God will Go to Great Lengths for the "One"

  1. Share
Southeast Christian Church
0 0

As you reflect on your own journey with Jesus, what lengths has God gone to in order to reach you? Who has he brought into your life to show you Christ? Philip left behind flourishing relationships and a ministry that made sense to set out into the desert alone. There, he interrupted an Ethiopian in his quest for full life and introduced him to Jesus. God goes to great lengths to reach one person at a time, but he invites us to be a part of this work.

Ephesians 4:14-16 says, “Then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (NIV). This passage describes God’s plan for using the full force of the church to love people one at a time. When we live isolated from the church and don’t engage in God’s work of loving people one at a time, we remain infants in the faith who are easily swayed by lies. But when we each do our part within the Body and engage in God’s one-at-a-time love, we grow in maturity and look more like Christ.

When God calls us to join him in his work, he will call us to do unreasonable and impractical things, but fighting for peoples’ eternities is always worth it. God gives us this gift of working alongside him in his beautiful plan of salvation, but he also gives us the gift of his presence. The more we give ourselves to God’s work, the more we experience the true character of God. When we join God in doing the impractical and unreasonable to reach people for Christ, we set aside our expectations about who God is and how he is supposed to work, and we get to experience his saving grace up close.

Reflection/Discussion Questions: As you reflect on your own journey with Jesus, what lengths has God gone to in order to reach you? How can you do the same thing for others?

Community tags

This content has 0 tags that match your profile.

Comments

To leave a comment, login or sign up.

Related Content

0
You Have Been Chosen
Everybody wants to be chosen. We’re fooling ourselves if we think we don’t. All humans have a deeply rooted desire to be chosen, because we were made to be chosen by Christ. Jesus chose us because he loves us, and he has chosen us for a purpose. It’s easy to get caught up in wondering what our purpose is in this life, in this season, in the world, but Jesus makes our purpose clear: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you” (John 15:12, NIV). We get lost in decisions such as: What college should I go to? Should I take this new job? What should I do with my life in retirement? And we want God to give us clear answers for a clear purpose, but he has already made his purpose clear. His command is that we would love each other as he has loved us. It doesn’t matter what college you go to, it matters that you love people like Jesus at your college. It doesn’t matter what job you have, it matters that you love people like Jesus at your job. It doesn’t matter what you do in retirement, it matters that you love people like Jesus wherever you go. We have been chosen by Christ to love others just like he has loved us — what better purpose do we need? So, the question is, how does Jesus love us? He loves us sacrificially. Jesus gave everything in order to make us sons and daughters of the King. Jesus loves up close, not far away. He loves us when it seems inconvenient. He loves us intentionally and intimately. Jesus’s love is full of grace and truth. He relentlessly pursues us. He loves us when we don’t give love in return. First, we must take in this love, then we can live our purpose of giving it out. Reflection/Discussion Question: How does it feel to know that you’ve been chosen by Jesus?
0
Marked by Sacrifical Giving
We have been challenged to examine our hearts to see where our treasures lie. What many of us find is that we like to hold onto the promises of God in one hand and the promises of the world in another. We can’t fully commit to whole-hearted kingdom living because we are afraid of what we will miss out on if we do.    Whole-hearted kingdom living doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to live in a tiny house, drive a beat-up car, eat canned food, and spend your days at church or preaching to people on the street. But we should pause and ask ourselves why those things matter to us. Why does it matter what neighborhood you live in? What car you drive? What job you have? Where your kids go to school? What meals you eat? What clothes you wear? Where you spend your time? Why do we care so deeply about these temporary, worldly things? This isn’t to say that these things are bad or evil, but it does mean that we may be holding onto worldly treasures and easily forsaking the kingdom of God.   We’re so afraid of what we will miss out on if we drop our hold on our worldly pursuits and run full-force toward the Kingdom; but spend time with someone who is running toward the Kingdom—whose life is marked by sacrificial giving—and you won’t find an ounce of regret. The more we pursue kingdom work, the more the world will lose its shine and glamour. If you spend your days investing in some high school students so that they may come to know Jesus, I guarantee that when you see Christ’s redemption bursting forth in their lives you won’t be wishing you had stayed home and binged more shows on Netflix.  Instead of worrying about what we’re missing out on in the world, the better question to ask ourselves is, what are we missing out on if we don’t live a life of sacrificial giving? We miss out on a front-row seat to the work of God in the lives of his people and we miss out on the work he can do in our hearts. We miss out on experiencing the fullness of God’s love, grace, forgiveness, mercy, faithfulness, and power when we choose the fleeting pleasures of the world over the eternal joy of working in the Kingdom. Our greatest fear should be to miss out on a life of Kingdom work. Discussion/Reflection Question: How might you start pursuing the Kingdom of God rather than worldly pleasures?