SHORT REVIEW:
We were given a chart which helped us determine who might be most receptive to hear the Good News. We prayed over those with whom we might have the opportunity to share the Light. We are asking God to prepare the soil so that we might plant the seed. We ask God for the increase.
Our goal is to be the one that shares with the one (1:1) who will come to know Christ in an intimate and meaningful way. We recognize that we will need to mentor those with whom we share the Light. That sowing and nurturing are what God has called us to do. Our schedules reflect that priority. Our bank books reflect that priority. Our enthusiasm and praise reflect that priority… if we are to be called followers of Christ.
We were given a handout about “Making Plans” and a friend of mine shared the lyrics to a song that goes quite well with this topic.
In small group read the words to this song and discuss main points that you glean from it.
Song: “Whatever” (Colossians 3:23-24) by Steven Curtis.
I made a list wrote down from A to Z
All the ways I thought You could best use meTold all my strengths and my abilities
I formed a plan it seemed to make good sense
I laid it out for You so sure you’d be convinced
I made my case presented my defense
But then I read the letter that You sent me
It said that all you really want from me is just
Whatever, whatever, You say
Whatever, I will obeyWhatever, Lord, have your way
‘cause You are my God, whatever….
I want to do your will not matter what it is
Give me faith to follow where you lead me
Oh Lord, give me the courage and the strength to do
I am not my own
I am yours and yours aloneYou have bought me with your blood
Lord to You and You alone do I belong
And so whatever………
LESSON:
This week we look at Chapter 3 of Crazy Love and Chapter 3 of Transcend. What were some of the main points?
--There is only true joy in Jesus Christ. The world knows fun for a fleeting moment. Christians know joy even in crisis.
--There is only lasting hope in the Lord. You can always know that God is with you, supporting you, loving you when you draw near to Him. Call upon God in your distress. He hears.
--There is only peace in the heart of follower of Christ. The world does not know peace. Peace is a result of God dwelling in your inner man. Your heart is the temple of God, where His peace reigns.
PREVIEW OF HOMEWORK: Your Testimony: What would your life be like without Christ?
We see a common theme running through both chapters. Francis Chan speaks of falling in love with Jesus; taking His mission into our hearts, minds, and souls with all of our strength. Matt Smay speaks of EMBRACING the Good News of the Kingdom to the point of living in a Christ-centered relationship.
In small groups discuss what “embracing” God means to you. What does it look like? Sound like? Acts like?
INHERITED FAITH: When one is born into a family and community, and they practice the faith of their family and community, we say they have an INHERITED FAITH. This is the faith of their father and/or mother. Children don’t know any difference but to accept what they are being taught by their closest relationships. They attend worship because their parents haul them to worship. They pray in the manner they see their parents pray or not pray. If born into a Moslem family, then they pray 3 times a day on a prayer mat. If born a Hindu, then they pray with prayer beads. If born to atheists, then they learn to rely of humanism.
Inherited faith relies solely on tradition and handed down ideologies. Whole nations live from childhood into adulthood and even unto death adhering to inherited faith. Unfortunately, God is only pleased when we whole-heartedly seek Him and establish a personal covenant relationship with Him through Christ.
PEER FAITH: As we grow older, additional relationship take on priorities. These are the relationships we build with our peers. Soon we compare and contrast our inherited faith with our PEERS’s faith and often determine to associate ourselves with them. We go to church where our friends go to church. We emulate their level of commitment or non-commitment. We prefer assembling where there is a lot of social interaction so that we can gain more peers. Peer faith often fades or changes loyalties as we continue to grow or as we move on to careers, relationships, or educational opportunities. As we move beyond the interests of a specific peer group, we often find other groups to associate with regardless of their specific religious tendencies.
It has been well documented that as some individuals join the military forces they become involved heavily in peer faith experiences. Many of the military and even those in prisons have taken on the faith of Islam because their peers did. In the same way, many have been baptized into Christ. The real test is how committed they will be when they leave their group of peers.
SEARCHING FAITH: Eventually, our minds mature enough so that we can think for and beyond ourselves. We question everything and everyone. We might see the flaws in the “system” and often reject those things which don’t seem real. We might become critical and skeptical searching for the answers. Often we find truth that is incongruent with what we have once believed. It is at this point in our lives that we look at all the variables and options available to us and thus are able to make informed choices.
If we look closely into the background of the four Gospels, we recognize that most of the folks drawn to Jesus were probably at this point of “searching faith”. I don’t think it is a far stretch to imagine that the disciples where at this point of “searching faith” when Jesus called them. We often don’t give them credit for having looked deeply into their inherited faith and into their contemporaries’ faith. They must have been searching for a better way to God.
The hypocrites, Pharisees, and Scribes were certainly not drawing these type men to follow them. The disciples must have been very frustrated with the religious “right” of their day. As with Zacchaeus, Saul (Paul), Lydia, Cornelius and others, the current state of religious affairs left them seeking and searching for better answers. Praise God, Jesus came bringing the answers!
So it is with many young people, whether raised in the church or outside of it. At a special moment in life, most work through and decide what they will believe and which principles will formulate their actions. These principles are based on their own journey navigating through what they perceive to be the choices available to them. These folks want to find purpose and meaning in a real world.
Vain rituals (giving 1/10 of your spices to the temple, feasting, fasting) without relationship (embracing and loving Jesus Christ) often is rejected by this group. On the other hand, these folks will embrace a cause, even a radical and sacrificial one, if that cause exemplifies true Christianity.
Since Christ spent 80% of His time with the poor and broken, we can see why Shane Claiborne came to this conclusion during his search for “owned faith”:
“I learned a powerful lesson: We can admire and worship Jesus without doing what he did. We can applaud what he preached and stood for without caring about the same things He did. We can adore His cross without taking up ours. I had come to see that the great tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor” And thus began Shane’s search to find a true Christian, someone who actually did what Jesus taught.
DISCONTENT: One hallmark of searching faith is a form of discontentment, even anger at the status quo. It is not hard to believe that each generation must come to grips with where they are and where they still need to go….especially in today’s culture. The current American culture tells us, “You are most important.” The message is that all choices should be made according to what makes me most comfortable, what gets me the most money, how can I secure a comfortable future, and what makes me look and feel the best.”
Discontentment often arises when there is disconnect between what one’s faith proclaims and what the community of faith is actually doing. An inherent motivation occurs in the human heart to resolve this disconnect or to bury this dissonance deep underneath a layer of guilt or complacency. Those who seek the higher path, to resolve the Vision of God in their own lives, will move onward to “owned faith”. Those who bury this dissonance will have hearts that are scarred over and ears that no longer hear.
OWNED FAITH: Embracing an "owned" faith involves gaining enough knowledge and understanding to make an informed decision. It is ONLY after seeing all the options, investigating all the possibilities, and making one’s own choices that we can truly say we “own” our faith. It is unfortunate that many never get to this level of ownership (through study, reflection, and wrestling with the options). “When we choose to live God’s story and not our own, people notice.” (Smay) Owned faith becomes a testimony to the world.
THE RESULTS of OWNED FAITH
“When we have been exposed to an idea in an environment of love and we recognize that it’s time to take the next step to own the idea, a few things must happen. First of all, we must feel discontent with where we are, that what we are currently doing is lacking. … We have to decide we want something different. …but this just makes us grumpy if we don’t understand where we are trying to go.” (Smay) Sometimes, I think there are a lot of grumpy Christians who would be transformed & find true purpose and joy if they learned to WALK IN and EXPOSE others to the LIGHT. (“What are you steppin’ in?”)THE RESULTS of OWNED FAITH
Claiborne: “People always want to define you by what you want to do or where you are going. I started saying, “I’m not too concerned with what I am going to do. I want to be a lover of God and people…..Jesus never says to the poor, ‘Come find the church,’ but he says to those of us in the church, ‘Go into the world and find the poor, hungry, homeless, imprisoned,’ in other words, go minister to Jesus in all His disguises.”
Secondly, according to Smay, we must have a vision of where we want to be in the future. However, I have come to realize that we need to stop looking for “what we want” and look to God’s Vision and where HE wants us to be.
Claiborne: “Rather than waiting around for God’s special plan for our lives, we should just go find where God is at work and join in.” Chan says it this way, “Stop thinking that you are going to receive a life plan from God and start applying what you already know to be in His Will.”
God is at work in the world, at this very moment, preparing hearts to accept the seed-- the Gospel. We just have to “show up” and “step up” by embracing the mission of God. Embracing God must take place in our own hearts before we can help others to embrace Him.
“When we choose to love in a sacrificial and radical way, heads turn; and people are faced with the choice to embrace a bigger story of God in their life—a choice to join a loving relationship with the Creator of the Universe.” (Smay)
Thirdly, God is calling us to be a living witness for the peace, joy, love, the hope that is within us.
WATCH: http://www.faithit.com/?p=1575 Is there a disconnect between what we say we believe and how we act or react in the world?
“When we talk about EMBRACE in regards to someone who is searching, we are talking about an “I get it” moment. (Smay) The light bulb comes on and “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so!” becomes more than head knowledge, it becomes heart and soul inspiration…the evidence, of which, is a life of praise, sacrifice, and witnessing. When we fall in love with Jesus, we shine like a Light to the world. We spend our time as He did among (eyeball to eyeball) the poor & broken. We move from feeling guilty to feeling ready for any good work because “God ensures our success in accordance with His Plan, not ours.”
In your small group discuss any “I get it moments” you have had recently.
EMBRACING GOD is about choosing Him above all other options. “To whom will we go?” Peter asked. Peter had seen the options and found the one true answer. When we embrace our faith in Almighty God, He embraces us and gives us the gifts of endless joy, hope, peace, and love. These are the gifts more precious than gold and that can never be taken from us. These are the gifts we use to bring others to Christ.
WATCH: http://www.faithit.com/?p=1753 How does this approach work for you?
Question: How will you know when you are teaching someone who has begun to EMBRACE God? Can you give some Biblical examples?
WATCH this Video. Discuss Good ideas you see and discuss Better ideas you can think of: Homeless Man Video: http://youtu.be/rsIOoXG_gmo
WATCH this video to see How to present the Gospel: Begin thinking about how you would present the Gospel in a just few minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_ZzhwbfcjK4#t=6
EMBRACING THE VISION OF GOD MEANS TOUCHING LOVINGLY
“I’m just not convinced that Jesus is going to say, “When I was hungry, you gave a check to the United Way and they fed me,” or “When I was naked, you donated clothes to the Salvation Army and they clothed me.” (Shane Claiborne)
“Has the church become a distribution center, a place where the poor come to get stuff and the rich come to dump stuff” perpetuating the insulation and the isolation of “the have and the have not?”
Survey (for your eyes only): You will probably have to give some of these your best guess….
1. How many times does Scripture say something similar to these words?
“have eyes but do not see”, or “he who has an ear let him hear ”
a. 1 time
b. 3 times
c. 5 times
d. 10 times
e. More than 15 times
2. What did Jesus mean when He said, “Visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction” or “do unto the least of these”
a. These could be programs for the deacons
a. These could be programs for the deacons
b. These might be a good idea for a Lady’s Bible Class
c. The elders and staff would take care of these
d. These command apply to me
3. Who does this command apply to? “Go into all the world, make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things….”
a. To me
b. To paid staff
c. To the preacher
d. To the elders
e. To every Follower of Christ
4. Matthew 25: 31-46 gives us a vision of judgment day. Which one of these was the criteria for being pleasing to the Lord?
a. How many times we read the Bible
b. How much money we gave each Sunday
c. How we spent our time serving the needy
d. How many football game scores we could recite
e. Whether we gave our children dance, piano, cheer, or voice lessons
5. Where did Jesus spend 80% of his time?
a. Teaching in the Temple
b. Teaching in the Synagogue
c. On a lake
d. On a mountain top
e. In the Desert
f. Among the poor and broken.
6. If we love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and with all our strength, we will……
a. Trust Him by continually striving to make His Vision our priority
b. Make ourselves sick by worrying about pleasing Him
c. Feel guilty for not doing more
d. Continue with the status quo
7. If you can answer all the above questions correctly what does it profit us?
a. Nothing …if we call Him, “Lord” and do not the things that He says
b. Everything…if we EMBRACE His Words and make them our priority
GOD HAS BEEN PATIENT
It recently occurred to me that God has been very kind and patient, waiting for us to change, but we too often continue to think more about our own interests more than we do about the poor. (Luke 16) Consider honestly if you think more about your own comfort than you do about the lost. (John 20:21) Is it possible that we vocalize our political stance more than we open our lips to share the Gospel with someone personally? (Matthew 28:18-19)
Are we more concerned about our savings accounts than we are about being accountable to help save others?
Perhaps it’s time to consider the cost of discipleship instead of the economy's toll on our wallets. (Matthew 6:24) Praise God we have wallets.
Here is an opportunity to abide in the love of Christ. (1 Cor16:22-24) I am personally wrestling with remembering it was the poor and the broken with whom Christ preferred to spend His time. He did
not come to feed the poor or to heal the sick; He came to bring the Good News. However, He fed and healed because He moved among them and touched them.
CAN WE ALL PRAY THIS PRAYER?
Here is an opportunity to abide in the love of Christ. (1 Cor16:22-24) I am personally wrestling with remembering it was the poor and the broken with whom Christ preferred to spend His time. He did
not come to feed the poor or to heal the sick; He came to bring the Good News. However, He fed and healed because He moved among them and touched them.
CAN WE ALL PRAY THIS PRAYER?
Father, forgive me because I am too often caught up in my own selfish affairs. (Matthew 16:24) Help me to be converted, “no longer conformed to the pattern that is destroying our world.” (Shane Claiborne)
HOMEWORK:
(1) Complete your witness statement, “My life without Christ would be……..” Share your statement sometime this week with your Study Buddies. It is not a witness until you share it.
(2) Read Chapter 4 in Crazy Love-“Profile of the Lukewarm” . List 16 characteristics of lukewarm people. Read Chapter 4 in Transcend –“Engage” Please note that we will either be engaged in God’s mission or we will grow lukewarm in His presence.
(3) Pray for those you are going to expose to the Good News. Think about how you would present the Gospel in just a few minutes.
(4) Begin praying how you might embrace the vision of God beyond the confines of the church.
(5) Look into the chapters of Crazy Love to see which chapter you would like to present. Email me!
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