Sunday, April 29, 2012

The Terms of Peace - Coming to Christ


Theme : Invitation of Reconciliation – People Must Meet the Terms of Peace of the Coming King
Title : The Terms of Peace -  Coming to Christ
Propositional Statement : Three Preliminary Actions in Order to Meet God’s Terms of Peace
Purpose : To understand the Terms of Peace – The True nature

I. INTRODUCTION
A. The Nature of Invitation
1) The Statement of Invitation
·        Follow Me – Personal Invitation
o   The invitation of the Lord for Matthew (Luke 5:27)
o   The invitation of the Lord for Peter and Andrew (Mathew 4:19)
o   The invitation of the Lord for one who follows the Lord (Matthew 8:22)
·        Come to Me / Come After Me – Public Invitation
o   The invitation of the Lord for those who are weary and burdened (Matthew 11:28)
o   The invitation of the Lord to those who follow the Lord (Luke 9:23)

2) The Similarity in the Invitation
·        The Cost of Accepting the Invitation
o   (Luke 5:28) “and Levi got up and left everything”
o   (Matthew 4:20) “At once they left their nets and followed Him”
o   (Matthew 8:22) “..and let the dead bury their own dead.”
o   (Matthew 11:29-30) “Take My yoke upon you and learn from M,. My yoke is easy and my burden is light
o   (Matthew 9:23) “he must deny himself and carry his own cross daily and follow Me”
·        The Illustration from Abraham’s Calling (Genesis 12:1)
The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you”

Note : The invitation of the Lord is not about having something we want. It is not about gaining but loosing what we value most. It will cost you everything.
·        Your Family, Your Life, Your Comfort, Your Possession

B. The Negative Proclamation – You cannot be my disciple
·        The Meaning of proclamation
o   You are not sheep of the Good Shepherd, You are not one of God’s Children, You are not Joint Heir of the King, You are not connected to the True Vine – In other word, YOU ARE NOT A CHRISTIAN

II. BODY
A. Examining the Real Situation
·        The greatest problem of man is not the broken relationships toward others nor his needs
·        The greatest problem is that you are at war with GOD
·        And He will come soon to destroy who are not His people and it will be on the day of His coming

B. Examining the Real Strength
·        You do not have enough strength, enough resources to fight with this King
·        It means that in the end, if you are not going to surrender to Him you will be in conflict with this King and He will come to destroy you in the Last day

C. Examining the Real Solution
·        Ask for the TERMS OF PEACE OF THE KING
·        Reconciliation is the only real solution or you will be destroyed at the end of the battle
·        Take note, It is HIS terms not ours

TERMS OF PEACE
A. The Content
·        You must be willing to follow after Him and do everything He wants you to do whatever it may cost
·        That is being a true disciple of God and it is equated to a life of a slave
·        It is the end of yourself.
o   Your strength is  no longer your but His strength and you must consume this for His Will
o   Your wisdom is no longer your wisdom but His wisdom and you must consume this for His Honor
o   Your time is no longer your time but His time and you must consume this for His Praise
o   Your life is no longer your life but His life and you must use it for His Glory
o   You are His own – You are His salve without demand – Just Obey
·        It is the end of your lording over your life
·        He is now your Lord or you will meet Him in the final judgment

B. How Can I Accept His Terms of Peace? Three Preliminary Actions In Order to Meet His Terms

1)     You can only meet His terms if you COUNT THE COST
·        Accepting His terms will cost you everything.
·        It will cost you your family, It will cost you your life
·        It will cost you your easy life, your sinful life, It will cost the pleasures of your body
·        If you are going to be His disciple you must discipline yourself, you must say no to temptation and obey what He wanted you to do even it will cost you everything. Even your life
·        If you come with Him the world will hate and persecute you even those who are in your own household

NOTE : Many who called themselves Christians can no longer be found in the church and you can find them drowning
themselves in the things whom the Lord hated.

2)     You can only meet His terms if you COME IN CONTRITION
·        Man cannot accept God’s term if he is proud of himself
·        Unless He cannot acknowledge the sinfulness in him and the severity of sin in him he will never ever accept his term
·        Blessed are the poor in the spirit – meaning spiritual bankruptcy, nothing can boast, see his condition as hopeless and helpless, he is in need of a Savior.

3)     You can only meet His terms if you CONSIDER THE CHRIST’S LORDSHIP
·        The terms of the King is to acknowledge Him as King, Lord
·        It is a full submission to the Lordship of Christ
·        It is the end of yourself, you are not the master anymore of your own but a slave of God
·        And He demanded such a thing from you

III. CONCLUSION

               None of us can be a disciple of Christ unless we do not know what we headed for as a disciple, if we are still proud of ourselves and never acknowledge the sinfulness and the severity of it. We cannot be a disciple if we cannot deny ourselves, carry the cross daily and follow hard after thee. The Lordship of Christ is must be acknowledged.
Meaning to say, we are not a disciple, we are not Christian, we are not believers, we are not heirs of the promised, we are not His sons and never ever be with Him unless we gave up all who we are and all that we have for who He is.
He is not playing games with us.
                                                                                                                                                                      GRACE AND PEACE TO YOU  
                                                                                                                                                                     VISIONARY CHRISTIAN CHURCH


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