Chewing On This Week's Message At Northview

The Greatest Stories Ever Told: Sibling Rivalry

Here are a couple resources that go along with this weekend's message:

Balance - A message on Grace at NVCL

What do you do with the Christian Doctrine of Grace?

This is an opportunity for you to "push back" on this weekend's message. What are you thinking about? Struggling with? Excited about...when you think about God's Grace in your life? I would invite you to wrestle with the following questions...

Is Religion Good Enough?

Read Romans 3:20 - 31. Where in my life am I relying upon the law (and my good works...Religion) to save me? Am I/have I been guilty of legalism? In what areas of my faith journey do I have false pride? What do I do that is “mere religion?” Where am I guilty of “just going through the motions of faith?”

Abusing Grace

Read Romans 6. Am I still a “slave to sin?” In what specific ways am I taking advantage of God’s grace?

Living Sacrifice? Really?

Read Romans 12:1-2. Am I a “living sacrifice?” What does it look like for me to be walking around on the altar of life? Do I live a lifestyle of worship?

Swimming In God's Grace

Do I “Swim in God’s Grace?” Do I really accept the free gift he’s given? How is the Balance in my life between legalism/the law on one side of “the rope” and taking advantage of God’s Grace on the other side? If I “slip off the rope,” which side do I fall in?

Extra Credit :)

Consider reading the book of Romans this week to dig deeper into this concept of living by grace and balancing the Law with abusing Sin. To learn more about God’s grace and the freedom we have in Christ, consider reading the book of Galatians.

Revealed - A Sermon at NVCL

What do you see when you look in the mirror...Spiritual Mirror?

This is an opportunity for you to "push back" on this weekend's message. What are you thinking about? Struggling with? Excited about...in your own Spiritual Growth Journey? I would invite you to wrestle with the following questions. And invite you to allow them to be a kind of self-guided Spiritual Growth Inventory.

And while you're online, I would urge you to take twenty minutes to take an online survey for us called REVEAL (click here). (West Lafayette campus click here.) This will help us as we try to assess where we are as a church in the Spiritual Growth area. And then, if we know where we are, that will help us provide a better roadmap to where we would like to be...

A Question to Ponder...

Which of these two pictures best describes your Spiritual Growth thermometer?

Is Jesus "Top of Your List?" or "Center of Your World?"

After wrestling with that question, why don't you answer for yourself a few of these questions (below)...

Spiritual Growth - Prayer

1. I tend to pray:
· Throughout the day
· Daily
· A couple times/week
· A couple times a month

2. When you pray, do you also allow time to just listen to God...rather than talk?

3. When you have a problem/concern/worry, to whom do you go first? God? Spouse? Friend? Parent? Other?

4. When you pray, do you feel that God is a friend with whom you are comfortable sharing both your difficult times and your joys? If not, why not?

Romans 3:20 - 31

20Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
21But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
27Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. 28For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. 29Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.

Romans 6

1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
Slaves to Righteousness 15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
19I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[b] Christ Jesus our Lord.