Yeah, we can do that...

This is an excerpt from a recent teaching of mine…

Here are some really important ideas about the life God is calling us to live…

1.   God wants to use you to impact this world

2.   God can use you to impact this world

3.   Be Prepared to be used by God

4.   Use the tools God provides

Fact: You are Amazing & You are not alone in this…

Greatest part of the tool kit God has given us is: Each other.

God has designed us to do life together…

Sad reality is, most of us do not do this very well.  We suck at relationships…

Phil. 2:3)

A question I want to pose is this:

How can we do life together more effectively?

Think for a moment about why it’s important to even worry about our relationships with other people.

Here is what I believe scripture tells us…

We can only fulfill God’s purposes for His church, together.

You cannot do anything of value for the church on your own…

It is impossible.  No matter how talented or gifted you may be or how called you may feel to a specific vision, you will never fulfill the plans God has for His church alone.

It’s like this… Say you were given an enormous object, like a boulder and told, here move this across the street…  you would have a difficult time accomplishing the task on your own.  You might strain and struggle and exhaust an enormous amount of resources in order to fulfill the task, but in all honesty, you would succeed more rapidly, with less effort and resources expended, if you asked other people to help you with the task.

Only together can we fulfill God’s purposes for His church…

But…

Now this may seem somewhat contradictory to the previous paragraph, but: 

Obedience to God’s plans begins with the individual. 

You are personally responsible for your obedience or lack thereof.

Here’s a key:

What you do or do not do affects the people around you…

Imagine if there was no one to lead the worship, no one to run the sound and multimedia… no one to serve in the nursery… make the coffee in the café… and on it goes… it would negatively affect your worship experience.

So, not only are you responsible for your obedience to God’s plans,

You have an obligation to the community, the group of people around you, because they, whether they or you realize it, are counting on you to do what God has asked of you.

Phil. 2:4)

How does this work?  Doing life together more effectively, begins with taking responsibility for yourself, and the community, but has to contain a critical element called; Humility.

Define humility -  Understanding who I am in light of who God is and what He’s done for me… not drawing attention to myself.

Humility is a cornerstone of unity. 

It enables us to do life together more effectively and accomplish the purposes God has for His church.

So, in light of who I am because of Jesus Christ, the needs of others must surpass my own.  Not that I become a doormat for everyone to step on…

Or that I take a negative view of myself – “I suck…” or an overly

confident one either… “I am amazing”.

We must understand that we have a contribution to make, that God has enabled us to accomplish for the benefit of others… (He’s given us stuff to do and the ability to do it…not for personal gain or glory)

What does that look like… in real life terms?

Well, we’ve got to start with the prime example…

Phil. 2:5-8)

  

God may never require you to give your life for someone else, however, we are asked to take on this mindset… “attitude” that Christ shows us, in our relationships with other people… others first.  Serve in order to fulfill the task.

But Pastor Troy, that’s big… I mean… I don’t know…

I like me, I like catering to me and making me happy… I don’t know about all this others first stuff…

Don’t I have a right to be happy?  Don’t I have a right to be fulfilled and enjoy all this world has to offer… yeah, you do.

But, Jesus rejected what was rightfully his for the sake of humanity. (are you willing to reject what is “rightfully” yours for the sake of others?)

Do you understand what He gave up?

So, here’s how we do life together more effectively and fulfill the purposes God has for His church…

-       Reject the idea that this is all there is.

a.   We’ve got to have an eternal perspective… this life is temporary and our ambitions are so small… ego, fame, wealth, beauty, all fall short of what really matters and expire so quickly.

b.   Challenge the status quo… is this really as good as it gets?

Why would you stay the same if you knew God had something better for you?

-       Reject the idea that fulfillment only comes by serving yourself.

If you live your life like that… you will be very lonely, very empty and full of regret.

-       Embrace the Attitude of Christ.

a.   Welcome the challenge of fulfilling the purpose God has for your life… Jesus didn’t shrink from what He knew God was asking Him to do…was it hard?  Did Jesus have second thoughts?

Yes and yes, but he did it and his obedience yielded an amazing outcome. V. 9-11)

God blesses those who are obedient and who are willing to lay down their lives for the sake of others… figuratively and literally.

Qualifier… we don’t obey for the sake of the personal benefit.

We obey because it’s what God asks us to do and we know it will ultimately benefit others. 

                  And it will ultimately accomplish what God set in motion for us at Creation… That we     

                  might do life together more effectively and fulfill the purposes God has for His people.

Life together, humbly serving one another, obediently fulfilling God's purposes for His church.