“God’s Most Treasured
Possession”
Please Note: This sermon was preached
at our annual worship in the park service and does not include a full
manuscript. Below are the key verses, points, closing
illustration, and identity in Christ affirmations for you to meditate
on to remind you of just how much God delights in you!
I. The power of knowing your
identity in Christ
You are God’s most treasured
possession
Adapted from Exodus 19:3-6: “I have carried you on eagles'
wings and brought you to myself….out of all nations you will be
my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you
will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
1 Peter 2:9-10: “You are a chosen people, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may
declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his
wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the
people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have
received mercy.”
Deut 30:10: “The Lord will again delight in you and make
you prosperous, just as he delighted in your fathers”
Ps 35:27: "The Lord be exalted, who delights in the well-being of
his servant."
Ps 149:4” “For the Lord takes delight in his people;
he crowns the humble with salvation.”
2 Sam 22:20: “God brings you out into a spacious place; he
rescues you because God delights in you.”
II. Embraced by God’s
Delight
a. God began delighting in you
at His very first thought of creating
you!
Ps 139:13-16: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me
together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and
wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full
well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the
secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the
earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for
me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”
Eph 2:10” “For you are God's masterpiece, God’s
poem, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in
advance for us to do.”
b. God’s delight in you
stays strong through every season of struggle!
Adapted from Isa 62:3-5: “You will also be a crown of beauty in
the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
It will no longer be said to you, " Forsaken," ….but you will be
called, " My delight is in her,"….For the Lord delights in
you….and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God
will rejoice over you.”
c. God’s delight is pure
delight not just barley liking you!
Zeph 3:17: “The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to
save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with
his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."
d. Eagle illustration: The
necessity of living out of your identity in Christ
While walking through the forest one day, a man found a young eagle who
had fallen out of his nest. He took it home and put it in his
barnyard where it soon learned to eat and behave like the
chickens. One day a naturalist passed by the farm and asked why
it was that the king of all birds should be confined to live in the
barnyard with the chickens. The farmer replied that since he had given
it chicken feed and trained it to be a chicken, it had never learned to
fly. Since it now behaved as the chickens, it was no longer an
eagle.
“Still it has the heart of an eagle,” replied the
naturalist, “and can surely be taught to fly.” He
lifted the eagle toward the sky and said, “You belong to the sky
and not to the earth. Stretch forth your wings and fly.”
The eagle, however, was confused. He did not know who he was, and
seeing the chickens eating their food, he jumped down to be with them
again.
The naturalist took the bird to the roof of the house and urged him
again, saying, “You are an eagle. Stretch forth your wings
and fly.”
But the eagle was afraid of his unknown self and world and jumped down
once more for the chicken food. Finally, the naturalist took the
eagle out of the barnyard to a high mountain. There he held the
king of the birds high above him and encouraged him again, saying,
“You are an eagle. You belong to the sky. Stretch
forth your wings and fly.”
The eagle looked around, back towards the barnyard and up to the
sky. Then the naturalist lifted him straight towards the sun and
it happened that the eagle began to tremble. Slowly he stretched
his wings, and with a triumphant cry, soared away into the heavens.
It may be that the eagle still remembers the chickens with
nostalgia. It may even be that he occasionally revisits the
barnyard. But as far as anyone knows, he has never returned to
lead the life of a chicken.
From Theology News and Notes, October, 1976, quoted
in Multnomah Message, Spring, 1993, p. 1
e. Identity in Christ
Affirmations
Why Should I Say I Can't?
1. Why should I say I can't when the Bible says I can do all things
through Christ who gives me strength? Philippians 4:13
2. Why should I worry when I know that God will take care of all my
needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus?
Philippians 4:19
3. Why should I fear when the Bible says God has not given me a spirit
of fear, but of power, and love, and a sound mind? 2 Timothy 1:7
4. Why should I lack faith to live for Christ when God has given me a
measure of faith? Romans 12:3
5. Why should I be helpless when the Bible says the Lord is my strength
of my life? Psalm 27:1
6. Why should I allow Satan control over my life when He that is in me
is greater than he that is in the world? 1 John 4:4
7. Why should I accept defeat when the Bible says that God always leads
me in victory? 2 Corinthians 2:14
8. Why should I lack wisdom when the Bible says that God gives me
wisdom generously when I ask Him for it? James 1:5
9. Why should I be depressed when I can recall to mind God's
lovingkindness, compassion and faithfulness? Lamentations 3:21-23
10. Why should I worry and be upset when I can cast all my anxieties on
Christ who cares for me? 1 Peter 5:7
11. Why should I ever be in bondage when I know that there is freedom
where the Spirit of the Lord is? Galatians 5:1
12. Why should I feel condemned when the Bible says there is no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus? Romans 8:1
13. Why should I feel alone when Jesus said He is with me always and
will never leave me nor forsake me? Matthew 28:20, Hebrews 13:5
14. Why should I be unhappy when I, like Paul, can learn to be content
whatever the circumstances? Philippians 4:11
15. Why should I feel worthless when Christ became sin for me so that I
might become the righteousness of God? 2 Corinthians 5:21
16. Why should I feel helpless when I know that if God is for me, who
can be against me? Romans 8:31
17. Why should I feel like a failure when I am more than a conqueror
through Christ who loves me? Romans 8:37
18. Why should I feel confused with God is the author of peace? 1
Corinthians 2:12
19. Why should I let the pressures of life bother me when I can take
courage knowing that Jesus has overcome the world? John 16:33
20. Why should I feel like I am cursed with bad luck when the Bible
says that Christ rescued me from the curse of the law that I might
receive His Spirit by faith? Galatians 3:13-14
This is taken from the books by Neil Anderson: The Bondage Breaker and Freedom from Darkness