Making It Personal

God calls Israel to Himself so that they can know Him.

God call’s us to himself so that we can grow in knowledge of who He is.

God moves us, he calls us to action, so that we can know Him.

The expectation and natural response of walking in faith is obedience to God.

The giving of God’s covenant is unconditional, but enjoyment of God’s covenant is conditional.

As we are making disciples it is important that we share the whole gospel.

Salvation is a free gift, but the result of authentic salvation is devotion.

“but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

God uses established leadership to communicate to the people.

The elders have been discussing the questions that some of you asked and have decided that a better term to use for LG leaders is a Fellow Worker.

There is a synergy that comes by all of us in the church knowing the role God has called us to and operating, as He leads, in that role.

Exodus 19:10–25 ESV

10 the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments 11 and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. 12 And you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, ‘Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. 13 No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot; whether beast or man, he shall not live.’ When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.” 14 So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people; and they washed their garments. 15 And he said to the people, “Be ready for the third day; do not go near a woman.” 16 On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. 17 Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. 19 And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. 20 The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. 21 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the Lord to look and many of them perish. 22 Also let the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves, lest the Lord break out against them.” 23 And Moses said to the Lord, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us, saying, ‘Set limits around the mountain and consecrate it.’ ” 24 And the Lord said to him, “Go down, and come up bringing Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest he break out against them.” 25 So Moses went down to the people and told them.

As we have gone through this study on God using Moses and Aaron to set the Israelites free, we’ve tried to see the interactions between God, Moses, and Israel.

Our intention is to apply what we see God and Moses doing, their interactions, to the call that God has for us as a church.

At the beginning of this study we talked about and asked God that He would motivate us to join Him.

Our desire has not been to just do something for God, but rather to join God in His work of setting people free.

I want to make sure that in the midst of all of this we don’t lose the beauty of this story in its entirety.

God is doing all of this to restore the relationship between Himself and his creation.

All of this is has been done to show God’s people who He is and that He loves them.

God is about to reveal himself in a big way. He is about to show Israel the truth about who they were intended to be before the fall.

In the text today we see God instructing Moses to prepare the people, by consecrating them, and having them go through the necessary steps to cleanse themselves.

I don’t want to focus on the specific instructions today, but rather on the intent behind what God is doing and make application for us and God’s intent for using us in this process.

In verse 10 and 11 God is giving Moses specific instructions on what they need to do to be ready to encounter God.

Now, on the surface, this may seem pretty simple.

However, consider the way in which God chooses to make Himself known.

It’s through us. …Christ in me is the hope of glory...

If Christ in me is the hope of glory, am I putting the proper value on the time that is need for this to happen?

We all know that the Holy Spirit lives in us once we receive Christ as our savior.

But we see Jesus getting alone often to be with the father, to commune with the father, to seek direction and instruction.

His purpose in that was to know exactly where, when, how, and with whom God was calling him too next.

If we are going to lead people to know God, we must know Him first.

We have spent all this time talking, thinking, and praying about joining God to set people free, but are we putting in the time?

I asked Luke to go and move one of the dogs in his grandpa’s dog barn yesterday.

He said yes sir, left, and the came right back and said, “as long as you will sharpen my pocket knife for me when I get back.”

me: that’s not how this relationship works...

As soon as those words came out of my mouth I realized that we do that so often with God.

Sure God, I’ll do that thing you asked… as long as you do _______.

That’s not how this relationship works...

You cannot give someone directions to a place that you’ve never been too.

The Butterfield answer...

Bethany has always given me a really hard time about this. I’m better about it now, but it has been a long road.

In the past, if you asked me a question, weather I knew the answer or not, I would give you one.

We cannot just give padded answers and develop shallow relationships.

This can be particularly challenging for us because...

Most people have a preconceived idea of who God is and what a “christian” is.

We live in the south and as we have discussed before, most people that you meet will tell you they are a christian or that they believe in God if you ask them.

So, how do we break past that facade that we have all been taught to present?

Last week Bethany shared a podcast with me that she was listening too.

They had a guest speaker who was talking about a new book that she co-wrote.

It’s Personal: Five Questions You Should Answer to Give Every Kid Hope.

Now this book was written particularly with youth ministry in mind, but the concepts that it discusses are applicable to any age group.

The authors start out the book describing these shallow relationships that we are all familiar with.

The, how are you, how was your week, etc.

They point out that shallow does have some incredible benefits.

sometimes, you’ve had a rough morning and you need to be shallow with those around you just so you don’t blow up on them.

Shallowness in small amounts can provide relief.

But shallow all the time can leave us empty.

If we are never authentic and vulnerable with anyone, we won’t be known by anyone.

That is not how we were created to live.

God created us and it is in our DNA to be in relationships.

Some of us need lots of them and some of us only need one or two.

But at the end of the day, we all need them.

With all of this in mind, how do can we use authenticity and vulnerability to prepare people to know God?

We make things personal. We dig in and invite ourselves into the lives of the person or persons that God is calling us to.

Why is this even necessary?

A shallow approach to life can rob us of the potential to bring hope in to peoples lives.

You are worth someones investment...

The person that God has called you to prepare is worth your investment.

And this is a hard thing.

Think about it...

Shallow is fast.

Personal takes time.

Shallow is easy.

Personal is complicated.

Shallow is safe.

Personal is risky.

Shallow is certain.

Personal is unresolved.

Shallow is dismissive.

Personal is interested.

Shallow is familiar.

Personal is unpredictable.

Shallow cost money.

Personal cost me.

Do you find it difficult or easy to be personal?

Why is important that we make the investment to become personal?

The way we handle our interactions with people determines what and how they experience God.

We prepare them by investing in them, walking with them, and knowing them.

We cannot join God if we only want to do things that are easy.

We cannot join God if we only want what is familiar.

We cannot join God if we are unwilling to put in the time.

We cannot join god if we are unwilling to make sacrifices.

Think for a moment about your own life.

How did you become a believer? Did someone invest in you? Did that person go beyond shallow? Was the relationship you had personal?

Jesus was incredibly personal.

He touched people who had diseases.

He spoke respectfully to a scandalous woman.

He wept at the tomb of a friend.

He washed the feet of his disciples.

Why? Because the relationship that God wants to have with us is personal.

As I have thought through this message for the last two weeks, I keep asking myself the same question. Are we motivated to do this?

Are we motivated in a way that we are willing to do whatever is required of us in order to prepare people to truly know God?

Our motivation is always to be the grace that we have been given.

But are we allowing Jesus to speak into our lives often enough that we are reminded of that grace?

We cannot be motivated by what we aren’t aware of.

1 John 2:1–8 NLT

1 My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. 2 He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world. 3 And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. 4 If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. 5 But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. 6 Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did. 7 Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one you have had from the very beginning. This old commandment—to love one another—is the same message you heard before. 8 Yet it is also new. Jesus lived the truth of this commandment, and you also are living it. For the darkness is disappearing, and the true light is already shining.

If we aren’t in the word regularly we will become desensitized to the world around us.

The reason so many people who claim to be believers but don’t actually know God is because the aren’t in the word.

John isn’t just talking about the big 10 commandments. which by the way is what is about to happen in the next chapter.

The big 10 are just the bare minimum.

they are like to rough outline of the most incredible love story ever written.

Remember last time we talked about the rich young ruler.

He had kept the ten commandments, but was unwilling to give up his possessions and follow Jesus.

This is the very reason why Jesus tells all the commandments are taken care of if we will just focus on two. Love God and love your neighbor as your self.

We cannot know God, love God, or prepare people to know and love God if we aren’t making it personal with God.

Our motivation to be personal comes from KNOWING (ginosko) that God is personal with us.

1 John 2:6 NLT

6 Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.

Jesus was personal.

We must also be personal.

Who is God calling you to make it personal with?

God, again, gives Moses very specific instructions about where Israel can and cannot go when He comes to the mountain.

God knows that once He is on the mountain that two things could happen.

If the people rush in, they will be killed.

The people will be afraid of what they see and hear.

The instructions that God gives Moses provides for a safe way for Israel to experience God.

God has given us a similar set of instructions on how we are to prepare people to meet Him.

God has instructed us to use our homes as a safe place to encounter him.

The reason our LG meet in homes is because it is safer feeling for someone to accept an invitation to our home or a friends home than it is to a church.

It is our job as members of all of these life groups to make sure that we all do our part to make sure those homes feel like a safe place for people to be authentic and vulnerable.

I’m often too dry and sarcastic.

It’s so bad that I have been given instructions that I should tell people when I met them that I’m not intending to be a jerk.

I’ve had to learn the hard way, that my sarcasm is a ministry killer.

I have had a couple of people in my life that, through no intention of harm, I have driven them away from hope because I’m a knuckle head.

I put my desire to be funny ahead of their need of a safe place.

We need to be asking ourselves and God if there are things about how we interact with people that are causing harm.

This is not me calling anyone out.

I’m just saying we need to consider the way we treat others and how that comes across.

You may be perfect in how you handle a guest in you life group, but sarcastic with a regular, and because that guest doesn’t understand the group dynamic or you, it causes them to not want to come back.

Does our group provide a place that feel safe for people to feel vulnerable?

In what area does our life group need to make improvements?

What are some things that our life group does really well?

“Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity. It is the source of hope, empathy, accountability, and authenticity. If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path.

-Brene Brown, Daring Greatly

Our goal is to provide an environment where a person can be vulnerable, ask incredibly hard questions, be loved by the people in that group, and experience God.

I know I say this over and over again, but it’s not about us.

Our life groups aren’t just for us.

We benefit from the group when everyone is focused on others instead of themselves.

Our life groups are awesome. No doubt about it.

There is no hidden agenda here.

I’m just encouraging your groups and my group to often take a step back, examine the group and make adjustments as necessary.

We need to be aware of not only how we feel about the group, but also how guest feel about it.

If you are the person that brought that guest, as you guys talk about it later, bring feedback to the group.

Talk about what went well, but also talk about what didn’t.

Part of the way that we fulfill our calling to join God is by debriefing.

I can tell you that the only way we ever get better at anything is by evaluating how we did.

We need to let the Holy Spirit lead that process, but we need to do it.

I’m sure that the life group leaders do this, but it needs to be something that you spend time thinking about and responding too.

My hope is that as we dig in and make things personal with the people that God has placed in our lives, that our groups can be so in tune with one another that the others can feel it.

They can sense that there is a need for a tender moment during the study ant make the environment open for it.

This isn’t an easy thing to do, but there is an expectation from God that we will continue to grow in maturity.

God has us doing this study because there are people in our lives that need hope, freedom, and love.

We are the people that God has chosen to show them that God wants to give them all of those things.

Making It Personal

God uses us to prepare people to experience Himself.

God uses us to provide a safe meeting place.