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You may listen to this message on my Anchor podcast Moving K.O.R.E. WORD by clicking on the link here: Episode 7

In the previous message, Vociferous for Unshackling Chains, I take a stand against sexual predators and stand in the gap for the healing of those abused, take a stand for equality of all races, and take a stand against abortion…  I go on to share how GOD has influenced my life multi-culturally…

In this message, I will refer to GOD our FATHER and HIS SON JESUS as having vested interest in us who are Believers and even more so the lost.  They also represent being the Shareholder of us HIS children. The first meaning of vested to show up when doing a search for it is:  secured in the possession of or assigned to a person.  When a person confesses sin and accepts JESUS as Savior and LORD in their life, one becomes the secure possession of the Good Shepherd.  One is assigned as a child of GOD adopted into HIS family in and through JESUS…

GOD the FATHER has vested interest in all of humanity to include you and me and everyone else.

John 3:16-17 (NIV) 

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

GOD the FATHER has vested interest in HIS SON JESUS and sent HIM to save us…  Thus, GOD the FATHER has vested interest in us then as well…

John 15:13 (NIV)

¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

JESUS has vested interest in the lives HE saves and proves it with greater love being shown…  HE laid down HIS life by dying upon the cross to rescue us from sin, death, and hell…  HE purchased us with HIS shed blood to keep us, hold on to us, and to continually invest into our lives as HIS own.  We are of utmost importance and value to HIM -more than any of the most successful companies and more than any of the richest stock in the world being owned…  We who believe and trust in HIM are HIS treasure…

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV)

¹⁹ Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ²⁰ you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

In the Merriam Webster dictionary, a shareholder is one that holds or owns a share in property…  As the Shareholder, JESUS purchased us with HIS life so that we could be adopted into GOD the FATHER’s family for all eternity…  GOD the FATHER then, is also the Shareholder of all of us who believe and trust in JESUS…  HE loves us, provides for us, and protects us… all because of what JESUS has accomplished on our behalf…

John 10:27-30 (NIV)

²⁷ My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one.”

Since we are purchased with JESUS blood and have become HIS sheep, we have security in HIM in which we have the promise of no one being able to take us from HIM nor are we ever taken away from GOD the FATHER…  We have double protection and so we have secure possession…  We are HIS own… So let us live our lives through the Spirit…

Romans 8 (NIV)

Life Through the Spirit

8 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ² because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. ³ For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

⁵ Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. ⁶ The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. ⁸ Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

⁹ You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. ¹¹ And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of^[e] his Spirit who lives in you.

¹² Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. ¹³ For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

¹⁴ For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. ¹⁵ The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” ¹⁶ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. ¹⁷ Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Present Suffering and Future Glory

¹⁸ I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. ¹⁹ For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³ Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴ For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

²⁶ In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. ²⁷ And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. ²⁹ For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. ³⁰ And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

More Than Conquerors

³¹ What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³ Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We have been assigned the position of adopted sons and daughters and become heirs of GOD and co-heirs with Christ…  HIS investment into us becomes our investment in HIM…

If you are in Christ, be encouraged that:

• there is now no condemnation
• you are set free from the law of sin and death
• your mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace
• the Spirit of GOD lives in you
• by the Spirit, you are able to put to death the misdeeds of the body to truly live
• the Spirit in you makes you adopted as a son or a daughter
• you wait patiently in hope for the redemption of your body
• the Spirit intercedes for you
• in all things GOD works for the good of those who love HIM
• you are predestined to be conformed to the image of HIS SON -who are called, justified, and glorified
• GOD is for us
• no charges are against us nor are we condemned
• JESUS, HIMSELF, intercedes for us
• we are more than conquerors through HIM who loved us
• nothing and no one will be able to separate us from the love of GOD that is in Christ JESUS

Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)

¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

We are given spiritual blessings in Christ that are and will be our inheritance…

In the Merriam Webster dictionary, vested interest means fully and unconditionally guaranteed as a legal right, benefit, or privilege.

Since HE has vested interest in us… we have rights, benefits, and privileges from our secure relationship with HIM and from our assigned position as adopted children reconciled to GOD our FATHER…

Ephesians 1 (NIV)

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,

To God’s holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus:

² Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Praise for Spiritual Blessings in Christ

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. ⁴ For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love ⁵ he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. ⁷ In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace ⁸ that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, ⁹ he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, ¹⁰ to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

¹¹ In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, ¹² in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. ¹³ And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴ who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

Thanksgiving and Prayer

¹⁵ For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, ¹⁶ I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. ¹⁷ I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. ¹⁸ I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, ¹⁹ and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength ²⁰ he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, ²¹ far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. ²² And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, ²³ which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

JESUS, as the Good Shepherd, will go to great lengths to provide for and protect HIS sheep…  HE owns the sheep, so HE is committed to keeping them in HIS watchful care. However, there are sheep that tend to wander off.  If left on their own, they may very well get lost, fall prey to a predator, or get stuck with inability to free themselves.  What does JESUS do in these situations?  What is GOD the FATHER’s heart toward such a one?  Since HE has vested interest as the Shareholder over every single sheep, HE will not abandon the one that is off on its own and alone…

Matthew 18:10-14 (NIV)

The Parable of the Wandering Sheep

¹⁰ “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. ^[11] 

¹² “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? ¹³ And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. ¹⁴ In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.

The Good Shepherd will search until HE finds the lost sheep and will joyfully carry him/her home.  Not only that, but there is also rejoicing in Heaven for having found the 1 lost sheep…

Luke 15:1-7 (NIV)

The Parable of the Lost Sheep

15 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. ² But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

³ Then Jesus told them this parable: ⁴ “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? ⁵ And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders ⁶ and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ ⁷ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

HE leaves the 99.

Photo by Dibya Jyoti Ghosh on Unsplash

This may be my most favorite passage of all the Bible, for it reveals the heart of GOD the FATHER and the Good Shepherd’s unconditional love for the one sheep that wanders off, is lost, and is missing from HIS flock.

HE looks for the 1…

Photo by Callum Blacoe on Unsplash

It is intimately meaningful to me for it includes me in this story for I’ve been the one sheep that wandered off.  I fell into a deep dark pit of despair.  I became prey to the enemy for a time.  I turned to the LORD and called on HIS name.  JESUS, the Good Shepherd, left the 99 in search for me -the 1.  HE found me, brought me out of the pit with HIS mighty right hand to rescue my soul from the depths of Sheol.  HE carried me in my brokenness and I learned to listen to, be comforted by, and trust in HIS still small voice…  My new found desire was now to stay close to  HIM as the Shepherd and Overseer of my soul…  GOD the FATHER forgave the guilt and shame for having gone away from JESUS and the LORD restored my soul and redeemed my life giving me new purpose and vision.  Since HE did this for me, I know HE desires to do the same for you…  HE will in HIS timing and way if you call on HIS Name…

HE lifts the 1 up and carries the 1 home…

Photo by FOYN on Unsplash

HE listens to all of Heaven rejoice at the return of the 1 lost sheep that has been found…

Photo by Jaka Škrlep on Unsplash

JESUS has accomplished the greatest feat ever attempted and forever to be attained for you…  HE won salvation for you to live for all eternity in Heaven with HIM…  JESUS is everything you’ve desired to obtain within and offers what you’ve desired that will sustain the spiritual, mental, emotional, physical, and social wherewithal to encompass you all about:  prioritizing peace, provision, protection, and purpose purchased for your very life to propel you forward when fixing your eyes on HIM who is the Author and Perfecter of your faith…

Isaiah 53 (NIV)

1 Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
² He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

⁴ Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
⁸ By oppression^[a] and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.^[b]
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.

¹⁰ Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the Lord makes^[c] his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
¹¹ After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life^[d] and be satisfied^[e];
by his knowledge^[f] my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
¹² Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,^[g]
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,^[h]
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.

 

If you know JESUS as Savior and need HIM to find you as your Shepherd, you may call on HIM to rescue you from wandering off to carry you back home with HIM where you belong…

Here is a prayer you may pray from your heart:  JESUS, I’ve wandered off and need YOU to carry me back home to where YOU are.  I’ve been hurt deeply being away from YOU and ask that YOU restore my soul and heal my wounds…  I need YOU to anoint my head with oil to relieve my stress and to fill my cup to overflowing with YOUR unfailing love…  In YOUR Name JESUS I pray Amen.

Psalm 100:3 (NIV)

³ Know that the Lord is God.
    It is he who made us, and we are his;
    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

 

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Remember:  JESUS love you…