Rooted - Disciple

Good morning church, this is a big day in the life of Journey and all that God will do moving forward as we commit to being rooted disciples together. I have to say I do love our worship team, Carson down to every single person who is a part of this team week in and week out they put in the time, energy and effort and use their gifts to lead you in worshiping our God together. But listen, we don’t get up on this stage and teach, or worship or do anything up here so that you might think we are great. If that’s the point of messages and worship leaders to make great of themselves then they have missed the point and should get off the stage. What we do up here is to under God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit reveal Gods glory to us in worship and in word. I was thinking about Glory this week, biblically Glory describes God's eternal Majesty and Splendor.

Maybe you have heard the phrase “Give Glory to God” when the athlete wins, or the actor gets the Oscar and they say something along the lines of “I want to give glory to God for this…or I want to give glory to God for that..” it makes it seem like they are possessors of some sort of Glory and they are transferring it to God. We are not possessors of glory, instead we are conduits for it. That God through his majesty and grace allows us as his image bearers to show the world his Glory. That everything we do as Jesus followers, we are to bring glory to God. This is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10 where there were conversations about what type of food these new Christian’s were allowed to eat, and he said you have freedom in Christ, the old Law does not apply so he says, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” The very way you eat food and drink whatever it is you drink in the back of your mind the questions you should be asking yourself is “How can I do this to glorify God?”

That’s the point of a disciple on this earth is to be more like Jesus through following him, and though your life reveal God's glory to the rest of the world. This doesn’t mean just going to church once a week and calling it good, in fact it's far deeper and a higher calling than that. It is about Jesus being evident in every aspect of your life. So when Paul was writing in the book of Colossians the church of Colossia was struggling with Chrsitological Heresy. Meaning, there was false teaching spreading throughout the church about Jesus that was confusing Christian’s and leading them astray. And Paul says that Jesus is the Visible Image of an Invisible God containing within himself the fullness of deity. That Jesus is fully man, and fully God and died on the cross for our sins and rose again. And for anyone who believes in that Paul says you died to your old self and you are now hidden in Christ. And since you are hidden in Christ, everything you do should be done to reveal Christ and show Jesus to the world. In fact he says this, “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” ‭‭Colossians‬ ‭3‬:‭16‬-‭17‬

He is saying let the word of God dwell in you so richly that it is rooted in your soul, and it is an overflow of your heart. And let the word of God then direct and drive how you act, think and believe. For the word whatever here literally means, whatever, how you speak, think, act, feel, treat someone else, handle your money, handle your anger, handle your emotions, it should all glorify God and be directed by what he has written in his word on how Christians should act and live.

But before we jump really into it today I was reminded of another verse that should show us the seriousness and the high calling a rooted disciple has on your life. You see Paul once again is writing to a church…that was kind of his thing…and this time it was to the Church of Philippi and the letter is to the Philippians. He writes this, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” This is a verse we love to out on coffee mugs, pillows and artwork at the house and if we are honest with ourselves its a great phrase…if life is going great. To live is Christ as long as life is good is easy, and when we die, but we don’t want to think about that, when we die that’s going to be gain because we as Jesus followers are in heaven. But when Paul was writing this he wasn’t living in the penthouse of the palace. No, he was in his prison cell in Rome, most likely as he penned this letter with one hand he was chained to a Roman guard with his other. The crazy thing is, a few verses before this verse he said that it is evident to the palace guard and everyone else in the jail cell that his chains were FOR Jesus. Even in his hardest moments in life the Gospel was advancing and he was using his chains to revel the Glory of the Gospel to Others.

To live is Christ to die is gain, means that death is not the defeat for Christians, it is the graduation to glorification. For Paul he knew his life no matter the circumstance would reveal Gods glory and advance the Gospel, he knew his death would bring Glory to Jesus and advance the Gospel and he knew his death would place him before Glory Himself! To Live is Christ to Die is gain, but we often reverse the two. To live is gain, to die is Christ. We want to live to gain, gain wealth, gain experiences, gain whatever it is you want, and after we live how we want to, if we believe in Jesus then we get Jesus for all eternity. But that isn’t how Jesus calls his followers to live, that isn’t how he calls his disciples to act, that isn’t how he is calling Journey church to leave a legacy of the Gospel in North Peoria. He is calling all of us to be rooted disciples, and through being rooted we reveal God’s glory by how we live our lives in the good times, the bad times and every time in between. Jesus gives us a clear example of how we do this. In the Book of Matthew the 7th Chapter. Go ahead and turn your bibles there and then go find the book of James and put your bookmark there. We will be there shortly.

In Matthew Jesus gives his famous “Sermon on the Mount” which if all goes according to plan we will walk through that together next year as a church. At the end of this sermon he concludes it with the difference between a wise and a foolish builder. This is what he says, “Therefore” Every Time you see a therefore in scripture you have to ask yourself what’s it there for? In this sermon Jesus begins to flip upside down what people thought the Kingdom of God was like and started to lay out new ways of living and how citizens of the Kingdom should act. That’s why he says “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

If you have been in church for any amount of time you may have heard an explanation of this passage as someone who is a Christian, and someone who is not a Christian. That a Chritian builds his house on the word of God and a non Christian doesn’t and when the rains and floods of life come the house of the Christian stands and the house of the non-Christian is destroyed and so on. But that isn’t what Jesus says. I would say that both of these people who built houses would be Jesus followers, both of the houses or lives they built looked the same from the outside, in essence both heard the word of God heck even both would probably publicly profess they are Jesus followers, only one of them applied the word of God. One foundation stood the tests of life, the other didn’t. That’s the difference between the foundations.

Here is something we need to understand if we are ever going to be rooted disciples that comes straight from Jesus, Following Jesus isn’t in the saying, it’s in the doing. There is a difference in saying you will do something, or even saying that you do something than actually doing it. Ladies, how many times have you heard your husband say he will take out the trash…but its still there…or ladies you say a little promise to your husband then you fall asleep. Well all know there is a big difference between the saying and the doing. And when it comes to following Jesus we can say we are Christian’s all we want, but if we don’t apply God's word to our life, if we don’t abide in Jesus, if we don’t follow the teachings of the the apostles to help teach us, renew us and change us by the power of the Holy Spirit we are simply foolish builders who have no idea that our house is built on a foundation that will not stand the tests of life.

Last week pastor Carlyle spoke about the essential unity, in non-essentials freedom and in all things love. This is good for us to understand that there are hill in the christian faith to die on and others that are not. One of the Hills is Sola Scriptura, which is a part of the 5 solas of the protestant reformation movement. The others are Solus Christus, by Christ Alone, Sola Fide, by faith alone, Sola Gratia, by grace alone and  Soli Deo Gloria, for the glory of God alone. Sola Sciprtura means by Scripture alone. Meaning, Scripture alone for a christian is our ultimate authority, i've said it before its for orthodoxy (right belief) and orthopraxy (right actions). By God's divine grace and sovereignty we as Jesus followers believe that scripture is the perfect, infallible, meaning incapable of making mistakes, word of God.

That when the Holy Spirit used the Bible authors, he didn't make a mistake and there isn't some sort of cosmic telephone game where the writers got it wrong. This book here both old testament and new, old covenant and new covenant is God designed for us to know him and how to follow him. Which means this…the bible according to Jesus, according to Paul, and according to our heavenly father is never wrong. It is the word that you build a strong foundation on and by this word we know how to reveal God's glory to other people. So hear me, you've heard me say it before, If you think the bible is wrong…you're wrong. The bible by the power of Jesus and the Holy Spirit changes our thoughts and and it should drive us to acting out our faith.

People will love to say that they don't want to follow the bible, they only want to follow Jesus. How do we know what Jesus did and taught? The bible. How can we trust that what Jesus said is authentic and authoritative if we don't trust the authenticity and authority of the rest of the bible? As Jesus followers and disciples we are followers of God's word and listen, practitioners of God’s word. Meaning this, We don't change the bible, the bible changes us. How is this possible? Scripture calls it living and active, sharper than any double edged sword.

So Jesus said that it is upon his word that we build a strong foundation, that when the troubles of life come, and they will, when we are rooted in God's word, living an active faith we can weather any storm or trial or situation life has to offer. This is where James the brother of Jesus comes into play. Think about this, James, the brother of Jesus became a Jesus follower and leader in Jesus’s church. What would it take for you to believe that your brother was God in the flesh and the savior of your soul? Maybe dying on the cross and seeing him raised to life. You see James died as a martyr for his faith that his brother was his God. And James wrote this you've heard this before, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds.” How can we find joy in trials? Because we know that when we live by and apply Gods word in our life, we have a firm foundation.

But James elaborates more about the teaching of Jesus when it comes to doing not just saying, or in this case, we just don't listen to God's word. What is a church? DO IT! My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. How do we know the righteousness that God desires, by reading his word, how do we know what moral filth is? By accepting the word that God, listen, planted in you.

22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Here is what James is saying, if you simply go to church, hear a message and leave, read your bible and put it down, go to a group and leave, to take comfort in the fact you have heard God’s word when you have not done it, James says you are deceiving yourself. You would be living out a mistaken impression. He goes on and says, “Do what it says.” Following Jesus isn’t in the saying it isnt in the listening, it is in the doing. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. Whoever it says, observers or another way of say it is someone who carefully studies the word, continues in it, meaning, walking in life with it, and do it, their life will be blessed.

Then James gives us an example of what hes talking about, when he says, “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.” He is saying, your walk with God, being “religious' ' is worthless if it does not translate into he way you live and the way you treat other people. In fact, this is why a lot of people call Chrsitians hypocrites, because our actions are not aligning with our words, or what we say we believe. But there is a “religion” God does accept. When James says…

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. What we believe, what we read in the bible, what we are taught must go out beyond these walls of this church and into north peoria as Rooted Disciples follow Jesus not just by saying we do, but by showing people we follow him. Listen, this means you are going to look different, it means your biblical worldview is going to go counter cultural, it means that we put our faith into action to reach and serve this community. When we put our faith into action, we reveal Gods glory to those around us, that's how we show that our faith is alive and vibrant.

Its a faith that looks not to glorify self, but to glorify Jesus Christ, its a faith that agrees with Gods word, both inwardly and outwardly, it is a faith grounded in what Jesus did on the cross and by the empty tomb. It is a faith that will naturally be expressed in repentance and good works. Its the type of faith that wants others to come to faith. It is a faith that not only hears the word of God but does it. Following Jesus isn't in the saying it is in the doing.

So how are you following Jesus? I'm sure the Holy Spirit is convicting you now of areas you are not living out your faith.  How are you putting your faith into action? In what areas of your life are you not aligned with what Jesus says? In what ways are you revealing God's glory to others?  We are all building houses, the only difference is the foundation we are building it on. Be Rooted Disciples of Jesus.