First Steps With Jesus
In the Gospel of Luke, chapter 15, Jesus tells a parable about the lost son to illustrate what our relationship with God can be like. From this passage we can discover who God is and how we can begin our first steps in our walk with Jesus.
Luke 15:11-24
Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
“Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
God loves us as a Father
The parable illustrates God’s love as a Father. Even though his younger son turned away from the father, the father readily accepted him back when the younger son returned to him.
In the same way, God loves us and He is ready and waiting to accept us when we turn to Him.
God desires a relationship with us
In verses 20-24 we see the father eagerly greeting his son and welcoming him back into his house. In the same way, God desires to have a true relationship with us. When you surrender your life to God, you experience a wonderful, living relationship with God. God has given us His word, the Bible, and it is through the Bible that we learn more about what God wants to say to us and how He guides us in life.
No matter what our life has been like, we can all experience a relationship with God
Whatever our past experiences and no matter how far we may feel from God, we can all have the gift of a relationship with God. We may feel that our past failures and history disqualifies us from God’s love. Sin is what separates us from God, but the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ came to take away our sins.
This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
1 John 4:7 (NLT)
How do we turn back to God?
Like the son in the parable, we can turn back to God. How do we do this? By surrendering our life to God and putting our faith in Him. Only God can free us from guilt and condemnation, but if we turn to God, we will experience the fullness of life that He has to offer.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16
To surrender our life to God, or to be saved, is to submit your life to God. It is making a conscious choice to turn away from your previous way of life and turn back to God, just like the son did in the parable. Romans 10:9 tells us “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved”
You can do that right now by simply declaring from your heart these words below:
Dear Jesus,
Today I choose to surrender my life to You.
I choose to turn away from my previous way of life and turn to You.
I ask You to forgive me of my sins.
I thank You that You have a wonderful future planned for me and I pray You would help me to know You better every day.
In Jesus’ Name. Amen
I have made a decision
We are so happy for you!
This is the best decision you could possibly make; living a life with God by your side truly is the best way to live.
This is such an exciting time for you, and not something that we would want you to celebrate alone; there are three things that we would encourage you to do following your decision to follow Jesus:
Tell someone about the decision you have made
Begin to read the Bible
Find a church to connect with
We can support you in taking these steps; we would love to celebrate this decision with you, give you a Bible and help you find a home church.
You can connect with us by either attending a Sunday service, or by filling out your information below (rest assured, your information will be kept private):
What is my first step?
Now that you have made a decision to follow Jesus, we would love to support you in your decision in a number of ways.
There are some steps that we encourage you to take as a Christian, and those are listed above. Those steps can seem like a very big thing, and often something that you might want to think about before making a decision.
As you think about them, it’s worth considering that the Bible teaches that Christians are most effective when we have a sound understanding of Christian Beliefs. For that reason, we have developed the free FOUNDATIONS ONLINE Course to help you with this. Once you sign up via email, you will receive one topic once per day for 12 days directly to your inbox.
We understand that you may have questions that arise out of these daily topics; if you enter your contact number, we will do our best in helping answer any questions you might have.
Some resources to help you:
In addition to our Foundations Online Course, there are many free online Bible reading plans and devotional guides available. A great place to start is at Bible Gateway.
We also recommend a free app you can download to your device called YouVersion, which is a fantastic way to navigate across various Bible translations and includes studies and reading plans.
For the kids, check out the 'Bible App for Kids' which is a really fun, interactive and entertaining resource we know they'll love (bibleappforkids.com).
Alternatively you can find physical copies of Bibles, helpful books and studies at Christian bookstores like Koorong (koorong.com).
If this is your very first time reading the bible, we suggest you begin with the gospel of Luke, found in the New Testament.
If you have any questions or would like to talk more about following Jesus, we would love to chat with you!
Please feel welcome to come to any of our church services on the weekend or contact our office during the week.
God bless.