PRACTICING THE WAY OF JESUS

Happy New Year Grace Community Church! This weekend we are doing a one-off message talking about Practicing the Way of Jesus in 2022. The question we’re working through is this: What would this year look like if everything we did was rooted in the Way of Jesus?

The Way of Jesus is an intentional and formational way of life. When Jesus gave the Early Church the command in Matthew 28 to “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20), I believe he meant it!

The call on believers is not that we just go and reach a people and dunk ’em… It’s that they become disciples who apprentice their life with Jesus. Additionally, we are to teach them to obey everything that Jesus has commanded so they too can step into the formational Way of Life Jesus invites each of us into.

Three goals that shape how we live out the Way of Jesus are:

1. Being With Jesus

2. Becoming Like Jesus

3. Doing What Jesus Did

Check out the video and button below for the full message and Application Notes with practical ways we can apply these goals to our lives this year (video covers these goals in depth starting around the 32:20 mark).

Have a takeaway from the message? Inspired to take up one of the practices shared this year? Let me know in the comments below!

GOAL GUIDE TO PRACTICING THE WAY

Below, I highlight each goal and provide three practices for you to consider incorporating into your way of life this year. To help you start applying it, included with each practice has a question to consider along with it.

GOAL #1: BE WITH JESUS

To BE WITH JESUS, we must commit to being with Him daily and learn to “put off our old selves” and allow him to “make us new”. This can look like: Practicing Spiritual Disciplines.

SILENCE & SOLITUDE
Consider This: Is this even part of your week? Is it something you choose or is it thrust upon you? Silence & solitude aren’t about when we’re bored, but an intentional practice we choose.
Apply It: Looking back at this past year, what do my calendar and habits reveal about how I feel about silence & solitude?
SABBATH
Consider This: This is an intentional time of rest and worship during your week, not just during Sunday morning gatherings.
Apply It: Where am I finding and incorporating rest in my week? Is it meaningful?
PRAYER & FASTING
Consider This: These are arguably two of the biggest cornerstones to our life in Christ!
Apply It: What am I hungering for this year? What do I want to see God do? How can I partner with him in it?

There are other spiritual disciplines we can consider, but these three tend to be the most neglected disciplines. Arguably, I believe that these three disciplines are some of the most central to helping us be with Jesus. If we want to be with Jesus this year, we need to practice spiritual disciplines.

GOAL #2: BECOME LIKE JESUS

To BECOME LIKE JESUS, we must continually practice the process of “being made new”. This can look like: Doing Deep Work.

WORKING THROUGH YOUR PAST
Consider This: Understanding who you are and where you are because of where and who you’ve come from.
Apply It: In what ways does my past influence how I am living today? How so?
PRACTICING FORGIVENESS
Consider This: This is the practice of both giving and receiving forgiveness and identifying places where surrender is necessary.
Apply It: What or who am I holding onto that I need to release? What do I need to surrender?
LIVING IN ACTIVE COMMUNITY
Consider This: Identifying other apprentices of Jesus that you can do life with and actively searching for them if you don’t currently have it.
Apply It: Who am I running with? How intentional am I in finding and building meaningful community?

These forms of deep work should be continual and regular practices in our lives because they are outward reflections of our inner worlds. As we grow in becoming like Jesus, we will find that to truly “be made new” will involve some level of deep, ongoing work. These practices are a few to help us do just that!

GOAL #3: DO WHAT JESUS DID

To DO WHAT JESUS DID, we must recognize that growth involves a lifetime of learning how to “put on the new self”. This can look like: Seeking “In Tempe [your city] As It Is In Heaven”.

ENGAGING MY WORLD
Consider This: This might involve you getting engaged with the initiatives of your City and State, of the HOA board of your community, or rallying behind the needs of people around us.
Apply It: Where am I positioned? What ways can I bring the Kingdom into those places?
TEACHING OTHERS
Consider This: Walking with believers and non-believers alike in discovering Jesus.
Apply It: Who am I committed to walking alongside? Likewise, who is walking alongside me?
NEIGHBORING & HOSPITALITY
Consider This: Using your home and where you’re planted for the Kingdom – a place that can serve as a tangible expression of love this side of heaven.
Apply It: What ways can I use where I’m at and what I have to be a tangible expression of God’s love for the Kingdom?

As we spend time with Jesus, become more like him, and we do what he did, we will find our hearts beat for the places we are entrusted to. I believe this looks like our immediate cities, states, and communities. Often we want to consider the needs globally and nationally – and those are good things. But many times, it can be the reason we never make an impact in the people and the places around us. I believe if we truly seek out “In my city as it is in heaven” in our doing as Jesus did, we just might see a glimmer of heaven here on earth.

PRACTICING THE WAY OF JESUS

GOAL GUIDE TO PRACTICING THE WAY

GOAL #1: BE WITH JESUS

GOAL #2: BECOME LIKE JESUS

GOAL #3: DO WHAT JESUS DID

CONTACT JOSH

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