Jesus Helps Us Understand

These days, it’s more common to talk about a personal relationship with Jesus. And while it’s important to have our own relationship with Jesus, the Bible never talks about following Jesus in isolation. With technology allowing people the ability to “connect with Jesus” however they want, the danger is that we would believe the lie the enemy is feeding us that we can follow Jesus however we see fit. We don’t have to connect to the church or other believers, we can find God however we want. But, while there are many ways to connect to God, the Bible is clear about our need for community. Jesus often went away to be with God, but his entire life was not spent in isolation, connecting to God alone. In fact, the majority of his recorded life was spent with the twelve disciples. Not only that, but God himself is not alone. The Trinity—Father, Son, Holy Spirit—is evidence of the fact that we were created for community.  We have a whole host of excuses for why we aren’t connecting to community: “I’ve been hurt by the church, so I just can’t go there ever again. I connect to God in my own way now.” “My schedule is so busy with my kids in all of these activities and my job, I don’t have time to go to church or be involved in community in this season.” “Church people wouldn’t accept me. I’m better off doing my own thing.” “I can’t find a church that I like, so I just listen to sermons and read my Bible on my own.” Whatever the excuse, the truth is that we make time for what we believe is most valuable in our lives. If you aren’t making the effort to invest in a church community, you don’t believe it is valuable or necessary. And if you don’t believe it is valuable or necessary, you have bought into the enemy’s lie and you are already vulnerable to his attacks. We are in a spiritual battle and the only way we can emerge victorious is if we join the people of God in true community. When we are in true community we can be reminded of who God is, we can experience him in a deeper way, we can live in our purpose, and we can be held accountable to following Jesus wholeheartedly.  Reflection/Discussion Questions: What does your church community involvement look like? Does it need to change in any way?

In today’s world of “Churchianity”, it’s easy to place the name of Jesus on a lot of rituals and beliefs that have nothing to do with truly loving Jesus. We’ve gotten so good at doing church that we believe “doing church” is synonymous with loving Jesus. We have settled for a life of going through the motions in place of a life marked by the love of Jesus. We are more concerned with whether or not we liked the worship songs than we are with submitting ourselves in worship to God. We are more concerned with whether or not the sermon inspired us enough than we are with turning our eyes to the truth of God’s Word. We busy ourselves with volunteering in the same spot every Sunday, rather than pursuing the lost people in our midst. We would rather settle for “Churchianity” than full submission to Jesus. We think that loving Jesus is a warm feeling in our heart while living our lives relatively the same, but Jesus won’t settle for this imitation. In Luke 9, Jesus says, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God” (NIV). If we are committing to Jesus, we are committing to taking up our own cross and dying, daily. We are committing to gripping the plow and not looking back.  Jesus wasn’t just a nice guy with good advice on how to live our lives — Jesus is the savior of the world. He defeated sin and death and calls us to be ministers of his love to the rest of the world. To love Jesus is to live the same kind of radically sacrificial life that he lived when he walked on this earth. Reflection/Discussion Question: Are your definition of loving Jesus and Jesus’s definition of loving him the same?