Worship Until You Go

Business

If our church is a business, our slogan would be...

Experience God, Find Hope, Share Christ.

Where we could say, life happens, let it happen here.

Vision

The vision we have set out to do ties in with this slogan and it is to Worship, Connect, Grow, Serve and Go (in that order).

Worship (Experience God, Find Hope)

Because...

"God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” John 4:24

Connect (Experience God, Find Hope)

Scriptures admonish us...

"Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have made a habit, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Hebrews 10:25

Grow (Experience God, Find Hope)

"asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God." Ephesians 1:17

to...

"grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen." 2 Peter 3:18

Serve (Experience God, Share Christ)

Serving others because...

"You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love." Galatian 5:13

And we serve our God, because...

"how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God." Hebrew 9:14

Go (Experience God, Share Christ)

And lastly to go and share Christ...

"Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20

But not without..

"you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8

Acts 2 Journey

"Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." Acts 2:46-47

Our Vision Summed Up in the Last Supper

Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet

"Jesus knew that he had come from God and would go back to God. He also knew that the Father had given him complete power. So during the meal Jesus got up, removed his outer garment, and wrapped a towel around his waist. He put some water into a large bowl. Then he began washing his disciples' feet and drying them with the towel he was wearing.

But when he came to Simon Peter, that disciple asked, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

Jesus answered, “You don’t really know what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

“You will never wash my feet!” Peter replied.

“If I don’t wash you,” Jesus told him, “you don’t really belong to me.”

Peter said, “Lord, don’t wash just my feet. Wash my hands and my head.”

Jesus answered, “People who have bathed and are clean all over need to wash just their feet. And you, my disciples, are clean, except for one of you.” Jesus knew who would betray him. That is why he said, “except for one of you.”

After Jesus had washed his disciples' feet and had put his outer garment back on, he sat down again. Then he said:

Do you understand what I have done? You call me your teacher and Lord, and you should, because that is who I am. And if your Lord and teacher has washed your feet, you should do the same for each other. I have set the example, and you should do for each other exactly what I have done for you. I tell you for certain that servants are not greater than their master, and messengers are not greater than the one who sent them. You know these things, and God will bless you, if you do them." John 13:3-17 (CEV)

Today these verses gave me a ton of new insight but I'll have to share those another day.

Instead for today, let us see at how beautifully this passage sums up our vision: Worship - Connect - Grow - Serve - Go.

Worship

Jesus, knowing where He came from and more importantly where He is going; knows His standing and is not only secure in His relationship with His Father but He also knows how much He is loved, resulting in true worship, one that is real and genuine, a life of dependency, humility, trust and obedience -- the first step.

Connect

Jesus fellowshipped with His disciples. His disciples followed Him, not through a "forced to attend" or a "ritualistic" (one hour a week) meeting. Instead, Jesus created an environment where people came to Him not out of obligation, or because of tradition or a set of rules and regulations. People just followed Him where ever He went, they wanted to stay with Him, and they spent time together and they shared meals, creating loving relationships.

Grow

The result is that the disciples grew in knowledge and wisdom as they spend time with Jesus as He ministered to people and as they sat at His feet, and as they listened to His teachings and His ability to show them both the simple truths and the deep things of life.

Serve

Jesus showed His disciples that no task was beneath Him. He showed real love and geniune service by doing the lowliest of tasks, even washing their feet, showing them and generations to come, how to be a servant-leader.

Go

Jesus said the messengers are not above the One who sent them. Jesus is the One who is sending us, and not empty-handed but rather with the backing of His army of angels and the power of the Holy Spirit. And thus we Go -- to our families, to our neighborhoods, to the market place, to our schools, places of work, cities far and wide and to the ends of the earth until we are called to our supper and home-coming with the One who sent us.

Connect - Sharing Meals

In the Book of Acts, there is a lesser known story about Paul preaching in the City of Troas for an extended amount of time and causing at least one young listener to become drowsy and to fall asleep (which is not really an uncommon occurrence in many church services).

What makes this story unique is that it tells how the person who fell asleep, also fell to his death (something to remember or keep in mind, whenever we feel sleepy in church).

But what makes this story even more unique is the fact that Paul through the power of the Holy Spirit, brought this dead man back to life.

I understand that not that many knew that aside from Jesus there was somebody else during that time who was able to resurrect somebody from the dead. (Trivia: The Book of Acts, mentions that both Paul and Peter were able to resurrect someone from the dead. Peter was written to have raised a believer in Joppa.)

Now what is often overlooked even by those who are familiar with this story which happened in Troas, is that before and after this miracle, Paul and the fellowship of believers in that city shared in the Lord's supper (they took time to break bread in communion, share a meal together and give thanks to the Lord). Which I believe is a very important, but normally a missing ingredient in many fellowship of believers today. It was very common and frequently done in the early church but sadly was lost through the passage of time.

Today, let us read and meditate on this short passage of Scripture.

Acts 20:7-12 (NLT)

On the first day of the week, we gathered with the local believers to share in the Lord’s Supper. Paul was preaching to them, and since he was leaving the next day, he kept talking until midnight. The upstairs room where we met was lighted with many flickering lamps. As Paul spoke on and on, a young man named Eutychus, sitting on the windowsill, became very drowsy. Finally, he fell sound asleep and dropped three stories to his death below. Paul went down, bent over him, and took him into his arms. “Don’t worry,” he said, “he’s alive!” Then they all went back upstairs, shared in the Lord’s Supper, and ate together. Paul continued talking to them until dawn, and then he left. Meanwhile, the young man was taken home alive and well, and everyone was greatly relieved.

Connect - Breaking Bread

In the Book of Luke (chapter 24:13-32), Luke narrates a story about two hardly known disciples of Jesus (one of them named Cleopas, the other unidentified, some propose might be his wife). The short narrative was about what happened while these two were walking on their way to Emmaus.

The story happened on the day that Jesus had risen from the dead (on Resurrection Sunday). Luke stated that the Risen Jesus had walked along with these two while they were talking about the magnificent story of His death and resurrection. The emphasis was that all this time that they were walking and talking about Jesus, they were actually walking and talking to the Risen Jesus Himself -- without even knowing about it.

Let us read the story starting at verse 28

"As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him."

All this time, for many miles while they were talking with Jesus as He was explaining to them the scriptures and the prophecies regarding Himself, they never once did recognize Him.

Reaching their destination and seeing Him seemingly still on His journey, the two invited Him in to stay with them, to rest, to eat something, or for the night.

After saying grace and as they "broke bread", meaning when they started eating supper, this was when they recognize the person they were with all this time.

Amazing. That was the first Resurrection Sunday evening. What is even more amazing is that the church of Jesus today (the fellowship of believers), after 2,000 years still do these things. They teach the scriptures to those who want to hear them and they "break bread" with one another -- two ways, either through the partaking of the bread in communion and eating or sharing a meal together in fellowship. And the same way, after a considerable time of doing these, people will come to recognize Jesus for who He really is -- Emmanuel, our Mediator, the Son of the Almighty, the Holy One, the Messiah, the Christ, our Redeemer, our Savior, the Lamb of God, the Good Shepherd, the Word, the Way, the Truth, the Life, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Alpha and the Omega and the Bread of Life. Because ultimately, the goal is for everyone to be able to come and partake in the marriage supper of the Lamb -- Christ, and His bride (who is us, His church).

Happy Blessed Resurrection Sunday!