Category: Articles

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you,[a] not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. ( 2 Pet 3:9, 10)

Verse 9 is a popular verse because it talks about God’s patience toward us. But often the next one is ignored which talks about God’s judgment.

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God’s holiness and purity will consume everything that’s marred with sin including the heavens and the earth. It’s in the light of that that we should view God’s patience.

In the midst of judgment, God displays immense patience while dealing with us “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance”. As believers, these attributes should fill us with reverential fear and gratitude!

[bctt tweet=”In view of God’s Patience How are we to respond in Truth?” username=”gatheringmumbai”]

So how are we to respond to this truth? (v11-13)

Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Lives of holiness and godliness, eagerly waiting for the coming of the day of the God is the response! And we all share a marvelous hope of new heavens and a new earth which won’t be corrupted by sin and unrighteousness.

A few application questions could be:

• What does holiness and godliness mean for each of us today?
• In which areas of our lives is God’s patience intending to lead us to repentance?

For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me. Be pleased to save me, Lord; come quickly, Lord, to help me. – Psalms 40:12-13

It is interesting to see David’s position as he writes the above verses in Psalms 40:12-13. He is the King of Israel, a man called to lead Gods people, a man after Gods own heart. And here we see him pleading to God saying “For troubles without number has surrounded me” and “my sins have overtaken me”.

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That pretty much sounds like a very bad place to be in, especially a man like David and that’s not the position any of us would like to be in. We all would like to be in a place where all our troubles are gone and sins no more daunting us but does that place really exist. That raises two questions in my heart. First is it possible for Christians to find themselves in this position even though we are a believer and a follower of Jesus. The second question is whether it is true that our troubles and sins will never be taken away as long as we live on this earth.

[bctt tweet=”O God! Deliver Me. (Psalms 40:12-13)” username=”gatheringmumbai”]

In John 16:33 Jesus said

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

I believe Jesus is quite clear as he said “In this world you will have trouble”

In Romans 3:10-12 Paul writes

“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

As earthly beings that’s exactly our position when it comes to our troubles and sins until the day we are glorified into heavenly beings. Let nobody deceive or misguide you in this matter.

And what does God expect from us when we are going through these experiences. It is exactly what David expresses in the very same verses “Be pleased to save me, Lord; come quickly, Lord, to help me “. To live with a sense of dependence on God alone, to hope in him and cry out to him at all times “O God! Deliver me”.

A dependent heart is what God desires from us as he loves the aroma of our brokenness – And he turns them into a reason for eternal joy that comes only from the finished work of Christ on the cross.

Many in our generation live with a misconception of what it to means to live a Christian life and it is mainly because of wrong doctrines and misinterpretation of the Scriptures.

We often think that the end goal of a Christian life is to live peacefully with God and with ourselves, read our Bibles daily, regularly go to Church every Sunday, make sure our children attend Sunday school when they are little and then get married to a Church going christian partner once they’re grown up, live a happy and comfortable life, debt free, tension free, exercise daily and stay healthy till we die.

Come on, lets be honest. don’t we think so?

The problem with this understanding of a Christian life is that whenever any of the above doesn’t go well, we end up taking offense against God, accusing Him for not giving what we think is the best for us and then claiming that he doesn’t exist or if he exists then he must be a mean God.

[bctt tweet=”The Unspoken Goal of a Christian Life – The Gathering Church Article” username=”gatheringmumbai”]

When the economic conditions of the world around us deteriorates and we loose jobs, when our heath conditions get worse leaving us paralyzed to feed our families, when our loved one passes away, when our children rebel against God and take their own path, when your spouse wants to quit on you, when we end up in debt, when we’re living in misery and pain, what are our thoughts about God and the perfect Christian life we always envisioned?

A distorted view also effects our daily christian walk when we become victims of the Perfect Life Syndrome, described as one’s reaction to the phenomenon of creating unrealistically joyful and ‘perfect’ narratives for either oneself or projected onto the lives of others. When we look at our Social Media newsfeed —  babies! smiling selfies! travel! brunch! — and only see one thing: our own reality in jeopardy, which may include: mood swings, loneliness, a long commute, work stress, family strain, and relationship discord.

Before I share the true goal of a Christian life let me give you a perspective on life itself.

We currently live in the 21st century and generations have come and generations have gone. Different kinds of people inherited this earth from the nomads to the current age technology driven humans beings, people with different world views, different mindsets, different cultures, different beliefs.

Even today people in different parts of the world have different views about life, which means what we value in our culture is different from what others value. The very definition of Perfect life is different for different people.

Imagine the amount of time, energy and resources we waste to attain a perfect life that at the end is just a vain man made idea in itself.

In this passing age if there is one thing that has remained constant and unchanged through generations is the truth of the Gospel. Anyone who examines the Gospel & the Scriptures with a sincere heart will find answers to all the difficult questions about Life.

It teaches us that we were made in the image of God and the purpose and the goal of our life is to enjoy a close fellowship with God, glorify and worship Him. Since true worship is meaningless to God if it comes from a heart that is auto programmed to do so, he gave us a free will so we exercise it to truly offer God the adoration he deserves.

But sadly we used our freewill to rebel against Him and fell into sin. And because sin deserves death we were eternally damned which describes the reason for our current misery on earth.

But God in his mercy sent His only begotten Son to die for our sins, take the punishment that we deserved so we can skip death and enter Life by putting our faith in the finished work of Christ on the Cross.

All this for what? To restore back the true purpose and goal of our lives.

And that is to have an intimate fellowship with God, glorify Him and Worship him forever.

Think about it. In today’s generation if we still have access to this Gospel and its redeeming power, it is not because of the many Christians who thought living a comfortable life was the end goal but because of the few who chose to live for the Glory of God against all the odds, pains, discomforts, persecution, loss and death.

They saw life beyond death, they understood the true purpose of their existence, they did not allow the perfect life syndrome to effect their pursuit of Glorifying God in every circumstances.

Many of them were persecuted, killed and burnt alive for defending the Gospel and they embraced it with joy in their hearts.

William Tyndale, the first man to translate the Bible into English language, he was strangled to death while tied at the stake, and then his dead body was burned. His final words, spoken at the stake with a fervent zeal, and a loud voice were reported as “Lord! Open the King of England’s eyes.”

What’s your pursuit today? Are you living a God glorifying life? or Are your chasing comfort and the meaningless things of this world?

It is time we ask those serious questions.

Stephan Hawkings, one of the renowned scientist in his book “The Grand Design” said “Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.”

What he basically said is that there is no need for God anymore to get us going.

[bctt tweet=”In today’s high-tech generation is God still Important?” username=”gatheringmumbai”]

The debate whether God exists or not has been going on for generations and it still continues and I don’t think I am really qualified to answer that question. But I definitely want to address and talk about areas that technology fails to give an acceptable answer.

When it comes to technology I do agree that it has answered a lot of questions and solved a lot of problems but what about some of the unanswered questions about human existence that it fails to address.

The one that I want to talk about in this article is ‘Human Suffering‘.

The world has advanced and reached new heights. We now have our footprints on Mars but back home people still suffer from poverty, hunger & scarcity. We’ve not been able to solve this grievous problem on human kind with all our innovations and progress.

Some of us think that God causes human suffering and that he is indifferent to it. But sadly we fail to investigate the real cause of human suffering.

The Bible says

“For a certainty, God does not act wickedly.”—Job 34:12.

The truth is humans are often victimized by other humans (Ecclesiastes 8:9). And we may face calamities because of ‘unexpected events’, because of simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. ( Ecclesiastes 9:11).

The real cause of suffering is SIN, our wretched and selfish hearts have caused this suffering and not God.

Romans 5:12

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

Isaiah 59:2

But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

1 John 3:4

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

If we have to bring an end to human suffering we have to eliminate SIN, and unfortunately technology has no answer to this problem.

Only God provides a lasting solution for this hideous problem.

The Bible says in John 3:16

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”

Sin not only causes men to act evil but also leads to eternal death and damnation. The Bible says that the wages of Sin is death.

But God, because of His great Love for His creation sent His only Son to take the penalty of our sin, release us from its clutches and give us a new freedom in Christ. The promise given to those who believe in Christ is that we are set free from sin and made slaves to righteousness (Romans 6:18) with a promise of eternal Life (1 John 2:25).

And the ultimate command given to us by Jesus before His death & resurrection was

“Love one another as I have loved you” – John 13:34

Imagine a world where each one of us loved each other with the same love that God bestowed upon us. The good earth can easily satisfy the needs of every human being only if people stopped behaving wretchedly and selfishly and look for the good in other human beings.

No matter how advanced and high-tech our technology gets we still need God to save us from the real problem and that is SIN. 

Why would God the Father go through such painful extreme of redeeming us back to Himself by sending to us His one and only son, Jesus Christ to bear the punishment that we deserved by going through the most horrific death that no one could or ever will undergo for us?

It was only to prove His unconditional, undying love for every man and every woman and for us to once again enjoy an intimate fellowship with our Maker.

[bctt tweet=”Seeking God with all our Heart. #SeekingGod #SeekingChrist” username=”gatheringmumbai”]

But ‘Seeking God‘ is a term we hear and can relate to a lot so much so that it can turn out to be a monotonous routine if we’re not careful. At least that is what I can tell about myself yet the times I have felt Gods presence ever so close to me is during the dark moments when I have sought the Lord with all my heart.

Jeremiah 29:13,14 says “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity”.

So, where do we find God?

It’s in His Word, in our sorrows, our joys, our turmoils, our triumphs, in our fears, our doubts, His working in other people’s lives and so on.

Jeremiah 29:13 says, ‘You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart’.

God wants us to know not just about Him but to know Him personally. A relationship that involves knowledge or intellect but no heart is not a relationship at all. His presence is always with us and surrounds us but it takes an active role on our part of seeking Him. It’s not our own efforts but the Lord who enables us to go after Him.

Does this come easily?

Well, not really because in this journey called ‘life’ that we all go through, there are many barriers that we need to overcome. For some these barriers are our own self like our selfish desires, our own agendas, our own thoughts, being complacent, lethargic, being too focused on our circumstances or situations, all about ‘us’ and other distractions that draw us away from our walk with God.

Since Gods word says that ‘the heart is deceitful above all things‘, we need to keep coming back to the cross, back to God asking Him to empty ourselves of every pride, selfishness and other sins that captivate our hearts.

Jesus says in John 14:6, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’.

If we seek God, we will find Him and when His Truth dwells in our hearts it means Christ dwelling richly in our hearts.

Here are some practical ways we can seek the Lord:

• Talking honestly with God as you would with a best friend which is praying, reading, studying and meditating on His word, reading good Christian literature and other resources
• Journalising new insights and thoughts that God lays on your heart.
• Listening to encouraging and uplifting gospel songs as well as sermons, discussions, talks and even asking questions to people who follow Jesus.

These are some of the ways we can fill our hearts and minds with the things of God and pursue Him.

A few weeks back I was having a conversation with my 8 year old son Jairus.

I wanted to know his opinion about what he thinks about God and so I told him “I wonder why God still loves me even though sometimes in my ignorance I make mistakes and do things that hurt him”.

[bctt tweet=”God is our Heavenly Father. #God #HeavenlyFather” username=”gatheringmumbai”]

The answer he gave me was “God is our heavenly Father just like how you are our father, even though when we make mistakes and hurt you, you still love us. That’s exactly why even God loves you.”

The bible says in Lamentations 3:22-23

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

An earthly father’s love for his children is just a glimpse of God’s love for us.

There are times in my life when I fail to understand this human love and wonder whether I truly know God’s love for me which is beyond comparison.

1 John 3:1-2 – “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are … Beloved, we are God’s children”

1 John 4:9 – “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.”

I feel so comforted to know that He is my Father and I am His child and that by sending his son Jesus to die for my sin He has restored our relationship back.

Let this thought comfort you too!

I’ve never had the urge to bow down to a metal cow, a carved human, or a wooden pole. The idea of chanting or dancing around a six-armed deity or pot-bellied statue doesn’t even come close to getting me excited. I’ve never wanted to make offerings to rats living in a shrine.

[bctt tweet=”God asks us to do acts of kindness without the big fanfare of public recognition” username=”gatheringmumbai”]

But that doesn’t mean I’m immune to idols. The idols that trip me up as a human aren’t tangible figures of supposed gods and goddesses. They’re ideas and beliefs that can, if left unchecked, interrupt my worship of the one true God.

I wonder how many times God has intervened in my life without me realizing it. I am sure I live unaware of God’s provision, protection and help in my life. Just as God asks us to do acts of kindness without the big fanfare of public recognition, God is always doing things on our behalf that He doesn’t let us in on. His kindness is at work constantly.

God has shown me that, more than anything, he wants my heart. He wants a tender, mold able heart willing to obey more than he wants any obligatory service I can give him. As He writes a new chapter in my life to reveal the plans He has for me.

Sometimes church planting feels like you’re pretending to be a church. And then one day (after backbreaking work and lots of prayer) you realize God has built an honest-to-goodness church right before your eyes and there is unimaginable joy and reward in sacrifice and service. I pray that God could use my life to impact others in a mighty way. I do know that part of being a follower of Jesus, and doing life His way, is about living my faith.

At ‘The Gathering‘ we understand the importance of relationships and therefore community outside church plays a very important role in everything we do.

[bctt tweet=”Here’s what we do at our Gospel Community meetings every week.” username=”gatheringmumbai”]

As often as possible we meet with one another by hanging out in coffee shops, at ladies meet, men’s meet, lunch after church, our weekly Gospel community groups and so on. It helps us build strong bonds by speaking words of encouragement, praying, reminding one another of Gods word and sharing our joys and struggles.

I can’t tell you what a blessing it has been to me personally. I’ve grown in my faith and in my desire to seek God above everything else.

Our Gospel Community is one key connect that happens once a week. We meet at 2 different locations, in Powai, Andheri and Orlem, Malad.

We come together to worship God, study his Word, build friendships and impact the lives of others by sharing the love of Jesus.

Because we are loved, we love and serve Christ in Community through Commission for His glory

Because we are loved:

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.(1 John 4:10)

What is love?

The biblical definition of love is something we find difficult to grasp because every other expression of love we see in the world is selfish and corrupted. The bible always defines love as committed, costly and sacrificial.

John 15:13: Greater love has no one than this that someone lay down his life for his friends.

Why does the verse say that we haven’t loved God? How can you say that? I’m a loving person and I think I would love God!

To get an accurate picture of ourselves we need to look at the Bible. And the Bible is pretty descriptive about our condition.

Rom 5:8: but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Rom 5:10: For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by his death, much more, now that we are reconciled shall we be saved through his life.

It says that we were enemies of God by nature and by our actions. Enemies hate each other. Living in constant rebellion even though we’ve been created and sustained by God. Instead of finding our pleasure, joy and identity in God our Creator…we’ve found it in cheap substitutes. The god we worship is not the One true God but created beings and created things which are not worthy of worship and pleasure. So we find pleasure, purpose, security and identity in our jobs, family, friends, money, technology, entertainment, sensual pleasures and the biggest idol we worship is ourselves. We fail to see how we’re truly bound and worshippers of these idols. The worst part is that we don’t even know that we’re enemies of God. Eg: child and Father.

Now let’s answer the question: Do we really love God?

Because God is Holy and Just. He can’t simply overlook and pardon the sins of people. If He’s a Righteous Judge, he’ll need to punish people for their sins. And the Bible says that “The wages of sin is death”. Eternally we are separated and destined to face God’s wrath because we were enemies of God.

And so this is love….

Even though we were enemies of God deserving nothing else but the righteous judgment of God, God sent His one and only Son – Jesus to rescue us. And this rescue act happened not in great pomp but by dying a horrible death on the cross for your sins and mine. 2000 years ago God executed His righteous judgment on sinners by nailing the sins on the cross. Jesus died for you so that the title of being an “enemy of God” could be removed from you forever and so that you could now find your joy, identity, purpose and security in God and not in the things of the world as we once did!

Was it committed? Yes, he endured a painful, agonizing death on the cross to save us from the wrath of God.

Was it costly? Yes, it cost him his life and dignity….just imagine the Creator of the world dying as a criminal. But because his righteous death was accepted by God, He was raised from the dead three days later demonstrating that we could also experience life with God when we put our trust and faith in Jesus.
Was it sacrificial? Yes, tremendously sacrificial. He died for his enemies….people who don’t deserve such a sacrifice and a gift. But he did it out of love.

Therefore, this committed, costly, sacrificial love of Christ forms the basis and the reason for everything that we do.

We love and serve Christ:

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. (Matt 22:37)

Q. What does it mean to love the Lord with all our heart? What does it mean to love the Lord with all our soul? What does it mean to love the Lord with all our mind?

Again this love is a committed, costly, sacrificial love that we are talking about here. And the word Lord is important because it means “we belong to Christ, He owns us, He is our Master, He is supreme in authority and He decides what’s right and wrong in my life”.

Looking at this verse is there any aspect of your life which shouldn’t be surrendered to God? Nothing! All our heart, all our soul and all our mind! The good news about Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins drives us to respond in whole hearted surrender.

And this is what we as humans struggle with. We are okay with people as long as we don’t need to submit to them. Nobody tells us what to do. Nobody tells us what’s right or wrong about my life! And it’s to that….that God says: “Love the Lord……..”

And often people like the idea of a loving God who would do so much for us. But they stumble and stutter at the demand of surrender. Especially what’s being asked out here: whole hearted surrender! What we fail to understand is what was done for us. If we truly knew and understood the depth of the sacrifice of Christ, we would have no other option but to explode in praise, gratitude and self-surrender!

A person who truly sees his sins being nailed on the cross will respond by placing his affections, will and mind completely on the foot of the cross.

Q. Why does God want us that kind of commitment and surrender? Why not half hearted surrender?

Because God is glorified when His people live completely surrendered lives to Him. That kind of obedience, commitment and surrender to God tell about His value. Inevitably what we’re proclaiming through our “surrender” is that God is so valuable, so treasured, so important, so honoured that He deserves my utmost devotion and surrender. And half-hearted devotion won’t communicate that. Half-hearted devotion belittles His glory and diminishes His value. It’s not right and worthy of our King and Lord!

Secondly, we need to understand that whole hearted surrender is for our good. We were created by God for His glory. When we love God with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind….we will be satisfied! Nothing else and nobody else in the world can give you that satisfaction. Your Creator knows what’s best for you and what will give you the most joy. Whole hearted surrender displays God’s glory and gives you immense pleasure because you’re fulfilling the purpose of your life.

When you hear the words…surrender, devotion, whole hearted commitment, does that ring true of your relationship with Christ? Also, another thing that I believe is critical out here is our loyalty to Scripture.

You can’t love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind apart from Scripture.

The way you treat Scripture in your life often speaks about your devotion. Why? Because God speaks through His Word. And then your obedience to God’s Word speaks a lot about your commitment. In other words, you want to know what your surrender and devotion is like? Look closely at your attitude towards studying and obeying Scripture.

In Community:

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Heb 10:24, 25)

Another key aspect of our faith is that it is lived out in the context of community. John Piper says “Eternal security is a community project”. What he’s trying to say is that you cannot live your Christian life apart from Christian community. One of the biggest heresies of this age is the heresy of having Jesus as your “personal Savior”. Now let me clarify what I mean by that. I’m not talking about personal faith in Jesus. There needs to be personal faith applied in salvation. Your parents’ faith or friend’s faith cannot save you. You need to personally trust in the finished work of Jesus. Secondly, I affirm that Christ relates with each and every one of us personally and intimately…that’s the joy of the Christian life. However, the heresy that I’m talking about is a personal salvation that’s isolated from other believers where they aren’t involved and they don’t speak into your life and neither do you do the same for them.

And the gospel does address this issue. The gospel in fact fuels our love for our brothers and sisters because it has lifted off the focus from ourselves and cause to think, love and care for others.

I love this verse from Hebrews because it talks about a kind of an intentional thinking and observation about our brothers and sisters…why? Not simply but because we want to encourage them. In fact the word “stir up or spur” actually in the Greek means to trigger, kindle and fan into flame one another to what? Love and good deeds.

When was the last time that was the thought process or reason for coming to a GC? When was the last time that was the mentality you had before you came to a Sunday morning Gathering?

When was the last time you met up with a believer with the intention of fanning into flame his love for Christ and his love for his brothers and sisters? Doesn’t this passage cause you to reflect on your life in the same way?

And that’s why we meet in GC’s each week. Gospel Community allows you to open your life to other believers and have them walk with you as you live out your faith.

And it’s a command….do not neglect to meet together as some are in the habit of doing but strengthen each other and all the more as the Day of the Lord approaches. And it’s a serious question to ask ourselves. What kind of priority do we place on community life? By that I mean the intentional thinking, meeting and acting to encourage your brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Through Commission:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (1 Pet 2:9)

It’s just interesting how this verse is framed. It doesn’t start out by stating the task or the mission but by mentioning a description of the identity. The identity defines the action.

Believers are chosen, favourite, picked out ones by God. Have you ever wondered what it must be to be chosen by God? All of us get excited when we’re picked out for a certain privileged task in our college or workplace. Just imagine being chosen by God. It goes on to say that we’ve got kingly responsibilities! We are chosen by the King of Kings to be His representative on earth! Wow.

A multitude selected to be set apart and consecrated for a very important task. We are a people who have been chosen to be His property! This identity, task and privilege should blow our minds. The reason for that is the next half of the verse which says “that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

We’ve been chosen to declare the excellencies of God who called us out of ignorance, ungodliness and idolatry leading to hell into the pure, extraordinary presence of God! What a transformation!

What a great privilege! What a wonderful God!

What would it mean for you to look at your co-workers, neighbours, and people of the city and be God’s representative to them declaring His excellencies and telling them of how he called you out of darkness into his marvellous light?

We weren’t supposed to have this privilege. We didn’t deserve it. We deserved hell but God in His mercy though Christ saved us and now appoints us to be His chosen representatives to a lost and dying world! Feel the weight of that grand purpose! Doesn’t every other purpose pale in comparison to this? What other purpose are you living for? Remember this has to do with your identity. If you see yourself as an employee, you’ll do your best to please your boss. But if you see yourself as a rescued and appointed priest of God….what will your job description look like? What will your lifestyle look like? What will your conversations with people look like?

For His glory:

What is the end purpose of all this? Why do we love and serve Christ? Why do we immerse ourselves and serve each other in community? Why do we passionately seek the lost with the gospel?

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. (Rom 11:36)

His glory! For Him alone.
It’s from Him (Because we are loved)
And through Him (we love and serve Christ in Community through Commission)
And it’s to Him (For His glory)

It’s not for the Gathering, it’s not for some personal accomplishment of ours…but the end goal is the glory of God. Seeing Him be magnified because we know that He initiated it, He sustains it and He accomplishes it! How does that speak to our hearts that struggle with self-centredness? Let’s evaluate…when we think about all that we spoke today: loving and serving Christ, in community, through Commission, what’s your biggest motivation for doing all this? If we’ve had any other motivation, what would it mean for us to repent of that sin and trust in His purpose of doing everything for His and only His glory!