KICKIN’ UP OUR IDENTITY
Perth Bible Church, September 7, 2008 AM Rev. Todd G. Leupold
INTRODUCTION:
Many years ago there was an ad in the Available and Wanted section (of a Tucumcari, New Mexico paper): “Marriage minded man with one hundred fifty irrigated acres of farmland seeks marriage minded woman with John Deere tractor. When replying, send picture of the tractor.”
Friends, here is a man who knows what is important to him. But is it the right values? Will the brand, appearance or quality of his tractor really be the thing that has the most powerful and lasting impact in his life? The lives of those around him? Should it?
How well do you know and understand what is truly most important to you? Your family? Our church family?
Reggie McNeal suggests some of the following signals that may suggest a need for value clarification:
You have great ideas about what you want to accomplish in life and where you want to go, but the way you choose to live just doesn’t get you there.
You are bewildered because the people closest to you seem not to understand you very well.
You have a hard time prioritizing how you spend your time, money and energy.
You feel lost in the shuffle of life.
You struggle with major decisions because you don’t know what’s best for you.
You wonder to yourself who you really are (Get A Life, pp. 38-39).
This morning, as we ’Kick It Up’ to start a new ministry season, I would like us to re-consider how we not only clarify but also live out the Biblical values that God has called us as Perth Bible Church to embody for His glory. Living this out in the real world, fulfilling our purpose and living the abundant life, means loving God absolutely and loving others sacrificially not only in emotion but also in attitude and practice!
We talk often – sometimes loudly for all to hear, and sometimes quietly that only some may hear – about what kind of a people and what kind of a church we should be to . . . please the most people . . . or the right people . . . grow in numbers and prestige . . . increase our offerings . . . re-claim our past . . . position ourselves for the future . . . etc.
My concern is simply this: Who must we BE and what must we DO in order to fulfill our calling and show our community the love of Christ?
PRAYER
WHO ARE WE OR WHO SHOULD WE BE?
Perth Bible Church is a family of imperfect people who are unrelenting in our desires and efforts to be like Jesus in character and in action - loving God absolutely and loving others sacrificially. We are committed to this for the benefit of all (in and outside of the church) and, most of all, to the glory of God!
A. A Family Romans 8:15-16
15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, " Abba , Father!" 16 The Spirit Himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children,
We need to live with, relate to one another as family – brothers and sisters. But not just any family.
Sadly, for many of us the word and concept of “family” brings with it a range of images and emotions, including negative experiences, regrets, disappointment, emotional wounds, and perhaps even abuse.
My family: one of the original latch-key child, abusive & non-supportive brother – still acts as if I don’t exist, divorced parents cousin-godchild kidnapped by mother and put in institution . . .
And then there’s my wife’s family . . . Better not go there.
Instead, consider: An old couple was sitting by the fireside. He looked over at her, had a romantic thought, and said, “After fifty years, I’ve found you tried and true.” The wife’s hearing wasn’t very good, so she said, “What?” He repeated, “After fifty years, I’ve found you tried and true.” “After fifty years, I’m tired of you too,” she replied.
Hear me clearly now: Perth Bible Church is God’s family, composed of those whom Christ has redeemed (saved from sin and our slavery to a sinful nature) and adopted into the Heavenly Father’s family by His grace and provision! When anyone, in or outside of this family, does an injustice to any of His children, they offend and disrespect God the Father!
Those who are parents, consider how you feel and the thoughts you have when someone treats one of your children unfairly, wrongfully or hurtfully. Even when the offender may be another one of your children? How much more God Father who birthed us not only through labor pains, but the most amazing of all sacrifices!
Further, in God’s Family, there is always a ready antidote to sin, sinful nature and the wounds of such. Our relationships in Christ, therefore, have the extra benefit of power over our baser instincts and behaviors. In Christ, we have the blessed ability to relate through our common redemption, rather than our common sinfulness.
Perth Bible Church is God’s Family! We are to love, care for, protect, help, hold accountable, respect and forgive one another. We are to relate with one another in all circumstances as brothers and sisters in Christ, and not in the flesh!
There is NO room, in God’s Family for justifying our inappropriate attitudes and actions as “just treating so-and-so as I do my brother/sister or as my brother/sister treats me.” Yes we all know it can and does happen. But there is NO reason it should or has to happen within the family community of those who are redeemed in Christ and blessed with His grace and power over sin and the flesh!
There is NO place in God’s family and, therefore, no place in Perth Bible Church for backbiting, petty jealousy, sibling rivalry, unwholesome talk, power struggles, or ’lone rangers’! No excuse for disrespect, slander or unforgiveness.
Yet, it remains equally true that we are also
B. Imperfect 2 Corinthians 12:9
9 But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me.
None of us, certainly myself included, always succeeds in living up to this standard as a child in God’s family and in my relationships with my spiritual siblings.
On the one hand, it is important that each of us understands this sad reality especially as it applies to ourselves.
On the other hand, however, we must also be certain to understand what it means to live imperfectly within Gods family. What is that?
First, it means that we must gracefully accept one another’s imperfections with the same love and grace with which God the Father accepts our own.
SLIDE: “The virtue of true love is not finding the perfect person, but loving the imperfect person perfectly.”
Second, it means that even in the reality of our imperfection, we can never use it as an excuse for our failings and sin because we DO have access through Christ to be conquer all of these tendencies and temptations!
God has created and instituted Perth Bible Church to be His presence, His light, His representatives in this area NOT because of who we are, but DESPITE our weaknesses , faults and limitations. Any impact, any success is because of His power working in and through us, and not ourselves! Therefore, we should be ashamed to admit this, but rather do so freely in order to greater magnify God’s good work and His greatness!
But, this is only the result to the degree that we look upon others’ imperfections with grace, but our own as the unacceptable flaws that they are and that in Christ we have been empowered to fix and change!
SLIDE: “Overflowing Grace Bucket”
We must therefore also have an
C. Unrelenting Commitment To Sanctification 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17
The process of His refining and transforming us in His image.
13 But we must always thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God has chosen you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth. 14 He called you to this through our gospel, so that you might obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions you were taught, either by our message or by our letter.
16 May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal encouragement and good hope by grace, 17 encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good work and word.
Because we are an imperfect family who is unrelenting in our commitment to sanctification, we are engaged together in
D. Loving God Absolutely & Others Sacrificially Mk. 12:29-31
29 "This is the most important," Jesus answered: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. 31 "The second is: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these."
SLIDE: “It takes a broken heart to birth true love and make your heart sing.” God’s heart broken for us, and ours broken for others!
E. For The Benefit Of ALL 2 Peter 3:9
9 The Lord does not delay His promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.
Brothers & Sisters, being “The Church” is not about ’us.’ God has not assembled this miraculous institution simply to serve ourselves. As said before, we are here so that we way grow in His likeness, reproduce His image and represent Him to ALL whom we may!
F. TO THE GLORY OF GOD! 1 Corinthians 10:31
31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for God’s glory.
The Foundation: The Bible, God’s Word
CONCLUSION:
This is how God has designed and is directing Perth Bible Church. Surrendering to His will and His power, all of this and so much more is absolutely possible. But it won’t happen overnight. And it won’t happen through some kind of spontaneous combustion. There’s no guarantee of instant results. Nor even that everyone will like or appreciate what we are trying to do. But, if we are faithful, it will all come to fruition. It will take all us, working together and actively involved as a team.
But, how? How can all of us who are so different in so many ways and have such a wide array of ideas and personal preferences really be a family of imperfect people who are unrelenting in our desires and efforts to be like Jesus in character and in action - loving God absolutely and loving others sacrificially; committed to this for the benefit of all (in and outside of the church) and, most of all, to the glory of God? Is it realistic or possible to expect a diverse group of people such as we who comprise Perth Bible Church, to be united in such a lofty mission? If so, HOW?
ABSOLUTELY, and we can do it when we pursue God’s ways. Make no mistake, this mission is not possible if we seek, expect or insist on being unified in our way. It is, however, entirely possible if we will but sacrifice our own egos, our own selves, and unite behind the map and blueprint that God has laid right in all of our hands – the Scriptures. We ARE Perth Bible Church!
It has been said that the average Church today is like a football game-----you have 22 players in desperate need of rest being watched by 50,000 people in desperate need to exercise! We all need to be giving our all while patiently persevering and pressing on until Christ returns!
*****PLUG MEMBERSHIP, BAPTISM, SERVICE****
