MAKING SPACE FOR JESUS MAKING SPACE FOR JESUS

MAKING SPACE FOR JESUS

MAKING SPACE FOR JESUS Omit the Nonessential 12 -01 -19

Intro: Matthew 13: 22 TPT 22 The seed sown among weeds represents the person who receives the message, but all of life’s busy distractions, his divided heart, and his ambition for wealth result in suffocating the kingdom message and prevent him from bearing spiritual fruit.

I John 1: 1 -3 TPT 1 We saw him with our very own eyes. We gazed upon him and heard him speak. Our hands actually touched him, the one who was from the beginning, the Living Expression of God. 2 This Life -Giver was made visible and we have seen him. We testify to this truth: the eternal Life-Giver lived face-to-face with the Father and has now dawned upon us. 3 So we proclaim to you what we have seen and heard about this Life-Giver so that we may share and enjoy this life together. For truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus, the Anointed One.

I John 2: 15 -17 TPT 15 Don’t set the affections of your heart on this world or in loving the things of the world. The love of the Father and the love of the world are incompatible. 16 For all that the world can offer us —the gratification of our flesh, the allurement of the things of the world, and the obsession with status and importance—none of these things come from the Father but from the world. 17 This world and its desires are in the process of passing away, but those who love to do the will of God live forever.

I. GRATIFICATION OF OUR FLESH Matthew 4: 1 -3 TPT 1 Afterward, the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the lonely wilderness in order to reveal his strength against the accuser by going through the ordeal of testing. 2 And after fasting forty days, Jesus was extremely weak and famished. 3 Then the tempter came to entice him to provide food by doing a miracle. So he said to Jesus, “How can you possibly be the Son of God and go hungry? Just order these stones to be turned into loaves of bread. ”

II. ALLUREMENT OF THE THINGS OF THIS WORLD Matthew 6: 22 -24 TPT 22 The eyes of your spirit allow revelation-light to enter into your being. If your heart is unclouded, the light floods in! 23 But if your eyes are focused on money, the light cannot penetrate and darkness takes its place. How profound will be the darkness within you if the light of truth cannot enter! 24 How could you worship two gods at the same time? You will have to hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t worship the true God while enslaved to the god of money!

III. OBSESSION WITH STATUS AND IMPORTANCE The story of Simon the Sorcerer (Acts 8: 9 -24)

Omit the Nonessential I. GRATIFICATION OF OUR FLESH II. ALLUREMENT OF THE THINGS OF THIS WORLD III. OBSESSION WITH STATUS AND IMPORTANCE *Remember, LOVE is talked about 26 times in I John. So I see these three things not as “rules” but as crowding out love!

OUR ADVENT ACTIVITY FOR THIS WEEK: Omit one thing every day that crowds out love.