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Are Message Believers Christians?: Difference between revisions

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But many Christians have veered from Jesus' command to love and become more focused on a set of beliefs, more concerned about themselves and their standing with God than about other people.   
But many Christians have veered from Jesus' command to love and become more focused on a set of beliefs, more concerned about themselves and their standing with God than about other people.   


The church that Jesus founded was to be a movement love would replace law-keeping.  
The church that Jesus founded was to be a movement love would replace law-keeping:
 
:''When God speaks of a “new” covenant, it means he has made the '''first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear'''.<ref>Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), Heb 8:13.</ref>
 
In fact, how we behaved became the most important thing in determining whether we were Christians:
 
:''If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
:''If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day,
:''and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.
:''If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere.
:''So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.<ref>Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005), 1 Co 13:1–3.</ref>




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"Imagine if everyone realizes … God is fine with me," he said. "Now I must figure out how to be fine with other people so they can be fine with my Father in heaven."
"Imagine if everyone realizes … God is fine with me," he said. "Now I must figure out how to be fine with other people so they can be fine with my Father in heaven."
But those that say they follow Jesus have had a historical tendency to bring the old covenant back  into the new.


<ref>Stanley, Andy -  from the sermon series "Brand:New"</ref>
<ref>Stanley, Andy -  from the sermon series "Brand:New"</ref>