ABCs: What does it even look like?
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· 5 viewsA fresh perspective on the things that God has taught us about what it means to abide, BLESS, and Commit to Community.
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Intro:
Intro:
Psalm 1:1–2 ESVBlessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
Last week’s message was strong; it wasn’t the kind of message that one expects to hear right before Christmas.
We looked a which is the story about the three wise men seeking out and finding the messiah.
That story includes the interaction between Herod and the wise men.
It also includes the death of Herod and his son then taking over and the fact that the hatred that Herod felt toward Jesus was passed to his son.
I made three points last week, all of which carried a negative tone.
One: God’s people missed Him.
God’s own people, who had all the information and people set aside to speak to and hear from God, missed Him.
I made the point that we, like the scribes, have all the information.
We understand what it means to walk with God, yet we have become complacent with where we are.
As a result of that complacency, we are on the verge of creating a new flavor of dead religion.
Two: God’s people hated Him.
After waiting for countless years for the promised Messiah to come, He arrives and the response is to condemn him to death.
We talk a lot about abiding in Christ and obeying what He says, but by ignoring when he calls us to do something we don’t like, we too are expressing the same sentiment.
We would rather see the death of his work than allow him to make the required changes in our lives.
Three: God’s people passed down death.
The habits, attitudes, and responses to God’s prompting will be passed on to future generations.
Every day, we set the tone for our families and church, by the ways we respond to God.
If we choose to live in disobedience, we will pass that down.
If we choose to abide in all things, we will pass that down.
On the heels of that message, I had a church member text me.
This person asked some really good questions and their sentiment was that they wanted to grow in their relationship with God and fulfill their role in the body.
But in response to the message and our repeated pleas from the pulpit to do our ABCs, this person asked; “What does it even look like?”
Some may be judgemental of that question, but I was encouraged by it.
Let me tell you why.
All God wants and all I want is for us to know Him.
This person wants the same thing and was brave enough to ask me for clarification.
That is so encouraging because this person was taking the time to reflect on their own life and asking God for direction.
What was being communicated is that they heard what God was saying.
There is something missing and they want to know what it is so that they can fix it.
That was the final point of the text.
Tell me what I need to fix so I can fix it.
Which I loved because I’m a fixer.
However, that is not what I need to be doing.
What I explained is that it is not my job to nitpick anyone’s life.
When I preach, I’m asking God what He wants to say to the church and I do.
He gives me the text, the perspective, and the words to say.
I know you all know that and have heard me say it many times before.
However, the question was framed in such a way that the person was thinking that perhaps I saw something particular in their life that I could point to and say, “change this thing”.
First of all, no one wants that. lol
What I mean is that no one wants me to call out their sins from the pulpit.
Secondly, all of us are in different places in life and in our relationship with God.
Because of that, I have to speak in very general terms and then rely on the Holy Spirit to do the work in each of you of speaking specifically what He wants to say.
On any given Sunday, we may have some very seasoned people, brand new believers, those that are seeking, and everything in between.
We all know that none of us are perfect and therefore, there is room for improvement in all of our lives.
That means that the message will always be relevant, but the degree of action may be different for all of us.
This isn’t the first time that I have heard questions like this either.
Over the years we have had very similar conversations in our life group.
We have to remember the varying degrees of difference in our attendance on any given Sunday.
What God has me saying may be for someone
But again, the goal is that all of us are on a continual upward plane of growth.
If at any point you think, “oh, I got this already. I can zone out.” you don’t have it.
So, what does it even look like?
What does it look like to live out the ABCs?
When we were doing our core group work as we planted the church and as you should remember from our church distinctives that we discussed in new member training, our mission is to lead people to know God by experience.
However, there were many of you that weren’t yet part of the church and missed out on some of that detailed training.
Today may feel like a lot of reviews, but my goal is to cover the material and give some examples of what we mean so that you can make application as directed by the Holy Spirit.
Abiding is a continual growth process.
Abiding is a continual growth process.
And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
One of the reasons that we always talk about abiding, is because that is what a relationship with God is.
Abiding is the process by which we know God.
Just reading your bible, studying, and gathering a bunch of knowledge isn’t enough.
The Scribes and Pharisees had all of those things and they missed what God was doing over and over again.
This is a step in the process, but unfortunately, it is where a lot of people stop.
They never continue forward through the rest of the process.
There are four steps in the abiding cycle, but we don’t often talk about the results of those four steps.
1. Increasing in the knowledge of God.
1. Increasing in the knowledge of God.
[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope]
Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
This is a point that Paul made often.
Just knowing about God is not sufficient.
He knew as much if not more about God and the scriptures than any of his peers, but it was not until God revealed himself that it meant anything.
For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.
And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.
But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace,
was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone;
Gal 1:
We need to study the scriptures, we cannot know God without doing so.
David says the same thing in the first Psalm.
Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
The point of scripture is to reveal God and then to know God through His revelation.
We have to be careful though that we don’t get hung up in any one area of the abiding cycle.
We have a tendency, because of our history, to stop at this point.
We make the assumption that simply having deep bible studies is enough.
While that is beneficial, it doesn’t allow the Holy Spirit to work any of the scripture through us and make us more like Christ.
Paul, again, is a great example of this. Knew scripture and could recall it from memory, yet completely missed that Christ was the son of God.
In that error, he was working against God, not with or for God.
This is a tactic of the enemy.
He allows us to get all puffed up with knowledge, our pride takes over, and pretty soon we have made it all about us.
So, as we study scripture and engage the Holy Spirit that lives inside of us, God is revealed to us.
2. Being filled with the knowledge of His will.
2. Being filled with the knowledge of His will.
Listen closely, because this is different from the first.
The first was knowing God and the second is knowing His will.
If we are to be in a relationship with anyone, including God, it is important that we know what the other half of the relationship wants.
Imagine being in a relationship where the other person was obsessed with knowing about you but didn’t take the time to learn what makes you want.
Jesus makes it clear to his disciples that there is more that he wants them to experience.
This passage comes right after the teaching on the vine and the branches and Jesus explaining that they will face many hardships for following him.
“There is so much more I want to tell you, but you can’t bear it now.
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.
He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me.
All that belongs to the Father is mine; this is why I said, ‘The Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me.’
John 16:12-15
So, not only do we learn about who God is through his word, but we also discover what He is doing in our lives.
Not only what has happened and is happening, but also what is to come in the future!
Jesus told us and we are witnesses to the fact that the Holy Spirit lives inside of us.
He speaks to us and reveals himself and his ways so that we can walk with Him.
We have moved from head knowledge to actual experience because, in addition to knowing about God, we are asking the Holy Spirit to work in us and are thereby we are conformed into Christ’s likeness.
As we are transformed into these new creations and our lives change.
3. Walk, in a manner worthy of the Lord.
3. Walk, in a manner worthy of the Lord.
Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand.
Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.
For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.
And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.
This is another place in which we often get tripped up.
We read this and immediately begin to make a list.
This is a passage that is often quoted for the purpose of behavior modification.
Along with quoting it, you will also hear things like “fake it till you make it.”
We default to thinking that this is something that we are responsible for.
It is true that we must desire to live this way.
If we didn’t desire it then we would be fighting against it.
However, this is not something we do out of our own strength, wisdom, or power.
Instead of us trying to do this in on our own, we need to ask God to make these changes in us.
God changing the language of my heart. - I couldn’t stop the bad language, but after turning that over to the Lord and continuing to pray that he would remove it, He did. It was a heart change and it didin’t happen over night, but it did happen.
As we are abiding, discovering who God is, being filled with the knowledge of who he is, we are made like him, AND the result of all of that is us walking in a manner that is worthy.
Because we are allowing God to do all of this through us the final result is that we are bearing fruit.
4. Bearing fruit in every good work.
4. Bearing fruit in every good work.
And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
All four of these processes are wrapped around one another and none can happen without the other.
Colo 1:9-10
But the most important thing for us to understand is that God is doing all the work.
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
All we have done is submitted ourselves to Him and obeyed what He said.
The Community Garden - Debi and Brittany received a word from the Lord about it, sought the Lord for the specifics, shared that vision with the church and community as they were lead, the community has begun to respond.
Through this process of abiding we are becoming more and more like Christ and the results of that is a life that is being transformed into his likeness.
When we have made our determined purpose to know God and his desire for us and we are being made more like Him through that process, we will be able to accomplish far more than we ever imagined.
We are being conformed to His likeness and His will.
Just like Jesus was being directed by the father to specific people, we are also going to be drawn to specific people by the father.
The outpouring of our abiding is going to be a desire to share what we are discovering about who God is with others.
Jesus was a BLESSer.
Jesus was a BLESSer.
Not our wisdom or the wisdom of men.
Jesus went to people.
He went where the father was leading.
Jesus was abiding in the father and went were the father lead.
He spoke to and worked in the lives of the people that we are drawn too.
I was telling a good friend of mine about this process a few weeks ago.
From the time I first met him I was drawn to him.
I knew that God was speaking that I was to begin developing a relationship with him.
Not for the purpose of “fixing” him, but to simply obey the leading of the Spirit and see where it would take us.
Begin with Prayer -
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.
“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.
So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.
this is Jesus' defining practice! This is the work!
Praying for those that God is leading us to helps keep them on our minds.
Gives God the opportunity to give me ideas of how to love and bless them.
It keeps us focused on being totally dependent on Him.
Praying for people is blessing people.
Listen to them - Jesus always listened
People want to talk and to tell you about our lives
We need to be a people who listen instead of doing all the talking - Art of listening
Listen actively the right way - process what they are saying
Clean your lenses/filter so our own biases aren't getting in the way.
Listen optimistically - organically without an agenda
Don't miss what body language is saying
Don't think ahead - don't be thinking about what you are going to say next.
Eat with them - Jesus ate with people
It communicates love and acceptance
Provides help with listening
Prepare a meal for someone
Accept invitations to eat at other people's house
Serve them - Jesus served those around them without reservation.
Listen to and for the needs of people that you are spending time with
This should be our natural tendency as followers - showing God's glory through our actions.
Show interest in things they like
Let them teach you things.
Share the Gospel - the best way we can bless someone is to give them Jesus.
Go look at the prayers of Paul for the lost.
As the Spirit leads, in his timing
You shouldn't feel like your friendship is going to end when you share the gospel. It should be expected because of the relationship that has been built.
The sacrifice of the sharing should be on our part, not theirs.
It is not the culmination of the relationship.
We don’t get to pick and choose.
As we abide, we are drawn to blessing others.
It is the response and results of our growth.
A good litmus test to determine how you are doing spiritually is to allow God to reveal how you are doing in these areas.
When we stop growing, we stop desiring to bless.
Committed communities are the product of devoted believers.
Committed communities are the product of devoted believers.
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.
And all who believed were together and had all things in common.
And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.
And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,
praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
The overflow of what the early church was experiencing personally was a change in how they lived and loved one another.
They didn’t get together and decide that they needed to change the way they did life.
There wasn’t a committee that got together and decided that the best way to grow the church was to live this way.
Peter didn’t make a speech about proper church conduct.
This incredible, world-altering, movement happened because a small group of believers obeyed what Jesus told them to do.
Do you remember what Jesus instructed the disciples to do before he ascended?
Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,
and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,
and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.
And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!”
But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit.
And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?
See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”
And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.
And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?”
They gave him a piece of broiled fish,
and he took it and ate before them.
Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,
and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,
and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.
And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
Luke 24:36-
I can’t help but point out what all is happening in this moment.
We’ve already discussed that prayer was Jesus defining practice. We know that is happening.
But look what else is happening.
He asked them a question and then listened to their response.
He Ate with them.
He served them by preparing the meal.
He shares with them what is to come!
What is the last command he gives them?
vs 49 “But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
They waited.
They prayed.
They worshiped.
Then the Holy Spirit came as promised by Jesus.
T
As they received the Holy Spirit their lives were forever changed.
They were no longer the same people.
Their focus was no longer on themselves and their needs.
There was a radical shift that happened in their lives.
Because of what they were learning by experience, they were transformed.
They were no longer concerned with themselves.
Their eyes were opened to the needs of the people around them.
They discovered the joy that is found in knowing Jesus.
All of that growth started with them doing nothing but obeying Jesus' command to wait.
Listen, there is a lot more work that the Spirit needs to do in your life and in my life.
The first step is for us to do things that Jesus has told us to do.
I don’t know specifically what that is for you, but I do know that it falls under the umbrella of these things that we have just reviewed.
The Blessing doesn’t happen apart from the abiding.
We don’t get to pick and choose.
As we abide, we are drawn to blessing others, and from those relationships come real community.
It is the response and results of our growth.
A good litmus test to determine how you are doing spiritually is to allow God to reveal how you are doing in these areas.
When we stop growing, we stop desiring to bless, and we aren’t concerned with our community.
In about four weeks we are going to have a special service in which God is going to roll out his plans for us for this next season.
In preparation for that, I’m asking only one thing of you.
Don’t waste your time and energy with resolutions that you aren’t going to keep. lol
Do you ABCs.
Abide - seek God through the scriptures, ask him to reveal his will for you in the next year, ask him to prepare you to walk worthily in him, and to produce the fruit in your life.
BLESS the people that God has revealed to you.
Commit yourself to your community.
We cannot be the church if we are not doing these things.
Period.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.
Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command you.
No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
These things I command you, so that you will love one another.