Living With CAUSE...

I don't know about you, but I love thinking of the call that Jesus has for us to make disciples...followers of Him...as a mission. There is something about that word that gives me passion and excitement to know that God is using me and empowering me to do what He has called me to do!

On Sunday night we finished up our series entitled "Reach Out." We saw how God has called us to live the same CAUSE that He lived...to seek and save the lost...those who need to know the love and saving power of Jesus!

It has been great hearing many of our students share about how they have begun to "bring God up" and share His love with their friends! But I know so many of us still struggle with the idea of sharing the Gospel- the idea that God created us for Himself, our personal sins have turned us away from our Creator, that Jesus came to die for those sins, take our place, and give us newness of life if we repent and believe in Him. Why do we struggle...? There are tons of reasons! However, one of the biggest is that we know who we are...our struggles, our trials, and even beyond that...we know some of our friends who we want to share Jesus with know our struggles and trials...And because of that...we become so scared of sharing Jesus because we think all of our friends will think we are a bunch of hypocrites or people who don't back up what we talk about. Why is that? For alot of our friends and ourselves...we have this idea that we need to be perfect people...that when we take on the title of "Christian" that we are somehow going to live perfect, sinless lives...that's a tall order! The truth is that although sin doesn't have power over us like it did before Jesus saved us...we still struggle and go through growing pains. Its a process...a growing process of becoming more like Jesus each day, but it won't ever be perfected until we leave this earth...

So what does that have to do with our evangelism? Everything! Join us this Thursday night as we continue to work out this idea of sharing Jesus with humility...pointing people to the grace and mercy of Jesus!

Use this passage and these questions to help you go deeper in your understanding of what it means to share Jesus not as perfect people but as saved people with humility...

1. On Sunday night we looked at the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19. What was he like before He met Jesus? What was He like after He met Jesus? What do you think people thought of this change in Him? Was it believable or do you think he seemed like a hypocrite to the people because of His past?

2. Read Phil. 3:1-16...
A. In verses 1-6, Paul speaks about what He used to care about...looking good on the outside by His own power...
B. Why do we sometimes want to live a perfect life on the outside before we share Jesus? Why do people expect a perfect life from us when we tell them we are "Christians"?

C. Read verses 7-11, what does Paul find so cool about his relationship with Jesus? What is his goal in his faith?

D. Read verses 12-16, what does Paul want us to know? What does pressing on look like?

3. If we try to live perfectly on our own...what does that tell us about what we think of what Jesus did for us on the cross?

4. How do we share Jesus with our friends even though we still struggle every day? How do we get them to understand God's grace in changing us inward when we live in a world that focuses on outward appearances?

Join us Thursday night at 7pm at Matt & Amanda's as we tackle this big bump in the road in our journey to share Jesus' gospel and join His heart-changing CAUSE!