23rd April 2017 - Heather Pocock - ACTS WEEK 1

YouTube Church on a Mission discussions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiE7D8MwITM

 

• How do we live out our individual mission/ our mission as a church?
• How did the early church live out mission?

 

Vision Statement for Kerith Community Church: "Helping people find their way back to God through communities growing in their love for God and their love for people".

 

Companies like Nike, Google, Build-a-bear, Starbucks, United Airlines promote vision statements to describe what they are about, and they do what they set out to do.

• If we went out on the streets with our mission statement what would be the reaction? Would people feel like they would need God?

 

H: Hunger

                1^st part of our mission is to help people see they have a hunger for God.

                People need Jesus.

                God created Eden – paradise – every single person has a desire for Eden.

• SHALOM
  • Life should be better. People desire shalom.
  • Just look at tropical holiday photos, gadgets to solve stress, political statements…

Acts 3.6-7: ⁶ Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” ⁷ Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong.

• The man didn’t think he needed God – he needed money, health… But Peter recognized and showed the man that he was really thirsting for Jesus. Jesus: Provider, restorer, repairer.
   

Acts 3.9-11: ⁹ When all the people saw him walking and praising God, ¹⁰ they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. ¹¹ While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon’s Colonnade. 

• The crowd also had a desire for God.
• But they were initially attracted to the gifts of Jesus – but that doesn’t satisfy. The giver is the one who satisfies.
  • Ecclesiastes 3.11: He has also set eternity in the human heart;
    “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.” (CS Lewis)
  • I still haven’t found what I’m looking for. (U2)

 

E: Evil

2^nd part of mission is to recognize that evil and sin gets in the way and disrupts harmony.

Romans 6.23:  ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in^[a] Christ Jesus our Lord.

Acts 3.13-15: ¹³ The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. ¹⁴ You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. ¹⁵ You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.

• Peter points out the sin and evil in the crowd’s heart.
  • How would you feel?
  • We have become an over affirmed society causing us to believe we are never wrong, and that we don’t need to acknowledge failings.

Romans 3.23 ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

• How do you respond to that verse?

We COMPARE ourselves to others: Personal story: Chatting to a friend about faith. They asked, ‘so you think I’m a sinner?’ But I’m not that bad.

We WAVER good over bad: Journalist interviewing Michael Bloomberg – ex-mayor of NY – “I’ve earnt my place”

We MINIMISE and LEGITIMISE our sin. Often finding someone else to blame.

If we COMPARE, WAVER, MINIMISE we will never experience the grace and truth of shalom.

• If the biggest sinner you know isn’t you then you probably don’t know you. The more we learn about the holiness of God the more we agree with this statement.
• Personal Story: Denial when you’re ill isn’t effective for getting well.
  • Augustine: My sin was all the more incurable because I did not think I was a sinner.
    • Where in my life am I refusing to take the cure?

L: Love

3^rd part of our mission is to tell/ show people that God loves them. He gave us a cure to the disease of sin. Jesus died on the cross to take the punishment.

Acts 3:19-20 ¹⁹ Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, ²⁰ and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.

• God wants to give us “times of refreshing” – there is blessing in repentance.
• Messiah: someone who rescues us.

 

P: Pivot

4^th part of the mission is to act on God’s love and repent.

• Repent – turn away and return to God.

Acts 3.26 ²⁶ When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”

• What lifestyles do we need to turn away from, and return to Jesus?
• Martin Luther: ‘all of a Christian’s life is one of repentance’
• Personal Story: When I move to a new house/ when I am a mother I will be content!
  • We need to look to Jesus – only he will satisfy. Where are we looking for contentment?

H.E.L.P Through these stages we will be able to help people find their way back to God.

Prayer / Discussion
:Where are you looking to satisfy hunger/ wrongdoing?
God is so good to us – he desires us to live in paradise. Help us to recognize our hunger for you Jesus. Only you can satisfy – Reveal where we are reaching to other things. Show us where we are living in sickness