We're winding down our 'Elements' series at NewPointe. Four elements down, two to go. This Sunday we're going to talk about one more of those elements that God uses to move our faith beyond periodic: Relevant teaching. And for those of you who ask me, "Hey John, when's the next time you're going to preach?" Your answer is: this Sunday. So come early because now that the cat's out of the bag about who's speaking, it may be standing-room only. Yeah right.
As I've been preparing for this message, God's been rocking me with some incredible truth. The main text I'll be using is from James 1:22-26: "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says...." So at NewPointe, we put a whole lot more emphasis on doing rather than knowing. Learning is good. We thinks it's important, but what's more important is the doing part.
Spiritual maturity, in fact, is not gauged by how much you know. It's gauged by what you do--application. One of the questions we're going to ask Sunday is this: What's harder, knowing something or loving someone? The Bible tells us that knowledge puffs up. Love builds up. It’s easier to know something than to love somebody. And James couldn’t make it any clearer. I don’t know how we’ve missed it…that it’s not about what you know, it’s all about what you do. The difference is in the doing, not in the knowing.
So do you know what that means for us at NewPointe? It means that the approach we take to communication is all about inspiring people move in a certain direction, motivating people, training people, showing people how to do what the Bible says. Because that’s what makes the difference in the world and that’s how spiritual maturity is gauged.
Sometimes we get criticized because we don't "go deep enough" with our teaching. When I hear that it DRIVES ME CRAZY! What that usually means is this: "We'd like it if you could just go ahead and confuse the snot out of us so that there is no application point…that way I can leave feeling smarter and not having to worry about applying anything to my life."
Knowledge puffs up. Love builds up. Wanna go deep? Love somebody. Serve people. I've heard Dwight say this many times: You don't need another Bible study, you need to serve! I guaran-freakin-tee you that you'll become more like Jesus through serving than through sitting through another Bible class!
This is why, at NewPointe, we…
- We create sermon series around felt needs.
- We have identified a handful of key principles for each environment that we come back to over and over.
We're all about application. Let's take what we're learning and apply it to our everyday lives. I'm convinced that people don't need history lessons...they need practical help, based on biblical principles, on how to live their lives.
My main man, Kevin West, wrote a great blog about going deeper: Link to it here. You go, Kevin!
Read James chapter 1 this week. See what the Bible has to say about this stuff. Unbelievable.
See you on Sunday!
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