1 Sanctuary’s purpose is to glorify God by building an authentic community of -followers who are faithfully proclaiming the and are being transformed by its power to live and love like .

Home For in Him we live and move and have our being. c. 2016 by Sanctuary

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy , New International Version, NIV, Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Bible Reading Guide used by permission – Starting Point Conversation Guide Revised Edition c. 2014 by North Point Ministries, Inc.

Printed and bound in Canada. All rights reserved.

2 table of contents

Introduction...... 4 Chapter 1 Kings & Queens...... 9 Chapter 2 Abide & Abound...... 18 Chapter 3 Give & Receive...... 29 Chapter 4 Confessions & Blessing...... 40 Chapter 5 Healing, Wholeness, & Holiness...... 52 Chapter 6 Neighbors, Neighborhoods, & Nations...... 62 Appendix...... 72

Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Jesus all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Jesus and for Jesus. Jesus is before all things, and in Jesus all things hold together. And Jesus is the head of the body, the church; Jesus is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything Jesus might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Jesus, and through Jesus to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through Jesus’ blood, shed on the cross. (Colossians 1:15–20)

3 introduction

elcome home. We are glad you are my girls. I love them exactly the way they are. here. Here, in this space, you are free They each are my beloved, and with Kristy, Wto be yourself. You belong here. You Adele, and Audrey Grace, I am well pleased. are wanted here. You are needed here. You are One of the greatest joys of being a husband loved here. Here, we accept the version of you and a dad is seeing spiritual growth and change that you are living today; yet we will continue to in my marriage and in my kids. Growth in living fight for you to live the best version of the life a family faith to living a personal faith that is that Jesus has created you to live. integrated and holistic in its nature and expres- sion. Growth in saying prayers with the family You are exactly what God had in mind when He to praying personal, even intimate prayers to created you. their Father. Growth in serving alongside Dad to serving without Dad—and maybe even in You are His beloved, and with you He is well spite of Dad. Growth in moving from doing this pleased. life as a Christian to living this life in Christ.

You are perfectly righteous in His sight. There This study is to welcome you home. Home is is nothing you can do that will make you more the one place where we should be completely righteous, and there is nothing you can do to accepted and affirmed and loved and blessed, lose the glory of His righteousness living within and yet it’s the place where many of us feel the you. most hurt, pain, and disappointment.

It’s that way at our house with my beloved and

4 Home is the crucible of transformation. It is the family members a life of personal discipleship place where we are, at once, belonging and to our Master and Lord and to infect others with becoming. a contagious, heavenly love that boldly and clearly points out The Jesus Way. When Kristy and I got married, we were taught that marriage is not intended to make you The purpose of our church is absolutely the happy; it’s intended to make you holy. It’s the same: to glorify God by building an authentic same with being parents. Our charge as par- body of Christ followers who are faithfully pro- ents is not to develop good, upstanding, moral claiming and being transformed by members of the community; it’s to raise godly its power to live and love like Jesus. people who will see visions and dream dreams, people who will change the world, one person at a time, beginning with their parents.

The purpose of our home is far greater than deftly navigating schools and teams and relationships in order for our family to come out alive as productive members of society. We want more for our kids than to simply get in line with the civilized, never risking or sac- rificing or losing anything. The purpose of our home is to nurture and cultivate in each of our

5 Jesus showed up one day and started preach- made perfect in weakness.” ing about home. He called it the kingdom of (2 Corinthians 12:9) God. Jesus talked about the establishment of a new rule, a new realm, a new people who “Apart from me you can do nothing.” would revolutionize the world through this new (John 15:5) way of living and loving. He taught His follow- ers how to live as kingdom people. He taught “Do not worry about your life, what you will kingdom people how to believe, how to pray, eat or drink; or about your body, what you will how to forgive, how to care, how to serve, how wear.” (Matthew 6:25) to love. He taught kingdom people that their homes on this earth were only temporary and “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” that there was a heavenly kingdom awaiting all (Matthew 14:27) those who would follow Him. And He said we didn’t have to wait to experience the heavenly “You are the light of the world.” (Matthew 5:14) life; it could actually be lived in the here and now. I want to live that way—The Jesus Way. I want my girls to live that way. When I’m living my Listen to just a few statements from Jesus. life the way He has created me to live, I live in these truths. When I’m enveloped by His em- “Take heart; your sins are forgiven.” brace, I am the me He created me to be. Here (Matthew 9:2) at home with Him, these truths begin to seep down deep into my soul, and then they over- “If the Son sets you free, you will be free flow into and onto those around me. When I’m indeed.” (John 8:36) living in The Jesus Way, I engage more deeply and more richly. I bless more readily. I hurry “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is less. I kiss better. (Yes, you read that right!)

6 When I am building my own kingdom, when ing to help change my heart or bring rest to my I’m pursuing my own way, I find myself oper- soul. I needed something much more powerful, ating out of lovelessness, which almost always something bigger than the best performance shows up as either attack or withdrawal. That’s I could produce under stress. I needed trans- when I find myself trying to control people. formation. I needed growth and change in the There, I find myself worried and afraid. That’s deepest parts of me. I needed not just to do when fear wins. That’s when I find myself in my what Jesus would do in this situation, but to home but not at rest there, not knowing who I love Kristy as if Jesus was loving Kristy through am or where I am. me, to love my girls the way Jesus would love them through me. His love would change me, it In 1899, Charles Sheldon wrote a book called would change my family, and it would eventu- In His Steps. It has sold more than 30,000,000 ally have an eternal impact on this little colony copies, including the version reprinted in 2010. of the kingdom of God that He has called us The book was wildly popular for asking the sim- Bowlers and our Faith Family to establish. As ple question: “What would Jesus do?” Sheldon Charles Spurgeon so aptly put it: had no idea the impact this question would have on the world. He could never envision the culturization of this phrase, exhibited by brace- lets, T-shirts, and bumper stickers. The grand point is not to wear the garb, I remember my first WWJD bracelet. I wore it to nor use the brogue of religion, but to remind me to be a better husband. My thinking possess the life of God within, and feel was that instead of falling back into my stan- and think as Jesus would have done because of that inner life. Small is the dard behaviors, I’d quickly glance at my brace- value of external religion unless it be let and be reminded to choose The Jesus Way. the outcome of a life within.i But there was a problem for me. A big one.

My bracelet became a mechanism of sin man- agement, of behavioral betterment. It did noth- 7 This study is about home. It’s about transfor- mation. It’s about not only accepting the truths that Jesus shared with us; it’s about building our lives on the very foundation of Christ, liv- ing in Him and through Him. And it’s about Him living both in us and through us. It’s only in Je- sus that we live and move and have our being. Everything else is rooted in a kingdom that is perishing. This study is about transformation in the home and at Sanctuary and in the neigh- borhood and in the nations.

So pull up a chair. Grab a cup of coffee or a Diet Coke. We are glad you are here!

8 chapter 1 — kings & queens

y dad gave me a Bible when I graduat- verse. What the heck is the kingdom of God? ed high school. Inside the front cover he Because if this is some subversive way of hav- Mwrote, “May the words of Matthew 6:33 ing more rules and more “what not to dos,” I’ll guide the way you live and love. May Matthew find a new life verse. So instead of digging into 6:33 become your life verse and your guiding what this whole thing was about, I decided to principle.” find a new life verse, one that I would get to choose for myself. It took a while, but I found I thought that was pretty cool. And then I read my life verse and called my dad to share it with Matthew 6:33. him.

“But seek first his kingdom and his “A feast is made for laughter, wine righteousness, and all these things will makes life merry, and money is the be given to you as well.” answer for everything.” (Ecclesiastes 10:19) At first glance, that verse made sense. It looked like I could even get something from God; Lord My dad didn’t think it was funny, either. knows I’d given up just about everything else. And I knew the song that went along with that verse. I could even play it on my guitar, so that was a bonus.

But then I started thinking a bit more about the

9 So what is this kingdom that Jesus invites us The word image is selem in Hebrew, and it to seek first? Its history is found in the creation can be translated “idol” or “statue.” An idol narrative, so let’s get the back story in Genesis is a visible representation of an invisible being. A statue was put in the temple of 1:26–28. every god in the ancient world so the worshiper could see what that god was like. Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that We are God’s statues. His selem. they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the We were put on earth—because the entire cosmos is this God’s temple—to make livestock and all the wild animals, and visible the invisible God. To show the world over all the creatures that move along what God is like. We are the Creator’s the ground.” 27So God created mankind representatives to his creation.ii in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he You see it now? Because it’s going to get created them. 28God blessed them and more nuts. Comer says it like this: said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in The theology of the image of God in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Genesis was, and still is, subversive and Rule over the fish in the sea and the stunning. It claims that all human beings— birds in the sky and over every living not just those of royal blood, not just the creature that moves on the ground.” oligarchy of society, not just white men—all of us are made in the image of God. This is the democratizing of humanity. We Do you see it? At first, I didn’t see it, either. are all kings and queens, and the entire Comer helped me see it. earth is our kingdom.

That’s why the very next sentence says, “So that they may rule.” The seamless connection between “image” and “rule” is explicit in the text.iii

10 Here it comes… what’s yours? The word rule is radah in Hebrew. It can • Genesis 1 says we were made in God’s be translated “reign” or “have dominion.” image. We are His selem. In what ways do It’s king language. One Hebrew scholar you embrace that truth? In what ways do you translated it as “to actively partner with God in taking the world somewhere.”iv fight it? ______The world is God’s kingdom. Jesus is about ______bringing the life of the kingdom of God to you ______by making you a citizen of that kingdom. God ______created you to be kings and queens to rule and ______reign in establishing the kingdom of God on earth. The kingdom of God is what God is do- • In what ways are you actively ruling and ing right here, right now. The kingdom of God expanding the kingdom of God? is what Jesus came to establish; it’s the reign ______of God on earth “as it is in heaven.” To seek ______first His kingdom means to discover what God ______is doing here on earth and then invest yourself ______in that activity in order “to actively partner with ______God in taking the world somewhere.” • What is one specific way you can seek His And I thought my life verse should be about kingdom today? having fun, making money, and building my ______own kingdom…. ______

11 esus left His heavenly kingdom to expand church or volunteering with our local non-profit it to earth. John the Beloved said that Je- or on the mission field; it begins in our homes Jsus “became flesh and blood and moved and in our hearts. into the neighborhood.” (John 1:14, MSG) His kingdom is now here. His kingdom is alive and how’s yours? present. Because we are kings and queens of the kingdom, we have the opportunity to ad- • What conflict, if any, does this section stir vance it to the places and spaces we live and within you? What brings you the greatest move and have our being. It takes great cour- hope? age and fortitude to do this. It takes surrender ______and even a dying to self. ______Jesus said, “From the days of John the ______Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has ______been subjected to violence, and violent ______people have been raiding it.” (Matthew 11:12) ______We are not building a civilized kingdom. Sal- ______vation came to us through a violent act of the ______Father, Spirit, and Son, an act that inaugurates ______the kingdom life. It’s a life so powerful and beautiful that it cannot be simply read about or discussed and expected to be achieved. It must be lived, embraced, and even wrestled down.

But before we head out and conquer the evil giants of the world, let’s stop and think about the evil giants in your world, in my world. Kingdom living doesn’t begin once we are at 12 • How would those closest to you define your any years ago, I went to a seminar kingdom? How would you define it? designed to help church pastors grow ______Mspiritually. We were all asked to write ______our personal mission statements using the how’s yours? ______following question as a catalyst: ______What’s the mission you would die for?

• In the first message Jesus ever preached, He I struggled in knowing how to answer. I thought said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has about our church. I thought about the Church. come near.” (Matthew 4:17) In what way is Jesus I’m passionate about helping families, espe- calling you to repent—to turn your back on how cially those that have been affected by divorce. you are thinking about things and Orphans. That’s a mission I would die for. My reconsider them? mind then wandered to pastors who are burned ______out, friends who have gotten lost along the ______way; but the more I reflected on this, the more ______I thought about my own family. I thought about ______my beloved and I thought about my girls. ______I would die for Kristy and my girls. But that would kind of stink—for them, I mean.

13 I don’t just want a mission to die for. I want a mission to live for. I decided that day I’d change what’s yours? the question. I needed a mission to live for. I • You have a little colony in the kingdom of soon committed to learn how to live each day God. It’s called home. It’s where you live. It’s by bringing glory to God by loving my beloved where you sleep. It’s where you love. How as Christ loves the church and loving my kids is His love being imprinted on the hearts of as if Jesus were their dad. A high calling, I those in your home? know, but the cost of settling for anything less ______would be devastating. ______Some days I get it right. Many days I don’t. ______Jesus had a mission to die for. Jesus also had a mission to live for. You do, too. • How are you growing in your desire to see His kingdom being lived out “in your home as But there is one more mission even greater it is in heaven?” How does that overflow to life than these. You and I have a mission to love in our Faith Family at Sanctuary? for. It’s one thing to die for Christ. It’s something ______totally different to live for Christ. But a mission ______to love for…that’s worth both living and dying. ______

14 what’s yours? reflection • God, what do you have in all of this for me? ______

• What do you have in all of this for me and my family? ______

• What do you have in all of this for me and my Faith Family? ______

15 16 Our Gracious God, who is the creator of heaven and earth and the savior of our lives, who divides seas and raises the dead, who speaks out of whirlwinds and in still, small voices, who is the Alpha and the Omega of all things, who judges the nations and walks with us in the cool of the day,

We invoke thee to enter our midst in ways that arrest our deepest yearnings for intimacy, that arouse our longings for a better world, and that announce thy victory of love over hate, hope over despair, and faith over defeat. Do not hide thy face from us, but look upon us as wounded souls who need healing, as fearful children who need guidance, and as troubled spirits who need encouragement. Show forth thy countenance, and assure us that though we may be as the grass of the field, thy gift of life undergirds every passing moment and every painful loss.

Speak to us as thou spoke to Moses and tell us we stand on holy ground before thee, that we are called to overcome the conditions that keep the orphans, widows, and strangers poor, to love our neighbors and our enemies, and to proclaim thy truth to a vain and embattled world.

Grant us lucidity of heart and mind to see what is happening here—how thy providence has brought us into this present life that is filled with great beauty and blessing but mingled with misery and grief.

O God, change us, equip us to shake away the encrustations of cruelty and despair so that thy light of peace and goodness can break forth. Endow us with great empathy and thoughts so that we can cultivate great kindness and visions. Cause our hearts to be big and sore so that they can feel what the hurt and harmed of the world feel, and thus incarnate thy super flux and make the world more just.

Keep us awake at nights when we hear the cry of the oppressed. Create in us the virtues of loyalty and courage so that we become worthy members of thy Body.

We long for thee, seeking thy countenance, the assurance of thy being upholding all things; we are indeed restless until we rest in thy love. So love on, dear Lord; do not hold back, we invoke thee.

This I pray, in thy name, Father, Son, and .

Amen.V iCharles Spurgeon, Come Ye Children: Help for Teaching Children About Jesus (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014), 84 iiJohn Mark Comer, Garden City: Work, Rest, and the Art of Being Human (Zondervan, Special Edition, 2015), 39 iiiIbid., 40–41 ivIbid., 41 vDennis Sansom, Ph.D., adapted from Samford University Commencement Prayer, 2016 17 chapter 2 — abide & abound

ingdom life is unimaginably beautiful. It’s We were also taught that we were to abide. We full of majesty and wonder and details were to “dwell” or “remain.” We were taught Kand tension, the good kind of tension. that God created us as human beings, not We are to live in this kingdom, to “abide,” and human doings. Our being was to drive our we are to expand the kingdom, to “abound,” doing, not the other way around. It wouldn’t be even forcefully or violently. How does that long before I realized that it was much easier work? How do we abide and abound? to do than to be, but Jesus taught that kingdom people would abide, so it was a life I knew I When I was a teenager, we were encouraged must learn to live. to carpe diem—“seize the day.” We were chal- lenged with this: “You have a voice. You have “Remain [Abide] in me, as I also remain a verse. What will your contribution be?” It [abide] in you. No branch can bear fruit was more Dead Poets Society than Scripture, by itself; it must remain in the vine. but it was engrained in us that God hardwired Neither can you bear fruit unless you us with passions and abilities and even gifts to remain in me.” (John 15:4) benefit others. We were to abound. Abide and abound. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move If we are going to rule and reign with God, we you. Always give yourselves fully to must learn how to do it from a place of rest. We the work of the Lord, because you must learn to live and love and rule and reign know that your labor in the Lord is from a place of rest. not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:58)

18 Around Sanctuary, we’ve learned that Jesus was able to abide while abounding. came to free us from striving or working or hus- tling for our worthiness. His most remarkable Last winter, I went to Cambodia with a small invitation is to come to Him, all who are wea- team from Sanctuary. I was as excited about ry and heavy laden, and He will give us rest, spending time with my team members as I was rest for our souls. Those who first received that about carrying out the mission with which we invitation were religious people. They were were tasked. There was one gal in particular, weighed down and burdened by the rules and new to our church, that I really looked forward regulations and expectations of the day, and to getting to know. I really only knew her by Jesus seemed to be saying, “No, no. There’s reputation; she was known as a prayer war- a better way. There’s a lighter way. Walk with rior. In fact, she and another gal come to our me and watch me. Learn from me. See how I church every Monday to walk among the pews do it. I’ll teach you how to live in the unforced and pray for the people who will inhabit God’s rhythms of grace.” House that week.

Jesus knows the importance of abiding and At lunch one day, I finally cornered this gal and abounding. He didn’t try to balance these dy- dropped it on her. “Teach me about how to have namics, abiding 50% of the time and abound- a richer prayer life. What should I do? How ing the other 50%. Rather, He first spent time should I do it? What should I say? My prayer abiding—and then He was filled to abound. life seems stale and safe. I want my prayer life Deeper still, Jesus had the ability to embody to drive the other areas of my life, and I think these truths so that wherever He was, what- it’s holding all the other areas back. I want a ever He was doing, He would, as a form of prayer life like yours.” worship, speak to His Father in one breath and then bless a child in the next. Jesus prioritized She smiled politely, and then laughed. abiding. It always came first to Him. But He didn’t exit abiding to begin abounding. Jesus I smiled politely back and waited…and waited.

19 She then realized I wasn’t joking and put down ______her chopsticks. • What’s causing you to get excited right now? “Well, Pastor Craig, I don’t really have a ‘prayer What’s causing you to become weary or even life.’ I have a life, and I pray. It’s not coming worried? to God in the first few minutes of every day ______that matters to God; it’s being and doing life in ______partnership with God throughout the day that ______does.” ______Her lesson was simple. Like Jesus, we are to ______embody these dynamics. We are to abide and abound. esus says the word abide ten times in the first ten verses of John 15. He knows that Let’s pause here for a reality check. Jit’s easier for us to abound than to abide, so He spends a lot of time teaching us how to abide. The Jesus Way is to live from one any tension? moment to the next, to keep receiving the un- • How are you feeling about the call to abide ceasing flow of life and nourishment and love and the call to abound? from God—and if you’ll do that, if you’ll abide, ______if you’ll stay plugged in to God, you’ll be fruitful. ______It will be as natural for you to bear fruit as it is ______for a fruit tree. ______

20 But Jesus warns that if you choose to do it your As significant as Christian community is, way, if you refuse to abide, if you don’t stay no human community can ever fully meet connected to the Vine—you’ll never be fruit- the legitimate human needs that can only be satisfied by a rich and vibrant ful. You will never change. Transformation will relationship with God… When the never happen. You simply cannot do it on your community fails to meet our needs or own. refuses our demands, we may become frustrated and take it out on those around Jesus knows what happens when we abound us through gossip, manipulation, without abiding. When we get disconnected controlling others through heavy-handed tactics, or simply giving up and walking from the Vine, we start trying to meet our own away in a huff. We may accuse the needs. We start to look for validation and affir- community of failing us, projecting our mation from others or from our religious props inner lacks onto others and blaming them instead of from Him. for not meeting needs that are God’s to meet anyway.i Ruth Haley Barton is a leader of church lead- ers. She summarizes it this way: Many of us know this story. It resonates deep- ly with us. Many of us have witnessed the When we are not consistently allowing God damage that can be inflicted by attempting to to replenish us at the soul level, we will abound without abiding. It happens quickly, unconsciously attempt to get from other and the slope is incredibly slippery. Discon- human beings what only God can provide. nection from the Vine leads to drifting. Drifting We will demand that those we are leading leads to isolation, and isolation leads to sin. meet our needs for love, approval, identity, and self-worth—a weight too heavy for them to bear.

21 There’s a fundamental question that I try to me of His gospel, His joy, His peace. keep before me; it helps me sift through my motives behind being and doing. The question In fact, it’s in abiding that I actually learn how is this: Can I live a life of faith in the world and to abound. It’s here that I am reminded that it’s trust that it will bear fruit? I’m tempted to con- literally impossible to abound without abiding. If trol. I’m tempted to want certain results or even my abounding is not an overflow of my abiding, to manage outcomes. I am tempted to make then I’m just doing good works. When I abide, change happen. When I abide, when I live a life when I run, I see His purposes more clearly. of faith, I know my life will bear fruit because He When I’m abiding, my perspective shifts to be will bear fruit through me. His fruit will produce aligned with His. It’s because of my abiding spiritual qualities in me that have the capacity that He prevails through my abounding. to change the course of eternity. So Jesus says, “Come on. Wherever you are. am a runner. I love everything about running. I’m here. Together, we’ll go on a journey to put It’s the solitude I love the most. While it might things right again. Let’s abide. Let’s abound.” I sound funny, it’s actually when I’m running And then He says something totally remark- that I experience the purest form of rest. It’s able. where I abide. “I have told you this so that my joy may Being outside, away from my phone, email, be in you and that your joy may be and even other people, I am reminded that complete.” (John 15:11) I am a soul. A human being. In those quiet moments, I’m reminded of God’s kingdom and The result of abiding and abounding is not what’s most important to Him—and what’s heartbreak or disappointment. It’s actually joy. most important to me. Sometimes we are in It’s His joy, joy that we can experience in our step in our priorities, and sometimes we are everyday, ordinary life with God. not. It’s when I’m abiding that Jesus reminds

22 how’s your joy quotient? • When do you abide? How have you seen • Can you live a life of faith in the world and abiding affect your abounding? trust that it will bear fruit? What’s your greatest ______temptation to not live this way? ______• What would His joy feel like flowing in you and through you right now? What would His • What are your biggest challenges to fully joy sound like? What would His joy look like? abiding in Jesus? What would it not look like? ______

23 et’s go back to The Garden again. Life in Service to God. The Garden is what Jesus came to bring. Think about heaven for a minute. That’s Service to people made in His image—which L is everybody. where we are headed. That’s glory. A life of inti- macy with God, seeing Him face to face, walk- But abad is also the same word used all ing with Him in the cool of the day - no sin, no over the Hebrew Bible for worship. darkness, no tears, no cancer. Interesting. So work and worship aren’t two separate ideas. They are connected at the Genesis says, hip. They are two translations of the same word. It’s tragic that we think of worship “Now the LORD God had planted a as a few songs at church every Sunday. garden in the east, in Eden.…” That is worship—of course. But in a Genesis-shaped worldview—all of life is And... worship.ii

“The LORD God took the man and put When I abound—when I work/serve— him in the Garden of Eden to work it and I worship. And when I abide—when I pray— take care of it.” I worship. There is no difference. All of life is worship. Adam was to work The Garden and to take care of it. I abound when I serve the body at Sanctuary, volunteer at volleyball, or help the Gleasons John Mark Comer is going to help us again. change the world with Because of Kennedy. I abide when I go for a run, when I meet with my The first word is abad in Hebrew, and it DMD guys on Friday mornings, when I sing in basically means work. But that’s not the car with AGB, when I go on a date with my the only way it’s translated into English. beloved. It’s all a form of worship. I abide and Sometimes it’s translated “service.” abound. So work is service.

24 how about you? • How would God’s kingdom be extended ______if you saw your work as a form of worship? ______What would have to happen for you to be able ______to do this? ______• What are you passionate about? What fires ______you up or keeps you up at night? What brings ______a smile to your face or fills up your heart? What, when you are doing it, causes you to both abide and abound? Inventing a new fla- vor of ice cream? Curing cancer? Writing the next great novel? Coaching soccer? Playing a board game with your kids? Whatever it is, find a way to do more of it. It’s part of how you worship, and it’s part of how God’s kingdom will be extended! Yes, even the ice cream part! ______25 reflection • God, what do you have in all of this for me? ______

• What do you have in all of this for me and my family? ______

• What do you have in all of this for me and my Faith Family? ______

26 27 Lord, you will have to be our teacher, because the dignity has been drained out of us in so many ways. We have been treated like dirt, and that has stuck on us. We’ve put ourselves against standards of our own making, because we thought it would give us worth. Please touch each person with how unique they are in your eyes and how their dignity in your eyes is so great that you will not even override them; you will woo them and pursue them and help them to accept that you are seeking them and you will allow yourself to be found by them if they simply cry out for help. I pray that great freedom will come across them because of their awareness of where they stand in your kingdom. That will make Jesus very happy, and the in heaven will jump up and down. And so we say, Let it be so, and that’s what we mean by amen.

Amen.iii

iRuth Haley Barton, “First Things First: Practicing What We Preach” (In Transforming Center, 7/28/2016), accessed September 30, 2016, https://www.transforming- center.org/2016/07/practicing-preach/ iiJohn Mark Comer, Garden City: Work, Rest, and the Art of Being Human (Zondervan, Special Edition, 2015), 44 iiiDallas Willard, Living in Christ’s Presence: Final Words on Heaven and the Kingdom of God (IVP Books, 2014), 68

28 chapter 3 — give & receive

remarital counseling is a must for any And now you see why I don’t do premarital couple preparing for marriage. Over counseling. Pthe years, I have become much more vigilant in preparing couples for marriage. In We often say that Sanctuary is a Jesus church. fact, it’s such a big deal to me that I personally Sanctuary is His church. He started it, He’s don’t do premarital counseling anymore. I’m leading it, He’s feeding it, He’s building it, and just not that good at it, and it’s too important we even know He’s interceding on behalf of it. for me to mess it up. So I now send couples We are Jesus people doing life as a Faith Fam- to a counselor in order for them to be as pre- ily for His glory and our good. pared as possible for this lifetime covenant. Paul wrote these words to the church at Ephe- I remember a few things from our own premar- sus. They are for us today at Sanctuary. ital counseling sessions. I remember drawing up “fighting rules.” That’s a funny story; I’ll tell As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you about it another time. you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2Be completely humble I also remember our pastor saying, “In mar- and gentle; be patient, bearing with one riage, you must give all you’ve got and receive another in love. 3Make every effort to all you need.” He said, “Marriage is 90% giv- keep the unity of the Spirit through the ing and 10% receiving…for both people.” bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to The math didn’t add up to me. How can we one hope when you were called; 5one both be giving 90% of the time? And when Lord, one faith, one ; 6one God does my 10% of receiving begin? Because if and Father of all, who is over all and I’m going to be giving all the time, I need to through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:1–6) know when it’s my time to receive. 29 Dallas Willard said, There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:4–6) God’s aim in human history is the creation of an all-inclusive community We as a church enter into the Trinitarian fellow- of loving persons with God Himself as ship of God. God is three—the Holy Spirit and its primary sustainer and most the Son, Jesus Christ, and the Father—and yet glorious inhabitant.i God is one.

Have you ever noticed in Scripture how the members of the Trinity never argue about who is the greatest? They don’t argue about when they get to receive their 10% so they can coast. God created the local church and entrusted I’ve not seen any passages where they argue it with the message of salvation. He calls the about who’s the most omnipotent or who’s the church to give and receive from Him, trusting in smartest or who’s the oldest. Each member of His sustaining and enabling influence, in order the Trinity is constantly pointing to the other. to change the world through the power of love.

Paul emphasizes a oneness, a unity, in His church. Look at the verse again.

30 Check this out. This is pretty amazing. Jesus will teach you all things and will remind you of said: everything I have said to you.” (John 14:26)

“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, F. Dale Bruner puts this in such a cool way. he will guide you into all the truth. He Bruner says the Holy Spirit constantly points to will not speak on his own; he will speak and gives glory to Jesus. only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14He will glorify me It has often been said that the Holy Spirit because it is from me that he will is the Cinderella of the Trinity, the great receive what he will make known to neglected person of the Godhead…the Spirit’s sign, desire, and work is that we be you.” (John 16:13–14) overcome again, thrilled again, excited, impressed, and gripped again by the What about the Father? Dallas Willard notes wonder, the majesty, the earthiness, and that twice in the Synoptic , we hear the the relevance of Jesus and His Word to our voice of the Father: once at Jesus’ baptism, and world. The Holy Spirit does not mind being once again at His transfiguration. Both times, Cinderella outside the ballroom if the Prince is honored inside His Kingdom.ii the Father says, in effect, “This is my priceless Son. I am so pleased with Him. Listen to Him. Pay attention to Him. Love Him. Follow Him.”

Notice what the Father doesn’t say. He doesn’t say, “Listen to me, too, after listening to Him. Don’t forget, I’m here, too. I’m the Father. Re- member me. Don’t get too taken up with my Son.”

And the Spirit? He’s always pointing people back to the Son. “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, 31 Each member of the Trinity points faithfully and world of joy as we seek to love those around selflessly to the other in a gracious, eternal cir- us. cle of love. Dallas Willard says: Stay with me. I know this is crazy, but I think The Son submits to the Father, and the this is one reason why Jesus birthed Sanctu- Father loves to glorify the Son, and the Son ary—so that we could live like this. So that our is driven by the Spirit, and the Spirit kids could experience God in all of His glory. reminds everybody of the Son. The Father also sends the Spirit, and there is an So that our neighbors would be loved different- endless, eternal, humble, gentle—all those ly and served differently then they could ever words that Paul wrote way back in ask or imagine. Ephesians—community. That’s the Trinity with one another. That’s what’s real. That’s Is there a cost to us? The great cost has al- iii the most real thing in existence. ready been paid.

What if Sanctuary really were to bear His im- In some way that we will never fully age, His “selem?” What if we as the church understand Jesus said, “I will leave the were to live in such a way that we were con- perfect oneness I have known for all stantly giving and receiving and living and lov- eternity and become like human beings and ing in the same way the Trinity does? What if take their brokenness upon myself, take their aloneness on myself, take their death being made in the image of God actually gives upon myself, take their godforsakenness on us the capacity for oneness? The outcome myself.” The Father says, “I will offer my would be stunning. There would be no lines Son whom I love beyond words. I will see drawn between color or classes or gender or Him broken. I will see Him rejected. I will maturity; instead, each one of us would defer see Him killed. His pain will be my pain. to others, each would serve others, each would give up his or her wants and needs for the ben- efit of others. There would be no loneliness, no hiddenness, no burden too heavy, no material needs—just joy. We would live in an enormous 32 The Spirit says, “I will be poured out on ______earth in mostly silent and invisible ways. I ______will offer to lead and guide, never exalting ______myself, always pointing to the Son.” To a large extent, the Spirit’s promptings will be ignored or denied. The Spirit will be • What would be the first thing to change in your quenched. The Spirit will be grieved. The home if you recognized God Himself as its pri- Spirit says, “This price I will pay so that mary sustainer and most glorious inhabitant? anyone who might can enter into our ______fellowship.iv ______You and I have been invited into the fellowship ______of love at an enormous cost to every member ______of the Trinity. Community is God’s idea. He died ______for it, and He birthed it. God’s great presence is now found in His people. God’s ministry is now • Describe the ministry of presence. What does being lived out in the ministry of presence…a that look like to you? What does it feel like? mutual ministry of giving and receiving. What does it sound like? How have you been encouraged by someone in our Faith Family through the ministry of presence? what do you think? ______• Specifically, how would our Faith Family look ______if we operated out of a Trinitarian oneness? ______33 often read articles about how to be a better I had a really terrible marriage. Some of it pastor and leader. Almost every article con- was my fault…some of it wasn’t. nects the need for pastors and church lead- I My son is a beautiful boy who is struggling ers to be in relationships where they are able with controlling his temper and showing to give and receive. I guess I’m a lot like most empathy. He and I are doing our best to love church leaders. I find it much easier to give and serve each other. Not every day is than to receive. I know part of it is the way I’m perfect, but I’m trying really hard to be a wired, and part of it is my fallen nature. There dad that lets him know that he is loved by is a tension that forms in me, and it’s just easier God and me. for me to give than to receive. I’m called to love people who hate the church. Some time ago, a friend of mine left the pastor- ate to intentionally spend more time receiving. I’m dating a 41-year-old recovering heroin He used the common phrase “burnout” when addict named Hannah who has been sharing his decision to move away from local clean for fifteen years. She has two really cool kids that I love. She is beautiful, and church ministry. Through his season of reflec- she tells me often that she loves me—and I tion, he realized how many of his days and can tell by the way she looks at me that she ways were marked by constant giving, never means it. It’s a wonderful thing to have receiving. A year into this season, his wife left common ground, intimacy, and trust with him, and they eventually divorced. He wrote another person. She doesn’t just need me; something to me that spoke deeply to the con- she wants me, too. She enjoys hanging out with me and when we fight, issues are met dition of both his heart and the human heart in head on, and we fight fair. It really sucks to general—our need to give and receive. always be needed and never wanted. It’s the loneliest place on earth, I think. In our conversation about his need for a change, he wrote these words: My life is kind of messed up right now. But I’m feeling God’s hands around me, and I still feel Him drawing me into His purposes. God is good.

34 My friend didn’t just burn out in ministry; he ex- • How did Jesus navigate life in such a way that perienced burnout in marriage. He now says He completed the mission He came to love for? the constant giving and never receiving—at What’s the greatest implication in this for you? work, at home, and in his relationship with ______God—caused him to begin to operate first out ______of a sense of self, then out of self-pity, and ______then out of self-protection and, ultimately, out ______of shame. Burnout happens when we function ______in a constant state of pouring out, constantly ______being needed, never receiving, not being want- ed for the human souls that we are. Burnout ll families have boundaries or principles happens when our truest selves go unnoticed, or ideas that determine how they will live unwanted, or ignored. There can be no ministry Aand move and have their being. We have of presence there; only the ministry of perfor- clear “boundaries of love” for our home, not mance. just for the girls but also for our marriage, our engagement in the neighborhood, and in the • When was the last time you felt truly “want- world. For example, we all leave our phones ed?” What did it do in you, and what was ac- downstairs. They don’t go to our bedrooms. Or complished through you? deeper still, our premarital counselor taught ______us to “not let the sun go down on our anger.” ______He also said, “Keep the marriage bed sacred.” ______These Scriptural boundaries help produce a ______home marked by love and mutual sacrifice; in a ______sense, a home learning how to live in Trinitari- an fellowship.

35 In our Faith Family, we also have boundaries. There are certain ideals that we have in place as a Faith Family that are different from other churches. Many are the same, but a few are unique to Sanctuary. We don’t have these ide- als to restrict us, but rather to spur us toward unity and oneness, allowing God to sustain us in our community. For example, we want to:

Glorify God. We desire for everybody to participate in communal worship, taking what about you? time to meet together and be reminded • What are your “boundaries of love” for your of His goodness and grace, to worship home? What about for your heart? in Spirit and Truth. ______Be an Authentic Community. We desire ______for everybody to participate in a ______community where they can give and ______receive, know and be known, care and be cared for, love and to be loved. • Of the three circles noted above, where do you experience the greatest space of giving Proclaim the Gospel. We desire to be and receiving? a church comprised of disciples making ______disciples. This begins at home, and it ______then continues “as we go” through our ______ordinary, everyday lives with Jesus. ______

36 reflection • God, what do you have in all of this for me? ______

• What do you have in all of this for me and my what about you? family? ______

• What do you have in all of this for me and my Faith Family? ______

37 38 Lord, make me an instrument of your peace, Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.

iDallas Willard, Living in Christ’s Presence: Final Words on Heaven and the Kingdom of God (InterVarsity Press, 2014), 94–95 iiFrederick Dale Bruner, The Holy Spirit: Shy Member of the Trinity (Wipf & Stock Publishing, 2001), 16 iiiDallas Willard, Living in Christ’s Presence, 99 ivIbid., 102 vCommonly attributed to St. Francis of Assisi (www.CatholicNewsAgency.com, accessed October 4, 2016), http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/resources/saints/ saints/peace-prayer-of-st-francis-of-assisi/

39 chapter 4 — confessions & blessing

hen I was in middle school, my par- “What are you doing way down here?” ents divorced. My mom moved a few miles away, down by the mall. She “I go to church here. I’m a member of W Catholic.” rented a little two-bedroom townhouse, so when my brother and I stayed with my mom, we had to share a room. There was nothing She looked at me as if to actually pay attention good about sharing a room with my brother. to the person she was talking to. Nothing. Not only that, but right across the street was a huge Catholic church whose “You go to Mayfair, don’t you? You’re on the soccer team with Kiki. Do you go to church bells rang at 6:00 a. m. every morning. Holy Family?” I’m so thankful for the ringing of the church bells at 6:00 a.m. Said no teenager, ever. I blushed and gushed. Theresa Lopez knew who I was. There was nothing good about living in this little townhouse that paralleled the parking lot “Yes, I play soccer at Mayfair…and… of the very busy Catholic church. That is, until yes…I go to Holy Family when I’m at my one Saturday night when Theresa Lopez got mom’s.” out of her car. I knew Theresa from school, but I was sure she didn’t know me. Theresa She smiled approvingly. Lopez was one of the popular kids. I was not. I knew this was my chance, so I skated down “I’m going to confession. Are you the sidewalk and hopped up next to Theresa. going?”

“Hey, don’t you go to Mayfair?” “Yes…yes, I am.”

“Yes. I do.”

40 I was sure I wasn’t going to make it to heaven I’ve never forgotten her confession. anyway, so I kept talking as long as I could. It was Theresa Lopez, after all. “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.”

We walked into the church together, Theresa One night during youth group, not long after my with her rosary and me with my skateboard. incredibly immature introduction to the Cath- She moved quickly, dipping her finger in the olic Church, I went forward to the altar. I felt water, kneeling, making the sign of the cross, ashamed for being so brazen at Holy Family. I and then sitting in the first seat outside of the started out with Theresa’s line: “Bless me, Fa- confessional. As I followed and sat down, an ther, for I have sinned. It’s been a long time older woman walked out from behind the door, since my last real confession.” and Theresa took her place, the door not clos- ing fully behind. If there was blessing in confession, I needed it. I named my sins one at a time. I was there My mind was spinning, my heart was racing, for much longer than five minutes. I wasn’t my soul was stirring. I strained to listen to sure I felt blessing. I felt relief from guilt; I felt Theresa’s confession. a little reprieve from shame, and I felt prideful about being obedient, but I didn’t feel blessing. She began, “Bless me, Father, for I have How could blessing be possible after all that I’d sinned. It’s been five days since my last con- done? fession.”

I tried to listen closer, but some other people came through the enormous front doors. After what seemed like forever (although it was prob- ably only five minutes), I grabbed my board and ran out. I knew I was in huge trouble.

I never saw Theresa after that. Not once. But 41 Listen to the voice of Scripture: Confession and blessing are inextricably linked. Through confession, we are forgiven. 1Blessed is the one Through confession, we are healed. Through whose transgressions are forgiven, confession, we are blessed. Deep within every whose sins are covered. human being is the need for blessing. A need 2Blessed is the one for affirmation that each of us matters as a soul, whose sin the LORD does not count as a life with purpose and meaning. It begins against them with confession. It ends with blessing. and in whose spirit is no deceit. 3When I kept silent, what about you? my bones wasted away • How does the connection between confes- through my groaning all day long. 4 sion and blessing get lived out in your heart? For day and night How does it get lived out in your home? Are your hand was heavy on me; your children free to confess their sin, knowing my strength was sapped the outcome will be blessing? as in the heat of summer. 5 ______Then I acknowledged my sin to you ______and did not cover up my iniquity. ______I said, “I will confess ______my transgressions to the LORD.” ______And you forgave the guilt of my sin. (Psalm 32:1–5) • What are the implications of confession and blessing in our Faith Family? Therefore confess your sins to each ______other and pray for each other so that ______you may be healed. The prayer of a ______righteous person is powerful and ______effective. (James 5:16) ______

42 ne of my favorite examples of confes- always shows up. Jesus asks the dad about sion and blessing comes from a dad his son, and the dad, in total frustration, briefly Owhose son is sick. The dad is complete- explains. Then, with the little bit of strength re- ly exhausted, as he’s tried everything he can maining in him, he offers a passing prayer: “If do to help his son. But for a number of years, you can do anything, take pity on us and help the son has remained inflicted. us.”

Think about it. Because of this kid’s condition, John Ortberg writes about this prayer. He says: he has no friends. He’ll never have a girlfriend. what about you? He won’t be able to work on the family farm “If you can do anything…” That’s not a or memorize the Torah. He won’t be able to sit great compliment to Jesus. That’s not the still in church or in school or at a meal. He has kind of prayer that is ever going to be turned into a song. You’ll never go to a already been ostracized, and his family is iso- church service where somebody stands up lated and alone. on the platform and starts the prayer: “Heavenly Father. If You can do anything...” i And night after night this dad prays. “God, this is my son. Can’t you see? Don’t you care? Why Jesus quickly responds, “If you can.” And then won’t you do anything?” Jesus says something staggering to this de- spondent dad. One day, this dad hears about Jesus, and he brings his son to Jesus’ disciples. This dad “Everything is possible. Everything is possible has heard what these guys have done in oth- for him who believes.” er towns with other people. He doesn’t want to get his hopes up, but he hopes that maybe this The dad shakes his head, “That’s part of my time…maybe these guys.… problem. I can’t believe.” But then, in utter des- peration, he makes his confession: “I believe. Nothing. Except soul-crushing disappointment. Help me with my unbelief.”

And then Jesus shows up. Because Jesus 43 Everybody watches to see what Jesus will do next in response to this not-so-great act of faith. what’s yours? • In what part of your life do you most reso- Jesus takes the boy and heals him. nate with the statement, “I believe. Help me with my unbelief”? For the first time in this boy’s life, he can speak ______and play and run. I like to think he turns to his ______dad and says, “I love you. Dad! Thanks for ______never giving up on me, for always fighting for ______me. Thanks for loving me. Thanks for being my ______dad.” • What would need to happen in order for you I believe and I doubt. I’m courageous and I wor- to believe? ry. I rejoice and I sulk. I engage and I withdraw. ______I believe; help me with my unbelief. ______It’s in this confession that Jesus responds pos- ______itively and powerfully. Though this dad contin- ______ues to question, Jesus accepts his faith and proceeds to bless him by healing his son. • In what ways do your children see you fighting for them? (A great exercise might be I have a confession: There is nothing harder for to ask them!) me in my life than to fully trust God with my girls ______and my beloved. ______I’ve experienced blessing: I’ve never been ______more blessed than when I have trusted God ______and then seen Him at work in the lives of my girls and my beloved. 44 few summers ago, I found myself in a asked me to share my story. Not my resume. what’s yours? weird place. I was not committing any My story. I trusted him, so I started talking. A big sin, but I was not living at rest. I was drifting. I was going through the motions, and I He took a marker and began to write on the knew it. My buddies weren’t sure what to do with huge window overlooking the rest of the church. me, and they, along with my beloved, encour- He wrote singular words or phrases in differ- aged me to reach out to someone like a spiritu- ent sections of the window and then changed al director or a counselor. I looked around and markers and drew pictures and then took an- talked to a few people, but I was never ready to other marker and drew arrows and bubbles, fully engage. And then God showed up. and all the while, he just listened. For two hours I talked, and for two hours he listened and drew I was to be the speaker at a week-long camp. my story on the window of this church. The first day, I was introduced to the guy who would lead worship for the week. We were to I believe. Help me with my unbelief. I con- plan the week’s chapel times together and en- fessed. He listened. I told my story. He bless- sure that we would lead the camp to the foot of ed. I believed. the cross. In no time, this guy and I connected. Over the week, we swapped stories and shared He highlighted places where seeds had been favorite authors and sang old camp songs and planted and then had blossomed, and he point- even shed a few tears. This guy had just left ed out where souls were wounded and hurt, pastoral ministry to specifically tend to the and he challenged me to live my story. All of it. hearts of pastors and church leaders. Before As I left, he said, “Let your life so speak.” we left the camp, he invited me to attend The Feast of the Daring, a space in which I could share my story. I was in, completely captivated.

We met in a conference room at a church in East Cobb. We ate lunch and laughed and told stories of courage and chaos, and then he 45 One gal in a DMD group recently said that for nothing less. when stories are being told, you can literally hear the chains and shackles fall off of the per- Telling my story was healing. Living my story is son and hit the floor. When I walked out of the holy. It all begins with confession, and it always church that day, I was the me He had created ends with blessing. me to be, and I was embarking on the path of living freely and lightly. The old was gone, the how about you? new had come. • Where do you experience God’s greatest blessing? I didn’t need a priest or an accountability part- ______ner. I didn’t need someone else to tell me how ______bad I was or to help me manage my sin. I need- ______ed someone to bless me with their heart, with ______their mind, with their soul, with allowing me to ______share my story. All of it. • In the last three days, how have you “let your I’m learning that I pursue holiness with greater life so speak?” passion and compassion when I’m being ex- ______plored, when I’m being discovered and cele- ______brated for the human soul that I am, rather than ______when I’m simply sharing all the ways in which I ______have failed. When I confess ways that I want to ______grow, and when someone cheers me on, it ac- tually accelerates my transformation process. I don’t need another accountability partner. I need a warrior who will join me in the fight to be all God has created me to be—and to settle

46 • What story would you tell at the Feast of the Daring? reflection ______• God, what do you have in all of this for me? ______how about you? ______• What do you have in all of this for me and my ______family? ______• Are there parts of your journey that you are ______afraid to confess, and consequently, keep you ______from living in God’s blessing? What’s at the ______root of your fear? ______• What do you have in all of this for me and my ______Faith Family? ______

47 48 49 O God, I am so fragile: my dreams get broken, my relationships get broken, my heart gets broken, my body gets broken.

What can I believe, except that you will not despise a broken heart, that old and broken people shall yet dream dreams, and that the lame shall leap for joy, the blind see, the deaf hear.

What can I believe, except what Jesus taught: that only what is first broken, like bread, can be shared; that only what is broken, is open to your entry; that old wineskins must be ripped open and replaced if the wine of new life is to expand.

So, I believe, Lord; help my unbelief that I may have courage to keep trying when I am tired, and to keep wanting passionately when I am found wanting.

O God, I am so frail: my life spins like a top, bounced about by the clumsy hands of demands beyond my doing, fanned by furies at a pace but half a step from hysteria, so much to do, my days so few and fast-spent, and I mostly unable to recall what I am rushing after.

What can I believe, except that beyond the limits of my little prayers and careful creeds, I am not meant for dust and darkness, but for dancing life and silver starlight.

50 Help my unbelief that I may have courage to dare to love the enemies I have the integrity to make; to care for little else save my brothers and sisters of the human family; to take time to be truly with them, take time to see, take time to speak, take time to learn with them before time takes us; and to fear failure and death less than the faithlessness of not embracing love’s risks.

God, I am so frantic: somehow I’ve lost my gentleness in a flood of ambition, lost my sense of wonder in a maze of videos and computers, lost my integrity in a shuffle of commercial disguises, lost my gratitude in a swarm of criticisms and complaints, lost my innocence in a sea of betrayals and compromises.

What can I believe, except that the touch of your mercy will ease the anguish of my memory; that the tug of your Spirit will empower me to help carry now the burdens I have loaded on the lives of others; that the example of Jesus will inspire me to find again my humanity.

So, I believe, Lord; help my unbelief that I may have courage to cut free from what I have been and gamble on what I can be, and on what you might laughingly do with trembling me for your incredible world.ii

iJohn Ortberg, “How Much Faith is Enough?” (www.JesusCentral.com, April 18, 2006, accessed October 4, 2016, http://www.jesuscentral.com/learning/Journal/ index.php?llid=&add=Read&show=My&lgZ=&ccZ=&vrZ=&scZ=&jid=7&poster=7&ll=9 iiTed Loder, Guerillas of Grace: Prayers For The Battle (Fortress Press; 20 Anniversary edition, 2005), 58–60

51 chapter 5 — healing, wholeness, & holiness

rent Harrison continues to teach us about have sinned. He uses people who are wound- the power of the Gospel. Brent reminds ed. And He may choose to use people who Bus that the Gospel doesn’t just save us; haven’t even fully healed yet. He uses broken it redeems us, renews us, and then invites us people. People like you and me. into God’s plan of the restoration of all things, including His creation. The Gospel is about I love Henri Nouwen’s observation: “When God making all things new. has become our shepherd, our refuge, our for- tress, then we can reach out to Him in the midst Oftentimes, people will embrace the redemp- of a broken world and feel at home while still on tion part of this teaching, maybe even the re- the way.”i newal part. But other times we’ll hear, “God wants to use me in the restoration of all things?” I’m still on the way. You are, too. And yet we can still be home. A smile will come over my face, accompanied by a quick nod. “Yes, He wants to use you.”

My response is usually followed by a confused look and this reply: “Me? He wants to use me? After all that I’ve done? After all that I’ve be- come? No way.”

Yes, way.

One of the most beautiful realities of God is that He uses people to heal people. And not only does He use people, He uses people who

52 A few weeks ago, we noted a portion of the let- The old translates verse ter Paul wrote to the church at . Here 16 this way: is a little more of that letter. Redeeming the time, because the days 15Be very careful, then, how you live— are evil. not as unwise but as wise, 16making the most of every opportunity, because the The guy who led me to Christ constantly chal- days are evil. 17Therefore do not be lenged me with the picture of standing before foolish, but understand what the Lord’s Jesus on Judgment Day. He would say, “One will is. 18Do not get drunk on wine, which day you’ll stand before God, and God will ask leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled you, ‘What did you do with the time I gave you? with the Spirit, 19speaking to one What did you do with the gifts and passions I another with psalms, hymns, and songs put in you?’” from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20always For many years, I would have answered by giving thanks to God the Father for pointing to how I’d strived and worked and everything, in the name of our Lord hustled and how I was constantly needed by Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 5:15-20) others. I would have talked about all the ways I tried to please God and keep Him happy. Then In the midst of a politically charged landscape I probably would have talked about how my with wars and rumors of wars, tension between gifts were thwarted by the sins of others. And police and communities, the constant threat since I’d have been standing in front of Jesus, of terrorism, and a shameless culture, Paul’s I’d probably have been forced to talk about my words scream for our attention, urging us to own sin. choose to live differently.

53 What a waste. Instead, I needed to be “re- motives, our minds, our habits, our lives. deeming the time, because the days are evil.” How good could life with Jesus be? Every mo- The life that is available to us is often so much ment of every day could be spent in commu- brighter than the one we end up living. As Dal- nion with God. This is what He wants for us. las Willard said, “Your time is already in the pawn shop of lost souls.” what do you want? I try not to look back with regret. But when I • In what ways are you actively redeeming the think about all the time I lost because I was time? paralyzed by fear, all the years I lived an an- ______gry existence with a constant, nagging feeling ______that someone owed me, when instead I could ______have been living and loving from a place of ______rest, spending every moment experiencing the ______ministry of the presence of the Trinitarian fel- ______lowship, I am saddened. Because every mo- ______ment of worry, self-preoccupation, ego, pride, ingratitude, and anxiety regarding myself or my • Is it really possible to live daily in communion circumstances were unredeemed moments. with God? How does that type of relationship Every single one. with God begin? What do you do, what do you say, what do you pray? Redeem the time is a call from God. It’s some- ______thing we must do. The time will never be re- ______deemed on its own. It’s redeemed when we ______reach in and reach up with a willingness to al- ______low God to change our hearts, our beliefs, our ______54 he reality is that many of us can’t begin raged by some deep challenges with my mom to redeem the time because we are held that I threw the phone across the room. The Tcaptive by our past. Something hap- fear on my beloved’s face, the sadness on pened, someone did something or said some- her face, the disappointment on her face was thing, life didn’t turn out the way you thought it enough for me to know this problem was big- would. And you can’t move forward. You are ger than me. The solution was not “Four Easy living, and at times you see glimpses of hope, Steps to Control Your Temper.” The solution what do you want? traces of grace; sometimes you’re even able to wasn’t anger management classes. The solu- give and receive, but there is something that tion was clearly stated in chapter four of Paul’s holds you back or holds you down from enter- letter to the church at Ephesus. ing into this “good life with Jesus.” What is it? What’s at its root? And what could life look like 25Therefore each of you must put off for you if you moved past it? falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one My story is like yours. It’s full of dreams and body. 26 “In your anger do not sin”: Do disappointments; it’s full of hope and grace and not let the sun go down while you are hurt and beauty. Along the way in my story, a still angry, 27and do not give the devil a couple of things happened that caused me great foothold. 28Anyone who has been angst. Because of some chapters in my story, stealing must steal no longer, but must I had this nagging feeling that someone owed work, doing something useful with their me. It was as if someone had taken something own hands, that they may have from me and somebody, somewhere was go- something to share with those in need. ing to pay me back. In response to some spe- cific pages in my story, anger emerged. As a 29Do not let any unwholesome talk come result, for many years, a controlling anger ruled out of your mouths, but only what is my life. helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those I’ll never, ever forget the look on my beloved’s who listen. face one summer day when I became so en- 55 30And do not grieve the Holy keeping my family together. I had blamed Him Spirit of God, with whom you were for not coming through for me like I thought He sealed for the day of redemption. 31Get was supposed to. I didn’t need to forgive Him; I rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, needed to love Him again. brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32Be kind and That’s what happened when I forgave. I be- compassionate to one another, gan to love God again. Anger had become a forgiving each other, just as in Christ barrier to my loving God. Forgiveness began God forgave you. (Ephesians 4:25-32) to knock down this wall, and time began to be redeemed. I began to heal, my marriage began Did you see it? “Get rid of all bitterness, rage to move toward wholeness, and now holiness and anger.…” was a livable reality like never before.

Because I saw the effects of my anger, both in my own life and now in my beloved’s, I knew I had to get rid of it. The very long story of get- ting rid of my anger can be summarized in one word: forgiveness. what about you? In order to get rid of sin—and that’s what my • Is there a belief, a practice, a habit that you anger was, it was sin—I needed to forgive. It simply need to “get rid of?” took a long time, but I had to learn to forgive ______those who had hurt me. I had to forgive myself. ______And this is going to sound nuts, but I had to ______forgive God. ______Let me explain. I didn’t actually have to forgive ______God, but I realized during this season that I ______had blamed God for not protecting me, for not 56 •How has forgiveness changed you, how is it we instill the Truth of God in the life of anoth- changing you, how is it redeeming the time? er. We will instill His goodness into others. The ______Psalmist writes that it’s even possible for us to ______bless God. At Sanctuary, we often sing the line, ______“Bless the Lord, O my soul….” (Psalm 103:2) ______A few years ago, my beloved beautifully dis- ______played this process of healing, wholeness, and ______holiness. There was a deeply rooted hurt in ______her that she longed to heal. She thought that ______the hurt had only affected her, but one of our daughters brought to her attention that, in fact, orgiveness heals. Forgiveness restores. my beloved’s hurt had also wounded those Forgiveness renews. Forgiveness launch- around her. That is probably one of the hard- Fes us into a life of hope and healing. Yet est truths for any parent to hear, the truth that there is one more step in redeeming the time: your hurt is now causing hurt to your children. blessing. Whew. what about you? Blessing is a God-ordained concept. At the In an act of great courage, my beloved went beginning of time, we see blessing. Blessing back to the place where the hurt had been in- is present in the Creation Narrative. In the Old flicted. She sat in the very room, in the very Testament, we find the dynamic of blessing seat in which she’d received that wound, and present over 600 times. As Jesus begins His she prayed. She prayed for forgiveness for her public ministry, He takes this familiar term and sin. She prayed for forgiveness for those who says that Kingdom people will be “blessed” had hurt her. when they live The Jesus Way. And then she did something extraordinary. When we bless, we affirm God’s divine pur- pose for the life of another. When we bless, 57 Instead of praying for those who hurt her to somehow be punished for their wrongdoing, what about you? she prayed that those who had hurt her would what about your kid? be blessed. She prayed for blessing on their lives, on their homes, and on their hearts. • Anger, forgiveness, and blessing. How would these three things characterize your story? “Redeem the time.” There was a freedom born Where are you on this journey? in my beloved that day that has not been hin- ______dered. Yes, there are times when she hurts, ______there are times when she wants to fall back ______into her old patterns of thinking and living. But ______when she does, she is reminded of the dam- ______age that sin has had on her life and the lives ______around her. Anger, forgiveness, and blessing— ______healing, wholeness, and holiness. When God’s ______people on earth practice forgiveness, it yields ______the blessing of God. ______I’m often asked about how best to raise kids ______in the faith, kids that will not depart from Truth, ______and I always respond the same way: “Are you ______the that you want your child to grow up ______to be?” The greatest indicator of the kind of life a kid will grow up to live is how we engage with them in their story—and how they are seeing us engage with God in our own.

58 • How would you describe the process of heal- what about you? ing, wholeness, and holiness happening in reflection what about your kid? you? How is holiness being lived out in you • God, what do you have in all of this for me? today? ______• What do you have in all of this for me and my ______family? ______• What do you have in all of this for me and my ______Faith Family? ______

59 60 Father, we remember now that we are right here with you and that you are in our midst and that you love us and that you long for us to be healed and whole and that we do not do any of this on our own and that this universe is a perfectly safe place for us to be and that you are closer than the air we breathe. And so we ask that you would be at work now and help us and give us energy and openness and strength, and we pray this together in Jesus’ name.

Amen.ii

iHenri J. M. Nouwen, Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life (Doubleday, 1975), 148 iiJohn Ortberg, quoted by Dallas Willard in Living in Christ’s Presence: Final Words on Heaven and the Kingdom of God (InterVarsity Press, 2014), 41

61 chapter 6 — neighbors, neighborhoods, & nations

missionary couple living in Brazil shared Paul writes to the church at . this story. A 14How, then, can they call on the one Driving through the Christmas traffic, they have not believed in? And how can fighting the drizzling rain, I chanced on a they believe in the one of whom they four-year-old little girl. She was wet and cold have not heard? And how can they hear and shaking. Her clothes were ragged, her hair was matted, and her nose was running. without someone preaching to them? 15 She walked between the cars at the And how can anyone preach unless stoplight, washing headlights because she they are sent? As it is written: “How was too short to wash windshields. A few beautiful are the feet of those who bring gave her coins, others honked at her to get good news!” (Romans 10:14–15) away from their vehicles.

As I drove away only some fifty cents The opportunity before us is brilliance. It’s the poorer, I raged at God for the injustice in the beauty of the message of the Gospel being world that allowed the situation. “God, how shared with our neighbors, our neighborhoods, could you stand by, helpless?” Later that and the nations…and it’s the beauty of Christ’s evening, God came to me softly with that character being formed within us as we do. still small voice and responded not in like As we share the Good News, the Kingdom of kind to my rage, but with tenderness, “I have done something. I created you.”i God deepens and expands, as do our hearts. We are not simply trying to save the world for Christ; as we enter the disciple-making pro- Neighbors, neighborhoods, and nations. God cess, we are living out the glorious reality of is doing something. God is sending you. our own salvation.

62 Brazil is a long way away. Trips to Cambodia, important as that may be, if you think it is Ethiopia, even the Dominican Republic are about evangelization, as that is often huge trips to make. How is it possible for us to understood—no, no, it is about a world revolution promised through Abraham, help a child who is 1,357 miles away from us? come to life in Jesus and living on in His It starts by us helping our neighbor across the people up to today. That is what our hearts street. And how do we do that? Simple. Just hunger for, even when we don’t know how to initiate. approach it or how to go about it.ii

If you are a writer, then write. If you are a paint- what do you think? er, then paint. If you are a great teacher, then • How have you seen heart transformation teach. The Gospel message will be seen and in yourself as you’ve shared the Gospel with heard as you invite others into your writing, others? your painting, your teaching, your life. Spread- ______ing the message of the Gospel is not the for- ______mal presentation of The Four Spiritual Laws ______(although that can still be effective); it’s sharing ______with other human beings the effects that Love ______and The Light of Truth have had on your own life. It’s sharing the blessings you’ve received • What gifts, talents, and abilities have already from knowing Jesus—who is Love and The been given to you by God? How are you us- Light of Truth. It’s initiating that conversation ing—or how could you use—these gifts to ini- through art, music, writing, education, com- tiate a Gospel-centered conversation to share merce, or hobbies. “the effects of Love and The Light of Truth?” ______Dallas Willard said: ______If you read the Great Commission, you may ______not realize it is about world revolution. If ______you think it is about planting churches, as ______63 • Dallas Willard talks about “a world revolu- are reading?” Philip asked. tion.” Is he completely crazy or absolutely con- 31“How can I,” he said, “unless someone vinced? How so? explains it to me?” So he invited Philip ______to come up and sit with him. ______32This is the passage of Scripture the ______eunuch was reading: ______“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before Let’s take a look at :26–40. its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 33In his 26Now an of the Lord said to humiliation he was deprived Philip, “Go south to the road—the of justice. Who can speak of his desert road—that goes down from descendants? For his life was to Gaza.” 27So he started taken from the earth.” out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian , an important official 34The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, in charge of all the treasury of the please, who is the prophet talking (which means “queen of the about, himself or someone else?” Ethiopians”). This man had gone to 35Then Philip began with that very Jerusalem to worship, 28and on his way passage of Scripture and told him the home was sitting in his reading good news about Jesus. the the prophet. 29The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and 36As they traveled along the road, they stay near it.” came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can 30Then Philip ran up to the chariot and stand in the way of my being baptized?” heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you 64 [37]* 38And he gave orders to stop the bor and in your neighborhood and in the na- chariot. Then both Philip and the tions. He’s inviting you to join Him in His work. eunuch went down into the water and It begins with obedience, and it’s followed by a Philip baptized him. 39When they came question. up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the I became a Christian after high school because eunuch did not see him again, but went our summer camp pastor was obedient. He on his way rejoicing. 40Philip, was where God had called him to be, and he however, appeared at Azotus and was observant of the lives of the people around traveled about, preaching the gospel in him—including mine. He saw my hurt; he knew all the towns until he reached of my wandering and my wondering. And one . night while we were playing basketball, he asked me a life-changing question: “Bowler, *Acts 8:37 Some manuscripts include here: you’ve tried just about everything else. How Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, about trying The Jesus Way?” you may.” The eunuch answered, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” I knew he was right. I had tried every other way. Something inside of me said, “Yes.” I needed to There’s such simplicity in this story. Philip is try The Jesus Way. just living obediently. He’s going where God is sending him, following the Spirit one step at a time. And Philip is paying attention to what’s going on around him. He’s observant. He’s watching and listening, and then he’s initiating.

At just the right time, he simply asks a question: “Do you understand what you are reading?” God’s already at work in the Ethiopian eunuch, much like He is already at work in your neigh- 65 I think a lot about that night, about that sum- ______mer, about what was begun in me all those ______years ago. I think about how much I’ve grown, ______how much I still so desperately want to grow. ______And it all started because one guy decided to ______be obedient to Jesus and ask a question. ______what about you? ______• How did you come to a place of personally ______following Jesus? ______• God is at work in someone who’s in your ______sphere of influence. God is calling you to be ______obedient, and He’s preparing you to initiate. ______How will you join Him in sharing the Good ______News with that person? ______• Philip has the chance to explain the Good ______News of Jesus. If you had the chance today to ______explain the Good News, what would you say? ______66 ast Friday, I officiated the funeral of a That’s basically what I said that night to a young man in our community who had bunch of grieving kids. I said that Jesus is The Loverdosed. He had died the previous Sat- Way, The Truth and The Life, but if anger is a urday, hours before he was to enter rehab the better way, if blaming is a better way, if drugs or next morning. Our auditorium was full of griev- shame or self-sufficiency or sexual pleasure is ing kids his age; most of the kids in the room a better way, than take it. But, I told them, you were kids I knew pretty well. They looked at will find no more joy-filled way than the com- me and listened to me with such despair and plete, saving, forgiving, sustaining, and eternal emptiness. It was horrifically tragic. My heart love of Jesus Christ. There is no better way was broken. So was God’s. than The Way created by the One who loves you. I prayed and prayed all week long about what to say to them. As I was praying, I remembered Joshua said to the Israelites: a line from Living in Christ’s Presence. Dallas Willard had written: “But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you I am just saying that we need to tell are living. But as for me and my our young people, ‘Follow Jesus, and if household, we will serve the LORD.” you can find a better way than Him, He (Joshua 24:15) would be the first to tell you to take it.’iii Joshua knew that if we could choose to follow God for one day, we could choose to follow God every day. But we must choose.

67 Once we make a choice to follow Jesus, just ______like the Israelites chose to follow God, we get ______to do it together. Our personal commitment ______grows to become a family commitment, and ______then it gets expressed in a Faith Family. We ______now belong to each other, and we get to do this ______life of following Jesus together. • What would a renewed commitment to Jesus As we come to the end of this Home study, let’s Christ mean to you, your home, and our Faith reflect on Joshua’s question. Let’s contemplate Family? his words of challenge and his invitation to live ______The Jesus Way. ______“But if serving the LORD seems ______undesirable to you, then choose for ______yourselves this day whom you will ______serve.…” ______• Describe a time when you chose a way that ______was different from The Jesus Way. What did it ______do to you? What did it do to your family? How did you recognize that you were on the wrong • Be creative and find a way to publicly express path? or articulate your commitment to Jesus and His ______Way. ______68 reflection • God, what do you have in all of this for me? ______

• What do you have in all of this for me and my family? ______

• What do you have in all of this for me and my Faith Family? ______

69 70 Thank You for calling me home to You. Thank you for creatively, uniquely making me different from anyone else on the planet, because You have a unique purpose to use me—yes, even me—to impact my neighbors, my neighborhood, and the nations for Your Kingdom.

Lord, help me embrace my uniqueness. Sometimes I feel “less than,” inadequate, different in a not-so-good way. Help me view not only my neighbors but myself through Your eyes. Help me dig deep to discover the gifts You’ve given me and then to hone them so I can be used to impact my friends, my family, my Faith Family, and the world for Jesus. Sometimes I feel like my gifts don’t matter much in comparison to the gifts of others, Lord. But I know that if a widow’s mite is given as an offering to You and You receive it as the greatest of gifts, I can offer You all I have—my heart, my life, my gifts—as a humble offering, and You will use it to revolutionize the world.

Do it, Lord. Change me. Use me. Help me walk in Your Way, all the way home.

In Jesus’ name, Amen

iUnattributed story quoted by Mark Buchanan, The Holy Wild: Trusting in the Character of God (Multnomah, 2003), 86-87 iiDallas Willard, Living in Christ’s Presence: Final Words on Heaven and the Kingdom of God (InterVarsity Press, 2014), 11 iiiIbid., 27

71 appendix: bible reading plans

If you’re interested in reading the Bible, you don’t have to start at the beginning and read to the very end. In fact, that’s probably not the best way to get started. So we’ve gathered a few op- tions that make reading the Bible a little more purposeful and intentional. Whichever option you choose, it’s a good idea to ask yourself the following questions as you read. These questions will help you better understand what you’re reading and the implications of God’s Word on your life.

1. What does the passage say? 2. What does it mean? 3. What are the implications of this passage on your life? exploring jesus in 21 days The Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, John—are four different accounts of Jesus’ life. This read- ing plan explores two of them: Luke and John.

Day 1: Luke 1-2 Day 8: Luke 16-18 Day 15: John 7-8 Day 2: Luke 3-4 Day 9: Luke 19-20 Day 16: John 9-10 Day 3: Luke 5-6 Day 10: Luke 21-22 Day 17: John 11-12 Day 4: Luke 7-8 Day 11: Luke 23-24 Day 18: John 13-15 Day 5: Luke 9-10 Day 12: John 1-2 Day 19: John 16-17 Day 6: Luke 11-12 Day 13: John 3-4 Day 20: John 18-19 Day 7: Luke 13-15 Day 14: John 5-6 Day 21: John 20-21

72 sampling scripture in 10 weeks This reading plan includes entire books or significant portions of books spanning different time periods and literary genres in the Biblical story. As you read this plan, you’ll experience historical narrative, songs, prophetic messages, travel accounts, and personal letters. You’ll also read the well–known stories of creation, the Exodus, and the early Christian movement. You’ll meet Biblical figures such as King David, the prophet Jonah, and Jesus. The purpose of this reading plan is to expose you to the grand redemptive storyline of the Bible.

Week 1: Genesis 1-25 Week 6: Esther, Ezra Week 2: Exodus 1-20, Ruth Week 7: Mark Week 3: 1 Samuel 16-31, 2 Samuel 1-7 Week 8: -12, 1 Peter Week 4: Psalm 1-41 Week 9: -28 Week 5: Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah Week 10: Romans, Ephesians reading the bible in one year If you follow this plan, you’ll read through the entire Bible in a year. Readings are divided by weeks instead of days in order to give you some flexibility. This plan begins in the Old Testament and moves in chronological order through the end of the . This means you’ll do a fair amount of hopping around from week to week since the books of the Bible are not ordered chronologically.

73 Week 1: Genesis 1-25 Week 29: Jeremiah 37-52 Week 2: Genesis 26-50 Week 30: Lamentations, 1 Chronicles 1-12 Week 3: Job 1-24 Week 31: 1 Chronicles 13-29, 2 Chronicles 1-7 Week 4: Job 25-42, Exodus 1-10 Week 32: 2 Chronicles 8-38 Week 5: Exodus 11-34 Week 33: Ezekiel 1-20 Week 6: Exodus 35-40, Leviticus 1-15 Week 34: Ezekiel 21-38 Week 7: Leviticus 16-27, Numbers 1-4 Week 35: Ezekiel 39-48, Daniel Week 8: Numbers 5-21 Week 36: Hosea, Joel, Amos Week 9: Numbers 22-36, Psalms 1-17 Week 37: Ezra, Nehemiah Week 10: Psalms 18-55 Week 38: Esther, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah Week 11: Psalms 56-94 Week 39: Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Week 12: Psalms 95-150 Zechariah, Malachi Week 13: Deuteronomy 1-19 Week 40: Matthew 1-17 Week 14: Deuteronomy 20-34, Proverbs 1-7 Week 41: Matthew 18-28, Hebrews 1-8 Week 15: Proverbs 8-31 Week 42: Hebrews 9-13, James, Mark 1-9 Week 16: Ecclesiastes, Joshua 1-10 Week 43: Mark 10-16, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, Jude Week 17: Joshua 11-24, Judges 1-5 Week 44: Luke 1-15 Week 18: Judges 6-21, Ruth Week 45: Luke 16-24, Acts 1-7 Week 19: Song of Songs, 1 Samuel 1-16 Week 46: Acts 8-21 Week 20: 1 Samuel 17-31, 2 Samuel 1-7 Week 47: -28, Romans Week 21: 2 Samuel 8-24 Week 48: 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians Week 22: 1 Kings 1-18 Week 49: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Week 23: 1 Kings 19-22, 2 Kings 1-16 Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians Week 24: 2 Kings 17-25, Isaiah 1-11 Week 50: 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, John Week 25: Isaiah 12-37 1-10 Week 26: Isaiah 38-59 Week 51: John 11-21 and 1, 2, and 3 John Week 27: Isaiah 60-66, Jeremiah 1-14 Week 52: Revelation Week 28: Jeremiah 15-36 74 appendix: how to get connected

We want you to be at home at Sanctuary. We you to grow in your belonging to Christ and one want you to live out who God is calling you to another. The picture below illustrates places be, and how God is leading you and loving you. you can begin or continue your maturing jour- We want this Faith Family to be a place where ney. And, if you are ready to take the step of we grow and change and serve and love. membership check out www.sanctuaryinhim. Romans 12.5 “so in Christ we, though many, org/membership for further details. form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” For more information about how to grow your relationship with Jesus and our Faith Family, We need each other. No one was created to please contact Brent Harrison at live this life alone. There are both informal and [email protected]. formal ways to get further connected at Sanctu- ary. We want to encourage you and challenge

75 appendix: what we believe

t Sanctuary, all are welcome to attend, value and worth beyond our ability to measure. explore, and participate in taking steps (Genesis 1:27, 31; Psalm 8:3-6; John 3:16; Ro- Aof faith toward Christ. We recognize that mans 5:8) doubts and questions about faith are a normal part of spiritual growth, and we do not claim to 3. We believe this world has pain and suffer- have all the answers. We do claim, however, ing because human beings have sinned, and that all the answers can be found in the person in consequence are separated from our Holy of Jesus. God and justly exposed to the wrath of God. Our own statements of belief herein are not in- (Genesis 3:17; Romans 3:23; Colossians 1:21; tended to be comprehensive of all aspects of Titus 3:3) life and faith, but are a summary of and guide to our convictions as a “Jesus church.” Our 4. We believe God does not intend for sin and own statements of faith are always subject to suffering to get the last word; God is at work to the higher authority of Scripture. redeem and reconcile everything that He has As a community of followers who have ac- made to Himself. (Isaiah 11:6-9; Colossians knowledged our need and accepted the grace 1:21-23; Revelation 21:1-5) of Jesus Christ: 5. We believe God has revealed the truth about 1. We believe God exists as Father, Son, and Himself in the Scriptures of the Old and New Holy Spirit, and that He is a being of unimagin- Testaments, and that they solely constitute ably wonderful power, goodness, and love. the divine rule of Christian faith and practice. (Psalm 118:1; Psalm 145:1-9; Matthew 28:19; (Matthew 4:4; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Timothy 2 Corinthians 13:14) 3:16-17)

2. We believe all human beings have been cre- ated by God in His own image, and are of great 76 6. We believe that Jesus Christ, by His suffer- 11. We believe in the immortality of the soul, in ing and death, made atonement for all mankind the resurrection of the body, in the judgment at that whosoever will may be saved. (Matthew the end of the age, in the eternal joy of those 26:28; John 3:16, Romans 5:6-11, 18-19, 10:9- made righteous through Christ, and in the end- 13; Colossians 2:13-15; Hebrews 10:10-14) less punishment of those who have rejected Him. (Mark 9:42-48; John 5:25-29; 2 Thessa- 7. We believe God has expressed Himself lonians 1:6-10; 2 Peter 3:8-13) uniquely in his Son, Jesus, who lived, taught, died, and rose again for our sakes. (John 14:6- We live in hope that one day Jesus will return; 7; :32; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4) love and justice will prevail, and God will fulfill his promise of a new heaven and a new earth. 8. We believe Jesus is our LORD, Savior and Friend, Master and Teacher, and now reigns forever with the Father and the Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 2:13; Colossians 1:15-20; - ans 2:5-11; 1 Timothy 2:5-6)

9. We believe the Spirit of God dwells within each believer and that His presence and power counsels, guides, and directs the lives of those who follow Him. (John 14:26; Acts 1:8; Romans 8:26; Galatians 3:14; Ephesians 1:13-14)

10. We believe the Church, the Body of Christ, is the community through which God desires to reach the world with His message of love, healing, and reconciliation. (Matthew 18:18-20; John 1:12-13; Acts 1:8; Galatians 3:28; 1 Peter 2:9) 77