Chapter 04: Skills

[00:00:02] Chapter 4 skills questions take some time to read John 15:1 17, use the methods we have practiced of inductive Bible study, and specifically notice the source of a life that bears much fruit. Write your thoughts below. [00:00:21] What comes to mind when you hear the phrase life on mission? What would you consider to be some of the trademarks of life on mission? [00:00:30] How would you define the mission of God in the world? [00:00:35] What are some unique aspects of your personality, skill set, or experience that you have seen make a positive impact on the world around you? [00:00:46] Before we can mention a life of impact, we have to start with a foundational claim. [00:00:51] Impact comes from intimacy One of the traps that the enemy uses for committed followers of Jesus is for our primary goal to become fruitfulness, impact, or success rather than intimacy with the Lord. [00:01:07] Intimacy is formed by abiding or intentionally remaining in the presence of God. [00:01:13] Abiding can only be accomplished if the goal is to be still and be with the Lord. [00:01:19] The branch doesn't gain fruit by trying to produce it gains fruit by receiving from the vine. Remain, remain, remain, abide, abide, abide, Wait, wait, wait. Remaining abiding, waiting. This is the most active stance we can take as followers of Jesus. Our world tells us that it is a waste of time to sit in the presence of God, and the enemy tells us that we are losing ground in the spiritual war when we wait in the presence of God. But this is the battle. We wait in the presence of God amid the war raging around us. And in this remaining we find intimacy. [00:02:02] We find that to which we are called. This is impossible to overstate. Intimacy with God from abiding in his presence will never take away from your life in the kingdom and your impact on the world around you. [00:02:16] But overlooking intimacy for the sake of success, impact, or ministry will inevitably rob you of intimacy with the Lord. [00:02:25] Our world is busy. Our world is stressful. Our world is painful. It can feel like an absolute battle at times. [00:02:34] Imagine the courage it would take for a soldier to sit in the middle of the seemingly overrun battlefield, trusting in the protection of her commander and and waiting for the reinforcements to come. [00:02:47] This is what it means to abide. It is an active stance of faith that moves the mission of God forward. Because the mission of God starts in our hearts. [00:02:57] We've already discussed time alone with God, the foundational practices of abiding. What we need here is a proper perspective. Satan wants to choke your soul with good things because you have the wrong perspective. [00:03:11] Consider the temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4. Satan tempted him with food for his hunger, proof of his divinity through divine protection and authority to be worshiped. All were good things that are rightfully His. The right perspective is that the life we are called to in the kingdom is a life on mission. And the anchor of that life is abiding in Jesus. Why? Because through abiding we learn to see His Kingdom's goodness in every area of our lives. [00:03:40] Our mission flows from the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. If we short the Holy Spirit, we are on a clear path to burnout. [00:03:50] Life on Mission at New Life we believe that every Christian is called to live their life on mission. This is the basic pattern of life for every sincere follower of Jesus. We should all be seeking to live our lives as part of Jesus mission. That being said, we understand that life on mission is not the ultimate goal of following Jesus. [00:04:10] We like to think of them as the skills that we practice as a follower of Jesus. Our ultimate goal is discipleship, choosing the lifelong journey of living the way of Jesus within the community of God's people. [00:04:23] But the foundational skills that we practice are life on mission. If you recall our section on discipleship, these skills are the seven note scale and the 44 rhythm that every musician learns. [00:04:35] They form the practical basis on which everything else is built. Just like those skills equip someone as a musician, these life on mission skills equip us to grow as a disciple. [00:04:47] The internal practices of abiding that we have already discussed form the foundation for our hearts. But these practices are lived out in a wide variety of expressions. There are five activities that we embrace as definitive to a life on mission. [00:05:02] Gathering purposefully, Connecting deeply, giving generously influencing daily and serving selflessly. [00:05:12] Gathering purposefully the Book of Hebrews instructs us not to forsake the gathering together of the believers. When the church gathers, we proclaim the Gospel, teach and receive teaching from God's Word. Worship together and embrace the unity found in the cross that transcends the division of found in the world around us. [00:05:33] Our gatherings are a way that we practice our loyalty to Jesus by connecting to his body and by inviting others into his community. [00:05:42] Our gatherings are where we receive the sacraments of baptism and communion together with our family of believers. The gathering of believers has always been respected and prioritized by followers of Jesus. [00:05:56] We believe that corporate worship is an essential part of our lives. [00:06:00] We need to hear the voices of other believers singing songs of worship. We need to hear the testimony of other believers confirming the faithfulness of God. We need to hear the teaching of God's Word with A community so that we can see what it means for us to live the new life of Christ together. The large gathering reminds us that we are not alone and that we are part of a movement of people empowered by the Holy Spirit to pursue the mission of Jesus across the world. [00:06:28] The rhythm of gathering, like any other practice, orients our hearts, minds and physical habits around Jesus. [00:06:35] Doing this forms and confirms our priorities. It teaches our children the things that matter to us. It opens our hearts to receive the Word of God when we're tired or stuck. It creates space to be taught the Word of God. It gives space to serve the people of God and give the gift of worship and teaching to others. [00:06:54] Every time we gather purposefully, we are participating in a ritual that, in multifaceted ways, reorients our lives to Jesus. [00:07:05] Connecting deeply. [00:07:07] You might have looked at the table of contents and noticed that the next chapter is about community. Now, you might be thinking that this skill or practice seems redundant. But that's the thing. Community is a thing of which we need to live inside. [00:07:21] But connecting is a skill we need to develop. [00:07:24] If community is the house we live in, connecting is making your bed or cooking a meal. In other words, the skill of connecting is what makes community livable. [00:07:34] Connecting happens in two directions. First, it happens vertically. We connect to God. We already had an entire chapter on this called abiding. This is a skill that we have to practice. It is a spiritual discipline that teaches us to recognize the presence of God, voice of God, and will of God in our lives. [00:07:53] Connecting deeply to God does not happen by accident. You will not walk into the woods and all of a sudden be overwhelmed with his presence. If you do, that is a miracle. That is God operating outside of the normal processes of life. The normal natural processes for connecting with God comes through developing the skills of abiding in his presence. [00:08:15] Connecting deeply with others is a skill as well. [00:08:18] It's a skill that we practice. We learn by practicing connection. Yes, we practice it in our life groups, but we need to practice it on purpose. [00:08:27] Sometimes you will just fall into deep friendships. Usually that happens in tragedy. When you go through something devastating in life, you become pretty close to the people you went through it with. But because tragedy is not something we want to build our lives on, we need to practice connecting with. We look for friendships. We make time for one another. We prioritize being together. We learn to ask questions and really listen to the answers. We learn to empathize with others, putting ourselves in their shoes to the best of our ability. We learn to think I wonder what led that person to that conclusion instead of how could anyone ever think that we learn to share honestly with vulnerability about our lives with the believers closest to us. It takes practice. It doesn't magically happen. [00:09:16] This is an important enough concept that I want to be extremely clear. We all prefer the idea of organic relationships. We love movies about love at first sight. We like friendships that are easy and last a lifetime. But here's the catch. Almost no one falls in love at first sight. And most of our childhood friendships don't last. And even organic gardens require a gardener. [00:09:40] Very little of real value comes without intentional effort. [00:09:45] We have to learn to connect deeply with God and others. It is a skill that we have to practice giving generously Generosity is a principle for kingdom life that goes back to Genesis chapter four. In this story, we see Cain and Abel bringing offerings to the Lord in response to the relationship they have with him. God doesn't ask for it, they just give it. The story says that Abel brings some of the best pieces from the first portions of his sheep. Cain brings some of his harvest. The difference here is reflective of the perspective the two men held of God. Cain brought something. Abel brought his first and best. [00:10:26] The way we interact with our resources as followers of Jesus reflects our relationship with God and our understanding of his character. This principle is often called the principle of the first fruits. In scripture. It is mandated to the people of the Old Testament in the Law of the Tithe as the first 10% of all that is brought in. [00:10:48] The people were commanded to bring in the first 10% without keeping the best for themselves. [00:10:54] These resources were used to care for the priests, provide the religious life of the community, and provide for the poor and the needy among the people. [00:11:04] This law oriented the life of the people around the generosity of God and the stewardship of the world he had entrusted to them. Each time they gave it was a reminder that they did not need to hoard or hold because God was their provider. It was also a reminder that the will of God was for their good because the money they gave to the Lord in the tithe went to serve their needs and their growth. [00:11:27] In the New Testament, the early Christians would have lived under this principle, seeing the tithe as the standard of giving rather than the law. [00:11:35] We see this in the early Christian writing known as the didache in chapter 13. [00:11:41] In the new Testament, Jesus is called the firstborn of creation and the first fruits of the dead. This is crucial because it shows us the character of God. God gave his first and best Jesus to us to save and redeem us. He participated in this principle. God does not ask us to live in a principle in which he does not also live. The standard of the New Testament which extends to us is sacrificial generosity to God and others. This is why in church you'll sometimes hear talk of tithes and offerings, because Christians use the tithe as the basis for the first fruits principle. And anything above that tithe, or 10%, is radical generosity. [00:12:23] As followers of Jesus, we live under the principles of both first fruits and radical generosity because this is the way of the kingdom. In a world where everything rises and falls on money and resources, we live in dependence on God. This doesn't mean we're afraid of money, we live in poverty, or we never own nice things. It simply means that our generosity is a way of practicing the goodness of God and His rule over our lives instead of living under the rule of money as the world does. [00:12:54] Influencing Daily Our lives are characterized by disciple making Jesus last words to his original disciples in Matthew 28 were to go into the world and make disciples. [00:13:06] Our lives as Christians are leveraged for the kingdom of God to come into the world. And this happens when we teach and train others to follow in the ways of Jesus as we have been taught. [00:13:17] In other words, we influence people around us daily. This is a local and a global perspective. Every Christian goes to the world and every Christian sends others to the world. [00:13:28] For some of us, God has called us to go to our immediate neighbors and to use our resources to send others across the globe. [00:13:36] For others, God has called them to go across the globe to make disciples and then send those disciples into their neighborhoods. But everyone goes and everyone sins as followers of Jesus. This is our commission. We are globally minded people. Our mission is bigger than our church, our city, or even our nation. This means our allegiance is bigger as well. We are members of a kingdom that spans national, cultural and socioeconomic borders. We have brothers and sisters of every tribe and tongue. We are not entrenched in political parties or economic systems. We are in all of those and across all of those to make disciples in all of those while living with our primary allegiance to King Jesus and His kingdom in the world. We pursue making disciples through both personal and corporate efforts. We individually make disciples of those people within our sphere of influence. [00:14:30] This is accomplished by having gospel conversations, praying for those people and being a Christlike presence in their lives and at times inviting them to church. [00:14:39] These are the ways we intentionally influence serving selflessly. [00:14:45] Corporately, we influence the world by using our unique gifts to serve the Body of Christ in the local church. Each of us has been given a unique place and role to play in the Body of Christ. [00:14:56] That's where the analogy of the body comes from. In 1st Corinthians 12, the author Paul compares the church to the human body and us to its parts. Each is unique and essential. We need you in the church. We need you in all of your unique identity. God has gifted you in ways that others are not gifted. No one else can play your part in the Body of Christ. [00:15:20] Serving is also formative. Jesus said in Mark 10, verse 45 for even the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. [00:15:31] When we practice serving others, we act like Jesus. We can serve by making coffee at church, teaching in the children's ministry, leading worship, volunteering at the Women's Resource center, or blessings in a backpack, or leading an adult or youth life group, just to name a few ways. When we serve, we practice lowering ourselves and elevating others just like Jesus clearly modeled. If you are ready to practice the skill of serving, we would love to walk you through a process of Christ centered self exploration in which you can discover how you are uniquely gifted and what you bring to the community as well as what lies and wounds have affected your life in which the Holy Spirit wants to walk you through healing the prayer that reflects our life in the kingdom comes from St. Francis of Assisi. [00:16:19] Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon where there is doubt, faith where there is despair, hope where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand hand, to be loved as to love. [00:16:46] For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born into eternal life. Amen.