This Sunday

We’re walking through nine habits:

• Prayer
• Fasting
• Community
• Scripture
• Generosity
• Serving
• Sabbath
• Solitude
• Witness
• 
  

John Mark Comer says it this way:

“Love is the metric of spiritual maturity. Discipline is not the end. Discipline is the means.”

John 13:34-35 (NIV)

34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Romans 12:2 (NIV)

2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Transformation doesn’t happen through effort. It happens through renewal.

We struggle with the tension of Information vs. Transformation

Renewal happens when we allow God’s Word to shape how we think, see, and live.

The question we’re all asking is: How do I find my place in God’s story?

Luke 4:16-21 (NIV)

16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

    because he has anointed me

    to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

    and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor."

20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Scripture is not just a record of what God did; it is a revelation of what God is doing.

Don’t just go through the Word. Let the Word go through you.

Ask better questions while reading scripture:

• What does this show me about God?
• What does this reveal about my heart?
• What needs to change in me?

Romans 12:6-8 (NIV)

6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

Don’t just go through the Word; let the Word go through you.