Made for more #2

Northside Christian Church 10/4/2020

Made for More #2 Jamey Mills

Centered on Christ

Fall is here… It’s so good to be with you guys both here and online. As a new Church we are incredibly blessed by just how many continue to track with us through this crazy season.

We are in the second week of this series… Made for more and my hope is that it helps us ask some great questions in terms of where we really are in our relationship with Jesus.

Last week we took a look at those who invested in us in such a way that would land us here… together… talking about God. We talked about where we currently are with Jesus and we talked about who it is that we are investing in… praying intentionally for and spending time with… and we asked what it is we are leaving behind for them… knowing they will pick up where we leave off.

And through some research… I found several other churches that have had very similar conversations, one was a huge church in Colorado, and he actually had his people answer very similar questions and then turn them in… and I thought I’d share the results with you…

Here is what I found…

They found that many of us aren’t really praying for or investing in anyone spirituality as intentionally as we probably should.

There are some who are on this journey alone. Didn’t have anyone really pass this on to them, but found it on their own. That is becoming more and more true in our youth culture FYI. And these are people we need to learn to come beside.

They also found that if you are a parent or grandparent, you likely have no idea just how great your influence really is… what you pass on, what you hold as of first importance is leaving a far greater footprint in the lives of those coming up behind you than you realize…

Duet 6 talks about committing ourselves whole heartedly to the Lord… and talking about Him with our kids… at home, on the road, before bed, when you get up… even writing reminders on your door posts.

No one who filled out the survey was right where they wanted to be within their relationship with Jesus.

It reminds me that what we hold on to… as of first importance in our lives translates through the generations… and with so many willingly admitting that most of us really aren’t where we’d like to be in our relationship with Jesus… I thought we should dig into that a little more this week.

Last week I asked this question…

Is your life fully centered on Jesus or are you just trying to squeeze Him in?

It really is an important question…squeezing Him in not what God desires for or from you… and you’ll never experience all that God has for you that way.

I was thinking about that this week and I realized how confusing that phrasing might be… what does it really mean or even look like to center our lives on Jesus?

There are a lot of illustrations out there that I don’t think help us all that much… one is a circle that represents your life and a little dot in the center that represents Jesus… and yes, I agree that dot is in the center, but what does that really mean?

It reminds me of a situation that we read about in most of the 4 Biblical biographies of Jesus known as the gospels.

Matthew 22:35–40 (NLT)

35 One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”

37 Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

Trying to frustrate Jesus and trip Him up, someone asked what the most important commandment was… If you had to boil it down… or what is of first importance…

And anytime we hear Jesus engage in that kind of language… I feel like we ought to pay special attention.... Jesus says… that Loving God with all we are and have… and authentically caring for others… is at the heart of all that he wants both for and from us.

and in doing so he told us a lot about what it means to center our lives on Jesus.

Centering our lives of Christ means…

Loving God… Jesus said… to love God with all we are… our heart, soul, mind and strength… we love God inwardly… we love him outwardly… and we love him eternally.

Centering our lives on Jesus means loving God.

I think it’s a love that’s based on knowing God, not simply knowing of God. It involves pressing in and knowing who He is, what He’s like, what He’s passionate about….

In the OT and NT… it is fairly common… people referred to Him as a father… Jesus used the term Abba… which is what little kids called their fathers…

It’s a term of familiarity… of closeness… of trust… of safety

And this closeness to God comes at His invitation...realizing it’s what he desires… we can be confident that He will work with us to that end. It may not always look exactly the way we think it should… We come to know Him… at His invitation. Phil 2:13 says it’s God who gives us the desire and the power to do what pleases Him.

Centering our lives on Jesus means aligning ourselves the right way with God.

… Several translations have the word LORD in all caps… why? Emphasis.

What does it mean to make Jesus the Lord of your life?

Knowing Jesus as Lord is one of the ways we set Jesus apart in our lives.

… he is different… 1 Peter 3 tells us to set apart Christ as Lord in our hearts… It means giving Jesus authority in our lives. We don’t see his presence, his priorities, or his passions the same way we do everyone else's.

1 Peter 2 refers to Jesus as the cornerstone… and it really helps us dig into what knowing Jesus as Lord means. The cornerstone was hugely important in the way they built. It was the first stone laid and every other stone… was put in place in reference to it. One author said it is the stone in which the weight of the entire structure rests.

What was a cornerstone?

More time and attention was spent in placing this stone than the rest of the building combined… in fact… this one stone sort of set the stage for every other stone in the structure… from it you could tell the building size, strength, and even significance…

Centering your life on Jesus means aligning with Him… His purpose and priorities… His wisdom and His way.

It means Submission/Surrender… Culturally… this feels like something we resist a bit… but art of what it means to know Jesus as Lord is submission… Placing your life under the leadership and Lordship of Jesus…

Luke 9:23 (NIV) Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.

This idea of denying ourselves is tough… denying our sinful nature with Him in mind is a big part of what it means to center our lives on Jesus. This idea of doing it daily is even more tough.

Submission… it's coming to the place where we realize like John the baptist did in John 3:30 that He must become greater in me… and I must become less.

My thoughts, my agenda, my sense of morality, my priorities, my resources… yield to His. Understanding He is greater and higher… as the author of truth and knowing that he has our eternal best interest in mind.

This is largely missing in American Christian Culture… it will change your life.

It means aligning our ears with His voice. We listen… not the same way people listened at the presidential debate.. This is an expectant listening… If you want more on it, Matt preached on this two weeks ago.

It means obeying

Not in dragging our feet, but in knowing kind of back to the fatherly aspect… knowing he loves you and trusting in what He says.

We come to trust Him in part by experience… and that experience often comes through obeying… it puts us in a position to see God differently…

James 1:22–24 (NLT)

22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. 23 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. 24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.

James helps us remember that there is power in obeying… that we are reminded who we are and whose we are in acting on what God tells us to do… There is something that is found in obeying that listening alone could never produce… and part of that is experiencing God at work in you and around you in a different way.

And so do you? Do you listen to God with intentions on acting on what He says?

It means aligning in mission.

We talked about that last week and you can go on our website and find that too… basically realizing that loving others well and and sharing the reason for our faith gently…

It means leaving some things behind.

Hebrews 12:1 (NLT)

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

The author leaving behind the things that slow us down and trip us up in our faith.

And we realize that some of these things might not even be bad things.

He mentions sin… trips us up from experiencing all that God has for us… Lust, porn, gossip, addition, dishonesty, hate… I hope we realize that God is not some oppressive overlord… looking to make you miserable. It points back to this idea of a loving father who knows it's destructive in our lives.

Hebrews also talks about leaving behind things that simply slow us down… that cause our minds to go places it shouldn't… that take up too much of our time… or that distract us from what really matters… it could be toxic relationships, the love of money, sports, TV, Video games…

There is nothing wrong with some of these things… other than the role they play in our lives. It takes real courage to ask the question… and honestly answer it… are there things in my life I need to leave behind as I seek to center my life on Jesus.

Again I think of the first people that Jesus called to follow Him… They were fishermen… they left jobs, and equipment, and friends…

Almost every time I have heard this taught… it involves things we do… and I won't lie. I think these things are incredibly important… for decades I taught a lesson annually I called the 3 Most Important Times of your life and I’ve added a 4th.

It's not birth, death, getting married or starting your career or anything like that.

4 Most important times of your life…

Time in His word

Time in Prayer

Time with His people

Living on mission

Time in the Word:

Huge priority at Northside. We offer daily reading that helps you invest on the topic on your own. I hope and pray we are all doing it. Takes 10 minutes a day… this last week… OH MAN… it was so good.

Time in Prayer

Jesus taught us how to pray… follow his example… In fact… it's our daily reading for Monday… check it out…

Time with God’s people

Matters… so much of the Bible talks about the importance of our unity, of encouraging one another, of walking with each other… By GOD'S DESIGN we need each other.

And living on mission

I personally believe our failure to engage in mission is why some end up walking away. Living on mission is part of what it means to follow Jesus and where the flame of our faith is often fanned. We see God at work in others… and are reminded often of His great work in our life too. That stuff plays a huge role in building our faith.

I am not sure you can live a life centered on Jesus and not be doing it either.

But here is the thing we need to be careful of… Y,

You can literally do all of that stuff daily and still not be living a life that is centered on Jesus.

Those things can add depth and strengthen our faith… but I think they key is relationship.

In Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus said there will be many who say… didn't we do all these great things… we read, we prayed, we served, we tolerated your people… and Jesus will day… I never knew you.

What really makes the difference when it comes to centering our lives on Jesus?

Know God… closeness with Him… aligning with Him… submitting to His leadership in our lives joyfully… I think that is the difference between rule following and centering our lives on Jesus.

Are you aligned with Him? Is he the cornerstone of your life? Do you see hear him and hold what he has to say higher than what you think… when it comes to priorities, morality, passions, how we spend out time and resources.

Are you courageous enough… to answer this question. Based on what we talked about today… what is one thing you can do to move toward having your life truly centered on Jesus.

It's allowing what is really of first importance… to be of first importance in me.

Is your life centered on Jesus… or, are you just squeezing Him in.

Is He really the Lord of your life?

You were made for more… my prayer is… my prayer for you is that you’d find yourself right in the middle of all that God has for you.

I want to invite Matt and the worship team back up…

And as they come I want to invite you to participate in communion, we do it every week.

Knowing Jesus as Lord is so important but so is knowing Him as savior… savior… what did Jesus save you from? Jesus Himself said He came to seek and save the lost… to bring life… freedom… and reconciliation for each and every one of us.

We were made for more than what sin produces in our life… and thats why Jesus came. It’s why He faced the cross.. And its why we take the break and the cup and remember the love of the Father…

If you’d like to participate its on the table…

Social distancing

Pray