Four Words: Growing

South Union Baptist Church

Four Words: Growing

January 15, 2023 • Pastor Chad Thompson • 1 Peter 2:2–3

Bottom line: Growing spiritually is the supernatural work of God changing us as we yield our lives to Him in faith and obedience.

When it comes to spiritual growth, we need to prioritize it in our lives because God has commanded it. We do our part and God will do His to change us for His glory. Our part is to surrender and yield in faith and obedience. We need to apply the equation "Desire + Discipline = Change". We can have all the desire in the world for growth and change and not grow or change one bit. Desire alone will not change us. Desire plus discipline makes the difference. We do our part and God will do in us what we could never do on our own - He changes us from one degree of glory to another. (2 Cor. 3:18)

Four Words: Reaching

February 5, 2023 • John 4:3–29

Bottom line: When you b.l.e.s.s. others, you actively participate in God's mission of reaching, restoring, and reproducing. In the story of the woman at the well we see a microcosm of the mission of Jesus to reach, restore, and reproduce. He reached and restored the woman, and then the woman immediately sought to reach others (i.e. she was reproducing). The mission of Jesus was rooted in blessing, i.e. the blessing of Abraham in the Abrahamic Covenant. Everywhere Jesus went he sought to reach people while he blessed people. In this message, we learn about a strategy that can be implemented practically to bless others and in doing so reach others.

Four Words: Serving

January 29, 2023 • Pastor Chad Thompson • Matthew 20:28

Bottom line: When I choose Jesus as my savior, I accept the invitation to eternal life. When I choose to serve Jesus by serving others, I accept the invitation to a better life. What happens when we serve God by serving others? 1) God shows up through our service and others get to see His love, heart, work, and Son's life in us, 2) you shine a light that illuminates Jesus, expels the darkness, and attracts people, 3) you experience a better life lived - joy inwardly, community relationally, significance extraordinarily, and intimacy spiritually.

Four Words: Connecting

January 8, 2023 • Pastor Chad • Matthew 28:18–20

Bottom line: Connecting with God (vertically) and other believers (horizontally) is fundamental to a believer ultimately growing, serving, and reaching others for the glory of God. There are four things that we want every believer in our church to be: connecting, growing, serving, and reaching. We use these four words in our discipleship process, which is illustrated with a baseball diamond where first base is connecting, second base is growing, third base is serving, and home plate is reaching. We will never be effective in growing, serving, and reaching if we are not first connecting with God in relation, adoration, and habitation, and connecting with other believers in the body of Christ in both large group and small group.