Sharing the Vision of the Grafted Church

we are to be a community of believers who embody the great Commandments and embrace the Great Commission all right I've read just a short passage here in first John beloved let us love one another for love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God he who does not love does not know God forgot his love in this the love of God was manifested toward us that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him in this is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins we love it if God's so if God so loved us we also ought to love one another there's you know I would love to just read the entire letter of first John but I you know that would take too long to go through the whole thing that's uh I want to encourage you to to when you have some time go back and reread that letter first John and see what John's talking about there because he has a lot of really great stuff to say and a lot of it is been on my mind lately looking at just kind of the broad scope of things that you know what's going on in this movement the Messianic movement the Hebrew roots movement and things that I'm seeing you know in various places has really got me thinking about things and really kind of giving me a kind of a a gut check or heart check and the same what what are we really doing what are we really supposed to be doing and are we in in step with what we're supposed to be doing and I think so many times it's easy for us to lose sight of what's important and get distracted by other things and it's so easy to do in this in this world we live in today and I you know I'm reminded of the story where the time when when you sure was walking on the water right and Peter steps out of the boat and starts walking towards him and then he gets distracted by the winds and the waves and he starts to sink and it's because he took his focus off of what was important he took his focus off of Yeshua the one who was able to cause him to walk on water and I think that I think that that's happening a lot and I've seen it in my own life I've seen it in other people's lives I've seen it all over the place it's so easy for us to to take our eyes off of Messiah take our eyes off of what's important and to get distracted by other stuff and so I've been praying about kind of what's what it was that that God is wanting us to do as a community as a congregation and I've been praying for what kind of vision he wants us to have that would guide us and keep us focused and keeps us in the right direction and so the vision that I feel like God has been been leading me to is that we are to be a community of believers who embody the great Commandments and embrace the Great Commission we embody the great Commandments and we embrace the Great Commission now what does that mean so the great commandment is love the Lord your God with all your heart soul - strength but he went oh he said in the second is like it love your neighbor as yourself and I read from first John this morning and if you're familiar first John which I'm sure most of you are he goes on and he says that if you if someone claims to love God or claims to know God but he doesn't love his neighbor if it is a liar someone who claims to love God and doesn't keep the commandments he's a liar you know he uses these kinds of phrases he's tying in loving God with loving your neighbor loving God with keeping the commandments and we see all throughout the Bible where it says if you love me keep my Commandments the so the verse I read in 1st John also the very end has said we love him because he first of that he first loved us and I think a lot of people and I know this happens a lot and this was happening in the 1st century this is what Paul was writing against was people who get things flipped upside down and they say we need to keep the commandments so that we can be so that we can be saved there's you know sects of Judaism at the time in the 1st century they were teaching that's how you're saved you're saved by obedience to the commandments that's not what the Bible says and that's what part Paul was arguing against as so many of his letters that we're not saved by our obedience but we are saved through grace by faith in the blood of the Lamb we're saved through the sacrifice of the Messiah we're safe through his through his blood through his atoning sacrifice and is by the grace of God and is through our faith in Him that we have salvation but because He first loved us because he so loved us that He gave His only Son we in response to his love love him back and how do we do that the Bible says if you love me keep my Commandments over and over throughout the Bible says if you love me keep my Commandments and so that's why we obey that's why we keep his Commandments and when you read when you sure was talking about the great commandment he said that the all the law and the prophets hang on these two things to love God your neighbor and so everything written in the Torah is teaching us how to love God and how to love our neighbor and so if we're not being loving to our neighbor then we're not keeping the Torah we're not keeping the law correctly anyway and so I and and that's the thing that I'm noticing so much especially online in in social media and I you know I think maybe we should just all get off social media sometimes because it's so you know so frustrating attempts to see how people treat each other there because they don't I think you lose the human aspect when you get online and and you don't actually see a physical person in front of you you're just looking at a screen people treat each other horribly on there and it's like aren't we supposed to love each other this isn't this isn't how you love people and so it's just been you know it's kind of been a burden to me seeing that happen so much online and not that it really not so much of people I know personally but it's you know people who have somehow connected with me online and I see them posting stuff or sharing stuff or commenting on something I wrote or whatever and it's just there's so much anger and hatred and the thing that really bothers me most is the way that people in the Messianic in Hebrews movement look at Christians Jesus Yeshua said that we will know them by their love for one another and how you love your brother is is a reflection of your relationship with the father and I've heard so many Christian I mean so many people in the Hebrew some is a movement who will say things like oh those Christians they're all pagans they're all here they're not my brother they're your brother they may not have the exact same understanding of the scriptures of you but they are still our brothers we are Christians I think a lot of people in the Hebrew roots movement are afraid of that term Christian they don't want to be associated with it because they they they feel like there's some negativity and some baggage that comes along with it they say well if I say I'm a Christian then that means that I'm following after the church that Constantine set up in the third and fourth century no it's the word Christian came from the New Testament it come from Constantine it's you know we see in the book of accident Antioch they were first called Christians and so it was pre Constantine they were called Christians the book of Acts they were called Christians so to say we're Christian is not an unbiblical thing to say it's in the Bible you know same thing is to say we're messianic it's not an unbiblical thing it just means we follow the Messiah but so many times I see people who they start they start following after this kind of taken this walk and they start saying you know I'm gonna love God by keeping its Commandments I'm gonna start keeping the Torah keeping the Sabbath in the peace and then instantly they turn and they start lashing out against Christianity they start lashing out against the church they start lashing out against their friends and family people who love them who have loved them the whole life they're burning bridges and making people angry and just offending people all over the place and that's not how it's supposed to look and it's really got me thinking about things and I think it has to do with how we approach how we approach people with it because when we approach people that say you know what everything you've learned in church is wrong and they've been lying to you for for 2,000 years and now we need to show you the Bible really says the Bible says you're supposed to keep the Sabbath you know you see you you approach it like that and they're like oh my goodness I've been lied to my whole life the church is my enemy I need to distance myself from this horrible enemy of the church and I don't think that's how we should be approaching and I think that that's doing more damage than good think that's causing more harm then it's helping anybody and so as I've been praying about this and just seeking direction on this I I feel like God is wanting us to be more available and more approachable and what that may mean is maybe not so not look like we're such a different thing the way that we approach how we talk to people about this stuff you know it says you know man you do Christmas you're such a pagan you know that does that make somebody want to come listen to you I don't think that makes people want to listen to us I think that just puts up walls and they say oh I'm not gonna hear this guy he's just want to judge me and so if we've got to learn how to talk to people in a way that makes them interested in what we're having to say not put off bias and so I feel like what I want you know what I've I feel like God is telling us to do is it we're supposed to be like a bridge we're supposed to be making a way connecting people to you know to the Old Testament and the New Testament connecting people to keeping the law and following a schewe and you know we're bridged between Jew and Gentile we're bridge between Christian and Messianic were someplace in the middle where everybody doesn't want to be it sees you know it seems like so many people just want to cross over you know that you've heard you know Hebrew the great it means to cross over Abraham was the first Hebrew because he crossed over he seems like people just want to cross over and then like the bridge on fire and that's you know we need to be in a place where we can help people cross so we need to be a place where we can show people where's the good place to cross you know this is the narrow spot that's easy to cross don't cross over there you're gonna drown you know and that's the kind of thing that that I feel like we're supposed to be about though is we're we're a Ministry of reconciliation we're we're here to to mend fences not to break them we're here to point people to the Father to encourage people to love them to lift them up you know I don't I don't want to be a place that's you know people look at us and they say oh that's the what's that what's that church that Baptist Church up in Kansas the Westboro yeah I don't I don't want to get that kind of reputation you know like oh those those those people over there they're the ones that they're always talking about how horrible everybody is they hate everybody I think everybody's pagan that's that's the reputation that that a lot of places have and I don't think that's what we're supposed to be about we're supposed to be loving people and pointing to the Father and helping them to love him more and when you think about it that way instead of saying oh well Christians they don't keep all the commandments so they're you know they're they're all pagan that's you know that's not the way we're supposed to be looking at it you know if you think about it most Christians keep probably 80 percent of the Torah and they don't even know it you're not even thinking about it because they're being a good neighbor they're being a good husband they're being a good employee they're just they're honest they're loving they're kind they help the poor they're doing a huge majority of the commandments and they're not doing it because they read it and they got a checklist and they're checking her office saying nope I'm keeping that one they're just doing it because they love people and they love God and they want to do what's right and so when we approach it and say oh you're not keeping the commandments well that's not true they are keeping the commandments they're just not keeping all of them they're not keeping the Sabbath and I keep it the feast tonight eating clean but they're keeping a huge chunk of Commandments and for us to judge them and say you're not this that's hypocritical of us because I think so many time in the Messianic movement we get so hyper focused on are you keeping the Sabbath right are you keeping the Sabbath on the right day or you keep them Passover on the right day or you keeping you you got to make sure that that doesn't have this special enzyme in that food or else you know we get so nit picky about how we keep certain Commandments and then we totally forget about loving our neighbor totally forget about helping the poor totally forget about just doing what's right and helping the community and being a good person and speaking kindly to people and so I think we need to kind of take a step back sometimes and just say what's my focus on what am I doing here yes we are to keep the Sabbath yes we're to keep the peace yes we're D clean but we need to be people who love more than all that you think about what Paul said in first Corinthians 13 all right you said if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels but have not love excuse me I'm a resounding gong right if I you know if I have all knowledge and all wisdom and and have faith that can move mountains but have not love it's worthless right and so we you know he's saying that is the key the greatest commandment love the Lord your God with all your heart soul - strength and love your neighbor as yourself it's all about love it's not about having the right date on the calendar it's not about being you know so nitpicky about you know if we step outta line a little bit there's there's grace and liberty and and love that is being spoken of in the Bible and we we get distracted and lose sight of that stuff and so I feel like I was saying we need to be a people who embody the great Commandments we embody it we live it out we love God and love people and that means we keep the commandments that means we keep the Torah but we do it through love is that is everybody following along is that making sense is is that in agreement with your own spirit with your own heart okay and then the second part is that we embrace the great commandment what does that mean the great commandment go into all the nations make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father Son the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded that's the great commandment right over the Great Commission right go make disciples baptizing them and teaching them to obey and so that is that is something that I think we really need to embrace that we are you know it's not it's not the job of one person to go make disciples it's not the job of a pastor it's not the job of an elder it's not the job of a deacon it's not the job of a priest it's the job of anyone who is a follower of Messiah if you were a disciple of Messiah then you are called to go make disciples and so we are all we all have this same Commission it's not just for a couple of us a few of us that we are all given a commission to go make disciples and so that is that is something I think we need to keep our focus on and so that's what the vision is vision is what are you looking at what are you keeping your focus on the great Commandments and the Great Commission the two things that the Bible tells us are most important right and so that's where we need to keep our focus and it's it's Yeshua our Messiah is our foundation that all other ground is sinking sand that we have got to keep our firm our feet feet firmly planted on the solid rock of Messiah because if we if we don't if we're not playing it firmly Messiah we're gonna get to wander away and we're gonna fall into some kind of a sand trap and it's gonna be a mess and that's what I see so much of online that's happening on different places that people are getting they're getting distracted there they're taking their feet off the solid ground they're taking their eyes off the Messiah they're not abiding in his love they're not abiding in him and they're weeds springing up all over the place and you know Messiah told the parable about the the sower you state told the number of parables about agriculture but the sower and the soils you have the the soil that he sews the seed some of it fell on the rocky places some of it fell among the weeds someone fell in the past someone fell on the good soil everybody wants to be good soil right nobody says oh man I'm the rocky side oh you guys check out all the weeds I've got growing in my patch nobody nobody envisions that of themself right everybody says I'm good soil I know I'm good soil I don't have to worry about the weeds and the rocks he gave a warning for a reason there are probably rocks and weeds in all of us and we've got to get rid of the rocks and weeds so that we can become good soil right and so so many times we need to just take a step back and reevaluate and say you know God search my heart test me and tell me if I'm doing what is right am i keeping my focus on you am i am i doing my best to love the way you've taught me to love am i doing my best to live my life the way you've taught me to live or am i just am i getting sidetracked by all this other stuff and so that's that's that's the mess I have for you today is that we are to be a people who embody the great Commandments and embrace the Great Commission and I want to encourage you to to take some time over the next couple weeks to just do some self-evaluation see where you're at and pray that God would get you get you where you need to be and hopefully everybody's gonna say oh yes I am good soil but if there's some rocks and some weeds just get him out of there

Channel: The Grafted Church

Views: 3,344

Rating: 4.9487181 out of 5

Keywords: grafted church vision, Grafted Church, the grafted church, love your neighbor, church online, Torah Portion, sabbath service, sabbath sermon, sabbath teaching, the Great Commandment, the Great Commission, love one another, sermon, hebrew roots movement, embody the Great Commandment, love the Lord your God, how to love God, Bible Teaching, jesus christ, love, god, Lex Meyer, messianic church, messianic movement, Love God, bible, christianity, vision, the Shema

Id: P8zEt2APbCs

Length: 22min 13sec (1333 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 20 2017