Establishing the New Believer (Core Values 2 & 3: WE ARE HIS & WE ARE FAMILY)
Spiritual birth is a miraculous moment, but a newborn baby cannot survive on its own. Once a person becomes NEW, they must be established in their identity, grounded in spiritual habits, and folded into covenant community.
We come with confidence into His presence. (By Word, prayer, fasting, public worship.)
Lifepoint Core Value 2: WE ARE HIS
Lifepoint Core Value 3: WE ARE FAMILY
We take the time to know and encourage each other. (Lifegroups, covenant community.)
1. God’s Role: Adoption, Indwelling, and Assurance
In this stage of growth, the Triune God secures the believer’s identity so they no longer live out of fear or orphan-hood.
- Adoption and Assurance: God does not just rescue us from hell; He adopts us into His household. Romans 8:15–16 declares, “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God…”
- Sealing and Indwelling: The Holy Spirit permanently indwells the believer as a pledge of eternal security. Ephesians 1:13–14 notes, “…when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance…”
- Illuminating Truth: The Holy Spirit becomes our inner Teacher. In 1 Corinthians 2:12, Paul writes, “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.”
2. The Believer’s Role: Abiding and Connecting
Grounded believers learn to build their daily existence around two spiritual anchors: intimacy with God (WE ARE HIS) and fellowship with believers (WE ARE FAMILY).
Coming with Confidence (WE ARE HIS)
The young believer develops spiritual habits that draw them into God’s presence:
- The Word: 1 Peter 2:2 urges, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation…”
- Public Worship & Prayer: Hebrews 10:22 invites us, “…let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith…”
- Abiding in the Vine: In John 15:4–5, Jesus warns, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.”
Knowing and Encouraging (WE ARE FAMILY)
Discipleship is not a solo pursuit. Believers must actively integrate into small groups and life groups to know and encourage others:
- Mutual Encouragement: Hebrews 3:13 commands, “But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”
- Obedience in Baptism: Identifying with the family of God publicly (Matthew 28:19).
3. The Church’s Role: Shepherding and Catechesis
A healthy church provides the structural container where new believers are nurtured and protected.
- Systematic Teaching (Catechesis): The Great Commission does not stop at baptism; it commands us to be “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20). Early believers in Acts 2:42 “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”
- Pastoral Care and Protection: Church leaders guard young believers from spiritual pitfalls and false doctrine. Acts 20:28 instructs leaders to “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God…”
- Fostering Small Group Environments: Pastors and disciple-makers build intentional environments (Life Groups) where people aren’t just faces in a crowd, but brothers and sisters living out the “one anothers” of Scripture.