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How do you want to live

2/25/2019

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There are three main points to help us to be set for construction not destruction. You affect your outcome. You set the stage for your day, week, relationships, friendship, life, and success. What you believe is your foundation. Do you believe God sometimes helps? Do you think God sometimes gets involved? Choose your direction. Decide, it’s a great day. What can I do for the kingdom? I can make this better. I can’t fix it, but it won’t shake me.

“Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” Romans 10:17 NIV

Point 1 - You affect your outcome.

Paul said to the Thessalonians about living: 
“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit. Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”
1 Thessalonians 4:3-12 NIV

Point 2 - What you believe is your foundation.   
“From there he went up to Beersheba. That night the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham.” Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord. There he pitched his tent, and there his servants dug a well. Meanwhile, Abimelek had come to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his personal adviser and Phicol the commander of his forces. Isaac asked them, “Why have you come to me, since you were hostile to me and sent me away?” They answered, “We saw clearly that the Lord was with you; so we said, ‘There ought to be a sworn agreement between us’—between us and you. Let us make a treaty with you that you will do us no harm, just as we did not harm you but always treated you well and sent you away peacefully. And now you are blessed by the Lord.” Isaac then made a feast for them, and they ate and drank.”
Genesis 26:23-30 NIV

There was no war, and no grappling, but there was a new well.

Point 3 - Choose your direction.

Do we sometimes think we need to help God out a little? Sometimes we have mounds of frustration because of our effort to handle God’s roles.

“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said. So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.” “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.”
Genesis 16:1-6 NIV

Once we start helping God out, we end up fixing one mess after another. Set your direction for construction not destruction. Remember the three major points:

1. You affect your outcome. 
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,”
Colossians 3:23 NIV

2. What you believe is your foundation.  
“because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”
James 1:3 NIV

3.  Choose your direction. 
““For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.”
Isaiah 55:8 NIV

​Lay a good foundation and the right one. Remember we work for God. Trust in the Lord. Choose a direction but only with Gods help. He’s there when we call, and there when we fall. Choose the right things, and most importantly and above all choose Christ. 
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    Philip Lukens is the senior pastor of the Carr Community Church. To receive updates please enter your e-mail address below and click subscribe.

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