Communion: Your Destiny – Jesus Alive in You

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

Your destiny is for Christ to live in your place. That’s your destiny. That has always been your
destiny. Even our use of the surname reminds us that Leitschuh, or Neveaux, or Overby, or Nelson is
the family name. It emphasizes the human succession that brought you here to this world. But
similarly our use even in these secular days of the term Christian name makes it plain to you that
from earliest days, when the child was baptized or christened he was given a Christian name. That
is the name that Christ was going to be known by in that person.

And so you can see in great wisdom the early church fathers established a practice which even in
these days tells us, “You are not your own, you were bought with a price. And the purpose of your
existence is that Christ would live in you but he would, in this case, be known as Joanne, as
Martha, as Marty. I think it’s our great privilege to have a personal – I hate even using the word
because it’s become such jargon but your great privilege and mine is to have a personal interaction,
at least I’ll change it from relationship, to Jesus. But to have a personal interaction with Jesus
every day so that he is able to live that day the way He wishes.

And each day that you have on earth is intended to be a great adventure. And the mixture of
cynicism and skepticism with which we greet that statement indicates how deeply we have become
buried in our own self so that we tend to have big adventure Monday, big adventure Tuesday. Oh
yeah, it’s trying to elevate the pedestrian and the boring into the exciting and the sensational by
the use of language but it isn’t. Tomorrow is an adventure for you if you step aside and let Jesus
do what he wants to do with tomorrow.

But I’m with you, I’m with you, I understand it fully we have so preoccupied ourselves with
ourselves. We are so full of ourselves, we are so preoccupied with our habits, with our mannerisms,
with what we have done in past Mondays that it is like trying to cut through a 12 inch thick wall of
steel to knock us off that perch. Because, even though we may not look like very strong people we
are like bulldozers when it comes to commencement of Monday morning and to another day. And so
that’s why I want to say to you so plainly, you have a great life ahead. It’s to let Christ have
his place.

Now I think, there are many reasons why we don’t, one is our habits, our practices in the past. The
second one is that we fall into the same trap obviously as the Jews fell into, they missed the
immediacy and the freshness of actually thinking, “Christ this is your hand going out. Christ, this
is your mind – what are you thinking? What do you want to do now?” They missed that and they
turned it into law. And I understand fully that that is what we do.

That when I say to you, “Your destiny here on earth is for Christ to live his life, the life that he
planned to live in you. Your destiny is to let him live that life and to express that life with
your hands, and your feet, and your arms, and your legs, and your eyes, and your mind, and your
emotions.” I understand that when you hear that you turn that immediately into, “Oh yes, I know,
yes I have to try to image what Christ would do in this situation. Now, let me think … what would
he do? Well, I remember what he did with Oswald Chambers, and I remember what he did with Peter in
that instance in the New Testament.” And before you know it – you’re into a whole series of laws
and imitations, and practices, and principles, and habits, and yet again Christ is standing behind
saying, “Eh, em…. look here I am.”

“But you did this with Peter. Yes, I remember that he did that. Now, in this situation I remember
Pastor said you should…” “But, I am here to do it myself.” “Yes, but I remember what eh, eh, eh
Lloyd Jones said, or I remember in this situation…” And that’s it. Somehow or other we’re
preoccupied with the law and with the way to be like Christ and Christ to say, “I am here. I do not
need you to be like me I am within you to be myself; let me.” And that’s it.

I don’t think I’m dumb, I know and you know, that that is a bigger surrender. That is a bigger
surrender than the other one. The other one is a controlled one, “I ought to do what Oswald
Chambers – give me a freedom not to do it. I ought to do what Lloyd Jones did. I ought to do what
Pastor. It stood gave me the freedom not to do it.” This surrender doesn’t give me that freedom.
This surrender means I can put this along with other things. “I ought to try to be like Christ
there but of course, I have my own interest over here and I know what I want to do with the
afternoon. I should remember in the afternoons George Muller always used to…. so I should try to.”
So again, I’m in control. Consider this instead – I’m not in control – indeed I have no other
interest but this Person. I know nothing except Christ and him crucified.

For me to live is not doing like George Mueller, doing like Oswald Chambers, and doing all the other
things I want to do myself and I’m interested in doing – it’s Christ only. It’s Christ alone, he
is everything to me. He is the whole center of my intentions, and my interest, and my attention.
He is everything. I am – if you like, I know nothing except Christ and him crucified. For me to
live is Christ. For me to live is not this, and this, and this, to me to live is Christ.

All I’d say to you is that is why we were created. That’s why we were created. All the other
things are, as that piece in the scripture says, you know, that we use so often, “Is a civilian
pursuit.” All the other things are civilian pursuits. But you see I think, sometimes we feel, “Oh
no! Christ! ….. so every moment I have a long robe, and I’m healing lepers?” That’s stupid.
Christ is the one that made tennis rackets, Christ is the one that made the birds, Christ is the one
that made water skis, Christ is the one that made the wind, and the sea, and swimsuits, Christ is
the one that made music. Of course, he wants to do all kinds of things in you and through you.

But do you see, I think we still get into a religious picture that we ourselves could not bear to
live and so we end up looking back at that picture from time-to-time and looking at the things we
ought to do, and then living all the other things. It’s not. It’s Christ. Christ planned to live
in you a life here in the 20th century that he alone could live and a life that he could live in you
alone, in no one else can he live it. And that’s what our life is for and that’s why I saw in a way
each day is meant to be an adventure. We’ll, we joke about that little guy, we say, “Oh what would
he do?” Well of course any time he saw us getting dressed at all he’d say, “Okay, where are we
going? Where are we going?” And he’d be jumping up and down eager and anxious to get going.

And of course it’s funny because when we traveled you know, we’d get out the bag, he’d jump on the
bag because he knew he stood a better chance of maybe somebody getting him into the case, you know.
That’s what it was meant to be. “Lord, what are we going to do today? What are we going to do
today?” Not, “Well, I have to do this and that, and I have to remember this,” and I, I, I, right in
the center of it all the big producer and director of the whole show. No, “Lord, what are we going
to do today?” That would please him so much.

Let us pray. Dear Lord, how little you ask of us and how much you have given to us. How little you
ask. What joy would fill your heart if we stand out of the way and accept that we have ceased to

exist, that blessedly we have ceased to exist on Calvary and we have been crucified with you and it
is no longer us that are alive but you who are alive within what used to be us. Oh Lord Jesus, we
would look into your face and dwell upon this reality until you make it real in us every second of
our lives.