Notes from DCF Talk: Love God, Love People

I just wanted to post my notes from last nights talk. FYI my notes are just that, notes. I don't manuscript my sermons so I apologize in advance for my Random thought process.

Chad

Love God, Love People

Text: Matthew 22:34-40 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" 37And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38This is the great and first commandment. 39And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."

Love God

- Illustration: Who or What is it in your life that you would default to…What is the one topic that you could always talk with passion about…What or who do you think most about…

- Text: V. 37 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

- Translation: Jesus is referencing Deuteronomy 6:5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

o With all your heart: Passion and desires

§ This means that we point our passions at God, or that we relinquish our passions to Him. We desire what He desires and are burdened by what burdens Him. Ultimately he becomes our passion and the desire of our Heart.

o With all your soul: Very essence of who you are

§ We acknowledge that everything we have and everything we are is from Him and we give our all to Him, not to pay Him back, but because he loved us first. We long for our essence to line up with Him, so that we are defined not by who we were, but by who He is.

o With all your mind: Thoughts and wisdom

§ We think long and deep about our God and we pursue Him with our intellect. We read and meditate and ask questions, and seek the mind of God until we think about people like He thinks about them and we think about our sin the way He thinks about our sin.

- Application: The point here is that we are to love God in such a way as to leave no room in us for anything else. We are to Love Him with everything that we are.

Loving God is Paramount

- Illustration: I need to like the parents if I am ever going to like the kids in a family…If I don’t like the parents there is no way to like the kids…How can we love anything in creation without loving the Creator?

- Text: V. 38 This is the great and first commandment.

- Translation: Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was and He ups the bet by calling this the first as well.

- In other words Loving God is foundational. If we don’t start with loving God we have no basis for loving others, b/c God is Love (1 John 4:7-8)

- Application: We know Love b/c of God and therefore knowing and loving God is foundational.

Love People

- Text: V. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

- Translation: Jesus continues to up the bet by continuing His answer.

- The second is like it, so loving people is like loving God.

- It is like the first in that both take the proverbial hoe to the root of sin, namely “pride” in order for us to accomplish them.

- Supporting Text: Matthew 7:12 "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

- Translation: When we love others we are fleshing out the law and the prophets.

- Supporting Text: Romans 13: 8-10 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 10Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

- Translation: We fulfill the law when we love others.

- Application: How we love others is the visible expression of how we love God.

- It is literally the fleshing out of the Law.

- Supporting Text: Romans 8:3-4 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

- Illustration: My truck broke down…God is teaching me to view others as more important than myself…

- We must remember that this is only possible with the help of the Spirit. Jesus already fulfilled the law to perfection.

Everything depends on these

- Illustration: High pressure situation…1 second on the clock down by 1 you have two free throws, you need them both to win…if you miss all the other shoots in the game were made in vain…

- Text: V. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."

- Translation: Everything hangs on these two commandments.

- Everything written in the entire Old Testament hangs on these two chains. Without these everything else falls apart.

- Is it possible to be religious without loving God and People? Yes, we see it all the time, religious people who love the law and pridefully think they uphold it. They neither love God nor people.

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

Update on Planting

Friends, I wanted to take a moment and share an update on the progress of Journey the Way. God's timing is always better than ours and it has been really cool to see God open up opportunities, and create traction. We have a couple of churches that have jumped on to partner with us financially, there are at least two other churches praying about this possibility as well. We have four "official" core team members so far and about 15 people praying about the idea of coming on our core team. It seems like I meet people everyday who are interested in the church, it is almost as if God is bringing them our way (please note the sarcasm, b/c of course that is exactly what is happening).

We had a group of people over to our house on Monday and had a sweet time of prayer and continued to answer questions and clarify what we are all about. It looks like we will begin to officially meet as a core team starting the end of August. I would like to see us reach 20 core team members by that time so please pray to that end. Please also pray for discernment, and wisdom. We can't do any of this without God, pray that we would model dependence on Him.

Chad

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

Our Hearts our Idol Factories...

I was recently at Advance 09' and was privileged to hear some amazing preaching.  One of the most impact-full was a message from Mark Driscoll on Ministry Idolatry.  I would recommend to everyone of you to download this message and then pray that God will speak to your heart.  Next I would suggest buckling up for a beat-down from the Holy Spirit.  Leave some comments on what God is saying to you through this.  

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