Austin Life Church

Maya Angelou once said, “People will forget what you did; they’ll forget what you said. But they’ll never forget how you made them feel.” People long to feel connected, long to belong, long to feel seen, wanted, valued. Nothing can make a person feel the complete opposite than not being welcomed in, not being show hospitality. In showing hospitality, we open the front door, pull up a chair, and invite others into our lives where they will find love and acceptance to grow and become all God has created them to be.

Probably one of the most difficult topics to discuss, loving one another. Something that is so simple, yet so complex. How is it that we are supposed to love one other then, and where can we get the power to love those around us? Listen as we look through scripture to see how the Spirit alone empowers us to truly love one another!

We are created for connection. We all long for, because we are designed this way, deep, lasting, secure relationships. But how do we build these friendships? How do we keep them? What do we do? First, we need to look to Jesus and trust Him as friend. But then, we need to commit to being the friend to others that we hope they will be to us.

Jesus wants us to know and be known by him deeply. In this sermon, we look at how Jesus views friendship with him, ad how we are to pursue that connection everyday.

Every single person desires to have deep, safe, lasting relationships. We all want to know and be known. And that’s because we are created for connection. In order to both survive, and thrive, we need relational connection with others. Both God and others. So how do we do this? Build, keep, nurture relational connection?

When we die, we will all face judgement before God. What will He say when we are judged? Guilty, or Righteous (Innocent)? We all know that we are not perfectly innocent before God. So what is our hope? Easter. The death and resurrection of Jesus to pay the price for our sins and justify us, make us right with God.

There are many things in life that can give us a blurry vision of who Jesus is. No matter what those things are for you, Mark 8 shows us that Jesus’s desire is that you may see him clearly for who he is! He tells us that when we deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him, we see him clearly for who he fully is and get to live in the victory of his resurrection!

Sometimes, God will call us to receive from others. Sometimes God will call us to give to others. In both giving and receiving, we are to be in need. Why? So that we will learn experientially that He is the one who meets all our needs. So that we can learn to do all things - have or have not - in Christ who strengthens us.

As we press on to know and become like Jesus, we must learn the ways of following Jesus. Rejoice, be reasonable, do not be anxious but rather pray, think about what is good and right. As we establish these rhythms of life, we will better know and become like Jesus.

In our journey to know Jesus and become like Him, we must stand firm, knowing there is an adversary who wants nothing more than to steal, kill, and destroy. We must be willing to identify and correct any weak points by which the enemy could attack. One of those weak points - disunity. We must agree in the Lord for the sake of knowing Jesus and becoming like Him.

By nature, we are creatures who observe, are influenced by, and then imitate others. It’s how God formed us. Which is why it is so so important to choose wisely who and what we let influence us and who / what we imitate. Since something is influencing us, we want to make sure we are being influenced toward Jesus, and not away from Him.

We all have goals and ambitions in life. But there is one ambition that is greater than all - knowing Christ. Since we are all a work in progress when it comes to knowing and becoming like Jesus, what do we do? We press on. We intentionally and relentlessly pursue knowing and becoming like Jesus.

How do you know you’re getting the real thing? No one wants to be duped in anything. How do we know that we truly have a relationship with God? Jesus, only Jesus. Jesus is our only and certain hope. Nothing else will do.

Our created purpose is to reflect God’s image with our lives, to become like Jesus. As Paul said in Philippians 2:12, we are to work out our salvation, put in the work to become like Jesus. Ok, I’m in. Now what? What does that look like? “Do everything without grumbling or disputing”. A life free of grumbling and disputing is a life that trusts and honors God well.

We all follow the lead of something, or someone that we believe is true, right, good and best for our lives. It’s just naturally how we are made. But what if we are following the wrong thing? Jesus invites us to follow Him, be His disciple, and thus find life.

Joy is a feeling of happiness, pleasures, and gladness. God is for our joy! In fact, He commands us to rejoice, to pursue and choose joy in our lives. But how? How do we feel joy? How do we pursue joy? “Behold”, the angel said, “I bring you good news of great joy for all people.” In the birth of Jesus, joy came to us. May we be filled with eternal joy in Jesus the Christ.

The Bible defines peace both as the absence of conflict AND the presence of wholeness. Who doesn’t want peace? We all do! Where does this peace come from? How do we get it? That first Christmas, Jesus was born, and He was called by Isaiah, the Prince of Peace. If we want to know peace, it starts and ends with Jesus.

Advent is time of waiting, watching, anticipating Jesus. He came once, as promised. And He will come again, as promised. This is a sure and certain hope. In the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, we have a steadfast hope to lean on and carry us to the end. Jesus is our hope.

Paul continues his message to the Philippians that with their whole lives, become like Jesus, work out your salvation. It’s God who first works for us and then continually in us, so that we can actually work out what He has worked in.

In order to live lives worthy of the Gospel of Jesus, lives of loving God and loving others, we must do nothing out of selfish ambition, and everything out of other ambition. We must learn how to consider others as more significant than ourselves and look to their interest and not just our own.