halfway to say you did it then your joy will never be full!

g. it is the unconfessed sin in your life robbing you of your joy and you have only one choice:

it is the unconfessed sin in your life robbing you of your joy and you have only one choice: to ask for forgiveness and start allowing God to fill you again with His joy.

Transition: The next benefit we see obviously will go hand in hand with joy:

B. The Benefit of Peace

Expound- It seems as if we have joy, then we are at peace or in a peaceful state.

Illustration: Every time I get on the Superman or the giant swing at six flags I am scared to death. I start thinking I’m putting my life in the hands of electronics and teenagers. I have no peace until my feet are planted firmly back on the ground.

God doesn’t want to stop pouring out his benefits to us at just being joyful all the time, he wants us to be at peace as well.

This carries with it the thought of living in peace

to make peace or be a peacemaker

God wants us to have freedom from worry!

It’s not as the Eagles once sang “I got a peaceful easy feeling” it’s so much more.

It’s knowing that whatever Satan may try to throw at you, you can be at peace because God is the one who supplies the peace.

Application- How is it then that I tend to have more bad days than peaceful days?

2. Application- How is it then that I tend to have more bad days than peaceful days?

Application- How is it then that I tend to have more bad days than peaceful days?

It goes right back to your unconfessed sin

The opposite of peace is disagreement, hate, hatred, discord, agitation, disharmony, distress, fighting, frustration, upset, war, worry

If any of these describe how you are feeling or acting then the first thing to do would be to go to the Father and ask for forgiveness. Nail it to the cross and let God take it from there!

Every one of these are in your life for one reason and one reason only and that is to STEAL YOUR PEACE!

So how do I regain peace? Quit fighting a war that God never intended you to fight! You can’t do it on your own.

You have to put your complete trust and faith in Him. says

Isaiah 26:3 NKJV

3 You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.

That sums it up: He will keep you and fill you with peace, perfect peace!

Transition: So because we believe in Jesus, the hope that God sent to us, we can be completely filled with joy and peace but God doesn’t want us to stop there. Paul tells us God does this so we can receive the next benefit of being a disciple

C. The Benefit of Overflowing Hope

Expound- God has a desire for your life: that desire is to have abundance.

When Paul writes “so that you will abound” he is telling us God wants us to have all joy and peace so so we can have an abundance or an overflow, an excessive amount, more than enough!

Not just merely an adequate amount of hope to get you by, but a well of hope that never runs dry and is continuing to pour out of you.

An excessive amount, more than enough!

The great news doesn’t stop there, this hope is the same hope that is spoken of earlier!

The hope that we have overflowing from us is Jesus Christ! The Hope! The Truth, The Way and The Life, and the example set before us all!

He is the hope that fills us, He is the hope that sustains us, He is the hope that we desire to one day be with and worship for eternity!

Application- we didn’t just get a little bit of Jesus we get ALL OF JESUS!

When he gave himself on the cross, he completely died and poured out his blood for you and me.

That complete bloodshed covered every sin and washed every stain clean to those who will confess and believe that He is Lord.

We as Christians don’t forget that. What we tend to forget is: as life moves forward and we face the problems that life throws at us, we try to control it.

This jar is your life: inside your life you have all this sin. Worry, regret, inability to forgive yourself of your past, hatred, anger, fear, gossip. All this sin is taking up space in your life. The scriptures tell us however that when we come to the father and ask him for forgiveness he is willing and able to forgive you. As he forgives you he begins to pour into your life and by his power as he pours into you, all that sin, that worry, anger, everything that the world says that you are is removed and soon nothing is left except the overflowing love of Jesus Christ. Sure Satan tries to attack you and tries to say remember this sin, but it is only on the surface and the overflowing benefit of the Hope that is within you by the power of the Holy Spirit removes that sin so that the overflow gets on others.

Conclusion: The benefits of discipleship go way past the material things that we can see and touch, all the physical blessings. The benefits of discipleship are eternal and everlasting. Joy peace and hope are only a small portion, the fullness of Christ in our lives is the greatest benefit of all. First you have to make the move to Him. Give your life to Him, allow him to pour into you and flood out the sin in your life today

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