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