De Soto Community Church

This is our Sunday Re: Think, an opportunity for us to continue to think on the events of last Sunday.

Continuing our study in Colossians we looked at what it means to Be Who we are in Christ.  Specifically we looked at Colossians 1:9-14.  We noted that being who we are in Christ means: 1) Being Filled with the Knowledge of God; 2) Walking Worthy of the Lord; and 3) Remembering what Happened.

Being filled with the knowledge of God carries with it the idea of overflowing or bursting forth with the knowlege of God.  When we come into a relationship with Christ, our desires begin to change.  We begin to desire the knowledge of God, to grow in our understanding of who He is; His character and nature, and consequently our lives begin to more accuratley reflect this understanding, which leads to walking worthy of the Lord.

When we walk worthy of the Lord we begin to bear fruit.  Yet, this fruit is not bore in order to gain approval from God, but rather because we have already been approved!  We need to get away from the false idea that our relationship with God is based on performance.  THIS IS NOT GRACE! As I have heard Darrin Patrick so eloquently preach,

Christianity is not spelled D-O, but D-O-N-E.

We don’t work for heaven, but rather in light of it.  It is what motivates our mission.

Finally, being who we are means we remember what happend.  We were rescued, set free, transfered from the kingdom of darkness, into the Kingdom of Christ with the the payoff being redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

In what ways does this transform our understanding of who we are in Christ?  How can we practically walk worthy this week?

This is our Sunday Re: Think; an opportunity for us to continue to think on the events of last Sunday.

Last Sunday we began to dig into Paul’s letter to the Colossian Church. We looked primarily at 3 Marks of the Real Gospel. Drawing from Colossians 1:3-8 we saw first that the Gospel is Visible; secondly the Gospel is Visual; and finally, the Gospel is Viral.

In all of these we noted that it is essential we know who God is in Christ, His Character, His Nature. This will inform and influence who we are. As Francis Chan has said:

The core problem isn’t the fact that we’re lukewarm, halfhearted, or stagnant Christians. The crux of it all is we have an inaccurate view of God

Battling an inaccurate view of God was not only a constant war the Colossians faced, but one we do today as well. Unless we seek to dive fully into the person and work of Christ, and derive our identity from there, we are in danger of creating a freak God we worship instead of the One True God as revealed in the Bible. In order to help combat this danger, Paul zero’s in on 3 Marks of the True Gospel.

Paul tells the Colossian church that he has heard of their faith in Christ and Love for the Saints. These are visible marks of the true Gospel. If we are embracing a true Gospel, exemplified by faith in Christ and love for the saints, and not one of a counterfeit nature it will be visible to the outside world.

The Visual aspect reminds us that the true Gospel has Heaven as its ultimate goal. We saw that having heaven as our ultimate goal in no way means we are so heavenly minded to be of no earthly good, but rather the infatuation we have for our future life motivates our mission today. As John Piper reminded us, it is not heavenlimindedness that binds the hands of love, but worldlimindedness. A needed reminder indeed.

Finally, a true Gospel is one that is Viral. It is marked by the bearing of fruit in the life of the believer and the spreading all over the world. As the Gospel takes root in our lives it will bear fruit and through us God will transform the whole world with the power of the Gospel. This is the message of the book of Acts and should be the mission of our lives as well.

How should faith in Christ and Love for the Saints be more visible in our lives? What are some practical ways we can see this Gospel bear fruit and spread all over the world?

This is our Sunday Re: Think an opportunity for us to continue to think about the events of last Sunday.

This is coming a bit late, it being Friday and all. I’m still trying to find my groove as far as Sermon Prep, blog attention and the like is concerned. Next weeks Re: should come much sooner, hopefully on Monday.

Last Sunday we opened our series on Colossians and discussed in detail; who Paul is, what the Colossian church is facing, and who we are in light of the Gospel.

To begin with we discussed the incredible story of Lopez Lomong. We spoke of how his incredible journey illustrates what it means to be given new life and the difference it makes. For the Apostle Paul new life meant a radical change as the literal scales of unbelief fell from his eyes and he transformed into the missionary church planter extraordinaire, writer of the majority of the New Testament. Such is the unbelievable power of the Gospel of Christ.

In addition we spoke briefly of the Colossian church and their battle against the heresies of adding to the Gospel.

It is important to remember that the Gospel is (Jesus + Nothing). Anytime we heap something else on the Gospel, whether it be rules or experience, as the Colossian church was apt to do, we end up with a freak God we worship and not the God of th Bible.

Finally we began discussing who we are as believers, those who are found, “In Christ”. It is in this vein we will spend the majority of the rest of our time in Colossians coming more and more to understand what it means to be found in Christ.

A couple of questions: How has your life been transformed by the Power of the Gospel? What does it mean to be found in Christ?

Well, my intent was to post a continuous stream of rockin’ pictures and commentary from our week of work on the De Soto Youth Ministries facility, but what is it they say about “the best laid plans of mice and men…” They often go awry.

Beginning at 5:30 every morning and putting in at least 10-12 hours, not to mention one non-intentional trip through the roof and a bloodied knee did this would be blogger in and now one week removed we finally have a rap up and some pictures to speak of.

I have to say that Pat Graham is one hard working hombre, and the rest of the team from Southside Community Church did not disappoint. Ripping 4 layers of shingles off a nearly 100 year old building is no small feat, especially considering the gallons of paint that were put to use on the inside of the facility.

More than the physical work that was accomplished, (even though it is substantial), the Spiritual work done cannot be underestimated. Prayer walking took place first thing Monday Morning and throughout the week I know relationships were built within the community that will bear fruit for years to come.

Thanks again to Pat and his group, not to mention De Soto Pizza Hut and De Soto Sonic for providing lunch free of charge for two of the four days of work. The Kansas City Kansas Baptist Association provided lunch one other day and Mr. Goodcents of De Soto gave us 50% our entire order one other day.

Our friend Leann Sulzen from the De Soto Explorer also came and wrote another dynamite article about the work. Our hope is that this project is the first of many to come in service to our awesome community.