We took our first text for the sermon from First John chapter one expounding on the fourth verse – “In him was life and the life was the light of men”. To get an in-depth background into the origin of life and its source, we must journey down to the book of Genesis (The beginning). Life outside this flesh (spirit) and also in this flesh started in the book of Genesis, God, in the beginning, started his process of life first in the spirit, he dealt and gave instruction to a man created first in the spirit, he was basically saying that “As you are in the spirit, have dominion over the earth”. But they can’t dominate if they weren’t given life, God had to breathe on them to have life, it was through this breath, their spirit had a soul that God feeds and took interest in.
Text: John 1:1-4, Genesis 2:4-7, Genesis 1:25, John 12:25, Luke 17:33, Matthew 25:14
The greatest thing God gave Adam was life, he didn’t give him an ephemeral life, and by that understanding, Adam realized he was God on earth. The question is how did the ephemeral life become borrowed, and how are we supposed or going to spend this life? Because practically all that God called to existence in Genesis was for Adam, then why the struggle? You must know that before God created Adam and Eve, he made provision for their sustenance, the same holds for us as believers, but sin brought about our struggles, what they had in excess became what they had to toil to get, all these came because of their fall in the garden, it was after the fall of Adam what God made unlimited became limited. What a life!!! – After the fall, the life God gave became borrowed. Now let’s journey through this review:
Life and light walk hand in hand, in fact, we can interchange both, at the point of fall, God had to give them a borrowed life measured in time, and the unit measurement of life is time. now it has nothing to do with the spirit of a man because a spirit does not die, but embedded in the spirit is the soul that God deals with, a compartment of a man that would give account (A soul that sinneth shall die) – your flesh is not in context here, God is relating with the spirit that carries the soul – There’s no way Adam would have partaken in the sin without being in the flesh, it was when he transited from being spiritual to carnality he fell. The devil cannot relate with you when you are spiritual, he can do this when you are carnally minded.
How are we supposed to live our Borrowed Life?
The first thing God gave a man is his word, is the word of God letters? The word of God is the manifestation of the mind and the will of God, the only reason why Adam could fall was that he rejected the word of God. Every time we fall short of God’s glory as Christians is because a particular word of God has been neglected, and that’s why the scripture says that the word that I speak to you is spirit and it gives life. We lost continuity of life because of the fall. The question now is – This borrowed life of yours how are you going to spend it? How are you currently spending it?
Going by how the financial world provides loans to requesting customers, they put into consideration the 5 C’s of credit (CHARACTER, CAPACITY, CAPITAL, COLLATERAL, and CONDITIONS). what do you think they are doing? They are basically checking to make sure you can pay back their loan, nothing more, nothing less. You can’t make a profit from the money you are saving, it is until you invest that money you can make a gain, people who excel in business today, invest. The same goes for the life God has given us. that life was loaned to us, and we are meant to pay back the loan – when you save your life you will not gain for God, Because God borrowed you a life for investment.
That life you have was given to you to invest so you can pay back, how are you spending your borrowed life? how are you investing the borrowed life you have? when the chief businessman comes to ask what you have realized with the life you are borrowed, what will you give? The greatest form of income is gotten from investment, and even the investment done into a promising business is naturally at risk, but Jesus’s “proposal call for investment” is not into a business that is at risk. (At all) He’s saying if you invest your life with me, you won’t lose it (Colossians 3:3). (Amen)
For any loan disbursed to you, there is always a tenure, there’s always a payback plan, do you have your payment plan for the life you are borrowed by God? The Life God has given you, he’s expecting a return from it, are you totally sold out to God? Are you investing in that life? Today we have people invest solely into their flesh and expect a return in their spiritual life, is that how it works? Hope you know that there are rewards for every investment we make and rewards can be either positive or negative. In this life That we are borrowed, we must live by the rules, and play by the rules, most people don’t lead their life they only accept life, when you accept your life and live outside Christ, you are living a risky life, a life prone to death, you must be intentional about this life given to you living according to the rules of God.
The number one rule of life God gave Adam was “do not touch and do not eat”, the moment he broke the rule there came death. Don’t live your life following trends, God is calling us to live this borrowed life according to his rules because he has made provision for the things we need to live that life. Don’t be deceived by peer group definition of life.
Lessons From The Parable of Talents(Matthew 25:14)
Those whom God gave talents in Matthew 25, were first given the ability to invest and that is why none of them had an excuse of not being profitable. The man with five talents multiplied what he had because he chose to invest, he chose to lose them so as to gain, and he chose to ignore what the world called pleasure to gain more for Christ, unlike the one with one talent that decided to hide what God gave him. God is a businessman, he always wants to do a profitable business, and that’s what he did with the Lord Jesus Christ, he gave Christ by losing the life in him to gain the life of his children.
You need to ask yourself, if the life you’re living is worth living, the consistency you have in sinning is it worth it. the time you are spending here on earth, how are you spending it? if you don’t sow into your spirit man, you cannot gain anything, you are losing, you cannot expect a return from a company you have not invested in, you cannot expect to be spiritual when you have not invested in your spirit man.
How often do you talk to your children about scriptures? Your life 5 years ago, you have spent it on something what is it? What influence are you impacting on your children? Brethren, there’s tenure to the life we have now, and a time will come when it will end, how well have you spent your loaned life, were you able to pay it back? Is your character tenable to make you a ruler in the world to come (eternity)? If you are not faithful here on earth, God cannot trust you in eternity.
This is not a sermon to condemn you, it’s a message to get you to reflect on your life, if you need to change something, please do, if you need to continue in the good work keep pressing cos God is counting on us to live a fulfilled life here on earth
I pray God grants us grace to invest our life to gain eternity.