Receive.

“A Twist” - Receiving everything for doing nothing.

A lesson in “Receiving” 11-18-08 – by Jeremiah Kingshipp

John 13:1-17

Receive his L.O.V.E. - Love. Oversight. Victory. Energy.

Love – Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails.
1 Corinthian 13:4-8

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 1 John 4:16

Oversight – Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Psalm 100:3

If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me, "even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.
Psalm 139:11-18

Victory – I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:50-60

Energy – You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
Romans 8:9-11

I believe that most of us don’t really understand who GOD is, who JESUS is, and the SPIRIT is…because we have never truly received from him: “Who He Is”. Which is “LOVE”

Question: How do I begin to understand who He is, His LOVE?

Receive this T.I.P.

1. Truth. Bible, a good start. Read the book of John (4th Gospel in the NT).

2. Intimacy. Small group relationships, if you are in one then you understand what I mean. God shows up in small groups. Time and again in the Bible God shows up in small pockets of people and reveals who he is.

3. Provision. Pray. Ask God to provide you with his understanding and insight.

You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.
James 4:2

If we did understand who God, Jesus, and the Spirit really were, I think many things would be different in our lives.
Anxiety, self-worth, purpose/direction in life, knowing what the future holds, service to the “least of these”,

Question: How do we receive his LOVE?: Like Peter

First we must understand that receiving is the number one step of a believer in Christ. If we do not receive first from Christ, we cannot have a healthy perspective on what it means to be loved or to love. We have nothing to give if we have not received first. How can anyone give away something that they have never received? The same is true, how can anyone be in a healthy place if health has not been given.

Most of us are struggling in this life because we have a skewed view of the eternal life that is offered to us in Christ. How can he love me? His grace is not sufficient for me. I am worthless. I have screwed up one to many times. How?
Rest assured that he does love you and he wants you to know him. But he can not force you or better put, he will never force you into a relationship with him. It is your choice and will always be.

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:17-19

Let Christ wash your…feet. Let him take the very grim of your life and cleanse you. Repent of your individual desires and allow him to set you free in himself. Receiving from God is about doing one thing and one thing only. Nothing. Let, God do his work on your heart, be open to a rebirth of heart. Let Christ serve you first. Stand underneath the water fall of Christ’s love for you.

Dan and family.

From Luke 10:25-37 – A Twist – what about the beaten man.

What did the man who was beaten do for his own healing to occur? Nothing.

What will the man who was beaten do for someone in the future who is beaten? Everything and more that was done to him.

Let us “Breathe Deep” the Spirit of God.

Let us Lock Arms in interdependent community.

Let us “Run to Battle” by first receiving the LOVE of God first.