We have spent the last four weeks speaking about our ABLE strategy, and this message is an outflow of that strategy. Every church has a unique expression of the heart of God, and Carmel’s elders prayed and sought God’s heart for this decade in 2019. The outcome was 3 gospel driven goals that will guide our focus for this decade. Romans 1:16 says, ” For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” When God sees a church that is all about His heart, He will make it successful for His renown.

Gospel Generation

Why? This matters because God uses His people to make disciples now and for the generations to come! Your part of the story matters greatly! In Acts 13:36, we see that David had served God’s purpose. We also see Paul compare the believers to Hupereteo, the under-rowers at the bottom of the ships that sailed across bodies of water. They had no windows, didn’t make the decisions on where they were going, and had to listen and row to the beat of the drum and the leader who told them to row faster or slower. As followers of Christ, we need to keep our eyes on Jesus, listen to the power of the Holy Spirit, and do what He says when He says. Then we will have great joy in Him!

Gospel Generation Habits:

1. Preach the gospel to yourself every day.
2. Look for ways daily to see where the Holy Spirit is working.
3. Pray for opportunities to share the gospel each day.
4. If you are a man, get involved in a Men’s Journey group. Learn more HERE.

Gospel Multiplication

Why? Acts 8:6-8 shows us that that when the church multiplied, “there was much joy in that city.” The gospel changes a whole culture! Tim Keller would make the argument that through the Great Commission’s command to baptize, planting churches is the primary New Testament strategy for fulfilling the Great Commission. We know through research that church planting is 6-8x’s more effective at reaching new people than an established church.

Why do we need more? (Lifeway research)

In the next 7 years, 55,000 churches in America with close.

Only 20% of churches in America are growing.

Only 1% of churches in America are reaching the lost.

We need to plant 7200 churches a year just to keep up with population growth.

We have a goal of planting 25 churches this decade. Our strategy includes:

1. Parent – sending a pastor, 50-100 people, and money to plant a church solely from Carmel
2. Partner – work with other churches to pool resources to plant
3. Patron – contribute money to a plant that is working to launch

Gospel Multiplication Habits:

1. Practice daily obedience in preparation for possible sending opportunities in your life.
2. Pray for pastors and churches when driving by them.

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We abide in Christ so that we can build relationships and live the gospel with everything we have. We are living in a culture of weariness, but that doesn’t stop us from living in the Kingdom of God. We can have a joyful embrace of God’s way. We serve a good and generous God. God’s goodness is not connected to what we see in a broken and sinful world. He is who He is above all creation. Psalm 118:29 says, “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.” This was a stark contrast to the pagan idols that were worshipped in the Old Testament. Those idols could be seen as good one day and bad or evil another day. God is, in His definition, good. What He made is good. (Gen 1:31) Because of this Truth, we can trust Him.

God is generous. Our generosity is a reflection of the One who lives within us by His Holy Spirit:

Gen 1:1 – In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (His generosity for us to live.)

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son… (He gave us His Son as a sacrifice.)

Acts 2 – He gave us His Holy Spirit. (He gave us a Helper.)

1 Corinthians – He gives us spiritual gifts (He gives us the opportunity to partner with Him.)

All that we have been given should be invested into:

1. The souls of man who will spend an eternity in either heaven or hell
2. God’s Word – which gives us life

God has incommunicable traits and communicable traits. The incommunicable traits cannot be shared because they are unique to God, but the communicable traits are shared.

Incommunicable traits. Communicable traits

Immutability Goodness

Eternality Love

Omnipresence Peace

Omniscience Holiness

Jen Wilkin’s pointed out that we tend to obsess with the list on the left and we want those traits to be true of us. It reveals how we want to RIVAL God rather the REFLECT Him

1. How many people spend their day plotting how to achieve limitless LOVE for others?
2. How many people spend their day plotting how to achieve limitless POWER over others?

We can reflect to the world that our joy is not connected to circumstances of the world.

Questions to Consider:

1. Do you believe in the goodness of God? When have you fallen into the trap allowing circumstances to color your view of Him?
2. In what areas of your life are you tempted to rival God as opposed to reflecting Him?
3. Make a list of what all is God’s (everything…) What does it mean to live life with everything?
4. What do you need to do to be available for whatever God is calling you to do?

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What Does it Mean to “Live the Gospel?”

Our ABLE strategy begins with Abiding in Christ. Out of that flows Building relationships and Living the Gospel with Everything. We live the gospel in both word and deed. We see in Ephesians 5:15-18 that living the gospel happens when we are filled with the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 5:15 says, “Look carefully how you walk”. “Look” is a command to pay attention as you live (walk). The passage goes on to say, “making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” Time here doesn’t mean chronological time, but KAIROS time. Kairos is the strategic use of the opportunities that present themselves. As you consider your life, are you seizing the opportunities to live the gospel?

Verses 17-18 says, “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.” In the culture that this passage was written to, many of the people got drunk in order to heighten their awareness of the gods they were worshipping. They were out of control and were impacted by something from the outside in. Instead, we should be impacted from the inside out, and live by the fruit of the Spirit which includes self-control. When you are full of something, it changes you. We see this clearly in the example of Stephen’s message before he gets stoned (Acts 6:15).

We must be ready for opportunities to live the gospel with our words and our actions. Opportunities present themselves each day. We must be ready by emptying ourselves of our desires and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us towards His desires.

Questions to Consider:

Do you look for strategic opportunities to share the gospel or do you find yourself getting caught up in the “chronological” day to day activities of life?

Ask the Holy Spirit to show you opportunities and then be ready with your 20 seconds of boldness to step into whatever He has for you!

When you are full of something, it changes you. What are you full of?

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We learned last week that a disciple is a follower of Christ in learning and living. One that is a disciple will follow Jesus no matter what! Abiding is not just resting, but also obedience in doing the things that He has called us to do. From that overflow, we can build relationships with others.

This is such a needed reminder to us in a culture that really celebrates isolation. You can shop online, date online, bank online, etc… We must remember that the gospel informs everything, and there is a theology to why relationships matter:

• Our relationships are under the banner of the Trinity
• We are made in His image – body, soul, and spirit
• We need to be with other people
• Common-unity through Jesus
• When we live in healthy community with others, we reflect Jesus to a lost world

We are challenged to build relationships with the LOST and the FOUND.

The Lost (Luke 15)

In Luke 15:1-2, we are introduced to 4 groups of people:

The Tax Collectors – These people collected taxes for Rome, charged extra and pocketed the difference. They were hated and detested. Synagogues wouldn’t take their money and courts wouldn’t accept their testimony.

Sinners – A Jew that didn’t keep the ceremonial duties

Pharisees – the most influential of the four major Jewish sects – the Sadducees, the Essenes and the Zealots). They emphasized meticulous observance of God’s law as the means of attaining righteousness before God. They were not priests but more of a laymen’s fellowship, popular with the common people and connected to local synagogues. Their zeal for the OT law that caused the Pharisees to become focused on rituals and externally keeping the law, to the point that they abandoned heart religion for external ritual (cf. Mt. 15:3–6), leading Jesus to scathingly denounce them as hypocrites.

Scribes – one skilled in Jewish law and theology scribe, expert, scholar

In Middle Eastern culture, fellowship around the table was/is equated to intimate friendship, so Pharisees and the Scribes couldn’t believe that Jesus would even acknowledge their presence. The Pharisees also had a saying: “There is joy in heaven when one sinner is obliterated” so Jesus told 3 parables (we focused on 2 this morning).

The parable of the Lost Sheep Luke 15:4-7. He is reminding them that people are precious, and that God seeks out the sinner in order to save Him.

The parable of the Lost Coin (15:8-10). More than likely this coin was a part of a 10 coin necklace that would have been as precious as a wedding ring. The Pharisees would say that someone should seek out the law like this coin. Jesus is saying that He will seek out the sinner.

There is JOY in both parables when the lost is found!

How do you protect yourself from being a judgemental Pharisee?

1. Pray for opportunities
2. Go where lost people are
3. What is the name of one lost person you are actively building a relationship with?

THE FOUND

This is typically an aspect of the Christ-filled life that many believers focus on. It is “easier” to spend time with other Christians, but we must be intentional to BUILD relationships with the found. Pastor Alex mentioned the 59 “one another” phrases such as “love one another”, “submit to one another”, and “bear with one another”. Anytime you build something, you are investing time, intentionality, and resources.

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One of the most important questions we can ask ourselves is “Why?” Why am I here? Why do I do the things I do? Asking the question “Why?” helps us to recalibrate our energies and focus on what’s really important.

We ask the “Why?” questions because as followers of Christ we believe the gospel is true. The gospel is the good news of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and that through faith in Him we can be reconciled to God. The gospel changes everything!

The Lord Jesus gave His followers the “what” when He told us to make disciples. The first disciples of Christ were ones who went where Jesus went. They sought to know what Jesus knew. They also did what Jesus did.

Paul instructs Timothy, in 2 Timothy 2:1, “You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” The word translated “strengthen” carries the idea of being made able to accomplish a certain task by God’s grace.

Our strategy for making disciples at Carmel is called ABLE.

We desire to be disciples who

Abide in Christ so that we can

Build relationships and

Live the gospel with

Everything.

In John 15:1-11, Jesus reminds His disciples how important it is to abide in Him. The word abide occurs ten times in only six verses! The type of abiding Jesus is talking about describes one who dwells, lives, remains, and stays in a life-giving relationship with the Savior.

As one abides in Christ, he or she bears fruit. Be aware that one can have the appearance of bearing genuine fruit but that fruit will not last. Fruit confirms the identity of the plant. Be sure you do not live a counterfeit life but rather one that bears the lasting fruit of the Spirit. The more fruit we bear the more we think and act like Christ. This translates into having a Christlike aroma to our lives.

Questions to Consider:

What is the gospel according to the Bible?

Where are you currently regarding bearing spiritual fruit (no fruit, fruit, more fruit, much fruit)?

How important is abiding in Christ?

How would you help a friend who asks you how to abide in Christ?

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