Bokeh

The Secret to Contentment – Perfected Forever

Religion is a slave driver. (Luke 15:29) serve in the Gk is “to serve as a slave” The tool religion uses is the law, demanding perfection. Rom. 8:3 – the flesh could not obey no matter what. What the law could not do Christ did. Christ in us, new man, new nature, new creation. Hebrews 10:14

  • How can one be content if he is always driven by the law at the hands of taskmasters? You’re never enough, there is always more to do, and the more you do the less you become.

  • Perfect theology? Religion feels the need to fix other’s theology and that becomes their ministry. Always pointing out where everyone is wrong.

  • There is no contentment within religion. (No rest)

Is it possible that we can take a deep breath and relax, rest and enjoy the journey, be content with being rather than doing? Should we be comfortable in our own skin?

  • Nehemiah 13:25 NIV – Should we always be in a headlock?

  • What Jesus came to do was end the war, bring us peace - Matt. 11:28-30

  • 1 Cor 13:12 – the glass darkly – amp “Now I know in par, just in fragments, but then I will know fully. But for now (in this time of imperfection) we see in a mirror a glass darkly, a blurred reflection, a riddle, an enigma, but then, when the time of perfection comes, we will see reality face to face.

  • I cannot be what I do not see.

  • Eph 1:17-18 – revelation brings transformation – Romans 12:2

  • The Glass darkly is an unrenewed mind.

Ephesians 4:22-14 – Put on, Put off.

  • You put off by putting on. The old gives way for the new.

Christ forever perfected us, Hebrews 10:14 – the word forever, to bear all the way across, unbroken non-stop fashion, perpetually forever.

  • Eph 1:4 – in Christ eternity past, (in a state of perfection) Jesus, bears all the way through to eternity future, forever our perfection.

  • It is the in between we need to be convinced.

Jeremiah 1:5 – the word formed. Yatsar in the Hebrew. To fashion, as a potter or creator, to frame devise in the mind, of divine activity. Genesis 2:7 forming Adam out of dust. Squeezing into shape, to mold into a form,

  • Psalm 139:13-16 BSB

  • Example of a newborn. The child is born with a certain DNA, genetics that will determine the size, shape, looks, and personality of that child.

  • What is inwardly WILL manifest outwardly.

  • No trying, just trusting the growth process.

  • In fact, Just watch a child, they eat, sleep and play.

  • The parents enjoy the child at every stage.

  • The child is not crying out, “I just want to please you”

  • Matt. 3:17 – He's speaking about you.

  • The parents don’t demand the 3-month-old to walk. Yet walking is in his genetics, whereas the timing of walking may have a stronger genetic influence.

  • Everything God has created us to be is already within us.

  • Can you imagine a child who cannot walk yet, giving up on walking altogether? God says you're well pleasing, you say not me...

  • The scale of 1-10 where do you place yourself? 10 being perfect.

  • Growth is defined as growing in your own skin. Not becoming but being.

  • 1 Cor 13:12 – as I see more of my true identity I effortlessly am. Put off by putting on.

Contentment is when I know He is well pleased all the time at every stage.

  • Romans 8:30 – predestined, called, justified and glorified. (all past tense) we are already glorified. Glorification is in the past tense, and it means to be made like Jesus Christ. Note: this is not in the future tense. This is how the Father sees you now. Rest, be content where you are in growth.