Together: Living on mission together
Together: Sermons on the Church • Sermon • Submitted
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In a world of division, unity is possible in the church
Paul prays in Romans 15 that God would grant harmony to the church in the same way that He gives endurance and encouragement to the church.
Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus, so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice.
It doesn’t take long to see the divisive impact that sin has had on the world. Division is an after effect of sin, and it is a tool of the devil in the lives of Christians and the church.
With his lies and his temptations Satan led Adam and Eve to sin, and their sin brought division between God and humanity.
Through Christ ,God undoes the divisive work of sin, builds a unified church, and provides all that is necessary for the church to prevail.
The unity of the church is connected to the ability of the church to glorify God together. The church that is divided is not glorifying God together. This is why it is so important that the church strive for unity with one another, because the glory of God is at stake.
A church that finds its unity in preferences, opinions, or even personalities doesn’t guarantee the glory of God. According to the Scriptures the church that glorifies God is one that is unified with one heart and one voice, and the basis for that unity is Christ and His gospel.
The church that is unified in Christ (mission and message) is the church that will prevail.
Jesus promised in Matthew 16 that nothing would prevail over the mission of the church in the gospel of Matthew.
Jesus responded, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven.”
Jesus builds His church on Christ, and the church is called to carry out the mission of Christ. But, a divided church cannot accomplish the mission.
This is why Paul’s words to us are so important.
Unity is possible, but it’s conditional.
Unity is possible through the supernatural power of God.
The same God who helps you to endure in your faith and who encourages you in your faith will grant you unity in the faith.
God gives you the strength to persevere in your faith.
God provides encouragement to you in your faith.
Unity in the church is conditional upon keeping Christ at the center.
When Paul says that our harmony is to be according to Christ Jesus, he is telling us that the source of our unity is Jesus.
When we try and unify around anything other than Jesus we jeopardize our unity and also our ability to accomplish the mission that God has given to the church.
Verse 6 makes it clear that our unity is necessary for the church to be able to glorify God.
Verse 6 also points out that the church that glorifies God works with one mind and with one voice.
It’s God design that church unify around Christ with One mission and one message
The church is called to live on mission together by sharing the message of the gospel
“Living Sent”
Pauls words in Romans 15 flow from what we call the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20. At the end of His time on earth Jesus gathered His disciples together and commissioned them to continue the mission that He had started.
Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
When Jesus tells His disciples to “go”, he is telling them to live intentionally in their everyday ordinary life; and He is telling them to do this together.
Jesus tells them to take the message of the gospel to the lost as a way of life, or you can call this living life on mission. For short, we are calling it “living sent”
Living Sent means that we are living our life on mission to glorify God by following and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Living Sent means living according to God’s Design
God created everything, including humanity, with a purpose- or design. We see the truth of God’s purpose and design for all creation in the book of Genesis. (God’s design and purpose are good)
Genesis 1:28-31 says,
“And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”
At the end of the 6th day of Creation God declared the world good, and it was. Not only has God designed the order of creation, He has designed the purpose and plans for humanity. God made us, gave us responsibility, and intended for us to walk closely with Him and bear His image- or bring Him glory.
In Genesis 2:15-17 it says,
“The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Here we see two things
1. God has a design or plan for us.
2. God gave Adam and Eve instructions to obey.
God has designed for each one of us to live according to His way, and when we don’t live according to His way- it is considered rebellion or sin.
Sin… is the word the Bible uses to speak of humanity seeking its own way… Sin is when you or I pursue our own designs rather than the good and perfect design of God.
As Christians we live life on mission in a world that is filled with the results of sin.
The world around us is broken. You cannot argue that our world is filled with brokenness. Each and every day we see the truth that something is missing. Something is off in our lives and in our world. Every where we look we see people going after their own way, seeking to find wholeness, completion, and satisfaction in people and places that leave them disappointed.
Brokenness… is the result of sin… and when we are in a place of brokenness we seek every method possible to be right, well, whole, complete, satisfied…
Genesis 3:1-7 gives the account of the first sin in the world… its impact is still felt today in the world we live in, its in our own hearts… things are not as they should be…
"Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.” Genesis 3:1–7 (ESV)
in the midst of our broken world God has given us good news that saves us and restores us to His good design and plan for our lives. This good news is called the Gospel. and the gospel is the truth about God’s answer for a broken world. God’s answer is Jesus…
Gospel
The gospel is found from cover to cover of the Bible… its the story of God undoing what happened in Genesis 3 through the promised Messiah/ Savior- which is Jesus Christ.
According to Scripture God sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross to bring us forgiveness for our sins, and He was resurrected from the grave to give us new life.
1 Corinthians 15:3-4 says,
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures”
The Gospel message that says we can be saved from our sins is not just for some, it is for all people. In fact, it is for broken people who are going their own way and living for themselves. Paul explains it this way in Ephesians 2:1-10,
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
The path to the gospel is two fold: it includes both bad news and good news. It requires telling the truth about our sin, and telling the truth about Jesus.
Responding to the Gospel involves
repenting of pursuing your own designs for life… (sin), and believing in Jesus and living to recover and pursue God’s design for your life.
Repent = turning from your way of life- sins you’ve committed, sinful approach to going it your own way… and turning to God and following Him.
Believe = the truth of the Bible, the truth of Creation, the truth of sin, the truth of the promise of a savior, the truth that Jesus is the savior, and the truth that if you believe the truth, have faith in Jesus Christ, confess your sins, ask for forgiveness of your sins, surrender your life to God by claiming Jesus as your Lord then you will be saved. When you repent and believe you become a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Disciples, or Christians, are learning to be like Jesus. Disciples are learning to live as God designed (Matthew 28:18-20, “observe all that I have commanded you).
Disciples live in harmony with God through His grace and by faith in Jesus Christ.
Disciples are recovering and pursuing God’s design that was lost in the fall of Adam.
Recover and Pursuing God’s design means Living Sent (on mission)
This is what life after believing in Christ is like. This is what we are baptized into. If you are a Christian, then all of your life is wrapped up in the effort to recover and pursue God’s design. This impacts your whole life. It impacts your friendships, your dating or not dating relationships, the things you watch, text about, talk about, do and don’t do, the way you spend your $, and the decisions you make.
Living sent impacts the trajectory of your life by changing what you are aiming for in life.
Living sent adjusts your goals from what you want out of life, to what God designs for life.
Living sent aims to glorify God by leading others to understand the truth about their sin, their brokenness, and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Living sent means that we do this together… we are a Christ-centered community, we are family of faith, and we are the body of Christ. It takes all of us doing our part for the body to accomplish God’s purpose and design.
The unity that Paul prays for the Romans to have is bound up in the living according to God’s good design together.
Together we are on a rescue mission… we are seeking out those who are lost to lead them to Christ to then lead them to recover and pursue God’s design in their lives…
The truth that we are together in Christ and His mission to share His message helps us to overcome the worldly and petty things that would divide and distract us.
I have said for years that I pray for the day that the church complains over the lack of reaching the lost or the number of weeks the baptistry is empty rather than the regular list of church complaints like music, carpet, calendaring, etc.
The church that is together on mission is regularly reminded by the gospel that we are all broken people, being made whole in Christ…
As someone said a long time ago, we are beggars telling other beggars where to find bread.
So let me bring this home for us today:
What about you?
1. Are you “living sent” by recovering and pursuing God’s design for your life?
2. What needs to shift, change, be deleted, or be added for you to live your life on mission?
What about the church? What needs to change for the church to be together?
What needs to happen for the church to live sent in our city and county?
Finally, take a minute and consider the big picture of your life:
We all want you to be together with us in the mission and message of Jesus, but more than we want you to be with us we want you to be together with Christ.
We want you to know the goodness and grace of God through a real relationship with Him. We want you to experience the joy that comes from trusting in Christ, being forgiven of your sin, receiving eternal life, and living your life as a part of God’s family with us.
Let’s focus just for a moment on responding to the gospel in our personal lives.
If you didn’t come to camp as a Christian, but you want to go home as a Christian..
I’m going to give you a moment to pray and give yourself to the Lord to be saved.
Friends, we have been called together in Christ so that we can live together for Christ. Join with me as we pray and commit ourselves to living sent, or pray to receive Christ who was sent to save you from your sins.