Four Cups, Week 3: The Cup of Redemption

Intro: Welcome to Freedom Church… We’re so glad you’re here with us!   We are in the middle of our series called the “FOUR CUPS”…which lays out 4 promises that God made to us…HIS ultimate plan for each of our lives.   Here’s why this matters… We are all on a spiritual journey…looking for answers.    This plan God has for us… answers our questions.  This plan is found symbolically in the yearly Jewish Passover… as a reminder of God’s promises.   “I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. 7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God…” Exodus 6:6-7 (NIV)   The Four Cups   1.        The Cup of Sanctification  - “I Will Bring You Out.” (Salvation)   2.      The Cup of Deliverance  - “I Will Free You.”(Working on issues)   3.      The Cup of Redemption – “I Will Redeem you.”(Discovering)   4.      The Cup of Praise -  “I Will Take You As My Own People.” (Fulfilled Living)   There is a huge disconnect in so may of us… We’re saved… BUT WHY?   “Why am I here?”   Transition:  The answer to that question is found in cup 3…   The Cup of Redemption   …I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.” Exodus 6:6 (NIV)   Redeem:   1. To buy back or repurchase  (Owned by someone else… wrong place… Jesus) 2. To change for better or reform (Low goals… most people… good = no bad) 3. Repair or restore(A restored car… back to its original intent, but now it’s priceless!!)   Transition:  Ok… if this is God’s plan (which sounds great) why do so few experience it?   The answer… is actually found in the promise.    I’m going to redeem you, and I’m going to do it 2 ways.   …I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.” Exodus 6:6 (NIV)   Why an outstretched arm?  Most you are in a place much lower than God sees us.    He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along.Psalm 40:2 (NLT)   Or lets put it this way… Most of us don’t see ourselves the way God sees us.   “Low… broken…going to heaven, but have nothing to offer… nothing you can work with.”   Two things that keep us from experience this promise:   1.  Inferiority   We don’t see the greatness that God sees in us… (Sinners, wretched, Ready Now)   True… BUT then you met God.  He does not want you to maintain that view.  HE wants to lift you out.   …Your right hand has held me up, your gentleness has made me great. Psalm 18:35 (NKJV)   Inferiority leads to insecurity, which affects our identity.   This is why so many of us are driven by what others think…   (Growing up…insecure… middle school… high school… music…my first message)   The more I learned to see myself the way God sees me, the more I stopped trying to prove myself and find acceptance through human approval… and the more I learned to walk confidently in my identity.   Too often we see life through the rear view mirror… instead of looking straight ahead to what God sees.   So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the powerof the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. Romans 8:1-2 (NLT)   So how does God see us?    For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)   God sees things in you that you don’t see in yourself… and honestly that other people don’t see as well.  (Sibling rivalry)   Get GOD’S view of yourself… and others. (Honor = God’s view of people)   Transition:  That’s part of His redemption plan… the other part is the second part of that verse.   …I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.” Exodus 6:6 (NIV)   Acts of judgment… but not against us… against our enemy.   The devil has a DIFFERENT plan for your life.  (Do you how?)   2.  DIVERSION   (The part God didn’t plan… but you lived.)   The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. John 10:10 (NLT)   God’s judgment of the enemy… cancels His plan off of your life.   You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. 14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 In this way, he disarmedthe spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. Colossians 2:13-15 (NLT)   The enemy has no claim, debt, or authority on your life… and God is just waiting for us to realize it!   But…his plan of diversion is not just the bad things we’ve done or that have been done to us.   Success can be a diversion… we try to realign our identity and purpose by what WE can accomplish.    Regardless of how… the enemy is trying to divert us from living out our full purpose.    We wanted very much to come to you, and I, Paul, tried again and again, but Satan prevented us. 1 Thessalonians 2:18 (NLT)   Prevent = to stop progress   He can’t physically touch you… but He can touch your path.  (Broken world)   And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. Romans 8:28 (NLT)   (Map analogy… ANY path you have taken… there IS a road!)   God’s gifts and God’s call are under full warranty—never canceled, never rescinded. Romans 11:29 (MSG)   Which means… God has NEVER changed His mind about you.  He never will.   He can always… redeem you.  How?   How do we drink from the Cup of Redemption?   Spiritual Gifts  …Simply put God has put something on the inside of you to do.    We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us… Romans 12:6(NIV)   Grace = Charis (Divine enablement)   Grace gift… something you are good and enjoy doing. (public speaking)   (Working with Kids… or my hands) …Music, helping the poor, leading others…GOD DID THAT!   Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts… 1 Corinthians 14:1 (NIV)   Go after it!! (Studies show that 87% of the body of Christ doesn’t know what their gift is)   We want to help you discover it… because when you do life gets fun.    (My favorite part of ministry)    “This weeks issue” --- TO --- Making such a difference and having so much fun…   God has better… He wants you to make a difference…live with purpose… to know why you are on this planet.   SO How do we?   1.  Discover your gift   Your design reveals your destiny.   God had something for you to do, before he created you. (Not the other way around…)   You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. Psalm 139:13-14 (NLT) You are COMPLEX!  (what you like, laugh at, do well, think about…) HOW you were made… points to WHAT you are suppose to do.    The key to it all… is God.  Schooling, success, ambition can’t do it.   It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone. Ephesians 1:11-12 (MSG)   For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible... everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. Colossians 1:16(MSG)   2.  Develop your Gift   It’s never perfect when you discover it…   Our job as a church… is to help you discover it.  Growth Track   But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.   11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up… Ephesians 4:7,11-12(NIV)     3. Use Your Gift   This is when life gets fun… this is when you can lay your head down at night and be satisfied… yea you have problems… but life is fulfilling because what I do is bigger than my problems!   This is how you live…(Honor all who are using their gifts).   God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.1 Peter 4:10 (NLT)   Your real purpose is to serve God by serving others.   Our ultimate expression of worship is to love people on His behalf.    For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers, as you still do. Hebrews 6:10 (NLT)   Big Idea:   Challenge:   (Pray – Salvation / Discovery)   Communion   When the time came, Jesus and the apostles sat down together at the table.[a] 15 Jesus said, “I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins. 16 For I tell you now that I won’t eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.”   17 Then he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. Then he said, “Take this and share it among yourselves. 18 For I will not drink wine again until the Kingdom of God has come.”   19 He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me.”   20 After supper he took another cup of wine and said, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you. Luke 22:14-20 (NLT)