Walk in the Light

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I’ve tried to make the biblical text of the day always guide our services, but recently I’ve felt the need to take it a step further.  As a worship leader, I sometimes feel like I need to state the obvious.  I don’t pick out songs based on what songs I would like to sing.  I design a service to set the table for the Word to be proclaimed.  I love it when the Word has already been proclaimed before the preacher gets on the platform.

So, today, I stated the obvious.  Since 1 John 1:5-2:2 was the focal text in which the service was designed, I read different passages as we went through the service.  Since the 1st section came from the 1st section of the service, I tried to connect the dots for the worshipers.  Same thing for the 2nd part and following.  Hopefully, our church is able to see the biblical intentionality that we take for every single thing that goes in a service.

Today, we worshiped to:

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Knowing That You Know Jesus

 

New year.  New series.  New book.  We started our 3-monthish focus of 1 John this morning with a series entitled: “Knowing That You Know Jesus.”  If you recall, we studied the Gospel of John and it was called “Knowing Jesus,” but this focus is really settling on testing to see if you are in the faith or not.  How can one be sure that he or she is saved?

Today was one of our most packed and energetic Sundays I can ever remember.  Both services were hopping, and there was a real eagerness to encounter Jesus today.  I was so thankful to Cole, Patrick, Julio, and Sam for sharing about their time at Passion 2013.  So great to hear how God was using them and how God is leading them for their next steps.  Can’t wait to see what he does through these students and the many others who went with our church.

Today, we worshiped to:

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Greater is He

In following Christ, you will encounter a certain type of opposition with people whose approval you might seek as you go forward. In addition to that conflict, you will also experience forces that are adamantly against you and your progress.

Every person who ever tried to fight a noble cause experienced great opposition.

Jesus stated that the enemy comes to “steal, kill, and destroy” (John 10:10). He wants to destroy every aspect of you and your fight.

If you are trying to unite your family, he will try to steal your joy by resistance in family members. If you are trying to mobilize the men in your church to lead, he will attempt to kill your drive to go forward. If you are trying to seek justice for people in unfortunate situations, he will set his efforts towards destroying any progress that you made. He will come with all the fury of Hell, make no mistake about it.

But he doesn’t have to win.

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Family Resemblance

1 Look at how great a love the Father has given us, that we should be called God’s children. And we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know Him. 2 Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure.
(1 John 3:1-3, HCSB)

Family Resemblance

As a young boy, I would often hear from someone how one of my features resembled either my mother or my father. Some people could actually tell I was their child even if they had never met me. Now as a father, I always enjoy hearing from people who they think our boys look like. Sometimes I have left a room to have someone tell my wife, “I won’t tell your husband this cause I don’t want to offend him, but your children look just like you.” I always laugh at that. I’m not upset if my children look like their mother (I did choose to marry her, you know?).

It’s a fact of life: children share family resemblance with their parents. It might be the way they look, the way they talk, or they way they behave, but children often resemble their parents.

As children of God, we are called to do the same!

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Worldliness #3 (or the dangerous side of contentment)

In our continuing conversation on worldliness, the Apostle John has some helpful words: “Do not love the world or the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world — the desires of the flesh and the desires of …

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