The Church Uncorked

Call to Worship

To all who are weary and in need of rest

To all who are mourning and longing for comfort

To all who fail and desire strength

To all who sin and need a Savior

We, Moraga Valley Presbyterian Church, open wide our arms

With a welcome from Jesus Christ.

He is the ally to the guilty and failing

He is the comfort to those who are mourning

He is the joy of our hearts

And He is the friend of sinners

So Come, worship Him with us.

Sermon

I am so glad you were able to join us this morning! I’m very excited to jump into the last week of our Vision Series that we’ve called Joyful Surrender.

We’ve recently introduced a new Vision Statement as a church:

We see a vibrant and diverse community that joyfully surrenders all of life to making disciples for the glory of Jesus.

We’ve been using three different words that are going to continue to guide us over the next several years as we see this vision lived out:

BELONG

TRANSFORM

ENGAGE

Today’s word is ENGAGE.

This word is important: God has not called us into a life of passivity, there are no spectators allowed in the Kingdom of God — we want to be a church living in the power of the Holy Spirit, filled with purpose!

I’ve actually titled this sermon, “The Church Uncorked,” and my prefrontal cortex has really been firing as I’ve been thinking about this sermon… here’s what I picture, that Moraga Valley is all bottled up, we’re being shaken, and now we take our champagne saber, and it’s time to uncork the beautiful thing that God has brought together here… there’s something that God wants to unleash in His people, and…

It’s apparent to me when I read the scriptures that God wants to show His power to the world, through the church. And we need God’s power if we are going to see our vision come to a reality.

Today we’re going to talk about, power, in three ways:

The Kingdom Comes in Power

The Gospel Came in Power

The Church Lives in Power

First, lets look at how THE KINGDOM COMES IN POWER.

As we belong to Christ, who is God’s Saving King for the World, it means that we also by virtue of His rule and reign, are now citizens of His Kingdom…

The Kingdom of God will always stand in opposition to the kingdoms of the world. This is done inn part through our beliefs, like our hope and trust in a died and resurrected Saving King; and in our behaviors, that the supernatural power of God upholds every person that belongs to Christ.

I can’t explain why this happens, or really how this happens, but I just know that this happens — over time, we tend to drift away from God’s power, and end up believing that we have an inflation of self-power, or self-will. Paul said something similar to this to the church in Corinth.

Corinth and the Bay Area share a number of similarities: they’re both global port cities, and the rest of the world in some way shape or form look to them.

Influence plays an important role in the economy of the world, and that level of importance, whether it be commercial activity in Corinth, or our tech influence in the Bay Area, can inevitably lead to pride or inflated self-power or self-will. James Montgomery Boice, the long time preacher at 10th Presbyterian in Philadelphia, said, “The root of pride is saying that we can do without God.”

Corinth thought it had a different, a better, gospel to preach and Paul’s response is so revealing about the character of these people. He says in verse 18,

1 Corinthians 4:18

1 Corinthians 4:18 (NIV)

Some of you have become arrogant...

It’s safe to say that a different gospel, one that’s rooted in our own power, our own influence, our own authority, is arrogant.

The Apostle Paul says, “it’s not power, it’s all talk,” and in 1 Corinthians 4:20 he just further differentiates between the power of the world and the power of the Kingdom.

1 Corinthians 4:20 (NIV)

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.

There’s no power of God needed when you already know everything, when you already have everything, — when you rely on yourself… Paul says in his second letter to the Corinthians that God’s power doesn’t work in our strength, but rather it works in our weakness.

I think scripture is pretty clear that our origin story of belonging to God’s Kingdom, did not come by our own power. God’s message of salvation, the announcement of King Jesus, and His New Kingdom, is one of His own making…

This brings us to our second kind of power this morning: THE GOSPEL CAME IN POWER

Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 1:5

1 Thessalonians 1:5 (NIV)

because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake.

Christians have not heard an ordinary, human message. Nobody would have dreamt up this strategy to save the world: God would in the form of humanity do what humanity could not — which was to restore the relationship with God and Man, and it would take the God-Man Jesus Christ to do it. And the way that this happens is through His death — and Him rising from the dead.

Whose idea was that? It was God’s idea!

Quote by Tim Stenton

We must never imagine that we wriggled free from the devil’s grasp by our own strength or ingenuity, for he had taken us captive to do his will; rather, it was an almighty hand that wrested us from his clutches.

This is all makes sense with what Paul says to the Thessalonian church: this message, God’s truth to us, wouldn’t make any sense without God’s help. We need the Holy Spirit’s help to see the fullest extent of God’s power. Martin Lloyd-Jones said, "The true character of the Holy Spirit is this: He exalts Christ and turns men's minds away from themselves to Christ."

God’s power, unlike the talk of the Corinthian church, is not without effect.

Paul uses the words DEEP CONVICTION, and that’s going to help us talk about our last kind of power, in how THE CHURCH LIVES IN POWER

DEEP CONVICTION is the impact that the gospel has on people. When you meet Jesus and get brought into His Kingdom, you live differently — under completely different convictions.

These deep convictions we have don’t just stay with us, they’re so important to the fabric of who we are, that we have to share them with others. The intended outcome is that others will “overflow” with the same convictions that we have! Paul says in Romans 15:13

Romans 15:13 (NIV)

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Christians have a different reality — we do have that same joy, peace, and a hope that Paul just mentioned here in Romans — and the Holy Spirit is at work through us, so others can have that same reality.

When the church lives in power it changes the lives of other people.

Power is the output of the Christian life. The Kingdom comes in Power, the Gospel came in Power — so the church lives in, and by, the power of the Holy Spirit.

Everything we do requires God’s power and help!

Our vision as a church requires God’s help…

There are two words that we’ve used up until this point: VIBRANT and DIVERSE.

VIBRANT is a word that describes the CONTENT of our FAITH, and DIVERSE is a word that describes the CONTEXT of our COMMUNITY. Last week we talked about a VIBRANT faith at Moraga Valley, looking more and more like Jesus; and this morning we’re edging closer and closer to being a DIVERSE people — where God’s power is on display.

Our hope, with God’s help, is to see a MULTIGENERATIONAL AND MULTIETHNIC community that follows Jesus. As I said the first week, we need every generation to reach the next generation; and we also are praying for God’s help to be a church that reflects the diversity of our community.

Our community is continuing to grow in diversity, and the reason why it’s growing in diversity, is because the Bay Area is a melting pot of ethnic diversity. Did you know that over 140 countries and over 160 languages are represented in the Bay Area? This means we are one of the most diverse places in the entire country! Which is insane! The United Nations recognizes 193 countries.

With God’s help, we’ll see our church grow in diversity as the East Bay continues to grow in diversity… this is a miracle, in my mind, this is the kind of expectation that totally relies on God.

Only God can make us the non-ignorable presence of Jesus we want to be for our community.

I really long to see God at work in two different ways for us as we reach this next generation.

I want to see God at work in our SERVICE and in our SENDING.

Both of these words will have left an indelible impact on our community. Let’s take for example, the word, SERVICE.

I think that the best future of our church is when every member here knows what their God-given gifts are, is using them, and is helping us to see our vision come to a reality.

We want 100% participation as a church in service here at Moraga Valley — this is a church constantly demonstrating God’s power.

As we talked about earlier, self-will, and self-power can creep in… I don’t ever want us to lose our awe of what God can do. Our church needs God’s power on display, but so does our community.

We want to regularly serve our community, to be a non-ignorable presence… what if every school, every assisted living center, every community organization, in Lamorinda — relied on Moraga Valley? Whether it be for volunteers, use of our facilities, financial resources, or just our care and prayers?

Real power is non-ignorable. If you’ve ever been to a concert, you can feel it. If you’ve ever been to a professional sporting event, you can hear it when two athletes collide. Power makes its presence known.

If Moraga Valley were to disappear overnight as a church, would our community notice?

We are being called to serve our community, because God has SENT us to our community. God’s power through you matters in your neighborhood, at your workplace, at your gym, at your social club of choice — He hasn’t called you anywhere else other than where you are right now.

We want to grow our presence, continue to demonstrate God’s power — both here in Lamorinda, and across the world.

It’s my hope to see us offer future opportunities for teams to be sent to the Dominican Republic, to the Congo, to Serbia, to Thailand — let’s be a demonstration of God’s power wherever Moraga Valley is called to go, and see the Holy Spirit at work.

We have every reason to expect God to continue to move in our midst and outside of this church through all of you.

We’ve been praying big prayers, dreaming big dreams. Part of this is in the prayers you wrote down and put into the jar. Wouldn’t it be awful if we kept every prayer in this jar? Wouldn’t it be terrible if we had no expectation of the POWER of God — the same power that raises the dead to life, that calls wayward children home, that gives sight to the blind, and lets the lame walk?

I can’t quite uncork this bottle — but let’s bust it open.

I want to read some of things you’ve been praying for, and we can continue to ask God to answer those prayers in our community.

READ PRAYERS IN BROKEN JAR

END IN PRAYER

----------

Benediction

As we’ve gone through this series, hopefully we’ve painted the expectation that we want to be prepared relationally and spiritually, but our vision also requires us to be prepared financially — willing to joyfully surrender so that others will BELONG to the family of God, and that we might see Jesus TRANSFORM them, and so that they will ENGAGE with the world around them through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Next week on December 3, we will be having our annual Pledge Sunday — but we’re not calling it a pledge, we’re calling it an act of JOYFUL SURRENDER for this next season as a church. There are cards in front of you in the seat back, cards that are being sent in the mail, and you can even fill them out next week.

We want to invite you into prayer as you look at what you’ve given this past year, and how God might be calling you into a greater degree of surrender.

If you don’t know how much you pledged last year, we’re sending out statements tomorrow so please check for that in your email.

So on December 3 we’re going to collect those in our service and give a time of prayerful worship for what kind of surrender the Lord is calling you into as we step into the future by faith.