On Easter Sunday, I shared about one of
the things that the blood of Jesus provided for us – right standing before God.
The work that He did for us at the cross and His victory over death are the
greatest gifts given to mankind. One of
the most important things we need to take away from Easter is that what Jesus
did is a GIFT to us. It is something we do not earn. We cannot earn it – never
could and never will. It is, however, a gift that must be received. One must
receive the gift that has been given. The gift must be acknowledged, and it
needs to be appreciated. There are many
believers who have acknowledged Christ and have had their eternity changed but who
have not truly appreciated all the gift entails. If we continue trying to be
worthy of our standing before God by our works, we have not truly received that
gift.
We earnestly seek to do good works and to
not be ruled by sin, but we do so because we first know He loves us. When we
begin to understand His love for us, we can’t help but reflect that love back
to Him through our obedience. We cannot
allow ourselves to ever think that His love or blessing of us is conditional
upon our obedience. Man’s love is generally conditional, but His is not!
He loved you so much he was willing to
humble Himself and step down to earth in the form of a man to do what you could
not – fully obey. Then, He went to the cross and suffered an excruciating death
that we deserved. Finally, He rose again to utterly defeat death. There is
nothing you can add to that equation. You cannot add to the work of Christ. You
must humbly receive the gift and stop trying to earn it. Only then will you be
empowered to defeat sin, sickness, disease, poverty and death – not because of
YOUR works and righteousness, but because of HIS!
We must also know that, because of what
Jesus did for us and not our own good works, we can boldly approach God’s
throne. We are considered friends of God. You cannot boldly approach that
throne if you think there is still a debt owed. Have you ever been in the room
with a friend or relative that you knew you owed money to? It isn’t possible to
feel comfortable in that situation. If you still feel you owe God for your sin
and weakness, you will never “boldly” approach Him.
But pastor, who are we to boldly go before
God? We are lowly sinners. EXACTLY! Guilty as charged. God knows that none of
us is worthy, no matter how hard we try to not sin and be a good person. That
situation was unacceptable to Him. He provided a way for us. It was HIS
prerogative to do so. When we believe that we are not worthy, we are actually
setting ourselves up as a higher authority that Him. We’re saying that He may
think He made us worthy, but He didn’t and I will only be worthy by my own
works. You may not have thought of it that way, but that’s the reality. Let us take hold of the gift that has been
given to us. Let us fully realize the power of that gift and appreciate that
gift. God values His relationship with you so much and doesn’t want you to let your
self-righteousness to get in the way.
To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee,
visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.
