Foundational Faith, Time with God
Matthew 7:24-27
Intro…solid house and a crumbling house…
• The foundation of our life needs to be built on our faith.
• I’d like to propose a foundation that starts with daily time with God, morphs into a weekly worship gathering and morphs again into a small group setting.
• Each aspect of time with God is important and vital to the foundation of our faith and life in Christ.
Text: Matthew 7:24-27
Thesis: Time spent with God is vital to our growth as Christians. It starts on an individual basis, builds to corporate worship and is rounded out with small group fellowship and accountability.
Let’s look at the necessity and value of each area.
Personal time with God John 17:3
• The goal of the Christian life should be to know God.
• As we get to know God better, his desires, his character, we are going to want to please him more and life a godly life.
• How do we get to know someone? By spending time with them, and that starts on an individual level.
• Think about your best friends. The best time you spend with them is on an individual basis or in small groups.
• We are created to have fellowship with God.
• God patiently waits for us to spend time with him every day.
• Our heart, Christ’s home illustration…
• Some people get overwhelmed with the idea of personal time with God. What do I read? What do I pray for? Where and when do I do this?
• Good communication involves what two things? Talking and listening.
• For us as Christians, that means prayer and bible reading.
• I recommend you do that in the morning, give God your day, checking in with God.
• Read expectantly, read to meet God.
• Pick a quiet place free of interruptions. You may need to start with 5 or 10 min. Read through a whole book of the Bible, study guides are good too. Journal, write in your bible, interact with the scriptures!
• Pray and ask God’s blessing for your day.
Corporate worship
• “united or combined into one, pertaining to a unified group”
• I’m talking here about the value of people worshipping together.
• We gather in worship for support, community, fellowship etc.
• However, the main reason we gather to worship is out of respect for God, to worship God.
Let’s take a look at some scriptures that reinforce that.
• Exodus 20:8 One of the ways we keep that commandment is by attending church. I also encourage you to “rest” on the Sabbath, get out of the normal routine.
• Hebrews 10:22-25
• Isaiah 37:1 The church is a place of refuge. When King Hezekiah was deeply grieved, he went into the temple of the Lord.
• I can’t tell you exactly how many days to be in church this year, but I will tell us all to be in church more often than not this year.
• Church allows us to gather corporately, reflect on God’s goodness, worship, sing, pray, be convicted etc.
Small group fellowship and accountability
• Take a minute and think about some of your toughest classes in school.
• I got through Anatomy and Hebrew with the help of study groups.
• This is a small group working together for a common goal, the goal of growing deeper in our faith.
• Colossian 1:10
• Think of a healthy family gathering.
• Good food, laughter, sharing, conversation, love, acceptance.
• That’s what a good small group or home fellowship is with the added bonus of study the Bible together.
• Jesus himself invested in a small group of men and passed on the future of Christianity to these 12 men. Mark 3:13-14
• He also invested in just a few of those 12 (Luke 9:28) Peter, John and James.
• I want to encourage us all to be in a small group bible study as well as have 1 or 2 people you meet with regularly.
• We need to have people in our lives that tell us the things we don’t want to hear.
Matthew 7:24-27
Intro…solid house and a crumbling house…
• The foundation of our life needs to be built on our faith.
• I’d like to propose a foundation that starts with daily time with God, morphs into a weekly worship gathering and morphs again into a small group setting.
• Each aspect of time with God is important and vital to the foundation of our faith and life in Christ.
Text: Matthew 7:24-27
Thesis: Time spent with God is vital to our growth as Christians. It starts on an individual basis, builds to corporate worship and is rounded out with small group fellowship and accountability.
Let’s look at the necessity and value of each area.
Personal time with God John 17:3
• The goal of the Christian life should be to know God.
• As we get to know God better, his desires, his character, we are going to want to please him more and life a godly life.
• How do we get to know someone? By spending time with them, and that starts on an individual level.
• Think about your best friends. The best time you spend with them is on an individual basis or in small groups.
• We are created to have fellowship with God.
• God patiently waits for us to spend time with him every day.
• Our heart, Christ’s home illustration…
• Some people get overwhelmed with the idea of personal time with God. What do I read? What do I pray for? Where and when do I do this?
• Good communication involves what two things? Talking and listening.
• For us as Christians, that means prayer and bible reading.
• I recommend you do that in the morning, give God your day, checking in with God.
• Read expectantly, read to meet God.
• Pick a quiet place free of interruptions. You may need to start with 5 or 10 min. Read through a whole book of the Bible, study guides are good too. Journal, write in your bible, interact with the scriptures!
• Pray and ask God’s blessing for your day.
Corporate worship
• “united or combined into one, pertaining to a unified group”
• I’m talking here about the value of people worshipping together.
• We gather in worship for support, community, fellowship etc.
• However, the main reason we gather to worship is out of respect for God, to worship God.
Let’s take a look at some scriptures that reinforce that.
• Exodus 20:8 One of the ways we keep that commandment is by attending church. I also encourage you to “rest” on the Sabbath, get out of the normal routine.
• Hebrews 10:22-25
• Isaiah 37:1 The church is a place of refuge. When King Hezekiah was deeply grieved, he went into the temple of the Lord.
• I can’t tell you exactly how many days to be in church this year, but I will tell us all to be in church more often than not this year.
• Church allows us to gather corporately, reflect on God’s goodness, worship, sing, pray, be convicted etc.
Small group fellowship and accountability
• Take a minute and think about some of your toughest classes in school.
• I got through Anatomy and Hebrew with the help of study groups.
• This is a small group working together for a common goal, the goal of growing deeper in our faith.
• Colossian 1:10
• Think of a healthy family gathering.
• Good food, laughter, sharing, conversation, love, acceptance.
• That’s what a good small group or home fellowship is with the added bonus of study the Bible together.
• Jesus himself invested in a small group of men and passed on the future of Christianity to these 12 men. Mark 3:13-14
• He also invested in just a few of those 12 (Luke 9:28) Peter, John and James.
• I want to encourage us all to be in a small group bible study as well as have 1 or 2 people you meet with regularly.
• We need to have people in our lives that tell us the things we don’t want to hear.
Proverbs 27:17
Conclusion:
Matthew 7:24-27 Back to the illustration of the house/our lives and what kind of a foundation we are building on. Let’s avoid drastic measures…
Let’s build our lives on the word of God, corporate worship and small group accountability.
Foundational Faith, Time with God
Matthew 7:24-27
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