Neighboring (Week 3)

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Have many of you have been on mission trips out of the country before?

HS community service

Mission Trips

Feeling Called

Acts 1:8 NIV

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

The great promised Holy Spirit becomes the great responsibility to be His witnesses in all the earth.

Jesus said to whom much is given much would be required. There is the idea throughout Scripture that what God gives to us as His creation come with a call, purpose, even duty and responsibility to use according to His plan.

OUR FAMILY: Welcoming (family feeling called) and creating opportunities for building relationship with our neighbors

EXAMPLE: Couple making out…in public

We are so passionate about something that we understand and are experiencing but others don’t get or relate to. We speak a language that is Christian-eze and How do we relate to those around us, be vulnerable, and allow the work of proximity to help us share the Good News in a way that those who don’t know God understand His Goodness.

PARISH:

Have you heard of the idea of a parish? Our English word is a derivative of the French for parish. The French in turn derived their word from the Latin, and the Latin derived their from the Greek. The Greek word παροικία has a romanized meaning of “sojourning in a foreign land” coming from πάροικος (paroikos), "dwelling beside, stranger, sojourner", which is a compound of παρά (pará), "beside, by, near" and οἶκος (oîkos), "house".

What if we owned an area God had placed us and did the spiritual work of God’s Kingdom in our ‘parish’. What if we carried out God’s desire within our territory, our parish, for God’s desire that none should perish, that none should perish within our parish.

In just a few weeks, we will be starting back our Summer in the Psalms series, but I do have a Psalm that I want us to look at together this morning.

Psalm 29:1–10 NIV

1 Ascribe to the Lord, you heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. 2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness. 3 The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord thunders over the mighty waters. 4 The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic. 5 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. 6 He makes Lebanon leap like a calf, Sirion like a young wild ox. 7 The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightning. 8 The voice of the Lord shakes the desert; the Lord shakes the Desert of Kadesh. 9 The voice of the Lord twists the oaks and strips the forests bare. And in his temple all cry, “Glory!” 10 The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord is enthroned as King forever.

The beginning of this Psalm is much like that of Psalm 96 and I Chronicles 16:28-29. It reflects a liturgical practice of calling worshipers to present themselves with their sacrifices and offerings before the Lord.

ASCRIBE: to give, attribute, honor, accredit

The psalm quickly transitions to the “voice of the Lord”.

The Voice of the Lord. There is so much that is wrapped up in this phrase, “the voice of the Lord”.

Spoke everything into existence. CREATES (Gen 1)

The voice of the Lord ENCOUNTERS, a theophany. MOSES. (Num 7; Deut 4)

The voice of the Lord calls. SAMUEL w/ ELI. (I Sam 3)

Isaiah and the voice of the Lord. (Is 6)

ENCOUNTER. CONVICTS. COMMISSIONS.

The voice of the Lord WARS. (Is 30)

The voice of the Lord PREPARES (Is 40)

Psalms 29: broods, thunders, echos, breaks, strikes, shakes, twists, strips, IS majestic

The voice of the Lord represent God entering into the chaos of the world, of our world. He is a missional God that steps into the chaos and gets involved and gets His hands dirty. The voice of the Lord…from the beginning. It was never more evident that in the life of Christ, the voice/Word was made flesh. What does this mean? It means that the one who is above all of our chaos and existence fully embraced our existence so that we could be free.

Why is this important for us? We have a role to play in all of this. We have a role to play in the renewal of all things. We have a role to play in what God is doing on the earth, in seeing His Kingdom come and His will done as it is in Heaven. As Kingdom People this is the lens through which we view all things (racial reconciliation, political hot button issues, etc.). We are first and foremost Christian before anything else. The cross is before our color. We are Christian before we are American. That’s right! The cross trumps any flag. The ways of Christ take priority over culture, over societal norms, over political agenda, over preference and choosing. We are aliens and strangers passing through a land that is not our home. And so as neighbors, we bring something to bear that is ‘other worldly’. We bring the Kingdom of God!

Neighboring is all about bringing God’s peace, healing, and order to the chaos of our world around us. Jesus literally calmed the seas. (Peace be still.) He steps into the chaos. He is a missional God who enters into our chaotic world and brings peace and healing and renewal to all things in our lives. He is inviting us to join Him in the renewal of all things in our world and the lives that we cross paths with.

Our neighborhood…every single house in your neighborhood is fighting a great battle. Chaos is all around us.

We love our space. We are terrified of proximity. We don’t want people in our space.

STORY:

God has given us a parish. What if our Sunday morning service was a celebration of the Lord and what He had done that week in each of our parishes? What if God began to use us in our areas of proximity, we embraced it, and allowed God to use us to bring Shalom, the peace of heaven to the chaos of those around us?

What is the Shalom of God?

Shalom (Hebrew: שָׁלוֹם)

means peace, harmony, wholeness, completeness, prosperity, welfare and tranquility

The ancient Hebrew concept of peace, rooted in the word "shalom," meant wholeness, completeness, soundness, health, safety and prosperity, carrying with it the implication of permanence.

Fill out your neighborhood map. That is a practical way we can neighbor well, but let me give you a couple of more practical applications.

Identify your parish.

Pray. Ask the Lord to show you as you get to know folks around you who God is leading you to minister to and share you life with.

2. How can we be intentional (pray intentionally)?

Pray intentionally. Strategically. Prayer walk.

You see things differently when you pray through an area, even an area you are so accustomed to seeing, driving by, etc.

God give me your heart for the people who live in these homes.

God bring your peace to the individuals and families here.

Ask God to show you people of peace and join Him in what He is already doing. I want to come alongside those that are moving and breathing in your Kingdom right here in our area.

Strategy: we need a plan to lead us to do something in our neighborhood.

I want to give us a few principles that help us think about how Jesus wants us to be Neighboring.

Henry David Thoreau

“I have traveled a good deal in Concord.”

Concord, MA

2,000-2,500

I have traveled extensively in Fountain City. More like I have traveled a good deal in Blaine.

He was talking about being fully engaged in his immediate vicinity. Let’s look at Luke 10.

Luke 10:1–9 NIV

1 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4 Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. 5 “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ 6 If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. 7 Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house. 8 “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. 9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’

vs. 1

Principle #1: We are better together.

Jesus could have sent them out as individuals, but this is an acknowledgment that we need encouragement, motivation, accountability. So, Jesus sent them out 2 by 2.

This was not only common among Christians but also within Jewish circles. It provided companionship, protections, and the double witness as prescribed in Deut 17 & 19.

We are engaging with folks that He is about visit. We visit them knowing that these are people that He desires to visit.

Like little John the Baptist’s, we are preparing the way for the Lord.

vs. 2

Principle #2: Pray strategically.

The goals is not for you to be the great hope to your neighbor. You are not wearing your cape and sweeping in to save the day for your neighbors. You are also joining the Lord in what He is already doing in the lives that live in your neighborhood. In our culture and context, it is very, very likely that God is already at work in people who live in your neighborhood.

The first step in the mission task the Lord gives His disciples is to recognize the need against the backdrop of the plenty, and ask the Lord accordingly. Pray according to the need in front of you.

vs. 3

Principle #3: Things will get messy.

Everyone in our neighborhood, each home is fighting a battle. God wants us to guard our hearts because this gets messy. We go in as sheep among wolves.

Have you ever gotten involved in someone’s life and it got messy real fast. But Jesus…like sheep, we are defenseless and dependent upon God alone.

vs. 4

Principle #4: Don’t manipulate people.

Don’t try to buy people or force things on people. The relationships we are getting into is reciprocal. We don’t just help others, but allow others to serve us. That is community and authentic neighboring. We can start to think we are the Biblical authority, but that is what Bible thumpers do.

Don’t get distracted along the way. Do not take along with you…do not greet anyone along the way.

vs. 5

Principle #5: Bring Shalom.

This word is translated Shalom. At its bear minimum it is translated peace, but it carries with it is wholeness, completeness, soundness, health and safety. It carries with it the idea of permanence. God coming in and changing things that were to the way they were intended to be.

When you come to a place bring Shalom meaning we want to carry with us the renewal of all things to our parishes.

vs. 6

Principle #6: Find a person of peace.

A person of peace is more than someone who is just nice and kind or is hospitable towards…it is so much more than just that. It is great if it includes all of that, but a person of peace is someone that you can begin to have spiritual conversations and connection with that work together towards the renewal of all things.

Identifying a person of peace in your parish and beginning to have a spiritual conversation is the beginning of something special. We don’t force spiritual conversations to happen, but instead they come about because of the relationships that have been developed while loving God and loving our neighbor. Neighboring should develop relationships with those within our parish, where God has placed us and thus called us. We go slow so that we can go far, not rushing people into something they are not intersted in but instead allowing those relationships to develop towards spiritual alignment.

Out of all the parishes represented in our church today there is at least one person of peace. They may not go to church or even be a Christian, but God has been working in their lives and they are ready to be introduced to Christ and His Kingdom.

Take time to find out what they are talking about, what is important them, and what are they concerned about.

STORY: we are talking about having that neighborhood block party with those on our street. Making a simple flyer, providing some food and drinks along with some yard games.

Those that I am being led to talk to further in my neighborhood…(share)

This will start to come naturally as we are simply being with Christ and then being with people, as we talked about last week, and we are the aroma of Christ.

vs. 7

Principle #7: In your parish, minister where He is already working.

When I read this study this week, it spoke to me about being planted when He has placed me. Some of you need to hear these words for your situation as well: Stay there…Do not move around from house to house.”

This statement in the middle will lead us into verse 8.

“…eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages…When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you.”

vs. 8

Principle #8: Neighboring is a reciprocal relationship.

Let people help and serve you as well, bringing community through reciprocal relationships.

STORY: Eat what is set before you. Have you ever had to eat some things you didn’t particularly like or were accustomed to?

Lamb. Dog. Sushi.

Be flexible. Everyone in our parishes are going to be wildly different than us. Even if they grew up in East Tennessee they will have different ways of doing things, ways of thinking, communicating, etc.

vs. 9

Principle #9: Demonstrate and Preach the Kingdom.

Brining healing and tell them the Kingdom is come (has come, is come, will come).

US Orphanages: 90 to 10 percent

They need to be touched. They are hurting and dying because those within the church are not get close enough to actual touch them.

PRAY