Sermon Series: Journey through John
Sermon Title: The Gospel Truth
Sermon Text: John 18:33-40
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Sermon Series: Journey through John
Sermon Title: The Gospel Truth
Sermon Text: John 18:33-40
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wpclubbock
Website: https://www.wpclubbock.org/sermons
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTpHfeywDKvecz7hcHG0weQ
By: Pastor Matt Young
So, our last two weeks, we’ve looked at two rhythms of life to live missionally: Blessing and Eating. These rhythms are more focused on the communal aspect of missional living.
Our third habit is still communal, but the person we are listening to is different than those who we have been blessing and eating with.
This third rhythm of listening is specifically developing a regular rhythm of listening to the Holy Spirit.
Many of us in Christian circles have heard about the doctrine of the Trinity: that God is three-in-one. Three persons, one God, each person sharing in the same divine substance. What that means is that God is not three gods who think the same way, nor is he just one god who has three personalities or masks that he wears. Rather, mysteriously to us, he is three-in-one or Triune.
We have heard of the persons of the Father and the Son. But some of us get a little confused or apprehensive about the Spirit or we get way too excited about the Spirit.
Some of the reason for that, I believe, has more to do with our lack of knowledge about the Spirit’s ministry. We get the Father’s ministry, the creator; we get the Son’s ministry, the redeemer; but the Spirit’s ministry is often clouded for us.
In sort, the Spirit’s ministry is to apply and actualize the ministry of the Father and the Son. In salvation for example, the Father makes the plan and elects his people to salvation, the Son accomplishes the mission of salvation through his life, death and resurrection, and the Spirit applies the benefits of salvation to believers.
So while each person of the Trinity has ministry tasks, they are all sharing in the same work together.
So when we talk about hearing from God, we listen to God through the word (that is the bible) by the Spirit and in prayer.
There isn’t anything spooky or mystical about listening to God. By listening to God through the word by the Spirit, what we are doing is we are quieting our own hearts and minds to be open to the leading of the Spirit in our day to day lives.
Bruce Demarest, one of the professors at the seminary I attended says this in his book Satisfy Your Soul,
“A quieted heart is our best preparation for all this work of God… meditation refocuses from ourselves and from the world so that we reflect on God’s Word, His nature, His abilities, and His works… So we prayerfully ponder, muse and “chew” the words of Scripture… The goal is simply to permit the Holy Spirit to activate the life-giving Word of God.”
So we must develop a missional rhythm in our lives of regularly listening to God if we are going to live on mission with God.
The reason why we must listen is because we need what the biblical writers call “Wisdom.”
You and I don’t live in a world that cherishes or seeks after wisdom. We look for fast answers and quick fixes that gratify our flesh, that sinful aspect that still lingers around in us.
And the reason why we need wisdom is because life is not black and white. Thankfully, there are lots of choices that have a clear moral or immoral choice.
But there are a lot of areas in life that are more grey, which requires Spirit-led discernment.
When we engage with people by blessing them and eating with them, we will be faced with two polar opposites, which Michael Frost talks about in his book.
We will be faced with judgmentalism and withdrawal on one side and licentiousness and gluttony on the other. Discernment is using Spirit-provided wisdom to find the middle way.
So how do we discern?
Find the poles and think about the ways in which you might get sucked into either end. Look at the scriptures and identify those places where scripture restricts our behavior and motivations. Then pray for wisdom.
If you have not imagined in your mind’s eye what the middle way of discernment looks like, you probably won’t be able to identify it in the moment. So meditate on the Word and listen to the Spirit as you think about what that middle way looks like.
Bring some of your thoughts to your grow group or gospel community (small groups). Make sure you play our scenarios for them and walk them through your reasoning logically and biblically. And then pray together for wisdom.
So the homework for this week is pretty simple.
I want you to choose a time and place this week where you will actively listen to the Spirit for 3 hours (in keeping with our pattern of 3’s).
During that time, walk through steps one through three above concerning a situation you might find yourself in as you engage with people who don’t know Jesus and his love.
Have a great week!
Sermon Series: Journey through John
Sermon Title: Gospel Surrender
Sermon Text: John 18:1-12
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Website: https://www.wpclubbock.org/sermons
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTpHfeywDKvecz7hcHG0weQ
Don’t forget to join us for Sunday School tonight at 8pm on Zoom! Call Pastor Matt if you have any questions!
By Pastor Matt
Last week in our 6-week Living Missionally Series, we looked briefly at the missional rhythm of blessing our neighbors.
This week, we’ll look at the rhythm of eating together.
Thankfully, this is a habit that many of us enjoy. Everyone has to eat.
But what does eating with others have to do with living missionally?
Well, remember our definitions:
Missional living is the intentional practice of using our everyday rhythms of life for the purpose of creating genuine relationships, in which we can proclaim the gospel message authentically.
Remember, genuine relationships are the ordinary means by which we can actually speak the gospel message into someone’s life without it feeling forced.
Why?
Because, when we have relationships with other people, we actually can see, by the Spirit’s enabling, the areas where we can apply the gospel to their lives.
Evangelism (proclaiming the gospel and inviting to respond in repentance) can feel forced in our relationships when it’s not personally applied.
So what eating with others has to do with missional living is that sharing meals with other people opens the door for conversation, shared experiences, and quality time.
Jesus had an uncanny knack for sharing meals with people, in particular those whom the religious leaders did not approve.
Check out Luke 5:27-32:
“After this [Jesus] went out and saw a tax collector (if you dislike the IRS, multiply that ten-fold for how much the Jews disliked tax collectors) named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “follow me.” And leaving everything, he rose and followed him. And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table (tables were on the floor back then and everyone laid on their side to eat) with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes (the religious leaders) grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but the sinners to repentance.””
So, Jesus, in this text, creates a relationship with Levi. And then Levi makes this huge meal and that actually opens up the door for Jesus to share a meal not only with Levi, but all of his friends.
And what Jesus is able to do because he has shared a meal with everyone there is that he’s able to apply the good news of his coming into the world to them specifically.
You see, the religious leaders didn’t think they needed a savior. They were self-righteous and as a result, judged everyone else there. But the tax collectors and other company Levi kept knew they were in need of something. They were outcasts in their society because of their sins against everyone. So Jesus aptly applies this good news to both groups – “I haven’t come to those who are self-righteous but I have come to those who know they are in need and I’m calling them to turn from their ways and now follow me.”
Jesus shares meals with folks in Luke 5, 7, 9, 14, 22, and 24. Each of these meals reveals a little bit more of the gospel message to Luke’s audience as Jesus creates relationships with these folks. And it actually gives us some great insight for our own rhythms of eating.
What we need to do is intentionally look at our week – our family’s schedule, our emotional bandwidth, our finances, our work schedules, etc. – and prioritize different meals for different relationships.
Is there a dinner you can reserve each week for inviting others in your church to? I know for our family, that night typically is Friday night.
Is there a lunch day where you can reserve each week for bringing someone from work along with you? Is there a lunch slot once a week, twice a month, once a month, that you could open up specifically for reaching out to new people?
Is there a coffee or breakfast time you can open up to grab a quick cup or bite before you run off to work?
Just by opening three slots once a week enables you to invest your time intentionally with at least three people each week.
Now for many, that might feel like a lot of planning and relational expense. However, just start small. Start with the coffee, start with the lunch, start with something. It’s better than nothing. And you can do so knowing that the Spirit is going to be working in that relationship.
Remember, you’re just trying to develop relationships at this point – you’re not going in guns’a’blazing trying to evangelize with every person you meet. No one is going to want to hang out with you in the office, your stroller group, or whatever other places are your community. Rather we are wanting to develop relationships, guided by the Spirit, and prayerfully consider the times and places where we speak the gospel into someone’s life.
So for this week, eat with three people, at least one of whom is not allowed to be from your church.
I’m praying for you all and looking forward to connecting with you all next week!
Pastor Matt
Sermon Series: Journey through John
Sermon Title: The Good News of Unity
Sermon Text: John 17:20-26
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Website: https://www.wpclubbock.org/sermons
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTpHfeywDKvecz7hcHG0weQ
Don’t forget to join us for Sunday School tonight at 8pm on Zoom! Call Pastor Matt if you have any questions!
By: Pastor Matt
Last week I announced that I will be starting a 6-week devotional series on how it is we can live missionally (that is on mission with God in his world to save those who are not yet Christians).
Living missionally is not the same thing as evangelizing.
To live missionally is the pre-work of evangelism. It’s living a life with specific rhythms that put you into genuine relationships with people who you will be able to evangelize with.
Evangelism is the specific work of sharing 1) the fallen state of humanity, 2) everyone’s need for a savior, 3) how Jesus’ death and resurrection secures our salvation IF we trust in him, 4) inviting them to repent of their sin and trust in Jesus.
Evangelism is not getting a response. This is good news for us as God is the only one who can cause the heart of someone to change and respond in faith.
But our work is to 1) live in such a way that we develop relationships with others who don’t know Jesus, and 2) evangelizing with them.
Missional living is part 1.
Over the course of this series, we’ll be looking at an acrostic that Michael Frost (his book is Surprise the World, Navpress 2016. We are not summarizing his book here, simply using the acrostic as a framework) came up with called B.E.L.L.S.
Today, we’ll take a brief look at the B in BELLS, which is Bless, and see how developing this regular rhythm in our lives helps us live missionally.
A large group of European pastors came to one of D. L. Moody’s (a famous evangelist and pastor) Northfield Bible Conferences in Massachusetts in the late 1800s. Following the European custom of the time, each guest put his shoes outside his room to be cleaned by the hall servants overnight. But of course this was America and there were no hall servants.
Walking the dormitory halls that night, Moody saw the shoes and determined not to embarrass his brothers. He mentioned the need to some ministerial students who were there, but met with only silence or pious excuses. Moody returned to the dorm, gathered up the shoes, and, alone in his room, the world’s only famous evangelist began to clean and polish the shoes. Only the unexpected arrival of a friend in the midst of the work revealed the secret.
When the foreign visitors opened their doors the next morning, their shoes were shined. They never know by whom. Moody told no one, but his friend told a few people, and during the rest of the conference, different men volunteered to shine the shoes in secret.
The reason why I share that story with you is to show you what it means to “Bless.”
D.L. Moody intentionally looked for ways he could bless his brothers at this conference, and upon finding a way to do so, followed through.
To “bless” someone in the context of missional living is to intentionally listen or to seek opportunities to serve them.
We can easily see this demonstrated by the Philippian church when they saw Paul’s need in his ministry.
“Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again.” – Phil. 4:14-16
The Philippians were intentionally looking for ways to bless Paul and to serve him. In Paul’s case this meant a financial gift to help him in the ministry God gave him.
But thankfully, blessing our neighbors doesn’t always have to look like giving financially, however it could look that way.
I heard recently of one woman in our congregation who has been getting to know her neighbors. Upon hearing that her next-door neighbor had recently had a baby, and that another neighbor wasn’t going to have their regular caretaker present, proceeded to make dinner for a total of 12 people.
The result of that act of kindness was that her neighbors tangibly had an example of her love for them and that she really did care about them.
So food is always a great option, and thankfully, in the day of Corona Virus, if the food is cooked in an oven, you’ll be set.
Another great option is putting out chalk for kids in your neighborhood to draw on the sidewalk. Placing a sign that says, “Free Chalk! Draw a fun picture on the sidewalk!” can be an easy way to bless the kids in your neighborhood.
Furthermore, another thing you can do, is listen for important personal dates. Anniversaries (happy and sad), birthdays, graduations, etc. and write them a card on one or more of those occasions. Even writing a short card saying, “It was great to meet you the other day, here’s my contact information if you ever need anything,” is a great way to connect with others.
Lastly, an easy thing you could do in our COVID-19 world is to slip a note under your neighbors’ doors asking if they need anything. Provide your name and cell phone number.
Now, what is hard for many of us is that we don’t have relationships with our neighbors where we are regularly interacting with them in such a way where we have ample opportunities to hear about different ways we can serve them or bless them.
So we’ll need to do some preliminary work to do that. And thankfully, you can bless them as you do!
To introduce yourself to your neighbors, you can simply make a small plate of cookies and leave them at the front door (in a zip lock back with a note, too).
Blessing our neighbors isn’t just about looking out for a way in which we can serve them or demonstrate kindness towards them. Blessing our neighbors is about opening a doorway for further genuine relationship. The Christian life and, in particular, living missionally, is all about living a life that is very open to, and prayerful for, developing relationships with others.
Remember, ordinarily, unless we have a real and authentic relationship with someone, they typically will be resistant to hearing the gospel message. Missional living is the way in which we are invited to speak into other’s lives by blessing them without strings attached.
So this week, what I’d like you to do is to bless three people – and at least one of those people has to be not associated with your church.
Begin first by thinking of the different rhythms of your life where you come into contact you’re your neighbors or rhythms where you can beginning coming into contact with your neighbors.
Then listen – listen for different ways you can tangibly bless your neighbors and listen to the Spirit through prayer for different ideas God might be illuminating to you.
Lastly, plan a date and set up a plan to follow through with your idea. Ideas are just that, ideas. They need a plan with a date if they are going to become real.
And then follow through on your plan. Pray to God that he would give you the follow through and commitment needed to do this. Faith is demonstrated in action, so let us be encouraged to live out our faith with actions this week!
See you all next week!
Sermon Series: Journey through John
Sermon Title: The Good News of Discipleship
Sermon Text: John 13:1-20
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Website: https://www.wpclubbock.org/blog
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTpHfeywDKvecz7hcHG0weQ
Don’t forget to join us for Sunday School tonight at 8pm on Zoom! Call Pastor Matt if you have any questions!
Written by: Pastor Matt Young
I don’t know how you are feeling, but personally I find myself experiencing some general sadness around the fact that life has not gone back to “normal,” whatever that actually means now.
In particular, I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out how it is we, as the church, can still reach out to our neighbors, co-workers, and community during this time. Missions, after all, is a core part of our identity as Christians.
Here’s what I mean when I say, “it’s a core part of our identity as Christians.”
In the beginning, God created the world perfect and good – He even created human beings in His own divine image and likeness, putting us into a completely different category in creation.
Then we messed that up… Adam and Eve sinned and as a result, sin has infected every aspect of creation and every faculty of our beings.
But how did God respond?
He responded by sending His one and only Son. God went on a mission to save His people from their sin, death and brokenness seeking to restore them to a right relationship with him through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
Then, Jesus commissioned his disciples (and us as a result) to be sent people on a mission to spread the good news about God’s mission to the lost world through Jesus Christ.
So, mission or being a sent people is core to our identity as Christians. Meaning, if we are not living as if we are on a mission and we are not viewing ourselves as a sent people, something is off in our Christian identity.
So, what does all of that mean for us then with Covid?
Mission has, in some ways, become harder. It means that we have to be more intentional, more in tune with other’s comfort levels with personal interactions, etc.
But in other ways, Covid has actually helped the church in her missional calling!
People are more willing during a pandemic to come to church services, hear a gospel presentation or are even actively searching for answers to some of life’s big questions (what is my purpose, why is there suffering, how do I live right now, etc.).
So, for the next five Tuesdays, I’ll be walking through five principles for how it is we can become missional people.
Just to be upfront, the acrostic “BELLS” (the word behind each letter is tied to a principle) is not my own. Michael Frost, in his book Surprise the World, walks through these principles in more detail. My hope is to use his framework as a conversation starter and to provide some specific application for those of us living in Lubbock, TX.
So, here is the homework until next Tuesday:
Really evaluate for yourself the following –
Am I living missionally?
Do I see mission as an essential part of my identity as a follower of Christ?
What are some of the reasons, really, why I don’t live missionally today?
I hope and pray that as we evaluate our hearts together as a church and we start to look more intentionally at how it is we can live on mission in our communities, we will be able to fulfill the commission that Jesus, himself, gave to us.
Until next Tuesday, have a blessed week!
Sermon Series: Journey through John
Sermon Title: The Holy Spirit
Sermon Text: John 16:1-15
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Website: https://www.wpclubbock.org/blog
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTpHfeywDKvecz7hcHG0weQ
Don’t forget to join us for Sunday School tonight at 8pm on Zoom! Call Pastor Matt if you have any questions!
