I want us to be men of God. As men of God, we need to be in community. I love that we're all good friends. But more than being good friends, we need to be a community wherein which we are united in one thing. What is that thing?

Jesus Christ. We need to be united in Christ.

Hebrews 10:24-25

• Let us consider one another: Discouragement made them avoid community at the very time they needed it most. Jesus meets us in one another to stir up love and good works.
• Forsaking the assembling of ourselves together: Forsaking fellowship is a sure way to give place to discouragement. This festers where God’s people are not exhorting one another.
• Many go to church if they feel they “need it” at the time. But our motivation for fellowship must be to obey God and to give to others. We can go to church looking to encourage someone who needs to hang in there against a tide of discouragement.
• “Christian exhortation means the expression of our hearts to others to urge them to continue on the Christian path. It may include testimony, and often will necessitate warning.” (Newell)
• So much the more as you see the Day approaching: As the Day of Jesus’ return draws nearer, we should be more committed to the fellowship of God’s people, the assembling of ourselves together.

​Hebrews 10:1-23

• Let's look at the context. Why is Paul encouraging them to stick together?
• "We can draw near because several issues are settled. The problem of access to God has been settled. The problem of a perfect High Priest has been settled. The problem of moral and spiritual pollution has been settled."
• "Perhaps they thought they had many problems: persecution, difficult relationships, hard times with culture or economy. But the real problem was that their relationship with God wasn’t on track. They didn’t draw near to God on the basis of what Jesus did on the cross, through the empty tomb, and in heaven.. "

Hebrews 10:26-39

• Here is our worldview, our mindset. We need to continue encouraging each other in this. This is why Paul was encouraging them to stick together.

Do you know the best way to love someone? What is love?

• "Love is doing whatever you have do at whatever cost to yourself to make people as happy as they can be forever" - John Piper
• "Love is doing whatever you have to do at whatever cost to yourself to help people have an all satisfying passion for Jesus forever" - John Piper

Bibliography

• Enduring Word Media

Repentance:

• Turning away from sin and turning to God for heartfelt change

False repentance:

• Making repentance about us rather than God​

​
True repentance or false repentance?

• "I'm sorry I hurt you. I shouldn't have said that. Will you forgive me?"
• The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. -Luke 6:45

How do we know if we are false repenting?

• Look for examples of remorse and resolution
• Remorse:
  • "I can't believe I did that." <--- Thinking too highly of ourselves. Too selfish. That's why we act surprised on why we just did that
• Resolution:
  • "I promise to do better next time." <--- We think we have the power to do better, but we don't look to Jesus. We think we can fix the problem on our own.
• Fruit of false repentance:
  • We are lenient on our own sin, but we look on others with judgement and criticism.

How do we know if we are true repenting?

• Realize:
  • "I did do that. I would do that."
• Repent:
  • "Lord, forgive me! You are my only hope."

​
True repentance is:

• oriented towards God and not yourself
  • Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight,
    so that you may be justified in your words
    and blameless in your judgment. -Psalm 51:4
• motivated by true godly sorrow and not selfish regret.
  • For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. -2 Cor 7:10
• concerned with the heart and not just with external actions.
  • Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. -Psalm 51:10
• looks to Jesus for deliverance from the penalty and power of sin
  • Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, -Acts 3:19-20

Only Jesus can fix us as we look towards God. Sin is not a behavior we do. It's more of a condition. It's a sickness. Lifestyle repentance: A way of living. Something continuous.

Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. -Revelations 3:19

This is just a test

-David Choi quoted this in his message:

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare...There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

What is C.S. Lewis' main point? How does it relate to evangeli sm?

-Read Matthew 24:14. What does this verse show about God's heart and plan for this world?

-If everyone in this room committed to discipling one new person for Christ every year and taught that person to also do the same. What would happen in 5 years? 10 years? 20 years? 30 years?

-How does the gospel motivate you to share the gospel?

-We are supposed to be the light and salt of the world. When you are with your friends, do you act like a light and salt? Are you a strong influence on others or are others a strong influence on you?

The purpose of this study is to get students to see the importance of being born again.

What do you guys think of new year's resolutions?
What is the purpose of new year's resolutions?
Why do you think it's so hard to keep new year's resolutions?

New year's resolutions are hard because there is something deep within us that is wrong. Something is wrong:

• that's why we cannot change
  • eating well, studying well, reading the Bible well, being a good friend
• that's why we have issues in the first place
  • we are inwardly selfish
• that's why we want to change for the wrong reasons
  • want change so other people will like us
  • wanting to be right
  • you need to come to a point wherein you see that you have rebelled and offended a holy and righteous God, and you want to change that. Have you reached that point? Do you realize that because of your sin, you cannot see the kingdom of God? Do you have a desire to see the kingdom of God?

We live in a fallen world. It might be possible to fix ourselves, but you need to understand that what we are really fixing is just our outward appearance.

• God can see into your heart
• Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. -Matt 23:25-26
• You cannot change yourself. Try it for yourself and see how tired you become. As you change the things you do, ask yourself why you are doing it.
  • funeral testimony

We need a deep change from the inside. We need a new heart, a new life. Sin is a disease. It changes our bodies and our lives to do things that it wasn't meant to do. We're sick. When you have a disease what do you do?

Having new year's resolutions apart from Christ:

• Patrick trying to cure SpongeBob by placing band-aids on SpongeBob pores.
• trying to elevate ourselves by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. 

We cannot fix ourselves. But it is possible for us to be changed from the inside out. Our one and only hope: Jesus Christ. He is the great physician. Through him, we can become born again.

John 3
v1-3:

• What is Nicodemus doing here? He wants to learn something
• "unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God"
  • Notice how Jesus doesn't say, "unless one is born again he cannot know things" or "have cool friends". Those things are important, but what is more important is seeing the kingdom of God.

v4-6

• Born of the water and the Spirit
  • Notice: this is impossible to do on our own. You cannot born yourself. You need God's intervention.
  • Water?
    •  it should have been familiar to Nicodemus from the Old Testament
    • Some have thought that born of water means to receive the water of cleansing prophesied in Ezekiel 36:25-28 as part of the New Covenant. This is the approach has the most weight (though it is a tough call), because of its firm connections to Old Testament prophecy – which Jesus says Nicodemus should have know to understand these things.
    • I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from fall your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. -Ezekiel 36:25-28

v7-13

• Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again”: Again, Nicodemus did marvel at this statement, because he – like most all Jews of his time – believed they already had the inner transformation promised in the New Covenant. Jesus wants him to take hold of the fact that he does not have it, and must be born again.
  • Just because you go to church or have Christian parents doesn't mean that you are saved, you must be born again.
• Jesus wanted Nicodemus to know that he didn’t have to understand everything about the new birth before he experienced it.

v14-15

•  Lifted up: This is a term later used to describe both Jesus’ crucifixion (John 12:32) and His ascension (Acts 2:33).

Let's look at the fruits of the spirit:
Gal 5:16-26

New year's resolutions are fine, but we first need to be born again. Are you indeed born again? Or are you just disguising yourself to look born again?

Bibliography:

• Enduring Word Media Commentary

Philippians 4:2-20
v2-4

• Do you guys ever feel like you're in prison when you're in school?
• Paul is suspected to be in prison when he wrote this, yet he was encouraging the Philippians to rejoice. And not only that but there were some quarrels going on in the church at Philippi.
• In school and social media, we are told to be optimistic, to pursue our dreams, and to be content in living life the way we choose. Do what makes us happy. There might be some truth there, but have you ever noticed that rich people aren't satisfied in life either? And you can try following what the culture tells you, but in the end you will feel defeated and unsatisfied. Why is that? Paul is encouraging the church not to just be happy and optimistic, but rather he is encouraging them to go deeper. What might that be? Rejoicing in the Lord.

v5

• Paul mentions for us to let our reasonableness or gentleness be known to everyone. Why? The Lord is at hand. So we see again the reason that we can be reasonable or gentle is the Lord.

v6-9

• Do not be anxious. Pray and think about these things. The peace of God will guard are hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.
• Anxiety - a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome
• Testimony of when the peace of God guarded my heart and mind.
  • Worried about an exam
  • Worried about what someone thought of me, touch on evangelism
  • Worried about my salvation

v10-13

• Paul is talking to the church how they cared for him in his situation but couldn't pull through. Yet Paul speaks of how he has learned to be content in any and every circumstance. What is the answer? Christ.

v14-20

• Paul talks about how the church had supported him. He testifies that God will provide all of their needs according to His riches in glory in Chrst Jesus.
• This doesn't mean that He will provide everything that you want right? But that whatever God wills for you to do, He will provide the needs to accomplish what He has prepared for you.

Two Exhortations

• Quiet Time
  • The most common excuse I have for not doing my quiet time is that I'm busy doing school work and such. Do you see something wrong there?  As a Christian, the reason why we live is Jesus. School work is for Jesus and yet we're avoiding spending our time with Jesus because we're too busy doing something for Jesus? That doesn't make sense. It's similar to the story of Mary and Martha. Mary was listening to Jesus at His feet and Martha was too busy. Why? She was anxious.
    • "But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” -Luke 10:41-42
  • And I want to go a little deeper behind this excuse and give a clue as to why this happens. And I want challenge you (and myself), maybe your school work isn't really for Jesus to begin with. Maybe you are putting your hope in your grades.
    • Do you see how this causes anxiety? Because now by putting your hope in your grades, your success depends on you. If you mess up or make one small mistake, it's over.
    • This is something that I struggle with all the time. I always separate God from what I do in other parts of my life. Why? Because I'm putting my hope in a life apart from God. I'm trying to be successful by the world's standards.
    • But we need to remember that as Christians, we are repenting, realizing that we are headed in the wrong direction by placing our hope in ourselves, dishonoring God, when in light of the gospel, we should recognize our sin and turn to do everything for the glory and to the glory of God.
    • Whatever you do in your careers, may it be for God. This is something that I learned more when I went abroad...
    • So I want to challenge you to consider your career carefully. If you really have God's kingdom in mind, why not be a missionary? Don't think that we should go to college just because that's what everyone else does. Think deeper than that about your career and how you can use it for God's kingdom.  We are Christians before we are students, not the other way around.
  • "Think about these things...practice these things"
    • How can we think about these things or practice these things when we don't spend time in God's Word learning these things?
    • When you think deeply about the gospel, the cares of this world will fade away
  • Another excuse I hear for not doing quiet time is because we just forgot. But is it really that simple?
    • Truck illustration by Paul Washer
    • We are again turning to something other than the peace of God
    • One thing you can do. Find someone to keep you accountable. Have someone, same gender, who you call once a day and say "hey how's everything with you? how's your time with God?" If we don't spend time in God's Word, then how can we expect God to work in our hearts? It's like being sick but then refusing to go to the doctor.
  • Excuse of being busy talking to other people
    • AIM, Girl
• Evangelism
  • A common excuse not to do evangelism is also anxiety.
  • After hearing and believing the gospel, what is the expected first response? "We should tell other people about this."
    • In light of this, we want others come to experience that same peace of God. When you look at your friends, they may look like they're fine on the outside, but in the inside, they're broken. They're struggling with things that you may not be aware of. Only Christ can set them free. Only Christ can fix them and restore them. So show them the love of Christ in your actions and share the gospel to them. And be someone whom they know they can open up to. Be a safe place where they can truly share their concerns and burdens with you and not be scared of losing you. And pray for them when they share their struggles with you. This is a reflection of who Christ is to us. Reflect that back to them and know that the answer to all of their problems is Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life.
  • In light of this, do not be anxious anymore about your reputation. In Christ, you are a child of God and you are loved with an unfailing love by our Creator God. Pray for God to help you evangelize and find joy in sharing about Him.
• Final encouragement:
  • Maybe some of you have failed to do these things. Don't be anxious. Our God loves us and has saved us. Find peace in God and let the peace of God compel you to do these things.

Bibliography

• Desiring God
  • http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/god-shall-supply-all-your-needs
• Enduring Word Media