Don't Quit

1 John 4:9-11 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.

This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.

The appeal of Jesus and the gospel is so compelling yet too often people are driven away from Christianity. The fact that Jesus followers can be less like him than they should be isn't surprising, I am sure that we have all been hurt by someone wearing the label Christian, as a group we can be "quarrelsome, hostile, and disputatious" and make people want to run away.

The power that changed the world is love yet we have lost our appreciation for the power that love has to make positive change. As Andy Stanley says we give up our leverage in culture when we focus on anything but love. If we loved like he calls us to love, people wouldn’t feel condemned by us.

Don't give up on the gospel lived out in a loving community, Jesus called  us to participate in mission together, it would be wrong to turn our back on our faith and it would be equally wrong to live out our faith as a "Lone Ranger" Christians.

Galatians 6:9-10 So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.

As a gospel community we know that Jesus is coming back for a unified body of believers and he expects us to be working together as a body to complete the mission that he gave us. We cannot possibly go into all the world and make disciples while we are busy fighting each other. We must love as Jesus did if we are going to draw people into our community and bring about change in their life.

Brand Recognition

John 13:34-35 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

We have all been bombarded with advertising that screams at the message of the brand. Companies spend thousands to protect their brand and to make sure that people understand what the brand stands for.

Of all of the brands in the world there is one that may have the least amount of understanding as to what it is or what it does. If you mention the name "Christian" you will get a lot of ideas about what it is and what it stands for. Even the people that label themselves with this brand name have a difficult time agreeing about what it means.

Anybody can call themselves Christian but Jesus called his followers disciples and he called them to make more disciples. Jesus didn't give a vague calling to his followers to be something obscure. He called them to be something that is a lot more serious, something that you can easily define, something that is a lot more demanding.

Has "Christian" behavior made you think twice about being one? Please don't miss Jesus because of the people that claim to belong to him.

Join the conversation this Sunday as we take a look at the damage that has been created because a lot of people that wear the label Christian don't really look like someone that is following Jesus. Let's discuss what the world would look like if we loved each other the way that Jesus told us.