Better Together: When it's time to deliver, it's time to move!
Series: Better Together
Scripture: Matt 9:35-37; Acts 2:42-47
Title: “When It’s Time to Deliver, It’s Time to Move”
Bottom line: When it’s time to deliver, it’s time to move. Therefore, check your spiritual vital signs and move out!
INTRO
The church is pregnant with harvesters ready to enter the harvest. The harvest is ready to receive.
The question is: Are you ready to move? When it’s time to deliver, it’s time to move! (Jennifer’s story here?)
EPISODE 1 - It’s time to move! Be delivered.
Jennifer’s Delivery?
EPISODE 2 - Be Devoted.
Key word seems to be “devoted.”
How can I live a devoted life?
By eating and exercising well (with great discipline).
Remember, a person without discipline is like a house without windows and doors.
The early church was devoted to four things: (2 categories: Diet (1) & Exercise (2-4))
Feed on Word. (Food that endures) “The apostles teaching” was literally the exposition of the OT into what would become the NT. They were devoted to teaching and learning (with assumption that they’d obey) the word of God as the Holy Spirit led. “To hear is to obey” -Llew Silver Hand
Gather in Community. (Exercise one another’s) “To Fellowship is doing life-together. An extended family on mission together (i.e. what we pray a Mission Group becomes). This doesn’t say “To THE fellowship” or group but to the act of fellowship-ing or doing life together. It implies
Unity in Christ
Diversity within the Body of Christ (think body life) (next week)
If you were planting a church starting small, you’d start with this kind of a group. An extended family of servant-missionaries learning together how to make disciples who make disciples.
Draw triangle with flower inside to illustrate
Examples include military, mission field, family vacations, sharing trauma.
Remember around the Table. (Food that endures)
“The breaking of bread” indicates the Lord’s supper in the context of an evening meal.
This was the practice or rhythm of the early church.
Many think this happened every Sunday night after they’d gathered for worship. They’d follow worship with a meal for all who came and the Lord’s supper was a part of that meal (like at the last supper and Passover meals).
The LS reminds us of when Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.” And then he proceeded to tell everyone, “This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (John 6:51) That was the cross.
Pray like Breathing. (Exercise One another’s) “To prayer” as in we need to pray like we need to breathe—all the time. It is essential and we can’t survive without it. It’s our lifeline to the Lord.
Dr. Luke gives us this as the key ingredients to being a healthy church fellowship/family/community: Diet & Exercise.
Be devoted to your spiritual diet and exercise.
We’re already in trouble, aren’t we. We can’t seem to even get this right in our physical lives. And this matters so much more!
It’s now when I show people that there is a direct connection between discipline in your physical life and your spiritual life.
In other words, when you are disciplined in your physical life, it helps you in your spiritual life. And vice versa.
Every January this becomes more important to us than the rest of the year. By February, most of us have fallen back to our hold habits. We haven’t created new, healthy rhythms that come from a life of self-control.
Diet
The first of these key ingredients is the diet—input; what we take in. This is more than going on a diet like Adkins, Mediterranean or paleo. Your diet is what you eat. Some of you have a Dorrito diet. Others a McDiet. You eat chips and drink soda and don’t give much thought at all to what you eat and drink. What you eat and how much of it you eat matters more than anything when it comes to good health. (Physically and spiritually)
The old saying is, “Garbage in = Garbage out”.
So many of us do things and buy things to make us healthier. But we are undisciplined about the most basic way to see that happen—eat healthy and eat less. We avoid fasting like the plague when in fact wise fasting leads to better health. We try to exercise our way to a healthier body but avoid this most basic of steps: Put a sentry at the opening of your mouth. Only you can discipline yourself to eat wisely.
Exercise
The second of these key ingredients applies to 2-4: Exercise.
We get stronger by getting weaker and then resting our muscles. The result of that rested muscle is a stronger muscle.
Our faith (gathering, remembering and praying) is like a muscle too. We use it which stretches it. We return to God resting (abiding) in him, and the result is a stronger faith.
We exercise by gathering as a community fellowshipping together in Christ. Being present or “showing up” are ways we reflect Christ’s incarnation or “word made flesh”. We cannot practice the “one another's” if we’re not with one another!
If he doesn’t show up—we don’t go up.
We remember around the table as we gather and enjoy biblical hospitality which includes the Eucharist/Communion/Lord’s Supper. We take time to regularly remember the cross. This is the best expression of the love of God there is. It’s not about the resurrection (though that proved it worked and made this possible). It all comes back to the cross. Where God showed his sacrificial love in sending his son to die for the sins of the world reconciling and restoring all things under Christ. This is salvation and it is the hope Christians rest in as they contemplate eternity.
We pray like breathing.
We never stop breathing. (1 Thess 5:17)
We breath when we’re alone and when we’re with others. We don’t really think about it and yet it’s essential to life. Prayer is essential in the spiritual life.
The strength of our faith is measured by how we pray. To not pray is to not believe, not know, or not care that prayer makes a difference. So it’s either because of
Unbelief,
Ignorance, or
Indifference.
We correct our breathing when it’s not right.
One of the worries of COVID-19 is how it affects our breathing.
If you have asthma or breathing issues, that makes you high risk for COVID-19.
It’s why you carry an inhaler.
Perhaps the reason you feel like your faith is on life-support is because you need a spiritual inhaler. That would be the Holy Spirit.
EPISODE 3 - Be fruitful.
What are the results, affects, or fruit of being devoted to these things?
Fruit shows that we’re acting by faith in being devoted to healthy rhythms. (Food & exercise)
What does this look like? Glad you asked!
Radical generosity. (Acts 2:44-45)
Constant interaction. (2:44)
Gathering in large and small groups. (2:46)
Spirit of awe, gladness and praise. (2:43, 46-47)
Displaying attractive faith. (2:47)
Daily evangelism. (2:47)
EPISODE 4 - Be diligent & check your vital signs.
Biblical nourishment.
Loving fellowship.
Vibrant worship.
Word & deed outreach.
When your vital signs are good, you shine vibrant health like a pregnant mother.
Speaking of light...what does light do? Think lighthouse.
EPISODE 5 - Be DeLightful.
The Lighthouse Movement was popularized as the nation moved towards the year 2,000. Ministries, churches and mission organizations sensed a growing urgency to equip the body to multiply disciple-makers. This strategy was developed to help everyone be a lighthouse where they live, work, and play.
What does light do?
It attracts (to Christ and his bride the Church)
It reveals (truth)
It warns (consequences of sin)
Prayer - Pray for those where you live, work, learn and play.
Care - Care for those you’ve been praying for as needs arise.
Share - Share with those you’ve been caring for as trust grows and opportunities arise.
What can I do this week to take baby steps in the direction?
Run this play:
Goal: 3 touches/week
Prayer, care, & share
Think, “I am a lighthouse” and my job is to shine wherever I live, work, and play
Share any wins that happen this week by texting 843-830-2464
Conclusion
Emma - thinking she’d come even faster, I lost it (share story)
Final story
We’ve been pregnant—time to birth a mission in our neighborhood.
We renamed our mission group to the Neighborhood Mission Group.
We asked our group to pray for and to hold us accountable to reach out to our neighbors. You did and we did.
We stepped up our game and connected with more of our neighbors over the past year.
We’ve been growing more and more pregnant with momentum as we’ve connected with more and more of our neighbors.
Now it’s time to deliver. It’s time to move!
Time to deliver a new group on mission to reach Bradford Chase (just like the Vullo’s and the Whittington’s are doing in their neighborhood).
God cares about the harvest way more than we do. But if we pray for him to send more harvesters into the harvest, we must be willing to be the answer to that prayer. Are you? The harvest is ready to deliver! Are we ready to move? Because it’s time!
How will we (Anita and I) do this?
Pray. We’ll continue to pray for our neighbors and how to best care for and share with them. We’ll pray for God to show us what’s next.
Move. When we gain clarity on our next step, we’ll move forward one step. We will keep this simple and seek to do just what he wants—no more; no less.
Report. We’ll share with our current Mission Group what God is up to.
Repeat. We’ll pray again and move again. We will do this simply and by faith. When it succeeds, we will only be able to point to what God showed us to do.
Perhaps God has already been working in and on you to do something like this. If so, we are ready to help.
For some, it’s start a Core group (2-5 people meeting weekly for accountability in the word). UP
For some, it’s a home group (8-12 people meeting bi-weekly for being discipled); IN
For some, it’s a mission group (10+ people meeting bi-weekly for being trained to make disciples who make disciples); OUT
Step 1: Pray for your next step.
Step 2: Do that next step.
Step 3: Repeat.
Step 4: Connect with us for coaching support, prayer and encouragement. We’ll have coaching Zooms where you can regularly be trained and encouraged to do what God leads you to do.
Text me at 843-830-2464 or write it down on a green card that you want to talk coaching or groups. We’ll get in touch with you this week.