love god

The question of how do we live now that we believe God has redeemed us is a troubling one. Many of us live and die in anxiety about whether or not we did it right. But what if the life of faith is expressly opposed to the life of getting God to love us? What if the call is to trust God, not to live as if we owe him? What if we were to give up the conquest of sin to be an heir with Christ?

Explore how we can so easily slip back into the way of beating sin instead of resting in the cross. Reconsider what exactly God has called and freed you to do. What is the goal of all of this? What is the necessary end of your way of life? Is there another way to relate to God and the world based on what Jesus has done and promised? Let's dive in! We welcome you questions, push-backs, and clarifications. Reach out to us online!

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We all know the greatest commandment right? I'm sure you think you got it just like I once did. In this episode, I break down what it really means and how to practically love God with all of your heart, soul, and mind.

Speakers: Elizabeth Johnston, Kari Hanley & Jeff Hanley

Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:3-7

Today we have another random generated verses- 1 John 5:1. John takes us back to his Gospel a bit with the terminology. When we believe (which is more than just knowledge of) that Jesus is the Christ...we are born of God. This will lead us to understand the second part of the verse more in depth. 

The music on the podcast is from John Nugent. John is a Chicagoland area musician who has been a real blessing to Tabor Church. 

More from Chelsea:

Rooted's Most Read: Helping Students Redeem the Time During Quarantine 

Christmas with Luke: Jesus Comes to Those Who Feel Left Out 

Helping Teenagers Integrate the Gospel Into Their Everyday Lives 

See the rest of Chelsea's contributions to Rooted here! 

Listen to more episodes of the Rooted Youth Ministry Podcast.

Rooted Youth Ministry Archives - Rooted Ministry

Follow @therootedministry on Instagram!

Hey Everyone it’s MJ!  We just came out of a series entitled the essence of praise & worship and I learned so much from it and I hope you did too. However, 2020 has been such a challenging year for many.  Whether is was unemployment, fear & anxiety, and even sickness from the corona virus. 

It may be hard for some people to tap into a praise & worship mindset. So how do you worship God in difficult times?? Well, I have a little input on that and I would like to share it with you. I hope you enjoy!

Let's Connect: https://www.changemylifepodcast.com
Have a show suggestion/feedback? Let us know ➡️cmlpodcast1@gmail.com 

Proverbs 18:13

Matthew 6:20-23

• This election really has me worried Church and I think we have to recenter our Faith and our attention to God. Not a man, but to God... 
• A lot of Christians are tore up right now, I need to ask where is our faith? 

• I found myself on election night checking and kept checking the results and the Lord called me out. 

• “John where is your faith?  In me or in who I let into the oval office?”

• Don’t get me wrong here, God can use anyone to achieve His will. He will use those that say YES! 

• Josephs brothers meant harm and evil, but God used it for good. 

• Daniel being thrown in the Lions den was meant for evil, but guess what, God got the glory. 

• Or how about the fiery furnace, so hot that the guards throwing them in died from the heat, but the three thrown in didn’t even smell like smoke.

• Just because its not how we think it should be or match our picture does not mean it is not Gods will. 

• Luke 22:42 Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

• Even Jesus, asked God to let it happen this way, but your will Father be done. 

• Jesus understood that the Fathers will and plans are ALWAYS best! 

• I know I have tried to fit Gods plans for my life in a box or my own understand. When will we understand that we won’t always understand. 

• God can see the whole picture so even though we may be in valley or storm we don’t see the other side, we won’t understand the outcome, until it is finished. 

• So Church Are we willing to allow God’s plan, have faith and give Him control? Or does it have to be how we thought everything should shake out. 

• We are not called to understand we are called to have faith in Him! We should be Obedient to His Plans. 

• Obedience is our responsibly……. the outcome is God’s responsibility. 

• I want to be clear, I am not making a political statement nor am I trying to say what His plan is, we are seeing it unfold. There is a bigger plan at hand, so don’t sit down and have a pity party, instead have a prayer party. 

• Stand up and press in.. 

• Stand up and pray.. 

• Stand up and fight...... 

• When I say fight not on Facebook, but In the Spirit, our battle is not against one another 

• James 3:7-12
• “People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison. Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God. And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right! Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water? Does a fig tree produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs? No, and you can’t draw fresh water from a salty spring.”

• Church we are called to be different. It doesn’t matter who the vessel or person that’s in the office, they are still made in Gods image and He loves them. We got to stop with the name calling and instead share love! 

• If we spent the energy we use bashing on social media and sharing our opinions, on praying against the evils, Gods will to be done, we would find an inner peace that only God can provide. 

• We can only share Jesus by being light not by being right. 

• I can’t say it any better than Jesus did in starting in Matthew 5:43 

• Matthew 5:43 -
• You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’q and hate your enemy. 44But I say, love your enemies!r Pray for those who persecute you! 45In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. 46If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47If you are kind only to your friends,s how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. 48But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

• Or how about Ephesians 4:29 NIV “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

• Love God and Love people, ALL people! We got to stop fighting one another, casting stones at one another and instead press into the Word and become prayer warriors. 

• If we share the love of Jesus over our opinions, we will change this world.

• The forces of darkness should tremble when we say Let’s pray! 

• Our faith should not waiver, because of this and God is in control. 

• So, if you're like me who said things during this election that wasn’t very “Christ” like or things you wish you could take back, this talk is for us together. 

• But this is why our God is so good, He will take what we give Him, we don’t need to get it right we just give Him what we got. 

• If you got broken faith its better than no faith. 

• I heard this from another Pastor, and it has stuck with me - We will never give god our more than enough if we don’t give him the not enough. We can’t give him big faith if we can’t give our broken faith. 

• Grow your Faith

• First get in the Word, it is God’s living word, it is truth, and He continues to speak to us today through our Bibles. Did you know that only 9% of Christians actually read their Bibles daily? 

• No wonder why we are lacking the Supernatural we are not even doing the basics of getting into the word! 

• In regard to faith there is no better place to start than Hebrews 11. Read it and re-read it will truly grow your faith. Allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you through it. 

• Hebrews 11:1-3 “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.”  

• Look around all of what you see was created from the Unseen. God Said let there be light and boom, light! You can’t see spoken words, or can you? 

• Hebrews 11:39-40 “All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised.For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us.”

• I hope when something is written about me it's how these men and women of the Bible are portrayed and that’s by their huge faith. I don’t know about you, but I want to be a faith giant, nothing moves me unless God says to move. 

• Until then we keep pressing in, we keep praying, and we keep fighting. 

• Prayer is so important it’s like our Bat Phone to God. You know the one I am talking about the red phone that when anyone calls Batman picks up and saves the day. 

• I want to change our mentality about prayer though, God is not a genie and we should not just come with request, yes this can apart of it, but not the whole picture. 

• But truly it's about the relationship, the more you do it the easier it is to hear His voice. To know those nudges. 

• When teaching my Kids about prayer I like to use an acronym with the word Pray. If you don’t know where to start, start here…. 

• Praise - 1st and foremost. 
• Repent - acknowledge and thank for his grace, because I am a sinner. 
• Ask - Put my needs, the family, communities, all those things I want to bring up 
• Yield - This is so important we need to be Obedient to God

• Don’t you hate when God says to wait, but you don’t want to? Remember Obedience is our responsibility, the outcome is His! 
• We are going to have faith in God and not in a man, because In God we Trust. Our faith is in the creator who made us, in the one we call Father. He is our provider and our source. 

• We are going to see people how God sees them and love them like Jesus would

• We are going to build our faith by getting in the word. Learn directly from God and put into practice what we are being taught

• We are going to be prayer warriors; we will use our mouths for praise and lifting up. We will be builders of His kingdom not destructors

Today you will be reminded over 100 times that it is Election Day. It is good for you to vote and should go and do that. We will talk about a strategy for how we can handle today with grace and pose. It is going to be necessary because this election is weird. Let's keep our eyes fixed on the most important thing.

The music on the podcast is from John Nugent. John is a Chicagoland area musician who has been a real blessing to Tabor Church. 

During Jesus' final night on earth, He spent His last conversation with His friends talking about what mattered most to Him. Jesus wanted each of His followers to know what was most important so they could live it out long after Jesus was gone.

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To donate to Meta Church click here.

Today we are going to talk about the phrase that James uses, "Royal Law." It sounds like it is something only meant for kings or other royalty, but that would be missing the point. Let's get practical with how to live out the royal law. Listen today and then add some of the practical ways you live it out. 

The music on the podcast is from John Nugent. John is a Chicagoland area musician who has been a real blessing to Tabor Church.