What are you doing with your life?

  

Are you ready for what's next?

How do you know your God is the real God?

What is God really like?

Christ Jesus, who existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross.

-Philippians 2:5-8

Form - Morphe: Outward manifestation of inward reality, essential form that never changes.

Equality - Isos: Exact equivalance.

Grasped - Harpagmos: Held onto by force.

Emptied - Kenoo: Empty completely of himself (self-limitations), privilages associated with divinity.

Likeness - Homoioma: includes more than appearance.

Appreance - Schema: Outward form changeable.

For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God...

-Hebrews 2:17a

Then Peter said, 'Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.' Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

-Acts 3:6-10

The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade. No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed.

-Acts 5:12-16

And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.

-Luke 2:52

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 'Take away the stone,' he said. 'But, Lord,' said Martha, the sister of the dead man, 'by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.' Then Jesus said, 'Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?' So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, 'Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.' When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come out!' The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, 'Take off the grave clothes and let him go.'

-Luke 11:38-43

Grace is not opposed to effort. Grace is opposed to earning.

-Dallas Willard

Jesus experiences the love and joy of the Father in ways we have never known.

The dreadful sorrow and anxiety out of which the prayer for the passing of the cup springs is not an expression of fear before a dark destiny, nor a shrinking from the prospect of physical suffering; it is rather the horror of one who lives wholly for the FATHER who came to be with the Father for an interlude before His betrayal but found Hell rather that heaven open before him.

-Bill Lane

God is not a Nazi. The master of the universe would become its victim, powerless before a squad of soldiers in the garden. God made himself weak for one purpose; to let human beings choose freely for themselves what to do with Him. In other words: He compels through weakness, not strength.

-Thomas Merton

Although power can force obedience, only love can summon a response of love, which is the one thing God wants from us and the reason He created us. Jesus said, 'If I be lifted up, I will draw all men to me.' He basis His appeal on sacrificial love!

-Philip Yancey: The Jesus I Never Knew

What have you given up of great cost to yourself for the sake of the ultimate goal?

David Aikman’s Book: Jesus in Beijing.

After reading the Bible I could not sleep for days. What the Bible said about human nature makes a lot more sense to me than what I had been taught by the Communists. I became a Christian.

-Brother Shi

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,' it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, 'Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,' it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

-1 Corinthians 12:12-20

What is true of the church locally is true of the church globally.

God calls us to use what He has blessed us with for His purposes, not our own!

1 - Those upsize to upsize

Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous…

-1 Timothy 6:18

2 - Those who downsize to upsize

  

I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

-Luke 16:9

Christians should invest their money in the souls of men and women who will be there to greet them and thank them when they arrive in heaven.

What are you doing with your life?

Are you ready for what’s next?

What story has God written into history? Sacrifice.

What story are you writing with your life?

  

  

  

  

What are your main take-aways from this message?

Make a Decision