Christ Our Sanctifier

I started into a new series and I don't know if you've listened to that message or not that I put on Facebook and on the Church website, but I recorded that message and what I started to do was to work through what's called The fourfold Gospel the Christian Missionary Alliance who I'm ordained through who Bryce's ordained through one of the core things of their theology is something known as the fourfold gospel and you can see it in their little logo. That's why I wear my shirt today has the logo on there and Jay Carter told me he thought this was the funniest looking a Harley-Davidson sure. He's ever seen. but when he saw me in this one's but you know, when you look at the logo, what does it mean and I think you can look at the logo and it kind of gives us a good way to look through some of these four core beliefs and I started last week with explaining the first one which is the cross which represents Christ Our Savior and swear. My favorite ones to talk about one of my favorite messages to give talking about a lot of the different promises that we find in scripture about Christ Our Savior. So if you get a chance to watch it, please do but most likely what I'm going to do since We've had all the stuff going on that's going on this time of year with that probably sometime in the spring when hopefully we're past all this. There's actually kind of a Sunday School curriculum that we could do a small group curriculum that I'll probably ask Alice if I can give him a break for a few weeks and I'll teach it during the adult Sunday school class time. So if people want to hear is dig deeper into some of that of what they believe it's a really good thing to do. You know part of what I said at the beginning of last week's message. Is he enough people always wonder, you know, Christian Missionary Alliance sounds more like a name of an insurance company that does the name of a church denomination. So where does that come from? A lot of people automatically think will it means something between the Christian church in the Missionary church, but that's neither has anything to do with it. A lot of it came from when a person named Albert Benjamin Simpson decided to start Something what he really wanted to start was not a denomination. He was seeking to start a missionary sending agency and his idea was that it would help to pair missionaries with like-minded Christians. So there you have the name Christian and Missionary Alliance getting them to work together to see the great Mission completed. That was the whole idea behind the start of what would later become the Christian Missionary Alliance and you know in the US there aren't that many churches with the Christmas tree lights not near as many I think it's like two to three thousand churches we have but worldwide there's quite a bit more most of their churches since they were established as a missionary sending agency are in other countries, you know, I know in the Philippines alone, there's over 3,000 Alliance Churches and a lot of countries are that way. There's a lot more churches there when you go to those places, so it's much more widely known. And like I said, I keep saying to knowing who they are and I thought you might like to know who they are is your pastors ordained by then that like said we can look at their logo and get a pretty good idea of it. So last week was the crossed Christ Our Savior this week is the laveur. It's called which kind of looks like the little goblet or Cup on the logo and it is representing Christ Our sanctifier. Now another thing that I mentioned last week was the three tenses of Salvation that we find in the Bible. The first one being the past tense, which is I have been saved which is our justification, you know, that's essentially the Christ Our Savior one. The next one is the present tense, which is I am being saved which is talking about the process of sanctification, which is what I'm going to talk about today TriStar sanctifier. And the last tense is of course, the future tense of we will be saved or I will be saved and that is glorification when Christ Our coming King return for all of us. And that'll be the one that in two weeks. Bryce will share with you on that one. And next week, I'll share the fourth part of the fourfold Gospel. That isn't in those tenses. But Christ Our healer is the one that I will share with you guys next week. Right now we are hopefully as all of us as Believers in Christ. We are experiencing the second one there were in the present tense, right? That's what we live in and those of us who have called upon the name of Jesus and accepted him as our Lord and savior. We are now in the midst of this process of sanctification. You know, even though every new believer when they come to know Christ, they undergo a dramatic radical change in their life as they now have accepted Christ, you know, it's not done their God's not finished with us at that point and it's important for us to remember that sanctification is a process. It's something that's occurring all throughout her life. And really I think it occurs throughout our entire life until we reach that future tense of glorification when we are finally United with Christ and see him face-to-face. It's something that continues So throughout our entire life is a Believer the holy spirit continues to work in all of us to continue to shape and mold us into the image of Christ and continue to help draw us deeper into that relationship with God so that we want more of him and we know more about him.

You know part of what I did when I Was preparing for these messages is part of the ordination process as you know, you have to write papers on each aspect of the fourfold Gospel. And so I found my paper and I thought I could just read them my 11 page paper. I had to write about the Antichrist are safe to fire, right? That'd be really interesting for everyone to listen to this morning. Bonilla's. I did one thing. I found in the paper. I found a quote from the manual of the Christmas tree Alliance, which that's very similar to what the United Methodist would have called The Book of discipline in there. It said the Christian who is controlled by the flesh will continue to respond to the enticements of sin.

You know, it's God's desire that we be in a right relationship with him, but we can't be in a right relationship with God if we're continuing to live by our old sinful patterns that we live before we knew him. So that's what signs for caitian is all about is that process of God continuing to change us and continuing to mold us into who we need to be until we meet him face-to-face. 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 23 says may God himself the God of Peace sanctify you through and through May your whole Spirit soul and body be kept blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

You're often when we talk about sanctification, which I know that's probably not something you talk about on your average coffee morning with your friends about sanctification. But when we do talk about it, thanks fication is like said always talked about as a process, but it's also usually described as a crisis. And then we talked about it that way, you know, the way I once had sensed acacian explain to me is it sanctification is one big crisis and your life, which is that moment when you come to know Christ when you finally give your heart to him, that's that big crisis moment, you know, the biggest change you're going to experience in your life. But then the continuing process of sanctification is a whole bunch of little crisis is through out that And if you think about life, isn't that kind of the way it is? That yeah, we have that one big crisis that moment of conversion but throughout our daily life. We all have struggles day in day out with different things, but those can be used within our life and God often takes us through different struggles.

That helped to shape us into who God wants us to be into who got needs us to be to continue to Proclaim his word and that's what it's talking about.

You know, it's coming to that point where we truly realize what Christ's saving power means as we work through sanctification 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verse 30 says it is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus who has become for us wisdom from God. That is our righteousness Holiness and Redemption. Cuz you know the truth is that you can't fully experience the power of what it means to have Christ as your savior until you're willing to fully surrender every area of your life to him. But that's not easy and that's why it's so often described as a crisis is because a lot of times when we first come to Christ and we know him and God starts to lead us into that Deeper Life. It's not easy for us to give those things up. We don't want to make some of the changes that we have to make in life. But God's going to continue to work on us and help us to make those changes night. So that's why we call some of those other things crisis cuz it is a difficult thing. for people to do

a b Simpson said that God loves to build his Temple still on the site of the altar of sacrifice.

He continues and saying it is not that he takes the light in the wrenching our affections away from his but these objects of Love must most frequently are draining our hearts of love and must be severed like the succulent growth of a plant if it is ever to bring forth fruit. Happy are they who before they unite their hearts to any object first, learn the mind and will of God and save themselves from a broken heart. It's not necessary that we be torn from everything. We love if we first learned the mind and will of God.

Can I think there's a lot of wisdom in that statement that if we would simply take the time so often in our life to think about you know, is this in line with what God wants for my life. We could save ourselves a lot of grief. Before we invest our lives too heavily into anything this side of God's kingdom. We should ask if it's a part of what he really wants for us. And like I said, you know the changes begin when we first invite Christ into our life and early on in that relationship. Usually the things that were asked to give up don't seem quite as difficult. But the truth is as we continue on in this process of sanctification is God draws us deeper and deeper into that relationship. Sometimes the things that were asked to give up the sacrifices that were asked to make get bigger and bigger and that can be difficult for us. Like said it more reasons of why it's called a crisis. But you know the more we understand God's will the more we understand who God is. Those things might be bigger that were asked to give up. But so often the things that were asked to give up it becomes easier for us to give those things up because we have a better understanding of who God is A b Simpson wrote God will take our thoughts and hold them captive and fill our minds with his hire. Holy or thoughts. Isn't that what any of us really want as Christians? We when I get to that place in our walk with Christ that our thoughts are filled with God's Thoughts with those higher holy thoughts. To me that sure sounds a lot nicer than worrying about some of the things that I know I worry about some days things that shouldn't really bother me things. That shouldn't really concern me. I would much rather my mind be filled with God's higher holy or thoughts and as we continue to die to ourselves as we continue to surrender to God's will that's what's going to happen. That's what's going to happen as we continue down this road of sanctification.

1st Peter chapter 2 verses 1 and 2 says therefore rid yourselves of all malice and all the seat apocracy envy and slander of every kind like newborn babies crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation. Or 2nd Peter chapter 3 verse 18 says but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to him be glory both now and forever. Amen. Are Philippians chapter 2 verse 12 the second part of it says to continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

You know a Sanctified life is one that is continually being conformed into the likeness of Christ. That's what it's all about. That's what this Christ Our sanctifier thing is talking about. And you know, it's the person who is willing to make the changes that they need to make and they're not just making these changes in their life so that they can benefit from it. They're doing it so that others can benefit they're doing it so that they can be used more fully by God. They're doing it because of their love for Christ and their love for other people. That's why they're willing to make the changes that they need to make to do the things they need to do. And like I said, you know as we do this over time. It's not an easy thing. I said many of these changes involve that active dying to self of not putting yourself first anymore, which let's face it. That's what we're taught to do by our society, isn't it? Put me before everyone else but as we grow in our knowledge of God, we will learn to put others first book learn to put the church first to learn to put God first and what we're doing And like I said, this can only happen when we have a sincere desire to be more like Christ.

You know another comment from Simpson. He said a consecrated body is one that recognizes itself as the property of God and recognizes him as the guardian keeper of all its interest and needs. you know that something as we grow in our knowledge of Christ that as we continue to walk closer with him and his we willingly give up these things in our life will realize that We can give up those things and we don't have to worry about it. Because God is going to take care of our needs. you know so often we are hesitant to make some of the changes that God might ask us to change or to step out in faith in some of the ways that God might ask us to step out in faith because Well, you know I have to make sure that this happened so I have to make sure that that happens or I have this to be concerned about her that's be concerned about.

You know, what we're going to see is we continue to wholeheartedly pursue after God is that we will see that we as we grow closer to God, we grow farther away from the world. So the concerns that this world tries to fill our head with aren't going to become as big to us. They aren't going to be as important. Because we'll know what's important is our relationship with God and we're we're walking and standing with him. Like I said a key factor in this ongoing transformation for any Christian during this. Of time is spending more time and God's were spending more time and prayer to fill you with that knowledge. So often when we do we'll see a life that is filled with the fruits of the spirit. And does anyone remember what all the fruits of the spirit are? Do you know you raised your hand? You don't know I'm okay on Galatians chapter 5 verses 22 and 24th says but the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace forbearance kindness goodness, faithfulness gentleness and self-control against such things. There is no law those who belong to Christ. Jesus have crucified the Flesh in its passions and desires.

Yeah, one thing I noticed as I was studying that and I was thinking about that. Can you begin to see what's happening here is we go through this process of sanctification as we talked about these tenses of salvation. Yeah, it's kind of like as we grow in our relationship with Christ and as we begin to identify with him more and more. If you look at those tenses of Salvation, they also go right along with Christ's death his resurrection and his Ascension. those things tie right into their you're Christ's death is similar to the death of our old self when we put our old sinful ways behind us. We accept Christ. You know, his resurrection is like that process of sanctification as we're LED through becoming that New Creation in Christ. And then finally talk about Christ's Ascension. It's similar to when we finally meet him face-to-face and Glory so we can kind of see how that walks us through that whole process. In fact a great passage that talks about it and 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verses 14 through 21 says for Christ's love compels us. Because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died and he died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on WE regard no one from a worldly point of view though. We once regarded Christ in this way. We do so no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come the old has gone. The new is here. All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ not counting people send against them and he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors as though God were making his appeal through as we implore you on Christ behalf be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us. So that in him we might become the righteousness of God. But there is a whole lot of theology packed into those 7 versus there. We could study just that part of it for months. But you know In this passage of scripture Paul is pointing out the second outcome of the death in the resurrection of Christ. And that's why I was want to talk about real quick. He tells the set whenever a person becomes a part of the body of Christ by faith. Yeah, there's that new Act of Creation on God's part. You know that verse 2nd Corinthians. 5:17 is a pretty famous One. You know about the new creation. It's a verse we all like to focus on.

But you know what we see happening there when we become that new creation. It's that old self dying and being replaced with the new self. The new self that God is shaping and molding us into through that big crisis of conversion and all those little crisis has to happen in our life throughout that continue to shape and mold has doesn't say or promise. It'll be fun through that whole process. It's because God wants it to happen that way. Do you know when Connie asked us? What did we think about when Jesus wept?

You know, I thought of yeah, we think of this compassion, but you know why I think he had compassion there. Because he was sorry that he had to put his friends through this. But it happened for a reason.

He knew beforehand that yeah Lazarus is going to die. I'm going to go raised him from the dead. It's not a big deal.

But the reason he was crying walking there. I think cuz he had compassion on his friends thinking man. I wish I wouldn't have had to put them through that. but I had to

Why to bring God glory? Show me talk about this process of sanctification and you know, we have the big crisis in our life and we wonder why all these other little crisis is have to happen. You know, why does all this stuff have to take place when it just be easier if when I was converted God could just boom change me into that person. I need to be when I get to meet him face-to-face.

Well, if that happened all those chances in between there for us to give God the glory for what he's done in our life and what we see him doing life of others. All those opportunities would be gone. And if we were able to ever talk about what God's done in our life and to give him the glory. How would we ever be able to share with others? What would we have to share? There wouldn't be anything. So we can see how all this fits together in you know, as we begin to have this new perspective on the world as we grow in our relationship with Christ. It should change how we see those things that happened to us. Right? We may not understand that we may not like it. It may not be pleasant. It could be quite horrible for us actually.

But if somehow those things can be used to bring God glory and to lead others to Christ. Then I would say it's all worth it. Right and that's the way we're supposed to view things. And that's part of what Paul's talking about here as we go through this process. In Encino Paul talks about in that famous first 17 that you know.

As we become that new creation, that's part of what I just talked about. We're going to stop viewing things from that worldly perspective. But basically views it of how can this benefit me? But we're going to start to view the things that go on in our life that God challenges us to do as how can this bring God glory? How can this benefit that person it make inconvenience may it may not be easy. But if it's going to bring God glory and if it's going to help that person come to Christ then so be it and that's part of what it's talking about. When we become that new creation that we start looking at other people in the world from an entirely New Perspective. Cuz we're now motivated by Christ to live as he lived. And as we all know he was our ultimate example of self-sacrifice of dying on the cross for all of our sins. I'm sure wasn't a pleasant process. Is even something Christ himself pleaded with God, you know that he can take this from him that he wouldn't have to do it. But he knew we had to.

all for the sake of the world Nike said that is what it is our faith totally revolutionizes our view of this world and that is a big part of the process of sanctification as it takes us through that says they're in 2nd Corinthians 5:17. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, the new creation is come the old is gone. The new is here. And you know that change isn't just for the apostles like Paul and the story we hear about his radical conversion and changing his life for the many other stories for reading scripture. You know, it happens each and every day to Believers all over the world. And we should be striving to see those same changes taking place in our life. That's a big part of Christ Our sanctifier and You know. That's just one part of what this fourfold gospel is. But I hope it gives you a view of some of the heart of the Theology of the Christian Missionary Alliance and what it's all about and going towards that Deeper Life and being willing to make those sacrifices for the sake of others. Please bear with me in prayer.

Most gracious Heavenly Father, you know as we come to you today. Lord we just want to lift up.

Everyone in our community Lord as we think about it. You know, there's a lot more issues with covid-19 on in our community with other things Lord. We just pray for your protection.

largest a simple example of Putting others first is wearing a mask when we need to. Lord I pray that you would help us to think of putting others first word that you would just motivate us to begin to see the world like you see the world. Lord help us to see other people like you see other people. But Lord, we know that can only come when you put a deep desire within our hearts Lord for each and every one of us to seek after you first to spend time in your word learning more about you Lord and to spend time in prayer building that personal relationship with you. Lord I pray that you will help us to do each of those things and Lord. We just pray that you will continue to guide us through all that. We do Lord as individuals and as a church and pray this all in your most. Holy name. Amen.

You know, I totally skipped over our time of Joys and concerns there.

Do we have any other Joys and concerns to add to that? I know Bryce was sharing with me someone, you know would be Jenny Blackburn now used to be Jenny call that she was one of them with covid-19 and she was in the hospital, but she is home now. So I continue to pray for Jenny that she will get better.

have a lot of funny stories I could tell about Jenny, but she babysat me a lot but

Are there any other concerns that we have? I think that's the big one for our community now that we have that going on. So continue to pray for that. But Connie, can you come late? It's in our last song.