Campus Pastor Sunday | Pressing Onward

Message

Heavenly Father, you are the one who never leaves the one behind. May all of us today come to know you as a God who seeks and saves the lost, of which we are one. In your name, Lord, Amen.

In a couple of weeks, I’ll be starting my 4th year with this church, and I feel grateful for every moment that we’ve shared together.

My family has tripled in size since we first landed on the shores of Miami. [Show pic of 3 kids]

Most recently, my wife and I welcomed Jacob to our clan. [Show pic of Jacob]

Who bears a striking resemblance to [show pic] Super Colossal Big Fat Boss Baby. He’s like an Abuela magnet, drawing every Abuela to him from a quarter mile radius.

Though we’ve only shared 3 years together, thus far, some of you may not know this, but my roots into this church go much deeper into the family soil.

My wife, Stacy, grew up in this church with her family, who have been attending here for more than 40 years.

Here’s a picture [show pic of sisters] of my wife and her two sisters, Amy and Kelly, from the 1992 Christmas Pageant.

When my wife and I initially began to sense the Lord preparing us for a transition from our former church, we both mourned over leaving our community in California. We loved our church there, and they are still doing great ministry in the Bay Area.

Yet, when I received the invitation from Pastor Mark to interview for a pastoral position here, I didn’t hesitate because I valued so much the reputation of this great church and our leaders.

For those of you newer to our church within the last year or so, we have a profound history spanning 92 years of faithful ministry to the Coral Gables and Miami Dade area.

From our founding Pastor who held a vision before the first congregation in 1926 of ‘making North and South America one in Christ’ to over 230 teenagers and 60 adults at Student Camp in 2018.

Truly, our history and our story is remarkable. Our church is a living witness to a God who never leaves the one behind.

I count this as one of our most special attributes. Anyone, and indeed, everyone, can feel at home here within our family and learn our family ways, as we tell our story, together.

Yet, this very special attribute of ours possesses a shadow side that actually risks dividing our community, rather than uniting it.

The danger of every multi-generational community like ours with more than 92 years of history is living in the golden years of our past, instead of living forward thinking for the generations yet to come!

This state of mind, pining for the good ol’ days and yearning for a return to a previous bygone era, is technically called ‘Declinism.’

Declinism is the belief that a particular country, society, or institution is in a state of irreparable decline based on the perception of a better time - whether true or not.

Declinism can best be illustrated by Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite: [Play video - 1:32]

Uncle Rico’s perceived decline began after losing his high school football championship game. He piqued in high school, but really, who piques in high school? No one! Although all of us have friends like Uncle Rico who perceived that they did, no one piques at 17 or 18.

Uncle Rico longed for a bygone era because he feared who he would become without football.

Declinism differs from nostalgia in that Nostalgia is sentimental, but Declinism is fear-based.

Declinism is rooted in the fear of the unknown, the fear of losing power, the fear of judgment, the fear of displacement, or the fear of losing control (which we all know is a myth anyway, right?).

Declinism is a detractor. This state of mind will prevent you from forming fresh vision to solve new problems.

Once sweet nostalgia becomes fear based and morphs into declinism, this state of mind can become toxic not just to your own well-being and leadership, but to the well-being of your relationships and community.

Declinism affects businesses, families, and certainly, it can also affect the church.

In fact, the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia located in modern- day Turkey was a response to the effects of declinism within the early church community.

Already less than 20 years after the formation of the early church, some followers of Jesus had been returning to the old Jewish traditions and laws that no longer applied to the Christian faith.

Furthermore, some Jesus followers even had been teaching that to really and truly follow Jesus, one had to adopt the former traditions and laws of the Jewish faith and practice them in the Jewish synagogues.

The Apostle Paul opens his letter to the church, saying:

'I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ.’ Galatians 1:6-7

As a matter of fact, the Apostle Peter, who was Jesus’ chief disciple, implicitly affirmed these early teachings through a particular issue that becomes immediately apparent in the letter: eating with the Gentiles.

A Gentile simply refers to any non-Jewish person.

While this issue seems rather benign on the surface, eating with a Gentile had been against Jewish law for more than fifteen hundred years. That’s a long history of discrimination now bearing down on this church.

Imagine being told over and over and over and again for 1500 years worth of generations not to associate whatsoever with anyone other than your own ethnic group.

Then, all of a sudden, [finger snap] within a few years, everything changes.

When the law had initially been given to the people of God by Moses, it was intended to both protect a vulnerable people group against disease and destruction and promote the goodness and salvation of their God to the rest of the world.

Fast forward 1500 years later and now that same law was preventing people from knowing God and sought instead to preserve the power of Israel’s elite.

At the time Jesus entered into history, the people of Israel were professional ‘declinists’ all longing for the good ol’ days of King David and their eventual return to power.

On the one hand, the Jewish converts to Christianity believed the good news about Jesus, and they sought to live out his new commandment of love.

Yet, on the other hand, they longed for days past when they wielded power and control and could think of themselves as better than the Gentiles.

This very tension still continues today within us personally as individuals, as well as us corporately as a community.

The scandal of the cross is that Jesus died for everyone.

And then tells his followers to make disciples of all of those people for whom

Jesus died.

That’s a tough assignment... because when you really stop and think about everyone and what that means, everyone includes people with whom I naturally enjoy associating and also those people who repel me.

The tension within the Galatian church in AD 50 is still the same tension with the church I in 2018. This is an ‘everybody’ issue that even included the Apostle

Peter. He and Paul debated this issue, which Paul recounts in chapter 2, saying:

‘When Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy.’ Galatians 2:11-13

Fear invaded the Apostle Peter’s good judgment.

And fear led many within the Galatian church astray from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul wrote elsewhere in another letter to his apprentice, Timothy:

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” 2 Tim 1:7

Jesus inaugurated love as the central kingdom ethic through fulfilling the law and embodying the restoration work that God started all the way back with Abraham.

Thus in Christ, we have been set free from achieving an impossible standard and doing an impossible work. On the cross, Jesus reconciled our relationship with our Heavenly Father and finished this work once and for all. It is done.

To illustrate this point, Paul uses a powerful, saying;

'My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ' Galatians 2:20

Friends, when we fear losing our old way of life, our old self, our old appetites and desires, our old way of power and control, our old habits, our old worldview and way of thinking about other people, perceive us differently, then we completely miss the point of Jesus’ work on the cross.

Now, Peter didn’t lose his faith when he clung to his old self, but he did certainly lose the plot of his faith.

Paul says, ‘My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.’ Galatians 2:20

In other words, Paul’s admitting that he has given up the illusion of control for reliance upon the only one who gives life. In Christ, Paul is no longer defined by his old ways and worldview. He is no longer defined by whatever power or wealth he may have ever possessed from his past.

Rather, his life and every breath he breathes is Jesus living inside of him who alone offers us a real and true satisfying life. Jesus gave his life for yours so that you may live for freedom and for Jesus’ sake, not for fear and your past’s sake.

Truly, the core issue laying underneath the surface of eating with the Gentiles, really, is Christian identity. In Christ, Paul tells us, you are more than the sum of your past - good or bad - and the potential of your future.

You are worth so much more than your full potential.

As a Jesus follower, your Christian identity is one rooted in the work of Christ done for you, not in what you can do... or who you are... or your associations.

Jesus done did it all - once - and for all! :)

This is the heartbeat of Christian identity. We hang too many unnecessary ornaments onto our Christian identity.

It is not based on your morality. It is not based on your politic. It isn’t based on your behaviors. (Can I get an amen?) It isn’t based on a program.

The heartbeat of the Christian identity is losing whatever memory of the so called life that you once possessed for the gracious saving life of Christ at work within you.

We make our Christian identity about so much more than we need or should. In fact, dare I say that we hide behind these other concepts in order to distance ourselves from our single mandate to love God and others as ourselves.

This is the central work of Jesus Christ, and it was expressed to us through his loving faithfulness toward us, enduring the cross for us, not giving up on us, going to death for us, and conquering the grave through his resurrection power... for us.

You are not your own. You were ransomed from the power of the evil one and brought back forever to your creator.

Now, with Jesus at work in you, since his defining work is loving faithfulness, then your defining work, too, must also be loving faithfulness.

That’s it.

No matter what your vocation, family of origin, or ethnic background, every word, every action, every work, every relationship, every thought even, must be soaked with loving faithfulness toward others and yourself, regardless of whether or not those others look like you, believe like you, talk like you, think like you, or love like you.

This is the only thing that differentiates Jesus followers from everyone else. Your loving faithfulness expressed through the fruits of the Spirit alive within you: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self- control is the evidence of the unseen work of Jesus in your very life.

This is the only thing that differentiates the church from every other organization in the world.

About 2 years after this incident between Peter and Paul in Antioch, enough churches faced this issue that the church leaders called together its first council to officially decide on how to address this matter about including others who looked, talked, and acted different from the Jewish establishment.

The Book of Acts recorded this meeting called the Jerusalem Council and their decision regarding inclusion. The Apostle Luke wrote,

At the meeting, after a long discussion, Peter stood and addressed them as follows:

This same Peter who just a couple of years earlier feared what some might think about him for associating with Gentiles

“Brothers, you all know that God chose me from among you some time ago to preach to the Gentiles so that they could hear the Good News and believe. God knows people’s hearts, and he confirmed that he accepts Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for he cleansed their hearts through faith. So why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear? We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus.”

After Peter made his argument, James, the brother of Jesus, then stood up to make a formal recommendation to be accepted by all church leaders, saying:

“And so my judgment is that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.”

It is not the task of the church or you to judge who is in or out, or who belongs to the community or not. It is your task to love. That’s it.

Our task, in fact, is to help as many as possible find and follow Jesus. That’s it.

James continues, saying:

Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from eating food offered to idols, from sexual immorality, from eating the meat of strangled animals, and from consuming blood. For these laws of Moses have been preached in Jewish synagogues in every city on every Sabbath for many generations.”

Rather than impossibly trying to keep 613 laws, James suggests 4:

● Don’t associate with other gods.

● Love rightly.

● Keep unhealthy junk out of your body.

● And respect life.

That’s it.

This agreement in Acts 15, culminating what started in Galatians 2, opened the way for a radical new community to form where, as Paul states:

There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28

Our uniquely better as a church is our uncommon fellowship together, our radical inclusion of others, and our acceptance of everyone who walks through that door and that door and that door and that door and that door - of any and every person who walks upon this sacred and historic piece of property - so that any and every person may know the Jesus who saved us and the church who loves one another.

That’s our uniquely better.

It won’t be our glam, because we can’t out glam our city.

It won’t be our cultural relevance, because we can’t out relate to our city. Miami is one of the most culturally cutting edge cities in the world.

It won’t be our production or even the kind of experience that we can create, although important, because we can’t out produce the entertainment capital of Central and South America.

But we can show loving faithfulness better than any other organization in our city. We can help people pick up their broken pieces, and help others find and follow the one who set our feet on a path toward healing and restoration better than any other organization in our city.

But we can only do this as we shed our declinism and even our nostalgia for a bygone era, and instead,

“Focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.' Philippians 3:13-14

Friends, your greatest witness to Jesus at work within you and our greatest witness as a church will be how we love one another and how we love, together.

Everything else follows behind this mandate, so let me challenge you this week to ask yourself this question: “What declinism do I need to surrender from my life in order to allow the vision of Christ to become realized in me and my church?”

May we begin this next ministry year as freed men and women with a vision for Jesus to work out his loving faithfulness in our lives so that our witness together as a church may be working loving faithfulness to others in our city, so together we may sing truthfully:

If You gave Your life to love them so will I.

1. [Show pic of 3 kids]

2. [Show pic of Jacob]

3. [Show pic of cartoon baby with baby jacob]

4. [show pic of sisters]

5. Declinism is the belief that a particular country, society, or institution is in

6. a state of irreparable decline based on the perception of a better time -

7. whether true or not.

8. [Play Napoleon Dynamite video - 1:32]

9. Nostalgia is sentimental, but Declinism is fear-based.

10. Declinism is a detractor.

11. 'I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you

12. to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all.You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ.’ Galatians 1:6-7

13. A Gentile simply refers to any non-Jewish person.

14. The scandal of the cross is that Jesus died for everyone.

15. ‘When Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile

believers, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy.’ Galatians 2:11-13

1. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:7

2. 'My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ' Galatians 2:20

3. ‘My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.’ Galatians 2:20

4. You are worth so much more than your full potential.

5. As a Jesus follower, your Christian identity is one rooted in the work of Christ done for you, not in what you can do... or who you are... or your

6. associations.

7. The heartbeat of the Christian identity is losing whatever memory of the so

8. called life that you once possessed for the gracious saving life of Christ at

9. work within you.

10. At the meeting, after a long discussion, Peter stood and addressed them as

11. follows:

12. “Brothers, you all know that God chose me from among you some time

13. ago to preach to the Gentiles so that they could hear the Good News and believe. God knows people’s hearts, and he confirmed that he accepts Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for he cleansed their hearts through faith. So why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear? We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus.” Acts 15:7-11

14. “And so my judgment is that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.” Acts 15:19

13

1. Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from eating food offered to idols, from sexual immorality, from eating the meat of strangled animals, and from consuming blood. For these laws of Moses have been preached in Jewish synagogues in every city on every Sabbath for many generations.” Acts 15:20-21

2. Don’t associate with other gods. Love rightly. Keep unhealthy junk out of your body. Respect life.

3. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28

4. Our uniquely better as a church is our uncommon fellowship together.

5. “Focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly

6. prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.' Philippians

3:13-14

7. “What declinism do I need to surrender from my life in order to allow the

vision of Christ to become realized in me and my church?”

8. If You gave Your life to love them so will I.

14