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THE BELIEVER AS A CONTAINER - I Cor. 11:1

I. NORMAN GRUBB TELLS US OF HIS CALL TO AFRICA AS A MISSIONARY

A. I wasn't in Africa long before I felt my Inadequacy

1. It wasn't that I was lukewarm for Jesus, I was His servant to Introduce my African brothers to Him.

2. The Inadequacy I had In myself, was the need to love.

3. After I was among them I felt my need for love, then my need of faith and spiritual power. They were all linked together.

B. Response to the gospel message seemed quite large

1. But I soon found there was more profession than possession.

2. I began to say to myself - are we bringing the Africans anything worthwhile? Am I just bringing them a code of ethics which most didn't follow or do I have something transforming to transmit to others?

3. I made this a personal question - Have I?

II. I SOON DISCOVERED WHEN YOUR MINISTRY IS DISTURBED

A. It tends to disturb your spiritual life.

I. I found myself irritable with my wife and critical of others to cover my own failures.

2. As I doubted and struggled, I began to search my Bible for answers, I found some amazing answers

B. I discovered one of my deepest problems was the attitude that God should improve me.

1. I'm a servant of Christ, redeemed by His grace so I felt that God should make me a better servant

2. 1 thought He would give me some love in my heart and provide me faith power and holiness.

3. I was expecting God to improve me make me a better Christian

4. God had to teach me that self Improvement is both a sin and an impossibility. It came as a real shock

C. Though my idea of how God should answer my problem was completely wrong my sense of inadequacy was quite good. It sent me to the Bible

III. MY ANSWER BEGAN TO UNFOLD THROUGH ONE SIMPLE BIBLE VERSE THAT WE ALL KNOW - GOD IS LOVE. (I John 4:16)

A. The Holy Spirit used one single word and it stuck out from the page. It was the little word IS.

I. It doesn't say God has love but God is Love

2. If someone has a thing it isn't he himself. It is something attached to him like a coat

3. You have it and you can share it - it can even be detached from you and given to another.

B. But the Bible doesn't say God has love but that God Is love.

I. Love therefore is not a thing that I can have as something detached and standing by It self.

2. Love is exclusively a person - God Is that Person.

3. That was a deflation for me - Love is exclusively a characteristic of one person and I was not that person.

C. I thought love could be imparted to me like a B 12 shot in the arm and then I would be loving.

1. God revealed to my mind that day, that I would never have one iota of love. God was saying to me

I am love and that's the end of it.

2. Love is one Person loving and it is certainly not Norman Grubb and It's not you either.

3. I discovered that God is love and love is there fore God loving.

IV. A NEW TREND OF THOUGHT STARTED IN MY MIND

A. I related this whole idea to my other needs - that of faith and power.

I. I found a verse in I Cor. 1:24 where it says that Christ Is the power of God.

2. I had always thought power was something which was given to me and I would be a powerful witness

3. I suddenly found that power Is also a person and that person is exclusively - Christ Jesus

B. Then I came to what every believer claims to have

I. Every Christian accepts the fact they have eternal life

2. Our idea is that we have a life that goes on forever

3. For the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus our Lord

C. But suddenly I found that eternal life is not some thing I have/or Jesus did not say - I have this life to give to you as if it is something apart from Him.

I. Jesus made it clear - I am the life (John 14:6)

2. Once again I find that eternal life is one person only and I am not that person.

3. Jesus Christ is the one who is "the eternal life"

4. The Scripture says - Christ is all - not Christ has all (Col. 3:11)(Eph.1:23)

5. If Christ is all, what's left for me - not much by my mathematics.

D. I thought I was somebody and had something

I. Now I found out God had taken it all

2 Without me ye can do nothing

V. NOW I GOT THE LINK FOR THE FIRST TIME

A. I came to realize the only reason for the existence for the entire Creation is to contain the Creator

I. Not to be something but to contain some one.

2. An important truth dawned, we have believed the wrong concept as to the existence of self.

3. There Is really only one independent self in the universe and I am not that person

B. We are told at the end of human history it is God who will be all and in all (I Cor.15:28)

I. Since there is only one Person the human creation was meant to brought into a living relationship with Him so that he can manifest Himself through us.

2. The whole creation exists because Spirit must have a body through which He manifests Himself (Heb 10:50)

3. The scripture says - the whole earth is full of His glory

4. The heavens declare the glory of God the firmament sheweth (manifests ) his handiwork. (Ps 19:1)

C. Bible says - Christ ascended that He might fill all things.

I. If He fills all things that means that all things are merely containers for Him.

2. Here we have the height and depth of humanity

3. The height Is this - the rest of creation can contain manifestations of God but we contain Him as a Person.

4. A person cannot manifest himself as a person through anything other than a person.

5. We can look at another person and say God is there

VI. BUT THE DANGEROUS DEPTH OF HUMANITY COMES BEFORE US

A. Personality means freedom, Intelligent choice

I. The people God created can turn around and say - Thank you but I really don't want you to live in me

2. That's exactly what has happened - as humans we have made our own self - God.

3. We Just naturally run our own lives and that's our whole trouble.

B. Distorted self - self out of gear is our problem

I. Once we know how to handle the human self and put it back where It belongs, we have found the key to life and living.

2. The position of a human is to be a container of the person who is the life of the universe

3. Will you give Him back the person that we call you this morning.