The first two petitions of the Lord’s Prayer are perhaps the clearest statement of all in the teachings of Jesus that missions is driven by the passion of God to be glorified among the nations. ‘Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come’ (Matthew 6:9–10). Here Jesus teaches us to ask God to hallow his name and to make his kingdom come. This is a missionary prayer. Its aim is to engage the passion of God for his name among those who forget or revile the name of God (Psalm 9:17; 74:18). To hallow God’s name means to put it in a class by itself and to cherish and honor it above every claim to our allegiance and affection. Jesus’ primary concern — the very first petition of the prayer he teaches — is that more and more people, and more and more peoples, come to hallow God’s name. This is the reason the universe exists. Missions exist because this hallowing doesn’t.

Let the Nations Be Glad

HT: OFI

We must not mind a little suffering for Christ’s sake. When I am getting through a hedge, if my head and shoulders are safely through, I can bear the pricking of my legs. Let us rejoice in the remembrance that our holy Head has surmounted all His suffering and triumphed over death. Let us follow Him patiently; we shall soon be partakers of His victory”

Gather

We desire for everyone to be a part of our weekly worship service. We believe that everyone desiring to live for Christ needs to actively participate in a weekly corporate worship service through singing, praying, reading, seeing, preaching, giving & responding to the gospel, and connecting with the larger body of believers in Jesus. (Heb 10:25; Col 3:16; Matt 21:13; 1 Tim 4:13; 1 Cor 11:24-26; Rom 6:3-4; 2 Tim 4:2; 2 Cor 8:3; Col 2:6)

Grow

We desire everyone to participate in a Bible study care group. We recognize that gathering to worship & hearing the preached word is not the end, & therefore we desire to further teach & apply the gospel. In gentle & understanding ways, the group is structured to be a safe environment where each one can voice their particular questions, doubts & struggles while the others respond with encouragement, exhortation & prayer. Our Bible study care groups exist so that speaking the truth in love, we will grow up in every way to be like Jesus. (1 Tim 4:13; Eph 4:15; Col 4:2, 4:12; 1 Cor 14:26; Eph 4:29; Heb 2:1, 4:12-13, 10:24-25, 12:12-15)

Go

We desire for everyone to be involved in taking the gospel to our local community and beyond to the ends of the earth. We believe that every follower of Jesus has been given gifts & holy ambitions by God for the purpose of making followers of Jesus throughout the entire world. As we go, we desire to be intentional in living for Jesus & inviting people to join us on mission as we gather again, and grow & go for the glory of God in celebrating the gospel of Jesus. (Matt 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; 1 Cor 7:7; 1 Pet 4:10; Col 2:6; Eph 4:11-12; John 4:29)

Paul Tripp:

This community of love is meant to comfort the person who is discouraged, to strengthen the person who is weak, to encourage the person who has no hope, to come alongside the person who is alone, to guide the person who has lost his way, to give wisdom to the person lost in foolishness, to warn the person who is beginning to wander, to correct the person turning the wrong way, to give eyes to the person blind to God’s presence, and to physically represent God’s presence and love. No one, including pastors, is wired to live outside this community.

 

One of the great tragedies in much of western Christianity is the misconception that ‘church’ is an ornate building or a service to be attended, rather than the community of God’s people, saved by His grace. By definition, then, to be a member of the church is to be a participant in the life of God, with the people of God, made possible by the grace of God…

Viewed in this light, our participation in the life of the church is not an option, or the prerogative of a privileged few, but the call and responsibility of every person redeemed through the work of Christ on the cross. Having been purchased by God, we have the awesome privilege of offering all that we are and have to him for his glory.

I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished . . . Now what is the food for for the inner-man? Notprayer but, the Word of God.

Your trials may be many and great. Your cross may be very heavy. But the business of your soul is all conducted according to an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure. All things are working together for your good. Your sorrows are only purifying your soul for glory; your bereavements are only fashioning you as a polished stone for the temple above, made without hands. From whatever quarter the storms blow, they only drive you nearer to heaven! Whatever weather you may go through it is only ripening you for the garner of God. Your best things are quite safe.

HT: J.C. Ryle quotes

“People who don’t like Christians are all around us. Only a strange providence keeps our churches from being bombed. It is only a matter of time till the reality of the rest of the world comes home. And all the while we are called by Christ to go to them, love them, sacrifice for them, bring the gospel to them. The Great Commission is not child’s play. It is costly. Very costly.

The coddled Western world will sooner or later give way to great affliction. And when it does, whose vision of God will hold? Where are Christians being prepared for great global sorrows? Where is the Christian mind and soul being prepared for the horrors to come? Christians in the West are weakened by wimpy worldviews. And wimpy worldviews make wimpy Christians.

God is weightless in our lives. He is not terrifyingly magnificent. His sovereignty is secondary (at best) to His sensitivity. What is missing is the Bible. I mean the whole Bible, with its blood and guts and sins and horrors– and all of it under the massive hand of God. The hand whose fingers flick stars into being.

The hand that gives life and takes it. The hand that rules everything. Everything. What we need is to know the great things about God. Knowing great things about God will help make us ready not to collapse under cataclysmic conflict and personal catastrophe.”

–John Piper, Spectacular Sins: And Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ(Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008), 13-14.