Life Together - Discovering Christian Community A Quiet Life in Frauenburg Nicolaus Copernicus

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community A Quiet Life in Frauenburg

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community A Quiet Life in Frauenburg

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community A Quiet Life in Frauenburg

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community A Quiet Life in Frauenburg But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. -Romans 6:22 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. -2 Corinthians 5:15 If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple....In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. -Luke 14:26-27, 33

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community The Community of God’s Glory Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth – everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory. -Isaiah 43:6-7 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory? -Romans 9:21-23

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community The Community of God’s Glory

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community The Community of God’s Glory WE ARE CREATED FOR GOD’S GLORY ?????? Ways We Respond: 1) Reject Christianity

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community The Community of God’s Glory WE ARE CREATED FOR GOD’S GLORY ?????? Ways We Respond: 1)Reject Christianity 2)Water Down What It Means

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community The Community of God’s Glory WE ARE CREATED FOR GOD’S GLORY ?????? Ways We Respond: 1)Reject Christianity 2)Water Down What It Means 3)Accept It, but with a “Duty Mentality”

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community The Community of God’s Glory Fred the Baker “Time to Make the Donuts”

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community The Community of God’s Glory Psalm 63 1 O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 2 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. 3 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. 4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. 5 My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you “My lips will glorify you” (v3) “I will praise you as long as I live” (v4) “In your name I will lift up my hands” (v4) “With singing lips my mouth will praise you” (v5)

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community The Community of God’s Glory Psalm 63 1 O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 2 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. 3 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. 4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. 5 My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you rhv “Earnestly I seek” “to seek early in the morning, earnestly”

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community The Community of God’s Glory Psalm 63 1 O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 2 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. 3 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. 4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. 5 My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you amx “My soul thirsts for you” “to be thirsty”

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community The Community of God’s Glory Psalm 63 1 O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 2 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. 3 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. 4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. 5 My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you [yu “My body longs for you in a dry and weary land” “to be faint, weary, from exertion, hunger, and thirst”

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community The Community of God’s Glory Psalm 63 1 O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 2 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. 3 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. 4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. 5 My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you blj “My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods” “the fat, (the best part)” /vd “fatness, luxuriance” ubc “to be sated, full”

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community The Community of God’s Glory Psalm 63 1 O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 2 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. 3 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. 4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. 5 My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you “I have seen you in the sanctuary”

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community The Community of God’s Glory

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community The Community of God’s Glory Psalm 63 1 O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 2 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. 3 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. 4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. 5 My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you “Because your love is better than life”

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community The Community of God’s Glory

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community The Community of God’s Glory Westminster Shorter Catechism THE SHORTER CATECHISM; AGREED UPON BY THE ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES AT WESTMINSTER, WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF COMMISSIONERS FROM THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND, AS A PART OF THE COVENANTED UNIFORMITY IN RELIGION BETWIXT THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST IN THE KINGDOMS OF SCOTLAND, ENGLAND, AND IRELAND. AND APPROVED ANNO 1648, BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND, TO BE A DIRECTORY FOR CATECHISING SUCH AS ARE OF WEAKER CAPACITY. WITH THE PROOFS FROM THE SCRIPTURE. Assembly at EDINBURGH, July 28, Sess. 19. Act approving the SHORTER CATECHISM. THE General Assembly having seriously considered the SHORTER CATECHISM agreed upon by the Assembly of Divines sitting at Westminster, with assistance of Commissioners from this Kirk; do find, upon due examination thereof, That the said Catechism is agreeable to the word of God, and in nothing contrary to the received doctrine, worship, discipline, and government of this Kirk: And therefore approve the said Shorter Catechism, as a part of the intended uniformity, to be a Directory for catechising such as are of weaker capacity.

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community The Community of God’s Glory Q. 1. What is the chief end of man? A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community The Community of God’s Glory …Remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: “It is better to give than to receive.” -Acts 20:35

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community The Community of God’s Glory Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. -Matthew 10:39

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community The Community of God’s Glory WE ARE CREATED FOR GOD’S GLORY !!!!! Ways We Respond:Christianity’s Answer 1)Reject Christianity  Blessedness 2)Water Down What It Means  Watered-Down Joy 3)Serve with a “Duty Mentality”  Serve with Joy

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community The Community of God’s Glory

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community The Community of God’s Glory But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. - 1 Peter 2:9-10 His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. - Ephesians 3:10

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community The Community of God’s Glory Father SonHoly Spirit Glory Joy

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community The Community of God’s Glory Trends over the Last 25 Years: Attending club meetings: down 58% Family dinners: down 33% Having friends over: down 45% -Robert Putman, Bowling Alone

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community The Community of God’s Glory "But the church, as it has evolved in the twentieth century, is in many ways ill suited to provide community. It brings people together once a week, drawing them from broad geographic areas, and expects them to forge some intimate bond when they probably will not see each other again for seven days. It adds people to its membership rolls-the more the better-until most of them have no idea who their fellow members are. It places a speaker up front and expects everyone else to sit in rows facing that speaker, much as they would at a concert or athletic event. If interaction happens before or after the service, it does so informally, despite everything else that has gone on. In short, the church is an administrative convenience, created unwittingly by a combination of its history and the programs planned by its leaders. If community is going to take place there at all, it must occur against high odds." -Robert Wuthnow, Christianity in the 21 st Century

Life Together - Discovering Christian Community The Community of God’s Glory SUMMARY 1) Living for God’s Glory is an Idea that Troubles Us, So… Some Reject Christianity Some Water Down What It Mean Some Accept It, But with a “Duty Mentality” 2) Living for God’s Glory is Intended to Bring Us Joy 3) Living for God’s Glory (and Our Joy) Occurs through Christian Community