4: I am OWNED

Who Do You Think You Are?  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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Opening

Lesson Opener

Pull out your iPhone. Talk about how much you use it, how much stuff it has on it, how much it cost, etc. The illustration is an illustration of OWNERSHIP. This has 4 elements as it relates to the iPhone:
A) I bought it.
B) I can request that it do what I want.
C) It doesn’t have the right to argue about B.
D) If it doesn’t do what I want it to, there’s something wrong with it.
The iPhone belongs to me. I own it. That’s the definition of the word “possession” in this context:
POSSESSION: belonging exclusively to, owned.
-
1 Peter 2:9 CSB
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
So it is with us. We BELONG to God. God OWNS us.
So it is with us. We are God’s special POSSESSION. We BELONG to God. God OWNS us.
If this is true, then these things follow:

1) God BOUGHT us.

Just like I paid for my iPhone with money, God spent something of considerable worth to have us. His Son went through pain and torture and death in order for us to be belong to God.
Isaiah 43:1 CSB
1 Now this is what the Lord says— the one who created you, Jacob, and the one who formed you, Israel— “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine.
This is in context of Israel, whom God has chosen. But does God not say the same thing about us? He has called us by our names, and we are His. And not only does that make sense individually, but our focal verse actually makes this a collective thing: we are a “people for His possession.”
2 Corinthians 1:21–22 CSB
21 Now it is God who strengthens us together with you in Christ, and who has anointed us. 22 He has also put his seal on us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a down payment.
A seal was the mark of ownership of something. God has placed His seal on us, showing that we belong to Him, and we are His.
Ephesians 1:13–14 CSB
13 In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed. 14 The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.
Again, we are sealed, this time with the Holy Spirit, who is a down payment of our inheritance until when? Until the redemption of his possession. Until His redemptive work is totally finished and He sets everything right.
Since He bought us, we are owned by Him. This is easy to get. You buy something, you own it.
- (set His seal)
- (God’s possession)
Since He bought us, we are owned by Him. This is easy to get. You buy something, you own it.

2) God gets to request our OBEDIENCE.

He could DEMAND it, and sometimes it feels that way, but ultimately, He requests it. Since He owns us, He could just force us to do what He says. But instead, He gives us a choice.
1 Corinthians 7:22–23 CSB
22 For he who is called by the Lord as a slave is the Lord’s freedman. Likewise he who is called as a free man is Christ’s slave. 23 You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of people.
We have been set free from bondage to sin into a right relationship with God through faith in Christ. As a result, we are called Christ’s slave. Since we belong to Christ because of the price He paid, we are not to be slaves to anyone else.
1 Corinthians 6:19–20 CSB
19 Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body.
Again, we were bought at a price, and as a result, God has every right to command us about how to use our bodies. They aren’t ours. In fact, they belong to God as the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 2:10 CSB
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.
We are intentionally designed to do specific work, which God has intended and prepared for us to do.
I’m not that way with my iPhone… I demand that it do what I want it to do.
- (slave to God)
- (honor God with body)
- (God’s workmanship, created with purpose)
I’m not that way with my PalmPilot.

3) We don’t have the RIGHT to argue.

Yes, He gives us a choice, but for us to argue about it doesn’t make sense. We don’t belong to ourselves any more. We were purchased through the death of Christ on the cross, so that we can be used by God for His purposes:
Romans 7:4 CSB
4 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were put to death in relation to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another. You belong to him who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.
Since we belong to Jesus, we don’t have any rights for ourselves. This is one of the things that we struggle the most with in our society. We love the words “my” and “mine”. “My rights.” “My stuff.” “My body.” If we’re in Christ, these things all have to go out the window in submission to Him. We belong to another, and our purpose is to bear fruit for God.
Romans 14:8 CSB
8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
If I’m alive, I belong to the Lord. If I die, I belong to the Lord. How much of my existence does that cover? All of it.
Ephesians 4:22–24 CSB
22 to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, 23 to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.
Ephesians 4:21–24 CSB
21 assuming you heard about him and were taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, 23 to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.
Ephesians 4:20–24 CSB
20 But that is not how you came to know Christ, 21 assuming you heard about him and were taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, 23 to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.
We have come to know Christ, and now to be more like Him through this taking off of our former way of life and through the putting on of the new self. And this is an ongoing process: the taking off of the old and putting on of the new.
- (belong to another)
- (live and die to the Lord)
- (taught to remove old, and put on Christ)

4) If we won’t obey, there is something WRONG with us.

Just like my iPhone has something wrong with it when it comes up with an error message, so we have something wrong with us when God makes a request of us and we give Him an error message.
Titus 1:15–16 CSB
15 To the pure, everything is pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; in fact, both their mind and conscience are defiled. 16 They claim to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work.
If we claim to be in Christ, yet consistently deny God by our works, we should have a dire concern regarding our relationship with God. It should be a spiritual warning light, flashing that something is wrong. If we don’t care, then perhaps (and probably) we aren’t saved, and we don’t belong to Him… we aren’t a part of the people for His possession.
Titus 2:11–14 CSB
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 instructing us to deny godlessness and worldly lusts and to live in a sensible, righteous, and godly way in the present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. 14 He gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people for his own possession, eager to do good works.
His grace instructs us on how to live, to deny godlessness and worldly lusts. He did this again, to prepare for Himself a people for his own possession, eager to do the works that He would have us do… good works.
- (all things are pure to the pure, nothing is pure to the corrupted)
- (His grace teaches us how to live, we should know how, and be eager to do good)

Lesson Closing

Everyone who is in Christ is a special possession of God, and collectively we are a people for His possession. That’s why this same phrase is translated as “peculiar” in the KJV. In it’s original use, it meant “special”, not “strange”. We are God’s special possession. We should live like it.
Remember, our focal verse is:
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.”
1 Peter 2:9 CSB
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
-- (NIV)
So: “Who do you think you are?”
So: “Who do you think you are?”
Our answer this week is: “I am OWNED.”

Questions

If the question of God asking us to do stuff that’s beyond our capabilities comes up, go to
I know that the illustration of my iPhone is a weak analogy when compared to human beings. Does it bother you to think of us being OWNED in the same sort of way as a thing, like a phone?
John 14:12 CSB
12 “Truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.
Our second point tonight was that God can request our obedience. Is a request from God the same thing as a demand? Why or why not? Couldn’t God just demand our obedience? Why doesn’t He?
“When God issues a command, it always implies a choice.” We can obey and be blessed, or we can disobey and be cursed. (, ) Do you agree with this statement?
Joshua 24:15 CSB
15 But if it doesn’t please you to worship the Lord, choose for yourselves today: Which will you worship—the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living? As for me and my family, we will worship the Lord.”
Deuteronomy 30:19–20 CSB
19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, 20 love the Lord your God, obey him, and remain faithful to him. For he is your life, and he will prolong your days as you live in the land the Lord swore to give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
Why do we not have an absolute right to our autonomy? Why do we have no right to argue against God?
So you agree or disagree with the statement that if we deny the Lord that something is wrong with us? Why?
For reflection before prayer: what spiritual “warning lights” are flashing in your life right now?
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