¹⁹ This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live ²⁰ and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

 

 

Our church vision here at Grace Fellowship Church is to help people follow Jesus Christ both inside and outside of Grace Fellowship Church. It is a good thing to evaluate periodically how we are doing. And realistically we should find things to commend and things to do better. It’s easy to see in the philosophical. The challenge is to evaluate what we are, not mess with what fits us and makes us special, and still work to make changes that makes us more effective at meeting our vision.

 

Again, our vision is helping people to follow Jesus Christ, both inside and outside of Grace Fellowship Church.

 

And there are three different relationship directions of this vision.

 

First of all, am I personally following Jesus Christ?

 

Second, am I helping others in our church family follow Jesus Christ?

 

Thirdly, am I helping people outside our church family, in our community and world follow Jesus Christ?

 

And that is what I am going to talk about for the next three weeks. This week will be personal to every person. The question is: Am I following Jesus Christ?

 

 

1. What Does Following Christ Look Like?

 

1. Follow where, how and why?

 

1. The short answer is about life. What do we pursue for our life. And this is a big deal.

 

Deuteronomy 30:19-20

¹⁹ This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live ²⁰ and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

 

 

2. Everybody has the freedom to choose. This is good, we like freedom. But everybody has the responsibility to choose God’s way of living. And there are definite times that God’s way of living is more difficult. (the only time when temptation is temptation is when it is harder to obey than disobey)  We are still called to make the choice.

 

 

1. Where is life found?

Believe, love, obey God!

 

I John 3: ¹⁹ This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: ²⁰ If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. ²¹ Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God²² and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. ²³ And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. ²⁴ The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

 

We are mind, will and emotive persons. God’s call to us is to engage with him on the level of the entire person.

 

1. How is life experienced?

 

1. Life is a natural expression of the proper input:

God sets it before us.

 

Heaven and earth testify that God’s ways are the only source of life. Love God, listen to God, hold fast to God.

 

2. Engaging with the God we cannot see:

Bible study, Prayer, Fellowship, Worship, Service, The                          Presence and Power of the Holy Spirit.

 

3. The three different directions of engagement with following Christ apply here. Am I engaging? Am I helping others to engage here? Am I helping others to engage outside the church?

 

 

1. How Do We Support Life for You?

 

1. Opportunities: Bible Study, Prayer, Corporate worship, Fellowship, Encourage personal Outreach, Benevolence, corporate outreach. Real engagement and encouragement to engage with the Holy Spirit!

 

 

1. What You Do is What You Believe and Love

 

                I cannot take away your responsibility before God to get life from Him personally. I cannot take away your responsibility to invest in positive transformative spiritual activities. I cannot take away your responsibility to live a life of service to God in the world.

 

I can and will give you space to grow. I can and will try to convince you on a regular basis that you should trust the God you cannot see and make sacrifices whether you see a return immediately or not. (You reap what you sow)

 

 

Galatians 6: ⁷ Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. ⁸ Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

 

Application 1:

⁹ Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Application 2:

¹⁰ Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.