series: Core Values

title: one: courage

teacher: Jacob Bender

date: September 17, 2017

scriptures: Matthew 17:14-20, 1 John 4:18, 2 Corinthians 5:13-20, Revelation 21:5-8, 1 Corinthians 16:13-14.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5 (our vision passage for life) that Christ reconciles the world back to himself, by not counting their trespasses against them… and we are ambassadors of that.

I want you to really think about that word, ambassador.

We are “ambassadors” for Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:20) - Christ makes His appeal, through us… meaning that we may be the only Jesus that someone else will ever see… it means that literally, Christ uses YOU, and He uses ME, and more importantly, he uses us collectively, as the church, to reconcile people back to God.

This is the reason that Courage is so incredibly important to what we are trying to do.

It is absolutely crucial, that if we truly have been entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation, to such a degree that God says we are HIS AMBASSADORS… then literally, simply by NOT doing what we know we are called to do, we are costing other people their eternity.

Christ makes his appeal through you…

He lets you represent Him.

And Jesus Christ is no coward.

That is something I think we get wrong so often… we forget that ambassadors aren’t here to do whatever they want… they aren’t here to do whatever best serves them, or even what THEY think is best for other people… an ambassadors job is to represent His King, and the Kingdom for what it truly is. Not holding peoples trespasses against them, BUT ALWAYS POINTING to the cure.

Reconciling people back to Jesus.

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Character means that We live publicly like we do in private. We write the Word of God on our hearts, practice generosity, and prioritize integrity.

Commission means that we are a sending church. We honor the past, while we work for the future. And we always believe that everyone’s brightest days are ahead of them.

connection is living a life of constant community with God.

He is our supplier, who is as close to us as the air that we breathe.

conversation means that we bind and we loose together, we learn together, we serve together, and we grow together.

We welcome each other’s perspectives, and we depend on each other’s accountability.

collaboration is all of us working together to create something better than any of us could create on our own.

Contribution understands that everybody has a role, and there is room for us here. We know that the gifts we are given matter to the body of Christ, and we so seek to discover where we each fit.

We honor the contributions of others, knowing that God perfectly crafted each one of us, and only together are we truly the church.

Community is a body, committed to all its parts.

Compassion sees the world through the eyes of others, and it is stirred to action by what it sees. It can not sit by while injustice is done around it.

communion is a common union of broken people, who are made whole by the body and blood of Jesus Christ. We are united by our differences, and there is a seat for everyone at the table.

Courage goes to the places that nobody else wants to go, and works to create places that everybody wants to be. Courage loves the one who nobody else wants to love…

if you have no gauge on what is important, then you have no way to measure whether or not you are on the right track. That is what Core Values do… they keep us disciplined… they keep us on mission… they give us something the bounce whatever it is we are doing, off of, and see… IS THIS FURTHERING THE MISSION?

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