About Our Father’s Business…
NKJ Luke 2:49 And He said to them, "Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?"
NKJ John 9:4 "I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work.
18 The Spirit of the Lord the Eternal One is on Me. Why? Because the Eternal designated Me to be His representative to the poor, to preach good news to them.
He sent Me to tell those who are held captive that they can now be set free, and to tell the blind that they can now see. He sent Me to liberate those held down by oppression.
19 In short, the Spirit is upon Me to proclaim that now is the time; this is the jubilee season of the Eternal One’s grace. (Luke 4:18-19 The Voice)
Intro: Jesus clearly had a mission from God. There were purposes the Father wanted Him to accomplish while here on this earth. Yes, Jesus came to save the world from sin and provide a way for us to get to God. But the most fundamental purpose Jesus had was to do what His Father wanted, to be surrendered to His will.
-And that is our starting point as well – surrendering to Him. God has called us to do nothing more and nothing less than His will. And He has revealed what His will is in the Bible. But His will isn’t something we just decide we’re doing to do one day. His will eludes us! We are not capable of doing His will without His help! So how do we get His help? Ask for it! Call on the Lord and He will answer. That involves trusting Him enough to give up our own way in order to receive Him as the rightful leader and Savior of our lives.
-So, this whole faith thing, this whole Christian thing begins and ends with trust and surrender. All that’s left in between is a relatively short span of time, during which we get to know Him, and learn to obey what He asks of us.
-Now, we believe that God calls different people to do different specific tasks for Him. And with all the different churches and ministries there are, God gives each one a unique job to do for Him. Yet, we can still find some common purposes that the church as a whole was to seek to carry out. I want to highlight these today so that we will be sure and remember what we’re to be about! These things are the business of our Father in heaven! And with His help, we at CLC will seek the fulfillment of each on an ongoing basis.
God’s Purposes for CLC
Connecting with one another in friendship (Fellowship)
Interacting with God through prayer & praise (Worship)
Growing in Biblical knowledge and practice (Discipleship)
Helping others by using our God-given gifts (Ministry)
Sharing God’s life through words & actions (Evangelism)
1. Friendship
-What are the basic components of friendship?
(Love, care, trust / Mutual understanding / Initiative / friends enjoy one another's' company, help one another, and possess a common commitment to the good / Commitment, Encouragement, Appreciation / mutual caring (or love), intimacy, and shared activity (the intimacy of friendship in terms of mutual self-disclosure, creates bond of trust); (shared interests, the sharing of values and a sense of what's important)
A friend is thought to be one who (1) wishes and does good things for the friend's sake, (2) wishes the friend to exist and live, for his own sake, (3) spends time with his friend, (4) makes the same choices as his friend and (5) finds the same things pleasant and painful as his friend. (These last 2 are certainly debatable, but at the very least there must be some sense of congruence.)
-There is something that relational experts call mirroring that takes place in friendships. The Bible calls this iron sharpening iron. It seems to involve the alignment of values and choices. In other words, when 2 people become friends, they both begin to change, becoming more like the other person. This is both dangerous and helpful, depending on the character of each friend. Mirroring also happens in our relationship with God, but it is one-sided, because God does not change. He has no room for improvement since He is already complete, perfect, whole. The more we exercise goodwill toward him and spend time with Him (which we might call worship), the more we will become like Him! But, I’m getting ahead of myself.
-So, if 1 of our primary purposes at CLC is to enter into and promote genuine friendships with one another, what does that look like? Well, first of all, one size doesn’t fit all, but what does Christian fellowship / friendship look like? The biblical word fellowship carries the idea of being partners or sharers with someone. So, let’s get real. Is there another believer who you share your life with? Yes, your spouse counts, but guys, do you have other Christian guys you rub shoulders with? Is there a high level of trust in your friendship that would allow mutual self-disclosure? You wouldn’t admit it, but I’m probably scaring some of you right now. We men aren’t too sure of this sharing thing. Sounds awful pink to me! Oh well.
-Guys and Ladies, do you spend time with your Christian friends? If not, then your friendship might be pretty thin. Do you accept one another, encourage one another, and show concern for one another? It takes work, but when the bond of true friendship ties us together as the family of God, there is strength and safety and life! So, keep on getting together with other believers. If you’re not, then start somewhere! If you’re not interacting with other believers in Christ and developing lifelong friendships, then you are missing one of the purposes God has for us here at CLC.
2. Worship
-We’ve covered some thoughts about worship from John 4. Let me just say that worship involves giving out of ourselves to God. We can give Him thanks and praise. We can bring Him demonstrative gifts and sacrifices of praise and honor. However, giving Him the tithe that belongs to Him and monetary offerings is part of worship as well. If something is keeping us from letting go of what God has said belongs to Him, then we still have some serious surrendering to do. To worship God is to give Him what rightfully belongs to Him – our hearts, our lives, our praise, our gratitude, and yes, His tithes that He lovingly trusts us to handle.
-And like friendship with one another, worship might be thought of as the expression of our friendship with God. It involves all the relational aspects of love, trust, interaction, mutual sharing, and so on. And the more we worship the Lord and spend time with Him, the more we become like Him, not in some mystical quest to become divine, but being restored to His image in the likeness of His Son Jesus. Friendship changes us! Worship changes us! That is why we focus a good segment of our time in worship, praise, and prayer.
3. Growth
NLT Philippians 2:13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him.
-Much of our spiritual growth occurs through our Christian friendships and our worship. However, the Bible has a lot to say about studying the Scriptures, God’s word to us. We should all be learners of God’s word for the rest of our lives. However, we read that God has wired some to be teachers as gifts to the church. Some of you are wired that way, and I thank God for you! I can easily get excited about God’s word and about accurately interpreting what God has spoken to us in the Bible through prophets, apostles, and other holy people of God.
-But it’s not enough to just hear good teaching. We need to apply it and do it as well.
NKJ James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
NLT James 1:22 And remember, it is a message to obey, not just to listen to. If you don't obey, you are only fooling yourself.
2 Timothy 2:15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
-There are a number of spiritual disciplines and that may go along with this area of spiritual growth. Again, more than just Bible knowledge, we need to practice what we read. There is fasting and prayer, meditating on God’s word, solitude and silence, rest & reflection, service, and so much more! Are you growing or staying the same? We all need to break out of our comfort zones and develop and use what God has blessed us with! Let’s grow!
4. Serving
-Romans 12 lists 7 motivational gifts of service (Perceiver, Server, Exhorter, Administrator, Teacher, Giver, and Compassion). We all have gifts to use!
-Maybe you need to grow in the area of spiritual gifts and let God use you in the miraculous. 1 Corinthians 12 would be a good one for you to read.
-One of our purposes here at CLC is to help people find what they are good at and develop it and use it for the Lord!
5. Faith Sharing
-We call this evangelism or sharing the good news about Jesus. It is sometimes one of the more intimidating areas for many Christians. Not because we’re ashamed of Christ, but because we are so afraid of messing up or we get nervous when we talk to people about their eternal soul.
-Our approach to sharing our faith at CLC includes providing nonthreatening relational events where people can come and enjoy themselves while interacting with real live people of God! We try to keep it real and not do the bait and switch thing on anyone. People aren’t stupid! I don’t try to hide the fact that I want people to come to know God, and that I hope they do it just as soon as they are ready. But we’re not trying to trick people into getting saved by inviting them to an event, only to nail them with some fire and brimstone preaching once they get here.
-I find that evangelism or faith sharing works best when we look back to the first purpose I shared. I know that we focused primarily on Christian friendships b/c we all need that. However, we are also out to make friends with those who don’t know Jesus yet! Jesus was known as a friend of sinners and was even accused of eating too much and drinking too much.
-The Mormon church has discovered the power of friendship. At one time you could see young Mormon elders going door-to-door trying to set up personal studies with people. But they took a survey and discovered that the conversion rate was only 0.1%; they converted only one family out of 1,000 doors knocked on. They also discovered that the conversion rate of friendships made--people being brought into member’s homes--was 50%. They convert 50% of their friends.
-Obviously, I do not embrace their theology, but many of them have discovered the power of friendship. Folks, we have the best news out there! God wants to share His life with those of us on planet Earth! Our lives should be illustrations of the good news. If we’ve indeed tasted that the Lord is good, that is bound to show up in our lives – maybe even in our attitudes and on our faces!
-At CLC we want to equip every believer to share the life of God with others through every possible means. You have a story to tell of how God has given you life! You have the peace of God in your heart, which should make people want to be around you. You don’t have to be weird. Just be you! And if the two are inseparable God will still use you to reach people who need to know Him!
Close: So as we seek the fulfillment of these purposes at CLC in how we do church and how we invest our time, resources, and energies, it is good for each of us to ask the Lord how we’re doing in these areas. Talk to the Lord and ask Him, “How about My Father’s business? How am I doing? What do You want me to do? How am I doing with my Christian friendships? Worship? Am I growing, serving, and sharing my faith? Where do I start? What’s my first step?”
-Again, I think the first step is surrender. But it’s hard to surrender to someone unless you really trust them. Maybe your first step needs to deal with your trust issues. Lord, do I trust You? Do a study on how trustworthy God is! He has never ever failed anyone, broken His word to them, or let them down. He can be trusted!
-If you ask Him this morning, I am certain that God will speak to your heart and mind about where to start. What is one thing that is weighing on your mind from this message? Ask God what He wants you to do about that one thing.
-Pray
