Gateway Church - MO

Famous last words. Those are the words we share when we know we aren’t going to see someone for a long time and we want to make sure we tell them what really matters. Jesus’ last words to his disciples before he returned to the father were a command to go and make disciples. As followers of Jesus, making disciples is how we co-mission with Jesus.

God has blessed each of us with different kinds and amounts of resources. But he didn’t bless us to we can spend those blessings on ourselves. He blessed us so that we can partner with him in building His Kingdom. When we refuse to be generous, we limit the reach of God’s Kingdom. When we share what we have, God does amazing things. Our generosity helps build God’s Kingdom.

Jesus followers are supposed to be all about advancing the Kingdom of God. And many, if not most of us are willing to work ourselves to exhaustion to build that kingdom. However, even at our best, we are limited. But if we will focus more on praying for God’s Kingdom to come than we do on figuring out how to make it happen, God will show up and carry the load. When we work, we work. But when we pray, God works.

Too many of us expect too little out of life. We choose to live lives that seem insignificant or lives that don’t make an impact. But that has never been God’s plan for us. God wants more from us and more for us. God wants us to live an exclamation point life!

God’s plan, from the very beginning, was to partner with us to be his imagers in our world. Our job is to build a kingdom that represent God. We are to build a kingdom full of mercy and justice. However, his people have tended to build kingdoms that focus on comfort and self. We must choose which kingdom we will build. Choosing to follow Jesus means choosing wisely.

Followers of Jesus believe he is coming back. Popular Christian culture in America is filled with stories and images that are disturbing, confusing and frightening. However, unlike what many would have us believe, the return of Jesus is not something to fear. Scripture paints a picture of his return being like that of a king who has returned to rescue his people from slavery. For Jesus followers, his promised return is not a dark and dreadful event, it is a promise of hope and victory to look forward to.

We’ve all been a part of a restoration project that took longer, cost more and was way more involved than we ever thought it would be. But in the end, it was worth it. The hardest part of most restoration projects is starting. Restoring relationships is no different. It’s hard, but the hardest part is starting. In relationships, the process of restoration begins the moment we forgive. It’s hard, it’s painful, it doesn’t usually happen quickly, but it’s worth it, and it’s what Jesus modeled for us and calls us to do. If we are going to represent Jesus well, we have to begin the process of restoration by offering forgiveness to others.

Peace. It’s not merely the absence of conflict, it’s the presence of wholeness. Peace seems to allude so many of us and most of us would pay almost any price to know real peace in our lives. Jesus, the King of Peace, offers his peace to us if we will simply surrender and let him lead. It’s not easy, it’s incredibly demanding but the price of peace, surrender, is worth the cost.

Life gets heavy. Stress, worry, anxiety, keeping up the Joneses and keeping up appearances begins to weigh us down. When we add to that our tendency to try to perform well enough to make God like us, the whole thing is just too heavy to carry. But Jesus offers to take that load from us. If we will come to him and lay down our burden, we will find the rest our weary souls need.

Most of us have no problem showing grace to others who are like us. We may not like what they’ve done, but we assume the best and offer them a form of grace. But the grace of Jesus is much wider than that. The grace of Jesus extended to those who were like him but also to different and to those who were opposed to him. It’s surprising, even shocking, but the grace of Jesus is wider than we expect and he calls us to offer that same grace to those who are not like us and those who do not like us.