Christ Community Chapel - Hudson Campus

Joe Coffey | This January, we’re focusing as a church on three bold claims of Christianity: you can know God, God can change you and God can use you to change the world. This week, we investigate the third claim, recognizing that Christianity has changed the world so deeply that it’s almost impossible to imagine a world that was never impacted by Jesus and his followers. This drastic ability to influence dates back to Jesus’ disciples – a group of ordinary, uneducated men who quickly transformed the known world by living as Jesus taught them. And that ability still resides with Christians today who can tap into a different identity (Jesus), a different purpose (serving others), and a different power (love and fearlessness through the Holy Spirit) to positively impact the world together.

Joe Coffey | As we focus this year on knowing God, being changed by him and then being used to change the world, one of the first things we must realize is that we need to change. On the surface, that isn’t exactly hard… Many of us made New Year’s resolutions not long ago precisely because we want to change. We need to realize, however, that we don’t only need to change our eating and exercise habits, but our very spiritual identities. This week, Pastor Joe explains what that looks like—how we need to change and how Jesus allows it to happen. Because as Christians, it’s not about trying to change the thousand things that are wrong with us… It’s about making one change in our lives by deciding to follow and trust in Jesus as our savior.

Joe Coffey | In Ephesians 2:1-10, we read that we were dead in our trespasses and sins, but because of God’s great love and grace, we have been saved. Because we are naturally spiritually dead, we have little desire to put God at the center of our lives. While we could act like the moon—a cold, dead rock that still reflects the brilliant light of the sun to illuminate the world—we choose not to do so. We could put God at the center of our lives and choose to orbit him, reflecting his grace and radiance to the world, but we want to be the sun, not the moon in our lives. We want God to orbit around us.

Joe Coffey | Each January, we set a theme for the year as a church, focusing either on “breathing out” to forward God’s kingdom in the world, or “breathing in” to grow closer to God. This year, we’ll be doing the latter, as we all take the challenge to be transformed in 2018. The message of the Gospel is one of transformation, telling us we can know God personally, change radically and be used by God to change the world as a result. As Pastor Joe explains today, in 2018, we will focus on how we have been (and will be) transformed not by our own doing, but by the grace and guidance of God.