Why Are We Here?

Pray with me

Please stand for the reading of God’s word. Today we will read from Acts 1:8

Acts 1:8 CSB

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Fully Focused, Fully Formed, Fully Engaged

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Please have a seat.

You ever wonder why we’re here?

And I don’t just mean existentially - which is a big question that ultimately only finds it’s fulfillment in Christ.

But what are we doing here?

The Seed Community Church - a beautiful family of believers - a part of the Christian and Missionary Alliance - planted in Centerville South Dakota. From different backgrounds, different home towns, some locals some new to the area.

Why does God have us here, in this time and place? Why are we here?

As a newer congregations these are really important questions to ask, and ask often. We need to make sure we stay laser focused on the mission, on the Why.

Some of this goes much deeper and earlier than when the church started two and a half years ago.

Church, or The Church - in greek is Ekklesia. It’s a compound word, and it means assembly, or congregation, those called out and assembled.

And from the beginnings of the Church, in the new Testament, Jesus was laying the ground work for the ecclesiology of the age to come.

All believers in Christ, all those born again, are grated into the one true vine, a part of the household of God, and therefore we have some common DNA and mission with every other believer.

We believe that to be the Great Commandments and the Great Commission.

What are the great Commandments? Let’s look where it comes from, Matthew 22:35-40

Matthew 22:35–40 (CSB)

And one of them, an expert in the law, asked a question to test him: “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”

Jesus summarizes all the Old Testament and distills it down to Love God, and Love your neighbor. Brilliant - incredibly simple - and yes incredibly difficult to faithfully do!

But for anyone who wants to follow Jesus - who wants to do the work of God, it starts here. Do you love God with all that you are? And Do you love your neighbor as yourself? The rest of the commands of God all depend and hang from those.

So these are the foundation for all believers Must be love for God and Love for people.

But we want to couple that with what has been called over the course of Church History as The Great Commission. Matthew 28:18-20

Matthew 28:18–20 CSB

Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

This is the mission that Jesus has entrusted to his followers, that we would, wherever we go - Make Disciples of all nations, baptizing them, and teaching them to obey all the commandments of Christ - and to know we do it in and through Jesus Christ.

I’ve heard it said once that the only number that Jesus counts at the end is disciples.

As a church we’ve been working a lot this year, over the last three months over what being a disciple is, an apprentice who follows Jesus, seeing what he is like, doing what he does, being with him, and become like him.

We, as a church are to Love God, obeying him and worshipping him. Love our neighbors, serving them and caring for them. and Make disciples, preaching the gospel and baptizing and teaching them.

That’s what we are to be about - no matter where we go.

So as a church - as members of The Church - we always can have our marching orders - love God, love Others, make disciples - that is our Goal.

When I was a youth pastor for several years - young people were brave enough to ask the question that most adults are still asking - what’s God’s plan? What am i supposed to do with my day today? How Do i know God’s will for my life? What’s my calling?

Love God, Love Others, Make Disciples

Those are big bold and important questions - and in so many ways - these three things can give us a lot of answers - today, in my life where I am and where I find myself - I need to love God, love others, and make disciples.

As a stay at home mom - love God, love others, make disciples.

as an employee - love God, love others, make disciples.

In all things - those three movements need to guide us. And yes it’s true that God can and does speak in special ways to give us direction - we all have our orders wherever we go - love God, Love others, make disciples.

Every church - this is what we are to be about!

What’s interesting to consider - is that isn’t controversial. It seems like pretty basic ecclesiology (basics about the study of the Church) and yet - most churches fall due to their inability to do these things. Or they focus on things that aren’t in these three to the detriment of them.

Play this out with me - how many churches do we hear stories of who split or fight over the color of the carpet or what instruments are used on stage or what people wear on Sunday? Now i would be willing to submit to you - that when a church is on mission, to love God, love others, and make disciples - those decisions or arguments - are just such small potatoes. And so when churches experience mission drift, and move from the people of God called by God on a mission with God - to just a social club for cultural Christians - we cease to be a Biblical church. And we start squabbling about this and that.

So how do we keep from mission drift? How do we actually focus on what God is calling us to? And what does that mission look like contextually speaking for us at The Seed?

Here’s the thing - the mission that God has given us, absent of his indwelling Spirit is impossible.

Before Jesus’s ascension, he told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came. Note the Scripture we started with this morning

Acts 1:8 CSB

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Wait in Jerusalem - then the Holy Spirit will come - and you will receive power and then you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

And so when it comes to our local body, a part of our denomination, and tradition, all that - if we try and do it without the indwelling presence and power of the Holy Spirit - we’re fooling ourselves. But with the Spirit - we can dream some big dreams. And trust that if we are obedient, i don’t think i’m over-speaking when I say that God is going to do immeasurably more than we can ask, seek, or imagine!

So why are we here? We are here as a community of believers, to Love God, love Others, and make disciples.

What would it look like if we were successful? What the hill were trying to take? How do we do it?

Those are the questions that I want to get at today. I want to continually orient ourselves around the mission we are on With God.

If you’ve been around for a while, you may have heard us use certain language when we talk about our vision and mission. The sentence the core team prayerfully came to was

To raise the spiritual temperature of south eastern South Dakota.

I believe that if we love God, Love others and make disciples - what we will see is more of God’s kingdom breaking out in our region. And frankly - this compels me - it’s motivating.

But how do we do the stuff? How does the Seed Community Church, and it’s members go about getting after Loving God, Loving People, making disciples, to the extent that the spiritual temperature of our region is raised?

What is the job of the Church, and what is the expectations of members of the church?

So much we can go after - and we will revisit more of these topics much more often going forward so we can stay focused on the mission we are on.

Today I want to share a bit of the how.

To see the spiritual temperature of south eastern SD raised we must, as a body, be

Fully Focused, Fully Formed, and Fully Engaged

Fully Focused on God and his Word, Fully Formed by the Spirit through Community, and Fully Engaged with God on mission.

I want to take the rest of our time together and walk through these, and why I believe that if we want to see our area changed by God’s presence, it means we need to be Fully Focused, Fully Formed and Fully Engaged.

First, We need to be Fully Focused on God and His Word.

Fully Focused

For our church to remain faithful to God and to the mission that He is calling us to - for us to see success, it will depend on our ability to remain laser focused on him, and his word. Not only to keep from heresies and whims of the world, but so that we don’t forget that he is the source of life and all good things.

I think of Hebrews 12:1-2

Hebrews 12:1–2 CSB

Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

We run with endurance, keeping our eyes on Jesus.

I think of John 15 where JEsus calls himself the vine. I think of Acts 17 and the Bereans being commended for their searching of the Scriptures.

Or even Hebrews 10:25

Hebrews 10:25 CSB

not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.

For our church to go after the mission of God, without focusing on God and his word - is a fools errand.

What does it look like for us as a community to be fully focused?

As a corporate community, this primarily plays out on Sunday Mornings.

What we are doing here and now. We gather, we sing, we confess our faith, we are formed by Gods word. And week by week, song by song, scripture by Scripture, we orient our selves towards God and his mission so we remain focused, steadfast, on Jesus and his mission.

God’s Spirit uses God’s Word to transform God’s people. And we get to be a part of that, here, together, week by week. Sunday mornings, and our practice of worshipping together as a community helps us stay fully focused on God.

And we pray that this leaks into other areas of life - for as we gather as a body to worship and hear the Word - for each of us, we can be fully focused on God and his word through the week. Daily scripture reading, praying, worshiping, throughout the week helps us all stay focused on the author and perfecter of our faith.

When i think of being fully focused, I think of the hymn “Come Thou Fount.” Other then being just an incredible song, has an incredible line that has deeply influenced how i view my discipleship.

Its the second line - “tune my heart to sing thy praise.”

I’m a guitar player - and guitar is a percussion instrument - meaning to make music, you strike the strings. When it’s in tune - it’s gorgeous - but an out of tune guitar is… horrendous! And here’s the thing - guitars are temperamental - they are prone to shifting out of tune due to temperature, humidity, playing etc. So regularly one needs to retune it - to be in tune with the actual notes. So there are tuners, which hold true to the correct frequency - and when we compare to the true note - we tune the guitar to the truth.

In the same way, we are so prone to be malformed out of tune. We are temperamental guitars! And if we aren’t regularly coming back to God, the true note, the true north - we will find our harmony with something else - producing a disonant noise and faith.

No - we must be fully focused on God. On Sunday mornings as a community, but throughout the week in our own homes - we tune our hearts to God and his word.

Second, we must be fully formed by the spirit in and through community.

Fully Formed

We are all being formed, either by God and his word, or by the forces of the world the flesh and the devil. In order to be effective on mission with God, we need to continually be formed into the image of Christ, crucifying the flesh, and walking in the Spirit.

In other words, if we are going to make disciples, we ought to be disciples first! And that words means being disciplined, it means spiritual formation. In the words of the C&MA, it means pursuing the deeper life, or the Christ Life.

We did a whole sermon series on practicing the faith, where we talked about how to actually live out the faith, rather than be Christian in name only!

I think of James 1:22

James 1:22 CSB

But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

As we talked about in that series, and as Willard and Foster have written about, one of the great secrets of evangelical thinking and discipleship is that we talk a lot about praying and Bible reading as incredibly important practices for discipleship, but the vast majority of believers don’t actually practice even those regularly. And that’s not to mention other practices like solitude, fasting, community, sabbath, confession and many more.

For us to be most effective on this mission with God, we must be formed more and more into the image of Christ.

As a church, this is best lived out in our community groups (which start again this week)! As a smaller group, working out our salvation with fear and trembling. Knowing each other and being known. pushing each other in love to live out the faith to which we have been called.

Friend - if you haven’t jumped into one of these groups - we have one Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. And if those days don’t work, and you want to host another one maybe saturday or sundays, talk to me - but if you haven’t jumped into one of the groups, I want to strongly encourage you to. I can’t speak for everyone, but I know personally, in our group when we went over the sabbath practice - I was so encouraged by that group. We got close, and we laughed, and wrestled through things together. I felt like i got to know my brothers and sisters even MORE.

We are going to continue community groups through the seasons - going over different spiritual disciples and practices, and trying to grow are roots deep into the Christ and his church, so that we can be fully formed and effective for ministry.

And beyond just communal aspects as the seed - we need to practice the faith in our lives - and day by day, over time, through the hard knocks of life - we can be made more and more into the image of Christ, people of love for the sake of the world.

We must be fully formed by the spirit in community.

And then, we must be Fully Engaged with God on mission.

Fully Engaged

I think all of us with a biblical world view would agree that God is a missionary God, that he is still living and active, and that he’s still up to good things. And yet a lot of us struggle to tap into that in a tangible way.

There are many deep reasons for that - some of them personal, some discipleship based, but there is no question when you read through Acts of the Apostles that it isn’t apparent that peoples lives were changed and they were on mission to love God, Love others and make disciples. And not everyone was an apostle, or a pastor, or teacher, but I think of Lydia in Acts 16 who used her home to reach out to others. Or Dorcas in Acts 9 who was known for acts of mercy and good works and sewing clothes for the poor.

Here’s a verse that has messed with many a christian.

John 14:12 (CSB)

“Truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.”

Greater than JEsus? And scholars have debated whether greater is qualitative or quantitative - but as we’ve said before - one things for sure - greater means greater.

Isn’t that exciting? I mean it can be overwhelming - but the Almighty God of the universe, with immeasurable power and love - wants to partner with you to do great things. That’s incredible to me.

And the call then, is for us to be Fully Engaged with our God on mission.

Now we due this in several ways corporately, but also on a personal level.

Let’s start with how we as a body are engaged -

First, in a hopefully obvious way - our church has a coffeeshop ministry. We get to do business day in and day out with all the peple in the community. We are working on more ways to leverage the coffehouse towards mission to perhaps open doors in a way that the church cant. So for school ministry, physical needs, but also just aplace to go and be present with poeple in the community. That building is ont he corner of mainstreet and braodway and is like a lighthouse to the community. We are going to start a youth ministry this summer and want to reach the next gen, who i believe hold the key to reaching this community - but the coffeehouse is our brick and moreter way to reach centerville. We are also going to do outreach barbecues at the park this summer so we can tangibly reach our neighbors.

SEcond, we want to prayerfully suppport other church plants in the the south eastern SD region. Most denominations and church plants target the bigger towns - but there are many, and i mean many, smaller towns that need a gospel present communty. We want to prayferully support those groups.

Third - as a part of the C&MA, we give to the great commision fund so that Alliance missionaries and international workers are fully supported and don’t have to fundraise. Pretty cool if i can say so myself.

Those are some twyas just this year we want to as a body engage,

But we all need to ask on a personal and familial level, how do I engage with God on mission?

We don’t want to make being on mission with GOd a box we check off. I volunteered at church this month, Check! I’m on mission and good. We need to make sure our hearts or beings are aligned with God on missions.

So what would it look like for you to own love god love others make disciples? What would it look like for you to pray for more church plants in our area. What would it look like for us to take radical steps of evangelism.

God has placed you in a specific place for such a time as this. IF you are a sales perosn driving around - God has you interacting with dozens of people throughout the region - how can you prayerfully Love GOd, Love Others and make disciples? Maybe you are the stay at home mom right now - goodness gracious do you have a front row seat to making disciples with your children! Do you see motherhood and fatherhood as discipling? Because it VERY much is.

Stories of people who are doing this?

As a church, and as a pastor, my primary job is that of equipping. I want to ensure over time that we have all that we need so that WE can do the work of the ministry. My job is not that of a professional minister - but an equipper to help you do ministry.

And we will continue to work at equipping so we know what are giftings are, and provide tangible places to engage with mission - but the reality is, if we want to see our area transformed, it is almost certainly not going to be through a welll branded program at Church - but with all the people of God fully engaging with a missionary God where he has placed you in your day to day life.

We are going to do regular weekends where we focus on our Church’s mission and strategy so we can stay laser focused, but for now, let’s ask our question

So What?

Friends, do you ever wonder why we are here?

We aren’t here just to listen to incredible musicians, get our spiritual fix from the sermon, and then go home “feeling” like we are in it.

No we are here to remind ourselves and our bodies that God is good and Christ is sufficient, and the Spirit indwells and empowers - then we go out and do the work.

Friends - our God is a missionary God and he has shared that mission to seek and save the lost With us. He calls us agents of reconciliation!

I want to see his kingdom come, I want to see our area’s temperature raised. I want to see lost children found. I want to see christians encouraged and strongholds of the enemy torn down.

And I want to focus my own heart more on Christ. I want to see my marriage and friendships grow deeper. I want to raise my kids in the faith.

I don’t care if we ever grow to be a “big church” - but I want us to be a mature church, a healthy church, and a church on mission.

We believe that God has called us here and now for such a time as this. So we want to be faithful to him!

So as we consider Fully Focused, Fully Formed, and Fully engaged,

No guilt no shame - but take some steps with us. If you are newer, come hang out on sundays - start focusing and orienting your life around Christ and the church.

If you want to grow deeper in discipleship - Please please please sign up for a community group on the back table. They start this week tuesday, wednesday, and thursdays, And if we need to add another group at a different time - let’s figure that out. Those groups are designed to help us be formed more and more in our faith towards Christ. If that doesn’t work - be intentional and find some friends here to meet up with and pray and encourage.

I think of a quote by John Mark Comer - There are no accidental Saints.

And lastly - fully engaged - yes we are going to have events and outreaches and ways to plug in - but the key for us to reach our area is for each of us to own our calling as believers where God as planted us.

What does it mean to love God, love others and make disciples where you are at right now?

pray