Not So Fast Series

Not So Fast

#BecomingTheChurchHeIntended

OKAY

SO – we are in this series.

An extremely important one.

AND – so far in this series we have seen that the church that Jesus intended IS…

• His Body

• His Bride

• His Family

• His Flock

• God’s Temple

• The promised messianic kingdom

• The ‘Called Ones’

• The hope of the world

AND – the church that Jesus intended is made up of people who have died to and daily deny themselves….

‘Crucified followers’ NOT fans, and who are fully devoted to…

• The apostles teaching

• The fellowship

• The breaking of bread

• And to prayer

LISTEN, LISTEN – I am fully convinced that when you, when I, when we FULLY DEVOTE ourselves to this 4 things we will experience what the Acts 2 church experienced….

• Everyone being filled with awe and wonder

• God moving among us in powerful, unexplainable and supernatural ways

• Radical and authentic community… full of joy and praising of God… and sharing of all things

• God adding to our number daily those who were being saved.

AND – I am equally convinced that if we do not devote ourselves to those things we will not experience those things and instead we will just be spinning our wheels.

YOU KNOW - I was talking to someone this week.

ABOUT HOW - if we want to see more people walk through the doors of this building

That what we need to pray for is not for more people to walk through the doors of this building…

BUT INSTEAD – what we need to pray for is GREATER DEVOTION among us who are already here.

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

The results…

Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.

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 2:42-47

YES MAPLE GROVE – what we need is greater devotion.

I had lunch with friend on Friday at Martin’s Grill (po boy)

He attends and serves at Maple Grove and we were talking about this very thing.

About how if we are devoted to those 4 things everything will take care of itself and we will experience an Acts 2 MOVEMENT right here…

I MEAN – seriously think about it…

If someone is devoted to reading God’s word, studying God’s Word…And to submitting to that Word and living it out. And if they are devoted to regularly being on their knees in the presence of and crying out to the Lord and Sovereign King of the Universe… And if they are living in authentic Christian fellowship… sharing life together, pursuing God together, and investing in others together…

I MEAN – seriously think about it, would someone living and following Jesus like, devoted like that, have to be told or coerced to…

- love their neighbor

- share their faith

- serve in the church

- give their tithe and offering

- forgive those who hurt them

- care for the orphan and the widow

- live in authentic radical community

Of course not

OKAY THIS MORNING – I want to unpack a conversation that I am calling ‘Not So Fast…’

AND – the reason for that title is because yesterday morning as I was in the process of wrapping up the conversation that I had been working on all week…

You know – move on to the next discussion in this series, it was like God said… “Hold on Steve, not so fast, I do not want you to move on yet.’

NOW – if you were here last week you know that we talked about how we are not to merely be fans of Jesus and simply admire Him but that we are to be crucified followers.

Jesus was never interested in having fans. When he defines what kind of relationship He wants, “Enthusiastic Admirer’ isn’t an option. My concern is that many of our churches in America have gone from being sanctuaries to becoming stadiums. And every week all the fans come to the stadium where they cheer for Jesus but have no interest in truly following Him.

The biggest threat to the church today is fans who call themselves Christians but aren’t actually interested in following Christ. They want to be close enough to Jesus to get all the benefits, but no so close that it requires anything from them.” - Kyle Idleman (Not A Fan)