Turn The World Up Side Down

I wanted to take a post to share the notes from a talk I did last week at DCF. DCF is a bible study that meets at Mead's Corner in Wichita KS, every tuesday night at 8:00pm. I need to do a real post soon. I will be in Seattle all this next week. Anyways here are the notes:

Turn the World Up Side Down

Text: Matthew 28:16-20 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 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, 20teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Our Motivation: The Glory of God

- Illustration:

- Text: V. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.

- Translation: We must first and foremost notice what the disciples did when they gathered to receive their final command. The worship Jesus the risen savior.

- We can’t overlook this, because it is the basis or the motivation for the disciples going forward.

- Often times our motivation for making disciples or sharing our faith is in order to earn favor from God.

- Or we share b/c people are perishing, and while that is a great motivation it isn’t the greatest motivation.

- Our foundational motivation for making disciples needs to be for the Glory of God. SO that Christ is exalted.

- Application: Our motivation for making disciples must be the Glory of God.

- If we are motivated by anything else we miss the point.

Our Warrant: All Authority

- Illustration: I love Law and Order…they are always trying to get a search warrant…We have our warrant…

- Text: V. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

- Translation: Because Jesus is risen, He has ALL AUTHORITY. God has given Jesus all the authority.

- This means that there is nowhere we tread that is not His.

- Application: This is in essence our warrant, which enables us to spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

- For us this means that though our message may seem offensive to some, and people label us intolerant we have been given the authority.

- Now this isn’t a license to be belligerent or unloving.

Our Mission: Make Disciples Everywhere

- Illustration:

- Text: V. 19-20a 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, 20teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

- Translation: Our mission is literally to as we go make disciples everywhere.

- Two aspect to this call:

o 1. We do this as we go: the implication here is that we are all on mission, and that our field is wherever we are going. Discipleship is a lifestyle more than a class.

o 2. We are to make disciples: this means that we share the gospel and teach people to live like Jesus. Making Disciples is more like an apprenticeship than a degree.

- Application: Who are the people you come into contact with as you go in life? How can you diciple them?

- Do you view discipleship more as class? How can you use the relationships and the time you have to help people journey toward God?

Our Partner: God The Holy Spirit

- Illustration: Have someone attempt to jump over a dollar while holding onto their toes…Part of the problem with making disciples is that we see it as an a task we can handle…we reason that we will simply share the things that we “do” in order to walk with God…As if we had anything to do with it…Or we see it as an impossible task…Either way we need a partner.

- Text: V. 20b And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

- Translation: We don’t go alone. Jesus is with us in the form of His Holy Spirit.

- Notice too that He is with us always, which means forever and at all times.

- This mission is ours but not ours alone.

- We represent Him and He goes with us.

- He is with us to the end of the age and then we get to go be with Him.

- Application: We need not fear for He is with us, and we must remember that He is the one with ALL Authority, and that He is with us!

- We shouldn’t fear messing up, or saying the wrong things.

- The Disciples were fear filled men, and as soon as the received the Spirit Peter, who was once fearful, boldly proclaimed the Gospel. This is made possible b/c He is with us.

Chad

Vision & Values

Journey The Way

Vision:

Love God . Love People . Turn the World Up-side Down

Love God (Matthew 22:35-40)
It is vital for disciples to have regular encounters with God in which they worship Him, hear from Him, and respond to Him in obedience. Bible reading, prayer, private and corporate worship, baptism and communion are all part of what it means to Love God.

Love People (Matthew 22:35-40)
As we interact with God, it is vital that we not approach glorifying God on our own, but that we intentionally interact with others who Love God. These “connections” will bring about transformation in us as we authentically encourage, instruct and support one another. Jesus’ love of people was radical and unconditional and so we need to Love People with no strings attached.

Turn the World upside-down (Matthew 28:18-20)
True Disciples will use their gifts, talents, vocations, and time not only to touch our church, but also to touch the communities they live in, and the world. Jesus came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life. When we live as Jesus lived we will be a movement of servants that have the potential to turn the world upside-down, by bring the Gospel in word and deed as we go.

Core Values: To be leaders of a movement through which God can produce changed lives, we must embrace and live out these values:


Truth We live by truth, Jesus is truth


Humility We live life without taking ourselves too seriously


Community We live our lives with/for others who know the real us


Worship We live a lifestyle of worship to our God


Missional We live our life as we go, intentionally on mission


Image-bearers We live as those who resemble Jesus

What is the Church to DO!

A lot of people are asking a very good question these days, they are asking "what is the church" or "what makes a church a church". To me a lot of the confusion over what a church is centers on another question. In order to know what a church is we need to know our task, or our mission. There are all kinds of things that pass as "church" today, but most fall short of actually being what Jesus intended when he said, "I will build my church". The church that Jesus built and is still building today is a group of people united around a mission, God's mission. I know that is a little simplistic, but understand my goal in writing this post isn't to define what constitutes a biblical church, but to instead make sure we have answered what I think is an important first question. What is the Church to DO?

I believe that the Church exists to Love God, Love People and Turn the World Up-side Down. I get this from two primary places. The first two parts come from the great commandment found in Matthew 22:34-40, and the last part we get from the great commission, found in Matthew 28:18-20. In both of these places Jesus is condensing what the Church is suppose to do down to their simplest form. For me if you miss any one of these parts as a church you miss the whole thing and cease to be what Jesus intended.

To break it down a little some of us are great at loving God, we enjoy gathering for worship, we enjoy reading the Bible, and praying, but we don't like people very much. We don't like to love our neighbor, and we don't think about our mission other than to occasionally invite someone to come to "church" with us, so that we can preach to them

Some of us love people, and we go out of our way to engage with our neighbor or to have a conversation with a friend or stranger for that matter, but we don't love God very much, because we don't worship Him, or listen to His Word, and we don't engage in conversation with God, through prayer. We think our mission is to engage the world in a conversation instead of preaching the truth of the Gospel.

The sweet spot is to have all three, and really the only way we get our mission right. We need to Love both God and People, and we need to both engage and preach in order to Turn the World Up-side Down. It isn't an either or, it is a both and. You Can't claim to love God and neglect to engage the world that He loves. You can't claim to love the world without sharing the truth of the Gospel, that Jesus God's son came and died on a cross so that we could be forgiven and live our life to the fullest both here and for eternity in heaven.

Chad

Your Word is Truth Part 2

When we live the word we live truth. See previous post here. Jesus prays that we will be sanctified by the truth, so that we can be sent into the world. Your sanctification isn't exclusively for you. You are sanctified for a purpose.

John 17:14-18

I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁵I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁷Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

As Christians were should look different from the world b/c we are like Jesus, but we must engage the world and live in the world. We are sanctified for this purpose. Jesus was sent into the world and now he sends us. How can we engage the world? Do you feel like you have been sent into the world, or do you feel like you have retreated from the world? Or maybe you feel like there is no distinction between you and the world. Does the world hate you? They should and when they do we better make sure we don't retreat into our Christian bubble. Can you imagine if Jesus had retreated? The call to follow Christ is a call to die to self.

Chad

Missional Community

Missional Community is fast becoming a buzz word among Churches.  Most churches aim at community and miss both community and mission.  But what if we aim at mission?  Will we hit mission and community.  I say yes and so do some others.  Below is a short video from Matt Carter, Pastor of Austin Stone Community Church in Austin TX.  Take a look and share your thoughts with me.

THE SHOW - for May 19, 2009 - Guest Matt Carter from Todd Rhoades on Vimeo.

For the Praise of His Glory,

Chad

It's not about you...

It's not about you...  This was the quote that my wife will probably be most remembered for at our church in Iowa.  This last Saturday night our church family honored us with a party.  It was a blessing to hear how God had worked in people's lives while we were in proximity.  As good as it was to hear people praise what God had done through me it was even better to hear what one lady had to say about my wife.  I have always said that my wife is amazing, it is just cool to hear other people agree.  

Her quote is one that proves to me that God has laid this vision for Journey the Way on both of us, because I see and hear in her the values that I want to live out.  Of all of the core values that I hope we live out, humility is by far the hardest one for me to flesh out.  Most of us I think struggle with this one because so much of our time and energy is spent on us.  We think about us, and even when we think of someone else, we usually think of them in terms of how we are affected by them.  The beauty of humility is that to achieve it all we have to do is stop thinking of ourselves.  Because after all IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU!  It's about HIM!

Chad

Humility, is it in you?

Humility is one of those elusive characteristics.  If you focus too hard on being humble you are in danger of being proud about your humility.  My good friend and former student Jamie wrote an excellent piece on Humility and the Church you can read it here.  

The Apostle Paul said in the book of Philippians 2:3-8 that Humility isn't about us at all.  

Philippians 2:3-8 Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. ⁴Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. ⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,even death on a cross.

Paul challenges us to look out for the interests of others.  This was exemplified to me this week by some amazing friends of mine who dropped what they were doing to help me out.  I had three friends drop what they were doing to help me paint my garage so that we can hopefully close on our house at the end of this week.  I don't think they realized it but when they did that they were reflecting the image of Christ.  You see when we stop thinking of ourselves and start thinking of others we have the mind of Christ and model Humility.  True humility helps point people to the cross.  

Chad

Core Team

So the cat is out of the bag so to speak.  Journey the Way has been almost 4 years in the making.  God placed the seed of a Church Plant in my heart the summer of 2005, while in Seattle on a mission trip.  A lot has happened since that summer and God has grown this seed into a full blown passion to see God's mission lived out.  We want to start a movement of people who Love God, Love People, and desire to Turn the World Up-Side Down.  It is my firm belief that God has been working on the hearts of others to join us in this mission.   We are actively looking for people to be a part of what God is going to do.  If you are interested in this we should talk.  email me at chad.theway@gmail.com.