So we have eight days left before Easter and I am going to throw out a challenge:
Listen / watch an approximately one hour message once each day.
The sermon series is eight sermons long, so if you set aside one hour each day/night you should be able to listen to it all by next Saturday night, the night before Easter (in order to do this you might have to sacrifice American Idol or The Bachelor or The Office, or business plans, or Facebook, or blogs or whatever else we waste our time with each night, but it is well worth it, or better said, He is well worth it). If you choose to take up this challenge, Serenity and I will be listening through the series with you. You could even come back to this post and write comments / questions for all of us to think about and discuss.
Post a comment below if you plan to take up the challenge so that I know I'm not talking to myself :) (make sure it isn't an anonymous comment, that would be hard to keep you accountable)
Here is the link to the sermon series: Radical Series, Church at Brook Hills
Blessings,
Andy
Listen / watch an approximately one hour message once each day.
The sermon series is eight sermons long, so if you set aside one hour each day/night you should be able to listen to it all by next Saturday night, the night before Easter (in order to do this you might have to sacrifice American Idol or The Bachelor or The Office, or business plans, or Facebook, or blogs or whatever else we waste our time with each night, but it is well worth it, or better said, He is well worth it). If you choose to take up this challenge, Serenity and I will be listening through the series with you. You could even come back to this post and write comments / questions for all of us to think about and discuss.
Post a comment below if you plan to take up the challenge so that I know I'm not talking to myself :) (make sure it isn't an anonymous comment, that would be hard to keep you accountable)
Here is the link to the sermon series: Radical Series, Church at Brook Hills
Blessings,
Andy
21 comments:
This is the second time this series has been suggested to me in the last three days. I will take this challenge. It will lead right up to the day before I leave for Uganda as well. thanks andy.
OK - you got it - I am in!
"In the process of being successful, we would waste our lives." Wow. I'm in.
I am with you! Just listened to the first part. Thank you Jesus for bringing this to me through Andy and Serenity!
Ok, let's each think of someone in our lives (that we know personally) who we would call a radical Christian.
Now, why would we call them radical?
Mine: My friend, Emie. Why? Because she will stop and pray with you no matter who you are or what you are doing (including complete strangers). And not only will she pray with you but she has the audacity to believe that God will answer. :) Gotta love her.
Now, if you cannot think of anyone you know that you would call radical...find one, find two, heck, find as many as you can and latch on!
Just read your comment. I will take up the challenge only I missed Saturday because last night was too full to look at the computer.
I will start today. Does it have to be at night? I will click on it and see what it does.
Dad
OK, here are a couple more discussion questions. You can choose to answer one, both or none at all, just throwing them out there:
1. By and large, do you believe the Church in the U.S. has chosen "comfort" or the "cross"?
2. Read the two following scripture passages:
"That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9)
"You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder." (James 2:19)
What does it mean to "believe."?
OK, so here is another question, this one focuses on the second sermon "Radical Sacrifice":
Does what the pastor shared about the cost of discipleship (Luke 14:25-35) change your view on His call on your life or even what the Gospel (good news) really is?
Do we present an unbiblical gospel when we try to be seeker-sensitive?
Was not in the mood to listen tonight, but I did it anyways. I don't know who the crowds are for me, don't know who I'm supposed to be witnessing to. The members of Koinonia? The visitors? The neighbors? All of them? Is there anyone here in this deep witness with me? Some days I can see it, other times I feel so alone. I'll be praying for clarity for myself and for all you who are listening to this series along with me.
This is one of the harder passages that Jesus preaches. He had about 3 years of ministry. He needed his disciples to abandon everything to be one of the 12, because it was such an important short time. I have struggled with this passage for years. That is what I have come up with. His first night reminded me of my childhood and being asked to check off certain boxes to make sure that I could be a good enough Christian to enter Heaven. The second night he says that is explicitly what he does not want to come across saying. That made me feel more receptive to him, not knowing who he is. .
It is easy to say that "The Church" has chosen comfort rather than the cross. However as I really get to know INDIVIDUALS who are seeking to deepen their walk and we share our hearts and our journeys,I have not found a single person that has not chosen "The Cross". Theirs just looked different than mine.
Believe means what I wake up to each morning and battle with; what I surrender myself to and my mammon to each day; what I look back over to at the end of the day and ask .." am I closer or farther from God's heart after today's experiences and my responses.
I am in. Just starting the first challenge today. Thanks Andy & Serenity. Love you both.
Sarah,
I guess the question is, what does it mean to be "obedient to the Great Commission." Is it simply handing out tracts, explaining the 4 spiritual laws, and telling folks they have a choice to make - heaven or hell? I think what Dr. Platt is trying to say is that we should die to ourselves and allow Christ to live through us. In doing so, the Great Commission will be fulfilled. Our actions will speak louder than words -- as Mother Teresa once said "Preach the Gospel and if necessary use words."
Being aware that there are lost people out there, understanding their separation from God must then MOVE us into compassionate action. We then must find the need and then through Christ in us, meet that need. That is the Great Commission.
From what we could see at Koinonia, I believe you are already fulfilling the Great Commission by being a shining light in your community.
Andy
If we truly believe something though shouldn't our lives reflect that belief?
I fully understand that baby-Christians will drink milk and that mature Christians need meat, but how many "Christians" do we all know that are not "Christ-followers"? How many "Christians" of 20 years are still drinking milk? Can folks who demonstrate little or no fruit in their lives be called His disciples? (I believe the answer is obvious throughout scriptures -- Matt. 7:16-20; John 10:27; 1 John 2:3-6; John 15:6; and others)
I don't believe that it is our job to figure out who "truly" believes and who doesn't (Matt 13:24-30; 36-43), but I think we are not being honest with ourselves or new believers if we simply tell them "once saved, always saved" or that they simply need to "believe." We are not encouraging a continued discipleship and are actually watering-down the true cost of discipleship.
I just read this today and thought it pertained to our conversation:
[speaking of the early church] "And making disciples didn't mean using cutting-edge small group curriculum; it meant disciplining themselves, training themselves to become the peculiar people of God set apart from Caesar's world. . . . . . . . Making disciples meant that they were teaching the world to do the things Jesus did. To wash feet. To proclaim jubilee. To love enemies. To welcome strangers. And they would become known as the Way. Their community was more than just a group of people who shared religious beliefs. They were a group of people that embodied a new way of living, the way out of the empire, where slavery, poverty, war, and oppression were normal. They were to become the salt and light of the world. The credibility of their gospel would rest on the integrity of their lives."
From Jesus For President by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw
Thanks for your word, Andy. I needed to hear that. After today's message, I understand even more deeply that the commission involves doing what we do for Christ, not for the results. The bounty of the harvest is sometimes immediately visible, but sometimes it takes years to manifest. And I would still follow Christ, even if I never "get" anything out of it...that is, even if my works are never recognized by the people around me, it's not about me it's about God's glory. Commitment to Christ will bring satisfaction enough.
"Some people merely have doctrinal understanding; they have never met God; and they are therefore afraid of Him whom they cannot touch. They do not have any life relationship with God, and the Holy Spirit has not borne witness with their spirit that they are God's children. They cannot cry out of their spirit, Abba, Father. Such people may pray, though in their prayer they neither sense the distance of sin nor the nearness of the Lord. They do not have the feeling of the awfulness of sin nor the intimacy of God. They have no relationship with Him because they have not yet received new life from Him. Hence they do not feel that God is near, nor do they sense that Christ has already removed the wall of partition between them and God. In short, they do not have the consciousness of being the children of God. They may confess that they are Christians, but their feeling before God is inadequate. Though with their mouth they may say, "Heavenly Father," there is no such sensation within them. Only the presence of such a consciousness proves the existence of such a life. Now if there has never been such an awareness, how can anyone say that there is such life within them?"
From "The Body of Christ: A Reality" by Watchman Nee
In light of 1 John 3:17-19 and the faith and deeds discussion in James 2:14-26, can we deny that "caring for the poor is necessary evidence of our salvation"?
Thank you so much for this challenge. Listening to this series in such an intense way changed my entire perspective, bringing a depth to my faith and to my relationship with God that I did not know was possible. Awesome gift for an Easter Sunday!
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