New Day Christian Church - Weston, WI

Winning with the Hand You're Dealt: My Choices

This is the wild card. There are certain cards you are dealt--your chemistry, your connections, your circumstances, your consciousness. Your choices impact every card in your hand. Thank God for the hope and the future He has in mind for you!

2 Corinthians 5:16-17 (NLT) 16  So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! 17  This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

 

Five Factors that Influence Your Identity 

My Chemistry: I can choose to become HEALTHIER.

My Connections: I can choose to DEEPEN my RELATIONSHIPS.

My Circumstances: I can choose to TRUST GOD no matter what.

My Consciousness: I can choose what I THINK ABOUT.

My Choices: I can choose JESUS as my SAVIOR.

Winning with the Hand You're Dealt: My Consciousness

Our brains are always at work. Sometimes they feed us true and helpful information about the world around us. Other times our thought patterns are built on misinformation. God gives us paths out of our mental ruts and into healthy thinking that benefits us and glorifies Him.

KEY TEXT: Romans 12:2a (NLT)  Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.  

BIG IDEA: I can choose what I THINK ABOUT.

Winning With the Hand You’re Dealt: My Circumstances

Our circumstances are the things that happen to us that we didn’t choose. A lot of our identity is built by those circumstances. That doesn’t mean we have to live as victims. God gives us hope and power to win with the hand we’re dealt.  

Winning with the Hand You're Dealt: My Connections

Our connections are our relationships in life. They have a lot to do with our identity, particularly in our early years. While these relationships and their impact are important to understand, we also must understand that God calls us into a relationship with Him. In Him we find unfailing, unconditional love, and our true identity.  

KEY TEXT: 1 John 4:18 (ESV)  There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.

 BIG IDEA: I can choose to deepen my relationships.

Winning with the Hand You're Dealt: My Chemistry

We’re stepping out of our Levi’s Gospel series into a five-part series about understanding different aspects of our identities. The first week is about our physical identity--how each of us is both blessed and broken in unique ways. This service will include an on-stage interview with the director of a local biblical counseling center who will assist with teaching a godly perspective on mental health issues.

KEY TEXT: Psalm 119:73 (NLT) You made me; you created me. Now give me the sense to follow your commands.

BIG IDEA: No matter your physical limitations, you can choose to get healthier.

Jesus and the Holy Spirit

 

The Holy Spirit is the PRESENCE of GOD in the PERSON of Jesus. 

Luke 1:35, Luke 1:15, Luke 3:21-22, Luke 4:1-2

 

The Holy Spirit is the POWER of GOD in the MINISTRY of Jesus.

                   A. Luke 3:16, Philippians 2:5-8, Hebrews 4:15, Luke 4:14

 

We too can be BORN of the SPIRIT so that we can bear the PRESENCE and the   

                  POWER of CHRIST until He returns.

                   a. John16:7-8, John14:15-17, John 14:19-20, Ephesians 3:16-17, Colossians 2:9-10

Levi's Gospel: Making Peace

Sometimes we think avoiding conflict is the same as making peace. Often what we’re actually doing is piling up problems for the future. God’s promise is that we experience the best life when we are His agents of real peace.

KEY VERSE: Matthew 5:9 (NLT)  God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God.

BIG IDEA: Loving peace is easy. Making peace is messy.

Levi's Gospel: Pure in Heart

“What were you thinking?” is a somewhat accusatory question that follows a careless mistake. “What are you thinking?” is a reflective question that helps us avoid a careless life. “What is behind that thought?” gets to our heart. A divided heart leaves us stressed and frustrated; a pure heart opens our eyes to see God.

Matthew 5:8 (NLT)  God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.

Psalm 51:10 (NLT)  Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.  

AAPLICATION: This week commit to memory David’s prayer from Psalm 139:23-24

Search me, O God, and know my heart;

test me and know my anxious thoughts.

Point out anything in me that offends you,

and lead me along the path of everlasting life.  

Levi's Gospel: Have Mercy

God put Himself in our shoes when Jesus was born as a human. He has experienced what we experience; He sympathizes with us and shows us mercy. There is a huge shortage of this kind of mercy in the world today. People seem unwilling to understand and respect each other. The Church is in the perfect position to practice God’s sympathy and mercy

  KEY VERSE: Matthew 5:7 (NLT)  God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

PARAPHRASED: O the bliss of those who get right inside other people, until they can see with their eyes, think with their thoughts, feel with their feelings, for those who do that will find others do the same for them, and will know that that is what God in Jesus Christ has done!   --The New Daily Study Bible 

APPLICATION:  Think of a person or a group of people that you have a hard time loving; genuinely, prayerfully try to see the world through their eyes. What are their hurts? What are their fears? What are their hopes? Are you beginning to appreciate them as people created in God’s image? Until you do, you have something to pray about.

Levi’s Gospel: Hunger and Thirst for Justice

Contentment is an important part of discipleship. We should be satisfied with the blessings God has provided for us. In some things though, we are to feel dissatisfaction--a hunger and a thirst. Let’s take those unsettled feelings as motivation to join Christ in being a light to the world.

KEY VERSE: Matthew 5:6 (NLT)  God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice [dikaiosynē], for

they will be satisfied.  

Dikaiosynē, Greek: The character or quality of being right or just. --Vine’s Expository Dictionary

 

NEXT STEP:  Let go of some of the “junk food” that keeps you from hungering for justice and righteousness.