January 2nd, 2022 Service Notes Belief is Not Enough If I were to put myself inside the skin of a Christian who believes in Jesus but doesn't follow Him-what would my life be like? What would I experience? -Jan Hettinga I would: Be cynical about church and the possibility of the christian life actually working. Acknowledge the fact that I was spiritually empty, dry, and unsatisfied. Tend to be passive and apathetic. I would have good spiritual intentions but lack follow-through. Be focused on myself-my needs, my rights, my options. Prefer to be a spectator-watching, listening, but not really participating. Occasionally admitting that I have a busy, fast paced, cluttered life and short attention span. Insist on arranging my life around my personal preferences, pleasures, and comforts. Subdivide my life so that I could move from one sealed compartment to another, keeping each strictly separate-church world, work world, leisure world, family world, and so forth. Go through the motions, doing what is expected, more out of habit and duty than devotion to Christ. Be spiritually sterile, barren, and nonproductive in witness, and not troubled about it. Experience the frustration of trying to have the best of both worlds, attempting to serve two masters-Jesus and someone or something else. Pride myself on my ability to be independent and self-sufficient. Have little or no sense of overriding spiritual purpose or cause, and prefer to drift. Cover up a quiet desperation inside knowing there has got to be more to the Christian life than this powerless state I am experiencing. James 2:18-20 (corresponding action/fruit) But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works. ” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Big Idea: When it comes to Christ, there are two types of beliefs: One is recognizing and mentally agreeing with the truth. (mental assent) The second is learning how to bring your life in line with the truth you accept. Parable of the sower Matthew 13:3-9 “Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”” ‭‭ Matthew 13:13-22 Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. Matthew 13:18-23 “Therefore hear the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”” ‭‭ James 1:21-25 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. Luke 8:15 But the ones that fell on the good group are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it, and bear fruit with patience. John 14:21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” Take Away: What is the condition of the ground of your heart? Is God worth following? If He is, why am I not following Him? What would happen to us and our church, city, world, if we did follow Jesus?