What Are We Reproducing

What are we reproducing during our life here on earth?

John Maxwell said:

John Maxwell said:

“We teach what we know, but we reproduce what we are.”

“We teach what we know, but we reproduce what we are.”

This talk could be

This fact is important in a few different applications:

Leadership

As leaders, we are called to produce in others what are necessary traits to be good leaders

But this is not a leadership conference

Parents

As parents we are called to reproduce in our children what makes them healthy, whole adults

But this is not a parenting course

Christianity

We are called as Christians to reflect and reproduce the character of Christ in ourselves and others

That is what church is all about…helping us do that

Church is:

A place that tells us the truth about ourselves

A place that tells us the truth about ourselves

No one succeeds in life by being told they are great all the time

We change only when we see ourselves how we truly are

A place that inspires us to be better

Better should never be given up on because someone demands the best

A place that inspires us to be better

A place that provides the tools to be better (What are these tools)

Honest community

Honest about your weaknesses and failures

Leadership on down

Loving community

Love each other by helping each other to the next step

Not criticizing someone a step below us

Sharing community

The combined wisdom in any group of 12 people will solve most any problem you could face in life

Church needs to be used properly to be effective

Coming and leaving without relationship and sharing will provide very little

Church is here so you and I can be empowered to change to better reflect Christ’s character

What is the image that people have when they think of you?

Do you walk away from conversations feeling it was a life giving exchange on your part

or

Do you have that sense that it was not what it could have been

These are the questions that produce maturity and we should be asking ourselves them often

But he apostle Paul said to the Corinthian church about their lifestyle and behavior

2 Corinthians 13:5–8 The Message

Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don’t drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it. I hope the test won’t show that we have failed. But if it comes to that, we’d rather the test showed our failure than yours. We’re rooting for the truth to win out in you.

2nd corinthians 13:5-8

What is the test

An examination of whether you’re in the faith cannot be based on your good or bad works or behaviors.

Anybody can do good or bad works and neither one gives you a clear indication of the person’s faith/heart.

This is what some call behavioral modification in the counseling world.

The biblical language would be legalism.

A changed behavior is not necessarily the result of a heart devoted to God

Christians might change behavior to:

gain people’s admiration

Fear of rejection

Peer Pressure

Not because their heart wants to reflect Christ and they want to be a force for good

Here is what shows if we (as professed Christians) are in the faith

First: Do we even care about our thoughts or actions?

Is our Christian Character a daily consideration for us?

If who & what we are called to be biblically as a person is not our top priority

What fuels our achievement will quickly turn to selfish motivations

Second: How we react when we as Christians :

How we react when we as Christians :

Deliberately disobey what we know better not to do

Think the right thoughts

When we allow our hearts to wonder and desire unhealthy things

movie-you tube-consumerism-

Fail to fulfill

When hate, anger, jealousy, judgment, arrogance and pride surface in us

Follow the ten commandments

Do we just try harder and pretend we are better than we are?

First: Do we even care about our thoughts or actions?

Love your neighbor as yourself

Give alot of money to the church

Is our Christian Character a daily consideration for us?

Second: What do we do when we fail morally

Just changing what you do is called “Behavioral Modification”

What do we do when we discover we are not what we could be

What happens when someone calls us out and exposes our weaknesses

Do we just try harder and pretend we are better than we are?

Do we talk a little more about our successes to hide our failures

Ignore it and minimize it as not important?

or

Do we come to Christ with our failure, brokenness, need?

A-Type / highly independent over achievers will find this thought foolish and beneath them

That’s why life can keep throwing us circumstances we just cannot beat or succeed at

God is trying to get us to invite him into our lives

When the bad/tough stuff happens in life:....we go to the people we love & trust

Divorce

Fired from job

....we got to the people we love

AND

The people who we feel LOVE US

If you do not trust God and do not feel he loves you....you will not turn to him

How we handle the:

The tough times in our life

The failures in our life

The weak times

If you do not trust God’s love for you....you will never bring your weakness and failure to him

If you do not trust God’s love for you....you will never bring your weakness and failure to him

Why is this important?

God said this about Abraham: Galatians 6..says

Galatians 3:6 NLT

In the same way, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.”

: 6

6 So also Abraham “believed (TRUST) God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

7 Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham.

8 Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith,

You are not a Christian because you do nice things

You are a Christian because:

You don’t do good things and you know it

You have repented asked God to forgive you and empower you to be better

You trust God’s love for you and that he will not REJECT you

But take your honesty, humility, vulnerability…and

SHOW YOU A BETTER WAY

Doing this shows....

You have a trusting relationship with Christ that allows you to trust his love for you enough that you will be honest about your condition-without fear of rejection

So why is this important?

Because we are no longer living for ourselves…our wants....our desires…our priorities

Life is no longer ABOUT US!

1 Peter 2:9 NLT

But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.