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Introduction
Review Mission
We are in the middle of an important sermon series regarding the direction of our church.
The elders and I have been praying and discussing over who we are as a church and where we are going.
I know that many of you have been praying as well.
We believe that God has given us the vision for who we are and what we are to be doing.
So two weeks ago we unveiled our new mission statement: We exist to invite all people to life under a better King.
Having clarity regarding our purpose will help us fulfill that which God has called us to.
Review Values
Last week I introduced the first of four values that we desire to shape our church.
A value is what characterizes our mission.
It is not something that we do but something that characterizes what we do.
Our values will serve as guardrails that will help create the kind of culture that we want here at WSBC.
As I mentioned last week, our values are not all fully realized.
In other words, they are somewhat aspirational.
That being said, I believe that each of these values is on display in our church, even if only a spark.
Our goal is to capture that spark and pour gas on it it so that it turns into a roaring blaze.
The value that I introduced to you last week was A Better Message.
By that we mean that our church will be a gospel centered church.
There is no better message than the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection for sinners.
By stating gospel centrality as one of our values we are committing to keeping the gospel as central to all we do.
We believe the gospel is not simply the foyer to the Christian faith, but the foundation, the walls, the wiring, and the roof.
Value: A Better Family
Our second stated value that will define us as a church is a better family.
Part of what makes life under King Jesus so good is that we have been brought in to a better family than any other family under the sun.
By emphasizing this reality are saying that biblical community will be essential to everything we do as a church.
Why ought we value biblical community, our better family, this way?
We were created for community
From day one, God created human beings to be in community.
Genesis 1.
Notice here that the text emphasizes the fact that human beings are made in God’s image.
That means that one of the central purposes to human existence is to represent God to the rest of creation.
We are to represent him in his dominion and his rule.
But notice the other way that we image God.
The text says that we image God by being created as male and female.
Now there is much to say about this passage, but for our purposes here, I want to ask how our being male and female images God.
God exists eternally in a community, doesn’t he?
We have a trinitarian God, Father, Son, Spirit.
God did not create out of loneliness.
He has always existed in a holy, happy community.
So, when God set out to create image bearers he created a community, male and female, which would go on to become a larger community.
So yes, each individual human being as dignity as an image bearer.
But God never intended that you and I would image him all by ourselves.
We were designed to image him in community.
By valuing a better family, we are saying that we are commited to live out our original design.
Jesus died for a people
In our western culture we prize individualism.
We speak of a personal relationship with Jesus.
We focus on personal spiritual disciplines.
We often emphasize the individual at the expense of the communal.
Notice though what Paul says to Titus, speaking about God’s grace shown to us.
Titus 2.
This is huge.
I have heard well meaning preachers take and tell people to replace the word WORLD with you own name, so that you can say God so loved Glen, or Susan, or Steve, or Lindsey, etc. that he sent his Son.
Similarly, I have heard speakers say that if you were the only person who would receive Jesus, he would have come just for you.
How would Paul feel about such statements?
Jesus Christ DID NOT GIVE HIMSELF TO REDEEM JUST YOU.
He gave himself for US to redeem US to purify for himself A PEOPLE for his own possession.
It is not about you and Jesus verse the world.
It is about you and Jesus and his people verse the world.
Yes of course, Jesus saves individuals.
But he does not save individuals to keep them as such.
He saves individuals to bring them in as a part of his family, his people.
He has no intent on you merely keeping a personal relationship with him.
He wants you to be a part of his entire family.
You need to have a personal relationship with Jesus’ people as well.
Here is one of the ways that this value shapes our mission.
When we share the gospel with others we are not just trying to win people to Jesus.
We are trying to win them to ourselves.
We are after new brothers and sisters for our family.
We want to be committed to reproduction more than a home school family reality TV show.
We want to be the weirdos with a massive family, brothers from different mothers, but the same God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There is no such thing as lone ranger Christianity.
It is not about you and Jesus vs. the world.
It’s about you and Jesus and his people vs. the world!
A blood thicker than our own binds us.
We are better together
Our mission depends on us valuing biblical community rightly.
Why?
We have no shot at actually winning our city to Jesus individually.
Or to put it positively, we will win our city as a family because we are better together.
Listen to Paul again.
Romans 12.3-
God in his wisdom has created the church to be a living, breathing body.
God has designed us to fail spectacularly by ourselves.
At the same time he has hard wired us for success together.
Each of us is gifted by God’s Spirit differently.
We need each other in order to survive.
We also need each other to succeed at our mission.
Romans 12.6-8
God in his wisdom has created the church to be a living, breathing body.
God has designed us to fail spectacularly by ourselves.
At the same time he has hard wired us for success together.
Each of us is gifted by God’s Spirit differently.
We need each other in order to survive.
We also need each other to succeed at our mission.
Not all are preachers.
Not all are gifted at service.
Not all are gifted with encouragement.
Not all have the same gifts of generosity.
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