“Living for Jesus”

​YEAH! Church - Sunday, January 2, 2022

"Doing Life with Jesus” - During 2022, Hope Chapel is going to be focusing on what it means to be Jesus’ disciples and where better to begin than with Jesus’ life on earth? But first, today, we will learn what the apostle Paul has to say about living for Jesus.

Today’s Lesson - “Living for Jesus”

Video Story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwlzTpQOw3M (Young Hearts Ministries – Rooted in God)
Follow, Grow Roots & Build Up – All at once?!

Colossians 2:6-7, NLT – “And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”

How can you ‘follow,’ yet become ‘rooted’ all at the same time? The roots that the Apostle Paul told us that we are to grow are not like the roots of a tree that grow into the ground so that we become incapable of moving; rather, we are to grow ‘roots’ of knowledge and faith in Jesus, so that nothing can take us away from Him.
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People who know Jesus and choose to make him Lord need to be busy doing the kinds of things Jesus did. If we don’t know much about Jesus, how can we properly follow Him? We can’t! Which is why Paul tells us that we need to ‘grow deep roots’ into Jesus so that our faith will be strong. Like a mighty oak, God wants us to be so strong in our belief in Him, that no wind of doubt will ever be able to knock us over.

Not only that, we are also to ‘build our lives’ on Jesus. God doesn’t want us to merely focus on growing an amazing root system so that nothing can cause us to doubt what Jesus has done for us; we are also to ‘build up’ and let others see what God is doing in our lives. We are to live out our faith for the sake of others. Jesus doesn’t just want us to love Him, He wants us to love people and to treat them the way we want to be treated. That’s where the ‘building’ comes in. Does what people see in your life, help them to want to get to know God?

Jesus never had a problem drawing a crowd. Not everyone appreciated what He had to say, but many experienced His love and concern and it caused them to follow Him…to want to change. The same is true today. As we grow deep roots, we can get to know Jesus better and experience His forgiveness and love; as we build our lives on His, we will extend that same grace and mercy to others; and as we follow Him, He will show us the areas that He wants us to do His good work.

As followers of Jesus, it isn’t good enough to give Jesus some of your life, time and energy. We need to learn, to work and to follow Him with our whole lives!

Engage:
• Paul tells us to ‘grow deep roots’ into Jesus. What is he talking about?
• Large trees can stay strong if they have deep roots. What sometimes causes a tree to fall over? What might cause a Christian to stop believing in Jesus?
• Growing deep roots of faith helps us not to be easily discouraged from following God, but we also need to ‘build up.’ How can our lives show people who God is and why a relationship with Him is a good thing?
• Jesus lived His life always obeying God, spending time with Him and showing people how they could be friends with God. How can we ‘follow’ and be like Jesus?

2022 Theme verses:
Colossians 2:6-7, NLT – “And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”

Prayer – Dear God, thank you for Jesus and thank you that I can have a relationship with you. Please help me to grow strong in my faith, so that I can trust you as much as Jesus did and never doubt you. Help me to be a good follower of yours so that others will want what I have…God as my Father and friend!
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~ Pastor Jane