“Why We’re Here pt. 2” | 1/03/2021
1/03/21 | Will DuVall
Alright...
-Lose 10 pounds
-Read 1 book a month
-Make a new friend
-Take a vacation
-Join a gym
-Put away more $$ for retirement
-Find a new hobby
-Get back to church...
-Get the vaccine…
What are YOUR “resolutions” for this new year? 2020 of course reminded us that we make plans and God laughs. Proverbs 19:21: “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.”
And yet, that doesn’t mean we should never MAKE plans. Yes, James 4 exhorts us to qualify our plans with the caveat “If the Lord wills...” - I’ll see ya Sunday at church, IF Jesus doesn’t RETURN before then, OR take me home to be with Him, OR otherwise RUIN my plans in some other way - we have to qualify our plans, but we don’t just sit around then and wait passively; the apostle Paul rebuked the Thessalonian church for that kind of idleness. No, God has left us in this world for a purpose, and we began last week by recognizing that purpose: we’re here to GLORIFY HIM.
So quick recap: we were created - Isaiah 43:7 - EVERYTHING was created: to bring God glory. And 1 Corinthians 10:31 calls us to bring God glory in EVERYTHING we do in life, even the way we eat and drink; if you resolve to lose weight in 2021... To read more? That’s great - IF it’s about His glory and not your OWN. But we saw that there are THREE pursuits specifically which are EXPLICITLY, inherently God-glorifying. God doesn’t say “Thou shalt save for retirement”, but he DOES specifically command us to do these three things in Scripture, over and over again, in order that He might be glorified in us, through our lives. So they are the focus of our church’s mission statement, West Hills’ answer to the question “Why do WE exist, as a church?”: “We exist to glorify God BY…” doing these 3 things. We unpacked the first last week: “COMMUNITY”. “We glorify God by living in authentic Christian community with one another”. God designed us for community, he devoted nearly HALF the NT to providing us guidelines for living together in community, and he derives much glory from it, because 1) God loves to watch his children love one another, AND 2) it is one of the most powerful witnesses to the unbelieving world of the unifying truth of the gospel. So I ended last week by offering you three challenges for the new year, call them “resolutions” if you want, in regard to community: 1) you need to gather with the church on Sundays; 2) you need to plug into a life group; and 3) you oughta join a discipleship group.
So we’ll pick up there this morning, and once again, since we’re finishing our “exegesis” of the mission statement, I invite you to stand with me as you’re able, and RECITE with me to the extent you are comfortable, our church’s mission statement. Remember: even if you’re not a member of West Hills; if you are a CHRISTIAN, I can assure you, and we’ll again see this morning, everything here is thoroughly biblical; this should be YOUR personal mission statement regardless of which church you belong to. So would you say it with me:
We are a Gospel-centered church who glorify God by living in authentic Christian community with one another, growing in spiritual maturity as disciples of Jesus, and serving the world missionally with the love of Christ.
Let’s pray…
-
Alright, we glorify God BY living in community, #1, but ALSO…
#2 - through DISCIPLESHIP.
By “growing in spiritual maturity as disciples of Jesus”
Discipleship is an interesting word. Merriam-Webster doesn’t have an entry for it. Neither does dictionary.com. Simply put, discipleship is growing in godliness. That’s it. If Jesus is God, and we’re called as his disciples to follow him, then discipleship means that over time we ought to look, sound, smell, feel, interact, emote... BE more godly. As our mission statement says, we will “grow in spiritual maturity”, to be more like Jesus.
Why does this glorify God? I’ll give you 4 reasons (and we’re gonna spend MOST of this morning on these 4 points, on discipleship; and I’ll tell you why afterward):
1) Discipleship glorifies God because as they say, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
Ellery is REALLY big into imitating right now. We’re just coming out of a MARY phase - where Polly and I took turns being JOSEPH, so Ellery could act out the Nativity story… probably no exaggeration 100 times this December. She is OBSESSED with Mary for some reason; I’m a little concerned she’s converting to Catholicism…
But before Mary it was ELSA: Polly had to braid her hair every day, she wanted to wear her Frozen dress to school… Currently it’s Hermione; Ellery’s been practicing her British accent, her spells and potions; she wants to know Hermione’s favorite food, how Hermione gets ready for bed... Fun fact: did you know that Hermione LOVES vegetables and is an avid teeth-brusher?!
But occasionally, not for weeks on end, but every so often, usually on Sunday afternoons, Ellery will set up her toy microphone, pull out her big fluffy chair from her room and flip it upside down to make a pulpit, open her Bible and say, “Daddy, let’s play CHURCH. I’ll be YOU and you go get your guitar; you can be Pastor Scott.” And I haven’t been able to bring myself to broach the subject of women’s roles in the ministry yet, because I’m just so honored that she would even THINK to pretend to be me - that I somehow made it into the elite Elsa, Hermione, MARY rotation!
Friends: in the same way, our heavenly Father is HONORED and glorified when his children earnestly desire to be LIKE Him. To IMITATE him.
Ephesians 5:1 calls us to “Be imitators of God, as beloved children. ”
1 John 2:6 says we “ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”
1 Peter 2:21 - “to this you have been called… that you might follow in his steps.”
Remember: that IS why he called us, why God created us, humanity, in the first place, back in Genesis 1: “God created man in his own image” (v27) - to be a unique REFLECTION of God, to mirror his glory for the rest of the world to see.
Does that make God self-centered? Actually, YES, in the BEST possible way. God is the only being in the universe who can simultaneously be self-centered WHILE He blesses others, because He really IS the center of it all, so OUR lives work best when we recognize him as such, and keep him central. Jesus said, “I came to give you life to the fullest”, but the way you GET it, is by laying down your life, dying to yourself, in order to live for ME instead, to be raised to NEW life, IN me.
Which leads us to reason #2 that God gets glory from our growth in Christlikeness: because God is honored when his children flourish. I am honored when Ellery listens to me, trusts me, obeys me, and then experiences success because of it. It makes ME proud, to watch HER thrive, like “Ahh - look at MY kid; you see her? She’s MINE!” And because I love her, I want the very best for her, and usually I know better than she does how to accomplish it. In God’s case, He ALWAYS knows. God always knows that our “success”, our flourishing, our thriving IS our growing in godliness. Discipleship - becoming more like Jesus - is God’s BEST for us, it IS life to the fullest.
So Ephesians 4:22-24 summons us to, “put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt… and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
The apostle Paul declares in Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
Think about that for a second: if you are a born-again believer in Jesus, you’ve got two natures, two SELVES living inside you, right now: a fleshly nature - a sinful, old, DEAD self - and a GODLY nature - a new, pure, LIVING self recreated in the image of God by the power of God’s own Spirit at work in you. And Paul is saying very simply: “It is GOOD for me to live unto Christ.” THAT’S the self I want to put on. If I have a choice to live today like Will DuVal, or live like Jesus Christ, I can promise you: EVERYONE is gonna be better off - my wife, my kids, this church, MYSELF - if I’m living out THAT nature, my NEW nature: Christ in me.
And yet, Paul ALSO confesses elsewhere, in Romans 7: “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate… So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. ” (vv15-17) According to Paul, if I’ve put my old self to death, the Bible says I am now “IN Christ” (2 Cor 5:17), one WITH Christ (1 Cor 6:17). So Paul can say: “it’s not even ME who keeps screwing up, doing this stuff I hate”; not the REAL me, anyway - the real me is now in Christ. And yet, there’s still this disgusting, rotting, corpse of a dead self - SIN, still dwelling within me. And sometimes it feels like a WAR raging inside me, between the old me and the new me. And in this war, you win some battles and you lose some. But here’s the thing, friends: discipleship means you oughta be winning more battles TODAY than you did a year ago. Growth in godliness means that sin wins LESS now than it used to. And to the extent that that is TRUE of your life, God gets glory. The more growth in you, the more glory for Him.
And another MAJOR reason for that, #3 - is that Discipleship STRENGTHENS Christian community.
I already showed you last week, biblically (John 13, 1 John 4...), that God loves it when His children love one another. So it stands to reason that the BETTER we love one another, the MORE God loves it, and the more we glorify him.
Have you ever heard someone say, “He did the best he could. You know, my dad - I think he loved me as much as he was ABLE to... He was the best father he knew HOW to be, given the tools he was working with” - that’s gotta be one of the saddest, most disappointing, tragic descriptions of a person… and here’s the thing: biblically, if you’re talking about a CHRISTIAN, then it is simply NOT TRUE. You can NEVER say of a Christian, “she did the best he could... given the tools she was working with”. Because discipleship is all about getting better tools. Our inexhaustible access to better tools. It’s about sharpening the tools we’ve ALREADY been given. In order to better love God and love others.
Just listen to the apostle Peter: “[Christ’s] divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to[c] his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world.” (2 Pet 1:3-4)
Peter just said: “You know, it’s true: God did call you to his own glory and excellence - God commands us, repeatedly, in His word: “Be holy, as I am holy” (Lev 11, Lev 19, 20, 21; 1 Pet 1; 1 Thess 4) - But God doesn’t call us to be holy, COMPLETE holiness, to be holy like HE’S holy, and then leave us without the tools for the job - that would be cruel and unfair. That would be like me ordering my 5 year old daughter… my 10 month old SON for that matter... to change the oil in my car. That’s not what God has done. Peter lists FOUR tools here, now in your toolbelt, if you are “in Christ”: #1- God’s PROMISES (“his precious and very great promises”), #2- God’s presence: we are now “partakers of the divine nature”; God’s own Spirit now actually lives inside us; #3- God’s pardon from sin - “having escaped from the corruption that is in the world”, we are no longer held in bondage under the power of sin, that once enslaved us; rather, we now have #4- God’s own POWER animating our new natures, and “[Christ’s] divine power has granted to us ALL things that pertain to life and godliness”; that means you’ve got every tool you need in the toolbelt, friends. If you are a bona fide, born-again, new creation in Christ.
And these aren’t tools for changing oil; they’re specifically for loving GOD, and loving His PEOPLE. The two greatest commandments, that sum up all the Law and Prophets - THAT is what it means to “be holy, as God is holy”: it means loving Him and loving others.
Listen to how Paul describes why God gives us this GIFT of discipleship, the ability to grow in Him: “he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds[c] and teachers,[d] 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, [to make us better ministers, like Christ Jesus; WHY??] for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith [it’s all about COMMUNITY!] and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood,[e] to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ [THAT is discipleship: “mature manhood… the fullness of Christ…”; and why does God equip us for it?], 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves… [It’s for our FLOURISHING; God loves us and doesn’t want us to DROWN; strong, mature disciples are better swimmers through the raging seas of life - that was reason #2 above, but ALSO, watch this…] ...We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” (Eph 4:11-16)
Paul’s metaphor for the church is a BODY, and a body is only as strong as its weakest part. We got Ellery a Ninja Warrior course for Christmas. And I made the mistake last week of trying to do a backflip on the rings. And I pulled a muscle in my lower back. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to play volleyball with a strained lower back, but I can personally attest that when each part is NOT working properly, in fact, if just ONE part isn’t working properly, even the tiniest part: try and play volleyball with a broken pinky toe - you’re in trouble. Friends: you don’t want to be the strained lower back of West Hills. Don’t be our broken pinky. THAT’S why you need discipleship. You need to grow up in godliness because a body is only as strong as its weakest members, and if YOU’RE a member here, you don’t want to be the reason this church is limping around, DYS-functionally.
Paul says Christ “makes the body grow so that it builds ITSELF up in love.” God loves YOU so much, that He wants to grow ME, so that He can USE me to better serve YOU, as your pastor. The more I grow in Christ, personally, the more reliably I will be able to point YOU to Jesus, as your pastor. And guess what, God ALSO loves me so much, that He wants to grow YOU up too, so that He can use YOU to bless ME - to encourage me (1 Thess 5:11), to pray for me (1 Tim 2:1), to serve joyfully alongside me (1 Pet 4:10), to give me Christmas bonuses (1 Tim 5:17), that’s ALL the fruit of discipleship.
Better disciples make better churches; we can’t be the church God wants us to be, if you’re not the disciple that He wants YOU to be. It’s that simple. And Jesus LOVES his church. He wants to build us up, individually, so he can USE us, to build ONE ANOTHER up, collectively.
Last reason our discipleship glorifies God: #4 - it is once again a powerful witness to the GOSPEL, to the lost world around us.
In the same way that last week we said authentic Christian community forces the world to ask “What is the glue that holds this motley crew together?”, so too, when we GIVE OUR LIVES AWAY in the service of obedience to Christ, growing in godliness, it forces the world to ask: “Why are you at church all the time? Why are you at church in the middle of a PANDEMIC?!” I thought they said “Essential businesses only”? I bet June Nystrom’s neighbors think she is absolutely INSANE: here she is, 96 years old? ...the sweetest old lady on our street, always looking out for everyone else, but she still APPEARS to be getting dressed up and leaving for CHURCH every Sunday; “Should we be looking out for HER, rat her out, to her kids; tell them to come hold her hostage, cuz she MUST be losing her MIND; risking her LIFE for CHURCH - I hope June’s neighbors have confronted her, so she can testify that some things in life are worth risking your life for. And frankly, the worst that can happen is she hastens her homecoming, when she finally gets to be with the Lord in person. We’re just kind of “ZOOMING” with the Lord down here. Man, you wanna REALLY freak your neighbors out? Tell them how excited you are to DIE. Paul said: “For me to live is Christ, and to DIE, is GAIN.” Man, I can’t WAIT to get outta here. But in the meantime, I’m gonna make the most of every second God leaves me here, and live for Christ, leverage my time and resources for the advancement of His kingdom.
Listen: Jesus has left us with a JOB to do, a MISSION. “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[b] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” That’s the third way we bring God glory, that we’ll get to here in a minute. But we need to recognize that once again, God hasn’t left us without the tools for the job; Jesus says: “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” He says, ““All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”; now I give it to YOU: I’m sending you out in MY name, with MY authority, in my POWER, and with my very PRESENCE, to do the job I’ve commissioned you to do. You’ve got all the tools you need; you’ve got ME, and I am MORE than sufficient for the task. But don’t forget: you’ve ALSO got a dead YOU walking around in there as well. Sin still lives in you too. So you’ve gotta be constantly growing in Christ, putting on Him, putting OFF your old self, if you’re gonna be used by Him, for God’s Great Commission purpose for your life.
And here’s the other thing about the relationship between discipleship and mission: Light shines brightest in the darkness, right? Jesus calls us to be “the light of the world… let your light shine before others, so that[b] they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” That means there are two ways our witness gets amplified in the world. When the world gets darker, and when our light gets brighter. The world is doing ITS part: it’s going to Hell in a handbasket - it’s easier to stand out as a Christian today, like a sore thumb, than ever before; but you’ll stand out even MORE, if your light gets BRIGHTER. Discipleship means upping your wattage.
So we can actually thank GOD for 2020, because the darker things got, and the fewer answers the WORLD had to offer, the less hope the WORLD had… the more brightly GOD’S light, in us, shines through. God made it so EASY for us this past year, to do what he’s left us here to do, to be missional; you wanna be counter-cultural? Be FAITH-full, not FEAR-full. Be GRATEFUL, not grumbling. Full of hope, because you know your hope is secure with Christ, in heaven. And you’ll stand out like a sore thumb.
Now, you should be THOROUGHLY convinced that we are here to glorify God, and I’ve PROVEN to you, four times over that God gets LOTS of glory from our becoming more like him, so the last question on discipleship then is: how do we DO it? “Okay, Pastor, I’m sold: I want to grow to be more like Jesus - how do I DO it?
The 2 primary means God has given us for our grow1th in Him, are His word and prayer.
2 Timothy 3 “the sacred writings... are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus… that the man of God[b] may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (vv15-17)
And Colossians 1:9-10 “we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” That only happens through prayer.
So here’s my challenge for you, in the area of discipleship - I told you last week I’d give you a practical “call to action” for each of these 3 ways of glorifying God - I’ll give you two here:
#1 - Be Discipled
A lot of churches, this time of year, will run like a “21 Days of Prayer” or “30 days of listening to God in his word” campaign - that’s all fine. If the goal is to create a new HABIT that will then become the “new norm” for you. But if we’re gonna be really honest about it, you and I need so much more than a 3 or 4 week jump start; we’ve gotta spend time with God in His word and in prayer EVERY SINGLE DAY - 365 days this year, and every year, for the rest of your life, just to make it by. I’m too SINFUL NOT to spend time with the Lord daily. I don’t have the LUXURY of taking days off. If you had a fatal disease, and you had to take medicine every day just to keep you alive, you’d DO it, wouldn’t you? And here’s the great thing: spending time with God isn’t like holding your nose and taking your yucky medicine; it is a JOY. And the more you grow to KNOW him, and to LOVE him, and to be LIKE him, the more you CHERISH that daily time with him. The more it really does become the best part of your day.
So DO it, this new year. Make a resolution - better yet, KEEP a resolution; anyone can MAKE them, it’s the KEEPING them part that counts - resolve to spend time with the Lord daily in his word and in prayer in 2021. But recognize that the old dead you will already be ready to flake on that commitment TOMORROW, given the chance, so put some good guardrails up in your life, to keep you on track.
-Don’t miss church
-Be at life group
-Join a Sunday class: Steve and Mark are starting the Gospel of John next week…
-Join a Discipleship group: it’s not too late; I’ll find a group for you. Some guys or gals for you to grow alongside this year… to grow UNDER - some of you need to be mentored by someone more mature in the faith than you.
The apostle Paul had the audacity to call people to “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1) Could you say the same to a younger Christian? HAVE you?
That’s my second call to action for you: DISCIPLE someone else.
If you, selfishly, want to grow in Christ this year, the VERY best way to ensure you do it is by discipling someone else. It’s true what they say, typically, you will learn more, grow more, by teaching others, than they even will.
Satan would have you believe you have to be PERFECT to disciple someone else. But the apostle Paul wasn’t perfect, when he called people to imitate him. You don’t need to be perfect, you just need to be a little more mature than the other person. And even then, you’re STILL gonna both grow - “iron sharpening iron”. I still have folks - we had 78 people sign up to be in a discipleship group this year! - but I STILL have younger ladies, looking to be discipled, by an older, wiser, woman of God. That’d be good for BOTH of you.
Yes, get in God’s word, get on your knees in prayer with him personally, but let’s do it collectively, with one another - disciple and BE discipled, this year as well.
Lastly, thirdly, we glorify God BY living in community, by growing in discipleship, and...
#3 - through MISSIONS.
“serving the world missionally with the love of Christ.”
Now, why have I intentionally run myself out of time to talk about missions? It’s not because it isn’t important! It’s one-third of our mission statement as a church! It’s at LEAST that important, biblically: in fact, it’s the ONLY reason God has for leaving Christians on this earth after we get saved, because it’s the one thing we can’t do in heaven. We have the rest of ETERNITY to love God and love other Christians; the one thing we CAN’T do in heaven is love and serve the world, missionally.
But the reason I spent SO much time on discipleship, is that if you’re truly growing in Christlikeness, you will necessarily be growing in your missional service of the world with the love OF Christ. To be like Jesus is to love like Jesus. If you try to be missional without discipleship, you’ll just turn people into projects. But if you pursue Jesus with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, you’ll get the missional service thrown in too. If you’re not giving your life away to reach the world with the saving news of the gospel - the good news that God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Jesus will not perish but have everlasting life - if that doesn’t wake you up in the morning, and motivate you all throughout the day, this unquenchable desire to see OTHERS come to know the same freedom and hope and joy and eternal LIFE that you now experience, then you do not truly know God.
Jesus said very plainly, “If you love me, you will love those I love.”
There is no such thing as discipleship without mission. If you love me, REALLY love me, you won’t be able to stand the idea of someone you know living another DAY without knowing me too.
Kevin (vball) - Ellery… Elijah presents
Ex: used this example before, but it’s powerful, and until I find a better one or someone convinces me that it’s a bad analogy → Ellery hanging off a cliff…
CHALLENGE: Let’s go do it. For the glory of God…
But here’s the thing: your conclusion once again - the ONLY way to be a growing, missional community, is to be a GOSPEL-CENTERED CHURCH. You and I will NEVER do it on our own. In our own strength, we are TOTALLY insufficient. That’s why our mission statement begins: “We are a GOSPEL-CENTERED CHURCH who glorify God, by…” doing these things.
Because #1 - we need one ANOTHER. The CHURCH. For our own discipleship. To disciple us, as a vehicle for our discipling others. As a missional HUB…
But even more importantly, #2 - we’re GOSPEL-centered, because we need JESUS. Without him, our discipleship will just be making each other into slightly better versions of ourselves. You don’t need to be more like Will DuVal; you need to be more like JESUS. Without him, you have no REASON to serve the world missionally in love. We serve because we’ve BEEN served. Jesus said “I came NOT to be served, but to serve and give my life as a ransom for many.” That’s the gospel...