Scripture: Acts 1:8
Are you timid in sharing your faith with others?
Being a witness for Christ is not as scary or intimidating.
- To be a witness for Christ is to testify for what happened to you in Christ
- To be a witness for Christ is to know your story and experience of what happened to you in Christ
- To be a witness for Christ always includes this 4 major points in witnessing:
- Share the truth of your experience
- Share the truth about Jesus
- Remember your lifestyle speaks volume
- Remember the Holy Spirit uses you to testify and glorify about Christ
Scripture: John 14:16-18
To live with a sense of fulfilment and achievement as disciples of Christ, we need the help of the Holy Spirit and experience His power working is us.
- Be open to who the Holy Spirit is
- Be conscious of the fact that the Holy Spirit lives in us
- Be humble to admit our need for the Holy Spirit
- Be wholly surrendered to and dependent upon the Holy Spirit
- Be wise to know that God by His Holy Spirit has more for us to experience
Scripture: Luke 9:21
How shall we live? As disciple in Christ?
- The first benchmark as Christ's disciples is we concede our rights to Him
- The second benchmark of disciples of Christ is we carry our Cross
- The third benchmark of Christ's disciples is we follow Him at all cost
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:17
How shall we live? As a new creation in Christ.
That's the only way we can live for Christ.
- We can live guilt free without condemnation because we're cleansed and forgiven by God
- We can live with a new direction in life because we have a new heart
- We can live with new strength and zeal because we have a new spirit
- We can live in the abundance of God's grace because we're living in the new Covenant
Scripture: Matthew 22:36-39
It’s important to know as followers of Jesus, how to live with the beliefs and practices of the paganistic, pluralistic, anti-God culture today.
There are 3 possible positions to live. Observe which one you could be?
- As Jonah?
- As Esther?
- As Daniel?
Scripture: James 5:13-20
James focuses in his closing or concluded his letter on the important practice of praying effectively.
Paul's emphasis to pray without ceasing. James emphasis in on how we can pray more effectively. How to we harness that effective power in our praying?
To be effective and powerful in praying James says:
- We must establish pray AND praise as the two pillars of our worship
- We must pray in total submission to the will of the Father for the sick/weak
- We must pray in the confession of our sins
- We must pray with intensity and fervency for God's intervention in adversities
- We must pray with compassion and empathy for the return of backslidden believers
Scripture: James 5:7-12
Christians great hope is in the return or second coming of Jesus.
This was the hope of Christians in the first century when they suffered for their faith and died for their faith.
We as followers are still waiting for His return, and it seems like a long time or never going to happen.
We have to patiently wait for His second coming.
- Learn how to be patient in waiting from farmers
- Learn how to be patient in faithfulness from the prophets
- Learn how to be patient in suffering from Job
Scripture: James 4:13-17
One of the many struggles of believers is submitting or surrendering to the will of God.
Here's 3 negative behaviours we have to stop doing if we want to live in triumphant in submission to the will and desires of God.
- We have to stop being presumptuous
- We have to stop boasting
- We have to stop neglecting to do what is right
Instead, we are to START submitting to the Lord.
7 practical steps to submitting to God and His will.
- Be sure you are obeying the known will of God
- Surrender to the point of being willing to do anything God says
- Seek God's will based on principles found in his word
- Watch for providential circumstances
- Ask God to reveal His will
- Ensure there's inner peace
- Seek Godly counsel
Scripture: James 4:1-12
Everyone wants to live in peace. Yet only few people have peace or experienced it in life.
What are the cause of absence of peace?
- Evil desires remains within us
- Asking God with wrong motives
- Friendship with the world is stronger than your friendship with God
We need to take steps to have peace and be at peace with God, ourselves and others.
- Draw close to God. Pray and repent
- Humble ourselves before God
- Let God be the Judge