Sunday July 24, 2005 - Harvest Time (Part 3)

What Audience Are You Playing To?

There are four possible audiences

God and his Kingdom

The World - family, friends, constituency, people in general

Yourself

Satan and his kingdom

Playing For Satan

Knowingly - this label describes those who are in occult bondage

Unknowingly

Playing For Yourself

Thor vs. Loki - For Odin! For Asgard! For myself!

Don't use your relationship with God to enhance your own prestige (i.e. glorify yourself).

Don't gain the world at the expense of your soul - Luke 9:23-25

Are you your own personal god?

Religion of self - Nobody tells me what to do!

Playing For The World

King Saul

Became king as a result of people's request for a "king like the other nations have - 1Sam 8:5

Cared more about how people saw him than about how God saw him

Initially did not want to be in public eye - 1Sam 10:22

Presumptiously offers the sacrifice - 1Sam 13:5-14

Fails to destroy the Amalekites - 1Sam 15:1-34

The Pharisees

Love to be honored - Mat 23:5-12

Woe - Mat 23:13-26

Peter (temporarily) - Mat 16:13-26

Carnal believers

Modern Media (e.g. television, movies, video games)

amplifies our "connection" with "the world"

creates the illusion of genuine relationships

Do not love the world - 1John 2:15-17

Playing For God

Examples

King David

A man after God's own heart - 1Sam 13:14

Became King as a result of God's redemptive response to Saul's failure

Refused to strike the Lord's anointed - 1Sam 24:6; 1Sam 26:11

Cared more about how God saw him than about how people saw him

David dancing in front of the Ark - 2Sam 6:12-23

Michal despised David's worship display

She had no children

Despising divine worship ---> fruitlessness

Saul's house valued appearances over God's glory

No offspring from union between House of Saul and House of David

What do light and darkness have in common - 2Cor 6:14

you can't mix those who perform for God with those who perform from themselves or for men.

What Not To Do

Perform for the church

Self-effort

Don't conform to the pattern of this age - Rom 12:1

What To Do

Saul must die - David must live.

Saul must die - Paul must live.

Call to me . . . - Jer 33:3

If you spend time with the Father you'll want to please him more.

What is my Father trying to accomplish - how can I cooperate with him?

Let God heal the wounds that cause you to look to others instead of to him for validation - he did it for me

Let the Father turn your heart towards your brothers and sisters.

What pleases God?

Find out what pleases the Lord - Eph 5:10

God's ways vs. our ways - Isa 55:6-11

Friendship with the world is hatred towards God - James 4:4

Pleasing men is not compatible with being a servant of Christ - Gal 1:10

Guard your heart

Scriptures - Prov 4:23; Luke 6:45

"Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell

Be transformed - Rom 12:2-21

We have a heavenly audience

God is molding us into a people who love

love one another deeply from the heart - 1Pet 1:22

this is not achieved through self-effort - 1Cor 13

Great cloud of witnesses - Heb 12

What Results Are You Trying To Get?

How do we see the Church?

Playing Church

Safe social environment

Moral instruction for children

Networking

personal business cnotacts

multi-level marketing

How does God see the Church?

I will build my church - Mat 16:13-20

Christ's Body - Eph 1:22-23; Eph 5:23; Col 1:18

God's wisdom manifested through the church - Eph 2:1 - 3:13

The church should glorify God - Eph 3:20-21

The church of the firstborn - Heb 12:18-29

The church is alive and living things grow

Reap the harvest

Jesus in Samaria - John 4:1-43

Jesus sends out the twelve - Mat 9:35 - 10:42

Pentecost Fruit - Acts 2:36-47

How will Life Church reap the harvest?

Biblical Vision - see above

We must plan for the harvest

Walk by faith - calling those things that are not as though they were

Make room for the harvest

Biblical Leadership

Office gifts - Eph 4:7-16

Members

Whom are you leading / influencing?

Situational Leadership - see reading at end of notes

Train life groups to reap and contain the harvest

outreach

missions support

ministry to at-risk populations

little brother/sister

gang member & family

Leadership Development

Leaders birth and grow life groups

Our life groups must produce leaders

Where Are You Going?

Life has a purpose - Canaan is the goal

learn the right lessons on the way

Don't miss Canaan

God wants to do something with you

Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord

The life of God must be revealed in us and it must flow out of us - rivers of living water - John 7:38

We need the supernatural in our worship services and in our daily lives

supernatural direction

supernatural provision

supernatural power (ability)

We were designed to be natural conduits of God's supernatural power and life

I am a conduit

Technical conduits

lead vs. copper pipes

galvanized steel pipes for gas

unshielded untwisted pair

unshielded twisted pair (UTP)

coaxial cable (coax)

waveguides

optical fiber - extremely pure glass

We access God's supernatural power by faith - Gal 3:1-5

Can God have a word with you?

Teach my people to walk and talk with me

Enoch walked with God - Gen 5

Sometimes God leads us to places where we have to depend on him

Israel in the wilderness followed the cloud to some hard places

Faith grows out of our relationship with God

If you don't maintain this relationship you miss God's fresh revelation

Israel failed to recognize their Messiah

Their religious system became more important to them than God

If you maintain your relationship you stay in God's will

Whoever lives by the truth comes into the light - John 3:18-21

Noone can come to Jesus unless the Father draws him - John 6:44

Everyone who listens to the Father comes to Jesus - John 6:45

God rewards those who diligently seek him - Heb 11:6

When God speaks

He provides you with faith to know it's him.

You then have to extend your faith in obedience

We experience God's voice in a range of ways

Audible voice

Sudden revelation - like seeing a powerful play or a movie

Gradual revelation - like reviewing a play or a movie

You must apply your faith to God's message - Heb 4:2

God's Word judges our sinful refusal to respond in faith - Heb 4:12-13

It takes a community

We need one another in order to keep our relationship with God vibrant

Write the God's Word everywhere - Deut 6:4-9, 11:18-21

Talk about the Word - Deut 6:7, 11:19

Encourage one another daily - Heb 3:12-14, 10:24-25

What is God saying to you?

Do you give him a chance to speak?

How's your prayer partnership?

Are you talking about God with your brothers and sisters?

Expand the people's vision

What is the harvest?

Bringing people into God's Kingdom - Mat 3:2; 4:17

Leading people to the new birth - John 2:23 - 3:8; 1Pet 1:23

Water Baptism - Mat 28:18-20; Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38-41

Making disciples - Mat 28:18-20; 2Tim 2:2

Who reaps the harvest?

People who want it

Looking for a city - Heb 11:8-16

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness - Mat 5:6

People who pray

Keep praying - Luke 18:1-8

People who want to look good to God rather than to men

Saul

Israel wanted a king like the other nations had - 1Sam 8:1-8

Saul looked good on the outside - 1Sam 9:2; 1Sam 10:17-24

Saul cared more about how he looked to people than to God

David

David was tending sheep when he was chosen. - 1Sam 16:1-13

He was overlooked by his father but remembered by God.

People who are part of the covenant

Canaan Milestones

Crossing the Jordan River

New Boston Pilot Middle School is our Jordan - not our Jericho

All we had to do was "step in the water" and the flow stopped.

Circumcision at Gilgal

The Israelites hadn't been circumcised since their failure to enter Canaan the first time

Eating the produce of the land

End of the Manna

Conquering Jericho

Circumcision

Life Church Message Sunday July 24, 2005 - Harvest Time (Part 3)