Cpr For A Healthy Walk And Witness Part 19 Series

Chico Alliance Church

Pastor David Welch

CPR for a healthy walk and witness “Making Disciples”

Review

Today we look at the fourth level of our mission statement. Hopefully these Divine directives will become your life directives as well as our church family directives. They will only be as effective as our church directives as they are applied in the individuals who embrace them. It is my hope these four commands of God will begin to actually define who you are.

• All our activities revolve around deepening our relationship with God.

• We expend time and energy expanding and deepening relationships with people.

• We do whatever it takes to become more like Jesus in our behavior and do what we can to resist and restrain the evil around us.

• We invest time and resources to the task of making disciples (reach and teach).

So far we have reviewed three out of the four directives.

We live to love God.

We live to love people.

We live to live holy

There are many directions one takes in life. Jesus encouraged his disciples to keep their eye on the main thing. Hopefully I have helped you again focus on the main things.

These are the things God cares about.

These are the things God instructs us to do.

These are the things that we will earn or forfeit reward.

So often the urgent crowds out the important. Too often the insignificant clouds the vital. As disciples of Christ, we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God fore ordained that we should walk in them. He created us for a purpose. As we focus on His purpose, he promises us the necessary resources to accomplish that purpose. When we operate outside of His clear purpose for being on this earth, we use energy and resources intended for His eternal purpose. Our focus on the little things distracts us from the main things.

Psalm 4:2-5 continues to ring in the ears of my soul.

O sons of men, how long will the things I care about be distasteful?

How long will you love what is worthless and aim at what is a lie?

Isaiah records God’s thoughts and feelings in Isaiah 55:2-3

"Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy?

Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And delight yourself in abundance.

"Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live;

Jeremiah cries out on behalf of God in Jeremiah 2:12-13

"Be appalled, O heavens, at this, And shudder, be very desolate," declares the LORD.

"For My people have committed two evils:

They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters,

To hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

We live in a culture that so easily distracts us from the important, the vital, the main things. Last week presented a brief overview of the MAIN THING. We only have so much time and energy and resource to invest in life. God grants us resources designated to accomplish his purposes. When we lose focus and spend those designated “funds” or resources on ourselves or things we thing important we do not have sufficient energy to spend on His stuff.

Our energy and resources need to be invested in:

I. Cultivating a dynamic relationship with God

II. Pursuing meaningful connection with each other

III. Restoring purity in our life and resisting the evil of the world the flesh and the devil.

IV. Impacting our world for Jesus

This is CPR of the soul that will keep our heart healthy and functioning well.

The result of a healthy heart is a healthy witness. People will see our lives and glorify our Father in heaven. We will effectively proclaim and practice the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. Jesus left his disciples and all future disciples with not only a great commandment to love Him and each other and keep his commandments but a great commission to make disciples of all nations.

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew 28:18-20

The main verb in the passage is not “GO!” The main verb in the commission is to MAKE DISCIPLES! “As you are living out your life…”

Because you cannot make something you are not yourselves I would present to you that the main thing in life, the reason we are left here is to BE AND MAKE DISCIPLES!