Your Spiritual DNA - 1
Devine Determination
November 5, 2006
Pastor Paul W Newell

There are things about me I just can't change.

I don’t say that to make any excuses – there are plenty of things about me that I can and probably should change. Maybe after church I’ll ask Terrie and the kids to make a list (not!).

But, there are some things that I just can’t change.

For one thing, I can’t change the fact that I’m bald. It came with me from my Dad and both of my grandfathers. I’ve always assumed that what was going on inside my head take so much energy that there’s none left to grow hair! I can’t change my baldness.

I can change whether or not I gain weight, but I can’t decide where the fat goes or where it comes off first. That’s one of those traits that I inherited from by parents.

Did you know that whether or not you have hair growing on the back of your hand or not is an inherited trait? If you do, that’s called a dominant trait; if not, it’s recessive.

How about earlobes? If you have detached (dangling) earlobes – that’s dominant. If they are attached, that’s a recessive trait. And in my case, since I have one of each – I’m just really messed up – but most of you already know that!

All of that stuff is about traits. It’s about your genes, your DNA.

Deoxyribonucleic Acid: [dē-oxy-rībō-nūclāic] acid

There are over 20,000 different genes in your DNA – closer to 25,000! And those 25,000 can be paired to make over three billion pairs. That’s why all of us are so different and at the same time have so much in common!

You could say that we all are wearing a whole much of designer genes! And with three billion pairs – we’ve got a lot of laundry to do!
You can change a lot of things about you – but your DNA still determines a lot about who you are. You might try to do against your physical make-up, but it’s difficult to say the least, if not impossible. (Bald is bald...hair transplants are pretty painful!)

Our physical DNA is responsible for most of what we are physically.

What I want to do this morning – and for the next several weeks – is talk about a different kind of DNA. I want to talk about our spiritual DNA.

Just as our physical DNA determines a lot of what we are physically – our spiritual DNA determines a lot of spiritually.
Our spiritual DNA is at the very root of what we are as Christ followers.

Things change when we become Christ followers. The Bible calls it being “reborn” in John chapter three. It tells us that when we become Christ followers the old things are gone and we are given a new nature – new DNA, spiritual DNA.

As Christ followers we can try to go against our spiritual DNA – but we will be miserable if we do. We will be most fulfilled with we live by our spiritual DNA.

DNA – A Devine Determination (In other words, we don’t quit!)

In the second letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul makes a huge statement. One that’s not only powerful, it’s promising. It gives us incredible hope and confidence. Here’s what he says:

“As the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

That’s awesome! The more God’s Spirit works inside us, the more we become like Jesus and others see it.

God is working – we are changing – and the more He works, and the more we change – the more others notice.

Take hope and be confident that God’s is working inside you – and just waiting for others to notice what He’s doing!

But the next statement is just as powerful and with it comes the first part of our Spiritual DNA:

1 Corinthians 4:1, “And so, since God in his mercy has given us this wonderful ministry [simply displaying to the world what He is doing inside us], we never give up.”

That’s it! WE NEVER GIVE UP.

The first part of our spiritual DNA is that we never give up. DON’T GIVE UP!

I call it our DEVINE DETERMINATION. We don’t give up.

[He who has begun a good work in you...]

It is ingrained, “gened” inside us to keep living for God. Anything else is going against our God given spiritual DNA and we will be miserable.

I’ve had young believers approach me before saying they wanted to quit being a Christ follower. For whatever their reason, usually tough times or misunderstandings with other believers, but for whatever the reason, they wanted to quit.
My typical response has always been the same: “You can try, but you won’t be happy. You will in fact be miserable if you try to quit God. God never quits us, He never lets go.” But, if we try to act like we’re not believers – we will be miserable. It goes against our DNA.

The Apostle says, “We never give up...” and he doesn’t say it just one – he repeats himself at the end of the passage, look down a little bit –

2 Corinthians 4:16, “That is why we never give up.”

He makes the point twice and sandwiched in between those two powerful determinations are a few reasons why we never give up.

I’ll be honest; sometimes I want to give up. A couple of times I’ve even tried to give up – but I was miserable. A long time ago I began a relationship with Jesus Christ that just won’t let me walk away and be happy – and neither can you.

We don’t give up: because we have the TRUTH.

We have the TRUTH (4:2)

“We tell the truth before God, and all who are honest know that.”

There is a phrase that I am really weary of hearing: “Truth is relative.”

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard, “Truth is relative.” There’s your truth and then there is my truth. (John 14:6)

Well, let’s clear something up this morning – something is either true or it’s not. There is no such thing as relative truth. It’s not an issue of your truth and my truth – there is only the issue of what is true.

Pilate, the Roman governor who questioned Jesus before his crucifixion asked the ultimate question, “What is truth?” (John 18:38). People continue to ask that question. But just because people may question the truth doesn’t make it any less truth.

We hold in our hands the ultimate truth: God’s Word the Bible. It has proven itself not only accurate historically, scientifically, and theologically – it’s proven itself in our lives experientially. The Bible is THE TRUTH, Jesus Christ is THE WAY, THE TRUTH and THE LIFE...

So why do so many people take so much energy to fight the truth – the next part of the passage tells us why.

If the Good News that we preach is hidden, it is hidden only to those who are lost. The devil who rules this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe. They cannot see the light of the Good News—the Good News about the glory of Christ, who is exactly like God.  (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)

People fight the truth because they are blinded; they can’t see the light of the Good News.

I’ve always lived in the city and at night we used to lay out in the front yard and look at the stars. They were beautiful. But I remember the time when my Dad took us up into the mountains, away from the city camping. That night after we set up camp, we laid down and looked up at the sky – what an awesome difference! It was as if the entire sky was glowing. I had no idea there were so many stars, I had never seen them before – so many and so bright! But I was looking at the same sky! Where had all the stars been when I was laying in my front yard in the city?

The different was the light. In the city there were lots of other lights. House lights, street lights, lights from signs and lights from cars. There were lots of competing lights that blinded me from seeing the true sky and stars.

We have the truth and there are lots of people in this world who are blinded to the real truth because of all the stuff that’s in the way.
We can’t give up because doing so would be to walk away from the truth and live by a lie. No one wants to live a lie.

We can’t give up – we never give up – because it’s not about us anyway.

It’s Not about Us! (4:5)

Verse five says, “We don’t go around preaching about ourselves; we preach Christ Jesus, the Lord. All we say about ourselves is that we are your servants because of what Jesus has done for us.” (4:5)

When ever I fell like quitting it’s usually, no always, because I’m focused on me. Well, it’s not about me.

There’s a paradox here that needs to be explained: It’s not about you or me, and at the same time it is all about you and me.

It’s about what God is doing in this world. It’s all about God’s glory and His purposes. But at the same time – His glory and purpose is worked out through you and me. Nothing matters to God more than you and me. And while it’s all about God – God is all about us!
With that said, when we keep that in mind – that paradox – we can understand that we don’t have to focus on ourselves. Instead we can focus on serving others and just keep going.

People are watching us. (4:7-8)

You see, people are watching us. When people see you and me they need to see Jesus. In the same way that people saw God the Father when they looked at Jesus, people need to see Jesus when they look at us.

“For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made us understand that this light is the brightness of the glory of God that is seeing the face of Jesus Christ. But this precious treasure-this light and power that now shine within us- is held in perishable containers, that is, in our weak bodies. So everyone can see that our glorious power is from God and is not our own.” (2 Corinthians 4:6-7)

We don’t give up, we can’t give up because people are watching us. They need to see Jesus Christ through us. They need to see that even though we are weak – because of our weaknesses – that it’s God’s power working in us.

We can’t give up – because we’re the only Jesus some people will ever see!

Talk about paradox – look at the next part of the passage:

“We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you.”  (4:8-12)

When people see that even in the middle of tough stuff – God is still there in our lives – it attracts them to Jesus. People are watching and Christ followers who are real, normal people bring others to Jesus and they accept His eternal life.

We can take that to the bank!

We can believe it because it’s “tried and true”.

I like that, Being a Christ follower is ‘tried and true’! It’s true and I’ve experienced it for myself.

That’s what the Apostle says next: But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist has when he said, “I believe in God, and so I speak.” (4:13)

By the way – all of us are preachers – not just the ones who stand up here on Sundays. Preachers are “proclaimers” and whether we like or not – we’re all proclaiming something every second we breathe. We’re all preaching something in everything we say and do – or don’t say or don’t do. I’d rather be proclaiming and preaching the truth!

But we can preach the truth – we never give up – because we can count on God. “I believe in God, and so I speak.” That’s confidence based on experience with the truth!

Our Spiritual DNA drives us to keep going for God.

As a church and as individual believers – we can’t give up! We never give up. It what we are attempting for God doesn’t work one way – we’ll try another – but we never give up. We can’t.

Attempting to give up on God would make us miserable because we have the truth, God is working, people are watching and we can’t count on God!

But there is one more vital reason why we never give up – it’s at the core of why we never give up – here it is,

We never give up because people’s lives are hanging by a thread and we are their only hope! Look at verse fifteen:

“All of these things are for your benefit. And as God’s grace brings more and more people to Christ, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory! That’s why we never give up.” (4:15-16)

People need Jesus and God is using us to get them to Him!

Our Spiritual DNA shapes us with much more eternal consequence than our physical DNA ever will. And at the core of who we are is that DEVINE DETERMINATION, that God given desire to keep going for God.

Maybe you’ve toyed with the idea of quitting, slacking off, or walking away from the commitment you made to Jesus Christ. Know this – no matter what you do, or how miserable you become – Jesus will never walk away from you. He never let’s go!

If you’re in the middle of an attempt to walk away – and realizing that it doesn’t work – He never let’s go. All you have to do is turn around and realize that Jesus is still there hanging on – working in you and through you. Just give in and stop fighting what He’s doing!

And for the others of you who are in the upswing of your commitment – realize that we don’t quite. We won’t quit. We can’t quit.
We have the truth that this world needs to hear and see.

God is working – people are watching.

You can count on God.

Our friends, family and neighbor’s spiritual destiny is counting on us – never giving up.  Our DNA is a DEVINE DETERMINATION – We Don’t give up!

Making It REAL
Applying Today’s Talk  To Real Life

“That is why we never give up.”  2 Corinthians 4:16