Lost & Found! (Phil 3:7-11)

Lost & Found

*Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Rom 10.17)

(In scripture, faith=faithfulness)

Written: Around 60AD from a prison cell in Rome

Philippians: Were affluent

• Affluence
• Influence
• Confluence
• Refluence
• Effluence

Philippians 3:8-9 (NIV)

8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in[a] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.

Desire affluence. Simply allow the Holy Spirit to change your gold standard.

➢Found1 (Furnished/Completed/Perfected)

Equipped, outfitted, or furnished:

He bought a new boat, fully found.

James 1:4

Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Hebrews 10:14

For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

➢Found2 (Originated/Inaugurated)

1. organize, inaugurate, institute, originate.

1. Set up or establish on a firm basis or for enduring existence:

to found a new publishing company.

2. To lay the lowest part of (a structure) on a firm base or ground i.e. a house founded on solid rock.

3. To base or ground (usually followed by on or upon):

a story founded on fact.

2 Corinthians 5:17 [Full Chapter]

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

*New identity is inaugurated in Christ

➢Found3 (Fashioned/Wired/Reflective)

1. To melt and pour (metal, glass, etc.) into a mold.

Romans 12:2

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Jeremiah 1:5 (NIV)

“Before I formed you in the womb(A) I knew[a](B) you,

    before you were born(C) I set you apart;(D)

    I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.(E)”

Romans 8:29

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

The Value of Love (Serving A New Meal)

The Value of Love (Luke 15/Psalm114)

The Lord’s Table (Serving Up A New Meal!) 

Retelling of the story…

• Not for the sake of memory or ritual
• Making it our story. Why?
• Our prevalent sense of individualism, segregation, loss of identity and hopelessness is proof that we have not entered the story.
• Community, if you will, is a bit of a “portal” through which we enter the story.
• Just a people have identified their “song”…we need to identity our story. [ Alex Haley’s Roots 1976]; [Story of White female students at Woolworth’s Lunch counters]

The Value of Love…rests in…

• Author of Love (God Almighty)
• Purpose of Love (Unity)
• Revelation of Love (The Author of Love loves us…this frees us!!) 
• Receipt of Love (Accepting this as truth)
• Sharing of Love (Offering it to others who are equally undeserving)

“Love responded to us so that we could respond to love!”

2 Corinthians 4:4New International Version (NIV)

4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Beauty of Passover:

• Not exactly like the exodus…Pharaoh’s heart needed changing. Our enemies heart never changed…our’s did!!
• Our table causes us to examine God’s faithfulness…Past/Present/Future (Steve)
• Sacraments offer: Reminder/Presence/Power from God; Identify/Worship/Promise
• Luke 24 When Jesus broke bread, the eyes of the disciples were opened.

➣Our focus is not merely on what Christ did, but on the resultant state.

Moral of Luke 15 story:

Son vs. Servant Son: got a ring and sandals (authority and sonship). He serves out of appreciation of the gift. Servants: Tries to earn it because they won’t receive the fact that God loves them and offers them a real meal.

A New Launch

Luke 5 (Bible account)

• People were crowding around & listening to the word of God
• saw two boats on the water’s edge (Peter & Simon’s boats); He climbed in the one that was Peter’s and asked his to push from shore & began to teach
• after preaching…he preached to peter
• reluctant fisher obeyed & let down the net
• they signaled other partners to help them. They began to sink
• Peter asked Jesus to go away from him. Peter was convicted They were astonished
• Jesus told Peter to not be afraid
• Their best business day was their last

Ahas:

• Jesus had already be presented at the temple; baptized in the Jordan; tempted in the wilderness; preached his first sermon; life threatened (again) in Judea; he now sought people with whom we could work and build. (Today He’s still doing that. Right here)
• Jesus used two preaching strategies…one pulpit..The crowd/Inner Circle
• Jesus didn’t ask permission to enter boat
• He asked Peter to chauffeur him
• After he finished preaching~ he turns to Peter and takes him “deeper” ~ Deeper = Out of our control.
• Then Jesus started “meddlin’”
• Carpenter’s don’t know nuthin’ about no fishing…it’s morning…it’s hot…the fish have gone deep to cool themselves…Ugh!!!

• Peter called Jesus “Master” at first in verse 5 & Peter calls Jesus “Lord” in verse 8 as he kneels

Theological Realities:

1. Jesus demonstrates to would-be followers the Arm of God
1. Why? We only know God as God reveals Himself to us
2. God’s revelation always comes with power! 
1. Power to grasp: first with our eyes…then our minds (understanding)…then our hearts
3. Jesus demonstrates here what he came to earth to do…speak to us in a manner in which we can receive.
1. There men were fishermen, not priests/pastors or biblical experts.
1. First: We see God, again, choosing outsiders
2. 2ndly: We see God speaking to them in their language by entering their world…their sphere of influence. I’m sure NO ONE know those waters the way they did* (Scuba trip)
3. 3rdly: We see God demonstrating authority over nature.

1. We witness the evolution of Peter’s praise: Master—> Lord.

(Master): superintendent or overseer (Positional)

(Lord) Orig: from kuros (supremacy); supreme in authority, i.e. (as noun) controller; by implication, Master (as a respectful title):-- God, Lord, master, Sir. 1a) the possessor and disposer and controller of a thing; 2) in the state: the sovereign, prince, chief, the Roman emperor 

 (Relational)

1. Jesus to Peter, whose jaw had dropped, close your mouth!

Challenge:

➣Provoked (taunt/incite) ~ Invoked (ask for aid to overcome) ~ Evoked (call back to consciousness..call away from something old to something new & improved)

3 things are about to occur in your life:

1. Jesus is about to provoke you to go deeper and He’s about to get to meddlin’ in stuff you don’t think he understands. He’s going to “provoke” you. 

1. He’s going to give you such a conviction that you are on his radar that you will “invoke” His presence like never before.

1. When/as you do…He is going to evoke you and call you away from scenarios, entanglements, schemes, distractions, false- imprisonments and self-sabbotage-masked-as-success

~We’re launching deeper in this season

~We’re calling out to Jesus for solutions, not band-aids!

~We’re leaving our busyness and following Jesus with our entire lives

~We’re about to find greater purpose!!!

~We’re not church members…we’re the people of God

The Intuitiveness of the Counter-Intuitiveness of Love (Sacrifice)

The Intuitiveness of the Counter-Intuitiveness of Love (Sacrifice)

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3.16

►What would cause a perfect God to agree to come to a mutinous world?

• God is love and it is impossible or contain or hoard love. Love drew God out of Heaven

►The only cure for the blindness imposed by sin, was the shock & presence of Love!

• This is why the God of this world has blinded people to the love of God (2 Cor 4.4)
• This is why our unity is important. When people see it, it’s like God’s biz card

Love is Exemplified…Demonstrated…Proven…in Sacrifice

******

►Love is: Inconvenience.  (*Not easily accessible)

• Convenience: Easily accessible

►Love shows us that the only true inconvenience in the Christ-like faith is convenience!

Love identifies you! Godliness is revealed in what you release, not what you collect 

►Brotherhood/sisterhood is not based upon similarity of tastes, likes or resemblance. It is biologically and spiritual predicated upon common ancestry. Period. I chose to love, based upon that common ancestry. However, love doesn't give us the liberty of being unconcerned about the state of our brother/sister.

►1 Kings 3.16 (The Mother intuitively did what was unconventional. She was intuitive of what appeared to be counter-intuitive.) Love, demonstrated by sacrifice, proved the identify of the true mother. 

• She didn’t just say “let him live” she said give him to her…( a son to an unmarried women was valuable)

Challenge: We can’t fully give a love that we haven’t received. Go deep with God today.

Slide #5 Next Steps In Connecting With Your Purpose…

• New Beginning: Commit to follow Christ (Card/Prayer)

• Grow: Adult Bible Class Sunday @ 9am & Wednesdays @ 7pm. Follow fast guidelines.

• Connect: Join a LIFE GROUP & journey with great people who are doing life together.

• Thrive: 1. Ask The Lord for an understanding of unconditional love. 2. Share the love you’ve been withholding because of inconvenience. 3. Read the Christmas story with new eyes this season.

• Serve: We honor God in giving our lives away. Check bulletin for opportunities to serve.

Wise guys (Proverbs 3.7): What to do when God doesn’t make sense to us!

Wise guys (Proverbs 3.7): What to do when God doesn’t make sense!

➣What you acknowledge will govern you. It shapes your values. It determines or limits your actions.

What governs our lives?  Pleasure? Guilt? Entertainment? Money?

• Truth wants to govern our lives and make them potent. 
• Truth applied = Wisdom...when birthed out of reverence for God
• This is counter-intuitive

➣Adam & Eve lost wisdom in the Garden. 

• Their intel became internal and sensory-based
• It wasn’t until the arrival of the holy spirit that we were enabled to be filled inwardly with God’s Holy Presence & power.

Acknowledge = YADA: to perceive, understand, acquire, knowledge, discern, sexual intercourse, to appoint. To know by reflecting and revelation.  

"I knew (Yada) you before I formed (Yatsar) you in your mother's womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you... Jeremiah 1:5-7

Do we see God? Potential purpose

➣Acknowledge (beyond casual acquaintance): Follow~Assimilate into God’s plans

Association: Guild, coalition, volunteers who enter into agreements

Acquiesce: Accept reluctantly but without protest 

Acquaint: Knowledge or experience of something, make familiar, firsthand experience

Acknowledge Admit or accept the truth of something, allow, roger that (telecommunications), concede, give someone a preferred or recognized status, make known the receipt of

Assimilate: Absorb, incorporate

They that wait (serve) the Lord....When it was counter-intuitive

➣Joseph The Carpenter: Matt 1.20; Matt 1.24; Matt 2.13; Matt 2.19; Matt 2.22

(Emotions: Anger/Embarrassment/Resentment/Pride/Fear/Helplessness/Homelessness/Marginalized/Inconvenienced)

• Samuel: Speak...I’m waiting for instruction
• Jehoshaphat...We don’t know what to do, but our eyes are one you
• Moses...if you don’t go with me, I won’t go
• Jesus...I do what I see the Father do

So What?

➣Purpose is God-ordained/ That message of purpose is conveyed to us via scripture, the voice of the Spirit and community/ The response to the intel is wisdom or folly. 

• Wisdom is the path to purpose, authority, fulfillment and powerful/meaning living.

Our purposes are short-lived and thwarted when we live from our own limited perspectives rather than God’s perspective.

• We are mortal: weak, self-centered, fickle

• We are limited by our own experience or the experiences of others
• As mortals we are driven by our need for relevance (connected) & significance (meaning)
• We can NEVER see things the way God does unless the are revealed
• Following that revelation is an act of wisdom and begins with respect for God.

➣God has been God forever and human for 33 years. Why wouldn’t we want to benefit from that experience?

Next Steps: Make a Wise Move

➣You’re worth too much to merely be a loose canon. You were created to be a dangerously strategic part of God’s plan for healing, loving and transforming the world.

Sage Wisdom (#Perspicacity Series)

Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (12-Steps 1 & 2)

*There’s a lot of foolishness going on! (Let’s come to terms. 2-sided guilt)

Psalm 111:10a

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; 

November 9: Sage Wisdom    Job 12:12 (NIV)

Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?

New International Version

Better a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to heed a warning. Ecc 4.13

New International Version

The glory of young men is their strength, gray hair the splendor of the old. Prov 20.29

SAGE noun

1. a profoundly wise person; a person famed for wisdom.

2. someone venerated for the possession of wisdom, judgment, and experience.

Taste (Latin)

sagacious [suh-gey-shuh s] adjective

Sage= Perspective (keen insight) + Life Experience + Knowledgeable

1. Having or showing acute mental discernment and keen practical sense; shrewd:

a sagacious lawyer.

Origin = wise + taste

New International Version

Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. Psalm 34.8

Ministry Aim: Learn to solicit and apply the wisdom of experienced people

Examples of Sage Wisdom:

➢Biblically

• Jethro to Moses: You need to delegate or it will kill you and the people
• Nathan to David: “You’re the man!”

36 Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.” 37 Moreover David said, “The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”

And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!”

➢Practically

• Pastor Ford: “Same salt that preserves a hog will preserve a pig.”
• Pastor Ford: “If everybody likes you, you’re doing something wrong.”
• Mother Evans: “If you’re going to go high in God, you need to learn to go low”

➢Historically

• Mahalia Jackson to MLK Jr. “Tell them about the dream”

➢Scripturally

• If you can’t run a sound home you can’t lead a sound ministry ~
• don’t be unequally yoked (contracted) with unbelievers ~
• Never curse the king, not even in your thoughts, nor the rich man, either; for a little bird will tell them what you’ve said. (Ecc 10.20)
• For a dream comes through much activity,

  And a fool’s voice is known by his many words. (Ecc 5.3)

1 Corinthians 4:15New International Version (NIV)

Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father(A) through the gospel.

#Perspicacity Recap from 1st Sunday

I refer to #Perspicacity as the Practical Art of Spiritual Living and Spiritual Art of Practical Living.

Smart: Showing mental alertness, calculation & resourcefulness. Characterized by quickness.

Intelligence: The ability to comprehend. To understand. To profit from experience. Gathering of information.

Knowledge: The psychological results of perception & learning & reasoning.

Wisdom: Is not mystical insights or deep revelation. In scripture it comes from the a Hebrew word with means “skill of living.” It is the practical application of truth. 

*Wise & Intuitive

*From Latin roots meaning “Seeing Clearly”~ which leads to informed action.

Wisdom:

• More valuable than gold (Prov 3.15)...used for exchange
• Wealth is associated with is...it increases in worth and offers dividends
• Jewelry: You’re adorned with it (Prov 3.22)
• Helps one to succeed (Ecc 10.10)

Opposite:

• Folly ~ Destructive destiny. Purposeless living (Prov. 5.23)
• They end up as the guest of Hell (Prov 9.18)

IVP Dictionary of Biblical Imagery

“Whereas the path of folly is a downward slide toward destruction, the progress of wisdom is toward something better...”

i.e. “the path of the righteous is like the light of the dawn, which shines bright and brighter until full day.” (Prov 4.18)

*Looking for it is futile...it’s the mind of God!

*Prov 1.7 states that  the beginning point is “fearing God...”