Topic: Made for More

Ephesians 2:10 AMPC (10) For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].

Has the thought ever crossed your mind that you wish you had the level of access that Billy Graham had with God? Or Mother Teresa?

All of us that have received Jesus Christ as our Savior, have access to everything there is in Heaven and sometimes we shrink back from that access. What would happen in your spiritual life if you believed that you have the same influence with God that Billy Graham has?

• God has already granted us complete access to all the resources of Heaven!

Ephesians 1:1-3 TPT Dear friends, My name is Paul, and I was chosen by God to be an apostle of Jesus, the Messiah. (2) I’m writing this letter to all the devoted believers who have been made holy by being one with Jesus, the Anointed One. May God himself, the heavenly Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, release grace over you and impart total well-being into your lives. (3) Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm has already been lavished upon us as a love gift from our wonderful heavenly Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus—all because he sees us wrapped into Christ. This is why we celebrate him with all our hearts!

The scripture teaches that there is one level in Heaven.

• There is only one level in Heaven’s domain and every child of God from the saintliest preacher or missionary to the freshly washed addict have the same access!

Hebrews 12:22-24 NLT No, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless thousands of angels in a joyful gathering. (23) You have come to the assembly of God’s firstborn children, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God Himself, who is the judge over all things. You have come to the spirits of the righteous ones in heaven who have now been made perfect. (24) You have come to Jesus, the One who mediates the new covenant between God and people, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks of forgiveness instead of crying out for vengeance like the blood of Abel.

But here in this life, this is what all this means:

Hebrews 4:14-16 MSG Now that we know what we have–Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God–let’s not let it slip through our fingers. (15) We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all–all but the sin. (16) So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.

In this life now, we need to know that Jesus is representing us so that while we are still here, we can have access to all Heaven has to offer right now.

• We access this place by prayer.

The minute you bow your knee before God, you are transported in spirit to another realm where you have an audience with an all-powerful, all-knowing God.

God does not see you kneeling on earth but kneeling before His throne.

• Some are better at prayer, not because they are more worthy, but because they have learned their way around.

Sometimes we confuse maturity in someone else with them being more worthy.

We all have the same level of worthiness. In this life there are many levels of maturity.

It is because this worthiness is attained by what Jesus Christ did for us.

• Every follower of Jesus Christ is given the gift of righteousness (worthiness), receiving a standing that you cannot improve.

It is difficult for humans to fully grasp this concept because most of our relationships with authority figures are performance-based.

We have learned how to maintain our right-standing and approval with authority figures by obeying the rules.

Even though we hear in church that Jesus forgives us of our sins, we have a really difficult time believing this because it does not happen that way in life.

• God expects new and different behavior from us after we receive Christ, but it was not and is not our behavior that gave us a place in Him!

We receive favor with God because of faith in what Jesus did for us.

• It is our faith that pleases God.

Hebrews 11:6 NKJV But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. 

Prayer then is not a performance.

Prayer is not about talking God into anything.

Do you believe that God hears your prayers?

If you belong to Jesus, you have the same standing with God as any hero saint that has ever lived.

There are three things that you need to know that will boost your confidence in prayer:

1. God chose you!

Ephesians 1:4 NLT Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes.

If you had been the only sinner on the earth, Christ would still have come to die on a cross and pay for your sins.

He still zeros in on the one even while dealing with millions at one time.

2. God cleaned you!

God decided to make us holy in His eyes and without a single fault through what Christ did for us.

Ephesians 1:4 AMPC Even as [in His love] He chose us [actually picked us out for Himself as His own] in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy (consecrated and set apart for Him) and blameless in His sight, even above reproach, before Him in love.

We are so completely washed, that God does not see our past sins. We are blameless and above reproach. (Reproach – to be a cause of blame or discredit to)

The same grace that cleansed us from our ways of sin in the former life is likewise available to cleanse us from the spots of sin we deal with now.

3. God adopted you into His family.

Ephesians 1:5 TPT (5-6) For it was always in his perfect plan to adopt us as his delightful children, through our union with Jesus, the Anointed One, so that his tremendous love that cascades over us would glorify his grace—for the same love he has for his Beloved One, Jesus, he has for us. And this unfolding plan brings him great pleasure!

If you are an adopted kid, in one way, you have it better than other kids because you were picked by choice. Your parents just had to deal with whatever showed up but adopted kids are hand-picked.

God even puts into you His DNA!

God did not choose to start a club. He chose to start a family!

We are not on a team, a fraternity or sorority. We are in God’s family!

There is no tighter bond than a family relationship.

We have been hand-picked by God, cleaned from top to bottom and brought into His family!

When you know this, you can go to God in prayer with all kinds of confidence.

• Quit acting like you are company! You are one of the kids and you belong in His house.

Dare to start asking God for things He has already promised you.

Quit praying as though your request is going to bankrupt heaven!

• You will never enter the more that you were made for until prayer becomes your first resort – not your last.

Quit focusing on your disappointments and make an appointment to pray with confidence to your Heavenly Father.

Ephesians 2:10 AMPC (10) For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].

Romans 5:15 NKJV But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.

Romans 5:17 NKJV For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)

It is God’s plan for us to experience more in our walk with Him!

But there is something that will work to keep you from experiencing the more God has planned for you.

These are our feelings.

Introduction:

As a child we let our feelings express everything. We cry when we are happy, we cry when we are mad, when you need to eat or when we don’t need to eat…

Have you ever been in a situation where your feelings mislead you?

Since becoming a Christian, have you ever had those times when you did not feel like God was with you? You felt like He was busy with something else way off away from you?

Have you ever confessed a sin and repented genuinely but you did not feel like God really had forgiven you?

Have you seen that couple that is so lovey-dovey before they get married and then after they get married all of a sudden you find out that their marriage did not last, and they end up divorced and hate one another?

• One of the more difficult things we do in the human experience is learning to navigate through our feelings.

Childhood really is a process where we are supposed to learn that we don’t make decisions based on our feelings.

How many of us had days when we did not feel like going to school.

• Sometimes our feelings can fool us!

God has promises in His Word that are really awesome but our feelings can sometimes be contrary to them.

• People who live by their feelings are very selfish!

People who live by their feelings always make selfish choices.

How many times do we hear about people making bad decisions that hurt a lot of people because they were following their feelings?

If following your feelings was a safe way to live, then why do we have classes where we teach ethics or we endeavor to create structure and order in the environments where we live and work? Why do we need to do that if all we need to do is follow our feelings in every situation?

• Even a born-again follower of Jesus Christ is capable of having really rotten feelings!

Some of us are under the impression that when we become a Christian that is supposed to get fixed when we become a believer.

We are not teaching you that you should not have feelings.

As a matter of fact, we are not supposed to live like Spock from Star Trek where we suppress and ignore our feelings and only live by logic

God did not give us feelings for us to snuff them out and never have them. He just never meant for us to make our decisions based on our feelings.

• Feelings were never meant to be decision makers.

Proverbs 30:21-22 NIV (21) “Under three things the earth trembles, under four it cannot bear up: (22) a servant who becomes king…

This verse tells us what happens when you put something that was not meant to be the leader in the place to lead. It causes great hurt, harm and destruction.

Feelings are great but they are not supposed to be the leader in your life.

Feelings are designed to follow your decisions, not make the decisions for you.

• Your feelings are not leaders; they are followers.

Philippians 4:8-9 NLT And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. (9) Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me–everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.

If you want peaceful feelings, you have to learn to think right. The reason people do not have peaceful feelings is because they do not think on the right things.

• Peace comes after we learn to think correctly.
• What you think about will eventually affect your feelings.

Until you learn to think right, you will never be able to receive the fullness of what God has planned for you.

The only tool that the devil has to work against you is deception. He cannot get you to make a decision to follow him unless you are deceived. The way that he works this deception is through the power of suggestion in our minds. He will strategically try and orchestrate thoughts in your mind to get you to begin to think in a certain direction that he knows will produce certain feelings for you. If he then can get you to follow those feelings and make that decision, then he has won the battle.

This is what kept the Children of Israel in trouble most of the time.

There is the example of Children of Israel murmuring every time they ran out of water or food. Instead of knowing God has their back, they were moved by their feelings and whined and complained.

Hebrews 3:19 AMPC So we see that they were not able to enter [into His rest], because of their unwillingness to adhere to and trust in and rely on God [unbelief had shut them out].

This is how he is going to come against you. He will suggest to you and if he can get you to dwell on it long enough, you will begin to have feelings along those lines and if you follow your feelings, you will get into trouble.

• God wants us to move out of feelings and over into faith.
• Feelings are always based on what I am seeing and hearing.
• Faith is always based on what God has already said.
• Your feelings are meant to follow you as you believe and do God’s Word.

When you begin to control your feelings and stop letting them dictate to you, you will begin to enter the more that God has made you for!

Ephesians 2:8-10 AMPC For it is by free grace (God’s unmerited favor) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation) through [your] faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [of your own doing, it came not through your own striving], but it is the gift of God; (9) Not because of works [not the fulfillment of the Law’s demands], lest any man should boast. [It is not the result of what anyone can possibly do, so no one can pride himself in it or take glory to himself.] (10) For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].

God has a good life that He has prearranged and made ready for us to live.

No matter how good our lives may be, there is always more for us to become.

When did He prepare those things for us to walk in?

Ephesians 1:4 NKJV just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,

There is just one problem in all of this.

Have you ever seen the movie called “I Am Legend” that stars Will Smith?

He is a scientist that is living in a post-apocalyptic world and there are hoards of people that have been affected with a “virus” and are trying to attack and eat any living creatures that remain. If you are bitten, you become infected and there is a transformation that begins to take place. Because of this “virus”, they have been turned into something they were never meant to be. The infected people became these monster-like creatures.

We have been told that many things such as education is the answer to this virus.

There were more advances made in technology during the 20^th century than at any other time in history but yet the condition of humanity sunk lower than any other time before.

We have been told that wealth is the answer to this virus.

However, we have seen over the last few decades people with untold amounts of wealth that could not get enough and turned into different people as their greed drove them to pursue more money.

• The truth is that we and people all around us have been infected and affected by the “virus”.

That is exactly what happened to humanity when the “virus” of sin was introduced into the world through Adam and his sin. Humanity became infected and in almost an instant transformation took place and changed humanity forever.

Adam’s first sons Cain and Abel were affected by the virus of sin. Within one generation, the first murder took place.

• When sin entered into the world, it brought its companion called death.

Romans 5:12 NKJV (12) Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned–

Death manifests itself in many shapes and forms. It does not just mean an eternity separated from God in Hell nor does it mean just the death of the physical body.

All of us have been affected by sin to some level or another!

• Sin will never let you become who you were meant to be.

Romans 7:18-20 NKJV For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. (19) For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. (20) Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

• Sin has this way of making you into something you were never meant to be.

Sin will take you farther than you want to go, it will keep you longer than you want to stay, and it will cost you more than you want to pay.

We are all damaged goods.

• Christ came to this earth, died on a cross, and rose from the dead so that you could become who you were meant to be.

A relationship with Jesus Christ is the doorway the first step to becoming who you were meant to be. This is where we must all begin.

But there is a danger in this once we have been saved for a while to begin to think that just because our eternal condition is secure that “we are good” and we are just going to ride this thing out until I go to Heaven or Jesus comes back; one or the other.

• God’s plan for your life is that you become the you that He always planned you to be.

Even the Apostle Paul knew that he could not “coast” but rather he needed to change.

We see this in the life of the Apostle Paul. As we read about Paul in the Book of Acts we see all that God did in his life and how he was brought into one of the greatest ministries known to humanity perhaps second only to Jesus Christ Himself.

Paul wrote the following verses in the Bible:

2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV (17) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV (21) For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

1 Timothy 1:15-16 TPT I can testify that the Word is true and deserves to be received by all, for Jesus Christ came into the world to bring sinners back to life—even me, the worst sinner of all! (16) Yet I was captured by grace, so that Jesus Christ could display through me the outpouring of his Spirit as a pattern to be seen for all those who would believe in him for eternal life.

Paul knew that God needed to work in his life if he was going to become who God wanted him to be.

Philippians 3:12-15 AMPC Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own. (13) I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, (14) I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward. (15) So let those [of us] who are spiritually mature and full-grown have this mind and hold these convictions; and if in any respect you have a different attitude of mind, God will make that clear to you also.

• Sin will make you an opposite.

Jesus wants to release from within you who you were meant to be and make you an opposite.

When Jesus came into my life I became an opposite.

If you are a critic, God wants to make you a helper.

If you are a downer, God wants to make you an encourager.

If you are filled with bitterness and anger, God wants to make you someone who can love others unconditionally.

• For you to become who you were meant to be, life-change must be an ongoing, daily process.

We read in the Scriptures about the wonderful man of God that Paul became but what we fail to realize is that even though we can read about it in a couple of hours, the process took over 30 years in Paul’s life.

Becoming who you were meant to be is a process.

We need to let the process begin.

Jesus took a man that was fervently and publicly persecuting Christians and turned him into one of the greatest Apostles that has ever lived.

Ephesians 2:10 NLT (10) For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” (Michelangelo)

God knows what is simply on the inside of every one of us that needs to be unlocked so you can become who you were meant to be.

• The good news is this: you were made for more!