Some days change your life forever.
Some days change the world forever.
Easter is one of those days!
Don't Settle For Deflated!
When a balloon is deflated, you might still be able to kind of tell what it looks like, but you're not really seeing it as it's supposed to be. The same goes with our lives of faith. The Spirit fills us up so we can begin to see what we were meant to be!
1) We've been rescued from destructive thinking. Now we get to bring what's on our mind to God and have Him reshape our minds.
2) The Spirit fills us with the ultimate, all-in love of Jesus. Now we get to stretch that all-in love out to others.
3) The Spirit has built us into God's house. God lives in us and has chosen to partner with us through giving us opportunities to serve others.
4) Every one of us has a spiritual gift that is to be used to serve others. We can go all-in with these gifts because they come from the Giver, not just from us.
5) Our lives are all about Christ. He made us right with God. He sends the Spirit. He gets the glory!
The world's ways are not God's way, the world's ways are not what God had planned for our lives. God sees that what the world offers is a big lie - He offers us something better! And to prove it, He gave up everything for us - even His own Son.
Butterfly Effect: You're probably familiar with this theory... a butterfly flaps its wings in some faraway land and it has an effect on the other side of the world. The same is true in a spiritual sense. As a Christian what you do today has an effect on others. You may not see it and you may not know exactly how, but the Bible teaches us it does. This truth helps to get us ready for our lesson this weekend and the next nagging question we tackle: "Can I Really Make a Difference". We study 1 Peter 2:10-11 for the answer.
Quarantine Accomplishments
I've [Pastor Krause] been reading about people getting a lot done during the virus quarantine: home projects or learning a new language. But I've also read some pretty humorous things too: getting caught having a Zoom meeting without pants and stores refusing to let people return thousands of rolls of toilet paper they obviously didn't need. What if I told you that your greatest quarantine accomplishment could be embracing the gift God wants to give you: learning to suffer well while trusting God's plans? That's our lesson this week as we study 1 Peter 1:18-21 with the theme "For You."
Significant.
You Are!
Sometimes we can get bogged down by the daily grind. But how differently you could carry your load if you saw how significant you are. This weekend we study 1 Peter 2:9-10 and celebrate how this life Jesus has given us is the most incredible "Honor."
There's a life that God created you to live. Sin broke it. But the resurrection restores it. Learn how the resurrection "rejoys" us with this lesson from 1 Peter 1:3-6.
This trial serves a purpose. This weekend we studied 1 Peter 1:3-7 where we gained some special motivation and insight for what God is up to right now in our lives as we answered the question, "What's the Goal?"