07.19.2015 How to Live Out the Gospel

7-19-2015 from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

You are with us and concerned with our needs.
I’d like to start a different series today – we did a survey in the small groups and got a lot of feedback – there were 4 common themes expressed with hope and concern with our church. Over the next several weeks – over the course of the summer, we will look at these 4 areas concerning the bible and how they concern our church.
We have discovered that there is a real desire for our church to grow. That came up often, and that was encouraging.
The second, related to growth, people have a deep desire for spiritual growth and to be challenged more – and let’s see how that works out!
Third, there is a desire to hear peoples’ stories – what God is doing – things that God is doing – two weeks ago, Marianne shared about the garage sale and we have others lined up – and I say this to say if you have something that God is doing in your life and want to share, see me or Dick or Jeff.
Fourth, people would really like to understand the gifts that God has given them.
So we will be looking at a practical and biblical approach to those things.
As I have thought through this and what I have discovered – we are unable to even THINK about growth for a multitude of reasons – why we can’t get it in our minds the concept of growing as people.
So often we find ourselves in survival mode to such an extent that we can’t think about progress.
Maybe your schedule and responsibilities are so all-consuming that there is no time to think about progress. Maybe finances are difficult and all you can think about is meeting the next need. Or health – where our minds are so focused on surviving that we can’t focus on growth. I’d like to help give us a mindset to think about growing God’s kingdom and growing as people.
Any church under 150 is considered to be a small church. You might think we are a really small church. The average church size is 75 people – and many churches run about 35 people – and we, over the past several years – run 110 to 130.
There are advantages to being a small church. Here are a few – first, it creates a family atmosphere. It gives a sense of feeling at home. It provides enormous opportunity to serve and be involved in many many ways. In ways, that in larger churches, people just do not qualify to be involved. And large churches have their benefits and disadvantages. There are opportunities to take leadership – if you see a need, meet it! We have no red tape here – we don’t even allow it here! As long as it fits in with the gospel thing, it is okay.
There are some disadvantages and limitations to being in a small church: Oftentimes, there are programs that cannot be offered that people need. We would love to offer every program that everyone wants offered, but it is impossible to do. Small churches go through cycles. We have gone through cycles – one area we notice it in particular: Teen ministry. You have these waves where there are kids that age and then not. Facilities, funding, etc.
Here is the point – we don’t need to be a big church to meet those needs – we just need to be a growing church to meet those needs – that is the key – to be growing – and thinking along the lines of growth.
But our desire is to maintain our values and advantages while minimizing the limitations – to maintain family, home, and community, while growing God’s kingdom.
I’d like to look at that biblically. There are reasons people don’t want to grow – it requires change.
To grow as a person begins by looking at yourself and saying something is wrong, missing, or not where it needs to be. But if you are part of the human race (and most of us are), you have something wrong (and I have something wrong) – we are broken. God wants us to understand that we are broken – and the older we get, the more we should want to grow! But the opposite is often true – as we grow older, we need to desire growth.
I’ve heard of people saying – I like the church the way it is, I don’t want it to change – and if that becomes the majority opinion, the church has 10 years.
A better attitude might be – I like the church the way it is – and I want more people to enjoy its benefits. It is okay to like yourself the way you are – but it is not okay to not want to improve.
God has a growth mindset and a growth bias.
Genesis 1: 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the [a]sky and over every living thing that [b]moves on the earth.”
And then God repeats it with Noah, and again with Abraham:
Gen. 12: Genesis 1:27-30New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Now the Lord said to Abram,

“Go forth from your country,
And from your relatives
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you;
2 And I will make you a great nation,
And I will bless you,
And make your name great;
And so [b]you shall be a blessing;
3 And I will bless those who bless you,
And the one who [c]curses you I will [d]curse.
And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
And then it is repeated by Jesus.
Matthew 28
Jesus is telling the disciples – fill the earth with disciples – people who have decided to follow Jesus fully and to live their daily life as Jesus would if He were living it through them.
It is someone who has made a decision – not just someone who holds all the correct Christian views. But it is a decision that has been made – to live my life the way Jesus would live it. That is what a disciple does. We need to ask ourselves – how would Jesus live if He had my circumstances? How would Jesus respond in my survival mode?
Jesus said you have to take up your cross and follow Him if you want to be His disciple.
It is a one-time decision and it is a daily decision.
If you have never made that decision – I will challenge you to begin today. We can live like that – it is possible.
In the gospels, Jesus told parables – and so many focused on growth and developing a mindset of growth.
Mark 4: 26 And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; 27 and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know. 28 The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. 29 But when the crop permits, he immediately [g]puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
When we speak of growing, it is not about church size, but kingdom growth. There is a difference. If there is kingdom growth, the church will grow. We are called to be engaged in kingdom growth
Like the wedding feast – bring them in until my house is full. He wants us to have a mindset of making things full.
Notice the growth is God’s doing, not ours! The famer just sows the seed – and it grows and produces fruit. It is not our initiative – growth is a response to God, His mission and His activities. Growth is all about responding to what God is doing and His mission.
It cannot be forced or manipulated. Paul said, I planted, Apollos watered, but WHO? God – causes the growth
If a church grows by strategic manipulation, it is not necessarily kingdom growth – that does not mean that we don’t strategize, but it must be in response to what God is doing.
Jesus continued:
30 And He said, “How shall we [h]picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, 32 yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that the birds of the air can nest under its shade.”
When Jesus inaugurated the kingdom – it went pretty much unnoticed – like a mustard seed. Just a tiny group of people in a great big world - and that little seed that was sown will continue to grow until it fills the earth.
Your current size does not determine the growth of the church or your ministry – even if it is the smallest granule right now. When we look at size, we fail to see how God is working.
When we are so wrapped up in where we wish we were or where someone else is, we fail to recognize what God is doing in us.
All of us are unique. God has a unique work for each of us.
We need to look to the issues that have placed us in survival mode – schedule, money, responsibilities, health – those things that seem to prevent your growth and preventing you from kingdom growth – it is in that environment where God wants to help you grow. It is not getting out of that – it is in that.
We say – it would sure be easier if we had someone else’s circumstances. But God has uniquely “Dumped” on us – I don’t want to say that like that, but it seems like that – but it is in that ‘dumping’ that growth lies.
One limitation here is our building. We have size issues – I hear two complaints – there is not enough space in our building and it is not handicap accessible. Those complaints are at odds with each other. We need to find a solution. What I realized – our church’s growth lies in our limitations – in there are the seeds of growth. Where do we go from here?
It is the same in our own lives – it is in our limitations and weaknesses where we have the opportunity for the greatest growth. For God, weakness allows power. Smallness allows growth. Whenever you feel small or weak – understand that it is within that that God is doing His greatest work inside of you.
This takes us back to Daniel – we looked at three things there – growth in our own lives, the kingdom, and the church needs to be tied to the good news – the gospel, the story of Jesus. There are three ways we speak of the gospel – proclamation, performance, and persecution.
This is how we incarnate the body of Christ – we are to live out the gospel – it is to become a part of all we are. It goes beyond just proclaiming it – it becomes all consuming and all controlling.
Two quick practical things – instead of waiting for people to come to church – we need to go to people – and to go to them where you are. To be a witness is not an outside activity – it should take place right in the center of your life – that is where God has you – to participate in the gospel.
Second – in order to become the body of Christ and participate in the gospel – we need to lose our focus on individualistic ministry and mission and become the body of Christ. Who is the body of Christ? All of us. You cannot participate in the gospel alone. It Is not possible to witness alone. We need to learn how to do it as a community.