Changing the world
Deuteronomy 28:1-14
“If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully keep all his commands that I am giving you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the world. 2 You will experience all these blessings if you obey the Lord your God: 3 Your towns and your fields will be blessed. 4 Your children and your crops will be blessed. The offspring of your herds and flocks will be blessed. 5 Your fruit baskets and breadboards will be blessed.6 Wherever you go and whatever you do, you will be blessed. 7 “The Lord will conquer your enemies when they attack you. They will attack you from one direction, but they will scatter from you in seven! 8 “The Lord will guarantee a blessing on everything you do and will fill your storehouses with grain. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you. 9 “If you obey the commands of the Lord your God and walk in his ways, the Lord will establish you as his holy people as he swore he would do. 10 Then all the nations of the world will see that you are a people claimed by the Lord, and they will stand in awe of you.11 “The Lord will give you prosperity in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you, blessing you with many children, numerous livestock, and abundant crops. 12 The Lord will send rain at the proper time from his rich treasury in the heavens and will bless all the work you do. You will lend to many nations, but you will never need to borrow from them. 13 If you listen to these commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today, and if you carefully obey them, the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always be on top and never at the bottom. 14 You must not turn away from any of the commands I am giving you today, nor follow after other gods and worship them.
What does this mean?
If we live lives that honor God, He will…
Cause the divisions in the nations to see our lives by because of us blessing…
Our cities and communities
Our children
Our lively hood
AND
He will chase away every enemy
He cause everyone to see us as blessed
He will make the weather work for us
He will break debt off of us and cause us to prosper
He will make you to be at the top of the pile rather than the bottom
I know this sounds unbelievable but it was presented as a promise of God to the nation of Israel that they never fulfilled and now it reaches to us if we will trust in him…not simply for our blessing but so the world might know that our God is God. We live so far below God’s expectation if we will but choose to walk in obedience.
I believe this is all part of our destiny so Jesus can be seen in the world
See Jesus further emphasized this point here
Matt 5:14-16
You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. 15 No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.
Why do we need to be this…
We have a world out there that is messed up…some of us in here are messed up and we have to push through to bring our world to freedom
We are not the victims of an anti-God society we are the heroes they are waiting for to bring them to freedom
How? There has to be a strategy or you have planned to fail
My personal call to encourage everyone to become all the Lord has called them to be. Teaching them to recognize who they are in Christ and the gifts they have and can acquire to fulfill who their destiny.
I believe as we become who God has called us to be; using every skill, gift, our personalities, our time, talent and treasure. We will begin to change the world.
What ways are we going to begin preparing to fulfill our destiny
- Teaching – the public and the private challenge of God’s word through weekend meetings, small group sessions, one on one mentoring every person will begin to recognize the gifts and calling. (Explain)
They will also learn to walk in righteousness through encouragement, reproof, and correction
2 Timothy 3:16,17.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
As this scripture states it is by learning the word and walking out the word that we are equipped and prepared for every good work.
The teaching must be a balance between strong theology, apologetics, and an active and accurate understanding of the gifts and fruit of the Holy Spirit.
2 Timothy 3:1-5
But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
Paul warns us that many will fall away if they do not understand the power of God. All of this must also be relevant to our culture and the needs of the community to be able to understand Jesus message.
- Serving – Jesus said if we want to be the greatest in the Kingdom we must become the servant of all Matthew 23:11. Before we can effectively serve our world and community we must learn to serve each other. (Explain using gifts serving in children church and other areas so others can be blessed)
Once we have learned to serve one another we can be more effective serving the world. We are not called to hide behind the doors of the church but to allow the light of the church shine everywhere so all men might come to know and pursue the one that we love because He first loved us.
We will focus on strategies to reach our community by meeting their felt needs and in that process showing them Jesus. We must develop and maintain a stellar reputation in the community, (the call Paul gave to all leadership 1 Timothy 3:7 Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.). We will not duplicate the ministry outreaches of others unless there is a proven need for duplication. We will seek the Lord not for good ideas but great ones. There is no end to the need of the poor but we must find what is God-breathed, that will impact our community and encourage our Body.
Our impact will go beyond our local community to our state, our nation, and the world. Every dollar, every minute, and every use of talent will be accounted for so as to not waste one of God’s gifts.
- Fellowship – The early church grew stronger and more effective through teaching, prayer, and fellowship with one another Acts 2:42.
“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.”
If we are going to apply the teaching and begin serving our region, community, state, nation and the world better. We will come into warfare, attacks, as well as blessings, and we will need each other and those relationships for support and encouragement.
Our culture is so busy. We live in a Snapchat, sound bite, Facebook quip, culture but that is not healthy and there is a need in our culture for connection.
Part of this fellowship connection must include, an active mentoring program helping the younger Christians to connect and grow with more mature Christians. Connection groups will also play a part in getting us to the next level
- Worship – Everything that I have just mentioned is worship and add to that singing, prayer, giving and we have pretty much rounded out what worship actually is.
Anything we do with God at the center is worship whether it be our work, our singing, our prayers, our serving, our fellowshipping, or our learning. The purpose of worship through prayer and singing is not necessarily to go with the trends but instead to go with those who are truly seeking the Lord in those areas. We have a challenge in singing that there is a need for strategic leadership through example in singing part of worship. All in all, I want to create an environment of worship that our family feels like everything they do here is worship. Each of us connecting in worship with each other and the Lord.
So what does all this mean?
- We need to begin to believe that God wants to bless us so that others will see the blessing and want to know the God we serve
- We are the light and the only hope the world has and we need to start living like it.
- We have to apply a stratgey to impact our world
- We must grow and mature we must be willing to serve one another and the world, we must build our relationships with each other and we must learn to worship with every aspect of our lives
These are all the things that are “real” church
The question is are you willing?