Romans 3:9-20

We’re growing in our faith and becoming more like Christ. But up until we've accepted Christ, we're guilty of all of our wrongs and we're guilty of where we fallen short. That’s where the Law comes in - the Law points out our sins. Now, can the Law set us free? No. The law does not bring freedom. The law can bring conviction but it's Christ that sets us free. Nothing else but Christ.

1 John 3 says you've have been given a new name. Once you're accepted Christ and you're filled with the Holy Spirit you are now called a child of God. It doesn't matter
what you've done. It doesn't matter the roads that you've walked down. It doesn't matter where you've been. It doesn't matter what titles the world has given you. lf you've
accepted Christ, you are forgiven and you are set free. And you have new life — this is the Gospel that yet while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So that we can come into relationship with the father.

You don't have to put your ladder against things that fall and shake. You can put your ladder on the right wall.

You can place your hope in the one that is eternal. You can put your hope in the one that does not fall. Watch where you put your hope.

Romans 8:20-21

We're born with the flesh and your natural tendency is to sin. That’s kind of our default. That's where we go initially in life. But it doesn't have to stay that way. There’s freedom.

This passage is saying we’ve been frustrated since the Garden of Eden. Genesis chapter two and three and so forth and so on where the
initial sin, the original sin, we come from that line of Adam and Eve and because we come from that line it's natural for us to sin.

Romans 8:31-39

It is God who justifies. Not our work, not the law, but it is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one! Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble, or hardships, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

Uncertainty is one of the only things guaranteed in life. But in uncertain times, we can fall back on a God who is certain.

Certainty is not promised.
Mark 14:17-26, “When evening came, Jesus arrived with the twelve. While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, 'Truly, I tell you one of you will betray me. One who is eating with me.’ They were saddened and one by one, they said to him,’Surely you don't mean me.’”

Christ is in Jerusalem celebrating Passover with his people and I can only imagine the uncertainty that the disciples probably had in this moment. They didn't have the hindsight of knowing that Christ would die and 3 days later rise again. They didn't have that knowledge. All they knew was that Christ was going into Jerusalem — the place that was heated and the place where the leaders hated him.

John 16:33, “I have told you these things so that in me you have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! For I have overcome the world.”

Isn't it funny how it seems everybody in the world today is searching for peace? In this world, you will have trouble but take heart. It doesn't say you might have trouble or you may encounter trouble. It says you will have trouble. In this world you will have trouble but take heart, for I have overcome the world. If you need comfort today in times of uncertainty, if your world has been shaken by uncertainty and questions, there's peace and it's found only in Jesus. 

Many people believe that when you become a believer, that life's going to get easier. I think oftentimes, God will bring us through seasons of trial and tribulation to the extent where we can no longer fight so that we might learn full reliance on him. “In this world you will have trouble” — that's a promise .The one variable is how you respond.

The key to peace? Submission. We need more submission, more giving up, and more holding our lives with open hands and saying “Lord I don't know what to do, but I know that you do because you are certain so, Lord I fall on you.”

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve other, as faithful stewards of
God's grace in its various forms.
1 Peter 4;10, NIV

There's something to be said about a believer, who uses their gifts and a believer who has gifts, but never uses them. It is the difference between a parked car and a car in drive. God has blessed believers with so many amazing gifts. These gifts could be spiritual gifts, financial gifts, passions, or talents. The goal of receiving gifts is not that the receiver may use them for themselves. Rather, the point of gifts is that the receiver may use those gifts to serve others and to glorify Christ.

James 1:17 tells us that "every good and perfect gift is from above". Our gifts are not really our gifts. Our gifts belong to God as he has entrusted them uniquely to each believer. No one gift is greater than another. Every gift is important to the body of Christ. So, what do we do with these gifts?

Peter also tells us to be stewards of the gifts that we have received. To steward is to take care of what you've been given. It is a picture of somebody entrusting me their house. It is my job to take care of the house and to prepare the house for the owner and the guests. This requires action and hard work.

We serve not to receive a pat on the back. We serve because we acknowledge that service is what the Christian walk is about. We serve not to receive anything. We serve because we love. Service is all about putting other people above yourself. This means that we hold our gifts with an open hand. We ask God to use our gifts for His purpose and His plan.

So my challenge to you is this: Who can you serve? And how can you serve them?

“Flatter me and I may not believe you. Criticize me andI may not like you. Ignore me and I may not forgive you, but encourage me and I will not forget you.” (William Arthur Ward)

We're diving into this whole thing of "one another” and we handed out to you this little Jesus
guy. This is to remind us that in our relationships with one another and as we relate to one another, we are to have the same mindset as Christ. We are to act like Jesus as we commune, as we fellowship, as we relate, as we live, as we struggle, and as we disagree at points with one another.

Something that I feel is so absent at points from churches is encouragement. Would you agree? So often, we live in a relationship with one another but really we just exist around each other. Not actually with each other. There's a big difference between living around people and
living with people. There's a big, big difference. When you're living with people, your relationship with them is going to have every aspect of what a relationship is — including encouragement.

I want you to think about it. When's the last time? When's the last time somebody, especially a believer, sat you down and just encouraged you? No, I want you to really think of the last time that happened. When was it? Was it a month ago? Was it a year ago? Five years? Ten years? Fifty years?

Scripture commands that we encourage one another — and not just encourage one another,
but build each other up. Get your Bible out.

1 Thessalonians 5:11
Therefore, encourage (comfort) one another and build each other up (edify) just as in fact, you are doing.

“Therefore”
What is this word “therefore” there for?

1 Thessalonians 5:4-10
But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day (talking about the day
of the Lord) should surprise you like a thief. You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others who are asleep but let us be awake and sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.

We, as believers, have a hope through our salvation in Christ. We can be assured of our salvation in Jesus and because of that, we encourage each other. Have you noticed that there's trial in the world? This is our encouragement. We will face trials in this life. We will experience suffering. We will experience these things, but we have hope in our salvation and the fact that this earth is not our home but rather, as Paul says in Philippians, we are citizens of heaven. That is hope.

“Encourage” or “Comfort” One Another
Three ways we comfort each other
With Our Words (Ephesians 4:29)
With Our Hands (1 Peter 4:10)
With Our Fellowship (Hebrews 10:24-25)

“Build Each Other Up”
Matthew 7:24
Therefore everyone who hear these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. Rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat up against the house yet it did not fall. because it had the foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man.

When you're doing a building project, you need to be three things
Slow
Smart
Strategic

Building up the church requires the same strategy. We have to be slow —slow to speak, slow to anger. We have to be smart — smart in the way we build up. We have to be strategic — strategically thinking ahead.

Building Up the Church/The Agenda
As your pastor, my agenda is to grow people in the faith, to shepherd people in the faith. My agenda is to not change everything that we are doing to get young people in. It’s not my agenda. The one thing that I'm focused on every single day when I come into the office here to this church is build people up in the faith. So… Will you join the team and be a part of what God is doing here? Will you join me in using our gifts for good to build up the church? Will you join me in faithful prayer as a team?

Blessings,
Pastor Bailey