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what followers do

7/26/2017

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This weekend was week 3 of our summer message series, Follow, which is all about Jesus’s invitation to follow him. One step we are all called to take in following Jesus is to love others and not to judge others. But Jesus didn’t just ask his followers to be loving, he commanded them to “love one another as I have loved you.” (John 13:34) Loving others as Jesus loves us means putting our love into action in an extraordinary way. It means loving those who are tough to love, regardless of whether or not we feel they are worthy of our love. It means loving others in a way that is self-giving. It means acting toward others first with love. Loving others and not judging others is a simple concept, but it’s not easy to put into practice. One of the traps we can fall into in our journey of faith is that we can begin to confuse discipline with discipleship (following Jesus). We can begin to think that all that matters is my disciplines--I go to church, I pray, I follow the rules. We might even fall into a pattern of thinking that says: all that matters is that I’m “good with God.” Disciplines are great and helpful, but they need to be in the context of discipleship. Because Jesus said that as followers of his we are to be marked not by our disciplines but by our radical love for one another.

Is there a situation or relationship in your life where you are judging someone for doing something wrong, breaking the rules, or acting unfairly? What would it look like for you to treat that person first of all with love?
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What's your rsvp?

7/12/2017

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We’re in week 2 of our summer message series, “Follow.” (You can catch up on this series by watching the week 1 and week 2 message videos online.) We’re taking the summer to explore the invitation to follow Jesus and asking some questions about it, such as: Who is the invitation for? What is the invitation about? In week 1 we discovered that the invitation to follow Jesus is for everyone, including sinners and unbelievers. In fact, all of Jesus’s first century followers did not believe in him when they were invited to follow. We also discovered that the invitation to follow Jesus is not an invitation to rules or religion, but an invitation to a relationship with him. In week 2 we looked at the question: what does it really mean to follow? Since the invitation to follow Jesus is an invitation to a relationship with him, following Jesus means taking steps--big or small--in his direction. What’s your next step in following Jesus? It’s different for everyone and it depends on where you are today--what your current response is to the invitation to follow Jesus. Today, commit to identifying your current response (no, not yet replied, maybe, or yes) to Jesus’s invitation to follow him. And then, from wherever you are today, take a step or even just a lean in the direction of Jesus. In prayer or quiet time today, ask God for the wisdom to know your next step in following Jesus and the courage to take it.
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