Love in Action

Northland @ Oviedo has been moving each week towards a community wide movement of love, 7 days a week. Creating opportunities for the body of Christ to engage in the love of God and each other through the study of His Word, in gatherings all across town, and by serving one another on Sundays. 1 John 3:18 says, “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” There is a movement to the emotion of Love, it is not stationary or stagnant, love is both a noun and a verb. We cannot be called Disciples of Christ and not be soldiers of Love, He declares this is how the world will know we are His.

How do you love for His glory? How do ‘we’ love for His glory? Who do we love for His glory? How do we love for His glory?

The answers are simple, but not easy. We are to love everyone for His glory. From our family to neighbors, to coworkers, to…our enemies, those who don’t love us back, the unlovable! Remember the Sermon on the Mount? If not go read it again, Matthew 5, 6, 7 and into the beginning of Chapter 8. Jesus is clear, we are to be in this world, to bring glory to the Father, by loving in a radical way! Well before that all becomes too much to handle, maybe we ought to start small and easy. If it is essential that to truly love someone we must know them, and to truly know someone we must spend time with them, then it seems like the first step to loving others, and in turn to truly love God, is to get to spend some time getting know each other and Him better. I have an idea…

Get into a Secret Church gathering this fall. Signup for Sunday Serve. It is that simple!

Sunday Serve

So we spent last week talking about the power of living in community toward Christ. We looked at the early church and the Great Commission and thought about what it means to us today, here and now. We also talked at length about LOVE and the mark of the Disciples of Christ. We came to the conclusion that if we are to call ourselves Christians there must be something about us that agrees with that self-diagnosis. LOVE is the key, we must be marked by love for Him and for each other and to love someone, you must know them, and to know them you have to spend time with them. We want to make that as easy as possible in this busy world so we have launched these gatherings all over Oviedo and E Orlando this fall, to study God’s Word, so we can know Him by spending time with Him, which will allow us to love Him better and deeper. While doing that we will gather with other believers which will allow us to get to know them better by spending time with them and thus being capable of loving them better and deeper as well. Easy-peasy; so sign up to host or attend, whatever God is calling you to do, but just get started and be a part of it with us!

Since we are we making it that easy for the first part of this effort we thought we would help out and make it just as easy for the second part. One of the end results of loving better and deeper is living a life of worship to God by serving others in His name. This is glorifying the Father in heaven, as it says in 1 Peter 2:12 “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” James covers this in length as well in Chapter 2 on his treatment of faith and works and their interdependent parts, and in Radical, by David Platt it is said this way, “The means of our salvation is faith in Christ alone, and the basis of our salvation is the work of Christ alone. We are not saved by (works) but caring of the poor (among other things) is evidence of our salvation. The faith in Christ that saves us from our sins involves an internal transformation that has external implications.” To glorify God by serving others, seems simple enough yet I hear time and time again from people, “I would love to but I am just not sure how, when, where, etc?” Since the verse we landed on last week as motivation for all of this discussion was John 13:35 where Jesus tells his Disciples, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another”, we thought we would start there, by your loving service to one another.

Starting in September we are calling every single one of you to serve everyone else at least once this fall. We want you to come and serve from start to finish, serve all day, meet the 9 o clock crowd, the 11 o clock crowd, serve them all. We know this will be a challenge for some with kids, etc so the other option is to come and serve at one service and attend the other, but if this is your best option then do it twice this fall. Why? Because we need the help? NO!!!! Because this is how community is formed in deeper ways, this is how you get to know someone, which allows you to love them and like it or not, that is what He told us to do, and what would bring Him the greatest glory…our Love for one another! So get signed up right now, and who knows you might even like it and want to do it more!

Last week…This Fall…Secret Church

We were recently blessed by the preaching from Elder Fayez through one of our partner church relationships in Egypt. What an amazing message and time we had talking about how we can respond right here, right now. We talked about many gatherings throughout the Oviedo community this fall, studying Gods Word in a unique way that connects the each other, God and the church around the world, like Qasr El Dobar in Egypt. Its called Secret Church. Let me explain what this is and why we are encouraging everyone in Oviedo/E Orlando to participate.

First, remember we are Northland, A Church Distributed; distributed , across CFL and the whole world. One of the things Maggie and I have been stretched by is the consistent refocus not on ourselves but on the church around the world, from our DJs (which we had 16 people on 8 trips around the world from here in Oviedo), to the guest preachers, worship music, prayers, media and more we are often being reminded that we are a church distributed, everywhere, every day. In many places around the world, including where Elder Fayez is from, people have to meet in secret to study the word of God, these Christians who are all over the world may never experience what we are a part of every weekend. They don’t have lots of churches and services to choose from. They risk everything to be a believer, as the early church did. We need to know and remember that, to pray for them and experience what they are experiencing…an intense interaction with God and His Word and His people!

That brings me to the second point, and a passion of ours, and you know what it is. You’ve heard me say, “Church is not an event on Sunday, it is a people we are/become, 7 days a week.” It happens out there, living life together; in His Word, and in each other’s lives! That takes some other types of gatherings, some other times or places and it takes more than just community, more than just serving, it takes community with a purpose of becoming more like Christ together and as a result serving the world around us with His power!

Third, we are blessed each week with incredible preaching that directly impacts our life from God’s Word from Pastor Joel, Pastor Vernon and Dr Steve Brown. But what I have become keenly aware of is that many people have never thought about or read Gods Word for themselves and/or connected the whole story, His Story, to their own. Many do not read the Bible because they are intimidated and not sure how to start, or if it even connects with their life and our world. It does and they can!

The body of Christ around the world, the body of Christ gathered right here, the Word of God and the story it tells that connects us all from Adam and Eve to you and me, and from Egypt and India to Oviedo. I am convinced that this is what changed the world forever, what changed me, what is changing the world around us. It is that simple!

If you are interested in learning more about Secret Church this fall through Northland Oviedo please contact me (Jeremy.jobson@northlandchurch.net) ASAP for details.

Hospitality

As we continue to unpack what it means to love God and others, I am struck by the power of Hospitality. In one sense a gesture of love to others and in another sense a great picture of response by us to Him by being obedient to who He told us to be known as, men and women of love, and all that only possible because He loved us first!

We have had a team of people come together recently to think about the gift of Hospitality led by our own Cyndi Lott and WOW they are right on track. Their first meeting was not too long ago and in that meeting they remembered that this is not about bagels, decorations or crafts, although they can be a part it, this is about something much bigger than that. Their mission statement as a ministry makes it all very clear, “Lovingly serve our neighbors, our community and church family by connecting them to Christ and to one another through acts of hospitality“. That night Cyndi read from an article published online through Revive Our Hearts Ministry, taken from and interview with Leslie Basham and Nancy Leigh De Moss that aired on Tuesday, Dec 3, 2002 called: The Heart of Hospitality: Jesus the Ultimate Host. This week and next weeks articles will be from that interview because sometimes it is just said really well by someone else…enjoy! If you would like to be a part of the Northland Oviedo Hospitality team seeking to impact all of our Oviedo community for Christ, please contact Cyndi Lott (Cyndi.lott@northlandchurch.net).

Leslie Basham, “As you read the Book of Romans, you realize that the first several chapters are Paul talking about some pretty heavy doctrinal matters. He’s talking about the Gospel of Christ. Then as he comes to the second half of the Book of Romans he starts saying, “How does this affect the way that we live?” When we come to chapter 12 of Romans, Paul gives many practical exhortations about what it means to live out the Gospel of Christ. In verse 10 of Romans 12, Paul says “Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, having received what you have in Christ, now love one another.” Then he goes on to say “pursuing hospitality.”

We are talking about the ministry of hospitality and how, as we open our homes and hearts to other people, we manifest, we express the Gospel of Christ to them. We want to talk today about what Christian hospitality is.

What does it mean to be hospitable? The word hospitality in the New Testament comes from two Greek words. The first word means love and the second word means strangers. It’s a word that means love of strangers.

The dictionary talks about hospitality as giving a friendly welcome and kind or generous treatment offered to guests or strangers. Another dictionary defines hospitality this way, “The act of receiving and entertaining strangers or guests without reward and with kind and generous liberality, to be friendly, welcoming, kind and generous to guests or strangers.”

Now when I think of the word hospitality there are some other similar words that come to mind, words like hospital. And I wonder, Did these words have anything in common?”

“As I went back and studied them, I discovered that they did. For example, the word hospital in its original meaning was a place of shelter and rest for travelers, a charitable institution for providing and caring for the aged, the infirmed and the orphaned; a place where people are cared for.

I’ve experienced that kind of ministry as a guest in people’s homes numbers of times over the years as they have brought me into their home at times when my spirit just desperately needed to be refreshed or strengthened or encouraged. I’ve found in other people’s homes a hospital, a place where their hospitality was ministering to my wounded spirit.

I think of the word hospice. That’s another similar word. In the dictionary it says that a hospice is a place of shelter for travelers, a home for the sick or poor; a home-like facility to provide supportive care for terminally ill patients.

It’s a place where care is provided for people who are desperately needy and, as we have come to use the term today, a hospice is care for those who are terminally ill. Hospital, hospitality, hospice is a way of caring for those who are needy.

But there’s another word that is at the root of all of those words. It’s the word host–someone who receives or entertains guests, someone who entertains another at his own house without reward.

Now there’s an interesting concept when we think of the word host that shows us how hospitality, being a gracious host or hostess, ties us into the Gospel of Christ. Because, you see, the word host can also mean a victim or a sacrifice. It’s applied to our Savior who offered Himself for the sins of men.

He is our host. In fact in our liturgical churches when the Lord’s supper is served, the wafer, the piece of bread, is called the host. It speaks of representing the body of Christ that is offered and consecrated and eaten. We partake of His body symbolically during the Christian ceremony of communion. That says to me that Christian hospitality, being a godly host or hostess, takes us back to the cross. The cross is where Christ spread out and opened His arms, wide–He opened His arms wide to the world and He said, “I welcome you. I receive you.”

The cross is where Christ said, “I will die in your place so that I can be your host. Welcome to my Father’s house, welcome home. You are invited to my Father’s house. I want you to come home with me. I want you to live there with me.”

On the cross He became our host. Now He says to us “Open your arms, open your heart, lay down your life, give up your life, be willing to open your heart and your home to receive others as I have received you.” He did it without hope of reward and He said to us, “You do it whether you ever get rewarded for it or not.”

As He invites us to come and partake of Him, even as we partake of communion, we are reminded of the hospitality of God, the host that Christ is to us. Then we realize that we can be His representatives here on earth, opening our hearts, our arms and our homes to others and welcoming them to come with us into the home and heart of God.”

That whole interview is awesome to me and seen clearly in the ministry mission statement for this Northland @ Oviedo Hospitality team, “Lovingly serve our neighbors, our community and church family by connecting them to Christ and to one another through acts of hospitality”