Grace Vineyard Christian Fellowship

The Heart of Community Part 2

September 27, 2009

Presented by 

Bob Oliver

Matthew 5 – the way of the Kingdom

 

“Rejoice and be glad…” 5:13

“For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” 5:20

“Therefore, you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” 5:48

Introduction

The El group – emerging leaders, hosted our health fair led by Dr. Katie Croslin. So wonderful, practical, helpful, I personally asked each table leader/facilitor if they would return today from 11:30 to 12:30. They agreed, so our Health fair will continue today after church.  At 12:00, Katie will give her amazing talk in the fellowship room. I hope you will enjoy it. Hang out for a hour.

Two weeks ago we talked about connecting. We had a LIFE Sunday. We learned that life happens when you connect.

Last week I shared with you what I believe is at the heart of Community.  It is the dream that  has been in God’s heart since the beginning of creation. God has always wanted a family. Part one was last week. This is part two:

In the New Testament, when Jesus comes, we see the most amazing human being ever. When Jesus comes he goes about proclaiming (PP) the kingdom of God – that is the message of Jesus. God’s rule has come to the planet and it is found in Him. 

He demonstrates the presence of God’s kingdom in his life. He looked like the kingdom should look. He acted like people who would live in under God’s rule should act. Jesus is God’s demonstration of what His rule looks like when it fills the life of a person.

In my experience, growing up in church, I had never seen this. The version of church that was my weekly routine each Sunday didn’t relate to my world. Church was my parent’s deal – not mine. 

Jesus wasn’t real. He was nothing more than a historical figure, distant, and dead. 

It wasn’t until I had become a follower of Jesus that I read the Book that told his story. In the gospels there are these stunning miracles, but they aren’t done to draw attention to Jesus. He repeatedly deflects the attention and points to kingdom of God. And then there were the power encounters with demons, fallen angels, the original rebels who were cast out of heaven in the first rebellion.

He demonstrated the presence of the rule of God by confronting those powers that stood in opposition to that rule:

Matthew 4:23 He…(PP)  “proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.” 

Now, I had never seen anything like this in any church I had ever attended as a kid. It’s confusing to me that the church that Jesus left on earth to carry out his ministry in the world does anything and everything but the ministry of Jesus as we see it in the Gospels. 

John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard movement tells his testimony in a very humorous way. He was a professional musician when he had become a follower of Jesus. He starts going to a very traditional evangelical church. After attending for some time, listening to the amazing stories of Jesus’ healings and miracles, he asked the pastor, “When do we do the stuff?”

The pastor looked quizzically at John and asked, “What do you mean ‘the stuff?’”

John said, “You know, the stuff Jesus was doing in the Book.” 

The pastor thought for a minute and answered, “We don’t do it, we just read about it and study it.” 

John thought for a minute and in exasperation said, “What? We don’t do it? And I gave up drugs for this?!? 

Look, I want our church to have a reputation for doing the stuff. Not just reading about it, studying it, knowing it happened once.

News about Jesus spread and verse 24 tells us that (PP)       “ they brought to him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and he healed them.”

(PP) from Crowd to Community

Now Jesus goes about transforming a crowd into a community- the community of the kingdom. 

A crowd is made up of individuals who operate life on their agenda. A community is made up of individuals who surrender up their agenda for a shared identity

That is what the fifth chapter of Matthew is all about. Jesus makes a crowd a community of people who are learning to trust God’s love together. 

It is in three parts:

1. 1- (PP) The heart of the community – The Beatitudes,  which are really heart attitudes. Verses 3-12.

(PP)  The Beatitudes – Heart Attitudes

1. 2- (PP) The Identity of the community – Disciples are formed with a kingdom identity. Jesus wants his people in the new community to know who they are. Verses 13-20. (PP) “You are… This is so important. You know that orphans are for the rest of their lives on a quest to discover who they are. (B. Manning, Abba’s Child…)
2. 3- (PP) Relationships in the community – Verses 21-47, the longest section. (PP) “You have heard it said… but I say to you…”  

With the coming of Jesus and the rule of His kingdom, he now has taken the authority to establish what those relationships are to look like, how God’s people are to treat each other. Jesus and his apostles in the Bible tell how that is done.

Jesus is leading those who would follow him from mistrust to trust – the process of going from faith to trust involves  a conversion that must be renewed daily.

There were these sick people coming to Jesus for healing. They had faith in Jesus to heal them. But many who came for healing, believing in Jesus to heal them would not trust Jesus with their life’s agenda.

That they held on to.

Don’t we do that though?

“God I believe in You but I won’t give You totally who I am. I will not trust You to take all of me.”

When we do that we are no different than those nine lepers who Jesus healed and they never even cam back to say “Thank you.” Only one came back to say that. Jesus asked him where the others were? 

The answer is that went on with their life agenda, albeit, without leprosy.

 – a sovereign deliverance from the warehouse of worry.

(PP) Worry… that you don’t belong in God’s house as a beloved child – you don’t qualify. You don’t measure up.

(PP) Worry… that you are not, in your core, in your identity of being, a new creature, a new kind of human being, made over into a likeness and identity of Jesus. Worry that you can’t change or even be changed by the power of God.

(PP) Worry… that your ability to relate to other broken, fearful, alienated-from-God human beings will go on the same old way; dysfunctional, wrecked, defeated, without hope of change.

Jesus is taking his followers from worry to trust – the conversion that must be renewed daily. 

It’s a conversion to the life-changing acceptance of Jesus Christ and his power. This is what God’s people are called to.

Brennan Manning writes:

“Unbounded trust in the merciful love of the redeeming God deals a mortal blow to skepticism, cynicism, self-condemnation, and despair. It is our decisive YES to Christ’s command, “Trust in God and trust in me.” 

Any of you live with that?

Does this describe your life at all?

Do you visit these places?

Say Yes to the Call of Jesus and the rule of God comes.

BODY

I’m going to walk you through the three parts of Jesus’ vision and heart for his new community. This is what every follower of Jesus is called to be joined to. It’s a picture of the family God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit is making in the earth through people who come to trust Jesus as Lord. They are joined to his family. It is called the CHURCH. It’s God’s dream.

1- (PP) The heart of the community – The Beatitudes, which are really heart attitudes. Verses 3-12.

(PP)  The Beatitudes – Heart Attitudes

At Grace Vineyard we are committed to building disciples  who look just like this.

• They are poor in spirit and rich in God’s grace
• They mourn
• They are gentle
• They are hungry for God and thirsty for the water only Jesus can give.
• They are merciful.
• They are people whose soiled hearts have been cleansed by grace, by the sacrifice of Jesus.
• They are peacemakers who take a lot of heat, persecution and bad mouthing because of Jesus and their commitment to His rule.

These kingdom attitudes form the community of God that Jesus is building in the earth. They mark God’s people as being His. When they are operational in the lives of God’s people we can say, “God is at work among us.” Actually we can say, “God is at work IN me!”

It is their heart desire to do life in the way of Jesus. 

Some of you might be thinking; I can’t live like that! Impossible. 

You are right. 

When the kingdom is present, when the Spirit of God is at work and shows up, you know what happens? Lives get transformed. Those transformed people start acting like this.

The Spirit of Jesus makes them like their Leader and Lord.

They live miracle lives. 

I was talking to a young man recently at a wedding. He confessed to me that he was angry much of the time. Sometimes that anger would explode in blind rage with no regard for himself.

I told him only Jesus could heal him of that anger.

Yes he can! Yes he did in my life and in many of your lives.

It is the miracle of new life in JESUS.

When Jesus showed up miracles started happening. Why? 

I did life my way – mess, stuck, ugly, lies, tons of conflict. I want YOURS, Lord Jesus!

He brought the power of the rule of God!

When these characteristics of the rule of God show up and rest on his people God has called to follow His wonderful Son, they start living like this. They behave differently. They act like an entirely new kind of people on the earth  - a people over whom God’s rule has come. 

(share Brennan’s story here)

Here is the “WHAT.”  WE print it up all over this place. It’s what we are about as a church.

These three phrases capture for us what Jesus is doing in the earth and through our lives at Grace VCF.

We want to be an (PP) obedient church… that’s right. We want to individually surrender our wills to the will of Lord. Without that, remember, you will not discover your destiny and place in the kingdom. May be called, but without surrender of the will, you will lose the battle of the inner man.

That is why this is first. Look at your Book mark.

So first, we reach up to God as worshippers. It’s passionate.

It’s real. It’s from the heart.

No just on Sundays, hot worship band, or worship with CD’s. It’s an attitude of gratefulness. It’s a constant  “WoW!” 

Then  we (PP) reach in to each other in devoted service…as caring members of a new community, and that looks just like how Jesus laid it out in the Beatitudes. It is devoted. It’s ongoing. It is a reaching in that doesn’t give up on people who are hard. 

And (PP) we reach out to the world in sacrificial love… . It is sacrificial. It’s just for them. They don’t know and may not care. We still go.

That’s the WHAT. It’s what we do.

And here is the HOW – we work with the Holy Spirit to build trusting followers of Jesus who live in community with each other like Jesus dreamed they would. This is all Spirit empowered!

It’s not the programs, the systems, they are vehicles. They change.

Our vision is to build people who look like Jesus, act like Jesus and love like Jesus. 

2- The Identity of the community – Trusting followers of Jesus are formed with a kingdom identity. Jesus wants his people in the new community to know who they are. Verses 13-20. (PP) “You are…

Verse 13, Jesus says, “You are salt…”

You are light…

Salt has a powerful influence on anything it touches. You can’t ignore salt. 

Followers of Jesus are to have the same kind of powerful influence on anything and anyone their lives come into contact with.

Some followers of Jesus abuse their powerful influence. That is sad. They try to coerce people to repent, scare them into heaven with dread stories of hell and damnation forgetting it’s the mercy of God that leads a person to repentance.

Most followers of Jesus fail to realize the powerful potential of their salty influence on others. The Spirit of God and the rule of God hangs out with followers of Jesus. 

Let your salty influence come out of your salt shaker and on to other people. 

Salt will make people thirsty. 

That’s why bars and happy hour places but out salty snacks so that people will get thirsty again and order more drinks. 

May God get your salt out of your shaker!!

That’s who you are. You have the wonderful aroma of Jesus on you. You have the Spirit of God in you as a disciple of Jesus.

“You are light the light of the world.”  I thought Jesus was that! He is. And when a person comes to trust Jesus as Lord, they are light too.

His light comes into their darkness and fills them with the light of life.

Darkness of sin is driven away.

Fumbling around in the darkness, without direction, purpose, living “in the dark.” That’s over.

The light of Jesus has come and you get to give that away.

Lamps are to be but on a lamp stand in full view. Not hidden away.

Lot’s of followers of Jesus hide their light. Not what Jesus intended.

Let your light shine! Shine on! 

You are a beacon for the lost, like a light-house on a rocky outcropping in the ocean warning sailors of destruction and harm and directing them to safe harbor.

When people come to a church it is in the mind of Jesus to be filled with people who have attitudes like the beatitudes and are full of salt and light.

Finally, relationships are really important to God’s people.

Jesus took the most time to explain how relationships are to work in the new community of faith He is building in the earth.

They are a people who live under the authority of Jesus.

He has the last word for them. People who have come to Jesus cannot say, “I don’t care what Jesus says about how I am suppose to live. I will live how I want to.” No way!!

3- Relationships in the community – Verses 21-47, the longest section. (PP) “You have heard it said… but I say to you…”  This is a new authority forming an entirely new way of relating in the new community that is ruled by the kingdom of God.  The authority of Jesus super cedes all others. 

You have heard it said… on T.V. in the movies, in some book, by some smart Doctor of philosophy, by whacky theologian who tells you you can’t trust the Bible to be reliable.

“You have heard it said…” You will hear a lot of nonsense said!  Jesus’ response to that is: 

“I say to you.”

What is so sad is that there are so few people who call themselves Christians who even know the authoritative words of Jesus.

READ the RED! Say yes to His word. 

Surrender your will to the will of the One who knows the way of the Father. Surrender your will to the One who brought the rule of the kingdom of God to earth and is taking back the world through a people who will obey him and surrender to his will and believe His word.

It’s important that you grow in relationships. Lots of people are not aggressive about being together in church. Church is optional to them. It is not optional to Jesus. It is the only thing Jesus is taking out of this world!

So this fall, get into a small group. Get committed to being with others learning how to give your life away for the sake of others. 

In those groups, learn how to worship, pray, get into the Word by hanging out with those who are a little further along in the faith.

Give to your church. Give your time. Give your money. When the government was giving out huge bail outs to corporations and banks there were no churches standing in line for a hand-out.

No, God’s people stand with their church and support their family because they believe God is making his kingdom rule bust through their church for the greater good of everyone who is in that portion of the family of God.

Many of those who support what Grace is about are self employed.  They own their own businesses. When there is a business downturn, their giving goes down too. That affects the finances of the church. 

During this recession we’ve had to tighten our belts just like you. We’ve cut back our budget, just like you. If we didn’t it would be wrong.

So our board and elders and pastoral staff will be very careful to use every dollar you give for the furtherance of the rule of God in Arlington and the surrounding cities. 

We will do all we can by the power God supplies to REACH UP, REACH IN to each others lives, REACH OUT to our community and world. 

At Grace we see buildings as means to ends. The people are first always.

We lease this building. It’s great. I am glad for it. I believe that we are to be in the City Center.

We are to be more visible and even more salt and light right in the center of the city.

Over the five years I have been pastor here we have seriously looked at five different buildings/properties.

We have a team of volunteers who meet with me regularly. They are called the Vision and Resources Team.

They are reading, studying and learning about what the best and wisest use of our resources would be in regard to facilities.

(PP)  Bridget Blinn; Martin Burhans; John Gardener; Mark Sterns

Own?

Lease?

Bare land and build something?

Develop and existing site?

Lot’s of questions. We are seeking God for answers.

But we are sure about a few things:

1- We are to be relocated more toward the City Center – somewhere around the University, City Hall, Cooper, between 1-30 and 1-20

2- WE are to investigate carefully options that come up.

We are looking at the CATS building right now. Made an offer on it but another offer is in consideration before ours.

They have about 20 more days on their 40 days to figure out how the financing and if they can’t, we will get our shot at it.

I see buildings just like a hermit crab. Tuck your rear in it and use it as long as it fits. When It doesn’t any more, leave it to someone else a little smaller and move on. But don’t get too attached to a building. Use it up like a good Bible.

I’ll keep you informed.

You pray.

Conclusion.

It’s time to show up.

It’s time to be the church Jesus dreamed for his people to be.

I want those attitudes of the beatitudes. 

I want to be salt and light.

I want to live in relationship with my brothers and sisters in the family of God because I need them and they need me – 

I want to surrendered more and more to do your will so that your rule will come through my life to earth. Not my will but yours! We are to lean on each other.

The reason One is the Lonelinest Number is because God knows that it’s too hard to go through this life alone.

We started off this year on the theme: Lean in on God.

This FALL, it’s lean in to each other.

We need to learn how to lean on each other.

We do that in community where relationships are formed, through the trials, disappointments, tough times and breakthroughs because we prayed and stood with Jesus.

WE lean in because we are supported by each other’s love and prayers.

Special music – worship team

I want to live like that.

Do you?

Then come up here and let God to fill you with his Holy Spirit to be the person of God he dreamed for your life.

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