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.

Grow - Study the Word

Death Through Adam, Life Through Christ

"Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned." Romans 5:12

Death came in by the sin of one man. In the same manner, God gave us redemption, forgiveness, grace, reconciliation and life through one man - Jesus Christ.

And precisely...

"While we were still weak, at the right moment, Christ died for us." Romans 5:6

We were helpless, we couldn't save ourselves, we were all doomed to destruction.

"But God shows his love for us, because while we were still sinners Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

When we were at our most unlovable condition, He loved us, enough to suffer and die in our place - taking the penalty of our sins.

"And not only that: we even take pride in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, the one through whom we now have a restored relationship with God."  Romans 5:11

So whoever we were and whatever we have done in the past, accepting the finished work of Christ and placing our faith in Him was our golden ticket. We have now been redeemed and restored.

And we now have a relationship with our Heavenly Father by way of our Savior -- the start of an ongoing and growing relationship, which is being nourished by reading and obeying His Word and daily quiet times in prayer, in singing songs of praise and in reverend worship, to continually grow our faith, grow in the knowledge of God which leads us to do good works, all for the glory of God.

Therefore there is no need to be hopeless or to wallow in guilt or feel depressed or live a mediocre or miserable life.

God already did His part, now it is our turn.

There is no more condemnation, just forgiveness and restoration and an ongoing personal relationship. So much so that everyday we can go boldly to our Maker, call upon Him in the name of our Lord and Savior and start living the abundant life each new day, as was His plan for each one of us -- a fresh start, a new life in Christ.

Praise Him to whom all praise is due.

Grow - Every New Believer is a Baby

"I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate."  Romans 7:15 (NLT)

Paul in his letter to the Romans admitted that he too needed some "growing up" to do. In today's secular lingo, this is called "adulting", which in essence can be described as doing the right thing as an adult should.

What we are forgetting is that once a person becomes a new believer in the faith, that person is essentially a baby. And as a baby, needs a whole lot of "growing up" as well as the appropriate guidance and nurturing.

Think about it, if a mature believer and teacher like Paul needed it, I would dare say, we all need it all the more. No one is born (or born again) knowing everything already. We all need to learn. And thus a new believer needs to go through a specific process, which is called "discipleship". 

It is a process. And it takes time. But like in every essential thing, we need it for it would be harder if we do not go through this series of steps, otherwise we are bound to repeat the same mistakes over and over as well as making the same mistakes other "babies" are committing. (Or we might end up putting our faith in a counterfeit belief system or a made-up ministry or worse, totally give up on our new found faith).

Now if you are ready to move forward and grow in your new found faith and to step out of your ego (and your comfort zone) and take your baby or toddler steps, then we can begin this journey together. 

I believe one of our first steps is to understand and get this truth down:

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."  Ephesians 2:8-10 (NIV)

Like Paul admitted, he wanted to do the right things, but even in his mature (adult) standing, he ends up doing the things he knows he shouldn't -- meaning in his own (human) strength, he cannot do it.

In the same way, we new believers cannot rely on our own selves or our own strength or our deeds and our own judgments because we were saved not because of who we were, but rather, we were saved not because we deserve it or because we were good enough. In fact, none of us are good enough, that is the very reason why we needed a Savior in the first place. And He saved us by us putting our faith in Him, who is ready and willing and able to save us. Not by anything else except us accepting His free gift of salvation. Once, you get that down, everything else would be easier to understand.

If you are ready, the Lord is even more ready and more willing. Pray and ask Him to give you a real desire to get to know His perfect will and the hunger to get to know the real heart of our Lord and Savior. Ask to have the appetite to eat spiritual food -- or be hungry to read and hear His Word, the bible. And pray for the Lord to open up your spiritual eyes and spiritual ears and your heart to be able to understand His Word.


Note:  The process of discipleship is the natural progression of surrendering to the will of our Abba Father, turning around and coming back to Him our Creator and receiving His gift of salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ.