Josh Mutter’s first message series is called “Who Am I?” We can spend a lot of time and energy trying to understand ourselves – who we are, what makes us matter and why we are even here. This series is about helping us discover answers to these questions and more.
Each week during this series, our Resource Centre will be featuring different books on the topic of Josh’s Sunday messages. Look for the books with the specially-designed bookmarks. These books can be taken out from our Westheights Resource Centre which has a great collection of non-fiction and fiction books, as well as family-friendly DVDs.
The first two messages are about being made in the image of God and our identities as God’s children. God has written a unique story for each one of us but how do we sense God’s call amidst the noisiness of the world’s unrealistic demands and expectations?
1. ALTAR EGO: Becoming Who God Says You Are by Craig Groeschel–You are NOT who you think you are. You need to take your idea of your own identity, lay it down on the altar, and sacrifice it. Give it to God. Offer it up. Why? Because you are who GOD says you are. When we place our false labels and self-deception on the altar of God’s truth, we discover who we really are as his sons and daughters. Instead of an outward-driven, approval-based ego, we learn to live with an “altar” ego, God’s vision of who we are becoming.
2. EPIC: The Story God is Telling and the Role That is Yours to Play by John Eldredge–Life, for most of us, feels like a movie we’ve arrived to forty minutes late. Sure, good things happen, sometimes beautiful things. But tragic things happen too. What does it mean? We find ourselves in the middle of a story that is sometimes wonderful, sometimes awful, usually a confusing mixture of both, and we haven’t a clue how to make sense of it all. No wonder we keep losing heart. We need to know the rest of the story. For when we were born, we were born into the midst of a great story begun before the dawn of time. A story of adventure, of risk and loss, heroism . . . and betrayal. A story where good is warring against evil, danger lurks around every corner, and glorious deeds wait to be done. Think of all those stories you’ve ever loved-there’s a reason they stirred your heart. They’ve been trying to tell you about the true Epic ever since you were young. There is a larger story And you have a crucial role to play.
3. WIDE AWAKE: The Future Is Waiting Within You by Erwin McManus–The alarm sounds. Your feet hit the floor and carry you into another day. But what does that day hold for you? Will you be punching your card at work, catching up on TV at home, and crashing into bed before you rinse and repeat the next day? Or will you dare to dig deep and discover the incredible potential lying dormant within us all? In Wide Awake, Erwin McManus challenges us to put an end to all the sleepwalking and settling, for each of us was created by God for a reason. He has called you to live as Jesus did—a heroic life, void of monotony, teeming with danger, adventure, and the unknown. Living wide awake is about realizing that the world desperately needs you to live up to your potential. There is a future that needs to be created, and it is waiting for us all to wake up and get out of bed. The alarm has sounded, and it is time to shake off the slumber. It’s time to live, to create, to imagine, to dream . . . Wide Awake.
4. GUILT-FREE LIVING: How To Know When You’ve Done Enough by Robert Jeffress–Society tells us to do more: expend more effort in improving our marriage, give more attention to rearing our children, spend more time in study and prayer, and manage our time and money more effectively. But how do you know when you’ve done enough? That is what Guilt-Free Living is all about. This book will show you how to reject the unrealistic expectations of others and experience God’s approval in every area of your life. Learn the difference between real and false guilt and start living the joyful, fruitful life God intends for you.
5. MAN ENOUGH: How Jesus Redefines Manhood by Nate Pyle–Man Enough challenges the idea that there is one way to be a man. The masculinity that pervades our church and culture often demands that men conform to a macho ideal, leaving many men feeling ashamed that they’re not living up to God’s plan for them. Nate uses his own story of not feeling “man enough”, as well as sociological and historical reflections, to help men see that manhood isn’t about what you do, but who you are. It’s not about the size of your paycheck, your athletic ability, or your competitive spirit. You don’t have to fit any masculine stereotype to be a real man. In our culture and churches more thoughtful, quieter, or compassionate personalities, as well as stay-at-home dads, are often looked down upon; and sermons, conferences, and publications centre on helping men become “real men”. This pressure to have one’s manhood validated is antithetical to Gospel living and negatively affects how men relate to each other, to women and children, and to God. Man Enough roots men in the Gospel, examines biblical examples of masculinity that challenge the idea of a singular type of man, and ultimately encourages men to conform to the image of Jesus—freeing men up to be who they were created to be: a son of God who uniquely bears His image.