What
happens when you wake up in the morning?
For some of us, it’s a rude awakening
right? The alarm clock goes off and you
are jolted out of your sleep. You jump
out of bed, hit the shower and crank the heat, clean up and then grab a cup of
hot coffee and you are good to go!
Now, for others, it’s more gradual, it’s a
slow process of semi-consciousness where you are maybe half- asleep and half
awake and at some point without any shock, you are just happy to know another
day has begun and you embrace it.
In many ways this is a picture that mirrors
how we become part of the Church, God’s family.
For some it is a complete shock to the
system and you have a Damascus Road experience where you were blinded by the
light like Saul was or John Newton who
cried out to God as a violent storm battered his vessel off the coast of
Ireland.
For others, it isn’t a story that hit the
headlines, but God drew you by His love into His family through a process, a
conversation with a friend, a life well lived for Jesus, something undeniable
that you saw.
BUT you WOKE UP!
Paul writes in Ephesians 5:14, Wake up,
sleeper, rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you.
What does it mean to wake up to God’s new
world?
It means we recognize that we are part of
something that is greater than ourselves.
It means we have believed the Good News of
what God has accomplished through His Son, Jesus, that God has raised Him from
the dead and in a moment launched the greatest, most powerful, most
transformative community in the world, the Church ‘capital C’!
God has called me with His voice to an
invitation of love and as well as summons to obedience! We become part of God’s family, an equal
footing with every other believer as we learn what it means to wake up and find
ourselves in God’s new world.
The Church exists for three primary
purposes.
1. We are called to worship God
The Church is first and foremost a
community, a collection of people who have been called out, set apart, to be a
people who worship God with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind.
2. We are called to be
together.
Pastor Jim, Sharon and my personal
pastor, had a canvas and on it
said. Family, we may not have it all
together, but together we have it all!
3. We are being sent on
mission.
We are called to be those who carry His
presence, His love, His beauty, His grace to the world around us
Let’s flesh these points out.
1. We are called to worship
God
1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s
special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out
of darkness into his wonderful light.
The Bible uses imagery to describe the
Church
A River-
John in Revelation sees a huge throng of people from every nation, tribe
and tongue coming together in a great chorus of praise. Like a river they all started in very
different places but they have now been brought into a single powerful,
beautiful flow. The church brings people
together from the widest and most varied backgrounds together. There is beautiful diversity in unity.
Revelation 7:9 After this I looked, and
behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all
tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the
Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,
Revelation 22: 1 Then the angel showed me
the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of
God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on
either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit,
yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of
the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God
and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.
A Tree- The single seed Jesus was sown into
the ground and produced the most amazing tree with branches in every direction
John 15
I am the vine, you are the branches.
2. We are called to be
together
Hebrews 10:25 not giving up meeting
together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and
all the more as you see the Day approaching.
We are called to encourage one another, to
build one another up in the faith, to pray with and for each other, to learn
from one another, to teach one another.
It’s called ‘koinonia’ and we see it happening from the very
inception of the Church in Acts 2:42-47
fellowship, everything in common, a deep sense of sharing with one
another.
The story of God’s people has always been
through the water to freedom! It started
with a little boy being rescued from the edge of the Nile River and then the
nation going through the Red Sea to be delivered from Egypt, to the nation once
again crossing the Jordan River to the Promised Land. It then would be Jesus, baptized in the
Jordan River, to launch His public ministry and the unfolding of God’s perfect
plan for His life and our’s!
Jesus’ own baptism and carefully planned
Last Supper both point back to the original Exodus, the coming through the
water moment all pointed to the death and resurrection of Jesus to begin the
new covenant, new creation
From
early on, the mark or recognition as being part of the family of God was
baptism. It was associated with the idea
of being ‘born again’. It involves being plunged into the water in the
name of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The
point is that the story which baptism tells is God’s own story, from creation
and covenant to new covenant and new creation, with Jesus, in the middle of it
and the the Spirit brooding over it. In
baptism you are brought into that story, to be an actor in the play which God
is writing and producing.
N.T. Wright in Simply Christian
3.
We are being sent on mission.
I
will build My Church. Jesus
Now I say to you that you are Peter (which
means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of
hell will not conquer it. Matthew 16:18
The truth of this statement was that Peter
rightly understood and identified that Jesus was the Son of God. Jesus is the foundation and the rock of
stability for us, His church, we are His chosen possession, we are His bride,
we are being made beautiful for Him.
The Church was never to have a defensive
mentality, a bunker down, this world is going to hell in a handbasket type of
mindset. The church was always meant to lead the charge, to go forward, to take
new ground.
We
are built to break the darkness!
John 17:15 My prayer is not that you take
them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are
not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your
word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the
world. NASB I will never forget Purlacio, the first graduate from Bracelet of
Hope’s foster homes as she shouted out, “I was born to fight
the darkness!”
We
are called to be missional.
The Word became flesh and blood and moved
into the neighborhood. John 1:14 The
Message
Jesus became flesh and blood to all those
around Him. He was real and went to
where the people were. He lived among
them, He cried with them, He prayed for them, He brought healing to their
lives.
We are called to the same thing.
We are called to be real with all those
around us, to cry, to laugh, to pray for them and with them as the Spirit
leads. We are called to bring healing to
the lives around us .
We are called to be agents of God’s healing
love and at the same time allow our lives to be transformed by the same healing
love.
An action plan for this summer! Pray for three friends or people that are
part of your everyday, normal path.
• Open
your homes and backyards and be hospitable
- It can be really simple.
The power of invitation is an amazing
thing. Go to your street party and if
there isn’t one, make one up! We were
part of a street party at our last neighbourhood for 7 years! It was a rich delicacy of foods from every
continent from samosas to noodles to vegetarian, deep fried from Africa! We brought pulled pork!
• Open
your hearts and make new friends (name some new ones by end of summer)
It is because of opportunities like this that I not only know their
names, but I now know a number of the names of their children as well. It’s after midnight and Sharon is still out
there having great conversations!
• Open
your hands and do good to people around you
• Open
your mouth (if an opportunity arises) and speak of your faith in Christ
A lady from my previous ministry shared
with us how she spoke to the man renovating a meeting area doing renovations at
her home. She said I could just let them
do their job or choose to reach out. So
she does and over a meal or a coffee and God is giving her great opportunities
to share her faith.
Live
your life in such a way that it demands an explanation.
Jeremiah 29:11-13
11 For I know the plans I have for you,”
declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you
hope and a future.
And for most people, the memorizing of this
passage ends here. However, there is
something very important and not to be missed….
12
Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be
found by you,” declares the Lord.
We really need to be asking God what are
your plans for me today? Why? Because He
already has laid the blueprint out for your day.
Check it out in Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in
Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
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