Greatness Will Overtake You: You Got Your Mind and Name Back

Sermon outline

Salvation gave you back the mind of Christ and your true name and identity, so you can think, speak and create like God as greatness overtakes your life.

1. A prophetic word: this is but the beginning of great things

   During worship he prophesies rain on dry land, the drought breaking and dead, shut things rising and opening, not by might nor by power but by the Spirit. God is taking His people on a journey of grace, not hard labour; there will be trials, but grace to overcome each one. Greatness will not merely come upon them but overtake them, and the very giants they face will bring them out of obscurity.

   Illustration: Rain falling on dry and parched land, the ground breaking open and the vine bringing forth its fruit.

   “Greatness is not going to fall upon you but greatness is going to overtake you.”

   • Matthew 19:26
   • Zechariah 4:6
   • Exodus 13:21
   • 1 Corinthians 2:9
   • Romans 12:2
   • 2 Corinthians 3:18
   • Ephesians 4:14
   • 1 Samuel 30:8

2. Let this mind be in you: think like God

   Reading Philippians 2:5 in the King James, NIV and Amplified, he says it would not be commanded if it were impossible, so the mind of Christ can be your mind. Humility is not being subservient: Jesus, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Religious people try to appease and reach God, but the Bible tells us to think, function, speak and be creative like God, and each of us has to do our own growing.

   Illustration: An Irish proverb: your grandfather might be a tall man, but you have to do your own growing. Being raised in a Christian family does not grow you.

   “What the Bible is actually telling us is to think like God.”

   • Philippians 2:5
   • Philippians 2:6

3. Point number one: we got our mind back

   When you were born again you got your right mind back, the mind of God. You are no longer bound to think the way you were brought up; your priorities shifted and everything changed. Like the prodigal, we have all come back to our senses.

   Illustration: He asked a lady how she was doing, and she answered, 'I have the mind of Christ.' He took it as proof that someone had heard the message.

   “When you were born again, you got your right mind back.”

   • 1 Corinthians 2:16
   • Luke 15:17

4. Point number two: we got our name back

   At salvation you got your identity back: son of God, daughter of God, blessed to be a blessing, empowered to prosper. You are also bread of life to others, because people are watching you and feeding on your example. In water baptism you receive His name, and Israel passing through the Red Sea is the Old Testament picture of that baptism.

   Illustration: Israel under the cloud and through the sea, baptised unto Moses, as a type of water baptism.

   “But you and I also are the bread of life simply because people eat of us.”

   • John 6:35
   • Matthew 5:13-14
   • 1 Corinthians 10:1-2
   • 1 Corinthians 10:11