God is calling you to the light not for condemnation but for freedom! There are things in your life right now that you see plain as day but you are steadily tripping over them. We must bring things to his light if we want to live in freedom and walk in the wholeness he is calling us to.
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
1 John 1:8
“‘Walking’ involves progress, and Christians are supposed to advance in the spiritual life. Just as a child must learn to walk and must overcome many difficulties in doing so, a Christian must learn to ‘walk in the light.’ And the difficulty involved here is this matter of sin.”
Warren Wiersbe
This week we continue in 1 John with Pastor Duane Clayton teaching us about the power of showing Christ's love to everyone around us – not only those it's easy to love.
The bible says that by our love for one another they will know that we are his disciples! The reason why God wants you to love is because he is love. God showed that love by sending Jesus Christ to earth to die for you. Out of that great love, he is asking us to pour it back out on our friends, neighbors, family, and community so that they would see his love through us.
“For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.”
1 John 3:11-15 (NIV)
“Giving up on reality as a whole, either we place ourselves in one of the two realms, wanting Christ without the world or the world without Christ-and in both cases we deceive ourselves. Or we try to stand in the two realms at the same time, thereby becoming people in eternal conflict, shaped by the post-Reformation era, who ever and again present ourselves as the only form of Christian existence that is in accord with reality.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer Ethics 57-58
We have to align ourselves with the way God sees the world and he commissioned the church to do it’s part of his great rescue mission! God sees and hears his people! And his heart breaks for the Israelites back then, but also for his heart is breaking today for the people of Little Rock. What does he do? He acts! And his call to us is to be a part of what God is doing.
“For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.”
2 Corinthians 2:15
“The Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members.”
-William Temple
We must let the word and the Holy Spirit constantly challenge us to go deeper. This week we're asking you to let him search you and challenge you in what is next for you, whether you're ankle, knee, or waist deep - the call is go deeper. Not to be a fully devoted follower of Church - but a fully devoted follower of Christ.
"Then he said to them all: 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.'"
Luke 9:23-26 (NIV)
Unity must be a core value of our local church. Part of maturing and becoming a fully devoted follower of Christ is learning how to maintain a pure heart so we can maintain unity. This week let yourself be challenged and search your heart if there are any ways you can fight for unity in our community. We believe through the grace Christ gives us relationships can be mended. Church hurt can be healed. And trust can be restored!
"Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."
Ephesians 4:31-32
"The devil’s work is to accuse and divide the family of God, and to sow discord among them. When we harbor anger in our heart, we do the devil’s work for him."
David Guzik
Have you ever thought of yourself as a leader? You are! And no one you influence is more important than your family. Leading your family requires loving sacrificially, building trust, and cherishing each other’s differences. Doing this fosters a family culture full of understanding, support, and leadership.
“Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
Ephesians 5:1-2 (NIV)
“Leadership is influence. Nothing more. Nothing less.”
John Maxwell
As a believer do you know that you have access to this same power and spiritual riches that Paul Speaks of in Ephesians? The enemy doesn't want you to be secure in this identity. He doesn't want you to know how God truly feels about you. Because he never wants you to have the healthy relationship with God that God desires and longs for.
“Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.”
Ephesians 1:4-6
Some of you are in a Spiritual battle — but still fighting a person. Your problem is not a person or a circumstance. Your battle is spiritual and God's will is to equip you for that battle in a spiritual way. Not with your own skills, talent, or equipment – but with the armor of God.
"...our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."
Ephesians 6:12
Is Christ in you?
Our vision at New Life Church is that we are a community living in covenant love with each other. A covenant is distinct from a contract in that each side agrees to uphold their side of the agreement whether or not the other is faithful. We have to fight to stay in relationship with each other and we can only do that from the model and power of Christ’s love. We want to live on fire in our faith, but without committed Christ centered relationships the fire will always go cold.
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”
John 15:9-12 (NIV)
“God brings people together from many different backgrounds and renames them ‘the people of God.’ He then gives them a shared purpose in the world to build His Kingdom.”
Jon Tyson | Kingdom Values
God uses missional disciples to disrupt a local community, to share the love of Christ with conviction. Then, through the testimony of changed lives, he will expand his kingdom and we can bring glory to him. This call should lead us to be believers who are bold and full of conviction walking in the power of the authority he has given us so we can use it to point others back to our source.
“When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say.”
Acts 4:13-14 (NIV)
“It seems clear that the aim of Roman authorities was not particularly to execute Christians, but to turn them from what the authorities (and large numbers of the public at large) saw as their perverse and dangerous allegiance. That is, the object was not death but conformity to the demands of the imperial authority.”
Larry W. Hurtado - Why on earth did anyone become a Christian in the first three Centuries
What we do forms our loves, and what we love or desire directs our lives. The problem comes when we don’t recognize that our habits form what our hearts love and desire. This week we look at how we can - as Christians - resist seemingly innocent cultural practices and liturgies that so deeply are aspiring to recruit and form our hearts and imagination.
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)
“We unconsciously learn to love rival kingdoms because we don’t realize we’re participating in rival liturgies.”
James K. A. Smith | You Are What You Love
What do we do when the odds are stacked against us? How do we respond when it seems like there's no way out? As the world changes we must stay true to our foundation which is the Word of God.
"After this, the Moabites and Ammonites with some of the Meunites came to wage war against Jehoshaphat. Some people came and told Jehoshaphat, 'A vast army is coming against you from Edom, from the other side of the Dead Sea. It is already in Hazezon Tamar' (En Gedi). Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah. The people of Judah came together to seek help from the Lord; indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him."
2 Chronicles 20:1-4 (NIV)
As we continue through the book of Daniel we're asking ourselves how can we avoid being formed by our culture and instead bring the kingdom into our culture.
"If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty's hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."
Daniel 3:17
Jesus called anyone who wants to be his disciple to give up their live which means surrendering your mind, will, and emotions to him.
"Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.'"
Matthew 16:24-25
Today we are going to stay in the book of Daniel and specifically look at how we can learn from Daniel and his friends about how we can intentionally build healthy guardrails as people of faith that can help keep us on the right path for the long term just like Daniel walked out over decades. As we bow our knee to Jesus and make him Lord, he begins a refining process in us of using conviction and care to mold us into who he wants us to be.
“Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, ‘King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us[c] from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.’”
Daniel 3:16-18
We often feel we have one of two options when looking at the pressure of living in a secular culture: We can either separate or assimilate. The book of Daniel shows us there is a third option: We don’t have to separate or assimilate, but we can redemptively participate in the cultural moment we find ourselves in. God has called us to radically integrate into our culture in order to accomplish His redemptive purpose on the earth. Daniel shows us in order to do that we must be consecrated people, set apart and obedient to the Lord, all the while being totally present to our current cultural moment.
“Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that an offering and incense be presented to him. The king said to Daniel, ‘Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.’”
Daniel 2:46-47(NIV)
“Modern man, however, seeks to be ‘true to himself.’ Rather than conform thoughts, feelings, and actions to objective reality, man’s inner life itself becomes the source of truth. The modern self finds himself in the midst of what Robert Bellah has described as a culture of “expressive individualism”—where each of us seeks to give expression to our individual inner lives rather than seeing ourselves as embedded in communities and bound by natural and supernatural laws. Authenticity to inner feelings, rather than adherence to transcendent truths, becomes the norm. This modern self, then, is not accountable to the theologians who preach on how to conform oneself to God but to the therapists who counsel how to be true to oneself.”
Carl Trueman - Strange New World
If you are wanting to live a life of faithfulness to Jesus in commitment to God’s plan and His design, everything around you in our cultural moment will rage against that. We live in many ways in a digital Babylon that condemns moral guidelines, champions immorality, and condemns those who won’t celebrate this new moral vision. God has called us to build a life, plant deep roots, grow our families, to bring prosperity to the cities we call home and to endure.
“But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs,”
Daniel 1:8-9 (ESV)
“We should pause and note how the story highlights Daniel’s wisdom. For one thing, it suggests Daniel is wise simply in his recognition of how critical this moment and matter could be. This episode didn’t have ‘crisis’ written all over it like the raging fire of chapter 3 or the ravaging lions of chapter 6. The circumstances here are far less electrical and so all the more subtle. Sometimes ‘smaller’ commitments made along the way fortify faith to plant its feet when it has to meet more severe threats.”
Dale Ralph Davis - The Message of Daniel
Methods and vision can change as we adapt to the ever changing circumstances of life, but it's our values that determine who we become and what we do with our lives! Values form our decision making, our priorities, and our financial decisions. As a church we have strong values that shape the way we look at things and how we make our calls regardless of what the political climate is, what the cultural pressures are and what our personal preferences are!
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Ephesians 2:8-10 (NIV)