REFOCUS Questions - Who Am I?

This past Sunday Pastor Jeremy Hawkins spoke with us about Kingdom Values. At the end of his sermon he asked us to ask ourselves two questions:

"Who Am I?" and "What Breaks My Heart?"

We received seventy-five responses from the one hundred and twelve in worship.
Their responses are as follows:

WHO AM I?

30 - Child of God
19 - Used various adjectives to describe themselves (hungry, seeking, thirsty, etc.)
7 - Christian
7 - Believer
3 - Follower of Christ
3 - Wife/mother
2 - Husband/father
2 - Used their actual name...
1 - Unbeliever
1 - ??? (unknown)

WHAT BREAKS MY HEART?

20 - Child abuse
13 - The Lost (those w/o salvation)
11 - Injustices (poverty,addiction, racism, etc.)
7 - People have a lack of hope
6 - Families/marriage/divorce
5 - Discipleship
4 - State of the nation & world/our leaders
4 - Animal abuse
3 - Unloved children
1 - Those with mental illness
1 - Unforgiveness

Recently the Welborn Baptist Foundation conducted numerous surveys and research groups aimed at evaluating the health of the community here in Southern Indiana and Northern Kentucky. Among those findings are the facts that we have a 6% more single parent homes than the national average; 5% fewer husband-wife families(a); 45% more teen mothers than national average(b); and a nearly 200% higher child abuse rate than the national average(c). Add the fact that the tri-state area has twice as many adult binge drinkers than the national average, and we begin to see that the hearts of New Hope are in tune with the challenges of our community.

This month at New Hope we have been trying to REFOCUS our view of the Kingdom of God. We have to understand what the Kingdom is and what the King wants from his Kingdom. We begin with the first questions of What Is The Kingdom?

• The kingdom of God is any place over which God has operative dominion.

• The kingdom is life as God intended it (in all its facets).  

God outlines a perfect kingdom in Isaiah 65. There he describes a land where...

• There is joy—v.19
• There is absence of weeping and crying (v.19)
• There is no infant mortality (v.20)
• People live out their full lives (v.20)
• People will build houses and live in them (v.21, 22)
• People will sow and reap (v.21, 22)
• There is fulfilling work (v.22)
• There is confidence that their children will face a better life (v.23)
• People will experience the blessing of God (v.23)
• People will have inter-generational family support (v.23)
• There will be rapid answers to prayer (v.24)
• There will be an absence of violence (v.25)

As citizens of The Kingdom, we need to pray that the King will give us clear direction on what is shaping his heart and how we can join along side him to implement the benefits of His kingdom. Knowing who we are and having a heart that breaks for the things that breaks His heart is a start. Now we must set a course of action to carry out the values of the King!






(a) Single parent data & Husband-Wife Families are both from the Census Bureau through the American Community Survey. 
(b) Teen Mothers data is from the Center for Disease Control, Department of Health & Human Services
(c) The Child Abuse/Neglect data is reported in KIDS Count, but also from the Department of Health & Human Services

Do It Yourself Life

DIY Life

10.9.16

DIY or Do It Yourself is a popular television phenomenon. A genre once relegated to public television and a few shows like This Old House, it now has birthed entire networks and hundreds of shows with thousands of projects. Add the internet into the mix and self-help fixers have an almost endless supply of ideas.

DIY may be a great way to make changes and renovate your home, car, or other surroundings, but when it comes to your eternal life DIY is not the way to go. Take a look at a few examples of DIY gone wrong you can understand why our best efforts sometimes are not enough!

Mountain Spring Water?

How many MPG doe the A/C get?

THE PROJECT

When it comes to fix-er-uppers, we as humans are the worse. Consider what God says about us in Isaiah 64:6 - 

“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”

There are a lot of people who try to overcome this problem. They try to "be good enough" or work hard enough to make up for all the bad things they do. 

THE PROCESS

Jesus is a grand master contractor. He has a clear process and it never fails! 

“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”

Romans 6:4

Jesus died so that we may live. He shared in the punishment of sin (death) so that we can have the result of his righteousness (life)! All we must do is accept his plan and "die" with him so that we may live!

THE PROMISE

Jesus gives us a promise that this process does not require any work on our part. We cannot add any "sweat equity" to this building of a new life. He completes the work so that we recognize who gave us the new life. Imagine a contractor renovating a home only to find out later that the home owner is taking credit for the work. We would consider that home owner as being self deceived and ungrateful. Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:8-10 that the promise Jesus gives us is that we are his completed handiwork:

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork."

Jesus wants us to be a testimony for his hard work! Not ours! We are his "portfolio" of changed lives! 

THE PERKS

My wife and I were considering to have a new home built a few years ago. When we were deciding what the house should look like, we toured various "model homes" to get ideas. We settled on a floor plan and discussed prices with the builder. We were shocked to find that many of the things that we loved about the model homes were in fact either not available or were very pricey upgrades! 

Jesus does not hold anything back! When he gives us a new life, he gives us all the perks! They include, but are not limited to:

• Promise of eternal life. – John 14:2-3
• We receive eternal life for free. – Romans 6:23
• We have an advocate (champion) before God. – 1 John 2:1
• We are pardoned from punishment. – John 5:24
• We are no longer condemned. – Romans 8:1
• We have an immovable anchor of hope. – Hebrews 6:19
• We become children of God. – John 1:12
• As children, we are heirs with Christ. – Romans 8:17
• We are new, the old is gone. – 2 Corinthians 5:17
• We are a temple for God’s Spirit. – 1 Corinthians 5:16

When you consider all that Jesus has done for us, is willing to do for us, and is doing for us, why would anyone want to DIY their life? Let Jesus be the designer/contractor of your life!