ECIPLESHIP for Passionate Christ-Followers

God tells us to be Salt and Light. Scattered seed. Life-influencers. Pace-setters. World-changers. Light-givers. What a challenge!

Increasingly, the host of believers has become more fragmented, not into different denominations, traditions, or organizations, but between those who “believe” in the church and those who don’t. 35% of the people who claim to believe in Jesus never attend church. I understand the hurt, resentments, scars and all that. Quite frankly, I’ve been there…numerous times. But by God’s grace, I love the church more today than I ever have!

In a recent online chat with some friends, I read this not-so-uncommon statement:

Christianity has become such a “man made” institution; it has forgotten the mystical being that it should be focused on.  Christians are so busy “building the Church” they have forgotten to BE THE CHURCH.

Here’s what I agree with in this candid statement – we need to BE the church. This is what Salt and Light is about! But we are to be about building the church as well. Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it!”

What follows is a small section of my response to the email above:

I’m guessing you’re not aware of it, but there is a strong bias against anyone who looks, sounds, or acts at all traditional in their Christian belief. There seems to be almost a thrill to point out something that isn’t right about “the others that still don’t get it.” Guess what? I’m one of those others.

When we tend to look down on other believers, or cast judgment upon their ways, we find ourselves thumbing our nose at God’s children. When people say bad things about my children, even though I already know it, it makes me feel bad. I want people to look at the good in my children, not only find their faults. In the same way, when we find ways to criticize other believers, we hurt God. They are His children.

The world out there needs to be evangelized…and so do many who claim to know Jesus. For those who claim Jesus but despise his church, it is akin to someone loving you and despising your family. It simply isn’t right. The way someone loves you most is to also love those you love.

So—go ahead! Be salt. Be light! Be that for those who know nothing about Jesus…and also for those who are missing out on the beauty of God’s family.

Soak in these wise words from the great preacher, Dwight L. Moody:

In all ages God has used those who were in earnest.  Satan always calls idle men into his service.  God calls active and earnest – not indolent – men.  When we are thoroughly aroused and ready for his work, then He will take us up and use us.  You remember where Elijah found Elisha;  he was ploughing in the field – he was at work.  Gideon was threshing grain.  Moses was away in Horeb looking after the sheep.  None of these eminent servants of God were indolent men; what they did, they did with all their might.  We need such men and women today.  If we can’t do God’s work with all the knowledge we would like, let us at any rate do it with all the zeal that God has given us.

Whatever we do, let’s do it will all the zeal God can give us! What a challenge for us today.

Allow me to suggest that your zeal be directed toward three important disciplines…

• Prayer – prayer that is consistent and passionate about seeking God’s miraculous intervention.  Nothing is too big to ask of God.  Let us pray with a faith that waits to see how God will answer.  Let’s forget this whole mentality of whether or not God will come through.  Face it, God wants His church, and in conjunction with that, Edinbrook Church to succeed.   Let us ask with “confidence that we may find mercy and grace to help in our time of need.” Make prayer for Edinbrook a personal and family activity each day in the months ahead.  Then we will see what God will do!
• Giving – giving of your finances consistently and sacrificially.  The financial challenges that face us are significant as we stay determined to achieve the great things of God rather than the reasonable things of man. God will not make up for our lack of faithfulness or sacrifice.  When we are giving our best, God responds reciprocally.  Remember these words from Malachi 3:10? “Bring the whole tenth into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and test Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.” As we give generously, He responds with joyful liberality toward us.  Let us give generously and consistently, and then we will see what God will do!
• Anticipation – anticipate the great things that lay before us.  Picture in your dreams what Edinbrook Church will be in one, two, five, and ten years.  Go ahead – dream!  Pull out that old dusty imagination tucked away since childhood and dream again!  With confidence and conviction, we can press ahead knowing that God is with us and will go before us.  He did it before and He will do it again. Sit on the edge of your seat in breathless wonder at what amazing thing God will do next.  “Without faith (that confident anticipation) it is impossible to please God,” Hebrews 11:6.  If we truly walk in that kind of faith, then we will see what God will do next.

As Isaiah said of Christ’s work on the cross, “The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this,” so it will be at Edinbrook Church when our zeal is matched with God’s.  Now – what will you do next?

I was reminded yesterday of how powerful and memorable a simple love act can be. When I woke up yesterday, I grabbed one of my new dry erase markers and wrote a verse from Proverbs on the mirror: “There are many virtuous and capable women in the world, but you excel them all!” Proverbs 31:29. A short time later, when Susan saw the display, she stood in shock momentarily — and then turned all gushy! That was fun…

Yesterday evening, as Susan and I sat across the table from one another, I asked her about her day and, specifically, what was the best part. I had actually forgotten the dry erase episode. Without a moment of hesitation, Susan declared, “When I walked into the bathroom and saw your love message to me.”

Wow! Is that cool or what? I had loved my wife in such a way that she couldn’t stop thinking about it! And do you know what it took for me to do that? A little forethought, purchasing a dry erase marker, and one minute of writing.

I’ve decided that simple things can make wonderful contributions to marriage and those you love. We just need to do the simple things.

You know what I’m excited about now? Susan said, “I think I need to pick up one of those markers too…”

Love God. This command is stated in Deuteronomy 6:5. Jesus restated it in the New Testament declaring that it was THE most important commandment of all. Everything else, in fact, fits into this one commandment. Seems to me that this is a topic we should ruminate on deeply until we understand it clearly.

So what does it really mean to love God? What does that look like and feel like? Is this easy or hard? How do we become experts at this loving thing? And why is “loving God” a command? Shouldn’t love come from the heart? If I’m obeying a command, does this come from the heart…and is this really love?

So many questions!

Guess what? We won’t answer them all today [But I am presenting a three-week series right after Easter called "this!" that will look deeply into this command to love God.]

For today, I want to remind you of two things:

#1 — God intended love to be much more than warm fuzzies and easy actions. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey my commandments.” Love is choosing to do the right thing because you respect, honor, and submit to a person you love. We often pair the love idea with romance or our easiest friendships. This is one kind of love, but not the primary kind that God is intending for us in our relationship to Him. It’s more like the love I had for my father who, when he said something to me, I did it because I admired and honored him. I even did what he told me when I didn’t feel like it! He was my authority in life, I knew it was the right thing to do, and he was bigger and stronger than me. I wanted to be sure to experience his tender side and not his wrath side.

Why would my father make sure I obeyed him? Because he knew what was best for me long-term — and he knew it was important for me to submit to his authority in my life. And it’s true! When I obeyed my father, I had an incredible relationship with him…mostly because of what loving through obedience did to me. And that leads me to the second thought for today…

#2 — Loving God is meant to feed us, not God. We have been designed by our creator to live in harmony with Him. When we do that, life is good. When we step out of that, life stinks. We need to love God, not only for His pleasure, but because it is our biggest need, even though we rarely recognize that.

So when God tells us to love Him, it isn’t that He needs something from us. No — He is perfect, complete, lacking in nothing. This is not some kind of ego trip for God. He tells us to love Him because we were designed to have an intimate loving relationship with our Creator!

And when we blew it — when sin entered the world, He demonstrated that kind of love in mind-blowing ways. He submitted Himself to our needs and walked to a cross to redeem us from our sin. Now if that doesn’t spur on a little authentic love in our souls…

The only way I can be a success today is by living in the flow of the Spirit. Success, as I’m defining it, is to live in the center of God’s will. This will enable me to do what God has planned for me to do, to love Him as I’m designed to love Him, and to accomplish what I must in God’s way in God’s time for God’s glory.

What does it mean to live in the flow of the Spirit?

“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.’”  But in this Jesus spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive. (John 7:38-39)

The picture Jesus gives us is that of a bountiful spring in your innermost being. In the gut of who you are, the Spirit is meant to be this life-giving fountain of life and abundance, producing this stream of quenching satisfaction for your soul.

Are you stressed, weary, afraid, tense, insecure, or dealing with disappointment? There are so many things that bring tension in your belly. We experience unrest in that deepest place inside of us — where you are anxious or afraid, where you feel hollow or empty when you are struggling with life. This “brain in the gut” is the place where the fountain of life is meant to thrive, providing “rivers of living water.”

Notice that it is not a trickle, stream, waddie, or even river. It is “rivers!” Many of them! The Spirit is given to you in order to bring abundance to your life.

Do not live in need today. Leave an impoverished way of living behind. God wants you to live in the center of His will today — in the rushing river of the Spirit’s flow.

I will never forget a sermon I heard, maybe 25 years ago in a little country church in Northern Minnesota. It was entitled, “Giving God Your Garbage”. When I heard the title, I thought, “I would never do that! What in the world could this guy say that applies to me?” Surprise! The entire message applied to me! In fact, he was meddling with my life. The garbage in our lives are the things we don’t need, the leftovers, the stuff we get rid of without really noticing the loss. This is what we do when we give God what’s left! We give Him our garbage. It’s not a very good way to honor our Heavenly Father, is it?

Proverbs 3:9 says, “Honor the Lord from your wealth, and from the first of all your produce.” In the agricultural environment in which this was written, the “produce” was their income and wealth. Today it’s our paycheck. We honor God when we give Him the first part. The really nice part that follows in verse ten is that God declares, “Your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.” Transfer these farmer terms into city talk and you’ve got a pretty amazing promise from God to claim…as you give Him priority in your giving.

King David was an amazing man. We know he wasn’t perfect. In fact, the honesty of scripture reveals the ugly episode of sin in his life (aren’t you glad all of our ugly episodes aren’t up for public display?), but David was cherished by God as “the man after My own heart.” That’s why I take special notice of the way David loved and honored The Lord. In a situation of urgency, David needed to present an offering to the Lord. A friend wanted to give the king an animal to use, but David clarified, “I will not present burnt offerings that have cost me nothing!” 1Chronicles 21:24. Do you see the principle by which David lived? He would not give God leftovers or things that didn’t cost him. It was a matter of honor.

Honor the Lord from your wealth, and from the first of all your produce.

As I was reading my Bible this morning, I came across an interesting little verse in Luke 6:7: “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees watched closely to see whether Jesus would heal the man on the Sabbath.”

What I find unique about this statement is that:

• The teachers of law and the Pharisees knew Jesus could heal
• They were intent of finding error even in the good things Jesus did

Fortunately for us, the New Testament gives us a magnified look at what hypocritical religion looks like. The leaders of religious life in Israel were simply religious. They were not righteous.

• Religious people are intent on the details of life but often miss the big and important things. Of these people, Jesus stated, “You tithe mint, dill and cummin, but overlook the weighter things like justice, mercy and faithfulness.”
• Religious people are determined to make themselves look good or feel spiritual, even if it means pulling someone else down.
• Religious people are bound to legalism — a system that measures spirituality by deeds done, laws obeyed, and a right standing with God being earned.

Righteous people know that who they are, what they become, and however they influence their world is all through the grace and power of God alone. They live with a contagious enthusiasm for life, a passion to be the presence of God in their world, and a gratitude the compels them to do what’s right.

• Righteous people live for God’s pleasure and affirmation.
• Righteous people demonstrate unrestrained compassion for people…even on the sabbath.
• Righteous people overlook the judgmental assaults of religious people.

The religious can only become righteous through the miraculous intervention of God. Self must be crucified, the old way of legalism is recognized as filthy (Paul described it as “waste and garbage”), and in humility, they must fall before God seeking His gracious intervention. Only then can the religious become righteous.

There’s nothing like the real deal…. I know.

Principle #7: The more we become like Jesus was the more we will influence people like Jesus did.

This may be the most important principle of all. We cannot force some kind of positive influence upon others. We will have a positive impact on others in direct proportion to how much we are becoming like Jesus in all respects. When we really love God, we authentically love people.

Jesus taught this principle in various ways. “As you have done good things to the least of these, you have done it unto me,” He clarified. When the question was presented about the greatest command of all, Jesus gave a simple and profound answer: “Love God. And just like it, love people.” A close look at this “greatest command” shows us that one of the best ways to love God is to love the people that God loves. In loving those people, we are loving God.

Our daughter, Bethany, grew up with “Teddy” — her crib-mate through infancy and bedroom partner through out life. I really don’t know if Teddy still sleeps in between she and her husband now (I strongly doubt it), but she really loved Teddy when she was growing up. Teddy didn’t have a lot of worth apart from a lover. He was made of fuzzy material, stuffing, and a couple buttons for eye balls. There may have been fifty cents worth of material in that little guy. But because my daughter loved Teddy, he needed to be treated with care, cherished like a treasure, and guarded with a passion. Teddy was valuable because I loved my daughter and my daughter loved Teddy.

We’re surrounded by people every day who are so deeply loved by God that He sacrificed His son for their salvation. When we see people, we can easily dismiss them, overlook them, or ignore them. But they are deeply cherished by God who desperately loves them. We’ll never really get that until we have the heart of God beating in our chests. When that happens, we will love and influence people at a whole different level.

The more we become like Jesus was the more we will influence people like Jesus did.

Principle #6: The more contacts we make with a stranger the higher degree of probability they will become our friend.

A very simple but effective way to have influence in the lives of others is to be intentional to make contacts. Instead of randomly choosing your gas station, sandwich shop, or coffee stop, return to the same place over and over with the goal of having some kind of 30 second conversation with a the same person again and again. Two wonderful things happen: Your stop is no-longer about you (it’s about them) and you begin to build simple friendships that can lead to something bigger eventually.

I’ve been known to like coffee just a little. Over the past number of years, I have had four or five people come to Edinbrook from coffee shops because it finally led to an invitation. At least one has made a personal decision to accept Christ because of that.

My wife, Susan, has shared Christ numerous times in normal conversation while getting her hair cut or nails done. Over time, she builds relationships with the same people.  She not only takes care of her beauty needs, she plants Kingdom seeds!

By being intentional in your day-to-day activities, you can be a friendly evangelist without taking any more time out of your day. It even gives routine activities purpose and eternal significance.

So be intentional! The more contact we make with a stranger, the higher degree of probability they will become our friend.