Life & Environment

• LIFE:– Life is communication– All living things, whether plant or animal, are alive only as long

as they communicate, or interrelate with their environment.– Breathing, nourishing, exchanging, returning waste, are signs

of LIFE– When this interrelation stops—it is dead.– There are different LEVELS of communication.

• Plants are a lower form of life• Animals we consider to be higher.• Humans are the highest form of life on earth– We have ability to communicate on a spiritual

plane and can interrelate with the Spirit of God

• Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in(into) Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26

• “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Jn.17:3

• Jesus came so you could “know” the Father.• “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God,

believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.” Jn.14

• The disciples were ‘troubled’—agitated, feeling that comes from being uncertain. In between. Inward battle stirring within and without

• “Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” vs. 5

• Sometimes you’ve been living a certain way so long you don’t know if you can do it any other way! At least Thomas was honest!

• “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Vs.6

• See different levels of KNOWING JESUS:– Does not know that they do not know--NOT– Knows that they do not know—WAY– Does not know what they do know—TRUTH– Knows what they know—THE LIFE!

• LIFE is the issue! The TREE of LIFE is what we partake of. The PATH of life we must walk and the TRUTH of life we must LIVE!

• Anything less is a religion about HIM and not a relationship WITH Him!

• “Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.”Matt.17:17

• Faithless: disconnected from God• Perverse: connected to world

• ENVIRONMENT: “the conditions which surround someone or something; the conditions and influences that affect growth, health, progress, (LIFE), of someone or something”

• And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.

• Rev.18:4

2 Cor.6:16-18• And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For

you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.” Therefore “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord.• Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.”• “I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and

daughters, Says the Lord Almighty.”

Clear endings

New Beginnings

2 Cor.5:17• Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new

creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.– Live Positionally—”in Christ”– Live Positively—”new creation”– Live Posthumously—”passed away”– Live Powerfully—”become new”

2 Essential Aspects of Salvation Thru Christ

Dead Ep.2:1-3 Alive Ep.1:4-9

• The Gospel must include BOTH aspects to be true and have power behind it.

• “For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.” 1 Cor.4:20

• The apostles and prophets foresaw a house of true faith, NOT built by people but being built OUT OF PEOPLE! You don’t “go” to church, church is something you “become”!

• Students will at sometime come across in a science class what is called “biotic potential”

• By definition it is—”the inherent capacity of an organism or species to reproduce and survive”

• It is what makes God’s creation unique and amazing!

• It is not known in the world of technology. No machine can reproduce itself.

• But in nature, God has built into “life” a Divine order-• “And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that

yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.” Gen.1:12

• For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. Mark 4:28

• Growth cannot be “made or forced” but biotic potential is enhanced when environmental resistance is kept to minimum.

• Matt.13:24-30; 36-43