Steve posed a great question this past weekend…..How are you known? What defines you as a person? If someone were to try to describe you (beyond your general looks) what would they say?
Maybe someone would mention the kind of work you do, or the kind of house you live in, or perhaps the people you hang out with. Would someone be able to notice you are a follower of Jesus? Would they mention that if they were describing you? WOW…that’s rough! Wouldn’t we all WANT that to be the case? I know that I do! I would want people to express things like “Jeff, he’s a man after God’s own heart, he cares for the people that are around him, whenever he sees someone in need he rushes to their side” Do I live up to my own hopes of what is shining out of me! STEVE….way to make us all think about how we are SHINING and SHARING JESUS!
John 13:35 says that “your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples!” WHAT a promise for us to follow!
Steve chose such a great movie this weekend! Remember the Titans!!! This epic story of how two communities of students had to come together under new leadership had a lot of parallels as to our Christian walk and how when we “merge into ONE” with Christ how many things need to change! The coach told the team “If this team is ever going to have a chance to come together there is going to have to be some massive change that will have to occur…..everything is going to have to change; the way we hit, the way we block, the way we tackle, the way we WIN…
When you become a follower of Jesus everything changes! You may not notice it right away BUT everything has changed from a spiritual standpoint. As we grow in our faith and understanding we will see massive changes in how we do things. Our mentality will shift from “I can do this” to “how can I do this with Christ”. We will grow in our confidence with Jesus and this will change our lives!
HOW do we grow in this way? We need to put our confidence in Jesus by trusting in what He says and obey those things as we learn them! Proverbs 3:5-6 says Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understand! Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take!
LIVE IN THE HABITS OF GOD…lean into some of those first habits we discussed over our last series (you can always watch those on our website on demand)
Another way Steve mentioned that we can lean into being a follower and trusting in Jesus is to surrender those things we can’t control to HIM! He will never leave or forsake you and many of the things we face are bigger than what we can handle anyway! So by trusting that God is the author and creator of all things we can rest in knowing that HE WILL take care of us!