Sermons

Dear friends,

What is it that God really wants from you?  If we don’t get this question right nothing will ever be right.

This Sunday I will teach part two of the series, “MADE ALIVE FOR A PURPOSE – FAITHFUL FELLOWSHIP”  Jesus rose from the dead to offer resurrection life to all who would receive Him. He did that to bring us into a love relationship with God.

1 Corinthians 15:19-22, For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.

1 Thessalonians 5:9-11, For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.  Therefore, encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.

Did you get that?  He died for us so “we will live together with Him”, all the time, starting now!  So that whether we are awake or asleep, – we will live together with Him.  It is easy to quickly loose our focus on the relationship. It becomes a focus on some subjective rules about behavior or self defined holiness. It becomes performance based and success driven.  God’s ways are higher than our ways. I am convinced if we will return to a focus on what God wants, God will begin to trust us and use us as never before.

I can’t wait to see you on Sunday.

Blessings, Joe

Small Group Questions

• What are ways we can be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ?
• Share an experience where your mind was captured with something other than Christ.
• How can followers of Jesus lose their peace and joy by focusing on the wrong answers?
  examples {politics, legalism, work ………}
• How can toxic religion lead you into spiritual ruin?
  

  2Co 11:3-4, But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. 4For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully.

• How can our culture or personal preferences, create a different gospel that has no intimacy with Christ?
• Why is it so easy to leave your first love with Christ?
  

  Rev 2:4-5, ‘But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. ⁵Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place–unless you repent.’

• What are the effects of your distance from Christ on your loved ones?
  will remove your lampstand out of its place–unless you repent.
• What holds you back from drawing near?
  

  Jas 4:8, Draw near to God and He will draw near to you