Presented to the Ladies Attending 2024 Ladies Inspiration Day
Hello and welcome to each of you! What an honor to stand before such a fine looking group of ladies this morning! I want to start this morning by asking each of you a question. What is your first reaction to the topic “More in ’24” on the banner behind me. What are you hungry for; what do you want more of this year?? Too many today in our broken world are hungry and thirsty for things that cannot and will not satisfy. Jesus said, “Watch out! Be on guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” And He then told a parable about a man God called a fool for building bigger barns and not being rich toward God. Where are you laying up treasure? (Luke 12:15-21). Didn’t Jesus say, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth…For where your treasure is there will your heart be also” Matthew 6:20 21. Remember Jim Elliott’s statement “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. So what are you holding onto in this life??
God created us in His image. He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. He knit me together in my mother’s womb. (Psalm 139:13-16) He breathed into us His breath of life and we became a living soul (Genesis 1:28, 2:7). We were created for His Glory and pleasure. (Isaiah 43:7). Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that God has set eternity in the human heart. There is a vacuum in us that only He can fill. But unfortunately Satan tempted Eve in the garden, and she sinned along with Adam and they both hid from God. So how do we go from hiding and being separated from God to experiencing the fullness of Christ in us?
Since my topic is more of the Word to see Christ’s fullness in me, we need to go to the Word. And as you can see in your program, our talks today are based on the book of Colossians, and mine centers on the first chapter. This is one of Paul’s prison epistles that he wrote midway into the first century. And though he speaks of the holy people in Colossae as his brothers and sisters in Christ, Paul probably had never been there or met them. Instead it was his follow servant Epaphras whom he tells us in verse seven that Paul sent there to preach to them the gospel.
We do see “full” four times in the first chapter. In verse 19, we read “For God was pleased to have all God’s fullness dwell in Christ.” Paul’s prayer for the Colossians is that God fill them with the knowledge of His will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives. Paul even says toward the end of chapter 1, “the commission God gave me to present to you the Word of God in its fullness –the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people– the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (vs.25-27) Yes, Ladies, Christ is in you and you and me! And that is our Hope of Glory!!
The mystery happened at the end of Old Testament after 400 years of silence. What happened? Galatians 4:4 says, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those under the law that we might receive adoption to sonship”(4:4). The Bible is God’s story-His Story-History. I call this mystery of Christ in me God’s Redemption Story, which runs from cover to cover in the Bible. Starting back in Genesis 3:15, God told Satan that the woman’s seed would crush his head. And the story continues until the Revelation 20 when the devil is hurled into Hell, the lake of fire and burning brimstone to be tormented day and night forever and ever. Paul says in verses 13 and 14 of Colossians 1, “For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
I love using this scarlet cord which represents the blood of Jesus that runs throughout the Word. God sent His Son to pay as ransom for my sin. He bought us back out of our slavery to sin. Redemption is brought out so clearly in the book of Ruth when Boaz becomes Ruth and Naomi’s Kinsman Redeemer by buying back their land and taking Ruth under his wing as his wife. And how blessed I was to read her story again in last week’s Daily Bible Reading.
This mystery can also be called the Great Exchange, “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (II Corinthians 5:21). In Colossians 1, Paul also makes reference to this mystery as the Gospel which is the Good News of Christ’s Death, Burial, and Resurrection that gives us our salvation-eternal life. And he also mentions Grace which is the acronym for God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. Paul says that He has lavished the riches of His Grace on us, blessing us with every spiritual blessing. Check out Ephesians 1:3-14. When He is in us we have it all! We are chosen, holy, blameless, predestined, adopted, redeemed, forgiven, sealed, and yes, we have so much more even in our heavenly inheritance which is our Hope of Glory. Do you know your identity-who you are in Christ??
We can experience Christ in us as we hear of His seven “I am’s.” He is the bread I feed upon. He is the Light that reveals His will to me. He is not only the Gate of the sheep but He is also my Good shepherd. Probably the first and only entire chapter we memorized is the 23rd Psalm. Jesus, as my Shepherd, provides all my needs; He guides me; He refreshes my soul; He is with me; He comforts me; and He prepares a table before me. Christ is also the Resurrection and the Life, who gives me not only eternal life but abundant, overflowing life NOW! And how does he do that? Because He is in us!! And Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Yes, as the banner shows us and as the Psalm declares, “My cup overflows.” Love the picture on our banner that shows a bucket full and running over. Is that your life? I love Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well. After asking her for water, He tells her the water He gives will become in her a spring of living water welling up to eternal life. (John 4:13, 14) And John confirms a few verses later that the Living Water is the Holy Spirit. So yes, we should be running over!
So just how is Christ in me? God created me and gave me physical life. Jesus paid the price for my sin and gave me eternal life, which started when I believed in Him. And I have spiritual life by the filling of the Holy Spirit inside me. Jesus promised this filling of the Holy Spirit to His followers before He died. (John 13 through 17) “And I will ask The Father, and He will give you another Advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of Truth…you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you” (John 14:16,17) I am so thankful that Jesus describes the Spirit here as the Spirit of Truth. Jesus also said of Himself, “I am the Way, the Life, and the Truth.”
There is so much deception in our world and culture today. Everyone has their own truth. We should not be surprised because the devil is the prince of this world and Father of lies (vs.44). With all the signs that are becoming more prevalent of the Lord’s soon return, I decided to teach Revelation in both Sunday School and Bible Study sometime last year. With the help of the church’s library, full of Granddad Rutherford’s and Ben’s prophecy books and outlines, I ventured out and what a blessed venture it has become. John even says that “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.” (Revelation 1:3) This is the only time in the Bible that promise is stated!! And what a sweet time of remembrance as I read over Ben’s hand written notes!! I learned so much in Revelation- that God is Sovereign in all His ways and that He is not willing that any should perish and how often, even during the Great Tribulation, God stops and again offers His grace and mercy to the lost.
However Revelation also showed me that Satan is the father of lies and out to kill, steal and destroy. He knows his time is getting short. I continue to be surprised at the number of times deception is mentioned even in Revelation, especially during the Great Tribulation. I shudder today in America for our children and grandchildren, especially for those on public school and university campuses! Are they in the Word? Do they know the Truth?? The best way to counterfeit lies is simply to know and recognize Truth! How reassuring that the Spirit of Truth is in each of us and Guides us into all truth (John 16:13)!! And, yes, as Jesus says He is the Way the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6).
His spoken Word convicts me; it reveals to me things that I didn’t know but need to know for life! He also convicts us of our weaknesses and sins. Hebrews 4:12, 13, “For the Word of God is alive and active, and it is continually convicting me. Sharper than any two edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” This is intimacy with Christ-the closest of relationships. He knows my true self and wants to change me from the inside out. One of the biggest hindrances to experiencing Christ in me is ME! I cannot be filled until I am empty of self. Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” Who is on the throne of your life? Paul also tells us in Philippians 3:10 that to know Christ and His power, we must share in His sufferings and conform to His death. Have you died to self so Christ can be in you filling you with His Spirit?
The Spirit living in us does give us Divine Power. I love II Peter 1:3,4, “His Divine Power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises so that through them you may participate in the Divine Nature, having escaped the corruption the world caused by evil desires.” The Word tells me how to live a godly life. And God’s Holy Spirit in me shows me my true condition and gives me Divine Power to change. I cannot change myself. Not only does the Word tell me this, but the Word is the Spirit who shows me and transforms me. Remember He has exchanged my sins for His Righteousness. “The Spirit gives life: the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you –they are full of the Spirit and life (John 6:63).
And because of His great and precious promises, you have everything you need (name of David Jeremiah’s new book). I have heard that there are about 8,800 promises in the Bible. And according to the above passage from Peter, through these promises we participate in God’s Divine Nature. How different would your day be if you started each day by claiming for that day just one of God’s promises throughout the day?? And I love I Corinthians 1:20 that says, “For no matter how many promises God has made they are “YES!” in Christ!” Also back in the OT, Joshua 23:14, God said, “You know with all your heart that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled, not one has failed.” Yes God is Faithful and what God promises, He delivers! You will notice in your outline just six of His promises and where in the Bible they are located.
I am a morning person and how I look forward to my morning times with God. My granddaughter, Ruth, reminded me not long ago that our time in the Word often begins, hopefully early in life, as a Duty. But soon it grows into a Desire, and before long becomes a Delight. How true! One of the favorite things I look forward to each morning is how God orchestrates my many devotions and ties them together to His glory and my growth and edification. He is with me and speaks very loudly and clearly to me. As an example two daughters this year gave me the following, not knowing what the other was doing but God!! Don’t the books themselves even look alike? Embracing Joy, by Jean Wilund, took the minor prophet Habakkuk and its three chapters and turned it into an eight week study, and what a blessing!!! Habakkuk was a prophet during the Babylonian empire and captivity. And how it helped me as I was teaching at the same time Revelation 17 and 18 where John sees Babylon as the Great Prostitute during the Great Tribulation. You probably know the closing to the book when Habakkuk gives six devastating circumstances, “Though the fig tree doesn’t bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, YET I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior” (3:17,18). How often our joy is defined by our circumstances. You could modernize those circumstances today with “Though my bank account is empty: my job is gone; my health is failing; my husband has been taken to glory or simply left me, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will be joyful in God, My Saviour” And would you respond with rejoicing and joy??
The Practice of the Presence of Jesus is Joni Ereckson Tada’s commentary on the writings of Brother Lawrence who lived some 400 years ago. He was a monk who lived in a monastery in France and for fifteen years washed pots and pans. And he loved to journal, especially about how he practiced the presence of Jesus. Joni’s book takes an excerpt from his journal on the left page and puts her comments across from that on the right page for 110 devotions. And many of you know her circumstances-a paraplegic confined to a wheelchair! Yet what a ministry she has! And thousands upon thousands that she has blessed! Do you practice His Presence? Isn’t that where we can find His fullness? You know one thing that this is called? –Prayer!! And what else do we find in His Presence?? Yes, fullness of Joy! (Psalm 16:11. Joni’s paralysis kept her confined to a wheelchair, and even though paralyzed she did suffer much pain, yet she experienced the fullness of JOY!! I can’t begin to describe the blessing both of these books have brought my way. So much more I could say about how valuable our time becomes when we invest in His Word! I need to close and now I want to call up Serena. You are in for a delight as she will share her testimony with you
Adele Hill is a retired School Teacher and lives in Lexington, KY.