newportmesa a church for the community

Let’s Get Small

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness . . .          Genesis 1:26

You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.                Exodus 20:4-6

The Search for Meaning

Everything was created through him; nothing—not one thing!—came into being without him.              John1:3

• Out of the Shadows

But their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men.

They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but they cannot see;

they have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but they cannot smell;

they have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but they cannot walk;

nor can they utter a sound with their throats.

Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.

Psalm 115:4-8

Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.           1 John 5:2

• Fully Alive

A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.                 John 10:10

My people have committed a compound sin: they’ve walked out on me, the

fountain of fresh flowing waters, and then dug cisterns—cisterns that leak

cisterns that are no better than sieves.                Jeremiah 2:12-13

• Deeply Loved

Those who worship hollow gods, god-frauds, walk away from their only true love.                  Jonah 2:8

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Romans 12:1-2