DEVOTED: The Crucial Doctrine You've Never Heard Of

February 25, 2024

"What comes to your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you."

–A.W. Tozer

IN THIS EMAIL

Shout Out: Meet Taysheedra!

Try This: How Isaiah makes justice practical

Party Tricks: Pardon me, your Christology is showing

Cheat Sheet: Meeting Jesus in the Garden

SHOUT OUT

Everyday heroes at DCC

Meet Taysheedra!

Tay is a DCC attender who is leveraging both her faith in Jesus and her immense educational experience to mentor and inspire young women in her community.

Check out the recent profile by Madison 365.

TRY THIS

Fresh ideas for spiritual growth

Is there a guide to figure out how God is calling me to make a difference?

Isaiah gives five practical steps you can take for doing justice in everyday life.

“Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows.” (Isaiah 1:17, NLT)

So what are the five steps?

Learn (Who can coach me?)
Seek (Where is my focus?)
Help (Who needs what I have?)
Defend (Who is vulnerable?)
Fight (Where is God calling me to stick my neck out a little bit for someone else?)

Ready? Here are two super practical ideas:

Dedicate some time on Saturday, March 9 for the Kingdom Justice Summit. You'll be inspired by Christians from all over Madison making a difference everyday!
Tay has benefitted from DCC's incredible Care Partner training. We can train you to come alongside others in a simple, but meaningful way. Check it out here.

PARTY TRICKS

Stuff your pastor paid big bucks to learn in Bible school

What makes Christianity different?

The short answer? Christ.

What does that mean?

Just about everyone has an opinion about Jesus. If you asked people of different faiths what they think about Him, they might say...

"He's a human who inherited god-status" (Mormons)
"He's an angel who became a human" (Jehova's Witness)
"He's just another prophet" (Islam)
"He's a rabbi who led people astray" (Judaism)
"He's one god among many" (Hindus)
"He's a reincarnated spiritual guru" (Bhuddism)
"His followers made him into a god" (Atheism)
"Who can really know?" (Agnosticism)

But we believe something different?

Absolutely. Our Christology (what we believe about Christ) is that Jesus has always been God and when He was born to the virgin Mary, He put humanity on over His divinity.

So now and forever, Jesus is simultaneously God and human. Not a mixture of the two, not part of each, but fully both. Jesus is utterly unique. He is the God-man. (Theology nerds call this the "hypostatic union.")

Cool! This sounds like a big deal.

It is and as strange as it sounds, it's the only way Christianity is Good News.

If you downplay Jesus' divinity, His sacrifice for our sin means nothing. If you downplay His humanity, we have no hope of actually experiencing God in any tangible way.

This is why, from the earliest days, Christians argued for, fought for and even died to defend this incredible claim. Jesus is God with us!

LEADER CHEAT SHEET

Get more out of the message

JESUS IN UNEXPECTED PLACES

Jesus in Crisis | Matthew 26:36-46

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As we count down to Easter, we're following Jesus through passion week to learn how to find Him in the unexpected places in our lives.

WATCH: YouTube or Website

The Big Idea of Matthew 26:36-46

How did Jesus succeed when facing the crushing agony of suffering and temptation? It’s a huge mistake to say “well, because He’s God.” He is, but Gethsemane is proof that Jesus is also fully human. He knows what pain, suffering and temptation are like. Jesus shows us that through prayer, it is possible for God to move you from weakness to resilience, no matter what you’re facing.

Good to Know

Gethsemane (vs. 36) was probably a beautiful garden at the center of a huge olive grove. Jesus loved to hang out and pray there.

Sorrowful and troubled (vs. 37) Jesus invited only His three closest disciples to see how He was really doing.

If it be possible let this cup pass from me (vs. 39) is proof that Jesus is fully human and truly "tempted as we are."

Nevertheless, not as I will but as you will (vs. 39b) shows that it is only through prayer that we can align our frail, short-sighted desires to God's better desires.

The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak (vs. 41). "Spirit" (pneuma) could be referring either to our spirit or the Holy Spirit. "Weak" (asthenes) could also be translated "sick."

Jesus finds Peter sleeping three times. His three naps (when he should have been praying) correlate to his three denials of Jesus, whom he had just promised to stand by in 26:33.

Message Snippets

“It’s vital that we go to the garden together to experience Jesus, the one who succeeded where we fail. When we do that, we grow together."

Conversation Starters

Where do you clearly see Jesus' divinity in this passage? Where do you clearly see His humanity?
Reflect on the fact that Jesus wanted His closest friends to watch with Him. Why does Jesus value our "withness"?
Jesus gives us a clear powerful case study for overcoming temptation in this story. How do you want to apply that this week?

Prayer Prompts

Pray that God teaches you to keep watch and pray this week. Brainstorm how to do that practically.