Sermon Notes 1-27-2019

So where do we go from here??

Are you giving to the mission?

WE are all family

Mark 3:32–35 (ESV)

³² And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” 

³³ And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”

³⁴ And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!

³⁵ For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”

(Video)

Is your Church your Family??

So what is family??

Today we live in a world where family is disconnected, dysfunctional, broken, divorced, absent and even abusive. We live in a world where when you say family to some it brings a rush of horrible memories, hurt, anger, and sadly, for some no memories at all! 

So when we say that the church is a family what are we even talking about???

·     I want you to look to your left and right because for you this is family!! 

Does it feel like family???

·     Does it feel like a business 

o   Are you trying to get as much as you can for as little as you can

o   You don’t pick up your trash when you leave

o   You leave the counters in the coffee bar a mess or the bathroom

o   Do you just get your coffee, flop your butt in a chair, and leave when you're done

o   Do you complain about things in the church

§  Are you the one that knows every fault in the church

§  Are you the person that sees every mistake that everyone makes

If I just described you then this is not your family, it’s a business! 

·     When it feels like family

o   You're giving way more than you're getting (in time and money)

o   You stick around after church and pick up the trash that everyone else leaves behind

o   You straighten up when you're done

o   You are walking around talking to new faces and making them feel welcome

o   You don’t complain you do!

§  If it's broke you fix it

§  If someone is struggling you pray for them and try and help

You do all this because this is your family

·     Yes they're annoying

·     Yes they get on your last nerve

·     Yes they hurt you sometimes

o   But in your family, you always come back, you always try and you always invest

HOW do I make this church feel like family? 

1. Serve

1 Corinthians 12:12 (ESV)

¹² For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 

Are you waited on or served??

·     You want to be in the family you have to stop being served and start serving others

·     That’s what your Savior did!

·     He said I come to serve not be served

·     He washed feet, feed the homeless, calmed the storm, healed the broken, comforted many and transformed His family. 

·     What are you doing for yours??

·     I am not talking about doing things that make you look good, I’m talking about things that help others

Why serve??

Luke 22:27 (ESV)

²⁷ For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves.

·     What better way to get to know your family than to serve next to them

·     Get plugged in!

o   Find a team and get on it

o   Look for an upcoming project and show up

o   Stop hiding behind the it’s too big, or I don’t know anyone

o   Talk to the team leader, talk to the lay pastor

o   It amazes me to see people and their attitudes when they are truly serving in the church Vs folks who don’t

o   Their lives are better, their marriages are stronger, and they have folks to turn to

Loving people isn’t easy!!!!

Being involved with people is 

·     time consuming, 

·     messy, 

·     and complicated. 

These are the very reasons why community is such a big part of God’s plan to transform us into the image of Christ. Living in community pushes us to die to ourselves. There will be times when loving others and allowing others to serve and love us will feel like death, but this is the pathway to real life in Christ. The more we understand our own hearts, the more we see that it takes a work of God’s grace to transform self-absorbed individuals into a community of love. Being in redemptive relationships shows us our need for change and helps bring it about!

2. We Give! That’s right I’m talking money, Benjamin’s, cheddar, greenbacks!

Acts 2:45 (ESV)

⁴⁵ And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 

So why Give??

·      Obedience

·      It all belongs to God anyway

·      What better way to figure that out than to give to Him first

What does Jesus say about it???

·     First fruit

o   The first check you make out

o   The first penny you spend Goes to Him through His church

·     Cheerfully 

o   Give with a glad heart

o   Give gladly knowing God is in control and will use it for His good

o   I use to take $75 Bibles to jail

·     Sacrificially

o   You give something up

o   For a single mom, $5 is a lot

o   For some 10% is nothing

o   You need to give something 

·     Regularly 

o   Not when the church finally does something right in your eyes

o   Not when you have extra

o   But on a regular basis (weekly, monthly, whatever it looks like to you)

Ultimately it’s used to reach the lost, from coffee to lights, to sound, to arena events, to bibles for the kids. Its all used to reach the lost!

Do you even know the needs of your church???

·     How many of you if I asked what does the church need could answer that question?

·     What would it take to pay off the debt we owe?

·     What can you do to make an impact?

To get rid of our debt

·     Let’s say we have 250 families attending we all agree that sounds fair right??

·     So, let’s say these 250 families want to pay off the debt in 2 years time

·     That’s $83.00 dollars a month over and above what you are giving now!

·     Doesn’t sound like much now does it??

·     Let’s break it down further

·     That’s 16 $5 value meals a month per family

·     Or 41 $1.99 sodas

·     Or $2.76 a day

How crazy is that, so my question to you is what is one soul worth???? If your family, you give to help the family meet its goal! To meet its needs. 

How much have you given? To help us continue to do what God has called us all to do???

Tithing changes you the quickest

·     The 6 years before I started attending TCC in those 6 years I made approx. 1.35 million dollars

·     I had no money to show for it

·     I was up to my ears in debt

·     Bankrupt

·     Broke

·     No car

·     No house

·     Nothing

We started tithing, on my $22,000.00 dollars a year

·     Things started to change

·     Needs started to be met

·     And we have never looked back!

NOW

·     I now have more money in the bank then I have ever had

·     I am debt free

·     I don’t worry about money

·     I always have what I need

·     And I always put God's needs ahead of my own

·     And I make less than I have ever made in my life

God won’t provide you with everything you want, but He will cover your needs when you’re obedient to Him!

Sermon Notes 1-20-2019

So where do we go from here??

we have one Common Mission 

So, the big question is where do we go from here in 2019??

·     Peter had just preached a sermon of a lifetime

·     Proclaiming the Gospel boldly

·     And all of a sudden, a church of a 100 became a church of 3000

·     And they didn’t sit back and say, “look at us” or “we don’t want this many people”

·     They dug in and kept doing the Lord's work!

Acts 2:42–47 (ESV)

⁴² And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 

⁴³ And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 

⁴⁴ And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 

⁴⁵ And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 

⁴⁶ And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 

⁴⁷ praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. 

Last Week

You are who you spend time with!

Proverbs 13:20 (NIV)

²⁰ Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm. 

The wisest Man I ever knew

·     My dad always told me that I need to surround myself with people I inspired to be like

o   To be more like Jesus 

Friends greatly influence your choices. 

Why is spending time together important?

·     It's where we form our hey stupid friends

·     It's where we learn to put our faith into practice

·     It helps hold us accountable

·     It shows the world what walking with Jesus looks like

·     It's where we get wise counsel

We are not of this world, they don’t understand us!

·     The world and its people don’t understand you

·     They don’t solve problems like you do

·     They don't think like you 

·     You are as different as night and day!

What does spending time together look like? 

·      Recreation and Social Interaction: Not A Work Of The Church

·     Benefits

·     Make Opportunities: It Takes Work
Summary
Social interaction with God's people is important for every Christian. It's up to each of us to make opportunities to spend time together outside our assembly, and to take advantage of such situations. If we do, we'll be stronger, and our lives will be more fulfilling.

We don’t want to be Lukewarm! 

Revelation 3:14–16 (NLT)

¹⁴ “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Laodicea. This is the message from the one who is the Amen—the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s new creation:

¹⁵ “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other!

¹⁶ But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!

·     I see too many churches just getting by

·     I see too many churches never walking out their doors

·     I see too many churches just going through the motions

·     And we will not sit back and watch us become LUKEWARM!

This Week, One Common Mission!

Jesus Gave us commands to carry out His mission

·     Some were for us to stay close to Him

·     And others were for us to carry out His mission (reaching others)

Jesus and the commands He said were important for reaching others (the Mission)

Let Your Light Shine

Be Salty

Keep Your Word

Go the Second Mile

Love Your Enemies

Judge Not

Do Unto Others

Love the Lord

Feed My Sheep

Take My Yoke

Deny Yourself

Go to your Offenders

Be a Servant

Fear Not

The ones I want to concentrate on today!

Jesus gave us commands to be the light and Salt to a dark and tasteless world. To go out and carry out His mission to reconcile the world back to God the Father through Him. And it was these very simple straight forward commands that the 1^stchurch followed to reach the world. 

1. Keep My Commandments

John 14:15 (ESV)

¹⁵ “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 

·     He knew the world would interfere in our lives

·     And that the only way we would be able to carry out His mission was to follow His commands

·     That’s why the first church learned together and spent time together

2. Forgive Others

Matthew 18:21–22 (NLT)

²¹ Then Peter came to Him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?” 

²²“No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!"

·     Jesus knew that without forgiveness we could never carry out His mission

·     That people both in the body and out would offend us and we need the skill of forgiveness

·     This is a key part of staying on mission 

·     To learn to forgive often and regularly

3. Love Your Neighbor

Mark 12:31 (NLT)

³¹ "The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”

·     The world needs more love

·     More compassion

·     More hope

·     And we do that by not putting a price on things

·     But rather people

·     God put unbelievers in your path for a reason

·     And that is to show a lost and dying world the importance of people 

·     That they have worth, value

·     That we know they will fail often

·     But that we will love them through it

Love Each Other

John 13:34–35 (NLT)

³⁴ So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.

³⁵ Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

·     This is how a world peering in, will know we are different

·     This is us living out the all that Jesus taught us 

·     In community, together

·     Loving each other 

·     Taking care of each other

·     Doing life together

·     Holding each other accountable in love

·     Not judging each other

·     The world needs to see Jesus in ACTION, through His people!

·     And frankly this is where we fail so miserably! 

The church, God's people on Mission!

Baptize and make Disciples

Matthew 28:18–20 (NLT)

¹⁸ Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.

¹⁹ Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

²⁰ Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

·     This is the church on mission

·     Not giving a check to a nameless faceless missionary

·     We are all missionaries!

·     In our communities

·     In the lives that God places in our path

·     Making a difference where we live!

How were they living out that Mission?

·     And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 

·     And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 

·     And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 

·     And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.

·     And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 

·      praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. 

What the church has done terribly wrong!

·     After the 10 commandments were written we immediately started adding to it

·     Man started adding to God's perfect plan

·     Then Jesus came to simplify it again 

·     And what did we do, start to complicate it again

·     With rules and systems to make it so hard for the world to find Jesus

·     If you read Acts 2:42-47 there are no rules just a body of believers (disciples) on mission

·     with one common goal, to reach a lost world with the love and compassion of a savior, not a rule maker

·     the world needs to see the church and its people as a light 

·     and we have turned it into a place of Judgement, Ridicule, and Hypocrisy!   

·     What can we do to be on Mission!

·     Reach a lost world!

o   The methods have changed

o   The mission has not

·     If we walk into every Team meeting

·     If every decision we make in this church revolves around the mission of reaching lost souls

·     If we in our daily lives become kingdom minded we will make an impact! 

·     If every day you ask yourself how am I living? How am I making a difference, how am I impacting the kingdom?

·     We can change the world we live in!