YOUR COMPARTMENTS PIECE TOGETHER TO MAKE YOU

You are a puzzle, made by God.

=>PUZZLE example.

How do we put together a puzzle?
 Outside first.
 Then area by area.

GOD IS EVERYWHERE, ALL THE TIME

O LORD, you have examined my heart
and know everything about me.
You know when I sit down or stand up.
You know my every thought when far away.
You chart the path ahead of me
and tell me where to stop and rest.
Every moment you know where I am.
You know what I am going to say
even before I say it, LORD.
You both precede and follow me.
You place your hand of blessing on my head.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too great for me to know!
I can never escape from your spirit!
I can never get away from your presence!
If I go up to heaven, you are there;
if I go down to the place of the dead, you are there.
If I ride the wings of the morning,
if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
even there your hand will guide me,
and your strength will support me.
I could ask the darkness to hide me
and the light around me to become night--
but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.
Psalm 139:1-12

God has been there all the time,
 waiting for you and me to wake up to His presence.
ASK: Where is "there"?  Everywhere.

Do you realize that you walk on holy ground all the time,
 but are moving so fast and returning so many calls
 and writing so many emails and having such long to do lists
 that you are missing God?
ASK: Think back over this past week;
in what situation was God trying to gain your attention?

IT'S ALL GOD, ALL THE TIME

Col. 3:23 Work hard and cheerfully at whatever you do,
 as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.

"Whatever you do" is all-encompassing.
 That's everything we do.
This is why it is impossible for a Christian to have a secular job.
If you follow Jesus and you are doing what you are doing in His name,
 then it is no longer secular work; it’s sacred.  It's for God.
You are there, God is there.

ASK: What would it take for you to start being aware of God wherever you go
 instead of compartmentalizing God and leaving Him at "church"?

The ultimate goal is to be conscious of God moment-by-moment.
Heaven will be nothing but the presence of God, 24/7.
 So the goal should be to move in that direction now.
 To appreciate every blessing,
 to notice God's handiwork all around us,
 to know His unconditional love for us all the time.

GOD HAS PLANS FOR YOU...REALLY

Small living is when salvation is all about me…
 me being saved…me having my sins forgiven…
 me being reconciled to God.
Could we be "limiting" God when the end result is inviting Him into our lives,
 when actually that is only the beginning
 and God is inviting us into His story,
 and then inviting us to join Him in inviting others into His story?

REMOVING A COMPARTMENT
And if the ear says, "I am not part of the body because
I am only an ear and not an eye,"
would that make it any less a part of the body?
Suppose the whole body were an eye--then how would you hear?
Or if your whole body were just one big ear,
how could you smell anything?
But God made our bodies with many parts,
and he has put each part just where he wants it.
1 Corinthians 12:16-18

All our compartments piece together to make a whole you.

But, we pervert was God has made.
If you have a compartment that is causing you to fall,
 God would rather you get rid of it.

Consider what Jesus said...
If your right eye causes you to sin,
gouge it out and throw it away.
It is better for you to lose one part of your body
than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
And if your right hand causes you to sin,
cut it off and throw it away.
It is better for you to lose one part of your body
than for your whole body to go into hell.
Matthew 5:29-30

Now I am not telling you to cut off your hand or poke out your eye.
The goal in life is not to eliminate sin or to just sin less.
The goal is to be transformed into a fully devoted follower of Christ.
Elimination of sin is a result of becoming a FDFOC.
It's one thing to be forgiven,
 it's a totally different thing to be transformed into what God
 intended for us.

Since God is everywhere, all the time,
 we cannot hide our compartments from Him.

GOD WANTS ALL OF US
I want to challenge each of us to confront compartments of our life
 that we have been unwilling to examine.
 Determine what would prevent you from honoring God
 and consider what measures you could take to change it.
We might discover that we are allowing Him to rule only small portions of us
 and not the whole of us.
I want to challenge each of us to give Jesus full access and authority
 to every "room" in our lives.
 You may have to open some "rooms" and dark "closets"
 that you have sealed and declared off-limits to God.

Remember:
He made all of you,
He knows all of you,
He wants you to surrender the totality of who you are to Him.