Sermon Notes

New Cultural Force + God’s Word + Creative Response = Reaching New Generation(s)

What are the challenges?

- Chasm 1: Everyday life + sensationalized life
- Chasm 2: Information + wisdom
- Chasm 3: Real relationship + virtual relationships


1. Sensationalized generation, but how deep is it?
2. Informed generation, but how discerning is it?
3. Connected generation, but how fulfilled is it?



What is our faithful creative response?
1. Train (Proverbs 22:6)

- Delaying exposure
- Limiting usage
- Trusting them with increasing responsibility (Luke 16:10)

2. Treasure (Matthew 6:19-24)

If our children cannot find their highest satisfaciotn in Christ, they are going to look for it in something else.

Create an environment at home that is more engaging and more satisfying than the one they find online.

1. Be a consistent presence in their lives
2. Create positive memories (have fun!) as you disciple your children
3. Do something hard together for the sake of another

Conclusion: 1 Corinthians 15:9-11

Sermon Notes

Foundational Question: Is this your families priority?
Delivering the Gospel as a family drives relationship and discipleship.

Week 1: Great Commandment - Worship, Ministry
Week 2: Great Commission - Evangelism, Fellowship, Discipleship


1. Evangelism at Home
Share, because you Care!

The insecurity of making oneself vulnerable by sharing Jesus is best experienced together.


2. Fellowship at Home
Show me your friends and I will show you your future

Who we laugh, cry and do life with speaks volumes about who we are and who will become

3. Discipleship at Home
RADICAL Disciples

How we spend our “down time” determines what type of disciples we will become and will produce.


Consider
Parenting on Purpose requires not just taking our family to a Church where the Purposes are celebrated, but bringing those same purposes into our everyday life

Sermon Notes

Foundational Question: Is this your families priority?
Loving God and loving one another together best represents the heart of God for your family

Week 1: Great Commandment - Worship, Ministry
Week 2: Great Commission - Evangelism, Fellowship, Discipleship

1. Worship at Home
The Creation and the Created cry our for a Creator

2. Ministry at Home
Service with a smile

Sermon Notes

As parents, we need to work to ensure our children have a relationship with Jesus, not just a desire to be part of a loving community doing good. In other words, we need to ask, are we discipling or merely socializing our children in church? —Ed Stetzer

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 shows us three instructions we must carry out in order to develop a biblical worldview in our families.

1. Listen: Be obedient to God!
- Developing a biblical worldview begins with God. We must know him, his will, and his ways.
- How serious are we in studying God’s Word?

2. Love: Be devoted to God!
- God must be first in everything if we truly love him.
- Is God first in our finances, in our interests, in our relationships, in our schedule, and in our troubles?

3. Lead: Be a messenger of God!
- Three ways we can lead our children: Tell them, Show them, and Do it with them.
- We teach with our words and with our lives and our influence must go beyond our home.

Conclusion
Listen to God and you will believe.Love God and you will be convinced.Lead your children and you will be passionate for God

3 Foundation Truths:
1. Parents are the primary spiritual drivers + influencers.
2. The church provides significant spiritual support
3. The pursuit of a Biblical worldview is paramount for the success of both

What COVID hasn’t changed about Parenting (Psalm 78)

1. Your calling as a parent (v. 1-6)
Your calling is composed of 2 aspects:
- pointing them to the ideal
- Navigating them through the reality

2. Your inadequacy as a parent (v. 7)

3. Your need for a tribe (v. 8)

When God set his people Israel in order, he placed each individual within a family, each family within a tribe, and in each tribe within a nation. No generation was excluded, no child left out, no older person put aside. Within each tribe were the components of family; they were community.
—Daphne Kirk


What has COVID changed about Parenting?


The environment, ie. “eco-system”

An ecosystem is a geographic area where plants, animals, and other organisms, as well as weather and landscape, work together to form a bubble of life.
—National Geographic

a. Micro-system: family, school, church
b. Meso-system: when micro-systems interact
c. Macro-system: overarching cultural context

Eco-system conditions parents need to create
1. Grace and Truth

2. Good, Bad and Ugly

3. Show and Tell

Its never too late: God’s grace is always available

Sermon Notes

Every Member on Mission

It is not so much the case that God has a mission for his church in the world, as that God has a church for his mission in the world. Mission was not made for the church; the church was made for mission – God’s mission.
—Christopher Wright

How Does Jesus Fulfill His Mission?

1. Jesus Entered into Humanity

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us
—1 John 1:1-2

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
—John 1:14


2. Jesus Was Sent, Just As We Are Sent

• The Church as the Ekklesia!
• When we give ourselves away for others, really extend ourselves, that’s when we begin to step onto mission.


How Do I Fulfill My Mission?

1. Stop For The One

a. Stop for the one – amidst our busy schedules, day to day routines.

b. Stop for the ONE first – Jesus. Jesus is our goal
relationship with the living God. He is the wellspring of missions.

It is out of our intimacy with Him that we are able to be intimate with others.


that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
—1 John 1:3-4


2. The Power of Togetherness

a. The condition of our communities is the scorecard on how well the church is doing at being the people of God.

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
—John 14:12

Sermon Notes

What has COVID done?

1. Placed the church into exile
2. Put limitations on us
3. Presented unprecedented challenges


Three Ways to Stay on Mission (During This Season)

1. Stay in the city (v. 4-6)
a. Invest the time to learn the culture
b. Invest the time to build deep relationships

2. Strengthen the city (v. 7-9)
a. Life-giving words
b. Life-giving actions

3. Seek the Lord (v. 10-14)

Sermon Notes

Intro:

Trust God’s timing (Don’t rush) - v. 6

Trust God’s character (Don’t worry) - v. 7

Be mindful of the enemy (Don’t ease up) - v. 8

Be thankful for God’s people (Don’t isolate) - v. 9

Be thankful for God’s grace (Don’t give up) - v. 10-11

2021 Renewals

- Commit to growing (personal renewal)
- Commit to growing with others (relational renewal)
- Commit to growing with others on mission (missional renewal)

What is the outcome? Cultural (City) Renewal. See Acts 2:42-47
What is the mission God has called us to do TOGETHER?

A Church Can Engages the City in 4 Ways (John 17:15-23)

1. A church in the city (apathy) or against the city (animosity): v. 15
“Gospel + Church - City”

2. A church of the city (assimilation): v. 16-17
“Church + City - Gospel”

3. Lone Rangers: v. 18
“Gospel + City - Church”

4. A church for the city (transformation): v. 19-23
“Gospel + City + Church”

COVID doesn’t change what God wants to do. But it forces us to re-think:

1. how to do it during this season
2. what it look like after this season.

Spiritual Waves We Need to Prepare For:

1. The Digital World is here (to stay)
2. The Next Generation is yearning
3. The City is growing

Conclusion:

Jesus said He will build HIS church. He is the designer, builder, and leader. He gets to choose the purposes of His Church. He gives us the authority and power as the church to express His love and bring transformation to those around us (Matthew 16:18)

2021 Renewals

- Commit to growing (personal renewal)
- Commit to growing with others (relational renewal)
- Commit to growing with others on mission (missional renewal)

What makes us family?

1. Common experiencesWe’re all in this family because of God’s grace (Eph. 2:14-18)
a. Learn to enjoy the grace of God.
b. Learn to extend the same grace to others in our church family
Family never found, only built (Ephesians 2:19-20)

2. Common culture (Preserve)

3. Common Mission (Pursue)

Conclusion:
The bigger the Jesus in our community family (the more grace we embrace and extend), the stronger and united it is