Who is your Jesus?

Is He your teacher, your buddy, or Lord of your life?

So many of live with the Jesus we learned about in Sunday School – He is good, He is kind, He is there for us, He does miracles, He even raises the dead, but is He Lord of our Life?  Is He the King of the Universe?  Is He the One we literally bow down before?  Is He Maker and Creator of all things?

IS HE LORD OF YOUR LIFE AND ALL THE WORLD?

For so many people, He is not.

Over the next few weeks in Sunday services and beyond, we are talking about what Bellwether is.  It’s simple:  it’s Jesus.  If it’s a church, then it should be Jesus.  Because the Church is the “body of Christ” (Colossians 1: 24).  It’s not us, it’s not our group, not our pastor, or our leadership – it’s Jesus!  At church then, we should go to see, find, hear, and know Jesus better.

That is what we want.

This Sunday and in the weeks to come, we will get into what that looks like.  Because if our church is Jesus, and Jesus is our Lord, then it changes everything.  It changes how we do church.  It changes how we do life. It means Jesus is truly Head, CEO – of the organizational charts of our churches and our lives. It affects how we look at people, what we worship, and what we believe is possible on this side of heaven.  It AFFECTS AND CHANGES everything!

Sunday, we will talk about church being Jesus.  In doing so, we continue:  ”What is Bellwether.”  This week is part 2 – Jesus’ Faith.  Our Scripture will be from Matthew 17: 1-21 and we will also look at 1 Timothy 2: 3-6 and John 1: 1-3.  

Have a great weekend, and we hope to greet you Sunday to worship and see…..Jesus.

Restart

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

Have you ever wanted to restart your life?  Burdened and weighed down by past mistakes, failures, or relationships, you simply want a new start in life?  People do this all the time, usually by things like taking on a new look, losing weight, moving to a different city, or taking a new job (if the opportunity arises).

The bad news is:  ultimately these surface changes don't get to core issues, which are often deeper and more internal.

The good news is (if you believe it, and I hope you do) you can get a restart, or reboot on your life, yet it ONLY happens in Jesus Christ.

Why is that?  Because only in Jesus are you allowed to humbly repent and be forgiven of your sins.  Only in Jesus can the past truly be past and erased.  After all, if you give your life to Him, He's not concerned with your past - and He's God of the Universe - so why should you be!!!!  

After you've released your past sins, He's also there to help you move forward in faith.  He is always present with you by the Holy Spirit, and He has given us His Body in a church - a fellowship of broken people who are to love, edify, correct, and shape one another in Christ.

This is Good News!  Unfortunately, so many people don't even pursue it.  Instead, they put on their band-aids of moving to a new house, new city, new job, new look, new friends, new everything else - except new life in Christ.

At Bellwether, we want everyone to have a TRUE restart:  centered in Christ.  Where people repent, receive forgiveness, and walk in the power of the Holy Spirit within the fellowship of a local church.  This can happen to anyone.  This can happen to you!  

Even more, at Bellwether, we are undergoing a restart, reboot, relaunch, whatever you wish to call it.  What is it?  We're not going anywhere anytime soon - it's an internal reboot.  Bellwether is redefining who we are, what we believe in, what our "DNA" is.  So  what is that?  For starters:  our church is a place that offers second chance grace to everyone, that proclaims the Word of God, and Shepherds people to live holy lives.  We are redefining TO YOU what our church is about so YOU WILL KNOW and you can COMMUNICATE it better to others.  

Bellwether begins it's restart this Sunday at 10:30am.  We hope you will be there.   Even more, we want you to always know:  the only restart you will get in life is by Jesus Christ.  As His Church, we will help make that a reality any way we can.  Start new today - by Christ.

The Way of Jesus

I hear people constantly say – “I want to grow more in my Christian life, but don’t know how.” I hear people all the time say – “I want to be a better or stronger Christian, but don’t know how.”  

We all want that.  At a point, it’s a matter of actually doing it.  Taking a step.  Moving forward.  Actually becoming a stronger believer in Christ.  Thing is, all of us CAN!  Jesus has provided the way and it’s CRYSTAL CLEAR!

We first have the Bible.  It is God’s Word.  We need to read it.  We need to study it.  We need help learning and applying it with pastors and teachers.

But it is only the beginning.  Remember, Jesus didn’t HAVE the Bible.  He certainly knew the Scriptures and taught them in such a way that was different and more compelling.  Yet how did He “help people grow….in Him?”  It’s simple.  He took 12 men – a motley crue (we would regard them as “losers” in today’s world) and spent time with them, taught them, loved them, encouraged them, coached them, told them hard truths, and pushed them to ultimately go and die – first to their selves…..and eventually for Him.

In the end, those 12, they did it.  We stand on their foundation.

Now, we are to continue the way of Jesus:  to be discipled, and to disciple others.

What does that mean for you, the person who wants to “grow in Christ, their faith, as a Christian?”  It means you first have to be discipled.  By someone else.  You need someone.  You need someone in your church, our church to help you, to do the same thing Jesus did with his 12.  We all need…..must….be discipled if we are to truly grow as God wants us.

This is what we want to provide at Bellwether:  a culture of discipleship.  Where everyone is looking to be discipled, and we have hundreds willing to disciple others.  To be honest, we are not there yet.  But we have started in that direction, and most importantly, that is where we are headed.

Last Sunday I preached on evangelism.  This Sunday it will be on discipleship.  These are the two attributes every church must have.  These two sermons are a prologue to our church’s re-boot series:  ”What is a Bellwether” beginning on January 22nd.

So if you want to know what discipleship is, how to do it, and how to take that first step into, please be with us for worship this Sunday.  The message is:  ”Go & Die.”  Why such a title?  It is the essence of discipleship:  Christ calls us to take up our cross, those who are willing to lose their life for His sake, will find it.

We hope to see you and worship together this Sunday at Bellwether Church.  God bless.

What the King Commands

What, or who, do you think of of when you hear the word King?

Maybe it's kings of old.  The world at one time was ruled by kings of nations - from Herod to Richard to Lear.  Kings would war against each other, hoping to have more people and nations bow before them.

Maybe it's kings of current times.  Elvis?  Or the king of motown?  Babe Ruth was the "king of swat."  We may say there are no longer kings, yet who are we kidding?  When Will and Kate got married last year, millions tuned in.  Before them it was Charles and Diana.  We are still enchanted with kings and kingdoms.  We still give royalty to the things and people we love and adore.

We can even be our own kings, planning or ruling our own little kingdom.

Do you really know the King of Kings, Jesus Christ?  Do you know ultimately every worldly king and nation will bow before Him?  Revelation 21: 22-26 tells us - "And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb.  And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.  By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day - and there will be no night there.  They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations." 

Is He your King?

We hope so.  If He isn't, He wants to be.  You can come to the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, turning to Him in repentance and He will give you forgiveness and salvation. 

Yet, do you know the King of Kings commands something of us?  It is to worship Him and Him alone.  Then when we worship Him, we begin to understand His Heart to seek and save the lost.  We are commanded to move out of ourself and help shepherd others into a life-giving relationship with Him.  Why?  Because He wants all to come to Him - to offer that same forgiveness, salvation, and life, that we receive in Him.

Do you worship Him?

This Sunday we will see "Who we Seek, Worship, & Shepherd."  I hope you can be at Bellwether to worship with us, yet more importantly, to worship the King of Kings.  Here is Scripture we'll be looking at:  Matthew 2: 1-11, Deuteronomy 18:14, Matthew 4: 10, Acts 4: 12, John 21:16.  

Have a great weekend, and we hope to see you Sunday.