March 1 – 7, 2008

LIVING FOR JESUS

In this lesson you will learn that some people are living selfishly for fun, pleasure, and self-gratification.  Others are trying to make a living, and others just exist. God’s desire is for you to live for Him.  Living for Jesus is a lifestyle.

 

I.                    How to live for Jesus – 2 Corinthians 5:14-21.

A.     Verse 14 – It is the love of Christ that compels us. “Compel” means to move, constrain, and control.

B.     Verse 15 – Those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

C.     Verse 16 – Regard no one according to the flesh.

D.     Verse 17 – If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

E.      Verse 18 – You have a ministry of reconciliation.

F.      Verse 19 – God has committed to you the word of reconciliation.

G.     Verse 20 – You are an ambassador for Christ.

H.     Verse 21 – You are the righteousness of God in Christ.

 

II.                 When you live for Jesus, you will love people – 2 Peter 3:9.

A.     God told Jonah the prophet to go and preach to Nineveh. It was a very wicked city and Jonah hated the people of Nineveh. He got in a boat and went the opposite way, but he couldn’t run from God. There was a storm, Jonah was thrown overboard, and a fish swallowed him.  After three days in the belly of the fish, the fish spit him out and Jonah went to Nineveh and preached to the people.  They repented and the people were spared. Jonah was angry that judgment didn’t come on the people. God told Jonah He had compassion on the people and it wasn’t His desire to destroy them but to see them repent.

 

III.               You were saved for a holy calling.

A.     Ephesians 2:8-10 – “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” – v.10.

B.     2 Corinthians 3:5-6 – “Our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant….”

 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  • When did you quit living selfishly and begin living for Jesus?
  • Do you have a problem with judging certain groups of people?
  • What are the good works you are walking in right now?

 

BE A DOER OF THE WORD

This week evaluate your life in the light of 2 Corinthians 5:15, and ask yourself if you are living for Jesus on a daily basis.

 

SCRIPTURE MEMORY VERSE: 2 Corinthians 5:15 – “And He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.”