Gateway Church – Parkesburg Campus
Serving Together…Transforming Lives for Jesus

In part 1, we talked about the importance of questions and how the right questions force us to dig deep and evaluate our lives. Jesus was the master at asking the right questions. We’re going to look at yet another “power question” that Jesus asked his audience while he was delivering the sermon on the mount. It’s a question that at times, we probably would rather not answer because it cuts deep!It challenges us to live out the gospel. It challenges us to evaluate our motivations. Let’s look at it together in Matthew 5:43-47:

You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?47 And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?

Ouch! Jesus is raising the bar on who we should extend love to. He’s saying big deal that you extend love to those who extend it to you…even the pagans do that. The real test is when you extend your love to those who hate your guts. Those who have wronged you. Those who do not have your best interest in mind.Those who don’t deserve it.

WOW!

How in the world can we live up to this kind of love? There is only one way. By living out of the grace and mercy that has been extended to us through Christ. Grace is God giving us what we don’t deserve and mercy is God not giving us what we don’t deserve. Grace and mercy change us. They transform us into lovers. Not just lovers of lovers, but lovers of haters.

Romans 5:10 says, “For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!”

We can only love the unlovable to the extent that we have received love from the ultimate lover-Christ when we were at our worst!

Begin every day by reflecting on the grace and mercy that has been extended to you so you can extend it to everyone…friend or foe.

This Sunday we continue in our series “Worship + 4″. We are talking about serving and sharing our story of how Jesus transformed our lives. In thinking and praying through the message for this week I got to thinking about those who serve out of duty and those who serve out of delight.

We should have a good balance between both duty and delight. We should feel a sense of responsibility in serving in our local church. We have a duty to share the load with our fellow partners in ministry.

We also should have a sense of duty to Christ for all that he has done for us.

Romans 13:8 says, “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.”

We have a continuing debt to love one another. It’s a duty.

But, we also should be serving out of delight, out the overflow of thankfulness to our Lord and Savior Jesus. We “get to” serve our Lord. We “get to” be a part of His body, the Church and use our gifts to honor him and build one another up. Only those who know Jesus personally have the privilege of serving out of delight. That should put some pep in your step!

Serve out of duty to fulfill your obligation. But serve out of delight to find fulfillment!

Questions are powerful. I began to really understand this when I went through life coaching training & certification. The whole art of coaching is asking the right questions. The right questions force us to dig deep and evaluate our lives.

Jesus asked some really good questions that forced people to look at their lives through a different Christ-focused lens. We’re going to ask ourselves 3 different questions that Jesus asked. These are 3 power questions that if you answer them honestly and introspectively, will reset our focus on Christ.

In Matthew chapter 16, verses 13-20 Jesus is spending some time with his disciples. He realized a teachable moment and asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” That was easy question for them. They began rattle off different answers…”Some say John the Baptist”, “Others say Elijah, Jeremiah, or other prophets.” Then Jesus asked the game changing power question…

“But who do you say that I am?”

Jesus changes the word “people” to “you” and gets real personal. Peter answers, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Peter expresses the full extent of who Jesus is to him. Jesus was pleased with his answer. I’m not sure if Peter realized it or not, but he was worshiping God face to face in that moment.

What about you…Who do you say that Jesus is?

Make it personal. Tell him what your life would be like without him. Use that question to refocus your orientation on him. Confess your weakness to him and your complete dependence on him. Worship him.

Most of us know that our vision at Gateway Church is…

“Serving Together…Transforming Lives For Jesus”

But, how do we see that vision become a reality? How do we know when we are moving towards it? And how does an individual know when they are contributing towards the vision and making a difference? At Gateway, we don’t just want a vision statement that hangs helpless on our walls. We want to move towards it together!

We have worked hard at putting together a clear path that we believe will lead to transformation!

The clear path is called “Worship + 4″. Over the next couple of weeks, we are going walk you through it and challenge you to get on the path of transformation. We will be sharing goals for each step that we are trusting God to meet through us as we each get on the path of transformation!

This past Sunday in our Balanced series, we talked about what God expects us to do with our “extra”. If you missed it, I encourage you to watch it here.

In Luke 12:15, Jesus said, “A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” We hear that and our immediate response is “I agree Jesus.”, but so often as followers of Jesus how we live is contrary to what we believe. Spiritual growth comes when we close the gap between what we say we believe and how we actually live.

Jesus tells us to “be rich toward God” which means to focus on what is eternal and to transfer all that we can over to God’s kingdom. At the end of the message, I double-dog dared you to pull out your 2010 tax returns and look at how much money you gave to the Lord last year. Then I challenged you to calculate the percentage of your income that you gave and allow God to speak to you about it!

This was a challenging and faith stretching message for Naomi and I. As we pulled out our tax return and as we looked at the dollar amount that we gave last year, we felt pretty good about it. It was a substantial chunk of change! But, as we calculated the percentage of our income, both of us came to the conclusion that we needed to give more! We committed to increase our giving percentage by 2%. That’s a significant increase in giving that we will only be able to accomplish by consuming less on ourselves so we can transfer more over to God’s kingdom.

I’d love to hear how God has challenged you in the area of your giving! Email me and share your faith story with me.

What word(s) would you use to describe your spiritual life right now? Red hot, focused, or vibrant? Or, would you describe it as Dry, empty, or anemic? If you answered with any of the latter, you are in desperate need of a defining spiritual moment. What is a defining spiritual moment? I define it this way:

A defining spiritual moment happens when we release a significant part of our old nature over to God and allow him to replace it with something much greater.

These moments radically change everything. It isn’t a tweak or a subtle shift, it is a moment that is marked by significance in the story that God is writing in your life.

Jacob in the Old Testament had a defining spiritual moment in his life. Jacob spent much of his life controlling and manipulating people to get what he wanted. He was dependent on his own abilities rather than being dependent on God. God brought him to a defining spiritual moment where Jacob would be broken of his control. After he deceived his brother out of his birthright, he fled because he was afraid of his brother’s retaliation. Years later, he decided to come home and face his brother. On the journey back home, he cried out to God for protection and deliverance from his brother. Scripture tells us that God sent an angel in the form of a man that wrestled with Jacob until daybreak. It was a wrestling match over control! Did you ever have one of those? In the process of this prayer smack down, Jacob relinquishes control to God. It is a spiritual defining moment in Jacob’s life. He even had the battle wounds to prove it. In the course of the all night wrestling match, Jacob’s hip was dislocated. He would always walk with a limp. A constant reminder of his defining moment. His name was also changed from “Jacob” to “Israel”. The name “Jacob” represents “independence”, and the name “Israel” represents “dependence on God”. Interestingly enough, often times in scripture when God refers to the Nation as “Jacob” instead of “Israel” it is because the people are acting independent from God.

When was the last time you had a spiritual defining moment – the kind that left you limping? If you’re not limping, you’re not living! Until you release control over to God, you’re not truly living. Is there an area of your life that you are living independently from God? What do you need to release to Him today? Today can be a important day in your story…a day marked by a defining spiritual moment.

Encouragement sticks with us. I can live a week off of a card or letter of encouragement and I’m guessing you can too! There is something meaningful about someone taking time to stop and to think about you and me and writing a note of encouragement. The more unique the encouragement is, the more meaningful it becomes. The more unexpected it is, the greater the impact it has on a person. In our electronic age, a hand written note will probably have more of an impact than an email or writing on someone’s Facebook wall. The church should be the most encouraging place on the planet! Encouragement from followers of Christ should never be in short supply. The love and encouragement we give to others proves that we are followers of Christ.

“Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” John 13:35

“So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.”1 Thessalonians 5:11

Why don’t you stop and take a few minutes to think about who you can encourage today in a unique and unexpected way! It will be 5 minutes that will make a huge difference in someone’s life!

Thankfulness shows up all over the place in the Bible. When the people in the Old Testament were thankful for something, they present a “Thanks Offering” before the Lord thanking Him for his mercy. Over 20 Psalms invite Israel to sing songs of thanksgiving to the Lord. Thanksgiving shows up over 55 times in the New Testament. Every time we take the bread and cup(Eucharist), we are offering thanksgiving (Greek word eucharistia) to Jesus for his grace and mercy toward us through his finished work on the cross.

The point I’m trying to make is this; Thankfulness is essential for the follower of Christ. And not just in certain circumstances, but in all circumstances.

Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Thankfulness all the time. Not just when the kids are healthy. Not just when we get our way. Not just after a promotion or a raise. Not just when there is money left over after all the bills are paid. Not just when it is 80 degrees and the sun is shining. Not just when we experience a big win, but in our big losses too. It takes zero effort to be thankful in the wins. But it takes a huge amount of effort to be thankful in the losses. How do you do with showing thankfulness in the big losses? The demotion, the unexpected car repair for the second time this month, the double ear infection, the line at Walmart! How do you do in those moments?

Here are some Unhealthy Outcomes of UN-Thankfulness

• You will develop an unhealthy attitude that life is about you and your happiness rather than about bringing glory to God in everything that you do and everything that you are.
• Your prayer life will be centered around asking God to give you things that will continue to produce your happiness, rather than giving thanks to him through your lives.
• You will serve only on your terms and when it is most convenient for you. Serving will become about making you feel good about yourself instead of seeing it as privilege of serving the living God. You will fizzle out quickly in your ministry.
• You will develop a complaining & criticizing spirit.
• You will give very little to the church. Giving is a by-product of thankfulness.
• You will view church as a place where you go on Sunday morning rather than a movement of people committed to make a difference for Jesus!
• There will be no passion in your spiritual life. You will not share your faith with those disconnected from Jesus. You cannot give what you don’t have.

Prayer: God, forgive me for being so unthankful. I’m sorry that I have made my life about my happiness instead of honoring you with my life. I’m so thankful for your grace and mercy. Your grace is enough to produce a thankful heart in me. Take my heart and continue to mold me into your image so that I can be useful for you. Thank you Jesus for the cross. Thank you that you love me in spite of me!

Nothing strips the worth away from God than when we find a deeper satisfaction from other things(idols) than we find from Him.

Idols. They show up all the time in our lives in people, in our stuff, our jobs, our kids, and in our habits. It’s when our minds and hearts are bent towards these things. When they have our affection and our attention. When they become little gods in our lives. When we think about the little gods more than we think about Almighty God. When we desire them more than we desire God. Idols rob God of worship. And they rob you of joy.

This is what God said through the Prophet Jeremiah to the people of Israel concerning their idols…

Their gods are like helpless scarecrows in a cucumber field! They cannot speak, and they need to be carried because they cannot walk. Jeremiah 10:5a

Are you trading a vibrant, exciting, and powerful relationship with God for a life-less, helpless, powerless relationship with a scarecrow god? Ask God to point out the things in your life that have become idols.

Prayer: God, You and You alone are the one true God. You are the only one that gives power and life to my life. You are the most important thing that I desire. God, I confess the things that have become idols in my life. I’m sorry for allowing these things to become more important than you. Give me the strength to remove the idols in my life so that I can find my strength from you alone. I want to honor you and worship you with all of my life!

- Pastor Mike