Three Paths - Joe Dillon - Guest Preacher, 11.01.20 by New Life of Asheville

What would you tell the people you love most if you knew what you were about to say to them would be the last words they would ever hear from you? Last words have lasting impact. After the resurrection, Jesus had some final instructions for His small, rag-tag band of followers that would change the trajectory of history itself. He gave them a mission and a purpose that was mind-blowing: the whole world. Tell the whole world. Start here, but don’t stop here. And Jesus didn’t just give them purpose, He also promised to give them the power to accomplish this stunning mission by sending the Holy Spirit to indwell and empower them to do things they never dreamed of. For 2,000 years now, this purpose and power has been passed from one generation of Jesus followers to the next. Friend, you have been given great purpose and even greater power in Christ. Let’s link arms and boldly take the good news of Jesus into our neighborhoods, into our city and to the furthest and darkest places left on planet earth for the glory of our great King!

One of our missions partners in Central Asia shares a message with the New Life family this week.

Encounters with Jesus - Mad Man to Missionary - Nathan Byrd, Guest Preacher 10.11.20

As we launch into October, which is mission month at New Life, we’re always reminded of Jesus’ final words to His disciples in Acts 1:8. You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the end of the earth. This week, we’ll examine the call to our city, our Jerusalem. In Luke 14, Jesus encounters a religious leader at a party and tells a parable that has huge implications for the modern church and how we interact and love those God has placed right around us. This also brings to mind a passage in Jeremiah where God commands His people to pray for and seek the welfare of the city He had placed them in. Through these passages, we are challenged to embrace truths about the church like; we must be shaped by the gospel, moved to action and known by our compassion in the city in which we live. May God raise up our church family to be a shining beacon of hope and love in our city for the sake of our King!

The encounter recorded in John 11 is one of the most moving scenes in the entire Bible. In this scene, Jesus’ earth-shaking power and his gentle care are both on glorious display. Jesus clearly loves this family found in John 11 deeply and is close to Lazurus and his sisters Mary and Martha. Through his interactions with Mary, Martha and Lazarus we learn truths that have the potential to be just as powerful in our lives today as they were on that fateful day 2,000 years ago. In this encounter, Jesus teaches us things like; God’s silence is never evidence of His absence. He teaches us that the God who is powerful enough to save is the God who weeps with His children. We learn that the resurrected life is not just a future reality, but a life that is currently available to us. We also learn that belief allows us to glimpse God’s glory in life-changing ways. Jesus is life!

The last two weeks we’ve learned through several encounters Jesus had with people that we are designed for healthy vertical and horizontal relationships. We were created for relationships with God and others! This week we’ll look at an encounter Jesus has with Peter and the disciples that has far reaching and exciting implications for us today. This particular encounter in Mathew 16 is the very 1st time Jesus mentions this new movement called the “church”. He promises to build the church and use His followers in breathtaking ways in that process. So what is the church and why is it important? What we learn from this encounter is that the church is central to Jesus’ mission. Being a part of a local church is critical to a healthy spiritual life and it’s also the way we join God in His mission of expanding His Kingdom of hope, healing, and new life in the world.

Our encounter for this week is found in the book of Luke where Jesus gets invited to a dinner party by a religious leader who hopes to expose Jesus as a spiritual fraud. Through this intimate setting things get heated quickly and Jesus, as so often is the case, turns the table on his host. Through this story our own heart gets revealed and we realize how desperately we need one another to help expose one of our greatest needs. By learning to live an authentic, transparent life with one another in small circles God helps remind us what posture is needed for the gospel to take root and transform our lives.

No matter what your worldview is or what you believe spiritually, we all know that something is broken in our world. What’s missing? What can fix what’s broken within each of us? By looking at some of the encounters Jesus had with people in the gospels, we’ll discover that Jesus not only exposes what’s missing within us, but offers a lasting solution that nothing else in this world can. We will discover that God is a relational god and that it’s only through a restored relationship with Him and others that we can truly find satisfaction in this life. This week, we’ll look at Jesus’ encounters with two individuals: a social outcast and a religious insider. Although they couldn’t be more different, and though Jesus engages them in completely different ways, He offers them the same solution to their inner brokenness. The good news is that Jesus still offers us inner healing today through a relationship with Him!

This week we wrap-up our study through this incredible little letter from the apostle Peter to suffering Christians almost two millennia ago. Peter has used this letter primarily to encourage believers in their suffering. He closes out his letter by giving us several keys to finishing the race of life strong for the glory of King Jesus. We learn that humbly trusting God through confusing seasons of pain actually leads to our exaltation in due time. We are reminded that God cares for us, and so we are to cast our anxieties on Him, instead of internalizing fears and trying to solve problems on our own. Peter encourages us to live life with our head on a swivel, because we have a real enemy who is in the business of destroying lives. And we are reminded that in the end, Jesus wins. And on that victorious day of His 2nd coming, He will right all wrongs and make all things new for those who love and follow Him. And because of that, we can walk confidently through this life of brokeness and pain knowing that only glory awaits us forever and ever!