Prisoner's Plea: Walk Worthy

It's incredibly high because it requires death. This cost requires death. Death to your flesh, death to yourself. It's an incredibly high cost, but it's so worth it. So worth it. If the future is uncertain or threatening, we can walk in fear. We can walk with not knowing. We can walk in fear of what may happen tomorrow, but we don't have to. We don't have to because we also have a joy set before us. Just as Jesus said, for the joy set before me. We have a joy set before us. We have an eternal hope, not as the world hopes. In that, we can live with hope. [01:30:10] (60 seconds)  #JoySetBeforeUs

He says, therefore, I, a prisoner serving the Lord, beg you. He writes not from a place of comfort. He wasn't writing from, being on vacation or laying out in the sun. He wasn't writing from maybe, you know, his bedside with, like, a bunch of foods and breakfast in bed. You know, he was not writing from that place. He was literally riding from being in chains chains. He was riding from prison, and his plea carries the weight of suffering and the urgency of one who had sacrificed everything for the gospel. [01:02:20] (34 seconds)  #BeggingFromChains

Paul, a prisoner of the Lord. This is a plea from someone who has sacrificed everything. His chains signify how we are in chains today, that we can be bound by things that we allow ourselves to be bound by. But even in that prison, he was calling out to the people. He was writing letters, he was encouraging, he was begging them to walk in a way that was worthy, to walk in a way that was worthy. He was suffering for the gospel. [01:02:55] (50 seconds)  #ChainedButCalling

The urgency that he had, the urgency that Paul had to his people is still important today. We need to be a people that have an urgency, an urgency as we see and we can say that, yeah, no one knows the time or the day that the the Lord is coming back, but if we could imagine, it would probably be sometime soon. There are things that are happening where there are people who are lost and hurting and dying, and we need to have an urgency. We need to have an urgency. Paul was having urgency begging them, pleading with them. His urgency had carried weight, and it carried weight because he was somebody that had sacrificed everything. He had given up everything. There was an urgency. [01:01:33] (48 seconds)  #UrgencyForSouls

And just as I was sharing in the in the deliverance series, we don't diminish the things that we go through. We don't diminish it by any means. There are those things that we have to push through. There are times where we have grief, and there's a time for that. There's times where we're mourning. There's times when we experience loss. There's death in this world, and those things are very, very real. Very real. But how do we withstand that? With Jesus. We can have joy. We can have a joy so deep within us, so deep in the very pits of our stomach that we feel a peace and a joy even in those circumstances. [01:00:29] (44 seconds)  #JoyInSuffering

But what privileges or rights or comforts is God calling you to surrender? Just like in the kenosis model, just as Jesus emptied himself of the divine, what privileges or rights he had privilege and rights. What what privileges and rights and comfort is he asking you to give up and surrender? Because what if there came a time where we actually had to give up the comfort of some things that are really comfortable? Because there may come a time where that may be necessary. Are we gonna be able to give it up? Are we gonna be able to give up the comfort of having our phone at our fingertips? Where do we need to take the position of being a servant? Where is he calling us to serve? Just like him. Again, this beautiful example of humility. Where do we need to take the position of being a servant? And how can we empty ourselves to be full of the holy spirit? [01:24:53] (72 seconds)  #SurrenderPrivileges

We we know that we don't earn our salvation. We know that this is a gift that has been given to us. We've freely given to us. We accept it, but then we walk in sanctification. We walk in being made holy daily and daily, time and time again. We do not simply earn salvation, but rather we live in such a way that honors and reflects Christ. Right? It's not something that we earn, but because of the gift of salvation, it empowers us to walk worthy. It empowers us. Because of his grace, we can actually face things. We could actually walk in freedom, be set free Because of this grace that we have received. [01:11:25] (54 seconds)  #GraceAndSanctification

There's a way that we walk in this way because it's a testimony to who God is in our lives. Not that we're perfect Amen. But that we're going, we're striving. Right. We're striving to this. That we lead a life worthy of your calling for you have been called. To lead a life that is worthy. This is not just theology. This is actually something that can be very practical. We have the ability to do it. We have everything. God has given us everything to live a life, to live a righteous life. He's given us everything. [01:14:07] (40 seconds)  #LivingTestimony