let's build a better world
There are no “silver bullets” or one-size-fits-all solutions.
We may take giant steps from time to time, but they are still only steps in a journey that will –and must– continue until the day we die.
“Success” in life is not so much about arriving as it is about embracing the process of becoming.
God’s Hope for Your Heart from 1 Corinthians 15
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:57-58)
Do you ever get tired of sharing God’s love with others, or doing the things Jesus has called you to? Do you ever grow weary in serving the church or doing the work of the ministry? If you’ve ever been in that place, here’s some good news…
Your labor is not in vain, because God gives you the victory.
Your labor is not in vain, because Jesus is the guarantee of your success.
Your labor is not in vain, because nothing matters more than the Kingdom of God, and no other enterprise is closer to His heart.
Your labor is not about growing an organization, it’s about building a Kingdom. It’s not about keeping rules, it’s about resting in relationship with Jesus and sharing that love out of the overflow.
Be encouraged, because if you’re in Christ, you are already victorious! This means that you can rest in the hope of this simple truth: in the Kingdom, your labor is never in vain.
-Pastor Phillip
AUDIO VERSION
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What does a “successful” Christian life look like? What’s the goal, and how do we get there? Even more importantly, what’s the point?
Join Pastor Phillip Gonzales as he shares how God desires the lives of His people to move in a particular rhythm, and how we don’t have to strive because Jesus is the one who makes it happen.
Study Guide – 02 The People We Belong To
Scripture Notes on Psalm 89
If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules, if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes, but I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness. (Psalm 89:30-33)
You are not powerful enough to change God’s feelings towards you. Nothing you do or don’t do, say or don’t say can make Him stop loving you. It’s impossible.
Why? Because God’s love for you is based on His promise, not your performance.
In fact, His love for you is so great that He sent His own Son to be punished with the rod in your place. He let His own Son receive stripes from the lash in your place. He sent His own Son to die on the cross in your place, for your sins, so that you could be reconciled to God for eternity.
Jesus paid all of that price -and more- because He loves you, and so no amount of failure on your part can outweigh the grace on His.
Does God discipline His children so they will learn and grow? Like any good father, yes. But does God turn away from you in anger when you sin? Does He hold out on you as punishment until you get your act together? Absolutely not!
Because of Jesus’ finished work on the cross, if you’re in Christ, God still loves you when you sin.
-Pastor Phillip
“Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” -2 Corinthians 3:4-6
Few words cut deeper than, “You’re not _______ enough.”
Not smart enough. Not rich enough. Not talented enough. Not pretty enough.
Not big enough. Not thin enough. Not young enough. Not old enough.
Not good enough.
We live in a world that loves to tell us in constant and creative ways, “You are not enough”… but that’s not what Jesus says.
Jesus says, “In your own strength, you are not enough, but in my Spirit, you are completely sufficient. In your own power you are not able, but in my presence you are completely competent and can be completely confident in me and in who I’ve made you to be.”
The “letter” in 2 Corinthians 3:4-6 is the balance sheet that tries to make you measure yourself against an impossible standard and compare yourself to irrelevant people.
Their opinion of you doesn’t matter. Their criticism of you doesn’t matter. If you’re a follower of Christ, Jesus has called you to be a “minister,” a sharer, a spreader, an administrator of His new covenant with humanity. He is building a new world, He’s inviting you to participate in it, and He has given you everything you need for success in the mission to which He has called you.
On your own, you are not enough.
In the Spirit of Christ, you are MORE than sufficient, and even better that that, you are loved.