Weekly Scriptures | Sermon Notes | Sermon Video

Picture the scene. You have just encountered Y’shua. He has become your Lord and Savior and you feel truly free for the first time in your life. The moment you became a Christian is one you should savor, one to look back upon in utter appreciation and amazement every day for the rest of your life. Your old life is dead and buried and your new life is stretched out before you. There is quite literally nothing more exciting. But what now?

To be clear, the cost for you to have apprehended such a gift was absolutely zero. It cost you nothing, but what it cost Y’shua was much more than your human mind can fathom. Not only did He willingly surrender His life as a man, but it is critical you acknowledge what He had to first surrender to become a man. He left His position with the Father and His form which was Spirit. Then, He made a permanent decision that would prevent Him from ever returning to that position and form. That portion of His sacrifice dwarfs the mere surrender of His human life.

Now that you have some idea of the magnitude of what it cost Him, maybe you can better appreciate that surrendering your whole life for Him in return is just a speck compared to what He surrendered for you. You’re born-again, so what now? God’s expectation is that you give over your life to Him to such a degree that you could be compared to a sacrificial animal whose neck was slit, blood drained, inner parts disemboweled, and body disassembled into pieces, before being burned in the flames until nothing but ash remained. Give your life to God like that and your reward is a little pat on the back, indicating what you’ve done is simply reasonable. It’s nothing extraordinary; it is, nevertheless, the only way to walk in the perfect will of God!

There is only one possible way to live this way. And that makes it certain that your eyes are open, your heart is receptive, and your ears are very attentive right now. God’s grace! Your first encounter with God’s grace, whether you recognize it or not, was when it softened your heart to receive salvation. By grace through faith you were saved, it was a gift from God. Then you arrived at this point; you’re born-again, what now? This is when you take that free faith and put it into practice. Your practice of faith then gains you ongoing access to the very grace that softened your heart in the first place. You must use that grace to animate, motivate, and empower every choice you make from this point forward!

Up to now this all seems so personal, so individualistic. But it’s all for one larger cause. Each one of us who has arrived in this place must unify in such a way that we are performing like one being; this unified body is what the scripture calls the Body of Christ. Each one of you must embark on a journey beginning at salvation and learn to continually access God’s grace. This is how to discover your individual gifts and calling—in other words, what part you play. Finally, you must add your small, but indispensable part, to the whole Body of Christ. That is a life of living sacrifice. Live as such and it is merely your reasonable service to God, a small price to pay for what He paid for you!