Galatians 3:26
Colossians 3:17
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Galatians 3:26
for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
Colossians 3:17
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Summary and Function
Summary: Through faith in Jesus, we are children of God. As God’s children, God uses us to do His work in the world. In this way, we are the body of Jesus Christ. We are his hands, feet and mouth. This makes us God’s representatives to the world. As God’s representatives we must strive for excellence. God is excellent and. As God’s representatives, we must strive for excellence. People will not seriously consider following Jesus as Savior and Lord if they see mediocrity in his representatives.
Function: To encourage the congregation to strive for excellence in everything they do.
Sermon
I. Introduction: We are a reflection of our parents
1. ‘The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree’
- Children often become a lot like their parents
- So, how we act and live is a reflection of our parents. We are representatives of our parents
- Example: Many people complement me on how well behaved my 3 year old son is. They complement me because it is a reflection on me and my wife.
- So, we want to honor our parents by how we act and live.
2. There’s a problem
- Many people have grown up with really bad parents that were abusive, negligent and unloving
- Some parents are simply bad examples. They broke the law and ended up in jail.
- It’s hard to be a good representative of your parents when they didn’t properly raise, nurture and love you
3. Good news
- If you grew up with bad parents, there is THE FATHER that we can look up to and emulate.
- The Father God in heaven is the perfect Father that will always love, nurture, discipline and teach as a father should.
- Even if you had good parents, it should be THE FATHER you seek to emulate and honor.
- I had great parents and wanted to be like my dad. He was a soldier so I became a soldier. I, however, wasn’t destined to be a great soldier. THE FATHER, had other plans for me. So, I left the Army and became a preacher. My life is more complete and meaningful now that I’m looking to THE FATHER, rather than just to my earthly father. I’m honoring my earthly father by seeking to imitate THE FATHER.
4. We must realize that we are children of God.
II. We are children of God
1. Through faith in Jesus, we are children of God
2. Galatians 3:26: “for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.”
3. As children of God, we are a reflection of God. We are God’s representatives in
this world.
4. People base their understanding of God, on what we say or do!!!
III. This is what Colossians 3:17 is all about
1. Colossians 3:17: “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the
name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
2. “…in the name of the Lord Jesus…” What does that mean?
- You are Jesus’ representative
- As Jesus’ representative, you reflect Jesus’ character
3. Jesus’ character
IV. As children of God, as representatives of Jesus, we must do everything with
excellence
1. People will base their judgments about God based on how we do things.
- Do we want people to think God is a slacker? If not, then we must not be slackers.
- God is a mighty God who completes everything He begins in extraordinary ways. We must reflect this.
2. Characteristics of excellence
- Strive for perfection: Always seeking improvement to get as close to perfection as possible
- Seeing it through to completion: Not leaving things undone
- Meeting the goals: Did we achieve the desired endstate?
3. Examples of excellence
- Upward soccer sponsor pamphlets
- Our website
- The three crosses
V. Conclusion
1. We can all play our part to achieve excellence in everything we do:
- Ask: “How can I do this better?”
- See it through to completion – Don’t stop until it’s done
- Ask: Are we achieving our goals?
2. Remember, we have the Holy Spirit to empower us to achieve excellence. WE
HAVE NO EXCUSE!!!!
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