February 10, 2013
1Th 5:23
Introduction
- Sometimes we read in the news about someone who went hiking in the mountains, but without adequate clothing
- Often they become a statistic, dying from hypothermia
- Having the right clothing for the weather can be a life or death matter
- Can you imagine going out in a rainstorm without your umbrella?
- Imagine walking out in the freezing cold, teeth chattering, wishing you had made sure you were protected from the weather
- There is nothing you can do about the weather, it is beyond your control
- But you can make sure you are protected from its effects
- Having adequate protection is totally important
- But just as I had to learn how to prepare myself for storms in the mountains, we also need to learn how to live under God's protective covering.
- This requires knowing who we are, what we are made of
- So today we will continue finding out about our basic make-up
- And next week we will start to discuss this protection
Spirit soul and body
- A few weeks ago we discussed the way that we have been made by God
- We saw that we have been made in God's image
- This means that we are like God in some respects
- We think, so does God
- We have emotions, so does God
- We have a form or shape, and so does God
- But God is spirit, and there is a part of us that is spirit
- 1Th 5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
- So we have a part of us that is spirit
- Spirit by its very nature is invisible to our five senses
- And yet we have it
- This human spirit is what enables us to connect to spiritual things
- I can relate to a person who is like I am
- I cannot relate to something which is not like me
- For example this wall
- So because we have this spiritual component, we are able to relate to God, who is spirit
Before we were saved
- Eph 2:1-3
- We used to be like everyone else
- We did not know about God nor did we care to know him
- Our human spirit was there, but it was dead
- It took Jesus to bring life to our spirit
- That life comes through the Holy Spirit
- 2Corinthians 3:6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
- So now we are alive through the dwelling of the Holy Spirit
- 1Th 5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
- What about our body?
- We know what that is, it is our physical substance of which we consist
- It is what gets up every morning, and goes to sleep every evening
- So it is a part of living things
- But when our human spirit goes back to God who gave it, our body remains
- Our body is the temporary shell in which our spiritual life is played out
- 2 Cor 5:1-2 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:
- This body is temporary
So what have we not yet spoken of?
- We are spirit soul and body
- What is left is our soul
- The soul must relate to those parts of our physical experience we have not yet discussed
- What would they be?
- Our mind, our ability to think
- Our emotions and our personality
- And our ability to evaluate and make choices
- This soul is the area in which we have our struggles
- Our spirit has been surrendered to Jesus, no problem there
- Our body may not be healthy as we would like, but this does not affect our eternity - it is temporary
- But it is in our thought life that the battle rages
- Paul speaks of this in Romans 7
- Rom 7:15-25 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
So where do we go from here?
- How do we win this battle?
- How can we be conquerors as Paul calls us in Rom 8:37
- Romans 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
- Come along next week when we will discuss how we can walk in the spirit, rather than being subject to our human nature
- It is when we put all these pieces together, that we will see
the way to live under God's protective umbrella
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