Read the sermon · 25 min
A mission statement for right now
Before we get started, if you brought your Bibles we are going to be in Second Corinthians chapter five quite a bit this morning. We're going to be in other places, but mainly in Second Corinthians chapter five. It's a pretty well known text, I think, for those of you who have a background in church, and if you don't have a background in church then that's awesome, because I'm glad that I get to share it with you and I think you're going to love it, Lord willing.
Last week Josh introduced the new mission statement that the leadership of New Hope has been thinking about for a little while now. It says we exist to help people find hope in Jesus Christ. Here's what I love about this statement: it's not something that talks about what we will be one day. It's not worded like we exist to one day, or we exist to eventually help people find hope in Jesus Christ. It's in the present. It's what we're doing now. But even more, there are attributes, there are spiritual disciplines to this mission statement that are not just outright said, and today it's one of these attributes that I want to focus on this morning.
If we're going to adhere as a church to this mission statement as a body of believers, then the foundation of completing this is that we need to be in community. More specifically, a gospel centered community. It's even in our name: New Hope Community Church.
We cannot help but form communities
I think it's interesting because as humans, no matter where geographically in the world that we find ourselves, we tend to cluster together in communities. There's a sociologist and a consultant based out of Toronto, his name is Aaron Williamson, and he put together a pretty fascinating model that basically describes that when any one of these things, when intent, identity, interest, or experience, when any one of those things overlap, communities form around those things. As a sociologist it's way more complex than that in a hurry, but that's the gist of it. Or here's another way to say it: humanity can't help but form communities.
This is also reflected biblically, as we are created to be in community. Even from Genesis chapter one we have God saying let us make man in our image, and we were set apart and we were different from the animals, different from the rest of creation. Then in Genesis 2 we're introduced to man and woman, naked and unashamed. This naked and unashamed part is a beautiful picture of the vulnerability in the community that we in creation had with God in the second chapter of the Bible. God, man, woman.
The first verse that we see God introduce woman is Genesis chapter 2 verse 18, that's when that section starts. Then in Genesis chapter 3 verse 6 we see that they both ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the fall of man happens. So for those of you who don't have to count, I counted for all of us, that is 14 verses in all of Scripture that we have this beautiful picture of God, man, woman, in community as it was designed. Fourteen verses from that moment until sin is introduced into the picture and then fractures everything.
The fracture and the story of redemption
We have this immediate fracture that we can see between God and man, right in that moment. Then what happens? They noticed that they were naked, and now they're ashamed. And then God shows up with this question, basically asking, who told you that you were naked? And Adam says, that woman that you gave me. Which is kind of a weird response from someone who just 12 verses earlier was saying, this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. And God, what happened? Woman happened. Typical guy. Just kidding, but seriously.
So what happened after that fracture? Their children, Cain and Abel. Cain murders Abel. Fracture. The Bible, the story of redemption from that moment on until today, we have Jesus Christ. That's what it's about, is healing this fracture.
We were made to long for communion with our Lord. We were made to long to have a deep communion with one another. But what do we so often seem to get instead of that? Kind of a loose connection with others.
Surface level connection never satisfies
Hear me out for a second before I get into this next section. I kind of want to preface this by saying that I have social media accounts and I post on there sometimes and I like to see what my friends and family are up to and all of those kinds of things, and I think that there's potential for meaningful conversations to happen on social media, that that can exist. But so often on social media we're scrolling through and we see posts like, oh, Jim had Jason's Deli for lunch. That's cool. And then, in the grand scheme of things, what a shallow and surface level way of interacting with one another.
Here's what I mean. What if you told your friend in person, face to face, hey, I had this new sandwich at Jason's Deli, I haven't tried it before and it's incredible, you gotta try it. And they respond to you like that. You'd think that you're friends with a psychopath. No one responds that way. Yet so often we base our worth and our satisfaction off of even less than that. I think it's so easy to search for it in the number of people that say they like us, not even to our face but just virtually.
The thing with that is that it never truly satisfies our soul. There's not enough little thumbs up that any person in existence could ever see that would truly satisfy their soul. And so I wonder, why? Do you think that as you scroll through social media, Instagram, Facebook, whatever it is, you kind of feel this desire to be getting more than you're getting? Maybe do you think that it's because you were designed to be getting more than you're getting? The desire for real community.
No one escapes community
Being in a community is inescapable, it's going to happen. Even in high school we see this play out, because what do we have? We have athletes that are in a community together, band kids in a community together, orchestra kids in a community together, theater kids in a community together, future bosses of America or nerds in a community together. Even ironically the kids against the establishment are in a community together, never just one, they're in a group. You're in a community with those against community, if that's where you land. You can't escape it, there's no escaping it.
My point is this, that no one escapes from the communal nature of humankind. So then the question would be, why not have that communal nature be based and rooted in the one who designed it? Real biblical community.
The ministry of reconciliation
Let's look together at Second Corinthians chapter 5, starting in verse 17.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
What an incredible passage. As believers, what this is saying is that when we become believers there's a fundamental shift in my identity. These attributes that I could have once used to describe myself don't primarily describe me anymore. I'm a son to my parents, but I'm not primarily a son. I'm a student, I'm not primarily a student. I'm a husband, sorry Cassie, I'm not primarily a husband. I'll even say this: my title here at New Hope is associate pastor, but I'm not primarily a pastor. I'm primarily a follower of Christ.
Identity therefore is in Christ. It's not in my title, it's not in my studying, or in my marriage. It's not in my role as a son. Sure, these are all attributes about me and characteristics that I take incredibly seriously, but it's not my identity. My identity is in Christ. I'm primarily a follower of Christ, and so we all have different attributes, but we're all primarily as believers followers of Christ, and that's where our identity is.
Thank God for that. I thank God that my identity is in the perfection of Jesus and not in the imperfections that I'm going to inevitably bring to every one of those attributes at some point. I know it's hard maybe for all of you to believe I'm not the perfect pastor, husband, son, or student, but it's true. And thank God that my identity doesn't rest in those imperfections that I bring.
A shared identity in Christ
Even more, I think how awesome that given all of the different attributes that all of us have, as believers we've been bought by the blood of Christ and adopted into his family of believers. I think how awesome it is that we have a shared identity under Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, and how awesome that our identity rests solely in this, to the point that it transcends anything else that we as humans may feel tempted to do, like make comparisons of one another, things that make us similar or things that make us different.
I'll put this kind of community, this family of believers, in perspective. In this community of believers whose identity is found in Christ, that means that you and I have more in common with an Iranian national who loves Christ than with a Tennessean who wants nothing to do with him.
The same story
That's because in this community of faith, we have the same story. You might be thinking, no we don't, you don't know my past. That's fair enough. So let's make a spectrum here, let's look at two ends of a spectrum, and let's see if any of us can relate to either of these.
At one end, see if you identify with this, we have those of you who maybe were blessed enough to grow up in a household in which faith was nurtured. Maybe you were encouraged to go to church. And as a child, maybe encouraged means that even though as a child you may have just been pretending to be asleep and hoped that your parents wouldn't realize and just go on to church and leave a five or six year old at home because they forgot him. Which that tactic doesn't work ever, and that's not definitely a personal anecdote.
Maybe you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior at a young age. You couldn't really articulate all that much, but you knew that you believed in Jesus, you knew that you believed that he died for your sins, and you accepted him. Later you're baptized. Maybe that continues, maybe you've never been drunk, high, any of that, just the epitome of moral values and character. If there was a test, maybe you're the teacher. Maybe further, you don't ever cuss unless it's on I-24 or I-65 or Franklin Road or Concord when someone's going 35 and the speed limit's clearly 40. No one's in front of them, you know they could go faster, so why aren't they? But church starts in three minutes, and you walk in like, hey good morning, great to see you. None of us do that, right?
Maybe you were on the other side of things. Maybe you were born into a dark place, not a good family situation. Maybe you liked any sort of comfort, so you searched for comfort anywhere that you could possibly find it. Maybe that comfort was found at the bottom of a bottle or in drugs. Maybe there's weekends that are just gone from your memory. And you wonder, okay, how could I have anything in common with the person on that other side of the spectrum, that first person that I described? There's been shame and regret all along the way, until Christ came into the picture.
So maybe you fit into one of those camps. Maybe I just described you perfectly. Or more likely, maybe you find yourself somewhere in between those two positions. I would wager that most of us here probably find ourselves somewhere in between there.
The same starting place
So the question is, how do any of us then have the same story, if every one of us has a different background, a different past? Let's look at Psalm chapter 51 verse 5, when David says this:
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Franklin Graham said this, on the same kind of note, and I think it's very appropriate and very powerful given our discussion today and the passage that we just read. He said, you can't be born a Christian. Being born the son of Billy Graham didn't make me a Christian. Neither did being raised in a strong church, nor the prayers of my grandparents, nor memorizing Scripture, nor the good deeds I tried to do.
We don't inherit our parents' faith. But we inherit so much more. As believers, we inherit Christ. It's interesting, because you can be born Jewish, you can be born Muslim, you can be born Hindu. Christianity is exclusive. You cannot be born a Christian.
We all have the same story because we all have the same starting place, regardless of where we find ourselves, and that starting place is in Romans 3:23.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
Without Christ, on our very, very best day, it's like we're a wide receiver on a sixth grade football team that doesn't even pass the ball. And again, not a personal experience.
The point that I don't want any of us to miss is that we all need Christ, because there's no salvation outside of him. We have the same foundation, we have the same start to the story, we have the same end to the story as believers. The beautiful thing is that whether you were raised in the household that encouraged going to church and following Christ or not, we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Both sides. We both need Jesus to save us.
The same assignment
Let's review a little bit. We have the same foundation, the same story, because we have the same Lord and Savior. As believers we're on the same team, we're all in the same family of faith as believers in Christ. In addition to those things, we also have the same assignment. We see this in our section in Second Corinthians today. Let's read that again, starting in verse 18.
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
Even though we have the same identity in Christ and we're in the same family, like I mentioned earlier, we also all have our different attributes. We have different domains in which we live. One of the ones that I mentioned earlier for me, associate pastor, so directly my domain is vocational ministry. But you all have different ones. Maybe your domain is in sales, maybe it's in teaching, education, maybe it's in retail or law or government, you name it.
Regardless of the domain that we occupy, we still all have the same assignment: to be ambassadors of Christ. And I'll say this: God's plan to save the lost isn't preachers. It's all of us. It's ambassadors of Christ in all these different domains spreading the gospel.
Again, the mission of New Hope, we exist to help people find hope in Jesus Christ. That mission statement doesn't just end when you walk out of the sanctuary, or when you walk out of the doors to this building, when you're in your car and you cross the property line. It doesn't only extend to the property line. It's the mission of this church, it's our mission, the people of this church.
When someone is seeking Christ, they should never be far off from finding him, because you're there. In all the different domains that we occupy, we should be sharing the message of reconciliation as ambassadors of Christ, helping people find hope in Jesus Christ.
We have one another
In that light and in that truth, really, how similar are all of us? Regardless of the differences that it's so easy as humans to just look at, and almost involuntarily the differences or the similarities that we immediately point to, but regardless of upbringing, none of us simply just inherited our parents' faith, because the reality is so much more beautiful than that. The reality is that we have the same Savior, and that Savior found us right where we were.
In all of this we have one another. Specifically I'm talking about us, as New Hope. We're a subset, we're part of the universal church, capital C church. God has brought us together specifically in this room, or if you're watching online, brought us together today. So please hear me when I say this: we're here because I need you. Josh needs you. Sarah, Sutton, Lauren, Gavin, Karen. We all need you and you need us.
We all have giftings, we all have insights and ways of seeing things, experiences to share. With everything that we have in common, when we share things and when we dive into community together, when we dive into these beyond just surface level connections or conversations, what we do is we end up equipping each other in this shared assignment and mission, so that we can do all that God is calling us as believers and us as New Hope to do.
From attending to belonging
I haven't been in ministry that long really, in the grand scheme of things. If you counted an internship in Vegas and worked there for a little bit after that, right at five years working in a church. But I've been in church a long time, 30 plus years. I've heard time and time again people say, I go to so and so church. And that's awesome, I love hearing that. But I also wonder how many times it might be more accurate if we add the phrase, when I go to church, I go to so and so church.
It's my prayer for the church, New Hope included, but the capital C church, that it would just be amazing to see that we move away from the measurement being attending church, to move from that but rather to belonging to a church, belonging to a community of believers.
I'm so excited to be a part of New Hope at this specific time, because God has brought us together, each of us in this room. Think about it this way: I didn't choose specifically for every one of you to be here this morning. You didn't choose for this exact group of people to be here this morning. God did. And thank God for that, because we're here in community with our specific domains, our skills, our attributes, our backgrounds, that God has had us here today to accomplish his will. He has us here in this area at this specific time. I truly thank God for this incredible community.
All the pieces overlap
So again, what do we have? We have the same Savior, we have the same foundation or story, we have the same assignment, we have each other. But even more, as a community, if you notice what we talked about at the very beginning, what defines a community, all the pieces are here. Remember when I was saying whenever any one of those things happen to overlap between two people, be that identity or experience, when any one of those things interact, a community is formed. But in this community that God's brought together, they all overlap. We have the same intent, it's the same assignment. We have the same identity in Christ our Lord. We have the same interest, we have each other. We have the same experience, the same foundation or story.
I don't believe that God is calling us to this kind of loose, surface level connection with other believers. I don't believe that that God who loved us so much that he sent his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him shall have eternal life, that God who made us in his image and longs to have deep communion with us, with a relationship, I don't believe that he wants us to have those kinds of surface level relationships. It's not a character form.
What deep community requires
Our souls long for deep communion with our Lord and with one another. But to get there, well, that involves some things from us. It involves things like being vulnerable to each other, and that could feel risky at times. It involves time, beyond just the simple, oh hello, how are things, it's good to see you, I'll see you next week. Beyond that, it involves time. It involves trust. And it requires grace with one another.
One of the things when I very first started at New Hope, it was probably back like I started May 1st, this was probably told me like May 2nd by someone on staff at the time, and it's been so true to this day, is that this is one of the most graceful churches that I've ever seen. But it also requires forgiveness with others.
These are all things that it's super easy for me to have written out and just to tell you, this is what it requires, so here it is. Actually doing it, now that might be a little bit different. That requires taking a step. Maybe for you that requires taking a pretty big step. That's not easy, and I'm aware of that.
So many of us, I think we kind of naturally go to this form of self protection, maybe from conversations that might leave us feeling a little vulnerable, this thought of, oh, they can't know that about me. So some of us defend from having those conversations through humor, maybe telling jokes when things start to get real, or just putting up a shield and not letting conversations go there at all. We move away from relationships altogether at the fear of being vulnerable and real with someone else.
One of the very best things that I have found in my life is to move towards relationships in which I can be vulnerable with specific people in my life. There's accountability there. They can call me out when I need to be called out, and they know that I'm not going to take it personally, because I know that we have the same goal, and I trust them.
Getting to that space of vulnerability, that's not easy to get to, and I totally get that. But I want to encourage all of you: move towards those deeper relationships. Be willing to let others in. Be willing to let others know you. Because as believers we have the same goal, we have the same intent. So be willing to put the shield down. Be willing to put down any sort of projected image that you may have of yourself.
One body, many members
This isn't just me sitting up here saying do these things, so this 31 year old guy on stage and now you have to do them because he's saying to do it. We see this biblically as well, in First Corinthians chapter 12 verses 14 through 21. If you're still in your Bible, just a few pages over to the left.
For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,' that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, 'Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,' that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.'
I love that when the Bible discusses working together and growing and the connectedness of believers, it does so in an organic way in which it describes it. It's not this kind of, I think our society would probably prefer this more, mechanical immediate gratification of like community growth satisfaction, well here's an app. Rather, at the root of this passage Paul's painting this picture that we have a deep need for one another, and he's doing this in the form of a human body. It's a singular organism, it's made up of many different parts that each serve a wide variety of different functions, and all of those functions matter. The body needs each member to do its part.
As such, we're therefore called to respect and to value each other for the vital roles that we serve as a body of believers. The point is that we're growing together as a body of believers, and he's showing that this is what it looks like for us to be a community of believers, for us to be connected as believers: hurting together, rejoicing together, empathizing with one another.
The aspen grove
Beyond that, we see this in God's creation, we see this in nature as well, organically. I brought a photo. If you are up on your trees, you might notice that this is a grove of aspen trees, one of the most common trees in the United States. But there's something pretty unique about these trees. Each one of those trees on the ridge in this photo, none of those trees are an individual tree. That's because aspen groves grow as a singular organism. They all have the same root system. These aspens grow out of the same roots, out of one organism.
So as we're looking at this grove on the screen, we're not looking at just a ton of different trees all competing for sunlight and competing for space and competing for nutrients. We're looking at a grove of trees that's sharing the sunlight, supporting one another, sharing nutrients with one another. The taller trees drink in the sunlight and they share that with the shorter trees. Then the nutrients from the soil get brought in and get shot up into the taller trees.
This specific photo that we're looking at, in my notes I have it is the largest aspen grove in the US, I looked it up later, it's the largest aspen grove in the world. This is just a tiny little percentage of it, and it's in Utah, in Fishlake National Forest, and it's called the Pando, which is Latin for I spread. The Pando clone is what this grove is called. What's interesting is that scientists have estimated that it consists of about 47,000 shoots of trees. How amazing.
Closing encouragement and prayer
My encouragement, my desire for all of us is to be involved in the community of the church, to be open with one another, to be developing those intentional relationships, and growing as a community of believers together. We have the same Savior, we have the same assignment, we have the same foundation, we have one another.
Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for your word, thank you for the church, thank you for everyone here today. I just pray that we move towards action, as opposed to just showing up and listening and then going about our day. I pray that we grow closer together in community, that we take those big steps and those intentional steps to do so. I pray that you be with us, you give us the words to say and then the wisdom and discernment that we need in order to best fulfill the Great Commission. I pray that we do that as a body of believers, ultimately glorifying you and your name. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.