The Good Life: Kingdom Focused Living (Part 3)
May 22, 2022
We hope this guide will help you take the good news you hear today into your daily lives.
It is by faith that we have been saved. Jesus has redeemed us through His work on the cross. However, it is because of our actions that others witness the power of Salvation and are drawn into a life with Christ!
Scripture and Notes
For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.
Philippians 1:29-30 (NIV)
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.
Philippians 2:12-18 (NIV)
Going Deeper: Faith as Sacrifice
But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.
Philippians 2:17-18 (NIV)
While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.
Mark 14:3 (NIV)
In The Spirit of the Disciplines, Dallas Willard writes, “Our need to give is greater than God’s need to receive.” We often think of sacrifice solely as something we do for God, as if it is God who needs something from us and not the other way around.
Instead, God wants to bless us through our acts of sacrifice. When we sacrifice the security of satisfying our needs with our own resources, in faith that God will sustain us, we are like the woman with the alabaster jar of whom Jesus said, “wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her” (see Mark 14:3-9).
Reflect on these questions:
How long has it been since you freely offered your faith in Jesus Christ to God?
How might God use such an offering to bless and keep you?
How might God bless others through your sacrifices?
