Finish homework...take out trash...be sanctified? [thoughts on reconstruct]

I often start off each day by making a to-do list; maybe you’re the same way but as I was thinking about this message an having been involved in full time ministry for about 12 years I’ve observed that many people approach their relationship with Christ as they would a ‘to-do’ list. “Salvation?” “Check!” ... “Read the Bible?” “Check!” ... In fact, often it’s just Salvation? “Check and we’re good; I’m in the club, part of the team!” But we’ve missed it ... Salvation is just the beginning, because we didn’t join a club, but entered a relationship and when you don’t foster that relationship, the relationship dies. When we accept Christ it’s just the beginning of a life-long process of reconstruction that only happens in relationship.

Sanctification (Growing in Christ) is not a one-time event – It’s like, I accepted Christ and BAM – everything is good and our relationship with Christ is complete. -- Whatever radical conversion some of us may have had, it did not end our battle with sin but only began it (“Boy did the battle ever become more visible!”). --- Life is a continual battle of daily dying to self and being raised in newness of life … A continual repentance in the face of failures and struggle against sin.

This is the whole point of the Christian life. The spirit of God is empowering you and me from the inside to obediently live like Christ in every moment.

When it comes to spiritual growth … often times we may not be able to feel it … It’s just like growing – you didn’t feel yourself growing as a child. You didn’t lie in bed and say, “I’m growing. I’m getting so big that I have outgrown my bed.” You don’t feel yourself growing; you just end up at a certain height. ... Well, that’s how it works spiritually … you don’t always feel it … it just happens. ---- You don’t change yourself by changing your behavior and becoming moral …. You change yourself by placing yourself in relationship, not in religion.

So -- How do you know if you are beginning to look like Christ? You begin to have a desire to do what God wants you to do in the areas of your life where you once resisted his will. Some of the things in your life that never bothered you before now do. ---- Your conscience is pricked and your heart softens and comes under a healthy conviction because the spirit of God is working in you … Real change happens because it is coming from the inside out as opposed to the outside in -- Self-help can’t change the heart! ..... Your values begin to shift and change your thinking and your new thinking begins to change some of your behavior. The desire to do what God wants you to do begins to grow in you … This is obedience – And you don’t get it apart from the work of God in your life.

For so many people the Christian life is a technique, a nice little method for generating an outcome, a recipe to make life tasty ....

The hang up with a lot of believer’s including myself is this ... As long as we are trying to get something from God ... we’re gonna have a hard time surrendering our lives to Him. ... God wants what’s best for us because he is a good father and wants only the best for his children ... but He wants us to want him more than anything else.

Here is the major emphasis of what this message is about and why we are here: --- Just get close to Jesus …. The closer you get, the easier it is to focus and not be distracted ….. Your life becomes clearer.

So, what is it in your life that has your attention? ….. What is it for you that’s has you saying, “I have got to have this in my life? ….. And you know, each one of you has a different thing and your going, “this is it, this is the thing for me.”

And my question for you is this ……… Is it Jesus? ………. Is Jesus what makes you say, “my life is about this one thing, loving him and serving him, my life is about making him the center?”