Gulf Coast Community Church Podcast – St. Petersburg

A Mountain of Crumbs, by novelist Elena Gorokhova, is her memoir of life growing up in Soviet Russia, life in a world so different from our own experience growing up here. Having become a proficient student and then teacher of English, “Lena” taught summer students from the United States who came to Leningrad (now, St. Petersburg) to study Russian. One young man, Robert, pursued getting to know her outside the classroom, against all the rules of course.

When he returned to the U.S. he began writing her and discussing ways to get together again. At one point she writes, “So it was at this point that I realized the futility of my argument, the futility of every argument, present or future, Robert and I might have. The problem we face is that under his un-Russian curly hair presides an American brain, which is fundamentally different from my Russian brain…. The fact that we can speak each other’s language is… irrelevant to our mutual understanding….”

Jesus came to earth from heaven. His vision of life, under His Jewish hair, inside His heaven-infected brain, is so fundamentally different than our brains that “the fact that we can speak each other’s language is irrelevant to our mutual understanding.”

Join us in worship this Sunday, Palm Sunday, and we will explore a story in which Jesus acted out an “absurd” little play, as it were, in order to change our imaginations so that we could understand what He is talking about.

“I don’t want to!” is a phrase every parent of a talking child is familiar with. Of course, the goal of the parent is that sometime between then and when they are adults they begin to want to do the things they ought to do. The process that gets them there is called formation.

When we are born into Christ’s kingdom, we are much like that child whose desires need to be reshaped. We know what we ought to want, but we don’t always want it (at least, deep down), so we find ourselves doing not what we want to do, but what we really want to do. Is this what Paul is describing in Romans 7:15?

Jesus has a solution for us and it is found in answer to the disciple’s request that He teach them how to pray. This Sunday we are going to continue our brief series, Your Kingdom Come, as we explore the urgency of this prayer, the requests we are called to make, and why we must allow this prayer to shape our very desires—why this is a key to successful discipleship!

Join us in worship as we take a fresh look at the Lord’s prayer and its use for the making of disciples.

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matt. 6:9-10)

The Lord’s Prayer is a prayer for what we desire in two senses. First, the coming of God’s kingdom is the longing of the human heart (whether we realize it or not). So it is a prayer for the very thing we desire. But in truth, while we long for what only God’s kingdom can bring, we often long to receive it by our own power, or through other means than God. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end of it is the ways of death.” (Prov. 14:12; 16:25)

Secondly, it is a prayer for shaping our desires. Jesus said, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (John 15:7) Of course, if you remain in Him and His words remain in you, your desires will be formed into longing for the kingdom of God to come.

Join us as we take a step back, before our missional priorities, and explore the answers to questions such as: What is the Kingdom of God? Why do we long for it? Why do we pray about it? What difference will it make?

Scripture: Romans 12

We’ve been in a series discussing our missional priorities, the things which are central to our Gospel witness: Gospel culture, Gospel formation, Gospel mercy, Gospel outreach, and Gospel unity. However, we cannot assume the Gospel.

What is the Gospel? Why is it called the Gospel of the kingdom? And what does this have to do with making a disciple? For that matter, what is a disciple?

This Sunday we will explore these things in a parable I would title, “The Parable of Speculating on the Kingdom”. The essence of our discipleship is in whether and how we speculate on the kingdom of God. This, then, must define our methods of making disciples since this is ultimately what defines a disciple.

If you are a believer in St. Petersburg, FL and not established in a church community, join us in worship at 10:00 a.m. as we gather to celebrate our coming King, to embrace our new family, and to consider the culture of this new kingdom of which we are a part.

Text: Matt 28:18-20

Themes: Christ’s authority; the nations; His commands; His presence.

“I am always turning my ears to the music of streams. There is indeed a music in streams, but it is not for the hurried. It has to be loitered by and imagined. Or imagined toward, for it is hardly for men at all. Nature has a patient ear. To her the slowest funeral march sounds like a jig.… The ear must imagine an impossible patience in order to grasp… such music.” (Wendell Berry)

For the believer, much like nature’s music, we are called to march to the beat of a different drummer, a slow beat, a patient rhythm. In order to hear it, to perceive it, we must pray. As we pray, and purposefully march in rhythm with this patience, God works. Learning this rhythm is key to understanding how we are going to fulfill our missional priorities as a church.

How will we accomplish these grand goals of Gospel culture, Gospel formation, Gospel mercy, Gospel outreach, and Gospel unity? Simply put, it requires prayer, purpose, and patience. Prayerful pursuit of these priorities, purposeful living toward them, and much, much patience.

Join us in worship as we begin to answer the “how” question of our missional priorities.

Yesterday as I was leaving Publix, I paused because a lady was exiting at the same time with two very large balloons making it unlikely that we could make it through the double doors at the same time without colliding. So, I paused. As she passed, I noticed that she had one large Kansas City Chiefs balloon and another large Philadelphia Eagles balloon.

“It looks like a divided household,” I said as I got in step behind her, to which she responded, “I don’t have a dog in this fight.” I wish that were the sentiment that most Christians had over things that are of little or no consequence in the kingdom of God. Sadly, far too often we not only have a dog in the fight, we have a few dogs in the fight.

Jesus said that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand (Matt. 12:25). On the other hand, He said our complete unity would enable the world to know that Christ was sent by the Father and that the Father loved his people. Could we be so worried that the people inside the church know that the Father loves them, that we’ve neglected the unity that would allow the outside world to know?

Join us in worship as we explore our fifth missional priority: Gospel Unity. (And be ready to call out the first four.)

Eugene Peterson’s excellent book on the Psalms of Ascent (Psalms 120-134) is titled, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. Playing only on his title, might I suggest that when it comes to reaching the world for Christ, the modern church may already have a long obedience in the same direction, but it might not be the right direction. Regarding our mission, we need a long obedience in the right direction.

If our trajectory is off, we can keep going and arrive in the wrong place. To correct course, we need to go back to the starting point: What is the mission? Whose mission is it anyway? How did we get involved? What is our role? Once we get the trajectory right, then we truly do need a long game mentality… a long obedience in the right direction.

This Sunday we are exploring Gospel Outreach as a missional priority. What is Gospel Outreach and why is it essential? How do we set about doing it? Lest this be just another message guilting us into trying a little harder, burdening us with tactics that won’t accomplish God’s purposes, this Sunday we will start at the beginning and explore our mission afresh.

Join us in worship as we contemplate the nature of our missional God and His invitation to join Him in His mission.

Text: Luke 7:36 – 50 (ESV)

Themes: Forgiveness, debts canceled, mercy