Difference Maker

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Intro

Welcome to the first Ignite Worship of the year!
If you are new here...
We are glad you chose to be here tonight
We want to get to know you, please fell out a guest registration card when you head to small groups.
Also, if you do not have a church home on Sunday mornings, we have a place for you here at Living Hope.

Passage Context

We start off this brand new series with a letter from the Apostle Paul to Timothy regarding some issues with the church at Ephesus, but it also applies to us today. Timothy was tasked with the job of correcting some false teaching in this new church. Some people had a bad habit of conforming to culture more so than choosing Christ. Paul wrote Timothy, sharing with him the “secret sauce” to bring everyone back together under the banner of God, train yourself in Godliness.

Read

1 Timothy 4:
1 Timothy 4:6–10 HCSB
6 If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished by the words of the faith and the good teaching that you have followed. 7 But have nothing to do with irreverent and silly myths. Rather, train yourself in godliness, 8 for the training of the body has a limited benefit, but godliness is beneficial in every way, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. 9 This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance. 10 In fact, we labor and strive for this, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of everyone, especially of those who believe.

Message Points

So how can I be a difference maker in 2020?

1. Believe then Achieve (6-8)

As Paul writes, he sets in motion a very clear way of thinking that sets us up for success in the first 2 verses:
Don’t believe the lies that culture feeds you.
Train yourself in Godliness
Cody, what do you mean, I need you to break it down for me.
This culture is not your savior, it can not give you peace, fulfillment, purpose, or love like God can.
I believe that God has something planned for this generation of culture influencers but we can not afford to forget our purpose.
Colossians 1:16 HCSB
16 For everything was created by Him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through Him and for Him.
So how do I become a difference maker on a practical level?
1. Read your bible everyday. If you are going to fight misconceptions of culture and lies of the enemy, you have to spend time reading the Truth of the word of God. Get in the Word until the Word gets in you!
Romans 10:17 HCSB
17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.
Hebrews 4:12 HCSB
12 For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the ideas and thoughts of the heart.
Hebrews
2. Give God your heart.
The passage tells us to train ourselves for the sake of Godliness. It is a well know fact that we will give ourselves to whatever owns our hearts.
Proverbs 8:17 HCSB
17 I love those who love me, and those who search for me find me.
Proverbs
But also we have verse like
Galatians 2:20 HCSB
20 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.
That tell us that we don’t belong to ourselves. And when we place our faith in God and we give Him our whole heart and our whole life, we get to believe in passages like
Jeremiah 29:11 HCSB
11 For I know the plans I have for you” —this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeramiah
Which brings us to our second point...

2. Thrive > Survive (9-10)

God’s purpose for your life not only in the year 2020, but every day that you have breath in your lungs is to thrive in purpose in which God has placed you on this Earth.
1 Timothy 4:9–10 HCSB
9 This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance. 10 In fact, we labor and strive for this, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of everyone, especially of those who believe.
Paul writes that our job as Christ followers is to labor and strive for the sake of our faith.
Let’s be real, that doesn’t sound really appealing to you. You have school and homework every night. You have band practice after school. You have piano lessons. You have this and that.
You just don’t have time right?
What if I told you that you have plenty of time, you are just spending it on worthless things. What if I could do that by simply bringing you attention to one simple thing in your life that if you changed just a little bit, you would have time to pursue Godliness.
The average teenager spends 7 hours and 22 minutes of screen time.... per day.
Adults don’t be so quick to judge. Adults spend nearly 3 hours on their phone per day.
It is not their you don’t possess the capability to become a godly individual, it’s that you don’t possess the drive to become one.
What if we spent less time on snapchat and more time on the bible app?
What if we spent less time trying to dance on tiktok and more time worshiping the one that puts breath in our lungs.
What if the first thing we did in the morning wasn’t to check our phones to see what we missed the night before, but we spent time in the Word of God to prepare for the day ahead.
I’ll tell you what would happen.
We would stop being influenced, and would start doing the influencing.
Scripture says that we were never meant to blend in, but we were meant to stand out.
Matthew 5:14 HCSB
14 “You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden.
God’s word says that you were never mean’t to just get by.
John 10:10 HCSB
10 A thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
Culture doesn’t get to own you because you have already been bought.

Response

So what is our response today?
it’s simply this, to pursue God hard in 2020.
But it starts today.
Quiet time, 21 days of prayer and fasting,
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