Radio Broadcast Tuesday 07/25/2023

Classic Christianity – The Book of John P74 (07-25-23)

Make Your Body Available to Jesus For Service to Him

~ In view of God’s mercy and love for us, we ought to love one another as he has loved us. How do we do that? By abiding in the Vine. For He is the vine and we are the branches. He wants us to simply be available to be used by Him. That is our proper worship and our daily sacrifice to Him. When a child of God is abiding in Him, the Holy Spirit will instruct us to do and say what the Spirit of God wants us to do and say. God is the one that will provide the fruit of the Spirit. We can’t do any of it ourselves, but only He can do all of it. Yet so many times, we forget the truth of the word of God in this area of our lives, and we try and go out grunting and groaning for God himself. We stop resting in Him and instead focus on what we think we ought to do, based on the energy of our flesh. We forget that He is the initiator of all and we are simply to be responders to His will for us. The love of the Father that was in Christ Jesus, is the same Love that is in us through the Holy Spirit living in us. We who are in Christ Jesus are one with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. For He made us the temple of God today. And that is so important for us to understand the significance of who we are in Christ Jesus and that God will Always live in us (in His temple) for ever and ever. And we who are in Christ Jesus are not our own. We are God’s body to do and say what he would have us do and say because He lives in us and we are ALIVE in Him. We are a LIVING sacrifice daily available to be used by Him.

~ Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ^{Romans 12:1}

~ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ^{John 13:34}

~ Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.^{1 Corinthians 6:19-20}

~ “But I am saying, Can you have a Bible study? Could you be teaching someone, but you see a lot of times here is oh, that take a night out. I wouldn’t be able to be home. Well, guys, it’s not a sacrifice. It’s not an attitude of sacrifice, Jesus sacrificed his life for you and me, the apostle, sacrifice their lives for you and me. So that we can sit here and be lazy. No, as far so that, we can see an example of what God has called us to do. There’s a hurting world out there, there are people that need discipled. And we need to be available to do so if we don’t do it, who’s going to? The World Council of Churches? And so we sit down many times with his attitude of just kind of sitting and soaking. And I think we’ve got to get out of that attitude. I think we have to realize that that Jesus has said when he’s saying that, there’s only one command that I’ve left you and that’s to love one another into sit back and just be in love with everybody it’s Love is patient and kind and good. It needs to go where there’s a need, go meet that need. Where there’s a place to go, go do it. Sacrifice, there’s a sacrifice in life isn’t there? And God’s called us to that. And I know a lot of times, we don’t like to hear that. Because it’s a lot easier for us to not do those things. But it doesn’t negate the fact of how important it is for us to be available to reach out to people. And that attitude of availability is so important to us in this Christian world. He said if you obey my commands, if you do what I asked you to do, God didn’t tell us to go sit and soak. He told us to get out in the action, did they? He said there’s people all around you. There’s places to go. There’s people to talk to. And that doesn’t mean to get involved in some big organized deal. It means to be available wherever you and I are available to be able to reach out to people with the good news of the gospel. If we’ve got a business plan, we don’t mind reaching out to everybody we talked to. Well, well, you got something more important than a business plan. It’s Jesus. And so why wouldn’t we reach out to people, when we talk to people long enough to know that there’s a hurt to reach out to them with comfort.” ~ Bob George

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Announcer 0:12
Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George Bob’s clear, timeless teachings on the complete forgiveness and unconditional love of Jesus Christ will transform your life as you learn about God’s amazing grace. Let’s join Bob as he teaches us from God’s Word.

Bob George 0:29
We’re gonna pick up as we started in the 15th Chapter last week of dealing with how is the Christian life to be lived. And again, we cannot live Christ’s life for him. We have to allow him to live his life in and through us. And when we don’t understand that truth, why we come to Christ, and then with no less of a noble effort seek to go out and to live a life that we have. But with that we can’t live, we go out and struggle, we go out and strain. But we cannot live a life that Christ said to live, we must allow him to live it in and through us. And the illustration that he gave us on that was the vine and branch, I don’t think there’s a better illustration in the Bible, of the Christian life that he said that I am the vine, and the vine is the source of life, the vine is the source of fruit. And you’re the branch. We bear the fruit, but only the vine can supply the fruit. It’s a bondage between the two, where Jesus is said, I want us to work together, I’m gonna do the production, you do the bearing of the fruit. And quite frankly, it’s going to look like you’re doing it. In other words, we have such a tendency, don’t we, to give the credit to us rather than the source. But he’s saying, it’s not where the credit goes. It’s just the fact that if you are bearing the fruit of the Spirit, it’s evidence that you’re abiding in the vine. And there isn’t a thing to brag about on that type of thing. It’s just, it’s just where we ought to be. If we’re vying for a branch, we ought to be abiding in the vine. And he said, I’ll produce the fruit. And the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, long suffering. And against these things, there is no law. And so the greatest of these commands that he gave us, the greatest fruit, so to speak, that we’re going to bear that if we don’t have this, none of the others counted, all is love. And he stated to us that the world will know that you’re my disciples, by your loved one for another. And as the Father, he said, has loved me. So if I loved you. And we know the love of the Father, for the Son, and he said, recognize the truth that just as the Father has loved me, I too, have loved you. That same love is passed on to you. Now, he says, remain in that love, don’t just grab a hold of it, and then forget it. Hold on to it. live by it. What does that mean? Well, you run into trials and tribulations of life. How many times do people say Where was God when all of this took place? That’s not abiding. It’s not abiding in the vine. And it’s not that you cannot do that temporarily. But ultimately, if you’re in Christ, you’re going to be pulled back to the fact that Jesus Christ loves you perfectly, and that nothing can separate you from the love of God. We all go through trials and tribulations in life, we all have the question sometimes why did this happen to me? But did not God say that all things will work together for good to those who love the world, Lord, and to those who are called according to His purpose. And so really, we don’t need to be asking, Why, Lord, did this happen to me? Or Why’d Lord, is this happening? Or why are you allowing this to take place? Because the answer to that is that the majority of trials and tribulation and hardships that we go through in life are brought on us by other people. And that means that we all have a will and a choice and someone is choosing to impose their will on you, or you oppose imposing your will on them. And so we have to realize that God gave us a will and he’s not going to impinge upon that well, and as a result of that, you’re going to have evil in his world because people choose evil over good. Are we together? And so we say, How does He allow that to happen because he gave BANA will. Otherwise we’d be robots. But we’re so selfish many times we say, well, yeah, God, but what about me? And you know, you wonder sometimes are you as concerned about other people as we are ourselves? You know, we get quite upset if something happens to us. But if the identical thing happened to somebody else, we could give a flip less. So it really shows us that in, in our deep nature, we’re pretty self centered, aren’t we? And that’s why when you get a group picture, then you get it back, guess who the first one is, you look for, yourself. And we have to understand that.

But he’s saying that love is the sacrificial. And guys, that word sacrifice is almost gone out of our existence today, especially in the Christian world. And I wonder sometimes in our own life, just how many sacrifices do you make, and do I make in this world? We sit here in full time Christian work. And I Bob and I’ve talked about this just how sacrifice what how much of a sacrifice do we really make? How much of a sacrifice compared to people who are overseas or wherever they are living in poverty? Are you living in poverty? We wonder sometimes about people. I have my mind sometimes doesn’t comprehend people’s thinking, where we have no sense of sacrifice at all. It’s just satisfy my flesh. Do what I want done. And if I don’t, I’m gonna pout and I’m gonna get angry, I’m gonna get mad, if I don’t get my own way. That’s flesh, isn’t it, guys, its flesh. Sacrifice is real reaching out to people. How many times do we sacrifice ourselves, I told Bob, I wonder sometimes in our maybe, maybe in my particular case, I’ve gone overboard, where I came out of a background where I worked myself to death. And I was at a church that had you going and going and going and going and going. And I was busy and barren, totally working for Jesus 24 hours a day. And when I got out of that, I said, we’re not going to do that anymore. We’re gonna come over here. And it seems like almost we get over here where we say don’t do anything. So it’s kind of a parallel of a pendulum. In my particular life, when I was first saved, I probably had three evening Bible studies a week, never advisement. I was working full time. We’re on a huge business. Bible studies during the day Bible studies at night. I’m not saying for everyone to be doing that. But I am saying, Can you have a Bible study? Could you be teaching someone, but you see a lot of times here is oh, that take a night out. I wouldn’t be able to be home. Well, guys, it’s not a sacrifice. It’s not an attitude of sacrifice, Jesus sacrificed his life for you and me, the apostle, sacrifice their lives for you and me. So that we can sit here and be lazy. No, as far so that, we can see an example of what God has called us to do. There’s a hurting world out there, there are people that need discipled. And we need to be available to do so if we don’t do it, who’s going to? The World Council of Churches? And so we sit down many times with his attitude of just kind of sitting and soaking. And I think we’ve got to get out of that attitude. I think we have to realize that that Jesus has said when he’s saying that, there’s only one command that I’ve left you and that’s to love one another into sit back and just be in love with everybody it’s Love is patient and kind and good. It needs to go where there’s a need, go meet that need. Where there’s a place to go, go do it. Sacrifice, there’s a sacrifice in life isn’t there? And God’s called us to that. And I know a lot of times, we don’t like to hear that. Because it’s a lot easier for us to not do those things. But it doesn’t negate the fact of how important it is for us to be available to reach out to people. And that attitude of availability is so important to us in this Christian world. He said if you obey my commands, if you do what I asked you to do, God didn’t tell us to go sit and soak. He told us to get out in the action, did they? He said there’s people all around you. There’s places to go. There’s people to talk to. And that doesn’t mean to get involved in some big organized deal. It means to be available wherever you and I are available to be able to reach out to people with the good news of the gospel. If we’ve got a business plan, we don’t mind reaching out to everybody we talked to. Well, well, you got something more important than a business plan. It’s Jesus. And so why wouldn’t we reach out to people, when we talk to people long enough to know that there’s a hurt to reach out to them with comfort.

And so he said, If you obey my commands, you’ll remain in my love. That’s how you remain in my love is putting what I tell you to do into action. Just as I’ve obeyed my Father’s command, and remain in his love, I’ve told you this, he said, so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love has no one other than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. Do we understand that with the military? you know, you have guys that have gone overseas, we’ve certainly had that taking place today over, in, in, over in that part of the country, where all of this war is taking place. There are our own men as well as other men over there sacrificing their own lives, so that we can sit here and be free. No greater love has any man he lays down his life where he’s for his friends, his sheep, that’s an ultimate sacrifice that a person could make is laying down your own life for somebody. Now, he said you’re my friends, if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants. It isn’t a case that you go out as a servant. Because the servant doesn’t know what he’s master’s business is. But instead, I’ve called you to be friends. For everything I’ve learned from my Father I’ve made known to you. You didn’t choose me, I chose you, and appointed you to go and to do what? Bear fruit. Now that was to thy disciples to the apostles. But is that not true to us? What are you and I appointed to do? By God? Go and do what? Bear fruit. He didn’t say go and produce fruit. He said, go and bear fruit. How can I go and bear fruit? By being willing to abide in the vine. Who is the source, and then to be obedient to act out what he’s telling you to do. God’s love is not made complete. When I sit here and say God loves me praise God for that God’s love is made complete when I know God loves me, and I pass that love on to you. And until we pass it on, it’s not been made complete. He wants us to bear fruit. He wants us to be people who are full of joy and love, and patience and kindness and goodness and long suffering people who are thinking about others interest over and above themselves. That’s what sacrifice is all about, is sacrificing for someone else. A mother who takes care of her child and her children is sacrificing her own life in many instances, her own desires her own joys for the sake of the children. A man who’s out working and making a living, in many instances is sacrificing what he’d like to do, play golf all day. For the benefit of these children, there’s a sacrifice connected with that. Because there’s other things that we would like to do if we were just gonna listen to our flesh. And isn’t it amazing that what our flesh tells us to do that if we ever got a chance to do it, we’d be the most miserable people on the face of the earth. If flesh says all of us, let me lay back and watch television, eat bonbons all day, well, pretty soon you’re gonna get as fat as a hog and you’re gonna be very miserable.

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Bob George 14:14
So everything that our flesh is telling us to do is to harm us. And boy, do we listen to that flesh. Sacrifice doesn’t listen to the flesh. Sacrifice says there’s a job to do and I’m gonna go do it. There’s a fire to put out I’m gonna go put it out. There’s somebody to be reached, I’m gonna go reach them. There’s people to be discipled I’m gonna go disciple them. I’d rather go play golf. Or I’d rather go do this. Sacrifice says no. There’s people to be reached. As why there’s a lot more important things to do in this world than just what satisfies our flesh isn’t there? The Father will give you whatever Are you asking by name and this is my command. Love one another. Now If the world hates you keep in mind that it hated me first. And guys want to do something. If you’re out in the marketplace of life, if you’re out among non Christians, and you’re out expressing Christian truths. Oh, there’s nothing wrong with that. And you know, I, I kind of have faith in the Big Boy upstairs, you know, heard the big boy upstairs in your head, no. Use the name Jesus, it gags you if you don’t know him. But uh, gags other people when they hear it. You don’t know him. You’re gonna find it out in the world, when you stand up for what Jesus says is true when you call a spade a spade so to speak. When you call sin a sin, when you call worry, a sin, not a healthy concern. Or homosexuality, a sin not an alternate lifestyle. Or you call adultery sin, not just satisfying some needs. You’re not going to be very popular with the world. Because the world doesn’t believe in standards. The world believes that everything is relative. There are no absolutes in the world. So let’s not come up with this absolute sin stuff. Everything’s relative, it just kind of depends on things. And so you stand up as a person and you voice your viewpoint. And you call things what God calls them. You’re gonna be about as popular as the Titanic sinking. But you’re not running for sheriff anyway. Are you? And if you’re are, you’re you shouldn’t be a Christian because you’re not gonna get elected. We have to realize the world hates truth. Why? Because the world is under the control of the author of lies, Satan. And he hates truth. He doesn’t want truth ever to get through to you or to me. Now, if you belong to the world, the world would love you as their own. When your lost world loves you, I know that my own life when I was lost all my lost buddies used to love to go out and drink together, have fun together. The very moment I came to Christ, I don’t know what happened to me. You say, Oh, I’m gonna have to give up all my friends. No, you’re not, they’re gonna give you up. They don’t want to be around you anymore. If you’re saying I’m a Christian, you don’t have to worry about giving up a thing. They’ll get rid of you. Nobody wants to be around me anymore. That’s when I discovered there were coffee shops in LA. Didn’t know there was one till I was saved. Why? Well, because I wasn’t gonna go to the bar. So I had to go to the coffee shop by myself and drink coffee. Till you got some new friends. If you belong to the world, they would accept you, the world will accept you. As it is, you don’t belong to the world. Are you in Christ? Then you are in the world. But you are not of the world. Is that right or wrong guys? How many of us want to be in Christ and blend into the world at the same time? How many of us have the attitudes of the world in us just strong as horseradish? Instead of realizing God told me to be in it, but not all of it. You don’t belong to this world. This world does not belong to you. But Jesus said, I’ve chosen you to come out of this world. You’re in it, but you’re not all of it. Guys, it’s like a ship, a ship is in it. And that’s fine. But if it becomes of it, you’re in trouble. And that’s why the world hates you. How many of you have ever experienced rejection from lost people? Who were they rejecting you or Jesus that you represented? The Jesus that you represented. That’s why the world hates us because I hate him.

He said remember the words I spoke to you. No servant is greater than his master. Are you a servant to Jesus? Or are you a master of Jesus? If you’re your servant, then you’re not greater than Him. And you say well, that’s okay Jesus for you to go down wash people’s feet but not me. It’s okay for you to live a sacrificial life but not me. It’s okay Jesus for you to do these things, but not me. I got better things to do. I got some entertainment stuff I need done. I need to feed my flesh, I need comfort. How much comfort did the apostles have? The latter days of Paul’s life, he wrote, please send me my cloak, I’m cold, didn’t even have a cloak to put around him. No servant is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they’ll persecute you also. Have you ever been persecuted? If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours as well. Because your teaching should be his teaching. They’re going to treat you this way because of my name because of who you represent who you say I believe in, Jesus. It says you’re gonna get treated a certain way. They don’t know the one who sent me. We claim we know God, but everybody claims to know God. The Buddha’s claim to know God, the Muslims claim to know God, the Mormons claim they know God, all these people claim to know God. But I don’t know where they’re finding him. Because it’s not the God it’s in the Bible. It’s not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It’s not the God who came to this earth, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the word God became flesh and dwelt among us as the only begotten Son of the Father full of grace and of truth, that’s God. They don’t know him. Jesus said, had I not come and spoken to them speaking of the Hebrew religious leaders, and basically he’s talking to his disciples, who were in the Hebrew world and with the Hebrew leaders. I spoke to them had I not come and done that they wouldn’t be guilty of their sin of the rejection of me, what is the world’s sin? Unbelief in Jesus. Had I not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of that sin. The only sin attributed oh man, the rejection of Christ. But he said, I came and spoke to them. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me hates my Father as well. That’s why they say oh, we worship the Father. He said, No, if you worship the Father, you worship Me, because he’s he spoke about me. If I had not done among them what no one else had ever done. He said, the miracles that I did, being raised from the dead, raising Lazarus from the dead, turning the water in the wine, had I not done these things in front of them what no one else has ever done. They wouldn’t be guilty of their sin. But I’ve done these things to prove who I am. And they still rejected the Son of God. But now that they’ve seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father, the one who did the miracles, in essence to me, but he said all of this is to fulfill what was written in their law. They hated me without reason.

Stop to think about what is your bad Jesus to hate? He loved people, he forgave people. You hate someone that when a woman is caught in adultery, he looked down and do something in the sand said if you’re without sin cast the first stone stone this woman to death of year without sin. Everybody dropped their stones. Mamm, where are your accusers? They’re all gone. Well, neither do I accuse you get up and sin no more. What is your about to hate about someone doing something like that? Someone going and seeing a man who was blind from birth and making them see, what is sort of hate about this person? A person who’s in a grave and says Lazarus come forth and out he comes. What is there to hate about someone doing something like that? Say why do people hate Jesus? Because he calls truth Truth. The world unlike truth, we’ll believe anything except the truth. We like error. We like lies. And Jesus stands up for what is true. So they hated him without reason.

But he said, now he’s talking to us, just talking to His disciples, all those things applicable but now he’s going to be talking about us. When the Counselor comes. That’s the Holy Spirit that I’m going to send to live in you, whom I will send to you from the Father. The Counselor is called the Spirit of Truth. He goes out from the father, he’s an extension of the Father, the Holy Spirit of God is an extension of Jesus. He is truth, just as Jesus is truth. He said, he’s going to testify about Me. The role of the Holy Spirit of God is to bring honor to Jesus, not to himself. The role of the Holy Spirit of God, he said, is to testify about Jesus. And then he said to them, as well as to us. And you also must testify. Why? Because you have been with me from the beginning. Now there, he’s talking to his disciples, His apostles, you’ve been with me from the beginning. It’s your job now to go into communicate to the world what I have communicated to you, does that eliminate us? Or is he also saying to us, that you who have been with him since your beginning of new birth, that you too, should testify about Jesus, just as the Holy Spirit is doing. All of this, he said, I’ve told you so that you will not go astray. He’s not saying these things to us, guys, to hamper us. But he’s saying, I’m saying these things to you so that you will not go astray. To the disciples, he said, they’re going to put you out of the synagogue. Some of you have been put out of your churches. How many of you have been put out of your church because of starting to teach something about the grace of God, anybody in the room here? A few of you. There’s not many here, because you’ve been here most of the time. I will tell you across the United States, its massive. You go in and start teaching the fullness of God’s grace and they look at you like he came from another planet. So he said, you’re going to be pulled out of the synagogue. In fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he’s offering a service to God. You have that today among the Muslims. Kill a Christian you’re doing a service to God kill a Jew, you’re doing a service to God. That’s a funny God and strange god that people would have. Who would believe that type of thing.

Announcer 27:16
Thank you so much for tuning in to Classic Christianity with Bob George. We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s program. We truly hope that today’s message has inspired you to walk a life of faith in the Lord. Find more information online at BobGeorge.net. There you’ll also find available CDs, DVDs and Bible studies available for purchase. It’s through your help that we are able to spread the good word of Jesus Christ. Until next time, walk in faith be good to one another in praise the Lord. Amen.