Raising Our Standard: Week Four
Raising Our Standard • Sermon • Submitted
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Obedience To God
Obedience To God
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
Last week we talked about evangelism through baptism
This week we focus on the second part...
“Teaching them to observe all things...”
This is what we have commonly referred to as discipleship
Discipleship Is Relational And Communal
Evangelism...We share the Word of God, person individually responds
Repent and be baptized… (Acts 2:38)
Discipleship...We relationally grow in relationship community…The Church
Unbalanced Examples
Community Only
Institutionally focused, outsiders questioned
Evangelism Only
Initial conversion focused, little ongoing depth or growth
The healthy church and believer
Share Jesus with others
Grow in Christ together.
How many of you have ever heard of John Wesley?
An Anglican priest whose influence led to the formation of Methodism
All U.S. Christians have been influenced by the theology and practice of John Wesley
How many of you have ever heard of George Whitefield?
He was John Wesley’s contemporary and was a FAR better evangelist than Wesley.
He was a great preacher…great at sharing the gospel
Very little attention given to growing people spiritually
George Whitefield Quote - My brother Wesley acted wisely...The souls that were awakened under his ministry he joined in societies, and thus preserved the fruit of his labor. This I neglected, and my people are a rope of sand.
How many of you have ever attended Sunday school?
John Wesley began the Sunday School movement as early as 1738, on his missionary journey to the colony of Georgia.
If you’ve ever been in Sunday School or a small group, that’s Wesley’s influence
The call to relational communities for growth are all over Scripture
Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,
Peter identifies truth as being grounded in the love of the Spirit, which works itself out in love for one another.
Recall in Acts 2:38-39, two promises are associated with repent and be baptized
The forgiveness of sin, and reception of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit’s primary work is to teach us to think, love, and invite others…like Jesus
In other words, to make us more like Jesus
Jesus did not do life or ministry alone
When the Pharisees and Saducees attempt to trap Jesus by asking which is the great commandment in the law, he focuses on ONE THING in two directions
Love God First…Love your neighbor second…Relationship
All other commands serve love
Example
Example
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Is God looking for an opportunity to condemn people through this commandment?
No. He wants us to love and respect one another.
Covetousness is grounded in self-centeredness and selfishness
“I deserve and I want”
When we give in to covetousness we not only hurt ourselves, but other people
The reverse of coveting is wanting the best for others
I will pray for my neighbor’s financial, relational, and spiritual well being
Sometimes God’s moral commands condemn us because we aren’t loving like God
At all times an individual command gives us a small glimpse of God’s enormous love.
Struggle
Struggle
Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
The difficulty of loving obedience, is that it calls on us to die to self interest
It means seeing people, not just actions
It means finding the lost and the hopeless, and connecting their life to the love of Jesus
It means being a bridge to the love of God, not just a knower of Godly ideas
Deep teaching in discipleship isn’t the download of Christian facts
It’s seeing the humanity of others in all our relationships
It’s serving others with the skills God has given me
And allowing them to show me, teach me, and grow me through their God-given insights and skills
It’s looking out for other people
Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
So much of human nature is wrapped around self interest
It manifests with so many blind spots, and so many ways...
My generation was probably the first in which utterly blatant racism was no longer viewed with widespread acceptance
As a result, we didn’t see people sitting in the backs of buses, being denied admission into colleges, being required to drink from different fountains
Racism became just quiet enough that we began to think of it as a myth
We were being told differently by other races, but we had an answer for that...
Well, here are all of YOUR problems. Fix them, and life will go better for you.
That approach denies people their humanity
All people long to have the image of God recognized within them...
“Do you seem me as a person like you, or do you only see a prostitute, a tax collector, a slave, a drunk, a murderer, a thief?
Over the last week I’ve accepted the invitation of our leadership to hear the stories of black men and women
What I’ve heard...
“I don’t know my real family name. That was lost when my ancestors were brought to the United States.”
“I changed my name,” or “My parents named me in such a way, so I could have a shot at job interviews.”
“I’m still trying to figure out who I am. I couldn’t stay the night at my white friends house as a kid and I was too “white” for a lot of my black peers.”
“I always wanted to live in the country, but there aren’t many folks that live in the country who want black neighbors.”
I heard all of those things, and what I heard at the heart of it was this...
I just want to be seen as fully human.
Friends, our biggest problems aren’t legal or political
Our biggest issues were, are, and will always be...relational.
In that way, the equality of our black brothers and sisters goes straight to the heart of discipleship
I disciple loves and listens first, and teaches second
A disciple elevates and champions the marginalized
A disciple seeks the dignity of others even before they see it in themselves
A disciple sees brothers and sisters of equal value and worth
Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
Whose interests can you look out for?
That’s true obedience to Christ in all the things he taught us.
That’s a disciple.
Let’s pray