The Christian life is to experience an intimate and personal relationship with God our Father, who will change us to be like His Son Jesus Christ; and empower us with His Spirit to fulfill His good purpose on earth for all people! In this series, we look at the importance of various spiritual practices that are essential to living our faith genuinely and passionately.
Meditate
By: Joel Mathew
This past weekend we started our new series ‘Live it Loud’, with a sermon on meditation. We looked at Psalm 1 and saw what sets apart a blessed person from the rest of the crowd; blessed people delight in God and His Word. God has given us His Word; a collection of books compiled as one book called the Bible. A person who meditates on God’s Word, is not influenced by worldly counsel. He does not live a life of sin, nor makes a mockery of God and His glory. What we hear and receive from God’s Word shapes our lifestyle. God’s Word brings faith and transformation. We also learned that those who meditate would stand the test of time and have a victorious walk with Christ! It is an impossibility to revolve around God and not study the scriptures. The Scriptures are God-breathed, and vital for the Christian faith; from it, we learn what pleases God, edifies us, and blesses others. To be a blessed people who enjoy fellowship with God in this life, we must meditate on God’s Word daily, and have Him change our life inside out.
Love
By: Joshua Mathew
Everyone wants to be loved. Yet how do we love God and others genuinely? In our second sermon called “Love”, we looked at various passages from scripture to understand what it means to love God and people. We learned that we cannot genuinely love our neighbour if we have not received the love of God through Christ. The divine Son of God became a human being, and obeyed His Father’s call to bear the cross for our sake; through this display of love, He bore God’s wrath against us so that we would be partakers of His righteousness. Jesus Christ displayed the apex of true love by giving His life as a ransom for many; and lived to glorify God till His very last breath on the cross. No greater love than this has ever been shown. It is by this way alone we love God and each other; and the world will know that we belong to Jesus Christ.
Share
By: Ian Opiniano
An essential part of the Christian life is sharing the good news of the Gospel. We understand evangelism to be a command from Christ, a response of the believer, and an urgent call to action. In this session we looked at Christ’s example of how He shared the good news to the Samaritan woman found in John chapter 4. We learned how Christ addressed her condition, revealed His character, and convicted her conscience. In the end, her testimony of Jesus is what led others to follow Christ, just as our testimony is what will point others to the hope that is only found in Him.
Pray
By: Joshua Mathew
Prayer is how we communicate with God. In this sermon, we learned that daily prayer helps to keep us focused upwardly toward God, change us inwardly through reflection from His word, and empower us outwardly to serve others. Through daily prayer, we keep our hearts and minds actively conscious of doing the will of God. We also learned that our awareness of God’s presence in and over our lives increases as we communicate with Him on a personal level; we grow in intimacy with Him and become more sensitive to His ways. God’s desire is that His people would have a personal, fruitful and empowered relationship with Christ; and daily prayer is the avenue through which this holy ambition is nurtured.
Worship
By: Ian Opiniano
To live the Christian life “loud” means that we are to be a people of worship. We were created to give glory to God with all our being. Worship means that we devote our attention, affections and assets in worship of our Creator. In this session, we specifically looked at King David and his heart of worship. We discussed how, just as David’s worship was unmitigated by any cost, unconditional of his circumstance, and undivided in sincerity, we too are to have the same kind of heart when it comes to our worship to God.
Serve
By: Ian Opiniano
How do we live our faith out loud? We serve! Serving, whether in the church or outside of the church is more than a duty. In this session, we looked at John 13 and learned that Christ Himself set the standard for how we ought to serve. Jesus shows us that love is the premise of why we serve, while humility is the posture of how we service. He also demonstrates how obedience is a privilege of those who serve, and that ultimately to represent Christ in this world is the purpose of our service.
Give
By: Benjamin Thomas
Closing out this series we learned, to live it loud, is to be people who give generously to the Glory of God. So often we can find ourselves being consumed by thoughts of materialism and prosperity; the laying up of our treasures on earth instead of heaven. Our heart reveals what we treasure. Jesus in His sermon on the mount reminds us that giving stems from the right heart; from a right surrender and from obedience to God. We are to manage and steward the giving of our time, talent and treasure to the best of our ability because it all belongs to Him.