Made for More Action

I want you to know I am throwing everything that I am into what we are building here. Into you and into this place.

I believe more than I’ve ever believed in anything that what we are doing here is echoing into eternity.

That Jesus is building something powerful.

And I believe it b/c of what I see out of you guys.

You are people of Action.

People who want to live your lives for Jesus instead of yourselves.

It’s a beautiful thing. And something I am not only blessed to be a part of but something that I know is going to Impact the lives of so many around us fo the Kingdom.

We are all a servant to something

Servant= To belong to; as to be ruled by.

Whether it’s

Job

Life style (old money/expectations)

Family

Food

Expectations

sports

Finances (slave to the lender)

Worry/Anxiety/Fear

The list goes on and on

What’s ruling you?

What’s stopping Christ’s prayer (Your Kingdom Come) from happening in your life?

Can you really say that you be long to Christ and that He rules your life.

Think about a servant.

Servants take action

Servants whole job/life is to tend to their master and his/her needs.

They wait for their master to give them the word and then they do whatever they’re told.

Is that you?

Do you start in the morning by getting up and saying, “God here I am! I’m ready for your orders”?

And then listen to them throughout the day?

God will tell you who needs prayer/help/encouragement.

The ? is are we listenting or are we too busy planning our own lives?

(He’s not just talking about our belongings) PLANS!

Servants don’t last long when they’re not serving. X:-(X

We can choose to be one or the other, a Servant or a Friend. (diff/attitudes)

Friends know what they are working for. They know their masters purpose.

Servants don’t know their masters intentions

(Master’s intentions- so everyone loves eachother)

We don’t work for monetary gain/for worldly possessions...

Servants work for monetary gain, worldy possessions.

Friends (We) work for the Lord (v.17 so that we will love eachother)

Servants work b/c they have to.

Servants are hired, Friends choose.

Christians choose Jesus

Don’t misunderstand (we are all chosen, every single person born but friends of God choose Him).

Even w/in followers of Jesus we there are two designations.

Servants or Friends

Those who serve willingly and those who serve begrudgingly.

Begrudgingly (they serve b/c they’re “supposed to”, it’s the “right thing to do” The ones who give the bible school answer “Jesus”

Friends serve for love, out of love, to love.

You can see their love

they’re encouraging to be around

they’re a team player

they fill their role.

Thye’re a team player and make everyone better.

They’re the difference between Jordan and LeBron ;-)

Servant you can tell!!

It’s like pulling their leg

They want to control the situation and make it miserable for other people.

Or they slack off and make it miserable for other people.

They are a pain to be around, they bring you down.

If we choose to be a friend we will live a life of Action

God wants us to be servants but much more He wants us to be friends.

Once we become friends we start to see Jesus’ TRUE GOAL.

He wants us to live lives that are SO MUCH MORE FULL than we are living now.

Our shift between servants to friends comes when we start to realize the goal isn’t

this earth.

to see now much money we can make

to get to the top in our careers

to see how many vacations we can go on.

He says (v16-17) that we are MADE for MORE love through action!

From my story last week.

The goal isn’t sitting on my porch swing just looking at God’s creation. That should be PART of our daily lives but only part...

If you saw Avengers Infinity War “SPOILER ALERT” Thanos retires. He says, I’ve accomplished what i set out to accomplish and then he revels in it. Looking out on the universe he “saved”.

JESUS’ death reminds us that that is not our goal.

God wants us to live a life full of ACTION for him.

That’s why you feel good when you help someone.

B/c you chose to love them and that’s how God created it to be.

That’s why as the church you are called the Hands and Feet of Jesus.

IF, as it is on SUNDAY MORNING isn’t supposed to be the HANDS and FEET of Jesus.

Sunday is an encouragement and a kickstart to your week! It should just be the outpour of the rest of your week.

Not an isolated (abberation)[event] in your week in which you do what He wants you todo today and live your own life the rest of the week.

You will only experience more Action when you give your life to Christ 7 days of the week instead of just 1 or 2.

The Sunday Gathering is to propel you and encourage you to live a life of Action every day of the week.

And when you live a life of More Action the Church body as a whole will live with More Action.

This is why we have services where we all get together and pray w/ eachother.

This is why we teach, so that we can learn what God says, so that we can live our best lives according to Jesus.

This is why we’re doing an After School program, the food pantry, and a pre-school!

This is why we are looking at grabbing houses so that we can show the love of God to this neighborhood by living, learning, and loving.

Does this get you excited!??!

Think about successful sports teams.

The BULLS

Jordan

The PATRIOTS

Brady/Belichick

The WARRIORS

Curry

The COLTS of the early 2000’s.

Manning

You remember these teams b/c of their team success. But you also remember the people on the teams.

And you remember them b/c of their greatness. These people live/d their sport every day of the week.

They lived and breathed their sport. They didn’t just show up for games, they showed up to practice every single day.

You know what else I love about these guys?

individual awards weren’t good enough for them. They wanted Championships!

Thier goal wasn’t the individual awards.

It was the team award! The championships!

What if we worked as hard at following Christ’s will in our lives as these atheletes did at their sport?

What if we cared about the whole team win about God’s Plan rather than our plan for our lives?

What if we cared about what God was doing GLOBALLY more than what’s happening in my life?

Closing

Here’s the thing

We were all meant to win Championships.

B/c the ultimate Championship is LOVE.

It’s not about getting my house done.

It’s not me leading a mega church.

Or retiring with a cool mil. and a fat 401K

It’s not about finding the perfect spouse

Or whatever else can be a blessing from God that we set our focus on.

It’s love through ACTION!

We have a choice to be friends of Jesus here at IF but we cant do that if we see Jesus and His church as an add on to our lives.

We have to be devoted to Him reverent of Him.

And we have to remember that He has made us for more AcTION!

Our jobs are never done. WE can never relent.

WE aren’t preparing for a worldy Championship but a Heavenly War!

We are taking on the rulers and authorities and powers of darkness!

And our weapon is Love through Action!

Let’s be a people who never give up, who never give in, who live our lives fighting for Jesus.