Living A Larger Life.

11 Dear, dear Corinthians, I can't tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. 12 We didn't fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren't small, but you're living them in a small way. 13 I'm speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!

2 Corinthians 6:11-13 [MSG]

22 “Now the Lord has given us room and we will flourish in the land.”

Genesis 26:22 [NIV]

3 Principles That Help Us Live Larger. 

1. Honor – What Do I Carry? 

12 We didn't fence you in.

2 Corinthians 6:12a [MSG]

55 “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t His mother’s name Mary, and aren’t His brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? 56 Aren’t all His sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” 57 And they took offense at Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town and in his own home.” 58 And He did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.

Matthew 13:55-58 [NIV]

6 When they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. 

2 Samuel 6:6 [NIV]

18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory…

2 Corinthians 3:18 [NKJV]

7 Casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully]. 

1 Peter 5:7 [AMP]

3 I will give them a spirit of praise in place of a spirit of [heaviness] sadness.

Isaiah 61:3 [NIRV]

2. Humility – How Do I Carry It?

12 The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren't small, but you're living them in a small way.

2 Corinthians 6:12b [MSG]

6 God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

James 4:6 [NLT]

10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

Proverbs 9:10 [NIV]

4 Humility is the fear of the Lord.

Proverbs 22:4 [NIV]

6 Therefore humble yourselves…that He may exalt you in due time.  

1 Peter 5:6 [NKJV]

7 “You have made Him for a little while lower than the angels; You have crowned Him with glory and honor, And set Him over the works of Your hands…”

Hebrews 2:7 [AMP]

8 “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. 9 If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. 10 But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. 11 For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Luke 14:8-11 [NIV]

13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” 14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 “But what about you?” He asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Matthew 16:13-15 [NIV]

19 Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. 20 He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.” 21 They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.” 22 Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”

John 1:19-23 [NIV]

3. Hospitality – Why Do I Carry It? 

13 Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!

2 Corinthians 6:13 [MSG]

6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God… 

Ephesians 2:6–8 [NIV]

10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:10 [NIV]

14 When He arrived, He saw a great crowd waiting. 15 When it was evening, His followers came to Him and said, “Send the people away so they can go to the towns and buy food for themselves.” 16 But Jesus answered, “They don’t need to go away. You give them something to eat.” 17 They said to Him, “But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish.” 18 Jesus said, “Bring the bread and the fish to Me.”    

Matthew 14:14-18 [NCV]

8 One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat. 9 She said to her husband, “I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God. 10 Let’s make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us.” 11 One day when Elisha came, he went up to his room and lay down there. 12 He said, “Call the Shunammite.” So he called her, and she stood before him. 13 Elisha said, “Tell her, ‘You have gone to all this trouble for us. Now what can be done for you?”

2 Kings 4:8-13 [NCV]