<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">BY-NC-ND 2.0</a>, a.k.a. Music Sharing, license.</p>

Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Casey Harms

Mindful of God

Are you having a good Sabbath day so far?

You know, I was listening to some sermons on the website, not that long ago, and I came across a sermon by Eric Walsh, And I stopped in my tracks because it was called The Joy of the Lord.

He came very close, but he didn't quite get there.

So this morning is basically further expansion on his, related but not exactly the same.

So before we open this morning, let's bow our heads in a word of prayer.

Dear Father, thank you so much for the privilege of meeting together on the Sabbath day, And I just ask that you send your Holy Spirit to anoint each 1 of us and anoint my words, Father, and bring us closer to Jesus Christ.

Now you know these days, countless distractions clamor for representation in our minds.

It's growing ever more difficult to choose to keep our eyes on Jesus than to get sidetracked on Satan's latest scheme.

And he certainly has many schemes and he keeps inventing more.

You see, God longs to have our entire attention, not just part of it.

Now, the problem is that so many of his professed followers would like to keep a part of their attention for themselves, which admittedly is the easy way.

The average American, which by the way includes every single 1 of you, sees an average of 247 advertisements every single day.

But if you think that's astounding, Actually it gets much different if you consider the amount of commercial messages that we receive in a sense of not actually physically seeing them, but we're just subjected to them.

So for instance, if you're driving down the freeway and you pass a billboard and you see it and you take notice of it, that is part of the 247.

But if you simply pass it and you don't see it, that is part of the 3000.

Now what kinds of things are coming at you 100 percent of the time, everywhere you go, trying to get access into your mind?

What kinds of things are you letting into your mind and how are they affecting your Christian walk?

If you watch TV, you will witness about 5 violent acts every hour, which means the average child by the time he reaches 18 years of age, will have witnessed 200, 000 violent acts on TV alone.

What kinds of things are we allowing in our mind?

Maybe you have a job that seems to demand so much of your energy that you just don't have time for spiritual things.

Maybe you know that you aren't what you'd like to be spiritually, but are just afraid to make a full commitment because of the responsibility and perhaps sacrifice it brings.

And so what does the Bible say about this issue?

The Bible frequently makes parallels between Christ and us which are sometimes incredibly hard to believe.

Perhaps 1 of the most easy examples to share is where Jesus says, I am the light of the world.

The problem is if you continue studying you find that he also says to his disciples, you are the light of the world.

So the remarkable parallel, Jesus says it of himself, which of course would make sense because in a world darkened by sin, Jesus is the light of humanity.

We would expect Jesus to say, I am the light of the world, but would we really expect Jesus to say, you are the lights of the world?

Another example is that Jesus performed many, many miracles.

But when he says, you will do these things that I've done and even greater things, would we expect that?

See, we are to be like Christ in every particular, and when it comes to this issue of guarding what we put into our mind, the issue is the same.

Jesus was full of joy, touching on Eric's sermon.

So now what is the reason that Jesus could be so full of joy?

What is the basis of that joy that we can experience?

This is what I want to focus on this morning.

So could it be that Jesus had the Holy Spirit in such an amazing quantity or proportion that joy just flowed out of Him?

Could it be that that is what he wanted his disciples to be like?

John the Baptist is describing Jesus Christ here.

And we find a remarkable passage right at the end of the chapter.

Verse 34, John chapter 3 verse 34 reads like this, for he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God, for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.

God does not give the Spirit in a measurable quantity.

In other words, the Father gave the Son the Spirit in an infinite measure.

You could not figure out how much it was.

Could it be that the same could be true for us?

This is what we're going to look at this morning.

The key point is just this, being infinitely filled with the Holy Ghost means the unreserved reign of Christ in your life, which means ignoring earthly distractions while being filled with His mind, His Spirit, and His will, allowing them to permeate your entire being.

Now the title of this sermon is Mindful of God.

Now keep in mind that the word mindful has 2 meanings.

It means to be aware of, to pay attention to, to be mindful of something.

The other 1 is 1 I made up and it basically means to be full of something, having your mind full of something.

And keep in mind those 2 meanings as we study together.

So we'll be discussing the fullness of God that was in Christ, and then the fullness of Christ and God that can be in us, and finally some practical applications, some practical ways that we can look at this biblical data.

So first, we'll begin by looking at the fullness of God that was in Christ, what is that fullness?

I think we would all agree that the Godhead has been in existence since eternity.

God has always existed and always will exist.

He is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, infinitely wise, infinitely just, infinitely loving.

And each of the individual members of the Godhead, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are all the same.

They each possess that infinite characteristic.

So Jesus being the second person of the Godhead is no different.

John says this when he says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

However, when we consider the incarnation of Jesus, things begin to get very interesting and we must begin to ask tough questions about what happened there.

But I think we can glean 3 important points on this.

Number 1 is Jesus never ceased to be God when He came to be with humanity.

Number 2, Jesus temporarily, notice I said temporarily, laid down certain powers and characteristics of God that He had always had.

Jesus said that He only did the will of His Father, not His own will.

And the third characteristic is that the incarnation brought Jesus directly into the human experience.

He became our high priest, able to succor those that are tempted because he was made in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh.

Therefore, while it is true that Paul is speaking the truth when he said, in him dwell all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, it was not by this fullness of himself that he lived his victorious human life.

Jesus became a man to live as a man among men.

So while he was still God, there was nothing in the way in which he lived his life that is unreachable for you and I.

So if Jesus didn't live his life in the flesh by the power of inherent divinity, then how did Jesus live the life he did?

We begin to get some insight when we think about the very beginning of his earthly ministry at his baptism.

What happened at the very last part of his baptism?

The Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove.

So it seems that the Holy Spirit plays a very important role in the earthly life of Jesus.

Recall that the Holy Spirit was also 1 of his earthly parents.

Jesus was completely full of the presence of God as we just read in John 3.

The Father gives not the Spirit by measure unto him.

So we can logically conclude that Jesus did not live his earthly life by the inherent divinity in him, but by the imparted divinity through the person of the Holy Spirit.

And the Bible makes clear how this was manifested.

Back to Menu

Mindful of God

Transcript

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

The Greatest Christmas Gift

59m

A Wonderful Promise

51m

The Nativity

02 The Nativity

42m

These Things We Know

God Still Speaks Part 2

1h 6m

GYC 2011 Seminar: The Movings of the Spirit

The Power of the Spirit, Part 1

53m

What Jesus Said

11. Holy Spirit Baptism

1h

GYC 2007 Plenary Sessions

A Divine Key

1h 28m

The True Medical Missionary

56m

Faith and Works

Faith and Works - Part 3

32m

Certainty in Uncertain Times

10. Where Do I Find Power to Overcome?

59m

Preparing for the Time of Trouble

Wrestling in the Wilderness

56m

Genesis to Revelations: It’s All About God

58m

Sound Doctrine