All right, well, good morning, everybody! It is so good to be back. Missed y'all.
Yeah, it's all right. I missed you more than you missed me, apparently, but that's all right. It's still good. I still love you.
But we had an amazing time in Japan. I'm sitting down today 'cause apparently I got old, and jet lag didn't used to affect me at all. Like, it was just fine. Apparently, those days are over 'cause I am riding that Struggle Bus hard this morning.
So we got back Friday night, and it's all just kind of a blur. Then my body decided it would be really cool to take a cold back from Japan with me. So I got like that cold symptoms with jet lag, and so I need your help this morning.
We're going to have a good time, though. Life Share Christian Center in Nagayo, Japan, sends their greetings. They say hello to everybody. We really had an amazing time, and I want to show this picture to you.
This is worship last Sunday morning inside of the church building that you helped purchase. So hey, CLC, y'all are awesome, and you're making an impact through your giving all over the world. There's a congregation there that's able to worship together because of your generosity, even though you never saw them or went there on your own. You made a difference in their lives.
Honestly, I think you would love this church a lot because it is a bilingual, multicultural church. I mean, there are people from America, Brazil, Nigeria, really all over the world in that little congregation. What God is doing through them in a nation that's only 1% Christian population is absolutely incredible, and I'm so excited to see what God is going to continue to do through them over the years.
You can be a part of that. You get to see it firsthand if you'd like to next year because we are bringing a team back to Nagayo to minister. You can see it for yourself and experience what God is doing in Japan next year. I believe we're going in November of next year, so you've got a little bit of time.
I'd love to tell you more about the trip, but we are in part— is it five already? Is it part five of our series walking through the New Testament? I've got a lot of ground to cover. I was telling Pastor Jerry before service that I think my message today was actually supposed to be a five-week series.
So I'm going to do my best to get through all of the content that I have for you, but I am absolutely going to be leaving you wanting more. We're not going to be able to go quite as deep into some of the things as I want to, so I'll tell you a little bit about how we're going to continue this conversation later.
But let's jump into Sunday morning Bible school. Now, for those of you— I got two people that are excited about Bible school. For those of you that didn't sign up to go to Bible school on this beautiful Sunday morning, I'm sorry, but not really, 'cause I think this is going to be good for you.
I think that we all need to really engage our minds when we come to God, right? I hope you enjoyed worship today. I hope you got a chance to say hi to some friends. But ultimately, if we do not engage our minds when we come into the presence of God, we're missing out on so much that He wants to do in us and through us.
Our faith in Him becomes very superficial; it becomes very emotion-driven. That's not how God created us. He gave you a mind for a reason, and He gave us the Bible so that we can understand this is not just another book. It is the very words of God, and He's given it to us so that we can come to Him, so that we can understand Him better.
This book that He's given us also sets us up on the path to the purpose that He has for our lives. Here's the thing about the Bible: it has everything that we need to follow God and to live the life He's called us to. But we can't just be owners of the book. We can't even just be occasional readers of the book. No, no, no. We must become students of it.
So once again, welcome to Bible school this morning!
All right, bad news is there are no diplomas being handed out as you leave today. Good news is there's also no student loans, so you know, it kind of balances out.
We're doing this series honestly because, as a pastor, I want the church that I lead to know their Bibles so well that if any preacher, myself included, starts to say something to you that does not line up with the Word of God, you know enough of your Bible to say, "Wait a minute, no, that's not what it says in here."
So that when you're watching that TikTok Christian say some utter foolishness, you can swipe on past and say, "No, no, no, that ain't what the book says."
We don't get caught up in the crazy because we know what our Bible says. That's the whole premise of the series: that it's not just enough to read your Bible; you need to become students of it, study it, and then apply it to your life.
Today, we're going to load up the front half of this conversation with the Bible school stuff, and then I'm going to do my best in the second half to kind of bring it all together with some applications. We're going to have information and application as we look at the General Epistles today.
If the guy next to you falls asleep in the first half, just elbow them real hard for the second half so that they get the meat.
Are you ready to get nerdy with your Bibles?
All right, we're looking at the General Epistles. These are eight letters written by five guys not named Paul. That is essentially the description of the General Epistles. You have the Pauline Epistles, what Paul wrote, and then you've got everybody else.
We have four known writers: this is James, Peter, John, and Jude. Then we have one unknown writer, the writer behind Hebrews. We don't know who it is, and we'll get into that more in a little bit.
All five of these men are Jewish writers who are writing to a mostly Jewish audience, which is different than Paul. Paul was writing primarily to Gentiles with a little bit of Jewish culture mixed in. This is the exact opposite; it's pretty much all Jewish with a little bit of Gentile mixed in.
This means the General Epistles can actually become a little bit more challenging for us to understand in today's context unless you've been very familiar with your Old Testament, which is why we talk all the time about reading the entire Bible and not just focusing on the part you like.
As we learned last week— and I did watch the message in Japan— as we learned last week, Paul wrote to specific churches or specific people to address specific issues. While that's partially true as well for the General Epistles, some of them are calling out specific people in specific churches.
Really, largely, the General Epistles are written to a much broader audience. The entire body of Christ was the intended audience for the majority of these letters. Many scholars believe that these letters were even written for distribution, so you would read it and then pass it on to another believer so that the entire body of Christ would be encouraged and edified.
This is great for us today because that means the General Epistles are a little bit easier— once you get past the Old Testament references— for you to just take and apply to your life today. You don't have to do any kind of gymnastics with it because it was written for your consumption. It was written for you to take and to run with.
We're going to take a look now at our very first letter, which is actually three letters: First, Second, and Third John. These are John's letters. These are written by the disciple whom Jesus loved, at least according to John.
Essentially, in John's gospel, he repeatedly says, "I'm Jesus's favorite." Honestly, if I could just be brutally honest, it used to annoy me so much every time I would read "the disciple whom Jesus loved." I was like, "Man, the ego on this guy!" Right? Like, Jesus doesn't say that anywhere; it's just John saying it.
I'm like, "Man, what a jerk!" Can you imagine John and Peter reading John's letter later, like reading the gospel and being like, "Bro, we were all there!"
But as I've gotten older, I've actually started to appreciate more and more his perspective. I think it's actually absolutely brilliant. God doesn't just like you; God doesn't just think that you're okay. No, God is so in love with you that He's willing to die for you. That is beautiful, and I think that all of us could be encouraged by just looking at Scripture and looking at God and saying, "You know what? I'm His favorite."
I don't know how God has a favorite for everybody, but He does. You know, His ways are above my ways. So you are His favorite. The idea of how much God loves us and how much we should love Him back really shapes all of John's writings. He is the love guy.
But John also apparently is a man of very few words because his letters are some of the shortest books in the entire Bible. In fact, Second John is the shortest book in the Bible, and Third John is the second shortest book in the Bible.
He really just kind of gets straight to the point, which I can appreciate. If you really want to impress your friends, just read Second John every morning when you wake up. It'll take you like less than a minute, and then at the end of the month, you can tell your friends that you read 30 books this month. You don't have to explain to them it was the same book 30 times. Just let that kind of hang out there, you know?
But even though they're very short, they really do pack an incredible punch. I wanted to give you all of my favorite verses, but we don't have time for it. So instead, I put them in the app notes, and you can download the CLC app and follow along. Some of my favorite scriptures— not all my favorites because I didn't want you to have to scroll for eight hours— but some of my favorites are in there, and you can check them out for each of these books we're going to look at.
So this disciple whom Jesus loved, who is guided by that love in everything that he does, sits down to write some letters. Why does John write his letters? Well, because the people John loves are facing some problems. There are false teachers in the church, and we're going to talk a lot about that in some of the other letters.
Out of this great love that he has for people, he doesn't want them to be led astray by wolves in sheep's clothing. It seems that as a result of these false teachers, people are becoming confused about their salvation in Jesus.
So John sets out to let us know how we can know that we know that we know that we know that we are saved. When you're doubting your salvation or you're wanting to understand what salvation looks like, you can turn to John's letters and be reminded how much God loves you. You can rest in the salvation that you have in Christ, but you can also be on the lookout for those false teachers that John is warning us about.
Okay, so that is the letters of John. Now, next up is going to be my favorite of the eight books that we're looking at. This is the Book of James, and honestly, it's my favorite of these General Epistles, partially because I think James and I are twins just separated at birth by a couple thousand years and different families, different parts of the world. You know, besides all those little details, we're twins.
Honestly, I think that in reading James, I've come to the conclusion that James and I share the same personality type just because of the way he writes, the way he thinks, the way he talks. I'm like, "Yeah, that's me. I could have said that if I was smarter."
I think it was actually probably prophetic when my parents named me Brenton James McQuay. Some of you are shocked to find out that my name is not actually Brent; it's Brenton. But let's please stay on topic, people.
So James is the half-brother of Jesus, and interestingly, though, he's not even the only brother of Jesus we're going to look at today. What makes that really special is that James didn't believe Jesus until after the resurrection. In fact, none of Jesus's brothers believed in His teachings or His claims until after the resurrection, which, if you think about it, totally makes sense, right?
If my brother tried to tell me that he was the Son of God, I would not believe him either. But if he could predict his own death and resurrection and then pull it off, you better believe I would start paying closer attention.
That's what happens to James. After the resurrection, James becomes a follower. He eventually becomes really the leader of the church there in Jerusalem. James's letter is probably the first book of the New Testament to be written. That's our best guess: that it was the first book written.
James is even referred to by a lot of scholars as the wisdom book of the New Testament because, as you're reading it, I want you to pay attention. There's kind of a mashup happening in James between Jesus's Sermon on the Mount— you know, where He gives the Beatitudes and you're blessed if— He kind of combines Jesus's Sermon on the Mount with the Book of Proverbs.
What I love about James is that he just drops one-liner after one-liner after one-liner. It's like nuggets of wisdom over and over. If Twitter was a thing back then— which I guess Twitter isn't even a thing now anymore— if X was a thing back then, you'd be tweeting like crazy everything that James had to say.
If you like highlighting important verses in your Bible, show me the Book of James. I bet you it's like a rainbow of just highlighter all over the place.
The message that James keeps going back to is that you have to put your faith into action. James is a "talk is cheap" kind of guy. Don't just say it; show it. Don't just say you have faith; show me your faith. Faith without works is dead, according to James.
James is clear, though, throughout this letter— and this is where there's some tension sometimes— but James is very clear that good works are not the cause of your salvation, but they are the result of your salvation. In other words, you don't need to do the good stuff in order to be saved, but the good stuff is the fruit borne out of someone who has been saved by God's incredible grace.
Sometimes people think that James and Paul's writings are at odds with each other. I don't think so. I think they're two sides of the same coin, that they are in support of each other.
When you need some practical help for how to walk as a Christian, turn to the Book of James. Be reminded that faith without works is dead, and let's put our faith to work. Use that wisdom in a practical way to live out your faith today.
Now we're going to look at the other brother. This is Jude. The Book of Jude was written by Jesus's other half-brother, a man by the name of Judas— not that Judas, which is why the book is called Jude and not Judas. Didn't want to confuse anybody.
Like James, Jude doesn't follow Jesus until after the resurrection. Jude is another one of those super short letters, but in addition to some great teachings, it also has one of my favorite doxologies in Scripture, which a doxology is just basically a song of praise. You can read it in Jude 24 and 25; it's absolutely beautiful.
When Jude sits down to write this love letter to the church, he actually tells us that he wanted to write a happy letter. He wanted to write about the salvation that they all share, but an issue showed up in the church that he needed to address urgently.
So he changes what he was going to write to address this issue. I was taught early on as a pastor that if you're facing a problem in your church, you need to preach your way out of it. So Jude is doing that. He is preaching his way out of a problem.
What's the problem? Sadly, once again, the church is dealing with false teachers. This time, men are denying the lordship of Jesus, which is kind of brilliant because who better to deal with that issue than the least likely person to believe in the lordship of Jesus— his younger half-brother, right?
If Jesus isn't really Lord, Jude would be the last person to follow Him. So Jude writes to warn followers of false teachers and what to do with them. Jude calls out these false teachers and challenges the followers to contend for their faith or fight for their faith.
Do not just roll over and let these false teachers have their way, but stand up for what's right. His instructions to them should be followed by us today as well. Don't let people twist who Jesus is or what He taught or what He did. Know the gospel, protect it, defend it, and follow Jesus as the Lord of your life.
Next up is our letter from Anonymous. This is the writer of Hebrews. He is unknown. Most people used to believe that Paul wrote the Book of Hebrews, but the style, the language, and the vocabulary compared to Paul's other writings make it very unlikely that Paul actually wrote Hebrews.
In fact, practically no scholars today still believe that Paul wrote Hebrews. They argue it could be Barnabas, it could be Silas, it could be Apollos, it could be Luke, and several others. The truth is we don't know who wrote it, but while the author is unknown, we do know a few things about that person because of their knowledge of events and teachings.
They clearly spent time with the original disciples or are, in fact, one of the original disciples. The writer demonstrates excellent knowledge and understanding of the Old Testament, which means they are clearly Jewish. Because their repeated use of the Old Testament is done without any explanation, they're clearly writing to a Jewish audience.
In fact, one scholar said this kind of tongue-in-cheek: he said the Book of Hebrews was written by a Hebrew to other Hebrews telling the Hebrews to stop acting like Hebrews.
When you read Hebrews, you understand what all that means because what's happening behind the scenes in Hebrews is that the Jewish converts to Christianity are suffering so much persecution from both other Jews and from the Romans that many of them are thinking that it's better for us to just stay Jewish.
A lot of these new converts are beginning to revert back to Judaism and are abandoning their new faith in Jesus. Because it's a Jewish writer to a Jewish audience addressing Jewish issues, this book can be very challenging for a non-Jewish audience like ourselves to understand.
There's a lot in here that is beautiful, but if you don't have a grasp of the Old Testament, you'll miss the nuance, which is part of why we say all the time that reading the entire Bible is so important for you.
The writer of Hebrews' solution to this problem that the Hebrews are facing is really very simple. For 13 chapters, the writer just reminds the readers over and over and over again that Jesus is better. It's a beautiful message.
Throughout its pages, Hebrews makes it clear that Jesus is better than all other people, all other pursuits, all other objects, all other things in which we may put our hope into or have allegiance towards. Jesus gives us a better life through salvation, a better hope than the Mosaic law could promise, a better sacrifice for our sins than a goat or a bull, and gives us a better inheritance in heaven for those who place their faith in Him.
Hebrews' message is simple: why would you leave what is perfect for something inferior? Jesus is better.
Now, the final two books— these are two letters written by Peter. This is the infamous disciple, the one that walked on water for at least a few steps, the one who's called Satan by Jesus, the one who cuts off a guy's ear, says crazy things, and when Jesus is facing death, denies he even knows Him three times.
But it's also the same Peter who is forgiven and restored by Jesus, preaches the first sermon, sees 3,000 converts to Christianity at the close of that one message, and then evangelizes the first non-Jewish convert, opening the door to all of us.
Peter, the rock on which Jesus builds the church. In fact, Peter is viewed as the leader of the Jewish Christians in Scripture, while Paul is seen to kind of lead the Gentile followers.
Interestingly enough, though, even though Peter's focus is on the Jewish Christians, these two letters— our best understanding is that he actually writes them to a Gentile audience. I think the only explanation for that is at the end of Peter's life, that's who was on his mind, that's who was on his heart.
Even Second Peter kind of reads like a farewell letter. Shortly after he writes it, he is killed by Emperor Nero.
Peter has two very different purposes in writing these two letters. First Peter is all about giving the followers of Jesus who are facing incredible persecution under Emperor Nero hope in their suffering.
While in Japan, our team had the opportunity to visit a museum to the 26 martyrs who were crucified 500 years ago in Nagasaki. They were marched for 30 days to this hill right here where this monument is, and they were crucified at the top of it.
If you can tell in that picture— I don't know if you can tell— but there are three images that are smaller than the rest. That's not a mistake; that's an artistic decision to represent the 12-year-old, the 13-year-old, and the 14-year-old who were also crucified on that hill. Each one of them was given the opportunity to deny Jesus and live, and yet chose to die for their faith instead.
Honestly, it's heartbreaking to be in a place like that. What happened in Japan 500 years ago is still happening today in parts of the world. I can't even begin to understand that level of suffering and that level of persecution and that level of faith that it takes to gladly get up on a cross as opposed to denying your relationship with Jesus.
I can't even wrap my head around it, but Peter challenges and encourages his readers to rejoice in their suffering and to not lose hope. While most of us don't face persecution like they did and we won't face suffering like they do, you can still turn to First Peter when you need encouragement to stay the course when there's opposition and how to hold on to your faith even in your suffering.
It's a beautiful letter.
Then Second Peter is not like that at all. It's like he just went in a totally different direction because Second Peter is once again addressing false teachers. In fact, nearly every book of the New Testament addresses false teachers in some way.
It wasn't just an early church problem; it's still a problem in the modern church today, possibly even made worse by the internet and by TV, right? 'Cause anybody can get a platform now, and they can even quote the Bible and make you think that what they're saying is truth right from God's Word.
But please do not listen to somebody just because they quote the Bible or just because they wear the title of pastor. We have what the early church didn't have: we have the complete Scriptures; we have the Bible.
Our job is to become students of it, to know the Word so well that when somebody starts going off in a different direction, you can say, "No, that's not what it says. That's not what it means." You can stay the course.
Peter doesn't have to write us a new letter. We have the first letter he wrote.
That took me a little bit longer than I hoped. Those are the eight letters we call the General Epistles.
Now we're going to make all of this practical for life. I think these eight books can really become the guide for how to live out your faith. Like, how do you live out this faith that you have in Jesus? After praying a prayer, making Jesus Lord of my life, what do I do now? What does it look like to be a Christian?
Because it's more than just a box you check on a form. Being a Christian is more than just where you go on Sunday mornings.
We want to unpack this, but I've only got 10 minutes left. So here's my disclaimer: I knew I wasn't going to have enough time, so we're going to load up our Between Sermons podcast this week with all the practical stuff.
If you haven't been listening to the podcast, we go on all the podcast platforms every week to kind of talk about Sunday's sermon. This week, we're really going to get into this second half of the message to talk about the practice. What does this look like to live out your faith?
You can get it on the website there or pretty much anywhere you get podcasts. So we're going to talk about that more during the week.
But let's start our guide for how to live out your faith with the Book of John. Remember, John wanted you to know that you know that you know that you're saved.
To answer that question, what John does is he echoes a statement made by Jesus that the two greatest commandments are to love God and love others, right?
Here's what he says in 1 John, chapter 2: "By this we know that we have come to know Him if we what? Keep His commandments. Whoever says, 'I know Him,' but does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him."
I don't know why he had to double down. Like, if you were a liar, then you ain't got the truth. But man, he wanted you to know.
"But whoever keeps His word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. And by this we may know that we are in Him."
Remember, he's wanting you to know that you have salvation. This is the way we know.
"Brent, I thought you said that we had to love God first." Yep, and that's exactly what I quoted. You're like, "No, no, no, you said obey His commands." Same difference, right?
Because Jesus said, "If you love Me, you will obey My commandments." Right? Love and obedience are the same thing.
So if you love Me, obey My commandments. That means loving God isn't just singing pretty songs about how much you love Him on Sunday morning; it's following His commandments on Friday night.
Okay, so first we love God by following His commandments. Then John says in John 3, "For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another."
John goes on and on and on and on through all three of his letters about how much we need to be loving one another. In this, he's echoing another statement by Jesus where Jesus said, "By this one thing, the world will know that you are My disciples, by the way that you love one another."
So if you're going to live out your faith, then first we have to love God enough to obey His commandments, and then you've got to love people enough to put them first.
We're going to build our guide to living out our faith starting with John's instructions. So here it is, and we're going to add to this as we go:
You have to live out your faith by loving God and loving people.
Then James is going to jump in with "talk is cheap." Don't just say it; show it. Don't just say you love God; demonstrate your love for God with action. Don't just say you love people; demonstrate your love for people with your actions.
Here's how he phrases it in James, chapter 2: "If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and filled,' without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."
James is saying over and over again, "Put your faith into action."
So let's add that to our guide to living out our faith: live out your faith by loving God and loving people, but don't just say it; show it.
Then Jude is our killjoy. Yeah, he comes in with a warning that there are going to be external oppositions to your faith that are going to try and pull you away from Jesus.
When the opposition to your faith comes, you need to defend it. Don't fall for their sweet words or twisting of Scripture. Boldly declare what's right is right and what's wrong is wrong.
Here's how Jude tells us to do that in Jude 22 and 23: "Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy mixed with fear, hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh."
I would rather risk offending someone trying to snatch them from the fire than watch them go to hell with my mouth shut. We have to speak up when someone is teaching contrary to Scripture.
But pay attention to what Jude said: we do so with mercy. That means this is not permission for Christians to be jerks. This is not permission for you to be mean or ugly, right? So watch your words, watch your attitude. Don't be a jerk about it.
Also, he says it should be mixed with fear, meaning there but for the grace of God go I. Right? I'm not perfect either, and I'm not above being misguided. So I need to show them mercy because it could easily be me in their shoes.
But he also says, "Hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh." You know what that means? That means don't get so close that you get caught up in it yourself.
Sometimes we have this approach to people that we just want to embrace everyone in love so much so that we excuse sin and we call things that are sinful not sinful out of this desire to be loving and kind.
But Jude is saying, "Look, there's a balance here. Yeah, you're going to show mercy, but look, you still got to hate the clothing even stained by corrupted flesh. Like, sin is still sin no matter how loving you want to be about it."
Okay, but all of that is well and good, but the truth is I can't defend my faith if I don't know what I believe or what the Bible says. So I got to become a student of the book and call out false teaching when I hear it.
In fact, one of our classes for Life University starting on Tuesday night is actually going to help with this. We're doing a Discipleship Essentials class where you can actually figure out what it is that we believe, why we believe it, so that you can defend it even better.
You might want to check out that class on Tuesdays.
So Jude, we're going to add to our guide: we start with live out your faith by loving God and loving people thanks to John, but don't just say it; show it thanks to James.
Then Jude gives us, when living out your faith brings external opposition, defend it.
Then Hebrews reminds us that that opposition we face is not always external; sometimes it's internal. Sometimes it's actually what's going on right here in our heart.
When we're tempted by sin or tempted to go back to our old way of doing things, we need to remind ourselves what he reminded the Hebrews of: that Jesus is better.
He said in Hebrews 12, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles."
In other words, anything that slows me down or keeps me from Jesus has got to go. He says so that we can run the race with perseverance, the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus.
Church, Jesus is better. So why would you chase after anything but Him? Jesus is better.
While you may not be tempted to go back to Old Testament Judaism like the audience in Hebrews was, the temptation to go back to sin may still be knocking at your door.
Let me just remind you today that Jesus is better than anything the world has to offer. Jesus is better.
So Hebrews continues our guide: live out your faith by loving God and loving people, but don't just say it; show it. When living out your faith brings external opposition, defend it. When it brings internal opposition, remember Jesus is better.
We finish with Peter, who reminds us that all of this is so that we'll be able to do what God created us to do.
We best live out our faith when we do what God created us to do. Over and over and over in First and Second Peter, Peter reminds us that we have a purpose on this earth.
In light of the persecution you're facing, you have purpose. In light of the false teachers trying to pull you in another direction, you have a purpose.
Here's what he says in 1 Peter 2: "You are His chosen people. God picked you, the king's priests. You are a holy nation, people who belong to God."
Then he says, "He chose you to tell about the wonderful things He has done. He brought you out of darkness of sin into His wonderful light."
That is your job as a Christian, as a follower of Jesus: to tell how wonderful God is. That's your job; that's your purpose: to tell others about how awesome God is.
Then he tells us how to fulfill that purpose. I wish I had time to dive into this deeper, but 1 Peter 4, real quickly, says, "The end of all things is near. Therefore, be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. Above all, love each other deeply because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace."
Your purpose on this earth is to tell others about what God has done, and you do that in three ways: through prayer, through love, and through acts of service.
I would love to elaborate more on that, but we're out of time. So check out our Between Sermons podcast later this week because we're going to focus on the second half. We're going to dive into that prayer, love, and service as well.
Here's our General Epistles roadmap to living out your faith. This is our guide:
We live out our faith by loving God and loving people, but don't just say it; show it. When living out your faith brings external opposition, defend it. When it brings internal opposition, remember Jesus is better.
And you're going to live out your faith by doing what God created you to do. That's what it looks like to be a Christian.
So I'm going to repeat a question, and then we're going to pray. This question I was asked years ago, probably as a teenager for the first time. You've probably heard it a few times in your life, but I want you to hear it now with this kind of in mind that this would be the criteria for answering this question.
My question for you today is: If you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict?
Is there enough evidence that you're living out your faith by loving God and loving people? Is there enough evidence to show that when there's opposition to your faith, you're defending it?
Is there enough evidence to show that you're being reminded daily that Jesus is better? You're not being led astray by your own sinful desires. Is there enough evidence to say that you've been doing the thing that God created you to do?
Is there enough evidence to convict? If the answer to the question is "I don't know" or "no," then I think that we've got some work to do.
This is what being a Christian is all about. It's not a form you check; it's not a place you go on Sunday morning. It's a life you live Monday through Friday as well.
So let's pray.
Father, we just thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the fact that it is relevant to us today, that it comes alive in our hands.
So Father, I pray right now for a room full of people that would be students of Your Word, that it wouldn't be enough for us to just download the Bible app or own a Bible and stick it on a shelf.
But God, that we, every single morning, every single day, at some point in the day, would be students of Your Word. We'd be studying Your Scriptures personally and deeply.
So Father, we just ask that You would encourage us and challenge us to live out our faith according to Scripture. I pray right now for every person that may be struggling with external or internal opposition to their faith.
Maybe it's pressure from a friend, a family member; maybe it's a sin that's pulling them aside, pulling them astray. Father, I pray that You would give them the strength to stand their ground.
Give them the Holy Spirit to encourage them, to strengthen them to stay the course, to live out their faith every single day. Help us to discover our purpose and live it out.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen. Let's worship together. What a good word!
Let's just respond by declaring something in this room together. As he said, we live by the Word, and as we sing the Word together, I just want to leave with this declaration in mind that we have more than enough with Jesus, more than enough with God.
So let's sing this together one more time just as a declaration as we go.
Sing, "I'm already loved, I'm already chosen. I know who I am; I know what You've spoken. I'm already there, more than I could imagine, and that is enough."
We sing, "I'm already loved, I'm already loved. I'm already chosen. I know who I am; I know what You've spoken. I'm already loved."
on Nov 05, 2023
