Heaven Can Wait Part 2 (Series Wrap-up)

History: (Series Wrap Up and Set up for All In Advent Series)

• Earth = A place for God’s glory 
• God’s dwelling place is Holy to Him
• Theology of place: Holy Ground...A piece of God remains where He touches down.

✔God has always had a remnant

✔God has always called and sent:

• We like being called and chosen
• We shirk being sent & assigned

-----> Called Out!

• Adam/Eve
• Ark
• Egypt
• Small Family, Small Tribe, Small Country, Small Nation...

[Trouble happens when the called refuses to  be sent!]

✔We blew it...disobeyed...became “important” in our own eyes

As a result...God called out and sent His own Son to achieve something that we could not...Perfection...obedience...faithfulness...acceptance by God.

✔Again! God sends...God goes...God is on a mission!

• Burning bush
• Lion’s Den
• Egypt
• Elijah’s cave
• Hagar in the wilderness
• David out in a field
• Shepherds keeping watch
• Sinai Bethlehem

✔Ten Missional Markers are important to me as your pastor & to us as a congregation:

• It’s not what we do. It is how we do...

• We look up (To Go for inspiration & power)
• We in (Transformation by God for God)
• We look out (Towards & for...each other)

✔ We’ve gone as far as we can human go in leading this great ministry!

Why???

• Humans typically promote what we can control, benefit from & take credit for!

✔When we seek God’s Son & His Mission.....

• The Presence of God is released IN incredibly powerful & grace filled ways

• God reveals-------->exposes Himself...to us. (Result: The atmosphere changes!

Questions:

• What does it mean to not actively join in God’s mission?

• How does all these discussions are “missional living” change my thoughts about what it means to be a Christian?

Challenge:

• Engage in God’s mission! Inasmuch as we can help offer opportunities and/or training for that, join us.

• This might not be what you signed up for, however, it is exactly what you were called by God become. Where do you stand? (Is it enough to just be called? Will you experience God’s joy of being sent?)

Heaven Can Wait! (The Prophetic Edge of The Church)

Heaven Can Wait! (Is 43.10; Acts 1.8 & Luke 4.31-37)

✔When we meet God in Genesis we often miss what is being shown

• We argue evolution when the main point of the story is Creation
• An act of the Creator
• God...going...doing...shaping...calling...cultivating...growing...building!!

*We see God moving ----> from a place of comfort to a new place

**Some refer to this as the Missionary Nature of God

✔Therefore...

• God sends His Son
• Father and Son send Spirit to engulf the Church, creating a new family/community
• The Spirit sends us (As Jesus sends disciples...& breathes on them. Without the Spirit we cannot be sent.)

✔We are created in order to be sent (being sent is how we imitate God’s nature)

✔ The Church is measured on their response to their sentness

**We are currently in a posture of being called or being sent. There is no...

• Middle ground
• Waiting period
• Marking Time
• Treading Water

• Anything else is spiritual stagnancy which is death.

Church (as a result of Christ’s redemptive work and personal and interpersonal working of the Holy Spirit) = A new community living in the midst of a fallen world and broken humanity which is controlled by the power of the air.  (Van Gelder)

*There’s a war going on!!

Jesus is incredible important to the Christian faith:

• He represents the nature of the faith
• He covers people’s past
• He represents the New Creation which is the result of & proof of REDEMPTION

There is also a prophetic nature to the church that represents God current and future reign!!

(This is why the Lord and the enemy play for keeps...they know that the NOW is the future!!!)

Luke 4: 

✔(Luke 3) Jesus is baptized in Luke 3 by John

✔(Luke 4.1) Jesus is tempted in the wilderness during his fast

✔(Luke 4.14) Jesus goes home to preach & is rejected &  his life is threatened

✔(Luke 4.31) Jesus preaches in Capernaum (Galilee) & a demon manifests

...manifests isn’t just what it does.

...it taunts Jesus...at the top of his voice (Luke 4.33 & )

“Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are---the Holy One of God!

“Be quiet!” Jesus said sternly. (v. 35)...

*As Jesus arrived in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men from the tombs confronted Jesus...

“What do you want with us, Son of God?” They shouted. “Have you come her to torture us before the appointed time?”

✔ Jesus’s mere presence poses a threat to the status quo

✔ He knew he was sent, so he wasn’t side tracked by this demonic freak show

✔ This out break was proof that he was a threat

✔ Jesus reps the Church (Body of believers) in this story

✔ Believers pose a threat to the enemy as we reflect God’s ultimate & eternal reign

***Only Healthy Missional Churches pose a threat to the enemy. (They pursue Christ & pursue His priorities...his mission in the world.) **Where are you in being sent????