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

Happy Fourth of July

Freedom in Christ = Serving God

"Live as free people, but don’t hide behind your freedom when you do evil. Instead, use your freedom to serve God." 1 Peter 2:16 (GW)

We are free. Indeed, Paul wrote in Romans that Christ set us free from the penalty of our sins.

Paul also wrote in Galatians that "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free."

And John said, "if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."

Peter, Paul and John all wrote that we are free.

We are free. Over and over they wrote about that as they do not want us to forget or to take it lightly.

Christ has set us free and that is the most liberating, most mind-blowing and the single most life-changing moment in our life.

We are free. In fact, all through out the bible, the theme was a Savior setting us free. And He did.

Some of us were not even aware that we weren't free.

Really, we weren't only slaves to those which were obviously keeping us in bondage, but we were also slaves to our limited mental capacities, to our sins, even to our vices and the enticements of this world. We may think we were free, but we were not.

But today, once again, Peter, Paul and John are reminding us that we are free.

And now that we are aware that Christ has set us free, now we are free to serve God.

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." Romans 12:1

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.

Serve (In the Right Ministry)

The Word of God Prospered

'During this time, as the disciples were increasing in numbers by leaps and bounds, hard feelings developed among the Greek-speaking believers—“Hellenists”—toward the Hebrew-speaking believers because their widows were being discriminated against in the daily food lines. So the Twelve called a meeting of the disciples. They said, “It wouldn’t be right for us to abandon our responsibilities for preaching and teaching the Word of God to help with the care of the poor. So, friends, choose seven men from among you whom everyone trusts, men full of the Holy Spirit and good sense, and we’ll assign them this task. Meanwhile, we’ll stick to our assigned tasks of prayer and speaking God’s Word.”

Seven Men Chosen to Serve

The congregation thought this was a great idea. They went ahead and chose—Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, Nicolas, a convert from Antioch. Then they presented them to the apostles. Praying, the apostles laid on hands and commissioned them for their task.

The Word of God prospered. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased dramatically. Not least, a great many priests submitted themselves to the faith.' Acts 6:1-7 (MSG)

I have written about these verses in the past. But the Word of God is living and active, and it is more alive and more relevant when we read and listen to it with a heart open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. God's Word always come out fresh and alive daily, in fact the Lord gives it to us, as our daily bread, our daily sustenance. Scriptures also say the Word is like a double-edged sword penetrating bone and marrow and it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Now me reading these passages again today but in a different version above, gave me new insights about how the first leaders of the church conducted theselves and how the early church overcame obstacles.

One truth is that in the church, there will always be times of misunderstanding. This will be inevitable, especially during times of church growth and among people of different backgrounds (i.e. Greek vs Hebrew). In fact, there were misunderstandings even just among the Hebrews themselves, even going back to when Jesus was still walking the earth with them.

Two, the first church leaders' (the apostles') first mandate and responsibility is to pray and to preach the Word, including teaching and training.

Three, the church members weren't passive and didn't  just sat on the pews -- they were proactive and they decided on matters concerning their church.

Four, all the other church functions (ministries) are to be distributed to abled servant-leaders (Stephen and the others) who the apostles commissioned when they laid their hands upon them (the first ever mention of the laying of hands in the New Testament church).

Five, these servant-leaders weren't ordinary church members, they weren"t just random names picked out of a hat, they were full of faith and full of the Holy Spirit, and they were chosen and commissioned to lead others and to serve in the Body of Christ -- the church.

And the results were amazing -- continued teaching of the Word, resolution of misunderstandings, growth in the number of new believers, even winning over of their staunchest detractors and the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth -- our great commission.

"For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable." Hebrews 4:12-13 (NLT)

“So pay attention to how you hear. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But for those who are not listening, even what they think they understand will be taken away from them.” Luke 8:18 (NLT)

Serve - Eye Opening Truths

Glory Only in the Lord

'For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption— that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”' 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 (NKJV)

Scriptures tell us that the Lord uses the fool to confound the wise. And so it is with us, who God is using to fulfill the great commission. Christ said "Come, (follow me)." And we did. He then told us to  "Go!". And we responded accordingly.  The smart ones would be too smart for that.

Now in regards to your ministry, our Lord could have used someone else, but no, He choose you. Why? Because before we came to Christ, we were just ordinary people. We might be smart in our eyes and our own estimation or perception. And of course, we could also be smart by this world's standards. But the longer we've been following and walking closely with the Lord, the more we will get to realize that we know so little or that the little we do know, were not really that important. The Apostle Paul, who was a giant among his peers before he came to Christ, came to that realization and He wrote much of the New Testament to tell us so.

Now, if the Lord is using you today, then it means you are the foolish ones, you are the weak ones. But remember this -- with Him, we have wisdom, and with Him we have strength, we have authority, we have power and we have gifts given us to use accordingly. And these things He has given us are what He wants us to use to confound others who are still perishing or those who think wise in their own eyes and those who believe they don't need God. Not our own cunning, not our own strength, not our own influence, but the Lord's. Remember, apart from Him, we can do nothing. Otherwise, when we do so on our own strength, we will boast on our own capabilities. And if that was the case, then He could have used many others who by our world standards are far more superior but who would almost definitely take all the credit and all the glory. And God will not have that.


"And we have different gifts according to the grace given to us. If the gift is prophecy, that individual must use it in proportion to his faith. If it is service, he must serve; if it is teaching, he must teach; if it is exhortation, he must exhort; if it is contributing, he must do so with sincerity; if it is leadership, he must do so with diligence; if it is showing mercy, he must do so with cheerfulness."  Romans 12:6-8 (NET)

Serve (With a Cheerful Attitude)

Serve

"Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." 2 Corinthian 9:6-7

Worship - Connect - Grow - Serve... this is the process the Lord showed us, so as to fulfill the Great Commission; which is to Go -- which is the very mission of our church, and which should be the mission of every church.

Our vision of "Experience God, Find Hope, Share Christ" wonderfully parallels this, as we line up our steps (the right steps) with what the Lord wants us to accomplish according to our strengths and our resources.

Our service is posited in the fact that it is given generously and freely. And this service includes our giving of ourselves, our love, our time, our talents and our treasure. With that mindset, let us pray and ask guidance from the Holy Spirit as we look on the service we give back to our Lord, and also as we reread and meditate on 2nd Corinthians 9 today.