GOSPEL :: FAMILY :: MISSION
I think that we sometimes think that Christians are distinguished or set apart from other people who are not Christians by our learning… our friends… our religious practices… our knowledge… our experiences… or our accomplishments and as good as all those things are they really aren’t the defining factors of what it means to come to Christ and follow him. So what is the distinguishing mark of someone who is a Christian?
How would you describe your life to someone if they asked you how you live? Would you say that you live your life to the fullest or would you describe your life as careless? Would you describe your life as rough and full of dark seasons or would you describe it as light and full of open doors and opportunities? Would you describe your life as one that has been lived on the straight and narrow or would you describe it as one that has been lived on the path of brokenness and pain?
Have you ever found yourself getting discouraged in prayer? Wondering where God was when that person hurt you? Getting cold and cynical towards God and other people? Believing that God doesn’t act justly or doesn’t love you as much as everyone says he does or doesn’t listen to your cries for help? Or thinking that he doesn’t answer your prayers fast enough?
Do you ever catch yourself lamenting this question? When will it all be over? When will the difficulty and the pain and the hardship and the suffering come to an end? I think it’s easy enough for all of us to agree that this world that we live in and this life that we live is not without its difficulty and hardship. The political landscape across the globe is an absolute train wreck. Poverty is at an all time high across the world. Crime rates are climbing. New terror organizations seem to pop up on the horizon every day. One tragedy after the next floods our news feeds and TV screens. Everywhere you look marriages and relationships are on tilt. People are at war with one another. The world is at war with itself.
One of our values as a church is “Missional Community”.
We believe that the church is meant to be a missional community that gathers consistently to learn, live, pray, worship, care & proclaim the gospel among unreached people groups to the glory of God. (Acts 2:42-47)
“If humility is self-forgetfulness, it will never be attained through continual self-monitoring. However, if humility is self-forgetfulness, how are we to remember to forget ourselves?” (Quote from the Porterbrook Learning Module: Gospel Relationships)
Think of a scenario where humility is an issue for a Christian friend. How would you counsel that person with the gospel? How would it differ if they were not a Christian?
In the Fall of 2014 I participated in a Porterbrook learning center. Through this endeavor I studied a module called Gospel Change. The following essay was the product of 9 weeks of individual journal entries that focussed on the theme of the gospel producing change in my life. I pray it benefits you in your journey.
I began by choosing an area of my life that I wanted to change. I was able to choose from a type of behavior, a negative emotion, or a virtue or fruit of the Spirit that I felt was particularly lacking in my life. My gospel change project was summarized this way… I want to be more patient and gentle rather than impatient and harsh or angry.
It’s the question we wrestled with last week in verses 7 – 10 and it’s the question we’re wrestling with again this week in verses 11 – 19. Last week in part one of this message we wrestled with what it looks like to come to Jesus as his servants. We wrestled with what it means to serve Jesus by working hard instead of living like God owes us something… To be Christ-centered followers rather than self-centered & self-serving egoists… To be humbly obedient to God’s Word rather than pridefully disobedient… The question we were left with was… Have you come to Christ as his servant?
The mission and vision statement of our church is “We are seeking to be a gospel centered church family of gospel communities that grow disciples who glorify God by following Jesus, leading families, making disciples, equipping missionaries and planting churches”. The community that is springing up around us is full of people who’ve been marginalized, homeless, struggled with addictions & experienced relational brokenness. I didn’t know the ramifications or outcomes that would flow from penning these statements 3 yrs ago with our first gospel community. I wasn’t ready and I’m still not ready for the steady influx of people that the Lord is drawing into our church family.
Gospel Communities are small communities of people that gather consistently throughout the week for the purpose of sharing life together, praying for one another’s needs and discovering how the gospel cultivates continued growth in and through us as followers of Jesus. – (Acts 2:42 – 47; Hebrews 10:23 – 25; 1Corinthians 15:1 – 4; John 20:21)
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