Engage People Where They Are With The Gospel

On February 16, 2015July 31, 2015 By Dr. Casey LewisIn Discipleship, Evangelism, Pastoral, Practical5 Comments

Acts 17 provides one picture of how Paul evangelized the lost. In the city of Athens, we learn he went to the synagogue to engage the Jews on the Sabbath, and the rest of the week he went to the marketplace to engage the more secular minded.

The Market Place was this huge open air area in the middle of town where everyone gathered for business, arts, buying and selling, or just to hang out with their friends. We don’t really have anything like it today. Technology has allowed us to spread out and do all these things from the comfort of our office or home.

However, in Paul’s day, the Market Place was were everything happened. It was where everyone gathered. I would imagine Paul walking around the Market Place, getting to know folks there, and then engaging small groups here and there with the gospel.

Today we should do the same.We should reach out, build relationships with folks, and engage them with the gospel where they are on a daily basis. Our Market Place might look different than Paul’s. Instead of everything huddled into one area, it’s spread out. We work in one part of town, shop in another, eat and drink our coffee someone else.

Even though our Market Place looks different than Paul’s, I believe the principle still applies. We should do what Paul did — reach out, build relationships with folks, and then engage them with the gospel where they are on a daily basis.

Question for Reflection

How do you build relationships in your market place?

Resources

Post adapted from the sermon: Spread the Gospel – Growth Through Discipleship – Week 5

Image

How are We to Love Others? – Part 3

On February 6, 2015July 31, 2015 By Dr. Casey LewisIn Discipleship, Practical2 Comments

As disciples, our love should imitate Jesus loves for us. But what exactly does that look like. In other words, how are we to love others as an imitation of Jesus’ love?

How are We to Love Others As an Imitation of Jesus’ Love?

(3) Jesus’ Love is Continual

It’s not temporary. He doesn’t love us for a time and drop us. He doesn’t fall out of love with us. Nor does He trade us in for a new model after a few years. Jesus’ love is continual. It never wanes or goes out. It always burns hot for us.

Likewise, our love for others should be the same. In 1 John 3:11, John commands us to

“Love one another.” (1 Jn 3:11b)

The Greek Grammatical category for love John uses is a customary present. It is important to know that because it tells us our love, just like Jesus’ love, should be continual. It should never go out. We should never fall out of love with someone. Instead, we should continually love them no matter what they do or how they act.

One really awesome thing about a lot of the couples in my church is that they have exhibited this type of love. There are a lot of couples who have celebrated 30, 40, 50 years of marriage, which is a great testament to continually loving someone over the years.

I mean in 30, 40, or 50 years a lot changes. Not only physically but also personally — people’s likes and dislikes, what they want out of life, and how they act — change. So to love someone despite those changes is a real testament to true love.

In the same way many of in my church have loved their spouse, we are supposed to love others — continually. Despite what they do and how they change. We are to love them.

Question for Reflection

How have you loved someone continually?

Resources

Post adapted from the sermon Love Others – Growth through discipleship – week 3

Image

How are We to Love Others? – Part 2

On February 1, 2015July 31, 2015 By Dr. Casey LewisIn Discipleship, PracticalLeave a comment

As disciples, our love should imitate Jesus loves for us. But what exactly does that look like. In other words, how are we to love others as an imitation of Jesus’ love?

How are We to Love Others As an Imitation of Jesus’ Love?

(2) Jesus’ love is unconditional

We know Jesus’ love is unconditional because Jesus sacrificed Himself for us even while we were His enemies. In 1 John 4:10, John writes,

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 Jn 4:10).

So John tells us that Jesus came and died for us while we were His enemies. He died for those who sinned against Him. He died for His enemies because His love is unconditional.

As Christians, we are to imitate Jesus’ love, which means our love is to be unconditional. It can’t just be reserved for those who love us, or for those who have or can do something for us. Instead we should love others regardless of their love for us.

A Story of Unconditional Love

It has been a few years now, but you might remember the story of Atheist Patrick Greene who brought a lawsuit against the city of Athens, TX. The city allowed a nativity to be displayed at the courthouse and Greene wanted it removed.

While he was waiting on a court date, his eyes started bothering him. I don’t remember all the details, but he ended up needing to get eye surgery to fix his problem. To save money, he dropped the lawsuit against the city. But before he was able to save enough for his surgery, his eyesight worsened. Since he was a cab driver, he could no longer work, which meant he could no longer save money for his surgery.

One of the churches in Athens, TX found out about Greene’s condition. Instead of celebrating, instead of saying he got what he deserved, they started to send him money so he could pay for his surgery. After they started doing that, other Christians in other churches around the nation started sending Greene money for his surgery and bills as well.

All these folks did this even though Greene was an atheist. Even though it was his mission to have that nativity removed from the courthouse. Even though he was persecuting them, they cared for him, they loved him.

Their actions didn’t go without notice. Greene’s heart was softened to the point where he used some of the money he received to purchase a star for the top of the nativity. He even said he was planning to move to Athens and start meeting with some of the folks from the church to discuss the Bible after his surgery.

So as Christians we should not only imitate Jesus’ self-sacrificial love, but we should also imitate His unconditional love by loving everyone we come into contact with no matter how they act towards us or what they can do for us.

Question for Reflection

How have you loved someone unconditionally?

Resources

Post adapted from the sermon Love Others – Growth through discipleship – week 3

Image

How are We to Love Others? – Part 1

On January 28, 2015July 31, 2015 By Dr. Casey LewisIn Discipleship, Practical2 Comments

As disciples, our love should imitate Jesus loves for us. But what exactly does that look like. In other words, how are we to love others as an imitation of Jesus’ love?

How are We to Love Others As an Imitation of Jesus’ Love?

(1) Jesus’ Love is Self-Sacrificial

Smack dab in the middle of the verse 16 in 1 John 3, John says:

“[Jesus] laid down his life for us.” (1 Jn. 3:16b)

Then John goes on to tell us, based on what Jesus did, we ought to lay our life down for others. When he says that, he doesn’t mean we should all go out and kill ourselves for the benefit of others. While Jesus gave up His physical life for others, He gave up much more than that. He also sacrificed His desires, what he could have been, what He could have done, for our benefit; for our good.

So when we talk about loving others self-sacrificially, we aren’t talking about us offing ourselves for another. Instead we are talking about something more. We are talking about dying to self for the good of others.

When I think of someone who sacrificed for another like this, I think of Lloyd Latimer, who is Jen’s granddad. About 8 or so years ago, his wife Ruth, who just recently passed, suffered a stroke. She survived but was physically limited. One side of her body was paralyzed.

This happened when they were in their 80’s. But even though he was getting up in age, he didn’t want to put his wife in a nursing home, so he committed to take care of her. For about 8 years he did. He cooked all their meals, got all the groceries, cleaned the house, took her to all her doctor’s appointments. He bathed her, took her to the bathroom, and even dressed her. Everyday, 24 hours a day, he took care of her.

In order to do that, he had to make some sacrifices. He had to give up his wants, his comfort, his desires for his wife’s. He did that — he was willing to die to self — because he loved his wife.

So when we talk about love being self-sacrificial, what we are talking about is dying to self for the good of others, which tells us love is more than a feeling. Love is an action.

Question for Reflection

How have you loved someone self-sacrificially?

Resources

Post adapted from the sermon Love Others – Growth through discipleship – week 3

Image

On The Gospel’s Role in the Great Commission

On January 23, 2015July 29, 2015 By Dr. Casey LewisIn Discipleship, Evangelism, Practical, QuotesLeave a comment

The Great Commission actually begins with a great announcement. Before there can be a mission, there has to be a message. Behind the sending of the church lies the Father’s sending of his Son and Spirit. Before we go, we must stop and hear – really hear – what has happened that we are to take to the world. The evangel (good news) comes before evangelism.

We must hear this gospel not just at first, for our own conversion, but every moment of our lives if the Great Commission is to be a joyful delight rather than an intolerable burden with an impossible goal.

Hear it again, with all the supporting evidence of Christ’s incarnation, life, death and resurrection: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

Question for Reflection

Do you allow the gospel message to spur on your Great Commission activity?

Resources

Michael Horton, The Gospel Commission.

Image

What Might a Church’s Discipleship Process Look Like?

On January 19, 2015July 29, 2015 By Dr. Casey LewisIn Discipleship, Pastoral, PracticalLeave a comment

Recently, I finished a year long discipleship process with the Baptist Association in my area. The purpose of the process was for each pastor involved to develop a discipleship process they would implement in their church. Here is the process I developed.

What Might a Church’s Discipleship Process Look Like?

If you visit my church’s website, on the top right you will see the tagline: Taking you from Come and Worship, to Go and Serve in Christ. That tagline reveals the church’s discipleship process.

(1) Come and Worship

What that simple means is come to the main worship service. We’ve designed our main worship service to be all about Jesus. We see it as a time where you can grow in your love for God as you learn more about who He is and what He has done for you.

(2) Stay and Connect

Not only do we want our members and regular attenders to consistently come to the main worship service, but we also want them to stay and connect with others in our church. We primarily see them doing that through our Sunday School classes, but also through Community Groups and Bible Studies.

In these classes they will not only learn more about Jesus, but they also have an opportunity to build relationships with others. The opportunity to build relationships is important because if they are going to grow in their love for others, they need to have relationships. Relationships that allows them to know how best to love and serve each other.

(3) Go

What I mean by this is for the church to go and spread the gospel message to others in the community.

Part of being a disciple is sharing the gospel, so our church needs to help it’s members do that. Not through a church evangelization program, but rather by training and encouraging them to live as missionaries in their own community.

I am convinced that by training and encouraging them to do what missionaries do — build relationships with others with the intention of sharing the gospel — they will be an effective evangelical force in the community.

(4) Serve

Disciples are those who follow Jesus in serving the church and community, so as part of a discipleship process we need to not only encourage the church to serve but to provide opportunity for them to serve.

We have a lot of opportunities within the church to serve — Nursery, Children’s church, Work days, Women’s Missions Ministry, Media booth — as well as there are a lot of service opportunities outside of the church. To highlight these opportunities, I created a page on our website so folks can see what areas we and the community need help in.

I believe that if we take the opportunities given to us to serve the church and community, we are going to continue to grow as a disciple.

(5) Bring others along

Disciples are those who make disciples. The best way for you to do that is by bringing someone along on the journey with you. To that end, I am encouraging those in my congregation to bring people to the worship service, Sunday School, Communities Groups, to bring others along when they serve or share their faith, and to sit down with another person and discuss God’s Word with them and pray.

Disciples are those who make disciples and one of the best ways to do that is just by bringing others along on the journey with you.