Yours, Mine & Ours: Recent Episodes
David W. Hegg
Our society is making it harder and harder on the family and on the family of God … the local church. How does God want these two institutions to relate to one another? Is the local church simply a useful resource for the family, available to them when they feel a need? Or is the local church an essential element in what it means to walk “in a manner worthy of Christ?” Over the next few weeks, we will explore the riches God has for us through the Body of Christ and find that passionate partnership in the local church is God’s design for every one who desires to follow the Lord Jesus.
If we’re honest, down deep we all live with fear. Financial and health concerns, increasing concerns for safety, and the dark unknowns of the future make it clear we really have no security in this world. But what we do have is a security that lies outside the bounds of this sin-drenched, broken, and increasingly dangerous temporal existence. Peter calls us to “fix our hope fully on the grace to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
This week as we continue our series in “Yours, Mine, and Ours” look at the issue of Christian Commitment. A discussion on Commitment presupposes each of us is committed to the same thing and in the same way –or at least it should. The commitment of a Christ-follower flows naturally from the Christian life. Find out what motivates us to press on and remain faithful and hear what life applications and principles we can instill in our children as we continue the work of making disciples.
Selfishness is the great deceiver of the soul. It makes us think we are responsible for our own wellbeing when, as servants of Christ, we look to him for every good thing. Generosity disciplines our hearts away from self-reliance while providing a means of imitating the generosity of God to us. Again, it must be taught and modeled in our homes and joyfully practiced in our church.
The church must push back against the pervasive ideology that says life is about being good, and being good is the means by which one receives eternal life. As Christ followers, we are drawn to the one we are meant to reflect: the God who is repeatedly described by the biblical writers as being holy. We see that God’s people are called to be holy as he is holy, but holiness in the life of the church is first and foremost a work of God.
In our society “respect for authority” is almost a lost virtue. Yet God has established authority relationships as a means of showing us the benefit of submitting to his authority. This is to begin in the home and be modeled in the church. Where authority is properly dispensed and submitted to, there is peace. Where authority is either abused or rebuffed, chaos results.
In today’s world, “love” is so ambiguous it can mean many things. But Jesus said his disciples are to be characterized by “love,” so we better get it right. Understanding the love of God for us, we are to train our hearts to love what God loves and love as God loves. This begins in the family but flourishes in the church, as we partner to instill in ourselves and our children a sincere faith, a good conscience, and a pure heart. The result? Lives characterized as “walking in love.”
Nothing characterizes the sincere desire for God like Bible study and prayer. Yet as crucial as these spiritual disciplines are, we too often find our prayers are filled with clichés, as if spoken at arm’s length from our hearts. Our prayers grow stale and no longer satisfy the longing of our hearts to engage with Almighty God. Worse, when this is the praying we model, it becomes the pattern for our children. But it doesn’t have to be that way! Let’s get better at authentic prayer by following Elijah in one of the greatest stories in the Old Testament.
We use a lot of confusing terms at church, and this is certainly true in reference to how we speak of worship. To the casual observer, it would seem that worship happens when you enter the worship center for the worship service and the worship music starts. But confusing terminology aside, the American church has a skewed view of worship, which has “me” at its center. But worship isn’t about me, nor is it a perfunctory religious rite we endure weekly. No, worship is about the overflow of a heart that beholds the greatness of God and desires, more than anything else, to give God the praise due his name.
Simply put, worship is the obedient overflow of a heart and life that is more in awe of God than anything else.
The word “discipleship” is common in church life. But just what is a “disciple?” And what is the process of “discipleship?” Further, what does discipleship look like in the home and in the church?
This weekend we take time to consider the command of Jesus to “make disciples” as well as the responsibility laid on both the family and the church to reach people with the Gospel, leading those of no faith to first faith and on to firm faith.
We’re all familiar with the term “gospel” as God’s good news for mankind extended to us in Jesus. But what place does the Gospel play in our families and in the life of the church?
This weekend we will see how our commitment to the Gospel is also a commitment to a passionate partnership with the local body of Christ … Grace Baptist Church. May the delight of the Gospel unite our hearts in the mission of Jesus, through Grace, to our world.
Our society is making it harder and harder on the family and on the family of God … the local church. How does God want these two institutions to relate to one another? Is the local church simply a useful resource for the family, available to them when they feel a need? Or is the local church an essential element in what it means to walk “in a manner worthy of Christ?” Over the next few weeks, we will explore the riches God has for us through the Body of Christ and find that passionate partnership in the local church is God’s design for every one who desires to follow the Lord Jesus.