Vintage Faith Community

The first of our Gospel Identities is Family. God has always desired a people for his fame and glory in the world. In the beginning, he made Adam and Eve in his image as his people living in his place, and he was their Father. In their desire for autonomy, they destroyed that relationship and sent all of humanity spiraling away from God. In Jesus, God has restored us to himself as his beloved children, and brought us together into a people - His Family. In tonight's message, we dialogue about the implications of being a Family together.

Text: Colossians 4.7-18
Theme: Identity: We are Family
Aim:

INTRO: the new series on “IDENTITY” – our core convictions about WHO we ARE

Here’s the CONTENTION: Next 4 Weeks talking about WHO WE ARE as church, a body of Christians
    In Christianity, doing always comes from being, rather than the reverse…  See that in PAUL/NT
    We don’t DO in order to become something we aren’t right now – contrast with RELIGIONS
    Rather, we let WHAT GOD HAS DONE – the gospel – DEFINE WHO WE ARE & LIVE FROM THAT!
Failures of the Church (Me, too): talk about what we should be doing, not what God has done & who we are
    Dialogue: What happens when all we talk about is what we should be doing? (Beal, etc)

Examples:
Husband is the head of his wife – that is first & foremost an IDENTITY – it is TRUE about the HUBBY
    Implications: first to serve, give, sacrifice, love, confess, forgive – creates an umbrella (controversial?)
    But because it is an identity, it is not a question of whether or not he is the head
    But the question is only is he a good head or a bad head
Parent – if you have kids you are a parent, it is an IDENTITY that has a whole host of activities connected to it
    But you can’t not be a parent once you’ve had a kid – you remain that, always – just good or bad

FOUR GOSPEL IDENTITIES that DEFINE WHO WE ARE as CHRISTIANS – the Foundations
    Family, Missionaries, Servants, Learners – first and foremost these are our IDENTITIES
        These are who we are because of what God has done in JESUS
        Actions connected to them for sure! They are super practical, mundane, normal…
    BUT they are not things we DO as if they are activities, tasks, or religious obligations
        Rather, we LIVE THEM because we ARE THEM: Embody them or Incarnate them!
The BIBLE is PRIMARILY about WHAT GOD HAS DONE and WHO WE ARE AS A RESULT
    And then that is worked out into a myriad of situations

Does that MAKE SENSE?  Questions about that? 
    MY HOPE is that this SHORT SERIES helps us get the MOTIVATIONS RIGHT as we LIVE THIS!
    Our IDENTITY is the OUTCOME of the GOSPEL in OUR LIVES!

We’re doing this NOW For a couple reasons:
1.  We are re-launching the church: don’t want us to ever think we’ve arrived… we’re a real church!
2.  We are starting a new gathering or expression: see how it is an extension of our core convictions
3.  We are re-starting our Missional Communities this week: been quite a journey, still on it
    This is the primary place we envision these Identities getting worked out regularly
    Not here in the large gatherings (though that happens) but in small communities doing life together
        Not just a weekly meeting but a community of people embodying & living out these identities

INTRO the MISSIONAL COMMUNITY LEADERS: Family, Missionaries, Servants, Learners
    Then – we’ll talk about this first IDENTITY, FAMILY – we are learning this stuff together!

FAMILY: We are His Children who are fully accepted and adopted, and who love one another as His family.
    Unpack this Identity statement by looking into the Word – into the Story of God:

Creation (Genesis 1.26-28, 2.15-15): What is GOD doing in making man & woman? Purpose?
    This has always been God’s intention – to make a FAMILY in his IMAGE!
    Triune God makes humanity in his image – not good for us to be alone – creates family!

Rebellion (Genesis 3.1-7): What happens to the FAMILY in the fall?
What is the temptation?  How is the Shalom and these relationships broken?
    Biblical Story: Adam is our father – we are born into the rebellion, as sons/daughters on the run
        Trace the story – Gen 12 God calls a Family & promises to bless the world again through them!
Redemption (John 1.1-13): What imagery is John using here? What is he getting at?
    In Christ, we are Adopted – God gives his Son for our redemption – so we are FAMILY
    Galatians 4: His Spirit in us confirms it and we cry out, “ABBA Father” – Daddy!
        For some that is a difficult picture – get to know this FATHER!

THE GOSPEL says that Jesus’ death pays for our rebellion & sin, and his perfect life gets credited to us, and we are Adopted by God – no longer orphans but beloved children and heirs of God!!
Spurgeon: “does he love us more than his own Son?”
    If you are a CHRISTIAN, this is WHO YOU ARE – a beloved & adopted child of God b/c of Jesus!

Question: Do you believe that?  What difference would it make in your life to really live from that Identity?

Question: Do WE believe it?  IMPLICATIONS of FAMILY IDENTITY
Layers and levels of this Identity gets lived out in different groups: what are some of the implications of this?
    In other words, what might it look like to EMBODY this Identity of “FAMILY?”

First: Biblical images or wordings or instructions that flow from this IDENTITY
The “one another” commands!
“Brothers”
Body imagery & mutual maturity

Second: Examples & Stories:
Time with the elders & wives – I confessed failure of action, but not a bunch of “Ought To’s” – ID issue
Rod and genuine recovery… “my adopted son”
    Jeff & Angela Schutz & financially throwing in together (how my in-laws did with us!)
    $1000 check this morning – Use this for the Missional Communities – a FAMILY activity!

Hopes: Our Missional Communities live into this Identity together!  HOW might they do that?
Can’t be just a weekly meeting – a covenant community, going ALL IN TOGETHER
        We are committing to be this together, to be in each others’ lives
    We meet regularly, but we also see one another outside of that context
Meals & Helps – Matt & Robin Beumer have embodied this one for us… but can it be through M/C?
Decision making as a FAMILY!  Recreating as a FAMILY! Eating as a FAMILY…

Imagine these kind of communities spread across our city, neighborhood to neighborhood, to such an extent that outsiders are constantly bumping into them and experiencing the overflow of this kind of other-focused, selfless living, and in that asking “why? And where does this come from?” to which we can only answer, “God gave his Son so that we could be his Kids again – and we’re learning to love one another because we are His Family.”  Make it a verb: Who are you “familying?”

HOMEWORK: get in a missional community and together work out implications & start to live them
    Don’t get into one expecting all this to be happening already – but come with us into it!

COMMUNION: the meal of remembrance & celebration
    We’ll take the bread & wine – and then we’ll feast on pizza and be together as a FAMILY
   
In Repentance: we are learning to repent over this – not activities, not perform differently, not behavior
    It is a heart issue – we don’t love one another deeply because we don’t actually believe we are FAMILY
    We don’t see the reality of what God has done for us in Christ, to make a new HUMANITY
    So we continue to treat one another as slaves and orphans, and not as the FAMILY we ARE!

Particularly true for me – because I am a Shepherd here, I tend to think it goes one way
    I am learning: my role here is Shepherd, but my IDENTITY is SHEEP –
I am nothing more or less than another Family Member with a particular ROLE.
1 Peter 5: “Shepherd the flock of God that is among you”