Journey With Jesus
June Sermon Preview for Forsythe Church of Christ
This summer we will be preaching along with the theme JOURNEY WITH JESUS: The Daily Trek of Discipleship. We will be looking at various aspects of our daily walk with the Lord. It is our hope to encourage faithfulness and grow through the challenges presented by Jesus. Disciples are students, learners, and followers. Jesus is our teacher, guide, and strength for this journey. This is our theme for the next few months, but in this post, we will focus on what’s coming in June.
June 2 The Foundation of Following Jesus
We will begin with the Beatitudes - which serve as the foundation of the Christian life. Matthew begins his account of the Sermon on the Mount with these iconic statements that never fail to challenge us along the journey with Jesus.
“The man who is quite satisfied with the name of a Christian, without the life of a Christian will never see God nor anything at all until his eyes are divinely opened.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Beatitudes
June 9 Jesus Is Lord
This study will cover some of the well-known statements about following Jesus. We plan to talk about cross-bearing, surrender, and bearing fruit for the Lord. Sometimes with familiar Scriptures, we fail to stop and take a close look. These teachings of Jesus will be challenging to our faith-walk, but necessary. “Let us not withhold any part of our lives from the mastery of Christ” - J. Oswald Sanders.
June 16 Growing in the Holy Spirit
We simply cannot be disciples of Jesus without the blessed Holy Spirit. Jesus promised that the Spirit would be a part of our lives so that we are not alone on the journey. Though we often hear confusing and conflicting teachings about the Spirit, when we look at the Bible we find out that the Spirit is the presence of God in our daily lives - precisely what we need to live the life to which He has called us.
June 23 Serving Like Jesus
As we attempt to be like Jesus in everything we do, becoming like Him will mean that we become oriented to serving. Jesus said, “I am among you as one who serves” (Luke 22:27). The King of the universe was a servant! What can we learn from Jesus about living with the attitude and ambition to be of service to others?
June 30 Love the Lord
Mark 14 tells us of a woman who demonstrated an extravagant love for Jesus. In this amazing story Jesus says, “…wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her” (Mark 14:9). And so we will talk about her and how she teaches us to keep on walking on this journey with Jesus!
The Journey with Jesus will continue to be our theme in July and August. I look forward to these messages and hope they will be a source of encouragement and growth for all of us.
Resources for this series will vary, but some I know I will be sifting through are…
Spiritual Discipleship: Principles of Following Christ for Every Believer by J. Oswald Sanders.
Discipleship in God’s Eternal Purpose by Jerry Jones.
Journey into Discipleship: 26 Lessons on Following Jesus by Tommy C. Higle
Let Go: Seven Stumbling Blocks to Christian Discipleship by Casey Cole
The Jesus Life: Eight Ways to Recover Authentic Christianity by Stephen W. Smith
I’m sure other books will be of importance this summer, but this is a sampling of some of the ones I’ll be looking at. I hope if you are local you will join us on a Sunday morning this Summer very soon at Forsythe Church of Christ!
