Brand New Life, Part 6 - People over Pigs @imagechurch Dumfries, VA

Those who do not preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ is NOT a church! Our very purpose and existence is to magnify and reflect Jesus.

We strive to be people who mangify Jesus and passionately make disciples who passionately love Jesus as we do and desire to make other disciples.

Everyone has their secret recipe for the a signature dish, a recipe we do not share with others. But the recipe for salvation is free and open, the secret ingredient is Jesus.

When we experience Jesus, we experience a resurrection. The most exciting thing we can experience is watching Jesus resurrect another life. The Bible is more than just a book that makes us feel good, or look forward to something better, it is the Holy Word of God so that we can know and experience Him.

The picture of the two men who were living in tombs that were demon-possesed, lived in tombs and were physically reflecting the fact that they were dead men. The Bible says that we return to our sin like a dog to their vomit. We are all dead to sin, but can find life in Christ. Those who know Christ are delivered from sin and death, yet we all desire to return to it.

Our life before Christ could have easily lead us to insanity and zero self-control. A life in sin, before Jesus, ultimately leads us to death. These demons know who Jesus is, but they do NOT believe IN Jesus.

Aren't we joyous that we know the end? Christ gives us assurance with salvation.

Then the community comes out, after Jesus did a miraculous work in these men, and they asked Him to leave. They did not want the powerful presence of Jesus in their town, even after miraculous work. Before Jesus first shows us how to love, we fear the truth of Jesus and His power in our lives.

Our decisions become more difficult as we get older in our faith because Jesus is asking us to rely on Him MORE!

The only way that we can grow closer to Jesus and be able to hear Him more, is to make that decision to pray and get into the Word DAILY!

The presence of Jesus leads us to realize...

1 We are in need of ressurection.

The thing we need to remember is that this life is NOT about us, it IS about Jesus and His glorification in our lives. Whatever we have been "robbed" of, Jesus can return and redeem that to us.

If our only desire in coming to church is to "feel better" we are missing the point of knowing Jesus. There is NO OTHER WAY to God except through Jesus. We slit our own throats, in the eyes of the world, by proclaiming this.

Only in Christ can we receive the resurrection we desperately need. A resurrection from the death of sin, and the death from God. The moment we feel bad about what we have done, and cannot do, that is the joy of the hope found only in Jesus.

Paul was a murderer and was completely transformed, not because of what he did, but because of the transforming power of Jesus Christ. King David was a liar, adulterer, a cheater, and attempted murderer. But is called a "man after God's own heart" because he was repentant. Rehab was used by God to deliver her people, and what did she do for a living? She was a prostitute.

Jesus goes and hangs out with the crazy, marginalized, and dirty people that the world sees. Those were people who could dramatically be transformed for others to see.

  1. Our lives are in need of His power and His love.

Jesus endured a huge storm to get to this land, this land that would reject Him. Even more, Jesus endured the biggest storm so that we can know God, the storm of a Cross.

"Our God's not dead, He is surely alive. He is living on the inside, ROARING like a lion!"

Our mission to make followers of Jesus is not a selective call, we are called to EVERY nation and every people on earth, especially those we do not like.
  1. There should be nothing more important than Him and His mission.

When we are in the presence of Jesus, it drives us to be on His mission. The need for getting to know, and spending time with Jesus, is a daily practice. When we are with Jesus, we get on fire for the things that He desires.

These people who asked Jesus to leave after casting out the demons, rejected Him because they saw that His very presence would transform their lives. They feared the change.

Jesus can gives us a #brandnewlife, that will change EVERYTHING we used to desire and pursue. Maybe YOU need a resurrection, today! Have you ever experience the presence of Jesus in your life. That is not about coming to church, that secondary to spending time with Jesus everyday.

What Jesus did to the pigs, probably over 2000, was nothing when compared to what He did for those two demon-possesed men. Do you love your pigs, more than your wife? your kids? your neighbors? the rest of the world when we do not know the people who live next-door?

Created over 1 year ago