Life on Loan: Renew Your Love - Revelation 2:2-5

You work hard. You do the right things and say the right things. You persevere despite the opposition, but why? Because it’s the right thing to do? Because God said so? They are good reasons, but not the right reason. Love must be our motivation, our guide and our sustenance. BUT, what happens when we don’t feel that love? We felt it before, but it seems to be gone now. We often try to find something else (some new teacher or group or program or book) to bring that excitement back. God doesn’t say to find something new. He says to go back to basics.

• You're Doing well... - v2
  BUT
  
• You've forsaken your first love. v4
• Tongues - Love = Noise (1 Cor 13:1)
• Knowledge + Power - Love = Nothing (1 Cor 13:2)
• Good Deeds + Sacrifice - Love = Nothing (1 Cor 13:3)
SO

• Renew Your Love - v5
  
• Remember the height from which you have fallen
• Repent
• Re-Do the things you did at first
  

Life on Loan: Redefine Your Faith - Acts 21:10-15, Matthew 16:21-26, James 2:14-19

How do you look at faith? Like a vitamin that you take every day to keep spiritually healthy? Like a good luck charm that keeps you from harm? Like a parachute to catch you when things get too intense? Like a book of rules to keep us on the straight and narrow? Do we get so stuck on these ideas that we miss what faith is really all about. If we are to fulfill our purpose with the lives God has loaned us, we must take a step back and redefine our faith, to align it with the faith found in God’s Word.

• The Attitude of Faith
• Bring it On! - ...I am ready not only to be bound, but to die... Acts 21:10-15
• Get Behind Me - ... you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men... -Matthew 16:21-23
• The Action of Faith
• Follow Me - If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. - Matthew 16:24-26
• Show Me - ...I will show you my faith by my deeds. - James 2:14-19
  

Life on Loan: Reassign your Resources - Luke 10:27-37

Are you a giver or a taker? Does all that taking make you happy, or does it just make you want more and more? Too many people in this world are takers, and not enough people know the joy of giving. God created us to give to those in need. He prepared us to do good works for those in need by giving us talents and resources to use for His purposes. Too often we have buried those talents or used them for our own purposes instead of looking for God’s purposes. It is up to us to reassign those resources to do God’s work here and now.

Luke 10:27-37
The Good Samaritan Gives:

• Inconvenient Help - v33
  
• Personal Involvement - v34
• Sacrificial Transportation - v34
• Lodging and Companionship - v35

Matthew 25:14-30
The One-Talent guy was Scared, Lazy and Wicked because he:

• Didn't look past his Fear
• Didn't exert any Effort
  
• Didn't take any Risks

Life on Loan: Re-Examine Your Values - Isaiah 32:1-8

What’s important to you?
What do you invest in? Things that make you noble, or things that make you just like everyone else? Throughout history it has become apparent that most men do not value anything but themselves. The same cannot be said of God. If we are going to lives our lives on loan from God, we must do what God would have us do with them. This means valuing the things that God values and living according to those values.

Isaiah 32:8 - But the noble man makes noble plans, and by noble deeds he stands.

• A Noble Man Values Purpose - v1-2
• ...if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. - 1 John 4:11-12
• Noble Plans Value Preparation - v3-4
• Seeing - Hearing - Knowing - Telling
• Noble Deeds Value People - v5-7
• Do you SEE this woman? - Luke 7:36-44
  

Life on Loan: Your Life Counts - 2 Corinthians 5:17

Jacob wanted to be someone else. He was jealous of what his brother had and what he was going to get. Sound familiar? In today's world we are constantly told what we should want and what we should try to be. But what about what God wants us to be? He created us as individuals with specific talents, faults, friends and connections to serve Him. Plus, he gave us a new life in His son, one fraught with benefits that enable us to make the most of the life God loaned us.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come! - 2 Corinthians 5:17

As a new creation in Jesus, YOU Are:

• A Child of God - John 1:12
  
• A Friend of God - John 15:15
  
• Forgiven - Psalm 103:2-3
• Loved - John 3:16
• NEEDED - Matthew 9:35-38

We LIVE in the harvest field. God put us there because He needs us there.

Are You Ready for Monday? - Colossians 4:2-6

Why do you attend the church you attend? Chances are that at some point someone you already had a relationship with invited you. This is the way that an overwhelmingly large majority of church attenders first came to church and it is the way that most people who are not Christians will become Christians. Before He was taken up to heaven, Jesus gave us the job of creating disciples in all the world. This process doesn't start on Sundays. It starts on Mondays, when we go back out into the world and create relationships with others, giving them a fleshly, personal link to God.

• Prepare a Plan
• "...he had compassion on them..." - Matthew 9:36
  
• Pray, Pray, Pray
• "Devote yourselves to prayer..." - Colossians 4:2
  
• Personal Petition
• "...make the most of every oppoortunity" - Colossians 4:5

I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. - 1 Corinthians 3:6-7

Are You Ready for Sunday? - Romans 12:1

What do you do to get ready for church on Sunday? What should you do? If we look at the reasons for having a regular church service, it becomes clear that we have a lot to do before we come to church - and I'm not talking about your hair or your make-up. We have to prepare our hearts, minds and most importantly our attitudes before we even think about worshiping God and fellowshipping with our brothers and sisters.

• It's NOT about ME!
• "Offer your bodies as living sacrifices...this is your spiritual act of worship." - Romans 12:1
• It IS about HIM
• "God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached..." - 1 Corinthians 1:21
• It IS about THEM
• "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost." - Luke 19:10

"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" - Matthew 22:37-39

(Re)Build: Stronger - Ezra 9-10

When a fault is found in the foundation of a building project, work is immediately stopped and the problem is removed. When sin appears in our lives we tend to not do the same thing. We go on living, trying our best to pretend that nothing has happened. If this goes on too long we lose our hatred of sin, we cease to be aware of its damaging effects and we wonder what could have caused the problems in our lives. When the Israelites returned from exile to rebuild the Temple, they knew they had to get rid of the sin in their midst that had been plaguing them for generations. If we are to rebuild our relationships with God, we must rid ourselves of the sin that has weakened that relationship in the past. It is not enough just to rebuild, we must ReBuild Stronger than before.

• Confront
• Contrite - Isaiah 66:2b
  
• Appalled at our sin - Ezra 9:3-4
  
• Bothered by its impact - 9:7
  
• Concerned for a future with sin - 9:14
  
• Confess - 1 John 1:9
  
• Admit we did wrong - 10:2
  
• Blame only ourselves -
  
• Call on God for Forgiveness
  
• Control - Hebrews 10:22
  
• Actions - 10:3
  
• Conscience
• Bow to God as Lord
  

(Re)Build: Despite the Opposition - Ezra 4-6

There is something sad about an unfinished building. So much promise and hard work that will never reach its full potential. Does God feel the same way looking at our lives? What gets in the way of our efforts to build a relationship with God? What can we do to overcome these obstacles? And why are they there in the first place?

• Opposition
• Comes looking for us - Ezra 4:1-4
• Can hinder us, but not stop us - Ezra 4:5, 24
• Building Despite Opposition
• God's Word and God's People - Ezra 5:1-2
• Always Do the Right Thing - Ezra 5:8-10
• Opposition Becomes Opportunity - Ezra 6:8-10
• James 1:2 - Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds...
  

(Re)Build: From the Ground Up - Ezra 3

Did you ever feel like you work and work, but never get anywhere? You do the right things, but the person doing the wrong things is the one who prospers. You try to pray, but it seems useless. If you've felt this way, you aren't alone. This is something that happens in the lives of many (all) Christians. It happens when we neglect our foundation. Over time, our Biblical, God-centered basis can develop cracks where sin pushes its way in and deteriorates what God has built. Patching this isn't the solution. We need to rebuild, from the ground up - putting God first and obeying Him, despite the cost.

• Recognize what is broken - Haggai 1:6 ...You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it...
  
• Restructure your foundation
• Worship First - Ezra 3:2 ...began to build the altar and sacrifice offerings on it...
  
• Build Despite Fear - Ezra 3:3 ...despite their fear of the peoples around them, they built...
  
• Rejoice in what God is Beginning - Ezra 3:11 ...with praise and thanksgiving they sang...
  
• God Only Upgrades! - Ezra 3:12 ...many who had seen the former temple wept...