Growing God’S Forever Family

By Seth Nathan Polk

Jesus calls us to come and follow Him. When you are confronted with the claims of Jesus it creates a crisis of belief. Will you trust in him and become a child of God? Or will you continue on your own path? True freedom is found only in following Jesus. As a disciple your relationship with Jesus should be the top priority in your life. Walking with him should inform and direct every aspect of your life. In his earthly life Jesus modeled communion with God the Father. He walked in intimacy and fellowship with his Father. The primary focus of his life on earth was to accomplish the will of God and this should be our desire as well. There are no shortcuts to a close relationship with God. Time must be devoted to building the relationship, growing in the Word, and living in obedience. Growing Gods Forever Family focuses on how to live this practically.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jul 26, 2018
• ISBN: 9781973616634

Seth Nathan Polk

Seth Nathan Polk is the Lead Pastor of Cross Lanes Baptist Church in Cross Lanes, West Virginia, where he has served since 2003. He is passionate about leading people to faith in Jesus, and teaching them to become fully devoted disciples. His wife is Emilee, and they are blessed with three children. www.sethpolk.com

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GROWING

GOD’S

FOREVER

FAMILY

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Seth Nathan Polk

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Copyright © 2018 Seth Nathan Polk.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Holman CSB®, and HCSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

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Bloomington, IN 47403

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-9736-1664-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-1663-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018901367

WestBow Press rev. date: 7/25/2018

For the

faithful family of God at Cross Lanes Baptist Church,

you are an example of the grace of God in unity, faith,

and missions. Continue taking the gospel down the street

and around the world for the glory of our great God.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1 Know God- Psalm 118

Chapter 2 Abide in Jesus- John 15

Chapter 3 Value the Church- Matthew 16:13-19

Chapter 4 Live In Community- Acts 2:42-47

Chapter 5 Do the Work Of Ministry- Ephesians 4:11-16

Chapter 6 Make God Known- Hebrews 9, 11, 13

Chapter 7 Live on Mission for the Glory of God- Psalm 97

Chapter 8 Live on Mission for the Sake of the Lost- Acts 11:19-30, 13:1-3

Conclusion

Notes

INTRODUCTION

Jesus calls us to come and follow him. When confronted with the claims of Jesus, it creates a crisis of belief. Will you trust in him and become a child of God? Or will you continue on your path? Freedom is only found in following Jesus. As a disciple, your relationship with Jesus should be the top priority in your life. Walking with him should inform and direct every aspect of your life. In his earthly life, Jesus modeled communion with God the Father. He walked in intimacy and fellowship with his Father. The primary focus of his life on earth was to accomplish God’s will, and this should be our desire as well. There are no shortcuts to a close relationship with God. Time must be devoted to building the relationship, growing in the Word, and living in obedience.

Even when you desire to live as a genuine disciple of Jesus, it can be confusing knowing how to do so. You could do so many good things that you may run the risk of missing out on the best. We must be sure that our priorities are biblical ones and order our lives accordingly. Otherwise, we can be extremely active chasing after various things and miss the most important thing in life.

In order to take root in Christ, you have to start somewhere. Todd Skinner was one of the most respected rock climbers of his generation, but his greatest challenge was tackling Trango Tower, the world’s highest freestanding spire with a near-vertical drop. Trango Tower is also located in one of the most hostile and remote regions on the planet. When Todd went to find a sponsor for his expedition to free-climb Trango Tower, the experts told the sponsors that a wall that big in a place that remote was simply not meant to be climbed. Todd moved forward anyway, finding the right climbing team and planning logistics like travel, food, jeeps, porters, permits, equipment, clothing, and tents.

The greatest challenge came when, after years of preparation and a rugged ten-day cross-country trek, the climbers came face-to-face with the largest, tallest, smoothest, steepest rock wall they had ever seen. Here’s how Todd described that moment, We turned a corner and, there it was … Trango Tower rose stunningly before us. The reality hit us like a shock wave. We stopped dead in the middle of the track. No amount of bluff or bravado could hide the fact that we were absolutely horrified.

The team members had come for this challenge, but now it seemed too high, too vertical, and too difficult, even for some of the best big wall climbers in the world. Todd realized that there was only one way forward. In his words, they had to get on the wall, even if they weren’t completely prepared. Todd said the final danger in the preparation process of an expedition is the tendency to postpone leaving until every question has been answered, forgetting that the mountain is the only place the answers can definitively be found.