How does the fact that God loves you result in you loving others? Does it change your view of other people or do you view others in the same way, in your own strength? What does it mean to show Christ's love? The answer is found in Luke 10:27, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and 'Love your neighbour as yourself'. To show Christ's love in this world is to act like Jesus when He was on this earth. The challenge for us is to look for opportunities to show Christ's love by caring for others.

To know Christ means having a deep and intimate relationship, and it is continuous. Our goal, direction and purpose for the rest of our lives is to know Him. Do we have a vibrant, alive, growing relationship? Or is it a cold, informational, dead relationship? We get to know Jesus by sharing in His sufferings and dying to self. We do it by letting go, forgetting past sins and failures and persevering. We’re not just pressing on for Jesus, but pressing into Him.

Jeremiah tells us that those who trust in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him, will be blessed, but those who put their trust in men will be cursed. The challenge before us today is where are we putting our trust? God's own people had lost their way and put their trust in idols - a path that was to lead them to destruction. Jeremiah tells them that their only hope is putting their trust and confidence in God. Do we travel the road that trusts in this world, which has no hope, or do we go along the path that leads to eternity with God? What does it mean to trust in God? We need to trust in His love, trust in His word, trust in His promises and trust in His plans for our future.

Jesus started His preaching by saying, "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is near". To repent is not just being sorry about the sins we commit but about turning our lives around and living our life differently - not our agenda, but God's agenda. When Jesus called His first disciples, He did not wait for them to be ready, but He called them whilst they were busy doing their own work. The men did not hestitate to change their own agenda and go in a new direction in their lives to follow Jesus. How will you respond when Jesus calls you to change your agenda? Will your priority be to follow Jesus?

One of the greatest issues we face is determining our place in the world. As Christians, we need to also ask what is God's purpose for us in this world and what is the purpose for the church as a whole. We were made to worship God. He made us to be in a relationship with Him. Paul tells us in Romans 12:1, that we need to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is worship! At Emu Plains Community Baptist Church, our Purpose Statement is to "Know Christ, Grow Christ like, Show Christ's love and Sow Christ's gospel". We need to be transformed in ourselves and to take that transformation out into this world. (Our church broke into 6 groups to discuss this further. The main item that each group thought we needed to focus on is shared at the end of the message - see also notes attached).