In
Matthew 9:13 Jesus says that He had come not to call the righteous, but
sinners.
In
Luke 15:7 Jesus says, “That there is more joy over one sinner who repents than
over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”
Jesus
indicates in these verses that there are people who believe themselves to be
righteous and have no need of repentance or change in their lives. Jesus didn’t
come to call those people who see no need for Him and no need to repent. He did
come to call people who recognize their sin and acknowledge it and are willing
to turn from it.
When
we recognize our sin and see the need to repent and for Jesus to transform us,
what do we do?
1
Peter 5:6-8
Humble
yourself, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He
may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you. Be
sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a
roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
You
humble yourself under God’s mighty hand.
To
humble is to recognize our position in relationship to God. He is Lord and when
I recognize that, let Him be the sole ruling authority of my life, I have
humbled myself.
Humbling
myself is not putting myself down, seeing myself as of no value or believing
that I not loved. It is simply knowing that Jesus is my Lord.
When
I humble myself under God’s authority, He exalts me. And when God exalts me, I
am not going to fall from that exaltation.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is humbling ourselves under God’s authority
and letting Him exalt us when and how He wants.
Cast
all anxieties and sins and failures and hurts and wounds on Jesus.
When
Jesus died on the cross, He carried all of our sins, all our fears, all of our
failures, and all of our diseases and bore them for us.
We can cast them on Him because He cares for
us. Jesus loves us and His perfect love for us casts out all fear.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is casting everything upon Jesus because we
know that He loves us and will take it all.
We
need to be sober-minded and alert.
We
need to live every day being alert:
By
keeping our focus on Jesus
By
knowing that God is for us not against us
We
need to be sober-minded and alert because we have an enemy, Satan, who wants to
destroy us.
We
should never under estimate Satan’s hatred of us and that he is stronger than we
are.
We
should never under estimate God’s love for us and His power over Satan.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is living alertly to the attacks of Satan and
the power of God to overcome him.
When
Jesus says that He came to call sinners, not righteous, He is saying that until
we acknowledge that we are sinners (all have sinned) we will never see and
acknowledge our need for Him. We will thus never turn away from how we are
living and repent and turn to Jesus.
We
all have sinned and come short of God’s standard. So, I am not to judge you. I
am to acknowledge my own sin and allow the Holy Sprit to empower me to turn
from my sin and come to Jesus, knowing He will accept me.
In
Humility and Repentance Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,
Joe
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