Sermon notes 12-29-2019

New year, New you

Same Jesus! 2019

  

Acts 2:42–47 (ESV)

⁴² And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 

⁴³ And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 

⁴⁴ And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 

⁴⁵ And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 

⁴⁶ And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 

⁴⁷ praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. 

1^st thing we need to do is make our church healthier!

⁴² And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 

⁴³ And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.

·      I like to call this tightening up the four walls!

o   We must evaluate if we have the right classes

o   Enough bible studies

o   Things for every maturity level

o   Do we do enough on Sunday morning (our party) to make guests welcome? 

·      What do we need to do with the facilities?

o   We need to finish the youth building and office space building

§  Conference room

§  Counseling room

o   Do we need more events that our church can attend?

§  Where can you get plugged in

§  Where can you help to make our church more well rounded

·      We need Good solid expository preaching

·      And basically, getting ready to welcome more people in and expecting God to send us more every week

·      And we all need to be a part of this!

2^nd we have to start working and learning together!

⁴⁴ And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 

·      How do we come together?

·      How do we get one common goal?

·      We do that by making sure all our spiritual needs are met

How do we do that you ask? 

We look at the different segments of growth we all walk through spiritually and make sure we are fitting the needs of all segments!

There are four segments

Exploring Christ: The people in this segment have a basic belief in God, but they are unsure about Christ and His role in their lives.

·      They need activities

·      They need fun

·      They need fellowship

·      They need this to start building trust and relationships

·      Salvation is not about a prayer, it’s about a relationship with Jesus and His people

Growing in Christ: The people in this segment have a personal relationship with Christ. They’ve made a commitment to trust Him with their souls’ salvation and for eternity, but they are just beginning to learn what it means and what it takes to develop a relationship with Him.

·      This is new believers and represents most of our church congregation

·      They need small groups

·      They need bible studies 

·      And they need a place to serve

·      If you’re in this segment get plugged in and get involved

Close to Christ: The people in this segment depend on Christ every day. They see Christ as someone who assists them in life. Daily, they turn to Him for help and guidance for the issues they face.

·      These folks have a solid growing relationship in Christ

·      Instead of being fed they need to be feeding others

·      If you’re in this segment step up and lead a small group or bible study

·      You should be a member of the church and on a consensus team somewhere

Christ-Centered: The people in this segment would identify their relationship with Christ as the most important relationship in their entire lives. They see their lives as fully surrendered to Jesus and His agenda, subordinating everything to His will and His desires.

·      These people should be leading the direction of the church

·      Looking at the churches needs not their own

More questions?

·      What segment are you??

·      What do you need to be doing to help yourself grow?

·      Show up on Wednesday for a class?

·      Get plugged into a small group?

·      Lead a small group?

·      Get on a team?

·      Become a member?

3^rd  We must support the church and those in it!

⁴⁵ And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 

GOD HAS BIG PLANS FOR THIS CHURCH!

·      There is no reason when there is a body of committed believers that the church should struggle

o   It shouldn’t struggle to support the pastor

o   It shouldn’t struggle to support the mission of the church

o   It just should never happen

·      In the state of the church address, you will hear more but here are a few of the facts

o   20 families supported approximately 85% of the financial burden of this church

o   our budget is that of a traditional church of less than 100 

·      if you are a regular attendee of this church you should support your church 

o   regularly

o   specifically, when needed

o   sacrificially

o   joyfully

·      if you can’t support your church and its mission, why are you here???

o   These are tough questions you need to ask yourself 

Hebrews 5:11–13 (NLT)

¹¹ There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen. 

¹² You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. 

¹³ For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. 

4^th  we have to build relationships in the local church, we need a local church and we need to belong to it!

⁴⁶ And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 

·      What does it mean to be a member of a church?

·      Publicly

o   We acknowledge we are a member of the church publicly

o   Through baptism

o   Regular attendance

o   And participating in the business on the church 

·      Socially

o   We form our relationships in the church

o   Our social calendar revolves around the church

·      Affectionately

o   Our close relationships come from the church

o   The people we call family are in the church

o   We lovingly help and hold accountable the people in the church

o   My dad always said “be around the people you want to be like”

§  That sometimes means changing your friends

§  That sometimes means walking away from some folks

§  But take it from me it works

§  I have been with rich people and found money

§  I have run with rebels and been a rebel

§  I have run with outlaws and been an outlaw

o   But the most rewarding change in my life is when I surround myself with true believers in Christ!

§  Not Sunday social butterflies 

§  Not “blessed” Christians

§  But true heartfelt, bible believing, Jesus followers! 

·      Financially

o   We support the mission and needs of the church

·      Ethically

o   We live a life that will not bring shame to our church

o   We strive to hold other members to that standard

·      Spiritually

o   Our spiritual growth comes from the church

·      SUBMITTING TO UGLINESS

o   We are about the ugly business of living our ugly lives together

o   And helping others with their ugly lives

Lastly,  

We do our part and we let God add to our numbers!

⁴⁷ praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. 

·      We praise God

·      We love on each other

·      We serve each other

·      We support the church

·      We serve the church

·      We do our part, and we can all do better at this, even me

·      And when we do that, it will ooze out of the pores of this church

·      If we live our faith daily

·      If we live the gospel out in our daily lives

·      Just like our savior did

·      He will add to our numbers daily

o   He will add hurting people

o   He will add addicted people

o   He will add the people that need him the most

o   Because we are living out his mission

o   Not just reciting it!

Remember what we founded this church on!

John 13:34–35 (ESV) 

³⁴ A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

³⁵ By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Sermon Note2 12-22-2019

What Jesus wants for Christmas!

Preparing to receive the lost!

Week 4 (hope)

  

And today we talk about Hope!

Worldly Hope

An optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's life or the world at large. As a verb, its definitions include: "expect with confidence" and "to cherish a desire with anticipation."

Biblical hope 

Is the confident expectation of what God has promised and its strength is in His faithfulness.

Here is the way I see it:

Worldly hope can and usually leads to destruction

·      Worldly hope rarely turns out good

·      Because the chances are, it won’t happen

·      And we can easily turn hope into expectations!

·      We say things like:

o   "I don't know what's going to happen, but I hope it happens."

o   Or “when I walk in that room, I hope it’s clean”

John Piper:

hope, as we typically think about it, is a desire for some future thing which we are uncertain of attaining.

And thinking like that sets us up for false hope!

False hope: is hope built entirely around a fantasy, a hope that has no knowable chance of coming to fruition.

·      False hope is devastating

·      It causes us so much pain

·      False hope leads to false expectations 

o   And that leads to all sorts of problems

o   It is a major reason for depression

o   For mental issues of all kinds

o   I see it in marriages

o   I see it with parents

o   I see it in life in general

I would say the biggest issues I see today are built around false hope and unrealistic expectations! 

Biblical expectations lead to healthy hope

1 Peter 1:3 (NIV)

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy, He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 

·      God is the God of hope. 

·      He is the foundation on which our hope is built

·      He is both the object of our hope and the author of it. 

·      Any hope will deceive us if it is not tied to God

John Piper: “Biblical hope not only desires something good for the future, it expects it to happen.”

·      All of our hope is tied to the word and promises of God

·      When we anchor to that we start to get healthy expectations

And healthy expectations allow us to be so much more!

·      We start to see things through a clear viewpoint

·      We understand that things are not always going to be perfect

·      That we will suffer

·      And that we will wait

·      And that we will get through it

·      That there is a light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how long the tunnel is

·      We start to get healthy hope and healthy expectations!

How do we build our hope in God?

1 Timothy 1:1 (NIV)

¹ Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, 

·      Hope is a portion or part of faith. 

·      Faith and hope, are overlapping realities: 

·      hope is faith in the future tense. So most of faith is hope. 

JP: The Bible says, "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17). This implies that hope, like faith, is also strengthened by the word of God. Hope comes from reading His precious and very great promises and looking to Christ who purchased them.

·      Hope comes from the promises of God rooted in the work of Christ.

So, we:

·      We stay in God’s word

·      We stay around God's people

·      And we live life together leaning and clinging to the promises that God has made

·      Putting all our hope and faith in that!

And our hope is not just in this life!

1 Corinthians 15:19 (NLT)

¹⁹And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. 

C.S. Lewis says:

Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do.

·      Sometimes all we have to hope for is what awaits us on the other side

·      And when we don’t see light at the end of the tunnel, we know there is hope, there is peace, there is joy waiting on us in Heaven

·      And when we cling to that hope it allows us to persevere today!

Our Peace is in Jesus!

Hebrews 6:19–20 (ESV)

¹⁹ We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 

²⁰ where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever. 

·      When we get a hope that is anchored in Jesus, we are anchored to a rock that does not waver

·      And when we have hope we have an inner peace

·      And when we have inner peace, we find Joy in this life

·      And when we have joy in this life during all circumstances, we are free to love others completely!

·      And when we have some of that going on, we will be a light to a dark world!

Communion! 

If you look back over the last 3 weeks our hope should be grounded in the birth, life, and death of our savior and big brother Jesus!

And so today we will take communion! 

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 (ESV)

²³ For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed took bread, 

²⁴ and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

²⁵ In the same way, also He took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

²⁶ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.