Each week we are exploring different trailheads as a part of Basecamp that can lead you to deepen your faith.  This week we're exploring what your purpose is, how to get past sin and guilt, and how to have lasting power in your relationship with Jesus. IT'S EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316  to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ).

------------------------------

Trail Head 3 - Hitting the Target

Setting appropriate expectations and your posture toward God

Trail 4:  What’s my purpose?

Trail 5:  What Happens if I mess up and Sin?

Trail 6: Will This Last?  I’m worried I’ll go back to my old life

OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

One of the best shots I’ve ever made in my life was as a kid, my buddies and I were down at a creek near my house hunting with our bb guns.  I was joking around and as we saw this crow flying through the air and I said, “I’ll shoot it out of the sky!” I pointed my gun randomly, shot, and the bird fell out of the sky!  It was one in a million shot.  I went down as a legend with my buddies.  They are probably still telling the story to their kids… :)

I feel like this is what most Christians are like when it comes to their faith.  They are just hoping to hit the mark, hoping they get it right, hoping they make it through.

What if you could have security in your faith - knowing what you are doing, what to do when you are missing, and knowing how to make it for the long haul?

Today we are going to go through 3 trails at this trailhead called, “Hitting the Target.”

By the end of this, my hope is you’ll be able to aim and hit your target when it comes to your faith.  

Trail 4 of the Trailhead:

What’s my Purpose?

Did you know when Jesus left the earth, He left very clear marching orders for His disciples?

Matthew 28:18-20

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Bible scholars will tell you the “imperative” of this passage in Greek is “make disciples”

b

This means your purpose as a follower of Jesus is to make more disciples - followers of Jesus.

-not get more people to go to church

-not to be a better person

But to help more people be a disciple of Jesus’

What’s a disciple?

b

A disciple is a person who has learned to be just like their rabbi.

b

It’s why Jesus told us to go after people, to baptize them, and to teach them everything He commanded.

b

Disciples are supposed to become like the one who is discipling them - Jesus.

I like to say this like this:

I am Helping people find their way back to God, 1 person at a time

This is how we live out the mission of Advancing God’s Kingdom by living for God and loving people.

ILLUSTRATION:

One of the things that gets people off target is when they mess up and sin.  Early on as a Christian, this doesn’t feel quite as big of a deal, but as you grow in your faith.  When you mess up, it feels like you shouldn’t be messing up still and you start to question whether you really are a Christian or not.  For lots of people it leaves them in a cycle of shame and guilt that keeps them from actually engaging with God.  So, what do you do about it? 

Trail 5:  What happens if I mess up and sin?  How to set your aim at the target.

First and foremost…

You ARE going to MESS up.  But you don’t have to GIVE up, you just have to GET up.

b

You are not saved because of how good you are, your salvation comes because of how good God is.

Romans 8:1-2 

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death."

Jesus has wiped away the consequences of sin in your life and set you free.  But it does not mean you don’t still have old desires and muscle memory from your life before Jesus.

1 Peter 2:11

Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.

Peter says to abstain from sinful desires that are waging war against your soul.  

We live in a world that says every single desire that comes into your mind is a good desire - not to be suppressed or repressed.  

b

This is not the message of Christianity.  Christianity says there is a part of you - your sinful nature - that has desires that wage war with your soul.

What do you do with that?

I’ll tell you what most people do.  Most people try to “stop sinning”

ILLUSTRATION:  

When I was a teen, I cussed like a sailor.  When I came to Christ, that didn’t go away.  I felt SO guilty about it.  But I couldn’t stop no matter what I did.  I can remember sitting on my bed, praying about it and just feeling overwhelmed by the guilt.  It was one of the first times I can remember feeling the Holy Spirit speak to me.  I felt God saying to me, “Kent, stop trying to not sin, and instead try and follow me.  I am the one who will deal with your sin - you’re only job is to follow me.”

It wasn’t till years later that I read this and learned that Jesus had said something pretty similar - people were asking him about what works they needed to do for God and this is what He said:

John 6:29

Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

The target is not to be a good person but to be God’s person.

The apostle paul describes what this looks like:

Galatians 2:19-21

19 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

To be God’s person means to Crucify your old life - die to your old desires, not fight them.

ILLUSTRATION:

To die to something, you have to admit that you lived for it - that you loved it.  The reason you sin is because you like - even for just the few moments - what it does for you.  You have to admit that you your sin did something for you, and die to that desire - whatever it did for you.

Paul also says that the life he now lives he lives by faith.

Being God’s person means learning to live moment by moment in the life God offers - live by faith.  

-Quick tip:  turn your internal dialogue into an internal prayer life.

Trail 6 - Will this last

ILLUSTRATION:

There is a HUGE difference between a marathon runner and a sprinter.  One person knows they have to have lasting power, the other person knows they can leave it all on the floor.  As a Follower of Jesus, this is a marathon.  You HAVE to have lasting power.  So, how do you do that?

There is a way to have lasting power in your relationships with God.

The two things you have to do to have lasting power is to focus on learning God’s’ love and engaging God with Grit.

1.  Being proactive about God’s Love

Most people are reactive in their relationship with God.  

They wait till something happens then they seek God.  These people ALWAYS struggle to have a faith that impacts their life in any meaningful way.

It is the proactive person whose faith grows and impacts their life.  

• They are proactive in learning the heart of Jesus (reading scripture to know God)
• They are proactive in repenting & dying to their sins (they evaluate their life and intentionally move it closer to Jesus’ way of life)
• They hold the things of this world loosely (nothing is more important to them than knowing Jesus)

b

Proactive faith is unwilling to be lazy about their faith.

2.  Engage God with Grit

ILLUSTRATION:

Ever worked with someone who was CONSTANTLY making excuses about why they didn’t get a project done?  It’s one of the hardest things to deal with in my opinion, because what it tells me is the person is not willing to take ownership of the problem.  

When you engage God with Grit, you become the kind of person who takes ownership of your relationship with God.

People who engage God with Grit:

• Kills excuses
• They create priorities around God for themselves and their family (do the hard things)ILLUSTRATION:  What is the way you handle your faith teaching your kids about God.  Where does God and His people fall on your priority list?  Is it above work?  above sports?  above entertainment?  I’m not here to tell you how to prioritize, I’m telling you, people who engage God with grit DO prioritize. We personally say no to things that we have to explain to our kids, as Christians who prioritize our relationship with God and His body, we are not going to do some things other people do.
• Don’t back down - double down.

Pray to Close