Many Christians struggle to know what God is thinking and where God is leading us. But I want to show you today that we can know where he’s leading us. God wants us to know what he’s thinking.
Our big idea today is that God is leading us into a lifestyle. He’s leading us away from sinfulness and into Christlikeness. We’ll see this in one of the most helpful passages I’ve ever seen in the Bible.
We never outgrow the need to face our fears. If anything, there’s more to be afraid of as we get older. Most of us have to deal with social pressures and temptations. Some of us wrestle with guilt, or we have bad habits we can’t overcome. And all these challenges can take away our freedom. They can prevent us from becoming everything that God made us to be. But the Bible tells us that we’re meant to be free.
Today I want to talk about the greatest kind of freedom in the world, which is freedom from sin. A lot of people are not very interested in freedom from sin. We all need it, because sin breaks our relationships with people and with God. But if we can find freedom from sin, we can have healthy relationships with people and healthy relationships with God. We can live forever with him. Our sense of freedom will spill over into every part of our lives. That’s why I think freedom from sin is the most important freedom in the world.
So, my big question today is: how can we enjoy the freedom that God intends for us? My big idea today is that we need to commit to a precise understanding of the gospel, which is the good news of Jesus. A precise understanding of the good news will help us to be properly inclusive and properly exclusive. I want to show you that there’s freedom in being properly inclusive and properly exclusive.
The Bible tells us, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8).
In other words, every Christian messes up and falls into sin. Now, there are different kinds of sin. Some sins are more obvious, like lying, stealing, and sleeping around. Sometimes, sins are less obvious, like greed, and a lack of love. That can be just as bad, if not worse. So there are different sins, and pretty much every Christian falls into some pattern of sin. But we have a God who takes our sins seriously.
My big question today is: “What can we expect from God when we fall into a pattern of sin?”
I want to show you that God responds like a good parent. He responds with discipline and unconditional love. Seeing that it’s Mother’s Day I think it’s worth pointing out that many of our mothers have given us those two things. And in doing so they’ve done God’s work. Because we all need discipline and unconditional love.
The Bible tells us that we have a God who is powerful and active and He’s working everywhere. Jesus told us that God sends rain and sun upon both the righteous and the unrighteous. He feeds the birds of the air and He clothes the flowers of the field. He works in all things for our good, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. So God is actively involved in every good thing that happens. You can say that God’s grace is like sunlight because every part of the world experiences the grace of God and the power of God.
And yet there are some people who experience a concentration of God’s power. So they’re able to do things that a normal person can’t. And I think that’s a good thing. I believe the world needs more powerful Christians because there’s so much brokenness around us. There’s so much pain and loss and anxiety. If only we could have more power from God to make things right.
So, my big question is: How can we have more power from God? Today I want to show you an answer from the Bible. The answer is that we need to take action on God’s words without twisting them.
When churches emphasize spiritual experiences, there are often false prophecies and false miracles. It’s also very common among those churches for people to abuse the Bible because they want to claim the Bible says certain things when it really doesn’t. So some skepticism is healthy.
On the other hand, it’s possible to be too skeptical. And if we’re too skeptical we could end up opposing God himself as he works among us.
So my big question today is: How can we be the right kind of skeptic?
My big idea today is that we need to be as truthful as possible.
And to be as truthful as possible, we need to:
1. Seek the truth
2. Accept correction
There’s a lot of information out there that’s not worth remembering. Once in a while we come across an idea that’s so precious that everyone should know it. Today I want to talk about one of those super important ideas. It’s an idea that will more or less determine the success or failure of a Christian’s life.
So my big question today is: How can we be successful Christians? Meaning, how can we be Christians who fulfill God’s mission and also end up as the happiest people in the world?
My big idea today is that we need to really know Jesus, and we need to really follow Jesus.
Some people know Jesus a little bit and some people follow Jesus a little bit, but we need to really know him and we need to really follow him.
That’s what we’ll see in our Bible passage today.