Our-Core / Week 3

                           

Our Core – World Changers –

Transformation is our Destination
    May 15, 2022

 

• Introduction:
  1. Who are we? Who is MVC?  Who are we together as a church, not who am I? That is the question we are addressing in this current series we are calling our core!
  2. The value we are going to talk about this morning you might think, “Really.  Come on are you crazy?  Us?  Me? – Let’s get realistic “that is great motivational speech but let’s get realistic let come back down to earth!”
     1. The value for this morning is “world changers! - Transformation is our destination. If you did not notice those are pretty big goals!
        1. World changers – world changers!  That is a pretty big assignment and that is a pretty big aspiration!
        2. Transformation – that is another pretty big goal – we are not just talking about seeing people change their behavior or morals, or switch their political allegiances, or start going to church.   We want to see people changed at the core of their being, turned upside down and inside out!
     2. Big aspiration is not it.  Just how are we going to do that?   

• This value tells us three things: who we are, where we are going and how are we going to get there!   Let’s start with who we are…

1. World changers!
   1. Yes, that is who we are, that is who you are if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, that is our identity because as we learned a few weeks ago those are the orders that Jesus, who has all authority in heaven and earth, left for His church.   
      1. Jesus left us a worldwide mission, one that starts at home and goes to the remotest part of the earth!   Making disciples of all the nations, preaching His gospel to all creation.
      2. In Acts 1 he calls us witnesses, in Matthew 5 he says we are the light of the world, 2 Corinthians 5 he says we are ambassadors of Christ.
   2. So we do this not because we are big thinkers or a uniquely gifted church with great capacities and abilities, rather we do that because that is what Jesus called/ordered us to do and be!
      1. Turn and read 2 Corinthians 3:4-6– made us adequate as ministers of the new covenant  
      2. Great commission – promise “Lo, I am with you always”
      3. Acts 1:8 that is why we were given the Holy Spirit to empower us to be His witness throughout the world.
      4. These words, which Watchman Nee says, are the words I live by moment by moment!   Nee quote

• The second thing we see in this value is where we are going 
• Transformation is our destination.
  1. The Greek word for transformation is metamorpho where we get the word English word metamorphous 
     1. Vines Dictionary explains it this way – “undergoing a complete change which, under the power of God, will find expression in character and conduct; morphe lays stress on the inward change!”  
     2. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 says it’s something that comes from the Holy Spirit as we behold Jesus, and as a result, the Spirit so deeply changes us that the very glory of God is reflected back out of us to others!   
  2. Transformation is not behavior modification or external conformity to standards whether they are the world’s standards, the church’s standards or even the Bible’s standards.  
     1. The Pharisees in the Scriptures were religious people who looked good on the outside but Jesus said on their inside they were full of dead man’s bones.
     2. That is what behavior modification or external conformity produces
  3. Transformation is a change at the level of our essential nature, the core of our being that goes so deep that it changes our attitudes, affections, thinking, desires, and actions!
• So where do we start with such a huge task?

1. One life at a time!
   1. It is kind of like the question – how do you eat an elephant? – One bite at a time.  How do we reach the world?  One life at a time!
      1. It is not a matter of giving up the big dream; it is a matter of breaking the big dream down in to smaller pieces and just starting.
      2. Image of the ladder.  
   2. We need to remember that God has strategically scattered His church throughout the world and we together have this mission and not just MVC.
      1. That is why we partner with other organizations like Word Partners, churches in a conference we are part of called Converge and support missionaries in other parts of the world through our Global Outreach Team.   While we think and pray globally, we act locally.
      2. Like an offensive lineman, I am responsible for the man in front of me while the tight end takes care of his man, the guard takes care of his and the center takes care of his.
   3. So the next thing we need to consider is how can we, MVC, reach our piece of this world that God has entrusted to us?  
   4. Put up the whole value
      1. Therefore, we are going to change the world one life at a time one step at a time, just as you eat an elephant one bite at a time and climb a ladder one small step at a time.  Every person, every opportunity!
   5. God has strategically scattered each one of us (MVC) right here in the southwest area of Chicago at this time in history.  
      1. It will take each one of us being faithful to our call right among the people we live with, taking advantage of every small opportunity that comes our way whether it be an opportunity to speak for Jesus, act in Jesus behalf or express His heart to someone around you in need.  
   6. A few years ago we learn that Samuel had a small circuit the he lived his life out on yet he was deeply impacted the whole nation of Israel.  Read 1 Samuel 25:1 
      1. This response was because for over 40 years day in and day out he was faithful to the opportunities and needs in the circuit where God gave him to minister.   
         1. Jeff Manion calls it a repeated circuit of faithfulness!
         2. Turn and read 1 Samuel 7:15-17
      2. Most of Samuels’s life was lived out in a geographical area with a circumference of around 25 miles.   Take an area from this pulpit and draw a circle about 5-6 miles from here all the way around and that was his circuit.
      3. God is able to take our faithfulness in our area of responsibility and multiply its impact as Jesus took the few loaves and fish and multiplied it so much it fed over 5,000 people.
   7. Are you day in and day out being repeatedly faithful to the circuit God has given you?   Have you ever tried to identify your circuit?   
      1. Did this a few years ago while we were online, let’s do together today
      2. Hand out card of the circuit.   
      3. Put up power point of circuit and explain