You wish you never sinned, in your heart your greatest desire is to never sin, but so often you find yourself in sin. So often you mess up, and you know that every time you sin, you can go to God in repentance, and receive grace. But don’t you wish you could stop sinning? Well obviously no one can ever be completely free from sin, this side of glory. There is something however, that Scripture reminds us off that will help us put to death that sin that lives in us.

Before we dig into what Scripture tells us on how we can kill sin in our lives, we need to remind ourselves of one thing. When we choose to sin, we are making ourselves a slave to that sin, we are obedient to it rather than God. That is what sin is…

Romans 6v14 says:

“For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”

Here it is, here is our motivation to kill the sin in our lives. This is great news; Sin doesn’t have to have dominion over you! Dance, and celebrate, this is amazing! We can please God more often, with this, we can be more joyful with this. This is what can help us in killing sin in our lives.

Why shouldn’t we sin? Because we are not under law, but because we are under grace! Do you see how huge this is? The reason that you don’t look with lust is not because there is a rule that says you mustn’t, but because you live under the grace of God. The reason the we don’t discriminate, is not because the Bible tells us not to, but because God didn’t discriminate against us, He showed us grace. The reason that we shouldn’t sin, is not because there is a rule saying we shouldn’t, but because we live under the grace of God. Christian, you are not under law you are under grace. The reason that we desire to keep God’s moral law, is not because it is a law, but because we are under His grace…

Remember this when you are about to sin, when God provides a way out for you before you sin, take it, not because you’re going to be breaking a rule by sinning, but because you will be abusing His grace by sinning!

His grace is given us freely, but Christ paid a dear price for it on your behalf. Praise God!

Romans 6v14:

For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

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We are making a big deal about this whole love thing, but how much of an issue is it really to the Christian life, how important is it that we understand this, and live it?

Firstly, let’s have a look at one of the most famous scriptures on love, 1Corinthians 13:

1Corinthians 13v1→3: ¹If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

1Corinthians 13v13: And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Does God take love seriously? YES!!!

In the letter that John wrote called 1John, John lays out several tests that one can do in order to check your spiritual health. He says in 1John 5v13: I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. You see his desire is that we know that we are saved, if you ever question your salvation; “Am I really a Christian?” go and have a good honest read through the book of 1John and compare yourself to the questions that he asks.

One of the tests that John puts forward is this; Do you love other Christians? John sets out to polarize people, he makes it a black and white issue, a light and dark issue.

1John 2v9+10: ⁹Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. ¹⁰Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.

John lays it out like this; if you do not love other Christians, you are not a Christian. If you hate other Christians, then you are not saved yourself. What we tend to do is we look on a macro scale, and we say, I do not hate all Christians, in fact I really get on with most of them, as long as they don’t irritate me… But this is not what it is about here, John isn’t talking about just getting along, or liking most other Christians, he is rather asking; “Do you have a deep compassion, love, and connection with other Christians?” and “Are other Christians really like brothers and sisters to you?”

Do you love other Christian? Is this issue important? Yes, it is a litmus test for your salvation, no love, no salvation!

1John 3v14: We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.

If we get back to our key scripture, we read that Jesus said: “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” So is loving each other important? Yes it is, not only is it a litmus test of our salvation, it is a demonstration of who we are. Do Christians really look all that different from the rest of the world? The divorce rate is essentially the same among Christians as among the rest of the world, how can the world know that we are Jesus’ disciples? We must demonstrate the love of Christ to each other, that the world may look and see!

1John 4v19→20: ¹⁹We love because he first loved us. ²⁰If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. ²¹And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

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The third example of Jesus’ love that we will look at in this series is how He loved in grace. Jesus’ example –  2Thessaloians 2v16+17: ¹⁶May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, ¹⁷encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

Jesus came and demonstrated His love for us in showing us grace, and giving us mercy. It was through Jesus that we have access to God. Jesus demonstrated grace to many on earth, think of the woman caught in adultery; she was about to be stoned by the crowd (and rightly so, by the law of that day), yet Christ comes, and reveals every single persons sin to them and then shows the woman grace. This is just how Jesus operated, He demonstrated His love to us by showing us grace.

And us – how can we copy Jesus in this area? We need to show each other grace, this is a demonstration of our love for each other. This doesn’t mean that we never confront each other about issues, or that we never have a disagreement. But rather, that when we do have disagreements that we are quick to show each other grace. When we love each other in grace, this means that we don’t love because we are loved back, no rather we love each other whether it is reciprocated or not. This ought to be our aim, this is the model of love that God has set out for us:

1John 4v19: We love because he first loved us.

God has loved us before we loved Him, He was the one that initiated this love. He loved us even when we hated Him, He loved us when we ignored Him, He loved us when we loved sin, He loved us first. Take this example as you love one another, loved gracefully, show love even if it is not returned.

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This week we will have a look at how Jesus came as a servant, the King of kings came to earth and served. Jesus’ example – Mark 10v43→45: ⁴³Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. ⁴⁵For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus here is teaching those that will be leaders the manner in which they are to lead, that being servant like. Again Jesus came and gave the example of His love, when God referred to Christ during His time on earth He called Him as servant. This is the attitude that Jesus came with, His very attitude was that of a servant. Jesus was the highest authority ever to walk the earth, He was the single person that was most worthy of respect, He deserved to be worshiped whilst on earth (an indeed was worshiped), yet whilst Jesus was on earth here He demonstrated His love by washing His disciples feet (John 13)!

And us – How can we follow Jesus’ example in this and love each other with the attitude of a servant? You need to look around and seek out opportunities where you can serve each other in love. Jesus didn’t wait until someone gave Him a suggestion, He sought out the opportunities to demonstrate His love in service. We need to do the same; is there someone who is always serving, how about you serve them for a while. Is there a need that no one wants to do because it is not very glamorous, or not seen, why not be a servant and fulfil that need. Do you think of yourself higher than Jesus, or are you more worthy of being served than Jesus was? Remember Jesus example:

Philippians 2v5→8: ⁵Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: ⁶Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, ⁷but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. ⁸And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!

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Last week we saw that as Christians we should love other Christians, the reason tat we should love other Christians is because God loves us. Now over the next few weeks we are going try and get very practical in how we should love each other, as Christians. We are going to look at three ways that we should love each other, each week we will first look to Jesus’ example (how He loved like this), and then we will focus in on some of the ways that we can begin to love like this, following Jesus’ example.

The fist way that we get to love other Christians is through sacrifice. Sacrifice is a taboo word in our culture today, to most people it is the opposite of success. Yet Jesus, the single most well known figure of all history, not only spoke of sacrifice, He lived it, and loved through it. Let’s have a look:

Jesus’ example – Ephesians 5v1+2: ¹Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children ²and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Jesus laid down His life as a ransom for you and for all those who call on His name, He suffered at the hands of the Romans, He endured the wrath of God that should have been poured out on you, He took it on your behalf. Jesus sacrificed His very own self for you, He stepped down from eternity in time, He constrained Himself to time and space, the very King of all of everything clothed Himself as a human, He lived among us, and then died for us. Jesus knew what it was to sacrifice in the name of love. That is the example that He has set for us.

And us – How then can we imitate Jesus’ example in sacrificial love? We can give, our time, our talents, our money to others. If Christ sacrificed His very own self in love for you, is it then too much to ask that you sacrifice some of yourself for your fellow believers? You have been given so much, can you not sacrifice some of it for those that you love?

1John 3v17+18: ¹⁷If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? ¹⁸Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

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John 13v34+35: ³⁴“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” This is the Scripture that we are going to focus on for the next few weeks, the main topic surrounding it is the whole idea of loving other Christians.

“Christians should love each other.” Is this true? And if it is true, why should Christians love each other?

If we begin in John 13v34 we see that Jesus said; “A new command I give you: Love one another…” So obviously it is true that as Christians we must love other Christians. The question then remains; Why should we love each other?

Simplicity would tell us that we must love each other because Jesus told us to, but we are given more motivation than that in the Bible, let’s have a look at some of the reasons that we as Christians should love one another.

The first and primary reason that we love each other is because we are loved. Understand this, make sure that this makes sense to you, your whole Christian life very well depends on you understanding this fact: God loves you.

1John 3v1: How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.

1John 4v10: This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

God loves you; in the cross we learn many things, one of these things that we learn is that we are loved by God. If God never loved us He would never have sent His Son to die for us. If you ever doubt that you are truly loved, look to the cross; see how much you really are loved. God loves you!

Only once you understand and believe that you are loved by God can you ever hope to begin to love others. We do not love other Christians so that God will love us, we know that God loves us therefore we love other Christians.

1John 4v11+12: ¹¹Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

So therefore the answer to the question why should we love each other is this; we should love each other because we are loved by God.

1John 4v19→21: ¹⁹We love because He first loved us. ²⁰If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. ²¹And He has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

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What a statement, Paul here writing to the Galatians explains the way that he lives. In this part of the letter Paul wrote to the Christians in Galatia, he is speaking about how he challenged his friend Peter on the way that he was living. So Paul is talking here about how we relate to the law of God, and how grace doesn’t cancel out the law, but that we are not saved by observing the law.

When Paul says this statement; “…I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” He is giving us a filter through which we must, as Christians, live our life. The fact that Jesus lives in you is the defining aspect of being a Christian, there is no non-Christian that has Christ living in them, and there is no Christian that does not have Christ living in them. So if the fact is that as Christians we have Christ living in us, why do we not live that differently to non-Christians? Many would say that the primary difference between Christians and non-Christians is that Christians don’t get to sleep in on Sunday morning.

I think that the place where we as Christians miss the mark, in this whole thing is not that we don’t accept the fact that Christ lives in us, but rather that we don’t live out the first part of this statement. “…I no longer live…” if we accept that Jesus lives in us, then we must believe that we have died to ourselves, you cannot be a Christian if you do not desire to die to yourself. It is impossible to live for Christ and to live for yourself, the call that Jesus has on every single Christians life is this; “Die to yourself, live for me, and be truly satisfied.”

So how do you die to yourself? Well this is a road that I want to walk together with you through these next few posts. I feel that this is the place in my own life that I am missing the mark, and as we seek together to die to ourselves, my prayer is that we will be able to live as if we really believed that Christ lives in us. I don’t have all the answers, and I don’t intend to pretend that I do, but I want to just share with you what I learn as over the next few weeks we actively begin to seek to live a lifestyle where one day (by the grace of God) we can say with Paul; “…I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”

Please feel free to comment, and share any insights that you have in this area of our Christians life, as well as any prayer requests. Pray for us as we pray for you.

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Today we wrap up our study on worship. I hope that you have been challenged and that you have been inspired to worship God more.

To conclude the study the most important point to remember is that pursuing satisfaction in God leads you to a God focused worship. By choosing to satisfy yourself in God always leads to focusing on God.

Its not possible to be satisfied in God without looking at Him and seeing who He is, what matters to Him, what drives Him. When you learn more about God He will lead you along a journey of self discovery where you will begin to understand that you were designed to worship a Father in heaven.

Take Note:

• Worship is not about singing
• Worship is not about music
• Worship is not about service
• Worship is not about quiet times
• Worship is not even about a lifestyle

All of these things flow from a deeply satisfied person. A person who is completely satisfied in God. The end result of worship should be complete satisfaction in God.  When God is the source of your satisfaction your natural response to Him will be to know Him more and worship Him more.

Thats why worship is such an amazing experience – because it is so satisfying.

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How do you know if Christ is your desire? At the beginning of this series we looked at how and why God is so interested in the heart. Our heart is responsible for deciding what is most important to us. Whatever is most important to us becomes the object of our worship. We mould our lives around it, we talk about it, write about it, listen to it, play with it, learn from it and do everything we can to see to manifest it in our lives.

Whatever we worship satisfies us. That’s why we worship it! We would never worship something or someone who does not satisfy us.

To make Christ your desire simply means to find your satisfaction in Him. In other words, in your relationship with Jesus you are completely happy and you find joy in Him. This means that YOU GET everything you need to be satisfied in life, from God.

It does not mean giving everything up and trying to live as best as you possibly can. Doing everything you can to serve in the church, pray every morning and read your bible. It means that YOU GET everything you desire that makes you satisfied from God. Does this sound selfish? YES! We has human beings are driven by our desires. What we want and makes us satisfied!!

Seeking to be satisfied in God means to pursue God. To make His will our will, to let Him and His will become the very thing that brings us joy. Our joy needs to come from Him. Our ‘wants’ need to be directed by Him.

To have joy as a Christian is not optional. Without joy we cannot worship because we worship what brings us joy. No one worships what does not bring us joy!

The chorus ‘As the deer pants for the water oh my soul longs for you…’ has profound wisdom. What does the deer do for the stream? Nothing!! It does not serve it, it does not help it, make it better. It simply drinks from it and it is satisfied and renewed. (Excerpt from John Piper sermon)

Come to God to gain satisfaction like the deer pants for the water. Drink enthusiastically so that your can satisfy your thirst. God wants to satisfy your hunger and thirst he says so in the beatitudes:

Matthew 5: 6
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

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After a challenging week dealing with what God has asked us to deal with, lets re-read the passage from Phillipians 1: 20-21

‘I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.’

To recap from last week:The desire on Paul’s heart is two fold:

1. To not be ashamed of his testimony of the gospel
2. To see Christ exalted in his life

Paul then states that he desires this ‘whether by life or death.’ This is the focus for these two weeks. How can we see Christ exalted in our life through life and death? Last week we focused on ‘through death’ and this week we will look at ‘through life’.

Through Life
‘for me, to live is Christ.’ Paul’s heart here shows us that anything that filled Paul’s life failed to compare with his desire to see Christ exalted. Paul had a view that life was inly important if it meant that Christ was exalted in his life. In other words, Christ would always be the central driving force behind Paul’s actions.

Unlike the Pharisees in Matthew 15: 8-9 whose focus was their own exaltation, Paul’s example to us challenges us to always put God’s plan and purpose first.

Our application this week is simply to ask the following question:
Is there anything in my life that I have placed before the will of God?

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