Overdose

 

Overdose, you may be surprised is a church term. We might not use the exact word to define clearly what we are really saying but it is a church expression none the less.

•             I wouldn't do this it's wrong, it's dangerous, it's destructive.

•    We say things like don't do that it's bad for you, rules, rules, rules. 

•    Follow the rules.

•             Although it's good to follow the rules, sometimes you have to take a route of your own when it comes to your relationship in God.

•    Chart a course no one else is taking.

Overdose-excessive, lethal or toxic amount

•             A lot of people don't even follow the rules when it comes to growing in God, which defines them as rebels.

•    Well we need some rebels who will go out of their way to rebel right.

Romans 15:13 "I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in Him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit."

1. The source of hope.

•             We've all seen overdose through movies, television, internet or life experiences, where people we’re hurt through alcohol, pills, needles, blood, and suffering.

•    There wasn't just a physical destruction, but a deep emotional pain, the look of deception and sorrow was all over their faces.

•    The look of regret, remorse, rejection.

•             As humans we get this feeling as if you want to help, but their pain was self inflicted and you were far removed from their situation.

•             Their sin of choice, their overdose of decision.

Job 20:12-14 NLT "[12] "They enjoyed the sweet taste of wickedness, letting it melt under their tongue. [13] They savored it, holding it long in their mouths. [14] But suddenly the food in their bellies turns sour, a poisonous venom in their stomach."

•             The bible is teaching us that sin has this sweet, savoring taste, but will immediately turn poison in our system.

•    Why because sin=death.

•    Sin+unbelief in Christ=eternal death.

•             Hiding it, keeping it under the tongue, denotes concealment of our treasured lust, and pleasure therein.

•             God knows what is in the heart, knows what is under the tongue, and will discover it.

•    Sin is turned into gall, poison, a bitter drug in which nothing is more destructive.

•             Jesus is hope.

•    The source of all hope.

•             A feeling of expectation and desire that a certain thing is going to happen, hope.

•    We hope in a great life, hope in a great future, hope in great relationships, careers, financial statuses, health, and happiness.

•             Well believe this or not God is the maker, creator, designer of all hope!

1 Corinthians 15:34 NLT "Think carefully about what is right, and stop sinning. For to your shame I say that some of you don't know God at all."

•             Knowing God personally births a hatred toward sin.

•    You don't want to sin you don't want to hurt God, hurt His plan, or destroy His mission through sin.

•             Sin is missing the mark.

•             Whether by a mile or 1 million miles we all have missed the mark.

•    Seeing that, connecting to that is humility.

Romans 12:1-2 "And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice-the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him. [2] Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect."

•             Instead of wasting our time destroying our lives with alcohol, drugs, gossip, lies, and addictions that will cause us nothing but harm, why don't we overdose in Christ!

•    If you have never been full of the Holy Spirit then you are missing out on something beyond amazing.

•             Christ is the ultimate high, His love, His passion for us, offering His rescuing power to the world, and we should all get our daily fixes on Him.

•    He’s addictive, once you get a taste of what its like to be in and on His presence, you’ll always want more.

•             What God does for me, what He has done for others in the bible, He can do for you.

•    Be His vessel, allow hope to work through you.

•             Don’t turn to addictions for relief, or hopelessness turn to God.

•    Stop thinking, living, and operating in that your problems are too big for God and recognize God is so much bigger than your problems.

2. Fill you completely.

Psalm 62:6 "He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken."

•             Why would anyone want to set their confidence on something that is not solid?

Matthew 24:35 "Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear."

•             So if everything that we have and rely on will pass away, why don’t we set our trust on the only thing that wont? Jesus is the only way.

Illustrate here: jar rocks, gravel, sand, water.

•    Would you agree that the jar is full?

•             Continue until full.

•             I promise you there is a deeper depth, a higher height, and wider plane than you have ever experienced with God, engage Him.

•    We need to overdose our moments with Him.

Overdose-excessive, lethal or toxic amount

•    Overdose our prayer lives, overdose our bible reading, overdose our fasting regiment, overdose our worship of Christ.

•             What do you need to do to get filled, what do I need to do are the questions we need to be asking.

3. Overflow with the Spirit.

•             We as Christians need to be exhausting our every efforts to move closer to God making Him that daily fix that you’ll go through all extents to get.

•             Beg, steal, and borrow to get to Him, to get more of Him.

•    Overdose on Jesus because He’s the only drug that can give you an eternal high.

•             Take a look at those trying to obtain a toxic amount of Jesus in the bible.

•    David killed a lion, a bear, a giant.

•    God shut the mouths of lions for Daniel and silenced his enemies through death.

•    God used Phillip, Jonah, Joseph, Abraham, Moses, the disciples, to save nations through preaching the word.

•             After being filled with the Spirit of God the disciples then and since have been used to opened blinded eyes, deaf ears, heal lame legs, and diseases of every kind.

•             They share the Gospel of Jesus Christ boldly, and with authority because they believe it, see and feel the effects of it's life altering power.

•             Samson destroyed his enemies.

•             Joshua conquered 31 kings.

•             Mary, a virgin, gave birth to the Son of God.

•             Esther rescues her people.

•             Tabitha brought back to life because she lived her life doing kind things for others.

•             Peter walked on water, preached and 5000 men not counting women and children were saved at one time.

•    I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, by choice.

•             You are the same, if you so choose.

Mark 15:22-32 NLT "[22] And they brought Jesus to a place called Golgotha (which means "Place of the Skull"). [23] They offered him wine drugged with myrrh, but he refused it. [24] Then the soldiers nailed him to the cross. They divided his clothes and threw dice to decide who would get each piece. [25] It was nine o'clock in the morning when they crucified him. [26] A sign was fastened to the cross, announcing the charge against him. It read, "The King of the Jews." [27-28] Two revolutionaries were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. [29] The people passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery. "Ha! Look at you now!" they yelled at him. "You said you were going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. [30] Well then, save yourself and come down from the cross!" [31] The leading priests and teachers of religious law also mocked Jesus. "He saved others," they scoffed, "but he can't save himself! [32] Let this Messiah, this King of Israel, come down from the cross so we can see it and believe him!" Even the men who were crucified with Jesus ridiculed him."

•             Jesus was overdosed with ridicule, judgement, hatred, disbelief, mockery, punishment, torture, in His mind and in His body.

•    The place of the skull (Golgotha) because most of our battles are in the mind.

•    I believe God was saying I have overcome the mind.

•             No matter what you have been through, what you're going through or what you will ever endure, Jesus has already overcome. 

•    Search for Him, engage Him, ask Him, choose to allow Him to be your overdose. 

Uncaged Christianity

1.           Define the cage.

1.                       One of the things that's disrupting Christianity today is the cage of "sin."

1.           I believe it is our greatest enemy, sin.

2.           It's the kryptonite of our superhuman strength, ability, prayer life, and future.

1.                       Sin-an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law.

1.           Sin of commission-a sinful action, committed a sin. (Where you sin against God, a person, or a principle.)

2.           Sin of omission-a sinful failure to perform an action. (Where you know to do the right something and refuse to do it or failed to do it)

2.                       Defining the cage produces fear in us because we believe somehow that no one could rescue us from our dangerous, difficult and unfortunate situation.

1.           We have to recognize that defining the cage is the very first part of achieving, and obtaining our freedom.

1.                       Your cage is different than mine, your cage could be different than anyone else in this room, maybe even in the world but pay attention it's still a cage and freedom can still be yours.

1.           It's not just your temporary entrapment the Devil seeks to have it's your eternal entrapment he ultimately desires.

2.           Entrapment without hope, entrapment without rescue, entrapment with the inability to overcome.

2.           Plan an escape route.

1.                       When I was trapped, I came to the realization Christ was my rescuer.

2.                       I searched for others, I searched in other things but never found freedom until I found Jesus.

1.           You can become caged by agenda, you can become caged by religion, you can become caged by words, or the way people have treated you.

2.           You can become caged in your past, caged to your present, or caged contemplating your future.

3.                       Jesus is your escape route.

1.           Caging happens within yourself, and caging happens from others and in many forms.

4.                       Jesus is your escape route.

1.           I've seen so many people get released to only encage themselves by the very same addiction!

5.                       Jesus is your escape route to God.

1.                       Everyone has felt trapped, been trapped in the cages that this life has set to place us in.

2.           Jesus is your escape route.

1.                       He is the way you must take to freedom, He is the truth that will lead you into your destiny, He is the life that you'll be able to offer to so many others.

3.           Jesus is an escape route for all.

1.                       This is why we say,"I once was lost but now I'm found, I once was blind but now I see, I once was bound, chained, incarcerated but now I'm free."

1.           We now understand freedom because in our cage where Christ found us when we felt as if no one was looking, no one was searching, no one cared, He showed up.

2.           We no longer feel sin's grip over our lives, sin's blindfold covering our eyes, nor sin's grasp on our future.

4.           John 8:34-36 (NLT) "Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin. [35] A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever. [36] So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free."

1.                       You are a son, you are a daughter of God.

1.           Live in and with that promise.

3.           Remove all backup plans.

1.                       Many when they have identified their cage, even connected with Christ for release into freedom continue to think, "well just in case I'll hang on to this secret sin, secret challenge, or secret hurt for a rainy depressing day."

1.           What a detrimental mistake.

2.                       Many of the disciples left all that they were doing when Christ called them to follow Him.

1.           Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death for those aged 15-24.

2.           Most in a state of depression.

3.           Depression is a cage, Christ has the power to set you free from it!

John 19:30 Jesus said, "It is finished."

1.   Jesus announces that His work, atonement, is completed.

2.   That humanity's debt to God is cancelled, that Jesus had finished His mission.

1.           "It is finished."

1.                       He has defeated the Tempter again.

2.                       Despite the agony, He has rejected temptation and cared for those around Him.

2.           His temporary duty on earth is complete.

3.           He has shown the way God wants us to live.

1.                       He has demonstrated the fact that faith, hope and love cannot be destroyed by anything men can say or do.

2.                       Jesus sees in the event of the cross that He has secured closure.

3.   We often speak of the work of the cross.

1.           This is a good word ‘work,’ because it reminds us that there was some effective spiritual activity taking place, something more than the transparently obvious business of being killed.

2.           So it is that when Jesus says these words ‘It is finished’ we know that God has achieved closure.

1.                       The 3 worded English statement, ‘It is finished’ is a single word translated from the Greek (τετέλεσται) te-te-les-tai (from teleo)

1.           It’s the same word which people would write on a bill after it had been paid.

2.           It means that the debt is dealt with, ended, completed, executed, concluded, discharged, accomplished, expired, filled up, gone over, paid, and performed.

3.           The price has been paid.

4.           Debts settled, worry no more.

5.           There is a feeling of release, of achievement.

2.                       The word has the connotation of having fulfilled one’s obligation.

3.                       The work is now complete and we can only guess at how that must have felt for Jesus.

1.           “It is finished.”

1.               He has bound himself by love, to both God and the human race.

1.   Refused to save Himself so He could save humanity.

2.   Thus He will continue to draw to Himself, and to heaven, everyone He can ... for as long as it takes ... until “whosoever will” has come.

1.           Here, Jesus is willingly giving up His soul into the Father’s hands, indicating that He was about to die – and that God had accepted His sacrifice.

Hebrews 9:14-15 (NLT) "Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. [15] That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant."

1.               Jesus has finished the work which His Father gave Him to do, He has accomplished the full and final task."

1.   It is upon that finished, complete work of Christ that we can now build our own lives.

1.           Jesus gave His life as a ransom for us the many, so that we no longer have to fear the wrath of God.

2.   We can pray confidently because we know that there is no obstacle of sin between us and God.

1.           He does not consider our offenses but looks at us only through the eyes of forgiveness, those same eyes through which Jesus looked at the soldiers, religious leaders, mockers and still pronounced forgiveness.

2.           We need not be weighed down by the pains and guilt of the past because Jesus has provided the closure which we could never find by ourselves.

3.   Jesus’ last words meant that His suffering was over and the whole work His Father had given Him to do, which was to preach the Gospel, work miracles, and obtain eternal salvation for His people, was done, accomplished, fulfilled.

1.           We owed a debt we could not pay He paid the debt He did not owe.   

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