Proclaiming Together - Life Together | Jeff Gokee | Week 2

Don't forget the mission. Paul's trying to get back to these people going, this reality is real. Don't forget the mission. Don't forget who you are. Don't forget what's primary and not secondary. And yes, it's hard. And yes, there's crazy stuff. But at the end of the day, our whole lives, all of our lives are all for Jesus. And that we would be one, and Paul will continue on in chapter one and into verse two or into chapter two by going by any means possible, be together. [00:30:40] (33 seconds)  #RememberTheMission

Three and a half years. Do you know what they do? They lean in and they ask questions, how is it? Because pain preaches. And here's what our world is looking for. What will you do when it gets hard? Is your faith on a foundation that just falters when situations come in and disrupt it? Or do you really believe this stuff? And guess what the body of Christ, the brothers and sisters of Christ are looking for? Hey, are are we we all on the same team here? And it emboldens us so pain preaches. [00:19:08] (32 seconds)  #FaithUnderFire

The non essential theology, do you know in the last church I served at, there was a coup of people coming up against the pastor in our church because he preached out of the message translation. 40 people that were trying to get this pastor kicked out of a church. What are we doing? We have local and international discrepancies by what we think should happen. Is it worth people not coming to see Jesus? You have a lot of personal preferences. So do I. Is it worth dividing the body of Christ over your personal preferences? [00:32:51] (52 seconds)  #UnityOverPreferences

And I want you to know this for me, I'm what's wrong with the church, I know it. I'm also what's right. I live in the tension of that paradox, of that reality. But each and every one of us has to say, listen, am I am I just the one that's constantly complaining? Am I the one that's trying to divide everywhere? Does that look like Jesus? And I get to own that. And I get to bring that before the spirit of God and I gotta ask him, help me Lord, help me see what I don't see because there's something bigger that you're driving me towards. Amen? [00:37:43] (33 seconds)  #OwnYourPart

And what has happened, Paul doesn't want us to divide. He wants us to go, look, this is going on. A part of deconstruction or church hurt is as a byproduct of some of this stuff that's going on. But the problem is in our culture, we become a victim to it and we we call them the others. I'm done with those. You might you do you know we have like 60,000 different denominations and we're all reading the same bible? Paul's kinda shining a light on the reality of what really is, of what's really going on. [00:25:43] (46 seconds)  #StopOthering

What he is saying is, as long as Christ is being proclaimed, as long as they're preaching the gospel, let us have diversity in our unity. But the thing we're unified is around Jesus Christ, his death, and his resurrection that all people would come to know him as Lord and savior. I want you to know how important this is to Paul because he's giving his life for it and I want you to know how important it was to Jesus because he gave his life for it. This isn't just some trite little teaching on let's be good boys and good girls. [00:34:09] (36 seconds)  #UnitedInChrist

and there are people have come up against you. And I'm not saying that God is doing that to you, but what I am saying is even in that the good news of Jesus Christ can be proclaimed. And if you stay in this sense of victimhood that you miss the greater opportunity to share the goodness of God with the world that is watching you. This is what Paul is trying to communicate. He is saying, hey, even this imperial guard. They're they're they're known as the flower of Rome. [00:08:51] (34 seconds)  #GospelInAdversity

Paul's going, Christ is here and it can't hold me down and it's encouraging a whole other group of people to be bold and brave. How about you? How about me? Is this gospel of ours just this really cute thing that we like to talk about or is it something that transcends any circumstance that you find yourself in and it becomes a gospel presentation not just to a world that's looking for the love of Christ, but also to the brothers in Christ, the sisters in Christ. This is how we serve our community both as individuals [00:21:08] (38 seconds)  #LiveBoldlyForChrist

Steward it. Do you know even in the hardest situations of your life, it is an opportunity for you to steward the pain? Now, doesn't mean you have to like it. Paul's not going, I just love being in prison. It's the best. He's not doing that, right, because he's human. And the bible's not telling us not to be human. The bible is saying, wait, but Jesus is reframing all of reality for us. Paul is trying to illuminate this idea for us, but many times you and me are so busy going, woe is me [00:06:50] (37 seconds)  #StewardYourPain

What we perceive as awful, horrible, inconvenient is actually quite missional. But we miss it so often. And it led me to this idea of like we all have some version of this in our life and I wanna go like what have you been chained to? A neighborhood? A job? A boss? I know some of you wanna say your spouse, but okay, we won't do that. That maybe is difficult, hard friendships. Whenever you're chained to something [00:10:44] (34 seconds)  #MissionalInDiscomfort

The whole imperial guard just keeps rotating out every six hours, and I'm sharing the good news with them. The brothers in Christ are like, well, if he can do it, so can I? Which means this, your individual life, whatever it is, makes a dramatic impact on the community. What you do, your boldness, can impact this community to move forward the good news of Jesus Christ. But if we're constantly going like it's so hard and do you know what's going around and have you seen gas prices and whiny whiny whiny whiny, [00:17:30] (38 seconds)  #BoldnessRipples

the brothers aren't encouraged. The sisters aren't encouraged. And we just become this eco chamber of complaining as opposed to being somebody stands up and goes, hey, can we talk about how good God is? That each and every one of you woke up this morning with a breath in your lungs and a beat, a heart that is beating because you have intrinsic purpose here on this earth for the glory of God, that you matter. We need to stop complaining [00:18:08] (26 seconds)  #StopComplainingStartPraising

and we not need to start living into this calling because when we do it's not just about me having good vibes. It's about the those good vibes those faithful vibes are now rippling through the community. That's what Paul is inviting us into. Paul doesn't complain. Paul is emboldened and Paul celebrates this because here's this, pain preaches. You've ever gone through something hard and you start talking to somebody about it, don't they kinda lean in? When I tell people my son was diagnosed with cancer when he was eight. [00:18:34] (34 seconds)  #FaithRipplesCommunity

of that are preaching Jesus, but with this other thing where they're like, and you can have all of this. They're Vanna White. Right? You can have all of this. And so, this is essentially what Paul's saying is, both are preaching the gospel. One of them kinda have they're off. It's it's not good. It's not right. You know, James three sixteen says this, for where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder in every vile pra or a vile practice. He's like, there's some of that going on over here. [00:23:53] (34 seconds)  #GospelIntegrity

That's really what it says. They're politicians. They're like, let me you know, I wanna get your vote, so let me tell you a bunch of good stuff. You know what people don't wanna hear? They don't wanna hear, hey, listen. Suffer well and glorify God in your suffering. People really don't wanna hear that. What they wanna hear is, if you obey God, you will have riches. You will have blessing. You know? That's why if you look around the world, you will see there's these massive movements [00:23:25] (28 seconds)  #NotProsperityGospel