In His Image
Matthew 3:13-17

Baptism

• Jesus’ Model:
  • It revealed the approval of the Father
    
  • It was a conscious act of obedience
    
  • God exposed His participation
• Jesus’ Reasons:
  • To fulfill all Righteousness:
    
  • To be consecrated to God and approved by God
    
  • The public announcement of the arrival of the Messiah and the inception of His ministry
    
  • He identified with human sin and with the people responding to God
    
  • To be an example to his followers
• baptizw <Gk> baptizō to make fully wet; used only in the NT of ceremonial ablution
  
• The immersion or dipping of a believer in water symbolizing the complete renewal and change in the believer’s life and testifying to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the way of salvation.

What Baptism is not:

• an empty form
  
  • II Timothy 3:1-5
    
• a ticket to heaven
  
  • Ephesians 2:8-9

The Outward Sign of An Inward Reality

• What is the reality?
  
• Identification with God:
  
  • His image – our purpose
    
  • Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
• His Name
  
  • Our new identity, new family
    
  • Matthew 28:19-20
    
• His Son
  
  • His death, burial, and resurrection
    
• His church
  
  • Initiation into His ecclesia, His called out ones
• The work of the Holy Spirit!
  
• Colossians 2:9-12

A Funeral Service

• Romans 6:1-6
  
• This is God’s Divine object lesson, a Divine drama played out in our lives to leave a mark!
  
• Galatians 2:20

The Peter Package
Acts 2:37-39

A Life of Integrity
Joshua 1:7-9
Job 1-2:3

Integrity

• A steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code
  
• The state of being unimpaired; soundness.
  
• The quality or condition of being whole or undivided; completeness

“Make Every Effort”

• II Peter 3:14 “Make every effort to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with him”
  
• Vow to maintain integrity
• Hebrews 12:14-15 “Make every effort to live in peace with all men. See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up”
  
• Vow to forgive those who hurt you.
• Hebrews 4:11 “Anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us therefore make every effort to enter into God’s rest”
  
• Vow to relax and trust God.
• Romans 14:19 “Let us make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification”
  
• Vow to be an encourager.
• Ephesians 4:3 “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace”
  
• Vow to be a peacemaker.
• II Peter 1: 5-8 “Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive…”
  
• Vow to never stop growing.

A.I.D.S.

Our human sickness:
A - acquired
I - integrity
D - deficiency
S - syndrome
Expediency at the Expense of Integrity

God Blesses Those Who Live With Integrity

Psalm 86:11 “Teach me Your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name.”

~ "sincere" = comes from two Latin words (sine cera) meaning "without wax."

Image Bearers

• I John 2:6
  
• Psalm 1:1-2
  
• Proverbs 20:7
  
• I Samuel 16:7

It is not what we eat but what we digest that makes us strong; not what we gain but what we save that make us rich; not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned; and not what we profess but what we practice that makes us Christians.
-- Author unknown

The Courageous Life - part 2
Genesis 50:15-21

The Call To Divine Leadership
We are challenged to live courageously:

• Submit to pressure from peers and you move down to their level.
  
• Speak up for your own beliefs and you invite them up to your level.
  
• If you move with the crowd, you'll get no further than the crowd.
  
• When millions of people believe in a dumb idea, it's still a dumb idea.
  
• Simply swimming with the tide leaves you nowhere.

When God gives His Word, His dream, our responsibility is to work with God and not for God!

Psalm 37:23 “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, And He delights in his way.”

Even in the face of opposition, continue in obedience to the will of God.

• Recognize that the Lord is with you irrespective of our situation.
  
• Genesis 39:2-3
  
• We don’t need to compromise our position to fulfill the dream, regardless of the cause.
• Isaiah 30:21 “Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” Whenever you turn to the right hand Or whenever you turn to the left.”
  
• I Thessalonians 5:21 “Test all things; hold fast what is good.”

Strive to live a courageous life. Confess Christ before men. Whatever station you occupy, in that station confess Christ. . . . Strive to live a joyful life. Live like men who look for that blessed hope, the coming of Jesus Christ.
--- J. C. Ryle

Pushing Back the Fall

• We live in a fallen and fractured world
  
• In a fallen world, things fall apart
  
• In nature, the inexorable law of entropy moves all things continuously backward, reverting in the direction of disorder and chaos
  
• Life requires constant upkeep

Missio Dei

• This is our mission, the purpose of God in our lives, a moment by moment, day by day, walk with the Holy Spirit.
  
• When we find mission and purpose, even in the lowest tasks if life, we can endure any circumstance of life.
  
• True joy, happiness is not dependent on circumstances.
  
• We need to place our lives, our work in a broader perspective.
• Denis Haack wrote: “Every legitimate vocation and trade pursued as a service to God is part of the spiritual task of pushing back the fall.”
  
• We are not just making a living, we are making a life!

Courage To Take a Stand

• Genesis 50:24-25
  
• Great Leaders:
  
  • Trustworthy in nature
    
  • Decisive in action
    
  • Visionary in purpose
    
  • Wise in counsel
    
  • Humble in achievement
    
  • Prayerful in courage

Revelation 21:7-8 He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

Proverbs 4:18 But the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.

The Courageous Life

But the path of the just is like the shining sun,
That shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.
Proverbs 4:18

Strive to live a courageous life. Confess Christ before men. Whatever station you occupy, in that station confess Christ. . . . Strive to live a joyful life. Live like men who look for that blessed hope, the coming of Jesus Christ.
--- J. C. Ryle

A New Year, a fresh start, a blank slate

So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Psalm 90:12

What will be written on your life this year?

The fellowship of being near unto God must become reality, in the full and vigorous prosecution of life. It must permeate and give color to our feeling, our perceptions, our sensations, our thinking, our imagining, our willing, our acting, our speaking. It must not stand as a foreign factor in our life, but it must be the passion that breathes throughout our whole existence.
---Abraham Kuyper

This Year Will Be Different !!!

In Him we live and move and have our being.
Acts 17:28a

Keep your heart with all diligence,
For out of it spring the issues of life.
Proverbs 4:23

Pushing Back the Fall

• We live in a fallen and fractured world
  
• In a fallen world, things fall apart
  
• In nature, the inexorable law of entropy moves all things continuously backward, reverting in the direction of disorder and chaos
  
• Life requires constant upkeep
• We all invest in things: we exchange current resources for a future hope.
  
• We delay an immediate pleasure in order to receive a greater long-term benefit.
  
• We may invest heavily in the intangibles; family, church, or other charitable activity.
  
• We may invest in the tangibles; education, property, business, stocks, etc.
• Wrong investing
  
  • sacrificing now based on false hopes which results in disillusionment and disaster
    
• As long as we live, we invest time and energy into the future.
• Optimism is only as good as the place where one has placed their trust.
  
• Misplaced trust is a recipe for crisis!

Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the Lord your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior
Isaiah 43:1b-3a

Prerequisites for Peace

• Philippians 4:6-7
  
• Isaiah 26:3
  
• John 16:33

Focused Prayer Faithful God
Psalm 90:12

7 cultural spheres of influence:

1. religion – the dress of culture
   
2. family – the foundation of culture
   
3. government – the preservation of culture
   
4. arts & entertainment – the expression of culture
   
5. media – the library of culture
   
6. business – the engine of culture
   
7. education – the propagation of culture

The Joseph Company

• Business Owners
  
• Self-employed
  
• Entrepreneurs
  
• Tent-makers ministries
  
• Plan to gather once every other month for edification and challenge

Building the Community at Cornerstone

• We are to build a greater emphasis on the value of our fellowship
  
• We gather for:
  
  • covenant renewal
    
  • celebrating the resurrection
    
  • to enjoy a foretaste of the heavenly banquet
• Those who are the church take time to worship as the church
  
• As the church, we preach and believe the Bible, it is the place where disciples are made
  
• Classic marks of the church:
  
  • preach the gospel
    
  • administrate the sacraments
    
  • disciples are made and accountable

Household of Faith

• Created for Community as reflected in:
  
  • Unity of God – Genesis 1:26 – Triune God
    
  • Unity with God – redemption – reconciliation
    
  • Unity in Marriage – Family – Society
    
• Ultimately in the church
  
• Ephesians 4:1-6

Christian Community means:

• A Christian needs other Christians because of Jesus Christ.
  
• A Christian comes to others only through Jesus Christ.
  
• In Jesus Christ, we have been chosen from eternity, accepted in time, united for eternity.

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. I Peter 2:9-10

What people want:

• Show “God Seekers” what they yearn for:
  
• Transcendence (contact with God)
  
• Significance (personal value and purpose)
  
• Community (connection and a sense of belonging)

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
His mercy never comes to an end.
They are new every morning,
new every morning
Great is Thy faithfulness
Lamentations 3:22-26,41

So teach us to number our days,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Psalm 90:12