So have you lost it?

 

Have you ever needed an important document and could not find it?

Have you ever thought to yourself that you know where it is, but could not lay your finger on it?

Could that document be a guarantee by chance? Yes it is that same one we only realised we had when the washer starts leaking or worse yet the TV dies.

A survey has been done that shows that most people treat the TV dying as more urgent that any other appliance, we may feel that sense of emptiness without that box??

So we know that we need that guarantee, but we must answer 3 questions to find out a bit more as to why this subject is important…

 What is a guarantee?

Are you guaranteed?

How can we use this guarantee now?

First of all…

 

(I)               What Is a Guarantee?

The Chambers Dictionary defines guarantee as "something that ensures that something else will follow" or "something valuable handed over for keeping till a promise is fulfilled".

We have wondered when we brought that appliance if we have a guarantee or car if it comes with a Guarantee, but…

A.     Did we get a Guarantee?

A guarantee would have to be essential for a large purchase such as a large appliance or any other electronic equipment.

Because we do not know how to rectify a fault that could develop or replace that piece of equipment we need a backup plan.

So on making that purchase we would ensure that some sort of backup of guarantee was in place of part of the deal in case something went wrong.

Because to do otherwise would be foolish, but how many times have we been at a lost because we could not find that guarantee?

What about you?

B.     Can you find your guarantee?

We may find that at just the time when you need that guarantee we cannot find it or we have forgotten or just ignored posting off the guarantee slip that came with that equipment.

But can we find that guarantee if we needed it? Have we or can we get so accustomed to a particular piece of equipment working that we have forgotten that it could fail and ignore that guarantee? Or that guarantee is so forgotten that it is as if we lost it? But what about you?...

C.     Did you loose your guarantee?

Our guarantee was our only means of proving that we have a legal right to rectify or redeem what had been promised to us.

A promise that whatever the problems or imperfections now, everything will be made new.

If we have lost our guarantee, then we are resolved to put things right ourselves, loose out or pay the price for a new one.

So the question is?

(II)            Are you guaranteed? (2 Corinthians 1:8, 9)

Paul was under great stress when trying to spread the gospel in Asia, to the point where he feared for his life, he said "We do not want you to be uninformed brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia, we were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life, indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death" (verse 8, 9)

Paul goes on to urge the church at Corinth to stand firm, but for them, were would they get their sense of confidence from? For them they would…

(a) Use the God Given deposit as a guarantee ( 2 Corinthians 1:21, 22)

Verse 21 and 22 says "Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ, he anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come."

This holy spirit was to be not just theirs, but our guarantee, a guarantee that when we die, we can redeem what was promised.

So how can we be confident or…

(b) Certain of that deposit? (2 Corinthians 3:1-6)

Despite Paul's predicament or sentence of death, he had enough words of encouragement to pass on to the church at Corinth, he said "Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God, Not that we are competent in ourselves, to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God" READ on Chap 3:1-6ff

He continued to say in verse 12 "Therefore since we have such a hope, we are very bold"

As a result of this attitude neither…

(c)   Trials or death could change that guarantee. (2 Corinthians 4:7-12) READ

To show that the deposit given by God was a massive boost to the confidence of Paul, he refers to his and our troubles as "Light and momentary" compared to what we will be receiving. (Verse 17 of chapter 4)

From verse 16 and following, encourages us that if we plan to live an eternal life, we should learn to accept that rewards to come, will be greater than what we have now.

So are we guaranteed? The answer is yes, this is done by the Holy Spirit that every baptised Christian receives.

But now that we know we have this guarantee…

(III)         How can we use this guarantee now?

So we have our guarantee, but we have either put it away, or forgotten about it, if that is the case, then it is no good to us.

We have the resources to redeem ourselves or to make us cheerful at the least, but sometimes because we lack the motivation, we could find ourselves with nothing to look forward to, when the truth is we are blessed beyond measure.

Could we sometimes feel like we are dying of starvation even though we are in a shop full of food?

God has given us the guarantee, but it is we who could not be bothered to make use of it.

For this we must reassure ourselves by asking the right questions like…

(a) Does the guarantee give hope?

Yes it does, we have already seen the apostle Paul say "since we have this hope we are bold" but he says "He has given us this Spirit guaranteeing what is to come" (2 Corinthians 5:5) listen to this… (Romans 5:1-10) says verse 5 "And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us"

If we read on we see that we have received reconciliation, being reconciled to God should give us all the hope in the world, all the hope but also freedom.

(b) Does the guarantee give us freedom?

Galatians 5:1 says "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free, stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery"

Point is when we were immersed into Christ, we were given freedom, and we were given the Holy Spirit.

We can say so much about this, but for us we have freedom, freedom from sin and death.

Romans 8:9-17 READ

(c)   Are we confident of the Goal or prize?

Besides Romans revealing that we are Gods chosen or heirs, in verse 17 we may read on for the ultimate in comfort to verse 39 to see why the apostle Paul was so confident even when faced with the direst of situations his confidence surpasses all for in verse 37 he declares that we are more than conquerors.

 

What better backing could we want that this? To have God on our side is to be on the winning team.


So we have looked at 3 points today…

 

  1. What is a guarantee?
  2. Are you guaranteed?
  3. How can we use this guarantee now?

 

Titus 1:2 says "A faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time"

 

Hebrews 6:18-20 repeats this somewhat by saying in verse 18 "It is impossible for God to lie" the fact that God is the one who made the deposit, guarantee or promise makes all the difference. The scripture encourages us that "We have this hope as an Anchor for the soul"

 

With this guarantee we have the certainty of Gods promise!

 

Preached by Paulus Littrean  15/08/10

       

If you would like to discuss this article feel free to contact the Weston Favell Church of Christ Northampton via our contact us page