I was not planning a Part 2 to this message but when I woke up this morning (Oct 4th 2011), this is the message
I got from the Lord. Therefore, let’s begin!
The Scripture for this teaching is Romans 5:1-5, 17 (Read the whole chapter when
you can; very important):
1 “Now that we have been put right with God through
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 He has brought us by faith into this experience of God's grace, in which
we now live. And so we boast of the hope we have of sharing God's glory! 3 We also boast of our troubles, because we know that trouble produces endurance, 4 endurance brings God's approval, and his approval creates hope. 5 This hope does not disappoint us, for God has poured out his love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit,
who is God's gift to us. 17 It is true that through the sin of one man death began to rule because of that one man. But how much greater is the result of what was done by the one man, Jesus Christ! All who receive God's abundant
grace and are freely put right with him will rule in life through
Christ” (www.biblegateway.com
– Good News Translation).
As I stated in Part 1 of “Embracing God’s Dream for YOU,” “God’s highest dream is not to make us rich, not to make us successful or popular or famous.
God’s dream is to make us right with Him” (Max Lucado, “Grace For The Moment” Vol. 1). God has already
provided a way, the only way, for us to be right with Him, Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:30: “God has united
you with Christ
Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom
itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin”- www.biblegateway.com
– Good News Translation). Therefore, all we have to do is choose Christ’s righteousness and receive it by faith; if we do not choose it, we cannot receive it. The next step after we choose and receive Christ’s righteousness faith, is to walk in it and keep walking in it unto Jesus come back for us, His bride
which is the church.
The Road of Righteousness is not going to be easy but it is possible;
all things are possible
if we only believe (Mark 9:23). It is becoming more apparent to me that everything we receive or do in God must be by faith. The Scripture that without faith it is impossible to please God and other faith Scriptures such as the one Jesus said “by your faith be it unto you,” and “you have what you say” are coming alive in me. Faith plays a big part in our living
righteous because we receive our salvation
by faith (Eph 2:8) and if we
do not accept our
salvation we cannot accept
our righteousness.
The disciples
before had a hard life but they believe
Jesus and did what they were supposed to do. The righteous walk were definitely not easy for them but they endured and we can too because the Greater One lives on the inside of us. To be Jesus’ real disciple, we must follow after Him and do what He did. Jesus lived in the world but He did not become a part of the world; He was Kingdom
minded. Jesus did the will of His heavenly Father
only!
Look at what Jesus said in Luke 14:26-28, 33 (this verse is
the clincher) about being His disciple; I pray as you read these verses of Scripture, ask the Holy Spirit
to give you revelation of what Jesus is saying:
26 “Those who come to me cannot be my disciples unless they love me more than they love father and mother,
wife and children, brothers and sisters, and themselves as well. 27 Those who do not carry their own cross and come after me cannot be my disciples. 28 If one of you is planning
to build a tower, you sit down first and figure out
what it will cost, to see if you have enough money to finish the job. 33 In the same way, concluded Jesus, none of you can be my disciple unless you give up everything you have” (www.biblegateway.com
– Good News Translation).
Jesus makes it plain in the above Scripture
verses! We must count the cost of being His disciple
before we begin the journey
of righteousness.
I want to stop here a moment and explain what righteousness is according to the Bible; with Scripture reference. I looked
it up online
and this is what I found at
www.2001translation.com/Righteousness.html:
“The Greek word that we translate
as righteous is dike (pronounced, dee-kay). And while the ancient Greek meaning
was tendency, the use of this word in the Bible implies justice
and conformance to established standards. Justice
means doing the right thing; and conformance to established standards (in the Bible) refers to following
the ways of God. So, the word righteous
can also be translated as just, since righteousness is so closely tied to justice. Here are a few conclusions about what the Bible says is righteousness, and the scriptures from which these conclusions have been drawn:
If you really want to be righteous, you can be – Matthew 5:6, “Those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness are blest because they will be
satisfied.”
To be counted as righteous, you can't be immoral or continue in a sinful course – Romans 6:12-14, 'As the result, don't allow sin
to rule your mortal bodies and don't obey its desires. Nor should you offer your body parts as unrighteous weapons of sin. Rather,
offer yourselves to God as someone who has been raised from the dead, and [offer]
your body parts to God as weapons
of righteousness. So, sin must not be your master, because
you aren't under Law,
but under [God's]
loving kindness.'
Righteousness involves living for God's Kingdom – Matthew
6:33, '[If you] put the Kingdom
and righteousness in first place, then all these [other]
things will be given to you.'
The things you do prove whether you are righteous – Matthew 11:19, 'Wisdom
is proven righteous by the things it does.'
The things that you say prove whether you are righteous
– Romans 3:4, 'Your words can prove you righteous,
and
you can win when
you're being judged.'
You have to be an honest judge to be found righteous – John 7:24, 'Quit judging
from the way things look on the
surface; judge righteously!'
Immoral, unclean, and greedy people will not be found righteous
– Ephesians 5:5, 'All those who are immoral, unclean, and greedy (which really amounts to being an idol worshiper) won't have any inheritance
in the Kingdom of God and the Anointed
One.'
To be counted
righteous, you must treat other righteous
people very well
– Matthew 25:37-40, 'Then the righteous will ask, Lord, when did we see
you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you as a stranger
and take you in, or naked and clothe
you? When did we see you sick or in prison,
and come to you? And the king will say to them, I tell you the truth, when you did it for one of the least of these my brothers,
you
did it for me.'
Righteous people are at peace with others – James 3:18, 'The seeds of the fruit of righteousness are planted in peace by those who
are making peace.'
Righteousness involves standing up for right things, even if that invites
persecution – Acts 4:19, 20, 'If it's righteous
in God's eyes to listen to you instead
of to God, judge for yourselves. But we can't stop talking about the things we've seen and heard.'
True righteousness requires more than just faith – James 2:24, 'A man is called
righteous by the things he does, not
just by his faith.'
You can see from these Scripture references about righteousness that it is a lifestyle; we just cannot
claim Jesus’ righteousness without being his disciple
– we must live the righteous life. Also, faith is a lifestyle; we must have faith to access our benefits
in the Kingdom
of God.
Jesus put us in right standing with God when He took the punishment of our sins upon Himself (2 Corinthians 5:21: “For God made Christ, who never sinned,
to be the offering for
our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ”). Now we must choose to walk on that path of righteousness. That means doing what is right in the sight of God when others are doing wrong;
when others are lying on you; when others are doing you wrong, etc.
Being Jesus’ disciple is a lifestyle! Righteousness is the core of being a disciple. How can you be a disciple
of Jesus and still do what you use to do before you accepted Him? That’s insanity!! Why would you accept Christ as YOUR Lord and Savior and not follow
after Him? Why would you accept Christ and still go to clubs, cuss, drink, smoke, party, etc., filling your body with things that will impair you or take your focus off God? That does not make any sense what so ever!! Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and you should not defile it (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
We must put away old things to embrace the new (God makes all things new); we must put away old things to embrace the highest dream that God has for us and that dream is to make us right with Him. Jesus is that Lamb that was slain to make this happen;
now we must
embrace what God has already
done. We are the ones
standing in the way, stopping
this from happening. You might
say, “How can I stop God?” You stop God by living unrighteous when Jesus has made you righteous; you stop God by not walking on the path of righteousness Jesus has provided; you stop God by not being a true
disciple of Jesus.
Decide today, right now, that you are going to get on Jesus’ righteousness path and be His real disciple.
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you, lead you, guide you, comfort you, counsel you; He is the One who will instruct you and help you walk out righteousness – will empower you. That is why Jesus
prayed to the Father to send the Holy Spirit (“another Comforter” or some translations say, “another Advocate”) to us when He left to help all our weakness,
our infirmities (John 14:16-18; Romans 8:26). Since the Holy Spirit lives in us (1 Corinthians 3:16), we must allow Him to have full reign in our lives so He
can do the work in us that God told
Him to do.
Start your journey
today! Don’t wait until tomorrow because it might be too late! It’s time we put away our righteousness which is as filthy rags (Ephesians 1:7) and choose to receive Christ’s righteousness which He has already provided for us. Proverbs 14:12 tells us: “There is a
path before each
person that seems right, but it ends in death” (www.biblegateway.com
– New Living Translation). We may think what we are doing is the right
thing but it is not. Why not just embrace Jesus’ righteous way of living,
being led by the Holy Spirit and know for certain you are living the way God
is please
with.
Remember,
as I stated before, we must walk the righteous path every day even though others are not; even
if those people you see are confessing Christ and doing unrighteous things. Our lives
are
to a witness of what the righteousness of Christ looks like; the Holy Spirit is
in us to empower
us to do the right
thing when the wrong thing
presents itself.
Choose life and live! The life only Jesus Christ can give: abundant
life! Abundant life only comes by choosing to receive Jesus’ righteousness and walking that path until Jesus come.
Stay Blessed!!
Dr. Hooks
No comments:
Post a Comment