If we have put our faith in Christ, then we are no longer our own. We belong to Him as His possession. That is why God says to His people over and over again, "You are mine!"

Mine, Mine

John 3:16. The NFL banned Tim Tebow from painting it onto his eye black but football fans seem to have gotten the message anyway. Last Sunday he passed for 316 yards against the Steelers and set a record with 31.6 yards per completion.

(swell)



Why was John 3:16 the most googled search term last Sunday evening? Tim Tebow. He’s quarterback for the Denver Broncos in case you’re not a sports fan and he’s also a believer in Jesus who publically and consistently expresses his faith. He kneels in prayer to give thanks on the field and when the press sticks a microphone in his face after a win he always praises the Lord.

This is Charles Morris . . . program called “Mine, Mine.”



Last Sunday there was another one of those seemingly miraculous passes that gave the victory to the Broncos over the Pittsburgh Steelers. Tim Tebow went down on one knee and thanked the Lord. It’s his signature move and “Tebowing” has become a national movement.

When the press stuck the mic in his face he made his signature statement, "First and foremost I just want to thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He’s done so much in my life.”

Like he always does, Tebow publically and expressed his faith in Christ which means of course that a lot of people are fed up with him. They just want to watch football – leave the religion out of it. But it makes good fodder for the press and for comedy shows. They’ve even done a Tebow skit on Saturday Night Live. All of which is to be expected if you talk about Jesus out in the world. It’s a privilege for believers to suffer at least a little bit of ridicule for their King.

(“You are my king” NewSong)

On Sunday the Tebow phenomenon took a new twist. 316 yards passed and 31.6 yards per completion? It caught a lot of attention that those numbers were the same as Tebow’s favorite verse John 3:16 – the verse the NFL banned him from writing on his eyes black. It actually compelled people to read the Bible. On Monday Brad Pappas who’s a season-ticket holder and a longtime Tebow fan opened up a Bible to check out John 3:16. "If that's where Tebow gets his inspiration, nothing wrong with trying that." There’re a lot of people like Brad – John 3:16 was making google history on Sunday night and most of Monday.

As a USA Today article put it, “the numbers preached.”

An exciting football game, a talented young man using his success to glorify the Lord, and a set of providential statistics and what happens? Millions of people hear the words of Jesus, many of them for the first time. “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.”

If you’re a Tebow fan who read this verse for the first time this week, let me read it again in context so we can all take in what this world-shaking message from God is telling us. This is Jesus speaking:

John 3.14-18 “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

If you’re reading the Bible in 90 Days the story Jesus referred to in John 3:12 about Moses is from Day 12. It comes out of Numbers 21. The Israelites had sinned and as punishment God had sent poisonous snakes among them and they were dying by the scores. And then the Lord provided a weird antidote for the snakebites. A strange anti-venom. He had Moses make a bronze snake and put it on a pole and raise it up. Anyone who looked at the snake was healed.

You read that story in Numbers and you think, “What’s that all about?” But then you get to John 3 and it all makes sense. Jesus is telling us that God was giving a preview through Moses that day – a preview of what his Son was going to do on the cross.

What Jesus is saying isn’t some formula for Tebow-style success. It’s the word of God spoken to his world about what the world needs more than anything else. It’s the word of God that tells us who we are and how desperately we need to be saved. It’s the word of God explaining how that happens. Jesus had to become like the snake – he had to become sin and then he had to be lifted up on the cross. That’s how you can be saved from the deadly poison of sin.

And -- it’s God saying that he loves the world with such a deep intensity that he was willing to give his precious Son up for this. He was willing to provide this amazing antidote so that anyone who looks to him – anyone who believes in him – will not perish – but on the contrary – “They will be given eternal life.”

When Tim Tebow uses his limelight to point to John 3:16 he’s doing what God’s people are meant to do. He’s publically giving glory to God. He’s declaring the praises of Jesus out in the world -- out loud -- for everyone to hear. Every time the spotlight’s fall on him, he directs attention to the Lord and says, “its all about Him. Listen to what HE has to say.”

His faithfulness is reminding a lot of his fellow believers that this is what it’s supposed to look like. This is how we’re called to live if we belong to the Lord.



1Peter 2.9-10 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”



We belong to God. As believers in Jesus – we belong to God. Not to the world. Not to ourselves. “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God.” And what does God want his very own people to be doing in the world? He wants them, “Declaring the praises of him who called them out of darkness into his wonderful light.”



That’s what our lives are supposed to look like. Peter goes on to put this squarely in the context of living out our lives in the midst of an unbelieving world:

“Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”

God is calling us not only to declare his praises out in the world, but to live such good lives that unbelievers will see it and give glory to God. Not give glory to US, notice. The point isn’t that we get a lot of glory. That’s Tim Tebow’s biggest dilemma I think. He’s getting a whole lot of glory. Even believers are having trouble not making it all about Tim Tebow. But it’s not about him – or me -- or you – it’s all about Jesus.

When the spotlight falls on us we’re called to give the glory to God. We’ve been called by God, we’ve been chosen by God, we belong to God and we’ve been given an assignment by God: Declare my praises. Give me the glory. Point to Jesus, and say, “Look at him. It’s all about him.”

This has always been God’s plan. That he would call a people. That they would be his very own people. His possession out the whole world -- unique and distinct – a people he would know and love and bless in ways the world couldn’t help but notice. And they in turn would declare his name among the nations. They would tell the world that their God is the true God.

1Peter 2.9-10 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

Peter is drawing on three passages in the Old Testament:

First, he quoting Exodus 19.4-6 where God is speaking to Israel through Moses after he brought them out of slavery in Egypt:

“You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

Second, he’s quoting Isaiah 43:20-21 where God is predicting that he’s going to do a new thing for his people – a new thing that was fulfilled when Jesus came:

Isaiah 43.18-21 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.

God gave water to the Israelites in the desert but that was in the past. God is promising to do a new thing and he did it by sending his Son and giving us living water to satisfy the thirst of our souls.



The third place Peter’s quoting from is Hosea 2:25 where God is explaining that those who were not his people are going to become his people:



Hosea 2:23 “I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”



By putting all these verse together Peter is saying something truly amazing. He’s saying that God’s plan to have a people of his very own who will declare his praises among the nations has been fulfilled in the people Peter’s writing to. Who are they? Some are Jews, some are Gentiles, they come from all kinds of backgrounds, they’re a mixed and motley group but what unites them, what makes them a people is their faith in Jesus Christ.

Which means he’s talking to us, today, all of us who believe in Jesus. And if we take hold of the two magnificent things he’s saying to us it will change our lives. He’s telling us who we are and what we’re called to do.



First he’s telling us is who we are: that we’re those who belong to God.

We’re his. We’re calling this program “mine, mine.” God says it over and over again and it’s the best news in the world. “You’re Mine.” “You belong to me.” “You’re my very own possession.” “I’m your God and you’re my people.”

Peter’s reminding us that this wasn’t always the case: “Once you weren’t a people. But now you’re the people of God. “

All of us have been called out of one condition into another. As believers in Jesus, we’ve all been rescued, redeemed, brought out of the dark and the cold into the light of God’s presence. We were once excluded but now we’ve been included. We’re God’s people.

Something wonderful has happened to us and Peter’s reminding us that this is a huge mercy. He says, “Once you hadn’t received mercy but now you have received mercy.” What a great mercy it is to have God say, “mine” over our us and over our lives. There’s so much tenderness in it. It’s a word of love from our Father. “Mine.”

Jesus told three stories about lost things in Luke 15 – a coin, a sheep, and a son. In the first two stories the owner won’t stop looking until he’s found the thing he lost. And the reason he doesn’t want to give up is that it’s his – his possession -- and he’s not going to lose it. The woman isn’t going to give up until she finds her coin. The shepherd isn’t going to be happy with just 99 sheep. He’s going to keep looking for that one – why? Because it’s HIS Sheep; it belongs to him.

But in the third story it gets even more wonderful. It’s about a Father who’s lost a son. And he doesn’t stop loving and longing for his son until he’s finally safely home again. Do you remember what the Father says when his son is safely under his roof again? “We had to celebrate because this son of MINE was lost and now he’s found” That’s what it means to belong to God. We’re HIS and he’s never going to let us go.

Mine. Jesus says it, too. “You belong to Me.” It’s his word of love to us, “You’re mine.”

John 10.27-29 “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.”

That’s the first thing we need to get hold of – that we belong to the Lord. That’s who we are – God’s own possession. As Paul put it, in 1 Corinthians 6: 19,20, “You are not your own; you were bought at a price.” The price he’s talking about is the cross.

The second thing we need to get hold of is what we’ve been called to do – that we’ve been called to declare the praises of our God.

1Peter 2.9-10 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

We’re his and we’re called to tell the world about him, to bring him glory, to point to him and say, “My God is the true and living God. He is a great Redeemer. He’s redeemed me and he’ll redeem you.”

Sometimes God puts us in the spotlight by making us successful. That’s what he seems to be doing with Tim Tebow. He sometimes orchestrates things so we have the ear of the world.

But sometimes we don’t have success, we have failure and suffering and those times are just as much opportunities to declare his praises. They’re powerful times when we can demonstrate the reality of our God. People hear us give him glory even when it hurts, they see that there’s some sort of very real transcendent joy even in the midst of our sorrow.

Sometimes it’s just every day life. But if our every day life has been transformed it will bring glory to God. If people hear us praise our God and at the same time, as Peter put it, “they can see our good deeds” then we’ll be bringing glory to our God. And he’ll delight in it. And he’ll make use of it.



(Close- Take My Life and Let It Be- Chris Tomlin with Christy Nockels)