Neighborhood Group Foundations: Our Shared Identity
October 31, 2017
Have you blessed someone this week? Have you come alongside a friend and lifted her up? Have you forgiven a friend? Have you welcomed someone to your table? Gave a listening ear? Affirmed a brother? Have you blessed someone this week? The reason I ask this question and will continue to ask this question is that God has blessed us to be a blessing. And our calling to be a blessing goes all the way back to Abraham’s call in the story of God. God promised to bless him and make him a blessing to the nations. Two thousand years later, we are the recipients of that blessing, because through Abraham’s offspring came the Savior – Jesus Christ. Jesus has blessed us by forgiving us, including us in God’s family, giving us abundant life, eternal life – a life of joy and hope, peace and purpose. But Jesus has also blessed us by showing us how we too can live a life of mercy and grace: How we can be a people who include like Jesus, who give like Jesus, who serve like Jesus and love like Jesus all because God chose to include us in HIs story. God has called us to be a people who live out the good news of Jesus Christ in our everyday lives. For when we do, we give tangible evidence of the presence of Jesus, we display that there is an alternative way of living, and we declare that there is hope beyond this life – a hope that’s found in Jesus.
And Jesus wants to unleash you to be that blessing; to be a fruitful follower; a powerful witness; and to make an eternal difference with your life. But I also know that you were never meant to do anyone this alone. You need others who will support you, work with you, and celebrate with you when God does great stuff through you. So today we’re going to begin laying the foundation for what we are calling Neighborhood Groups. For our Neighborhood Groups will not just another Bible Study, nor will they be Care Group or Prayer group – although all these things can and will take place. No this is what a neighborhood group is: A NEIGHBORHOOD GROUP is a Community of Christ Followers on mission with God who are living out the good news of Jesus Christ through their everyday activities and relationships.
Now, over the next six Sundays we’re going to lay the foundation for these groups, so that you will be able to see how God has made it possible for you to partner with others to be the blessing you are called to be. You will see what God has done in you and for you to prepare you to be a blessing the rhythms of everyday life. In fact, let me ask you to do something with me for a moment. You all know how to clap? Clap with me would you? …See how easy that was? We all clapped in Rhythm. That’s what God wants for you in being a blessing. He wants to love through you, serve through you, and work through you through the everyday rhythms of life. How do I know this? Because that’s how Jesus did it! Jesus lived out the good news with his neighbors in the midst of ordinary life. He lived among us. He went to parties, he dined with sinners, he hung out with everyday ordinary fishermen, He served those near him – and as he did, he both demonstrated and declared the good news of God’s Kingdom. And he wants us to do same – together with Him. But to do that, we need to see how God has uniquely prepared each one of us for a life on mission together with Jesus. So today, I want us to begin where Jesus began: With Our Shared Identity.
Think about this with me for a moment? All that Jesus did he did out of His identity as God’s Son. He came to be with us, because His Father sent Him. He showed us what the Father was like, because that’s what the Father wanted him to do. Every work he did, every truth he taught, he did because He wanted to please the Father. He lived out of His Identity as God’s Beloved Son. His relationship with the Father was His core identity. That’s what we have in common. We share the same core identity with Jesus. We share a Family Connection with Jesus as God’s children. We share a Follower Calling with Jesus as His Apprentices. And we share a Friend seeking Mission with Jesus – to make friends of sinners. And what we share with Jesus is what we share together: This is our core identity. These are not the identities that we were born with or we fashioned for ourselves. These are the core identities given us by the Father through Jesus. These are the identities that we share with Jesus.
So if you brought your Bible with you today, let me encourage you to turn to the first identity we share with Jesus. And that’s found in Ephesians 1:4-6, where we see how God’s Word declares We Share a Family Connection: We are Adopted of the Father
In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. Ephesians 1:4-6 These verses describe the plan of God before God hung one star in the sky. Before there were oceans and mountains and the rolling plains of this green earth, God had you in mind. What I love about this passage is that it tells us that the Father has always wanted you to be with Him. He has always wanted you to be His child. That’s why He sent His only Son. This is why Jesus came to die in your place, so you could be forgiven and then adopted as His very own child.
And what is so clear in this passage is this: Making you his child through faith in Jesus gave God great pleasure. You want to know what makes God smile? This! When you put your faith in Jesus. Because when you do, you become part of His family.
That’s why Jesus is called the way to the Father. He is the Son. He knows the Father better than anyone. He knows how loving, powerful and merciful and good the Father is. His knowledge of the Father is what allowed him to leave heaven and risk loosing everything for you. He loved the Father so much, that He gave up his life so you could know His dad. So His Father could become your Father. Let that sink in for a minute…
Jesus died for you so you could know the One who created you. So you could know the One who made your heart – that heart that longs to be loved with an everlasting love. And so the Father gave His best, His One and only Son to die in your place, so you could know Him. So you could know the One who is always for you, who will always be with you and always sees you as His beloved. That’s what it means to be adopted. You’re his Child. You’re His Family. You now share all the rights and privileges of Jesus. And the more this reality captures you – the more you will want what He wants for others. And what He wants for others is simple. He wants others to know the same love, the same forgiveness, the same security, the same joy you now know because you are His child.
Do you see why our shared identity is the starting place for Neighborhood Groups? When you know you are loved with an everlasting love – then you will begin to live out of that identity. When you live out of that identity as the beloved of the Father –then living out the good news in your everyday life we be as natural as breathing.
Now, one more thing with this first connection we share. Don’t miss this. Once you’ve been adopted by the Father, you don’t just belong to Him, but you belong together with everyone else who has been adopted by Him. So let me read that description once again: A NEIGHBORHOOD GROUP is a Community of Christ Followers on mission with God who are living out the good news of Jesus Christ through their everyday activities and relationships.
So we share a FAMILY Connection. We are to live out of our identity as His adopted children together in community. That’s God’s plan for you. He wants you to be a blessing together with others. He’s adopted you to be part of the people He’s chosen to turn the world on its head. How cool is that? That’s the first thing we share.
Now the second: We Share a Follower Calling: We are Apprentices of the Son “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” Mark 1:17
What I love about our first connection is that we are in this together. What I love about this second aspect of our identity – is that we are in this with Jesus. In other words, we are on mission with Jesus. He is our teacher. He not only teaches how to be a blessing, but He promises to be with us in the process.
What we see here in this verse is an invitation. Jesus says, “Come, follow me.” He invites us into a relationship with Him. He doesn’t have us take a class. He doesn’t say, “Believe in me and start attending a Church.” He invites us to be with Him, to watch him, listen to Him, obey Him. But to do that, you’ve there’s got to be something in you that’s willing to follow. And what is that? You’ve got to believe that He is worth following. You’ve got to believe he’s worth following more than anyone or anything else. You’ve got to believe that what He says is true, how He lives is right. He is either worth following or you must reject Him. There’s no riding the fence with Jesus. He is either the Son of God who has come in the flesh or He is not. And what I love about Jesus’ invitation to come and follow Him that most people miss, is that when we do, He’s the one who promises to do the work!
Let that one sink in for a minute: The weight of responsibility for the mission does not rest on our shoulders, but on Jesus’ shoulders. He leads; we follow. He commands; we obey. He supplies; we steward. He delivers; we worship. We bring nothing to the table. And Jesus, He’s the one who promises to work in us and through us: “I will make you fishers of men!” And when He does that – then He gets the glory.
That’s why you will rarely here me use the term “Christian” in identifying myself. I call myself a “Christ Follower.” I like that identity because it communicates that I’ve not arrived, I’m still learning, I’m still growing – and it implies that I am moving; I’m going somewhere; I’m not just sitting on the sidelines waiting for Jesus to return. No, it communicates that I’m on the move with Jesus, hoping to change and become more like Jesus.
And that’s why this mark of identity is so important for us who are hoping to live out the good news in our everyday lives – because if we see ourselves as works in process, GRACE will always characterize our relationships. You, see the one thing the world doesn’t see enough from us is grace. Sure, they expect us to judge them, they expect us to moralize them – but if this identity begins to shape how you live, you will never judge nor moralize anyone, because when you are following Jesus, when you keep your focus on Jesus… you will know that you are far… far… far from perfect.
Let me give you an example. Last Wednesday as I was playing golf one of our playing partners hit a bad shot, not uncommon – but what he said next startled me a bit. He used Jesus Christ as a swear word. So we played along and I said nothing. Then he did it a second time, then a third time. Now, after the third time, I said a prayer. “Father, have him ask what I do for a living.” Now, God did not answer that prayer at the time. But I just figured, he’ll find out sooner or later that I’m a Christ follower. And when he does, he might be embarrassed and apologize or he might not. But the one thing he will know, is that I never treated him any differently. I gave him grace.
Now I tell you that story because for too long, Christ Followers have gotten a bad rap for what we stand against. And because of that most of the non-Christian world sees us, not as agents of grace, but as mean-spirited moralists. And that view of Christianity does more to keep people away from Jesus then just about anything else. You see Jesus didn’t die for you to make you better than everyone else – he died for you to make you a new person. A person full of grace like Him.
That’s why we need to identify ourselves as Christ followers – as apprentices of Jesus. So we can let Jesus do His work in us. And as He works in us; He will transform us into people who will live on mission with him through the rhythms of everyday life.
This is our Shared Calling. We are apprentices of Jesus on the move with Jesus sharing the life of Jesus who is alive in us. God did save us to sit and soak, but to rise and follow. As we do He promises not only to change us but to be with us every step of the way. And that leads us to our final shared identity this morning, and that is this:
We Share a Friend Commission: We are Sent into the World to be Friends of Sinners After Jesus rose from the dead, he came to his disciples and said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” John 20:21
This final identity we share with Jesus is our missionary identity. We are all sent ones just like Jesus. The moment = you trusted in Jesus, He gave you His missionary Spirit. This was Jesus promise to us in Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
You see, if you’ve been a part of Rock Springs for a month or from the very beginning, the one thing you’ve heard me say again and again is that we are a Church about Jesus. It is Jesus who gave his life for the Church. It is Jesus who joins us together as a Church. It is Jesus who is alive, who dwells in the midst of His people. He is the rock on which we stand. He makes us the new people of God. And He gives us our marching orders. And our marching orders are clear: We are to make disciples of every nation. We are to make Jesus known by how we love. We are to make Him known by how we live. And we are to make Him known by sharing our story – and our story is His story. That’s what a witness is: A witness is a person who shares out of his personal knowledge and experience, the facts about this One who has loved us, died for us, forgiven us and included us in His family.
And the good news is this: Jesus has already given you what you need to be His witness. He’s given you His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to empower you not only to live like Jesus, but to tell others about Jesus.
Too often we think that to be a witness of Jesus Christ means that we must learn how to articulate the gospel, and that is true. We want to speak the truth about who Jesus is and what Jesus has done but we often we feel inadequate to do so. We don’t feel like we’re smart enough or bold enough. But Jesus knew that about us. Jesus knew that if He left this mission to be done in our own strength, with our own words, we would mess up, we’d struggle, we’d get discouraged and then we’d just give up. He knew we needed help. That’s why He sent us the helper, the Spirit of truth, His Spirit, because it is the Holy Spirit’s very nature to lift up Jesus. In describing the Holy Spirit to his disciples Jesus says this of Him: He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. John 16:14
That means the very moment you put your trust in Jesus Christ, His Spirit to up residency in you. And now, His Spirit will give you the courage, the power, and yes, even the words to speak of Jesus. Jesus gave you His Spirit so you can live on mission with Him. And that makes you a missionary, just like Jesus.
So there you have it. A NEIGHBORHOOD GROUP is a Community of Christ Followers on mission with God who are living out the good news of Jesus Christ through their everyday activities and relationships.
Look at what God has done for us by giving us a shared identity with Jesus:
He adopted us out of love through our faith in Jesus. And now we share a Family Connection with Jesus as the beloved of God. We are in this together.
He invited us to follow Him as apprentices in a new way of life. And now Jesus is working in us to make us fishers of men. We are on the move together with Jesus.
He gave us the Holy Spirit to help us be His witness. And now we are sent like Jesus to be friends of sinners just like him. We have His Spirit in us to Help Us.
We are Family, Followers and Friends. This is the identity that God has given us to live on mission with Him so we might live out the good news of Jesus Christ through our everyday activities and relationships. We are not in this alone – God is with us every step of the way. Let’s pray.
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