You Get What You Preach

The video is here.

There is a shift happening among many believers in terms of the message that they are hearing. Said from the other perspective, the gospel of sin management or the gospel of salvation is being expanded to the gospel of the Kingdom. We are not throwing away any of the aspects of redemption or Jesus’ work on the cross. God’s people are simply moving into a higher realm of maturity. There is some trauma in the institutional church because believers gradually understand the gospel of the Kingdom and its implications. I want to suggest that whining about pastors and churches is not particularly productive. We all go through a stage in our walk when we are servants, and it’s very natural, to mature and move into our Kingly calling and find our mountain. The personal trauma is that the gospel of salvation feels incomplete, as we try to identify our Kingdom role in a mountain in our culture and make a difference. It’s a different sounding message.

The movement – It’s not uncommon to find those who are vocal about the inadequacies of the institutional church, but still share much of the gospel of salvation. I simply want to sharpen our message in this newsletter. The disciples we produce are the product of our message. The gospel of salvation produces servants who are quite content to sit, and the gospel of the Kingdom produces disciples who find their mountain and build the Kingdom. If we are wise, we will see the maturity process moving from servant to King, and help people to build on their salvation instead of having an “either / or” mentality.

The Message – (see the table below) When we tell disciples to surrender and live in contentment, they surrender their dreams and accept their trials and sicknesses as holy. We need to pull them out of their passivity and teach them also to rule and reign with Jesus. If we involve them in building the local church, we should also pull the curtain back on the possibilities in the Kingdom and show them some examples of how to make a difference. We should teach them to experience the presence of God and to flow with His wisdom, His Word and His Spirit in the prophetic. We should also teach them to carry God’s presence into the marketplace and allow all those gifts to function well beyond the church. We should teach disciples generosity and giving, but we should also teach them to create wealth so they give from a cup that overflows. We should teach them how God esteems and loves the bride, but we should also show them how much fun it is to do what the Father is doing outside the four walls. We should teach them to serve faithfully in another man’s vision, but it should always be in the context of how it will serve their own preparation for their dream.

The purpose of the church is to equip the saints for ministry in the Kingdom. Our message, Biblically, really is the Gospel of the Kingdom. Salvation and church are pathways to get there. Very important, but they are doorways, not end states. Even heaven is not the end state. The Kingdom is here, eternity has already started for Kings.

Why is it important to get the message right? We all get saved by grace apart from any works we can offer the Father. Once that foundation is laid, the relationship with Jesus leads straight into “working” with him… It’s even greater works, more fun, bigger party. It’s a level of authority and influence we never dreamed possible.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Eph 2:8-10 NIV