The lesson tonight was a continuation of the Fruit of the Spirit study that we have been on for several weeks now. The focus has shifted slightly from the Fruit of the Spirit examples listed in Galatians 5:22, and is now concentrating on what other things your life and walk with Christ should be producing; a Christ centered life, and missional living.
First of all lets tackle what is means and looks like to have a Christ centered life. A person who centers their life on who Christ is and what He is doing will do anything and everything for Jesus. We will realize that every little and big decision that we make needs to be made with God's help and direction; God cares about who you date, what music you listen to, where you go to college, who you marry, your job, the sports you play, your clothes... I could go on and on, but let's just say he care about all of it! He has a plan for you and there is no way to live out that plan with out going where He sends you, doing what He asks and letting Him be the driving force in your decisions. At our house we have a Wii fit and when you first get on it wants to check to see how your center of balance is, you stand there for a second and then it traces this wobbly red line showing how you center yourself. My varies from day to day, sometimes I am right on and other days I am all over the place. This can be how our lives are, we may make bad choices or get lazy and Christ is no longer our center, the bad thing about that is without Him in the middle our whole life will limp along off balance. We all make mistakes, but the one who is striving to live a Christ centered life will not ask " do you think it is bad if..." but instead ask, "is this helping me in my walk and glorifying Jesus," when determining if a behavior or choice is appropriate. As we grow in this new things will come to light that may not be God's best for us; relationships may need to be evaluated, and even ended if Jesus isn't being glorified though it. Tommy used an illustration to show how hard it is to date people who may not be as committed to God as you are: Hunter stood on a chair and tried to pull Tommy up to her level and was obviously unsuccessful, but with one small tug he was able to pull her down to his level. This is such a clear picture of what can happen when we try to "missionary date" they can pull you down way easier and quicker than you can help them up, so it is best to date people who are striving for a Christ centered life if that is what you are wanting as well. John 15:5 and continuing talks about Jesus being the vine and us being the branches, this is saying we should be so rooted in who Jesus is that He is our stability and source of life. Mark 8:34 says "if anyone would come after me he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me." Which means we will die to ourselves and our plans and take up the life Jesus has for us; the abundant life. This abundant life may require us to give up some things or everything and walk a hard road, but the reward will be so worth it! All the things the world values are disposable, they don't last, but what we do for God will last forever!
The natural overflow of a Christ centered life is going to be missional living, this may be a weird term for you and you are not the only one, my spell check says it isn't even a word. A mission trip is going somewhere to share the love of Jesus and do good things to help people, well missional living it just doing that in your every day life! Seeing people the same way God does and loving them. Acts 1:8 says we WILL be His witnesses, people are watching us all the time and we are either reflecting God's character or tarnishing His image. Jesus advances his kingdom through people like us, its the only plan. So as we decide to center our lives on Christ we will stop worrying about what right or wrong and start focusing on knowing Jesus more and walking in His ways; we will want to know the plans He has for us and live in them and share that plan with others every way we can!