ALL IN for our Community

8:30 PreService Meeting

- Overview of the service

- Turn the volume up outside the sanctuary (Ushers).

- We have an opportunity

Pastoral Announcements

Worship night - Baptisms at the Farm – Cattle Tank

· Oct 6th – 6:30

· Starting Point – 5:00

· Website/Connection Cards

ALL IN for our Community

If we are going to be ALL IN for our community then we must…

We must be motivated

- Some projects require time, they drag on but if we are going to do them well then we have to trust the process.

- The thing that keeps us going is our motivation.

o Difference between motivation and hype.

- If I stand here and talk with you about changing Aberdeen by getting involved and you can do that by getting involved in a lifegroup and by supporting these organization.

o I can speak with passion and energy and walk across the stage and I can get you hyped up, but if your motivations don’t change then you will operate off of hype and will quickly burn out.

o Motivation is what keeps you going.

o Motivation is what drives you, its what causes you to change your schedule.

o Your motivations set your priorities.

JAMES BRADDOCK

o IT WAS HORRIBLE!!!

Cinderella Man

o What was my motivation?

Failed boxer during the great depression. Had to begin work on the docks just to pay most the bills and for some food.

§ I had a little girl and a wife at home that motivated me.

Its the typical American story of a man picking himself up from the bootstraps.

He gets back in the ring and begins to fight again, winning every time he enters the ring.

In fact he gets picked up by heavyweight fighters because he would be an easy stepping stone in their careers but Braddock kept knocking beating them.

He wins so much he gets a title fight with the man who killed two people in the ring, the infamous Max Baer.

He goes on to win but in the press conference leading up to the event he’s in a room full of reporters and theres energy and people are excited because he is making on of the greatest comebacks of all times.

One reporter asks him, “What’s changed? Why now, you used to not be able to win a fight for anything but now you are about to fight in the heavyweight championship?”

His response “I know what I’m fighting for”, the reporter asks, “What’s that”, “Milk”

Braddocks priority was to feed his family which he could even do before fighting.

Braddocks priority drove him to victory.

They were his motivation.

It wasn’t hype or the cameras or the fame. It was his kids.

WE ARE MOTIVATED BY OUR PRIORITIES

§ I was willing to go through hell and highwater for those that I love.

§ I know there are many people right now who are working hard and maybe aren’t doing the thing they love because they are motivated by the ones they love.

§ WE ARE MOTIVATED BY FAMILY.

- What happens when we allow Christ to be our motivation?

o When Christ is our motivation my focus shifts from the kingdom of Micah to the Kingdom of God.

- What is the Project of God?

o Take that which is broken and make it whole

o Meet injustice with mercy

o Meet addiction with recovery

o Meet rebellion with grace

o Meet death with redemption

The Project of God

- The Project of God is to bring heaven to earth.

o – “Your Kingdom come your will be done, on earth as in heaven.”

o The Kingdom of God is seen in the hardship and trials of this life.

Jesus came to right what humanity messed up.

Our great grandparents Adam and Eve sinned and in them all humanity sinned.

All of scripture tells the story of the project of God to bring humanity back into relationship with him.

o The project of God is bigger than the church, its bigger than one non-profit, it’s bigger than anything any one person here can do.

o The Kingdom of God is what motivates the church.

If we are going to do work in our community then we must be a people motivated by the Kingdom of God.

o – Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.”

If the Project of heaven is to deal with injustice, deal with addiction, rebellion and ultimately death then....

We are motivates to do something about it.

We must have an Attitude

- BRING IT ON attitude.

Bring it on attitude says, “You cant stop me”

You could throw everything in the world at me but every time you knock me down I am going to get up, because I will win. I will push through.

o This is an attitude where you look at something that seems insurmountable, you are filled with fear, you know the road up that mountain will be tough, yet something inside of you says, “Bring it on”

James Braddocks fight with Art Lasky.

He gets hit so hard his mouthpiece flies out.

He has flashbacks of his kids going through hardship.

He thinks about his wife and the ones he loves.

HE SMILES at the man pummling his face.

- Jesus had a “Bring it on” attitude

o Jesus and the Leper (Rodneys Sermon), Jesus didn’t shy away rather he allowed him to come. He had a “Bring it on” attitude.

He saw a problem too big for anyone else to handle

It was as if Jesus realized, this man was a social outcast. He was unclean. He was contagious. He was broken. Jesus said, BRING IT ON

Jesus will be sitting with the high class society and a prostitute will come in and begin to rub her perfume on his feet.

Jesus doesn’t turn her away when everyone else is disgusted.

We have to be Committed

- - “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

- We have to be willing to get our hands dirty

o – “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

o Serving our community is real and its dirty. When you get into people’s lives you get into their dysfunction. When you come face to face with the issues in our community you realize they are a massive mountain. A mountain that seems insurmountable, yet it is a mountain that God has called us to climb.

§ This is why motivation is so important. This is why we have to have an attitude.

§ If we miss out on the priority of the gospel, then we will lack motivation, we will lose our attitude and our commitment will fade away.

What motivates you? Who sets your priorities? Who has the ability to come in and make changes to your schedule?

What motivates you? Who sets your priorities? Who has the ability to come in and make changes to your schedule?

Loving God is a priority, “Love God with your heart, soul and mind”

o I see my Elsie run, I am motivated to get her into track.

o I see my Junie dance, I am motivated to get her into dance.

o I understand what Jesus did for me on the cross, I’m motivated to follow.

And he came up to Jesus at once and said, “Greetings Rabbi!” and he kissed him. Jesus said to him, “Friend do what you came to do.”

- Jesus knew what was to come,

o He knew he would be beaten

o He knew his back would be mashed to a bloody pulp.

o He knew he would carry a heavy cross.

o He knew he would climb the mountain of death alone.

o He knew he would die naked and ashamed.

o He knew he would experience a loneliness unlike any other.

o He knew he would be forsaken by God

o He knew all the powers of death and sin would be pressing down against him

o BUT in that moment in the garden, before any of it would happen. It’s as if Jesus looks past Judas, looks past the people who hated him and saw the powers of sin and hell and said, “Bring it on”

o WHY!? What was Jesus’ motivation?

1. Fulfill the plans of God

2. YOU!

- My priorities are set by Christ because….

1. He looked at my sin and said “bring it on”

2. He looked at my failures “bring it on”

3. He looked at my future “bring it on”

o If you feel like too much of a problem for God, He is looking at you today saying, “Bring it on”

Community has to be priority becayse Jesus says, “Love your neighbor as yourself”

What does it look like for us to bring the Project of God to our city?

- Stories of Downtown

o Two little boys 9 and 11 show up in church without a parent

§ They need the kingdom of God.

o A month ago, a man came down for prayer at our downtown campus.

§ He had tears in his eyes and I asked what I could pray for him for and he said, “I want to live”. We prayed, he invited Jesus into his heart, we baptized him, He has tasted the Kingdom of God.

o Jason Goette talked to a guy named Jim and brought him to church.

§ He said he felt like he was home. He felt the love of Jesus. He has been back almost every week.

§ He recently told me he wants to get baptized because he knows Jesus died for his sins.

· He has tasted the Kingdom of God.

o Tami

§ Has a non-alcoholic condition with her liver that isn’t going well but someone from our church just so happened to be selling a juicer to her husband who wanted to be able to make her smoothies she could eat better and he left led to ask what it was for and the husband explained her condition, he prayed for him, gave him the juicer, and with tears in his eyes he thanked him. They have been to church every week since.

· They are tasting the Kingdom of God.

- Stories told at the Summit

o Dawn – Needs staff and the staff need encouragement.

§ New Beginnings kids – They need the Kingdom of God.

o Andrea – SafeHarbor, Tony Jones Story

§ Safe Harbor, help woman, children and men who are fleeing abusive relationships.

§ Young woman came into church, she needs the Kingdom of God.

o Our very own Tony Jones – Salvation Army

§ Serve over 30 people a day who need food.

§ They need the Kingdom of God.

o Devin Hebeisen - Journey Home

§ Transitional Home of people who are coming out of Jail or a difficult circumstance in life where they end up without a home.

§ They need the Kingdom of God.

§

- Action Step

o Join a LifeGroup

o Talk about it with your lifegroup Leader.

o Adopt a non-profit for a year with your LifeGroup.

§ Get your hands dirty

§ Get in the trenches with those people you are walking through life together with and together find a insurmountable obstacle and say, “Bring it On” and take a step.

§ Take the Kingdom of God and give it out to those in need.