11/23/25- East Rock campus – How Now Should We Live? – Pastor Billy Logan

• But we believe there is help and there is hope for our families because of Jesus!
  • And we need help, don’t we?
    • And hey, can we be real? We need hope when it comes to our lives and families
      • If you’re married and if you’re not
      • If you have kids and if you don’t 
      • You may be a grandparent, an aunt, an uncle 
      • We are all sons and daughters
      • Many are brothers or sisters.
        • Each of us needs help and hope when it comes to family and how we should live in these days.
• You see we have never had more books and articles available to try and help us solve our problems, but we are more broken, torn, and hurting then ever.
  • Why?
    • We haven’t taken the word of God seriously into account 
      • (SLIDE) Colossians 2:8
        • Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.
          • God has given us HIS commandments and instructions for our families and too often we’ve broken them or ignored them or diluted them by mixing them with culturally acceptable worldviews and opinions in the name of tolerance…
            • Let me say this early on
              • Tolerance is compromise of the truth!
• This is a call for us to come back to the Bible, to the things God values, and build our lives and families on the Word of God.
  • His help and His hope for you and your family and mine
•  
• John  15:10 
• If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

• “If you keep my commands”
  • Jesus points us to obedience
    • Obedience to His commands, to the truth given to us through God’s Word

Matthew 7:24-27 

24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

“Men and women do not reject the Bible because it contradicts itself, but because it contradicts them.”

• 2 Timothy 3:16-17
  • 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
• So even in 2025 God still speaks through His Word – God still teaches, corrects, prepares, equips you/I through His word.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 

4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.

Billy Graham declared in 1978 and it stand true today

“God has indicated from one end of His word to the other that when the home/family fails – society is going to fail. And I tell you this unless we have a spiritual revival and our homes are renewed, the nation is going to be destroyed. There is no way we are going to escape the judgement of God unless we come back to Christian, God-fearing homes that are built on Christ and His word.”

• Wesleyan Ecclesial Confession
  • The church’s true confession of beliefs is not first about propositions that are stated but lives that are lived. One’s actions testify to one’s true beliefs.
• Dallas Willard
  • You can live opposite of what you profess, but you cannot live opposite of what you believe.

James 1:21-25 

21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. 22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

LOVE

LEARN

LIVE

• Recent study done showed if you read Bible less 4x week you’ll make no significant choices/changes in your life comparable to that of someone who doesn’t read the Bible at all
• But study showed if someone reads their Bible 4 or more times a week
  • Feeling lonely drops 30%
  • Anger issues drop 32%
  • Bitterness in relationships drops 40%
  • Alcoholism drops 57%
  • Gambling addiction 74%
  • Sex outside of marriage drops 68%
  • Feeling spiritually stagnant drops 60%
  • Viewing pornography drops 61%
  • Sharing your faith jumps 200%
  • Discipling others jumps 230%
•  
• If we’ll love, learn, live out God’s Word  it will radically change our lives and those in our families
• It’ll set you free from sin, make you more like Jesus, equip you to fulfill the mission of God in your life and in your family
  • So let this be the foundation we build our church on
    • Let this be the foundation that we build our lives and  families on —starting TODAY