Friday, October 3, 2008

PALM SPRINGS - IV

At the Tuesday night banquet hosted by the A/G TRUST SUMMIT in Palm Springs where I just returned from, Rick Warren spoke. Here is the final installment of that P.S. trip, spread out over these past few blogs for the sake of length … with my own thoughts sprinkled in here and there …

* It takes more than sermons to grow a person to spiritual maturity. We know that because people, after twenty years of listening to weekend messages month after month, are still prone to be jealous, negative, gossipy, unkind, impatient and enjoying ‘fried pastor’ for lunch every Sunday afternoon.

* Focus on building PEOPLE and God will build His church.

* The Gospel was both a COME and a GO Gospel to Jesus.
He said, “ComeCome and see.”
Come … all who are thirsty … and you drink from the fountain that gives living water and never runs dry.
Come … you who are weary and heavy-laden … and I will give you rest.
Come … just as you are.
However, these words of “COME,” Jesus says to the WORLD.

He also says, “Go … Go and tell.”
Go … make disciples.
Go … teaching what you have learned.
Go … and baptize them.
THESE words He says to the CHURCH.

* Jesus used a progression when He ministered. He STARTED with COME AND SEE --- but He progressed from there, layer by layer, to “Take up your cross and follow Me” … “Don’t put your hand to the plow and look back” … “Leave father and mother and be My disciple” ………
His EVENTUAL plan was to move people thru various stages of maturity till they got to the point of “COME AND DIE.” But it all STARTED with “COME AND SEE.”
The best way to get them to a COME AND DIE life place is not thru sermon after sermon, but thru consistent, healthy, transformational small group life.

* If we just TALK to people all the time without helping them DO, they’ll just become huge, giant EARS – but they’ll have little tiny HANDS … tiny FEET … tiny HEARTS.

* There are 58 commands in the Bible that are ‘one another’ commands – that you can NOT fulfill without small group life. In the New Testament, the early church met in TEMPLE COURTS (that’s ‘big church’) and they also met HOUSE-TO-HOUSE (that’s group life).

* If we aren’t careful, ministry can morph into entitlement. “SERVICE” becomes “SERVE US.”

* There are five main problems in the world … Spiritual EmptinessCorrupt GovernmentPovertyPandemic diseaseIlliteracy. These problems can only be solved by the Church today. The Church is the only true global organization in the world. We have the biggest army. There is a church in nearly every village – we speak more languages than the United Nations – we have the ability and power to mobilize the planet – we have the greatest credibility – in villages all over the globe, pastors are more trusted than government officials. There is NOTHING on the face of the earth bigger than the Church.

From the study of the scriptures, we see five things Jesus did that are also the answers to the five biggest problems the world faces today. These are unveiled in RICK WARREN’SP-E-A-C-E” PLAN:
1) He Preached reconciliation
Love God and love others. That’s it. This addresses the SPIRITUAL EMPTINESS problem.

2) He Equipped leaders. This addresses the GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION problem.
Jesus loved everybody.
Jesus fed 5,000.
Jesus trained 70.
Jesus discipled 12.
Jesus mentored 3.

3) He Assisted the poor. This addresses the POVERTY problem.
Jesus’ very FIRST sentence in His very FIRST message related in Luke chapter 4 is: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to help the poor … “

4) He Cared for the sick. This addresses the DISEASE problem.

5) He Educated the next generation. This addresses the ILLITERACY problem.
Let the little children come to me for they are the Kingdom of God,” He said. If you want to do God’s KINGDOM work, you have to care about kids.

More good stuff.

And be blessed.

3 comments:

Darren said...

these are great insights. i have really enjoyed the 'palm springs series'. oh and nice blog face-lift.

Anonymous said...

Friday night at our small group, we talked about how important it is to take the time for people and show them you care. It means a lot to people. I know that I often tell those I am closest to how I feel about them, but I believe that I need to broaden my circle and reach out to others, too. I have a handful of people that I love as true friends and the rest I tend to brush in broad strokes of love for humanity. I think Jesus loved them specifically and relationally. I definitely need to include more people in my circle of friends. Part of that just may happen in a small group.

This passage stuck with me...

* If we just TALK to people all the time without helping them DO, they’ll just become huge, giant EARS – but they’ll have little tiny HANDS … tiny FEET … tiny HEARTS.

I think KFA has many opportunities for involvement, but becoming more missional is going to be great for our spiritual growth. To reach those who don't know Jesus is what we are meant to do. I'm looking forward to it. There is so much more that the church is capable of doing that other agencies can't. If we start doing more in our own community it would be a great start.

PK's BLOG said...

GREAT POST, ANONYMOUS.
YOu really 'GET IT.' Thanks.