BIG IDEA
Love keeps the church on mission.
MESSAGE NOTES:
WHAT:
We’ve been talking about the church, and why it matters. Most churches has mission statements that are wrapped around the great commission.
Here is Jesus’ great commission for what we as his followers are to do: Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:128-20 NIV
There’s hundreds of ways to break this down into the church’s mission. But for the sake of something simple and memorable today, let’s wrap it around one key word. The mission is to know Jesus.
We are disciples of Jesus, people that know Jesus evidenced by our lives obeying him that are called to go and make disciples, people that know Jesus, evidenced by their lives obeying him.
This mission is both personal and purposeful. I need to know him, and I need to help others know him too.
SO WHAT:
There is good news and a problem here when it comes to the church’s mission: it’s simple. And sometimes, without you and I maybe even realizing it, we’ll decide that it’s too simple. We’ll say, “That can’t be it.”
And when we decide that this answer to our mission isn’t good enough, that’s when we see a gap grow between the mission of the church and the reality of church.
So we try to help God out with his mission and we’ll make a slight tweak.
We’ll take the mission of know and replace it with knowledge.
know
know knowledge
What causes a gap between the church’s mission and her reality? Knowledge without knowing. We get off-track when we replace knowing Jesus for knowledge about Jesus. It’s our subtle replacement: The mission is no longer to know Jesus. The mission is to have knowledge about Jesus.
The temptation to make this subtle replacement can happen at every point of someone’s faith journey. Those that are coming in and trying to figure out Christianity can think it’s about knowing the right stuff about God. And those that have followed Jesus for years can revert back to making the goal to just know more about God.
And here’s why this small distinction can cause such a big gap personally and to an entire church:
Know | Knowledge
Relationship | Religion
Rely on Jesus | Rely on Self
Compassion | Comparison
Made right by grace | Self-righteous, judgmental
NOW WHAT:
And here we have the answer to how we close the gap. If knowledge has led us away from knowing. Jesus gives us a clear answer on what gets us back on mission. This is the answer for you. This is the answer for me. Jesus gives us the answer for the church.
One of them [Pharisees], an expert in religious law, tried to trap him [Jesus] with this question: “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’" Matthew 22:35-39 NLT
Love.
Love keeps the church on mission.
Love closes the gap between mission and reality. Love is the way we work our mission. Love is the way we keep things about knowing Jesus, not just knowledge about him. Love drives the mission of finding and following Jesus.
Are you willing to labor for love?
Laboring to love closes the gap between knowing Jesus and knowledge about Jesus. Can you get the mission back on the tracks by recommitting to really know and love Jesus?
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
Q1: Did you know fo the Great Commission before today?
Q2: Have there been times in your life that you felt like you had a lot of knowledge about something or someone but not a deep relationship?
Q3: Do you sometimes feel like you have more knowledge about Jesus yet you don’t feel like you really know him?
Q4: Love is how we know Jesus and not just know about him. How can you poor into love and move closer into knowing Jesus?
Q5: Are you willing to labor for love?