A Big Heart Series

A BIG HEART

John 13.34-35

S: Love one another

C: Loving fellowship as a basis for evangelism

Th: His power, His work – in us!

Pr: WE ARE MODELS OF GOD’S LOVE TO THE WORLD.

?: How? How do we do it?

KW: Qualities

TS: We will find in our study of Scripture five qualities that enable us to model God’s love to the world.

Type: Propositional

The ____ quality is…

I. HUMILITY

II. ATTENTIVENESS

III. GENEROSITY

IV. INSPIRATION

V. INTEGRITY

PA: How is the change to be observed?

• Acknowledge that we are created for interdependence.

• Demonstrate maturity in your relationships (be functional, not dysfunctional).

• Love one another.

• Model God’s love.

• Understand that potential new disciples come to Christ when they see relationships that work.

Version: ESV

RMBC 23 September 07 AM

INTRODUCTION:

I know this is an unusual request, but take a moment and find your bellybutton.

Don’t expose it, just find it.

And only find your own, and not someone else’s.

Don’t go poking someone else, right now.

Did you find it?

Got it?

OK.

Now…

1. What does your bellybutton teach you?

It is rather simple.

Our navel is a physical reminder that we all started connected to someone.

Now, we don’t know if Adam and Eve had navels…probably not…but Scripture did not deem it important enough for us to know.

We do find out, though, a related fact.

When God finished creation, everything was good.

Everything was good, except one thing.

One thing was not good.

After Adam had named all the animals, he discovers that he was alone.

And even though he had God for relationship, God says that it is not good for man to be alone.

God had designed it into man to not be alone.

God has designed relationship into the very fiber of our being.

You see…

2. We are created for interdependence.

We are not created to go through life alone.

During pregnancy, we are connected to our mothers, and after we are born, we continue to seek after connection.

We are not designed for independence.

We are designed to be interdependent – dependent on each other to make it through this journey called life.

We are entering our fourth week of our discipleship emphasis.

I appreciate all that Pastor Dick has done and continues to do to make this a special time of the year for us to concentrate on being better and stronger disciples of our Lord Jesus.

Please make use of the spiritual journal that we have provided.

It is greatly simplified from last year, but filled with good examples on how to apply each theme throughout the week.

This helps us to be unified as a church family.

Believe me, God wants unity and He wants us to be connected to Him.

Our theme this year is…

3. DE 07: His power, His work – in us!

Three weeks ago, in the message called…

3.1 The Plan (Matthew 16.18-19)

…we understood the priority of the church when we studied this text.

“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

You see, the church is God’s plan.

It is God’s design.

We, the church, are His vehicle to grow the kingdom by helping people to become committed followers of Jesus.

There is no other plan!

Two weeks ago, the message was named…

3.2 Who Do You Think You Are? (I Peter 2.9-10)

In the text in I Peter, we discovered our purpose…

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

We are really privileged as believers in Jesus.

We have a great job to do.

God has given us eternal kingdom purpose.

We are to proclaim His excellencies.

We are to communicate the good news about Jesus.

If we fail to do this, then we fail to accomplish His purpose for us.

Last week, our guest speaker, Will McFarlane, encouraged us to…

3.3 Fall in Love with Jesus Again (Revelation 2.4-5)

The theme, last Sunday, was based in Revelation 2…

But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.

It has been the history of the church to leave its first love.

It has been too easy to wander from loving God with all our heart, soul and mind.