{"id":351,"date":"2010-03-04T09:16:16","date_gmt":"2010-03-04T14:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/?p=351"},"modified":"2010-03-04T09:16:16","modified_gmt":"2010-03-04T14:16:16","slug":"spreading-a-passion-through-the-overflow-of-your-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/2010\/03\/04\/spreading-a-passion-through-the-overflow-of-your-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Spreading a Passion Through the Overflow of Your Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Why are we here?<\/p>\n<p>Why are we here as a church? Why are we here as individuals?<\/p>\n<p>Why doesn\u2019t God just open our eyes to see the magnificence of Jesus, save us by grace through faith \u2013 and then translate us into His presence? Why doesn\u2019t He immediately remove us from this world? It seems like that would result in our having a lot more joy and a lot less sorrow. Think of the various sorrows you would not have experienced had He acted that way.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, if God\u2019s goal were to minimize the pain that His people go through after salvation, undoubtedly He would take us to Himself immediately.<\/p>\n<p>But He doesn\u2019t. Why not? That is: Why are we here?<\/p>\n<p>Over the six years of our existence as a church, we answered that question with different phrases. Our mission statement is a direct answer to that question: We exist as a church to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ. We have taught that the Bible gives the church a threefold purpose: Expressing joy in Christ, deepening joy in Christ, and spreading joy in Christ. The first two occur both now and in eternity. The last is peculiar to our time in this world.<\/p>\n<p>Scripture uses different images to get this point across:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Paul says we are \u201c<strong>ambassadors <\/strong>for Christ, God making his appeal through us\u201d (2 Corinthians 5:20).<\/li>\n<li>Jesus      refers to us as those who are <strong>sent out<\/strong>: \u201cAs the Father has sent me,      even so I am sending you&#8221; (John 20:21)<\/li>\n<li>Our      Savior tells us we are to <strong>lovers of God<\/strong>: \u201cYou shall love the Lord      your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your      mind\u201d (Matthew 22:37)<\/li>\n<li>And He      tells us we are to be <strong>lovers of our neighbors<\/strong>: \u201cYou      shall love your neighbor as yourself\u201d (Matthew 22:39).<\/li>\n<li>When      we live this way by His grace through His Spirit, we are <strong>godlike, <\/strong>spreading      His image: \u201cAs he is so also are we in this world\u201d (1 John 4:17).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Do you see the connections among these descriptions of us? As John Piper notes, \u201cYou can\u2019t commend what you don\u2019t cherish.\u201d If we are spread a passion for Him, we must be passionate about Him. Then we can be His ambassadors, sent by Him, like Jesus, both the proclaim the Good News, and to live out the Good News in acts of love. In this way, we truly are like Him in this world, displaying His image, His likeness<\/p>\n<p>So this is why we are here. God gives us Himself, and then He gives us pain, He gives us trials, He gives us challenges \u2013 as well as joys, successes, and accomplishments \u2013 <em>so that we might display Who He is. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>So every pain, every trial, every challenge is an opportunity to display the glory of God. We will display that glory <em>if <\/em>in the midst of trials we remember Who He is, live in accordance with that truth, and proclaim that truth to others.<\/p>\n<p>If we, then, are here in this world rather than in God\u2019s presence in order to spread joy in Christ, how does this spreading happen?<\/p>\n<p>Let me answer that in a roundabout way. Trust me that we\u2019re going to get back to biblical spreading.<\/p>\n<p>In a program-driven church, spreading occurs in large measure through scheduled activities:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cWe do      evangelism 10am to noon Saturday mornings. Come out with us and speak of      who Jesus is.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cTuesday      nights at 7 we have a class on sharing the Gospel. Come learn how to      spread!\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThursday      evenings at 6pm we offer a meal and then a course that takes 6 weeks to      explain the Gospel to unbelievers. Bring your unsaved friends!\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>None of those activities are bad. We have often done similar activities. We may do all again in the future.<\/p>\n<p>The problem arises when we attend a Saturday morning evangelistic effort and then say, \u201cOK, I can check off evangelism for this week!\u201d Paul did not say, \u201cWe are ambassadors for Christ two hours each week.\u201d We <em>are <\/em>ambassadors. We <em>exist <\/em>to spread joy in Christ. We are <em>always <\/em>as He is in this world.<\/p>\n<p>So the biblical mandate is to <em>be <\/em>an ambassador, to <em>be <\/em>a sent one, to <em>be <\/em>one who loves God with all your heart.<\/p>\n<p>One who <em>is<\/em> an ambassador of Christ may well structure formal activities in order to live out that calling. But he <em>is <\/em>an ambassador all the time. And we certainly cannot schedule love for God with all our heart for a few hours each week!<\/p>\n<p>So what are we aiming at here at Desiring God Community Church?<\/p>\n<p>We aim to be a community of God-enamored people, of Gospel-enamored people, spurring each other on to love Him all the more, speaking to each other out of overflowing hearts about who Jesus is. As my friend Tim Cain puts it, we want DGCC to be a church where we exhort one another, \u201cTell me something that you learned this week that blows you away about the majesty of Jesus.\u201d We want to leave Sunday morning services asking each other, \u201cWhat did you see of the glory of God the Father in that sermon?\u201d \u201cWhat lyrics or Scriptures today thrilled you about the person of Jesus?\u201d We want to come together in small groups and ask, \u201cWhat have you seen of God\u2019s character in your devotions this week?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So, a program-driven church might emphasize that everyone should be in a small group in order to get to know a few people well, to feel attached to the church, to give each person a task, with the goal of assimilating everyone into the life of the church.<\/p>\n<p>Once again, those are not bad things. Hopefully our small groups will yield those secondary benefits.<\/p>\n<p>But in a Gospel-enamored church, small groups are a scheduled opportunity to do what should be happening all the time: Fulfilling the biblical one another commands.<\/p>\n<p>Here is a partial list of those commands (<a title=\"One Another Commands\" href=\"http:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/dgcc\/oneanother.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">here is a complete list<\/a>, with references)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Love one another      (earnestly, from a pure heart)<\/li>\n<li>Abound in love for one      another<\/li>\n<li>live in harmony with one      another<\/li>\n<li>do not pass judgment on      one another<\/li>\n<li>welcome one another<\/li>\n<li>greet one another<\/li>\n<li>care for one another<\/li>\n<li>serve one another<\/li>\n<li>bear one another&#8217;s burdens<\/li>\n<li>bear with one another in      love<\/li>\n<li>be kind to one another<\/li>\n<li>Address one another in      psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs<\/li>\n<li>submit to one another<\/li>\n<li>do not lie to one another<\/li>\n<li>forgive one another<\/li>\n<li>teach one another<\/li>\n<li>admonish one another<\/li>\n<li>encourage one another<\/li>\n<li>exhort one another<\/li>\n<li>build one another up<\/li>\n<li>do good to one another<\/li>\n<li>stir up one another to      love and good works<\/li>\n<li>do not speak evil against      one another<\/li>\n<li>do not grumble against one      another<\/li>\n<li>confess your sins to one      another<\/li>\n<li>pray for one another<\/li>\n<li>show hospitality to one      another<\/li>\n<li>clothe yourselves with      humility toward one another<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>My friends, these are the marks of a Gospel-enamored church. These are the marks of hearts changed by God\u2019s grace. Out of the overflow of that grace, in chance meetings and in scheduled meetings, we give grace to one another, we speak of God\u2019s grace to one another. Our cups overflow in word and deed. Speaking of Christ to one another becomes natural.<\/p>\n<p>So what does this have to do with spreading? Much in every way!<\/p>\n<p>First, when speaking of Christ is natural with believers, <em>speaking of Christ will also become natural with unbelievers. <\/em>We will then commend what we cherish. \u201cOut of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks\u201d (Matthew 12:34).<\/p>\n<p>Second, when such interactions are common among us, <em>the church as a whole is a tremendous witness to the truth of the Gospel. <\/em>When we live out the \u201cone another\u201d commands, others will notice the depth of our relationships, the extent of our love, the sincerity of our concern, and the quality of our joy. Living in this way commends the Gospel in ways that words never will.<\/p>\n<p>So will you pray to this end? Will you pray that we would be such a community? Will you pray that each of us individually might be so enamored with Christ that our lips cannot but speak of Him? Will you pray that our life together would be characterized by the fulfillment of these one another commands?<\/p>\n<p>And will you pray that we then might indeed spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why are we here? Why are we here as a church? Why are we here as individuals? Why doesn\u2019t God just open our eyes to see the magnificence of Jesus,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,15,16],"tags":[482,706,1105,1116,1266,1694],"class_list":["post-351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-devotions","category-evangelism-blog","tag-evangelism","tag-heart","tag-one-another","tag-overflow","tag-purpose","tag-why-do-we-exist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}