If you are a follower of Jesus, it is your job to share Jesus with your sphere of influence.
Matthew 28:19
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
Discipleship and evangelism are not inherently the same thing, but evangelism is part of discipleship. This is not telling us to get people to “convert to Christianity”, and we need to care about facilitating the whole walk of believers, but, the first part of discipleship is in fact evangelism.
Mark 16:15
Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
1 Peter 3:15
15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect
1. We should be a Family
that deeply loves each other.
Romans 12:10 ESV
Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
We should treat other believers with brotherly affection. Every other follower of Jesus in this room, and every other follower of Jesus on this Earth is a brother or sister. We as the church should love them DEEPLY where we have their back, and they have ours.
2. We should commit to values that bring us together despite issues.
As Christians, that is first and foremost, Jesus!
Colossians 2:6-8
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
Everything we do and everything we are as believers is based on the reality of knowing and communing with Jesus. Because of that, we have some hard-stance beliefs as a church that we need to stick to.
3. We need to realize and embrace that we all have unique characteristics and that we all see things and handle things differently.
The beauty of this Living Faith family is its incredible diversity, but that also comes with frustrations. We need to embrace the differences:
Romans 12:4-6a
4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.
We need to be willing to have different viewpoints on things, and still get along as a family.
4. We should always have outside people being pulled into the family.
At some point in your life, you walked into a church and had no idea how to act.
Romans 15:7
7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.
We need to be constantly welcoming people into this family. It starts with you, as a member of the family, investing in the outcasts of society, the people who are underprivileged and undervalued, and the awkward ones who no one else wants to spend time with.
5. We need to always seek to resolve conflict
and end with a talk it out / hug it out situation.
Colossians 3:13
Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
Matthew 5:23-24
23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.
Matthew 18:15
15 “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.
As Christians, we can’t run from conflict, we need to embrace healthy conflict.
Ephesians 4:26
26 “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,
Matthew 5:9
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
We are talking over the next couple of weeks, about how to invite people into the family...
That's great, but if we are inviting them into a dysfunctional family where we let issues fester, and we harp on tiny little differences in what we believe, or we get all up in arms over what someone said or didn’t say, then we are screwing up our ability to invite people into the family, and eventually into a relationship with Jesus.
We have to make sure first and foremost, that we are investing into the health of the church, and not tearing down the family around us.
