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Jesus and Me 

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • August 11, In the year of our Lord, 2013

Persuasion: 

  1. Jesus Created Me 
    1. He made me a creature.7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being (Gen 2.7).
      1. More complex and complicated than anything man has ever made.
      2. More complex and complicated than any other creature of God.
      3. God breathed into our father Adam, and we carry his breath.
    2. He made me like a Him.26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them (Gen 1.26–27).
      1. More than an animal.
      2. In God’s image.
    3. He knows me.1 O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
      (Psa 139.1)

      1. v. 2 – What I do
      2. v. 2 – What I think
      3. v. 3 – The way I live
      4. v. 4 – My words
    4. He wants me to take care of His creation.15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it (Gen 2.15).9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen 4.9).
      1. Our home, Earth, is what we make it.
      2. We are here for one another.
    5. He made me to glorify Him.11 “You are worthy, O Lord,
      To receive glory and honor and power;
      For You created all things,
      And by Your will they exist and were created.”
      (Rev 4.11)

      1. However, we do not always do as heaven does.
      2. We sin and fall short of His glory (Rom 3.23).
  2. When I Create Myself [This is what Eve did] 
    1. I ruin myself.10 As it is written.
      “There is none righteous, no, not one…”
      (Rom 3.10)

      1. However, His body was crucified for me
      2. that I might be crucified for Him
    2. I make myself a sinner.23 …for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3.23).
      1. By baptism I die to sin.
      2. The death of Jesus makes me die to my sin.
    3. I live for myself.3 …among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others (Eph 2.3).
      1. In baptism I die to self and live for Him.
      2. Baptism is a burial.
    4. I live by my standards, not God’s.15 …and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again (2Co 5.15).
      1. Now as a Christian, loving God is the first commandment.
      2. Loving my neighbor and my brother is the second commandment.
      3. I am third.
  3. Jesus Created a New Me 
    1. He forgave me.13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses (Col 2.13).
      1. We shall appear before God at the Judgment.
      2. However, our sins will not be remembered there.
    2. He reconciled me to God.18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor 5.18).
      1. No more war with God.
      2. I have peace with God.
    3. He bought me.19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s (1Co 6.19–20).
      1. Consider the price He paid.
      2. He owns me now.
    4. He accepts me.6 …to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved (Eph 1.6).
      1. No more rejection.
      2. Man’s rejection does not affect me the way it used to.
    5. He made me alive again.4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, (Eph 2.4–6).
      1. I live that I might sit with Him.
      2. I am alive!
    6. He set me free.2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death (Rom 8.2).
      1. Sin does not enslave me anymore.
      2. I am free to live in righteousness.

Exhortation. 

  1. Do you know what this means for us as Christians? 
    1. I am a new creation.
    2. I have been born of God.
    3. I am a friend of Jesus.
    4. I am a citizen of heaven.
    5. I have every spiritual blessing.
    6. I am a temple of the Holy Spirit.
    7. I am a member of the body of Christ.
    8. I have the hope of eternal life.
  2. Why then would a Christian walk away from Jesus? 
    1. Yet, it happens.
    2. Do not let it happen to you.
      1. Make a commitment to be with Him to the end,
      2. even as He has made a commitment to be with you to the end.