Big idea: Who we are determines what we do. As followers of Jesus we have a new identity and if the big idea holds true, there should be new activity in our lives that builds our faith, leads us in what the Bible teaches, and we will constantly find ourselves in spaces where we are a light.
How is your listening? Where are you at with having your heart tuned in to hear what God would have to say through His word? We all want to be good soil that produces a hefty amount of maturity, but it takes effort to move forward in our spiritual journey. There is no such thing as neutral when it comes to your spiritual life. You’re either backpedaling away from God or moving towards Him.
This section shows us a woman who looks to Jesus and puts her faith in Him and hears that she is forgiven. This is what we want for everyone who attends Vertical! Forgiveness and restoration with our Heavenly Father can be found in the person and work of Jesus. Tim Keller puts it so well: We are more wicked than we dared believe. We are more loved than we dared hope.
There is good news this morning that comes in a hard story of reality. God is well aware of all that you have, are, and will go through and NONE of it has or will surprise Him, and He’s not abandoned you. He’s inviting you to embrace His Son…the author, sustainer, and perfector of our faith. Let’s lean in and fully embrace Him because He’s all we have and He’s all we need. Only God can help us understand that.
Jesus is very serious about living a life marked by faith. Where faith in God is found there is life, power, vitality. Where faith is absent people do what is right in their own eyes and there is often a lot of pain, sorrow, and destruction. Knowing this, it would be crazy for us to head for the exit without doing an inventory of our heart to see where God is working and inviting us to join Him in our journey of being a disciple that follows Him.
We are saved by, sustained in our faith, and will be fully rescued in the person and work of Jesus…we can never forget that. There are a ton of practical application points to this message that help us move in a discerning way navigating the craziness of our world and all the minefields that exist by keeping our affection and attention on Jesus and making much of Him.
Jesus lays it out there pretty clearly! We are blessed if we’re poor in spirit, hunger and thirst for righteousness, mourn, and are persecuted. But, woe to us if we’re the opposite of these. So, where are we? Hard to really see what’s going on inside with all the noise of life. We need to find some downtime and assess our heart and we will find that it’s going to be dark, selfish, wicked…and…it’s OK to not be OK, but it’s not OK to stay there. We’ve learned what it means to live a blessed life.
So far, Jesus’ ministry has been operating in a “Come and See” way. These verses switch gears as He calls people to come and follow Him which means they are getting ready to engage in a “Go and Die” life. It’s no longer just listen to the sermons, receive ministry, stand at a distance b/c these men are about to get a total life overhaul of their lives and the world will never be the same as a result. We will look at some of the early disciples lives and consider how to dive into the deep end of what it looks like for us as a disciple of Jesus where we move from “Come and See” to “Go and Die” so that others might “Come and See” and learn to “Go and Die”…it’s the church or it’s lights out!
In Luke 6 we see that the battlefield is the Sabbath, but the issue at stake here is LEGALISM. Just like the previous week, we see religion pop up again! On one side we have Jesus who is a rescuer, redeemer, and restorer inviting people into relationship VS religion who is a punisher that pounds people into submission out of devotion to the regulations and rules. Martin Luther said: “Religion is the default mode of the human heart” and we’re going to do battle with that tendency this week!
How far will God go to save people separated from Him because of their sin? Who is He willing to forgive and offer life, purpose, and meaning to? He saves the ungodly, the lawless, unholy, profane, immoral, liars and anything else you want to add to the list that is contrary to a life that takes sound teaching from the Bible and rightly applies it to life. Broken and repentant people realize they have fallen short and are rescued because of what Christ has done and through faith in Him, turning from a self-ruled life, and following Him as Savior and Lord, forgiveness and restoration are found. I Timothy 1:8-17 is a good reminder that we will find mercy as Jesus demonstrates His perfect patience and shows us what redemption looks like for those who believe and experience eternal life.
The Bible puts it pretty simply for us: If you’re filthy…come to Jesus and He can and will cleanse you. If you’re guilty…come to Jesus b/c He can and will forgive. And if you’re religious…knock it off!
When we gather Sunday’s, it’s often called a “Church Service.” But, that’s not it at all…it should actually be considered a training exercise that is focused on teaching truth that teaches us what it means to love God to then take what we learn and go apply it. We need to be prepared for the battle raging out there for our marriages, kids, relationships, time, and money that has been entrusted to us and when we employ what Jesus teaches it changes us!
Jesus has a busy day and preaches, heals a demon possessed guy, and then heals Simon's mother-in-law. Lots of spiritual activity with some study of the enemy, spiritual warfare, and keeping focused on Jesus. Through it all we do believe that there is an enemy, but we EMPHASIZE Jesus and He is central to our thinking, doctrine, and we should be enamored with Him. HEB. 12:2 tells us to fix our eyes on Him!
Today…if you’ve heard His voice then head to the feet of Jesus and ask Him what the next step looks like. HS is prompting you towards obedience…don’t let that nudge on your heart become a callous that makes it harder and harder for you to hear from Him.
Fasting and Temptation. We can walk in freedom and life by the power of HS, as we study Scripture, realize we have an enemy, look for the way of escape, and celebrate the victory we have in Jesus…we are no longer slaves to sin but adopted as sons and daughters into a family and Kingdom that will stand for eternity b/c of Jesus.
Lots of names! Behind all these names we see God is faithful to work generationally! This week we will explore the human and God side of Jesus and venture into a BUNCH of other verses declaring the hypostatic union where He is 100% God AND 100% man at the same time.
When truth is taught there are two types of responses: some repent, some fight. John baptizes Jesus and in being baptized Jesus is essentially saying that the message is true and He sets the example to follow.
Also, we see an example of obedience for EVERYONE who would follow Him (Matt. 3:15). If we were to engage in a simple study of the NT we would see that EVERY SINGLE baptism occurred AFTER someone placed their faith in Christ.
Around Vertical we want to encourage people to consider not what the church says, not what Dave thinks, but what does the Bible teach as it is our final authority. Another week pressing into the importance of baptism.