Christ Center Living - Other Centers

Christ Centered Living Part III

John 15.5

 

⁵  "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

 

As we continue with our Series on Christ Centered Living we established…

·       It’s not about establishing priorities

·       It’s about Christ being at the center of our lives

 

This morning I am going to unleash the chart that will walk us through the rest of this series.

 

Let’s take a closer look at this.  I know for most of you this is your first time seeing this.

Adam and Eve’s sin – effected – Relationships and Responsibilities

·       The only way to set things in order is to have Jesus at the center of our lives

·       Then he flows out from there to touch every area of our lives

 

From the Center of our lives we receive our

·       Security

·       Wisdom

·       Power

·       Guidance

 

Jesus infiltrates our lives through

·       Teaching

·       Fellowship

·       Thanksgiving

·       Prayer

 

 

 

Other Centers -  using a negative to prove a positive point

 

Other Centers that bring disorder

·       Spouse centeredness –

o   Marriage is the single best and most important relationship on earth

§  No other relationship is as important – flesh of my flesh

§  Children come from us but eventually – leave and cleave to another

o   But if we look to our spouse for

§  Security – how we feel about ourselves

§  we are dependent on the moods and actions of our spouse – to feel secure and empowered

§  Guidance – decision making

§  How will my spouse respond?  Vs.  what is right, what is God’s will

·       Family centeredness

o   Getting our security or self-worth from family, parents – children – extended family

o   Guidance and Wisdom - What happens when a move is involved?

§  When we moved down here it did not sit well with family

§  We were left out and not counted in

§  We knew this was God’s will

§  Many marriages fail – when either spouse has never left their parents

§  Not geographically but emotionally

§  Leave and cleave

§  Matthew 19:4-6 (NIV2011)
⁴  “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’
⁵  and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?
⁶  So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”     

o   What happens when children rebel?

§  Does the marriage fall apart or do the partners battle the real enemy through prayer?   

·       Money centeredness

o   If I had more money I would be happier.

o   People can put aside things that really matter – relationships, family, God, in search of more money    

·       Work centeredness

o   Gaining our identity from what we do

§  Men ask, What do you do for a living?

o   Workaholics – not out of need but out of identity

§  A pastor I know used to brag, I worked 80 hours this week!

§  Sorry, your life is so unbalanced

·       Possession centeredness

o   Life is wrapped up in what we own

o   I feel good if my car is better than yours, my house bigger than yours and so on

o   I was watching a show on motorcylces and some roadside restaurant in CA.

o   They would park – foreign on one side and Harley’s on the other

o   The bikes were amazing – from cruisers to -----rockets

§  Then Jay Leno comes in with the only jet engine motorcycle in the world

§  Now what happens to your identity – Security

·       Pleasure centeredness

o   Fun – I work hard so I am going to enjoy myself no matter what

§  Party and drinking mentality

§  Eat drink and be merry

o   Too much of anything is out of order

·       Friend/enemy centeredness

o   Acceptance to a certain peer group

o   Emotional – security – dependence on friend or friend group

§  What would so and so think if I did that?

§  Effects our guidance

·       Church centeredness

o   I’m a pastor and see the danger of this

o   Too much time in church becomes counterproductive to God’s purpose

§  Can’t help my neighbor – got to go to committee meeting

§  Can’t go to my kids game – got a meeting

o   This is not the case with church anymore

§  You can’t get mediocre Christians in church if you had it at their house

o   But for some – church is everything

§  Well what happens when church struggles?

§  What happens if people leave the church? 

§  What happens when the church is not in a growth season but a pruning season?

§  What will happen to your center? 

 

All of these centers can be good – But none of them are God!

When a good thing becomes a god thing it is a bad thing!! 

·       No earthly relationship can be God

·       No earthly responsibility can take the place of God

 

·       Self-centeredness

o   All of these false centers are really wrapped up in this one

o   We make other centers because we think we know what is best for our lives

o   We don’t – we can’t even find our keys! 

 

Jesus must be at the center of our lives or our lives are out of order

Colossians 1:15-23 (NLT)
¹⁵  Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,
¹⁶  for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see— such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.
¹⁷  He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.
¹⁸  Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything.
¹⁹  For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ,
²⁰  and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
²¹  This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.
²²  Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.
²³  But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.

 

It begins with knowing:

Jesus is God

·       He is the eternal everlasting God

·       Creator and sustainer of the universe

He is Good

·       Everything He does is Right

I am bad without Christ

·       Romans 3:10-12 (NLT)
¹⁰  As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous— not even one.
¹¹  No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God.
¹²  All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.”

 

He loves me know matter what!

·       Romans 8:31 (NLT)
³¹  What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?

·       Romans 8:38-39 (NLT)
³⁸  And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.
³⁹  No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

Through repentance and belief

·       Romans 3:22-23 (NLT)
²²  We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.
²³  For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

Where are you in your walk with Jesus?

 

Is He the center?

 

Are you expecting another relationship or responsibility to be god? 

 

Are you ready to put Jesus at the center of your life?  

Christ Centered Living Part I

Christ Centered Living

John 15.5

I heard someone say the other day, we need to marinate in the Word of God

• Till it gets deep inside of us
• And infiltrates every bite
• We can take it out.
• It is there
• Makes no so great meat better          
  • You don’t marinate a filet mignon
  • Problem is – I’m not a filet mignon
    • I’m tough and Not always tender

If I were to ask you to write out your priorities on a piece of paper what would they be?

We usually think of life in order of priorities.

Getting our priorities in order

1. God
2. Spouse
3. Children
4. Work
   
   
5. Sports
6. Shopping
7. Birthday parties
8. Baby showers
9. Weddings
10. Weather
11. Parking
12. Sleep
13. Breakfast
14. Coffee
15. Church
16. Etc. 

Throughout this series I want to present a different way of looking at our Christian life

• Christ is not your top priority but the center of your life.

He are a couple of reasons why this distinction is so important

• When we think priority instead of centeredness  – we can categorize 
  • This is God time
  • Spouse time
  • Work Time
  • Children Time
  • Church time
• When we think priority instead of centeredness  we don’t have a crossover in actions into other areas of life
  • I’m at work – I have a certain set of goals and principles
  • I’m at home – I act a certain way
  • I’m at church – I act another way
• When we think priority instead of centeredness
  • We think – Mine – God’s
    • My time – God’s time
    • My money  – God’s money
    • My family – God’s family
• With Christ Centered Living
  • Everything centers on Christ
    • Not Jesus, then my family. But Jesus in my family.
      Not Jesus, then my career. But Jesus in my career.
      
      
  • Everything flows from that center
    • Prov. 4.23 -  Above all else, Guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life

Results of Christ Centered Living

When He is the center all of the others relationships and responsibilities

• Fall into place and order
• They work together in harmony instead of against each other

Our Job does not work against spouse and family

Children against church

All in place – all in order

Harmony - God is not the author of confusion or dissonance

John 15:5 (NIV)  "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

This verse relates Jesus as the source and center

• We can do nothing without Him
• He is the vine – we are the branches apart from him I can do nothing! 

Let’s look at how and when Relationships and Responsibilities got messed up and “disorder” came into being.

God created and everything was very good

Sin resulted in life being disordered

• Adam – Eve 2 main areas of life
• Responsibilities and Relationships
  • Genesis 2:15-25 (NIV2011)  
    ¹⁵  The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
    ¹⁶  And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;
    ¹⁷  but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
    ¹⁸  The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
    ¹⁹  Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.
    ²⁰  So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.
    ²¹  So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh.
    ²²  Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
    ²³  The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”
    ²⁴  That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
    ²⁵  Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
• Responsibilities  - Good
  • Genesis 2:15 (NIV2011)
    ¹⁵  The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
• Relationships – Good
  • It was not good for man to be alone
  • Man and woman are to be united
  • They were naked and not ashamed

Then what happened? 

• They were tempted - They sinned
  • Hers was the sin of commission
  • His was omission – he stood by and did nothing

• Looked what happened to their responsibilities and their relationships
  • Genesis 3:6-19 (NIV2011)
    ⁶  When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
    ⁷  Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
    ⁸  Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
    ⁹  But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”
    ¹⁰  He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
    ¹¹  And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
    ¹²  The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
    ¹³  Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
    ¹⁴  So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
    ¹⁵  And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
    • Messianic Prophecy
      
      

¹⁶  To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

¹⁷  To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.
¹⁸  It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
¹⁹  By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

Responsibilities

• Work became hard – ground was cursed

Relationships

• Marriage came with shame at their nakedness
  • Instead of complete intimacy
• Wife’s desire would be for her husband
  • the meaning indicates the desire of the wife for her husband, but whether this desire is one of positive submission or one of rulership is debated.
• The husband would rule over her
• Things were disordered – not as God intended! 
  
  

We know things didn’t get better –

• Children – one killed the other
• Got so bad in Noah’s day – God destroyed everything but Noah’s family and animals

Disorder brought Destruction! 

What then was God’s plan to bring order back to life?

• Jesus
  • Gen 3:17 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

Colossians 1:19-23 (NLT)
¹⁹  For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ,
²⁰  and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
²¹  This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.
²²  Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.
²³  But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.

Jesus – The Creator – Head – puts everything in order

• For the believer – we experience part of it now
• For the unbeliever – they will see it but not be able to participate in it
• The blessings of Centeredness in Christ are only for the believers

How do I make Jesus the center?

• There can only be one center
• You can’t be at the center of your life and Jesus the center of your life
• Salvation is first
  • Admit you’re a sinner
  • Believe Christ is the Only Savior
  • Confess him as Lord and leader of your life
    • Repentance and belief
      • Same coin – different sides

Closing Prayer

Our Heavenly Father,

Thank you for who you are and your love for me.  Thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross for my sins.  Help to live out what is on the inside.  Jesus at the center of my life.  I want His life to touch every area of my life.  In Jesus Name, Amen