Harvest Fellowship Teaching

A message from Revelation 3:7-13

A message from Revelation 3:1-6

A message from Revelation 2:18-29

A message from Revelation 2:8-11

Today, we looked at 1 Timothy 2:15, where Paul reminds us that everything in this world (including children) refine, sanctify and mold us into the image of CHrist.

(sorry for the poor quality...chalk this one up to "transition glitches")

This morning, we looked at a family who are just reeling for the weight of life. In John 11, Jesus is just a few weeks from his own death and burial, and gives us a glimpse of life again, as he interacts with Mary, Martha and Lazarus.

The most important question we can answer in life is this..."Who is Jesus to you?" It's important, because how we answer that dictates how we will respond to Him. Is He a good man? Is He a prophet? Is He a king? Is He YOUR King?

Kevin Porter stepped in today and reminded us of who Jesus was, and is and what our response should be and what it will be.

As we continue our way through Nehemiah, we pause at these crucial chapters and simply ask, "Are we really worshiping? Are you a worshiper?" You know in your heart if you do and if you are, and these simple verses challenge us to invite God to renew our hearts, our hands, and our lips...

It's been said that Christianity is at the exact same time, the easiest and the hardest thing you will ever experience in your life. Being a person who is trying to make a difference for the Kingdom of God is not easy, and in Nehemiah 6, we find that there is both great pain and great joy in living for God. This is a passage that is given to us to renew our courage, and to encourage us to keep going.

In the midst of all this external threat, there was an even greater internal threat in this story of renewal and of walls being rebuilt...injustice. Nehemiah 5 reminds us that to have renewed lives, especially in the area of holiness, we must hate injustice, respond in unity and live in humble generosity.

Last week, we began a new series through Nehemiah by remembering that God's plan for renewal in our lives begins with having a greater intimacy with Him. Today, this renewal that we long for invites us to have our vision renewed. We are challenged to pray, to make plans, to see the challenges ahead, challenge others and to face opposition with faith that goes beyond seeing.

As followers of Christ, we find it amazing that God can use anyone to further His purposes. God is active in the details.

We’ll begin a new series today in the book of Nehemiah, which is all about renewal, about remembering what we’re really here for. We want to go through this because one of our fears as followers of Christ is that we'd be content going through the motions in this relationship and lose the vibrancy and vitality of knowing God. We want to gain the renewal of mind, heart and relationships.

Questions for reflection:
- Is there something I need to remove which distracts me from God?
- What do I know about God that draws me to Him in awe?
- Is there anything in my life that falls short of God’s holiness?
- Do you believe you are His secure adopted child?

As we go through this final chapter of Paul's letter to the church in Rome, it’s easy for people to be kind of shocked, because this gives us a very different version of Christianity from what is being preached today. Much of what is taught and written by the Church today is that being a Christian is easy and convenient. Paul, however, doesn’t understand that compartmentalized definition. He understood the church as a people who were radically affected and permeated by the gospel in every aspect of life and had the power and authority to be a catalyst for change and an engine for worldwide influence.

After 14 chapters of dense theology, Paul takes a few verses in chapter 15 to simply give the church in Rome a glimpse of his heart and mission. These verses help us answer the question, "How are we supposed to live and to act as we desire to serve Jesus with our lives?" All of that theology, all of that talk about who we are, who God is and what Christ had to do to save us, leads to this conclusion: Christians are now a part of God’s work, God’s mission, only because of His grace.

Because of this, our mission as followers of Jesus is to know and enjoy God and to invite others to know and enjoy God through Christ. As Paul finishes chapter 15 (verses 20-33), we are invited to take a look at our lives and seek out ways for each of us to be about God’s mission.

After 14 chapters of doctrine and theology, Paul takes a few verses in chapter 15 to simply give the church in Rome a glimpse of his heart and of his vision. These verses help us answer the question, "How are we supposed to live and to act as we desire to serve Jesus?"

Jesus moved through this earthly life very intentionally and explained to those around Him that the Kingdom of God was like a pearl or a net or leaven or a small, insignificant mustard seed (Mark 4:30-32). This morning, we took time to recognize and celebrate that Kingdom living is often found in the messy, small and fairly insignificant times...we just need to slow down and pay attention.

So what do we do with all these differences that haunt the church? All these gray areas, all these "adiaphora" areas, can split the church, but we are invited to lovingly and willingly disagree. We are invited to be inflexible on the basics and completely flexible on the gray areas...are we? Romans 15:1-13 has much to say to our lives together.

In Romans 14, Paul describes the tension we all face as we try to navigate in a culture when there isn’t a specific verse to run to. When Paul says that we now are free in Christ, what does that really mean, what does it look like? He’s going to define what it means to be weaker and stronger in faith and how we live together. Every one of us has places where we are strong in our faith, and places where we are weak in our faith that hinders us from fully participating in our culture.

This passage is short, but it points us to the "second" love, the love of others. In these verses, Paul encourages the church to aim at love, to aim at eternity and to aim at Christ alone. These 3 simple desires that flow from Paul's pen continue to build upon the section of 12:1 on that shows what it looks like to have our hearts transformed by allowing God to do a renewing work in our minds and hearts to remind us that we are a living and holy sacrifice, right now acceptable to God.