LEGACY BIBLE CHURCH > Embrace, Embody, Entrust, & Engage the Gospel

Is Jesus Christ precious to you? Do you know the extent to which you are loved? The answer to these questions often determines the extent to which we worship God. We struggle to embrace God when we don't understand what it cost for Him to embrace us.

What is your cornerstone? Whatever your cornerstone is, it will set the course or guide your life. Jesus Christ is the true Cornerstone.

Where are you at in your Christian growth? Are you a child, a "young man" or a "father"? As children we must know first and foremost that we are totally forgiven. When we become young men we learn to trust in Him and begin to see ourselves as He sees us. Finally as a father we come to know Him, we to Him daily because we want to, not because we have to. Where are you?

Do you know that you are a babe in Christ? Is it your desire to deepen your walk with God, to grow in likeness to Christ? We need to let the Word of God come in to our lives, let it sink down in and live it out so that our lives can change as we trust in Him and walk in child-like faith.

At some point in our lives we have all felt dried out or dead. Yet the power of God, in Christ, has brought us life. And His Powerful Spirit dwells in us; transforming our hearts, equipping us, and giving us power.

Our greatest hope for today and tomorrow is to look at what God has done. Do you love as you have been loved? If not, allow God to transform your heart. Who you are today is not who you need to be tomorrow.

Do you walk into each day knowing that Christ is with you, that He lives within you? Do you know that you are never alone? The fact that we are born again is central to our lives. It is a definite, supernatural, completely coherent event in your life. Without the new birth there is no life.

Do you live as an immigrant, tourist or a resident alien? If we are not living as resident aliens then we are not pursuing holiness but rather our own desires. Christ devoted His life totally to His mission, our salvation. He set apart His life for us and calls us to be set apart for Him, for His purposes.

Motivation is everything. What is your motivation, self or Christ? The degree to which we will be holy (set apart for God) is in direction relation to the degree to which we understand what God has done for us through Jesus Christ.

Do you let God's Word speak into your life and then think all the way through the implications and ramifications of that truth? Christianity (unlike other faiths) requires that we think to not only become a believer but to also grow in our faith. We must begin to read culture through the Bible and not the reverse.

Do you find great pleasure in pleasing God? The extent to which we perceive the holiness of God will be directly reflected by the degree to which our lives are set apart for Him. His desires will become our desires, His sigh becomes our command. We will no longer think in terms of how much do I have to do but rather what can I do.

Are you obsessed with looking at the gospel? The gospel needs to drive, mold, and transform us. The gospel is what will carry us through our trials. Christ's suffering and glory is our hope. It is in and through our sufferings that we will discover Christ as our meaning and hope. All of scripture testifies to the beauty and power of Christ, that He is our ultimate treasure.

Have you forgotten how "amazing" it is that we may experience salvation? There may be days and seasons in your life when you get bogged down, but remember you have a hope in Jesus Christ, that you can celebrate!

Our faith is more precious that gold - priceless! We should have a joy that is the same! Do you?

In the midst of trials do you have a "living hope"? Peter's goal is to prepare us for the trials and struggles that are sure to come, to equip us for the furnace. What carries us through and beyond our struggles is God's mercy and our "living hope." In the midst of trials we can live victoriously because of Jesus Christ and the salvation He has provided through His death and resurrection.

Today we begin to look at the book of 1 Peter and see that we are called to be both residents and aliens. We are to be part of the city, residents who are involved for the good of the city. At the same time we are called to be aliens, our lives are to look different so that we glorify Christ through our lives. These verses call us to look at the atonement of Christ, the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit and election.

Do you enjoy the gospel? We are commanded in scripture to "rejoice always." Today we will hear about cultivating joy in our personal time with God, road blocks that can prevent joy, and enjoying the gospel in community.

Are you hospitable? Most of us tend to measure hospitality through the eyes of the world and not from God's perspective. God met us at our point of need, invited us in and fed us. We were strangers outside the "gate." God's hospitality challenges us to invite others into our lives in order to share the grace of God through Jesus Christ with them. Hospitality from God's perspective is a way of life, not a moment.

As we conclude our series in the Book of Jonah we see that God's love is both painfully refining and incredibly gracious and forgiving. God's desire for Jonah, and for us, is to shape our hearts into ones that love others more than we love ourselves.

Are you looking for the living among the dead? This question, asked by the angels of the women who had come to the tomb, was a rhetorical question aimed at getting them, and us, to think. Today we will look at three ways in which we can treat Jesus as if He were still dead as we serve, love and follow Him in our lives.

Is there anything in your life that you need in order to be happy aside from God? If so, your heart is divided. Jonah's heart was divided, he loved God but he loved something else more. God desires a pure heart, one that has a single focus.

God asks Jonah (and each of us), "Do you have a right to be angry"? If we are angry and cannot forgive we need to examine our hearts, have we forgotten the forgiveness God has shown to us? Before we can forgive others we must deal with the anger in our hearts and then go to the one whom we have wronged or who has wronged us and seek to bring about peace.

Do you live for others? As we continue through the book of Jonah, we see God's enduring grace, His plan, and that God is a sender. As a result of his failure, Jonah was finally ready to be used by God to fulfill His plan, Jonah was ready to be sent. It was necessary for Jonah (and it is necessary for us) to die to ourselves in order to be useful to go.

Who are the people on your boat and do they know the hope you have in Christ? The captain asked Jonah how is it you are sleeping, don't you know we are dying here? Have we forgotten that we were once dying as well? If we belong to Christ then we no longer have a right to be absorbed with our "goals", but rather we are free to follow God's calling on our lives.

Jonah is crying out in prayer to God, and in his desperation is awakened to his need for God’s grace. He realizes the depth of his sin, and the greatness of God’s grace. With this in mind, we are able to see that God sends a rescue for us as well, not only for the penalty of our sin, but also from the power of sin. The “fish called grace”, is actually summed up in the physical image of God, Jesus Christ!

What does a guy running from the Lord, a bunch of pagan sailors, and a raging storm have to do with Jesus?

When God gives you an order, are you an Abraham or a Jonah? One displays trust in God and the other displays trust in self. Jonah wants control of his life, he believes he knows what is best. We are not competent to run our lives until we accept the fact that we are incompetent. God asks each of us to trust Him, regardless of the circumstances or the request.

As we dive into this study of the book of Jonah we will find that it is about more than Jonah, it is about each of us. We are all running in our sin from God and He in His infinite grace is pursuing each of us. God asks each of us to trust Him and walk in faith. Our circumstances are gifts from God, with the most difficult ones presenting the most profound opportunities for us to be molded and shaped into the image of Christ.

We all desire a love that is unending, one that is strong, secure, affectionate, one that relentlessly pursues and never yields. While we were created for this love, on our own we are incapable of achieving it. Jesus Christ alone exemplifies this love. He alone can love us and enable us to love others with a love that not only satisfies but flourishes.

Confession and reclamation are both essential parts of the Christian life. Christ tells us we will be known as His disciples by our love for one another. If that is true then we must be willing to give our lives away for His glory as we humble ourselves and confess when we have sinned against another and seek to reclaim those who have strayed.

Do you really want God's will done in your life? Does that drive you? As we pray the Holy Sprit works in our hearts and intercedes for us. God begins changing and shaping us so that we live differently and begin to carry out the ministry of Jesus Christ. A life that is unexplainable begins with prayer.

Are you a grumbler? Are you patient with God? James warns us about grumbling and a lack of patience; both of which can be cancer to our hearts, destroying us from the inside out. We must acknowledge our impatience and even indifference toward God and let the depths of His mercy and patience toward us penetrate our hearts so that we don't just know the gospel but can begin to live it out.

Do we live our lives in anticipation of Christ's return asking ourselves, "How can I further the gospel, how can I change a life"? To often the desires of this world rule our hearts causing us to seek after only our own comfort. As the gospel penetrates our hearts the question becomes, "How should I give in light of what Christ has given to me"?

Does your speech reflect a desire to build up or tear down? When you make plans do they reflect God's will first or is He more of an after thought? As we study through the Book of James, we consistently see that James' goal is to preach one theme, that of applying the gospel in our lives. To seek the truth of scripture and apply it to our hearts. In these verses James asks us to open our hearts and reveal what is at the root of both our speech and our plans.

Living out the gospel requires us to be in community, we cannot do it by ourselves. How then can we live out the gospel in community while overcoming the our worldly desires that seek to destroy that community and our witness to the unbelieving world? James tells us we must submit and draw near to the Lord, resist worldly desires, humble ourselves and the Lord will lift us up.

Can a genealogy provide transformation? Yes, it can. As we look at the genealogy of Christ we can see four nuggets of truth that can transform our lives. We see that God keeps His promises, the story of Christ is true and was lived out in history, it turned the world upside down and Christ gives us rest.

At Christmas Christ who possessed none of the things this world values (money, position, education, looks, etc) came and turned the wisdom of this world upside down. The "wise men" of today look at the Christmas story and say, "It doesn't make sense" and yet today God's wisdom through Jesus Christ is changing lives around the world.

Is your life a Bible study or a Bible living? A wise life is demonstrated by purity, peace, gentleness, and mercy. Does your life reflect God's balance and beauty or does it reflect chaos? When we come humbly before God crying out for His wisdom He will transform our lives.

Communication is a powerful tool that can be wielded to bring life or death as Proverbs 18:21 states. Often times we damage and splinter relationships, churches, and work places, simply by allowing our tongue to express what is in our hearts. Let's consider where the source of power comes from so that we may use our words to build up, instead of tearing down.

Do you have a living faith? A living faith shows itself; it loves, it is courageous even to death or the sacrifice of something you love dearly. It is lived out to an unbelieving world by showing love to those who persecute, hate, and slander. This is how Christ loved us. Does the way you love others reflect Christ's love for you?

Do you love the unlovely? Do you see them as Christ saw them? Convictions are not enough, they don't feed people, keep them warm or encourage them. Our convictions must lead us to action. We must deliberately seek after the poor, following the example Christ gave us. The gospel tells us we are all poor, crying out, beggars before God. As we have been shown mercy and compassion let us live that out to others.

How does God view you? Why is Jesus key to answering this question? What part do I play in how God views me? In this message, you'll hear how believing that you are in Christ changes and transforms who you are and the way you live.

Do you show favoritism? When we show favoritism we are judging people on what we perceive to be their "worth." When we reject them because they are poor or have no perceived value to us, we are in fact rejecting God's children and ultimately God Himself. We are called to show mercy as we have been shown mercy. Does your heart break for those who have no food either literally or spiritually?

Does your pride leave God's word standing outside the door, turned away like an unwanted salesman that you don't want to invite in? A changed life and consequently changed actions flow out of a radical transformation in the understanding of ourselves and who we really are. God's word is the mirror which first tells me who I am and then what to do.

What is the key to overcoming trials? The word of God implanted in you. The word is God's will, mind, heart, purity, power, His Holy Spirit placed into us. It is Christ alive in us. To overcome trials we must humbly accept God's word. As Christians we can enjoy the gifts of God but we must look beyond the gifts to the gift giver and know that it is not the gift but the giver, Jesus Christ, who sustains us through trials.

James informs us that every trial in life can be an opportunity for growth or a temptation to sin. Trials come as we live our lives but the temptation comes from within our very own heart. The desires of our heart keep dragging us away from the true lover of our soul, Jesus. So may we run to him rather than be enticed by another lover that promises so much but leaves us empty, for He will always satisfy!

In the midst of trials James brings us back to the promises and goodness of God to help us persevere.

This week tragedy struck a family within our church body and we, as a church family, shared in that pain and grieved together as a family. When tragedy strikes what sustains us? Jesus Christ, is our only hope. The gospel saves the unbeliever but for the believer it secures our lives today and tomorrow, next week and next year. Jesus Christ walks into our pain and carries us through it. While we do not know how God will use Grant's life, we do know it will be used for His glory.

Trials in life are not optional they are sure to come. How then can we, "consider it all joy"? As we encounter trials and tribulation, we are to cry out to God. We must cry out for wisdom and then let God work in our lives. Let Him shape us and change us and when wisdom comes, then we will see God at work in our lives. But first we must stand and cry out for wisdom.

This week we begin our new sermon series in the Book of James. We find out that James, the younger half-brother of Jesus, was a significant leader in the church. James calls himself a "bond servant." He willingly chose to be a slave to Christ. Having encountered Jesus Christ and experienced His grace, everything changed. A bond servant says, "Whatever you want I am yours"! Do our lives reflect that?