Announcements

3 Keys to C.A.R.E.

This morning we are starting a three part series about how we can accomplish what Jesus pointed to as the greatest commandment!

This morning we are starting a three part series about how we can accomplish what Jesus pointed to as the greatest commandment!

This summer I am going to be away on a sabbatical and my hope is that you can continue to care well for one another. After 22 years of full time ministry I am taking time to care for myself, so that I can come back and continue to care for those who call this GCC their church family.

This morning we are starting a three part series about how we can accomplish what Jesus pointed to as the greatest commandment!

So over the next three weeks I want to share with you three keys that can help us all continue to grow healthy as individuals, as families and as a church family.

See this Religion / Christianity / Church thing can get really complicated!

The pure intention of being drawn by the Holy Spirit to know God, can be highjacked by the need to pursue the correct way of being a Christian.

Jesus was very aware of this subtle but devastating switch a rue that the enemy uses to derail God’s plan for our salvation and spiritual growth.

In Jesus responds to an expert of the law who asks a question designed to hopefully trip up Jesus and cause people to doubt who he said He was but instead it backfires!

Read

Jesus’s response leads to further dialog with the Pharisees that leaves them unwilling to debate Him in public for fear of having more people come to believe in Jesus!

This piece of scripture also gives us the framework to what it really means to be an image bearer that reflects God’s intended design for each and everyone of us!

Jesus’s reply can be broken down to three distinct parts that reflect the whole of the old Testament Law and the whole of the New Testament good news!

Ten Commandment visual

God’s approach with His creation has always been consistent! God desires a personal relationship with humanity so that humanities earthly relationships can prosper as their soul and spirits prosper.

Without the first relationship (our relationship with God) being in place and prospering ---- our attempts at earthly relationships can not accomplish their Eternal purposes.

So let me answer the question that is floating above some of your heads.

Is he saying apart from having a healthy relationship with the God of the Bible, we really can not love and care for each other?

That is a great question and my response is hopefully not going to throw you into a stoning frenzy but yes that is exactly what I am saying.

I see another question forming

The Pharisees and Sadducees tried to trip up Jesus because He spoke with authority and He spoke

So why does it look like people who do not know the God of the Bible can love and care for others? I know very loving people who are humanitarians and love people deeply!

Because we are created to mimic or imitate down to our genetic design!

verb (used with object), imitated, imitating.

1.to follow or endeavor to follow as a model or example: to imitate an author's style; to imitate an older brother.

2.to mimic; impersonate:The students imitated the teacher behind her back.

imitate (someone or their actions or words), typically in order to entertain or ridicule.

3.to make a copy of; reproduce closely.

4.to have or assume the appearance of; simulate; resemble.

A person does what he/she does because they are working off what they have observed from (FOO) then social influences both relational and cultural along with our internal processes that interpret experiences plus our genetic code tells also tells us what to do.

This is life apart from being spiritually awakened by God’s Spirit. Don’t confuse having a conscience as being the same as being spiritually alive!

There are common elements of Gods grace for all humanity and having a conscience is one of those elements.

But when we encounter God through the Holy Spirit , then our love and caring goes from imitating for the purpose of performing to be approved to imitating out for eternal purposes.

Then our love and caring goes from imitating for the purpose of performing to imitating for the purpose of eternal purposes. Our motivation goes from a limited perspective to an endless eternal value based motivation!

This is by design frso apart but we are built for eternity so when we are drawn to God and we accept this gift of redemption we are born again and our Spirit’s come to life!

Our motivation goes from a limited perspective to an endless eternal value based motivation!

Then our love and caring goes from imitating for the purpose of performing to imitating for the purpose of eternal purposes. Our motivation goes from a limited perspective to an endless eternal value based motivation!

So lets look again at the framework of Jesus’s response and what three keys we are given to care for one another in an eternal God designed way!

The first key is found in what Jesus says about loving God.

Lets look at that again.

Read

So if we are going to Create A Relational Environment which is what Jesus is saying is of the greatest importance by quoting from the and .

Then we most first and foremost allow time for our relationship with God to be developed and deepened!

Thats why church should not center around peoples preferences but Gods Word that teaches us God’s relational design.

If we truly want to care well for those around us it starts with us pressing into God and developing a relationship.

Ok, I starting to see another question forming over a number of heads.

What does it mean to press into God and develop a relationship?

Another great question!

This is were the simplicity of the Gospel is hard for people to accept, because God’s approach is simply this.

Mimicking can be viewed as good even great and honorable but

God created you and I to be in relationship with Him and no matter what we have done God is faithful to His part of the relationship!

He created us and when we stray He has already created a way to return to Him.

When we first strayed in the garden of Eden, God responded with not only humanities consequences but a promise that He had a plan for us to return to Him!

Now thousands of years later God’s approach has not changed! So why does it seem so hard to press in and develop a relationship with God?

Let me submit some possible issues that cloud the simplicity of the Gospel.

Words that were intended to draw us closer to God have been changed to offend or confuse.

Words like Repent which was once a cry from the lips of the prophets to call a people that had strayed to return to a Creator and Father who’s heart was broken because His children were in danger have been replaced.

Today the word Repent is a harsh word that most take offensive! Why? Because the most important part of life is no longer the pursuit to be in a relationship with the Creator.

Now that pursuit is looked at as foolishness and even backwards thinking.

But Jesus when confronted with what was most important voiced a very clear message!

love the Lord your God with all!

All our Heart!

All our Soul!

All our Mind!

So if we are going to CARE for one another we need to get our eyes off of what other people are doing or not doing.

See to love God we must give up our all to the pursuit of knowing God!

All our Heart!

All our Soul!

All our Mind!

Sounds radical but it is God’s design! But we want to skip the first part of our design and pretend we can do the second part to love our neighbor as ourself.

The problem is this; we will never be able to love if we do not have a relationship with the only true source of love that exists!

At our very best we can only mimic love and at our very best we can only mimic care.

This first key to being able to really love and care for others is a non negotiable and it takes our all!

What you have done for the least of these...

and the many other scriptures that people pull to defend their works based live and care

But here is the amazing reality of this Key to creating a relational environment that enables you to love and care like never before!

do

If we will give God our all --- he promises to give us His eternal storehouse of ability to love and care!

And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Read more: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/the-promises-of-god-10-powerful-bible-verses-1/#ixzz4gszpzxSY

“I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.

Read more: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/the-promises-of-god-10-powerful-bible-verses-1/#ixzz4gszjrnfG

And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.

Read more: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/the-promises-of-god-10-powerful-bible-verses-1/#ixzz4gt01YXdp

But God does ask our all which means if we are going to be imitators we must be willing to receive our new identity that is not based in fear and works but as children of God

But God does ask our all which means if we are going to be imitators we must be willing to receive a new identity that is not

Ephesians 5:1-2

Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. 2 Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.

See our ability is based in our identity! and if our identity is fixed in Christ’s example then our doing is not out of our works but the completed work of Jesus Christ!

Before and after this call to be imitators of God we are called to take a look at our heart our soul and our mind!

Read parts of and

8 For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! 9 For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.

In closing, if we will take this first key and give it our all we will start to create a relational environment that will be full of light and the power of the Holy Spirit!

But don’t miss this ---- all of this is for you to be changed not for you to try to change somebody else!

So here are a few practical take aways!

If you are treating people through the grid of what happened to you instead of through the

Jeuuhyyy

Read more: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/the-promises-of-god-10-powerful-bible-verses-1/#ixzz4gt0F8HX6