3/27/23 Devotional

Estero Church

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3/27/23 Devotional

Week 5- Day 1

Colossians 3:15

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

What does it mean to have the peace of Christ rule in the heart of the church?

This devotional is a good opportunity for us to be honest with ourselves. Ask yourself honestly right now- do you feel at peace with all fellow believers? And not just those that are in your individual church, but with believers that you might not know. My guess is that the answer for you is the same as it is for me- I don’t feel that peace completely.

What do we do about the fact that there isn’t peace? The easy option is to just convince ourselves that it is the fault of the other side, but of course, this leads to more division which leads to fewer people drawn to the family of God. Now more than ever people are turning away from religion. 29% of all adults are not affiliated with any religion, but the number is much great at 42% for just young adults (18-34). In other studies, people that have turned away from the faith cite that one of the top reasons is an increasingly politicized and divided community. I believe that has been largely affected by our public displays of strife. Who wants to be a part of a family that is publicly showing so much hatred toward itself and others?

Before we move on to what we should do, let me address the elephant in the room. Whatever we do in seeking peace should not come at the cost of our faith. That being said there is a reason that Jesus had both a tax collector working for Rome and a Jewish freedom fighter in his 12 closest friends. Jesus cares more about relationships.

Jesus calls us to do the same thing he did. We are meant to be at peace with fellow believers who see things differently, and I am calling on us to be willing to take the first step just like Jesus did. We are called to seek peace with fellow believers and while this may seem hard it is also good news! In Paul's day, he is not calling believers to divide themselves up- how awful would that be? Rather he is calling us to peace and that is wonderful news.

Renewal Challenge- Realize you’re chosen

You are chosen for peace. Taking the first step toward peace isn’t easy it requires prayer, thoughtfulness, and time. Today I simply encourage you to pray for peace in the church a few times today. Pray that God would allow you to seek healthy peace when controversy comes up.

Set a timer, sticky note, alarm, or whatever reminder works for you, and do this a few more times today. When the reminder comes up just ask God to bring peace to his church. Pray for peaceful leaders and support for peaceful solutions.

4/7/23 Devotional

Colossians 3:16-17 16 Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. 17 And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. As Easter Sunday approaches I want to ask you one simple question- Are you prepared? This season we have provided a devotional, podcast, and sermon series dedicated to the idea that we need to prepare our hearts for easter and allow God to work within us. Prepared for what though? Have you ever wondered why we celebrate Easter? Practically it helps us remember the important event that happened of course, but what does it do for our relationship with Jesus? What does it do for us? The point of celebrating Easter is to worship God and remind us who we are. We are God’s people. Rooted in Jesus, freed by his gift, focused on his message, loved without reservation, chosen while we were still sinners, and prepared to live as his children. We are his and he is ours. So when the story of Easter comes it is time for us to understand how monumental this gift was. It not only provided a way for us to be reconciled with the father, but it also allowed us to be a part of his story as we are grafted into the family of God. Being part of the story means we can welcome others into the family. How amazing is that? Easter is when we celebrate the coming of our King. King Jesus who announced God’s Kingdom, invited us to help build it and took his place beside the father as ruler over all things Heaven and on Earth. Prepare with worship. Worship God today. Today simply thank him for who he is and what he did for you. Take time to experience him in a way that gives you life. That could be a walk outside, worship music in the car, prayer, or reading scripture. The last challenge I have for you is to make a plan to continue meeting God daily. This might have been your first devotional this year or your first devotional ever. Now is the best time to make a plan to continue meeting with God daily. Make a plan by setting an alarm or reminder to read scripture and pray with God every day. Start small with a few minutes, but just spend this time being with God and preparing yourself for life with him each day. If you want a suggestion you can start with the Gospel of John. There are also a whole host of excellent devotionals on the “YouVersion” Bible app available for free. I sincerely thank you for reading the devotional and taking the time to further your relationship with Jesus. If you have any questions or would like to talk further please feel free to reach out to me. - Pastor Chris

4/6/23 Devotional

Colossians 3:12-14 12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. In our week devoted to realizing God’s love for us, we talked through these verses in detail with some challenges associated with them. Today we are going to take these verses and use them to prepare ourselves for what lies ahead. Putting on the right clothes matter and this is our opportunity to prepare by putting on the right attitude. I’m involved in a podcast through Estero Church called “Connect Grow Serve” and it has been a blessing to Pastor Mike and me as we have been able to grow in it together. Over the past several weeks we have been talking about the process of renewal with Jesus and what that actually looks like. In one session we talked about this verse and I really liked the way Mike explained it in his words. He said, “ Putting on love means that when you walk in the room the first thing people will see and feel will be love from you”. How powerful and challenging that statement is for us, but I have no doubt in my mind that this was the way it was when Jesus walked into a room. It did make me think a lot about what people sense from me when I walk into a room though. On the hard days, I would guess it might come off as anxiety, impatience, exhaustion, and indifference. I imagine it is the same for many of us, but when we are not intentionally “putting on” the good things, people see the bad things. It’s so important that we are intentionally trying to put on love. So if we want people to see these things from us we have to prepare by putting them on. One of the best ways to realize this in your own life is by calling to mind these characteristics from people you already know and respect. The exercise for today will be a little bit longer than other days, but it will be a good opportunity to put on what matters. Prepare with love Grab a pen and paper or a word processor. For each of the qualities listed below, call one person to mind that reminds you of them. If you can’t think of people then feel free to use fictional characters to fill in the gaps. The point of the exercise is to give us a place to start and let's be honest- no one except Jesus is perfect. Once you have these people list them out like the example below. "Compassion- Sarah, Kindness- Scott, Humility- Steve, Gentleness- Emily, Patience- Barb" Now write down or consider what they do or how they act that makes you think they represent these traits. The next part is the cool part. Going forward when you are in a situation where you feel like one of these is required I want you to think about how the person you listed would respond. Calling these people to mind will give you a place to start as we try to love others well.

4/5/23 Devotional

Scripture: Scripture: Colossians 2:20 20 You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world… Colossians 4:5 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Being a Christian means that you are free. Do you understand your freedom? Freedom in Christ means that when choosing who you want to be and how you want to act you get to choose to lean on Christ. Your own abilities in this life do not limit you, instead, you can lean on Christ trusting that he will grow you and not leave you. This means that when being prepared for what the world has for you, you are capable of more than you know. You have the freedom to walk with Christ and when you do you will become the best version of yourself. In this world we are often defined by what we do and, well... it makes sense, doesn’t it? If someone is a loyal, upstanding member of society then they are rewarded by being defined by that and if someone is a criminal they are, for the most part, justly punished by being defined by that. If the goal of a society is primarily just to preserve itself then this all makes a lot of logical sense. What about a community that has Jesus at the center though? If you know who Paul is then it won't surprise you to hear that this man was a murderer. We know by his writing that he considers himself the chief of sinners and yet he is the one writing the very letters that churches across the world use to worship God. How can this be? When Christ is the defining part of your identity then his identity takes over. This isn’t easy though. Those who follow Jesus are called to die to themselves and take up the cross. We are called to give ourselves over to his way of life and recognize our own sin, because here is the truth- we are all guilty and in need of help. This freedom will prepare us for whatever we are called to because it will help us see the world the way it truly is. When we are encountering people who don’t know Christ the gospel will help us serve them by reminding us that we are no better. When we encounter other Christians the knowledge of who we are will help us keep each other humble and propel us to heights greater than any human can go on their own. Knowing who we are will allow us the freedom to be who we are meant to be. Be prepared by your freedom For this exercise I want you to say two self-affirming statements to help you realize your freedom. If it helps to write these down then feel free to do so. “I am a new creation in Christ and I am capable of great things that glorify the Lord”. “I am no better and no less than any other person. I simply know that I need Christ and that knowledge sets me free”.