Equip, Encourage & Engage

Alright, we are going to wrap up our series on / / The Transformed Life this week. Although this is more than a series - it’s really a launching pad for the life of the church. More than just some teachings. These are foundational and core values to live your life by. I am absolutely 100% convinced.

It doesn’t mean that we are going to get it all right as soon as we hear them. But that’s the most important part. I think this is the greatest value in identifying things as core values and beliefs, is that it encourages us to LIVE by those beliefs. To make them our pursuit! To continually make an effort to grow and learn in these areas. Because, let’s face it, you don’t actually believe something if you say you believe it but don’t do it, right?

That doesn’t make you a bad person, and it doesn’t always make you a pharisee or hypocrite, what it makes you is unsure. And the fight against unsureness is ALWAYS the same thing, no matter what we are unsure about, / / the answer is the truth. I’ve been quoting from James quite a bit lately, and mostly James 1:22, that we can’t just read or hear the word of God, but that we have to actually do what it says. But James actually writes just a few verses before that, in James 1:5-8, / / If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking...

Now, let’s just pause there for a second, because that’s a great point. What did Adam & Eve need when they slipped up and ate the fruit? They needed wisdom about what to do next. When you mess up, you either need to fix something, apologize, figure out how to change your thinking, or change your direction, remember, that’s the very definition of repentance. But instead, the enemy, through the voice of the serpent in the garden heaped shame on them and what did they do? They HID because they were naked and afraid! Genesis 3:10 says that Adam says to God, / / “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” You don’t hide unless you think you’re going to get in trouble.

1 John 4 is an incredible chapter on love. It’s where the bible says that God is love… And in 1 John 4:18 it says, / / Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. We love that verse, of course we do. We sing about it, we preach about it, we do our best to live in it. But here’s the really important part. The next sentence he writes is: / / If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows we have not fully experienced his perfect love.

/ / If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment. It’s why we don’t ask for help when we mess up, because we’re afraid that instead of getting help, we’ll get punishment, or chastisement, or looked at differently, or shamed, berated, put out, misunderstood...

This is why James starts with saying that God isn’t going to rebuke us for asking for wisdom. It may seem ridiculous, but it’s actually a really comforting thought. If you need wisdom, ask, and God who is generous will give it to you. And he continues in vs 6, / / But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.

This is why truth is so important. This is why having a set of values, of beliefs, of having a definition of morality, is so important, because if you don’t, you will be unsure of what you believe, which will cause your footing in life to be unsure, which will cause your decisions in life to be made from a place of being unsure… and when our decisions are divided, unsure, James says, How can you expect anything from God when you’re half in half out all the time? When you say you believe part of God but not all of God, you believe he said this, but not that.

“Well, the world is changing Pastor Rob. You have to get with the times...”

Do I, though? Because it actually doesn’t matter how progressive we think we are as humans, the truth of God’s word is still the truth. I’m not saying I understand it all. What I’m saying is I am doing my absolute best, or at least continually trying to come to a place where I live by it in the understanding I DO have, and not just SETTLING for that, but continuing to study, to be sure of and ASKING God for wisdom, direction, knowledge.

Do you see how important reading and seeking God’s word is? James says, make sure that your faith is in God alone. Well, what does Paul say in Romans 10:17, / / …faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. To me that is clear indication of the power of both the word of God, written, and the word of God, spoken to us through our ongoing relationship with Him. This is why our first two core values are / / The Love of God the Father and Intimacy, hearing God’s voice. We are meant to develop relationship with a living God.

Proverbs also tells us on more than one occasion that the fear of God, or the reverence, the awe of who God is the very beginning of wisdom and knowledge.

This pursuit of truth, of defining what we truly believe is so important. It was interesting, as I was writing this, I got an email update Frank Viola, and in it he says there’s essentially two types of Christians:

Those who yield to the slightest temptation. They fold under pressure. They are willing to tolerate that which is poisonous to their souls and spirits.

Now, He is speaking of temptation specifically, but as I read it, I thought, this is true of our basis and foundation of truth as well. There are those who, as James says, are unsure, and because of their unsureness, they are like a wave, tossed about at sea, like a leaf, blown in the wind. Enticed and distracted by the different information given to them by any source.

And then the second group:

Those who have suffered for the name of Jesus Christ in the struggle. They can show their scars. They have drawn blood. They would rather die than to yield.

Again, he’s talking about sin, temptation, addiction even, and he quoted Hebrews 12:4, / / In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

But again, in regards to truth, there are people who have studied, and read and pursued truth and know what they believe and WHY they believe it. It’s not just good enough to believe something, you have to know WHY you believe it. And because they have a firm foundation, they are unwilling to yield.

That doesn’t mean you know everything, and it doesn’t mean you can’t say, “I don’t know”. “I don’t know” is one of the best things we can say, but our conversation shouldn’t stop there. “I don’t know” doesn’t mean I just accept whatever is being handed to me, it means if it matters I will put in the effort to find out, or as James encourages, if you lack wisdom, ASK GOD, who is generous!

And so basically in this email Frank was saying, how in it are you? How committed to this thing called following Christ are we? The early church didn’t have much of a choice. They were literally being hunted and look at what Paul went through for teaching the gospel. You had to be sure that this was something you wanted to give your life to because it might end up in you giving your actual life for it.

That’s not really our experience these days, is it? Or at least not in America. There are places in this world today that the gospel of Jesus Christ may end up being the cause of your death.

My point is this, and I found it very interesting that I got this email right when I was processing and studying through some of this, that the truth we hold, the foundation we build on, must be unwavering. We have to know what we believe, what the word of God says on a matter, because if we don’t, we are open to being tossed like the waves of the sea. And that doesn’t necessarily mean just going with how we were taught as kids, or what we might view as traditional, but it is living a life of seeking and pursuing God’s truth for ourselves. So, how in are you?

That’s why we even have core values, because then everything we do has to align with what we believe. When you have a foundation, what you build has to be on that foundation. In a time and age where people tend to define what they want, and then use scripture to back that up, we are meant to read and study scripture, and allow that to define what we will do.

What we want can lead us astray. “But Pastor Rob, doesn’t the bible say that God will give us the desires of our hearts?”

Sure does, it’s in Psalm 37:4, but it starts with, / / Delight yourself in the Lord…and He will give you the desires of your heart.

When you make your life about the Lord…what’s that sound like? Your will, not mine be done… then the desires of our heart align with the desire of His heart because we have made our lives about His desires.

Jesus took issue with that in the Garden of Gethsemane. Father, if there is any way for this cup of suffering to pass from me, BUT, not my will / desire, but yours be done.

Why am I digging into this so much when we’re meant to be talking about our 4th core value, / / Equip, Encourage & Engage? Because this is the first and probably greatest part of being Equipped. / / Are you equipped with the truth?

So, we’re looking at these three words: / / Equip, Encourage & Engage this morning.

/ / Equip

One of our goals as a church community is to see that everyone who desires to be equipped is equipped in a way we are able to see them fulfill the design and purpose of God in their lives. That doesn’t always mean we’re able to personally give that equipping, but it is to create a culture that we encourage and pursue the value of being equipped.

To think that all of your equipping is going to come from less than 2 hours on a Sunday morning is going to result in you being sorely let down. Even if we had something happening here everyday, so you’re here 14 hours a week. Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers, introduced the idea that it takes / / 10,000 hours of practice to become a master at any given field. Now, that’s not a precise number, studies have shown that that is not the case, that the way you practice, what you are practicing and what you are wanting to be a master in all play significant roles in that, and probably most specifically, innate, or natural ability plays a huge role. Not to get into all of that, but a study was done on the practice it took chess players to reach a specific level and the end result was that “mastery” was achieved in as little as 728 hours for some players, but more than 16,000 hours for others. So, some people took 22x more practice than others. 10,000 hours might just be an average, but the reality is, even if we could become masters at the word of God in 10,000 hours, and put 14 hours a week in it by being in church for 2 hours a day everyday, It’s going to take you more than 13 years doing that, everyday. My point is this, being equipped is a journey and takes a personal decision to look at your life and ask the question, “Am I equipped?”

Of course as we’ve been saying over and over again, this series is not to fulfill all of these, this is for the purpose of looking at our lives, and examining what we truly believe, and what is of value to us, so we can make a commitment to these values as a church and community. You are meant to be equipped. And we will do what we can to see that happen, and my encouragement to you is to make the commitment to pursue God, His word, His truth, and the purpose of what you are meant to accomplish on this earth. And by that I don’t mean you can miss it, like God has a specific task for you and you better find it. That would be too much pressure, but the simple fact that we are all called to live a life of purpose in Christ.

/ / This is a calling for all

In the book of Matthew we have 3 chapters that are called the sermon on the mount, and these are almost like Jesus’ Kingdom Manifesto, his public declaration of policy and aims, like a politician laying out how they would lead. Jesus, being the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Messiah who had come to redeem Israel, is laying out what it looks like to live in His new Kingdom reality. And he says in Matthew 5:13-16, / / You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. You are the light of the world - like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

So, a few things to note here.

/ / This is for Everyone. You, me, all those who call Jesus their Lord, have become the salt of the earth, the light of the world, the city on the hilltop, the lamp in the darkness. And Jesus is so practical here, let your good deeds be seen! The word deeds, or in other translations, works, does not hold spiritual influence here, it’s literally the work you do, or an act, a deed. Do a good deed for someone. Be good, help people.

This isn’t the only place Jesus says this. In Matthew 25, speaking of when he will return as triumphant king in all of his glory, he says that he will separate people based on this: / / For I was hungry, you fed me, I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.

And he says that those who are listening will ask, “we don’t remember doing that for you...” and he responds, “When you did it for the least of these, it’s like you were doing it for me personally.” And he calls them Righteous. Those who are right with God, those who have done right, who have been just and good.

Sometimes we can think, “Oh, I’m not gifted for ministry.” or “I’m not a pastor, or a preacher, or a prophet or...” whatever, that matters very little. Start by following Jesus to those who need help!

The equipping part of this is found in the three core values we’ve gone through in the last weeks. Allowing God to love you as Father. Pursuing intimacy with God and a lifestyle of hearing His voice. And deciding that you don’t want to stay the same, in the hurt and pain of your past, but that you want to find restoration for your heart and soul. And when we do these things love transforms us, and 1 John 4:19 says, / / We love each other because he loved us first.

Being loved by God is being equipped to love like He loves!

Pursuing Hearing His Voice for ourselves equips us for hearing and feeling his heart for others.

Allowing Him to restore our hearts and souls transforms our relationship with Him AND our relationship with those around us, and as a result we love more like He loves.

Of course - / / There are gifts

Paul echoes the words of Jesus in 1 Corinthians 14:1, / / Let love be your highest goal! but then continues with, / / But you should also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives… the ESV says, / / Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts.

That word “desire” is a very strong work in the greek, it’s / / zeloo, and means to burn with zeal, to be jealous over. You should want these gifts and do what you need to do to get them. Again, we’re not going to be getting into all the / / Spiritual Gifts this morning, but you can read in the bible about them in 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12 and Ephesians 4. 1 Peter 4 also touches on them a bit.

Ephesians 4:11 says, / / Now these are the gifts Christ gave the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.

The ESV says it this way, / / …to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.

That is this core value, The first two parts: / / To equip and to build up, or encourage. So we looked at being equipped, And the new testament is full of encouragement, to encourage.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 says, So encourage each other and build each other up...

Encourage there means to call to ones side, to comfort, to speak words of life and encouragement to. Basically, be good friends! Get into each others lives so you can be happier for it. Because we are meant to speak life and joy to each other. Meant to enjoy each others company. We’re not just here to go to church and go home and do our own thing. When we use the word community, we literally mean, we want community. Life together.

The word build there is literally to build, like you’re building a house. How many of us need that from time to time? We get discouraged, we don’t know if we’re doing the right thing, or just need to know we can do it? Maybe we feel like life has torn us down a bit - Building each other up, putting strength to our words of truth for each other.

Hebrews 10:24 says, / / Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another...

That verse brings us to the last part of this core value, to engage. / / Let us think of waits to motivate one another to acts of love and good works… Why do we equip and encourage? Ephesians 4 says it is / / ...for the work of the ministry, to engage with the people around us, both inside and outside the church. That word, ministry means / / of those who by the command of God proclaim and promote religion among men.

When you are here, we are building each other up, ministering to each other, we are encouraging each other, growing in community together. When you are out there, you’re a representative, an ambassador of God’s kingdom, of the church. 2 Corinthians 5:20 actually says, / / Therefore, we are ambassadors of Christ, God making his appeal through us!

Ambassador means an accredited diplomat sent by a country as its official representative to a foreign country.

So, a few weeks ago Kelley and I were away in South Carolina with the leaders and other pastors in our network of churches, Harvest Alliance, and we had an incredible moment of encouragement in our journey that we want to share with you this morning. This would normally be something that is done in the local house, the local church, but of course we were up there and our leaders were not here, with us, but a friend captured it on video, and so we want to share it with you. And then I want Kelley to share something as well specific to some things she’s experienced recently that really bring life to this…being equipped and encouraged to engage with our community.