Here are some recent stats from the Barna Research group:

• 4,000 churches will close this year
• Only 1,500 churches will successfully launch (that’s an 80% failure rate)
• Only 15% of American churches are growing
• Of those that are growing, only 2.3% are growing through conversion. The rest is transfer growth.
• Just half of the 200,000 viable churches in America added even 1 new member through conversionlast year
•  This is chasing away 1,500 pastors from ministry each month

Being a part of a church existing on a secular college campus, it seems as though the students are always reaching out for more.  They’re in ‘student mode’ so they’re into reading and writing, meditating and studying, and even laughing and playing.  Just as they would do with an English lit book the week of the exam, they bury themselves into the Word of God on a daily basis.  It has been so incredible to be a part of this, seeing their desire… seeing their transformations.  I have been so encouraged by the students who tell me the things God is teaching them, and I am even more encouraged by those who express God’s calling on their lives.  I enjoy pushing the students who need accountability in reading the Word every day, and late night chats on my patio about true transformations are what spurs me on.

However, this past semester, I had multiple students saying that they weren’t feeling much depth in their church experiences.  Whether it was by their home group, their journey group leader, or even Sunday’s worship service, they felt like their faith, that they so desperately wanted to grow, was actually becoming shallower and shallower.  Why do we always base our faith around what we can get out of it?

The American church today, I feel, has been putting too much emphasis on what we can get out of the Sunday Service rather than what we can experience through our communities.  At lcf, we like to look at the “up, in, and out” model which includes up: becoming closer to God, in: growing together as a community of believers, and out: focusing on how to reach the community around us though serving.  Unfortunately, so many of our students, including myself, have been trained to go to church on Sunday (and Wednesday if you’re really spiritual), but the rest of the week gets lost in ‘the real world.’

Growing up, I had no real relationship with God because my church was all about the Sunday.  Most people would say, “Well that’s where you find God, in church on Sundays.”  But I must beg to differ.  Since my time at lcf, I have seen and experienced God more in my community Monday through Saturday than I ever did from 11-12 on Sunday morning.  The leadership of lcf is constantly striving to emphasize community over anything else when it comes to our faith.  Luke states in the book of Acts that, “all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.  Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, and they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved” (2:44-47).  How can you possibly read about the connectedness of the disciples and desire anything but that? How beautiful a picture to see a community of people living their everyday lives together, worshipping God together, and revealing God’s love to others.  It doesn’t say, “They gathered together on Sundays in order to grow in their faith and lead people to Christ.”  Unfortunately, though, that is what we seem to believe.

Lcf paints such a beautiful picture of community that I am hoping will continue to sink in to how the students view church.  When we can understand that we are the church instead of we go to church, we will find more understanding and fulfillment in our faith.  We will start finding depth in our walks with the Lord as we bring people to know Him through our acts of service, love, and generosity.  We will stop living in solitude, faking our happy attitudes on Sunday morning, and preaching ‘Repent or burn.’ We will begin doing what we read in the Scripture because we will become a community that loves God, loves each other, and serves those around us.

• Not all seed is sown.  This idea seems elementary but we have to be willing to embrace the idea that as we scatter seed we cannot always control whether or not it ends up producing fruit.  By limiting the number of seeds we throw in order to limit the number of “failed” seeds will also limit the number of potential fruit that will be grown, seeing as though we do not always know where seed will grow and how it will grow.  Last time I checked…that is the Holy Spirit’s job.  We must create a culture within leadership and in our community that allows failure to be openly talked about and discussed as a venue for growth and future success.  People in our community will not feel released to dream and explore how the Holy Spirit might be moving if this culture is not evident.  The scattering seed principle is a beautiful visual for understanding that success isn’t always a fruit bearing experience but rather a growing season as a result of difficulty.
• Celebrate the successes and talk about the failures.  Don’t hide behind them or avoid them.
• The fear of failure and the fear of man are massive walls that prevent people from ever tapping into their own “Holy Spirit” and their own mission and vision given by God.

-       Lifeshape: Square

• It is important not to rush someone or a community as a whole around a perimeter of the square.  I think more often than not, we think we are farther along we actually are.  This can create a sense of both chaos and celebration.  Being honest about where you and your community are in the process is highly important, both as a learning opportunity as well as to not acknowledge inexisting problems.

-       Identity: Where do people feel their identity comes from in our community?

• Do people feel as though their identity is in a certain expression?  Do people have a sense of identity based around mission/vision or around schedules?  Do people receive their identity based around their titles and positions in our community?  Do we allow identity to be created from within or is always mandated from above?  Do people feel as though this community is a place of identity above other organizations on campus?  Do people actively pursue their God-given identity or settle for what others say?  How does our culture create an environment where identity is of premium importance?

-       Planning with our leadership team

• Six months out, it is important to gather our leadership team to discuss where they feel specifically called as missional community leaders, as small group leaders, and general vision casting for the collected leadership team.  This meeting should consist of training, teaching, moments of reflection, discussion within each team, discussion with other teams, and documented plans, thoughts, and vision/mission for their mission community.
• This should also be a time of evaluating and accountability on what has happen since the last semester’s meeting.  Each person will receive their previous document filled out and will be able to evaluate their own actions, thoughts, and plans.  This is not meant to be a slap on the wrist if things changed but rather a provoking questioning time of why things didn’t happen the way they previously planned.

-       Low Control/ High Accountability

• This concept is not as easy to swallow as it sounds.  No one wants to be controlling or micro-managing.  On a scale of control I do not think it ever should be as high as “10” but starting with children move the scale down to less control based on the age-specific ministry you are leading or talking about.

• It is not controlling, it is strategic.  It may be controlling for you, but it doesn’t have to be.  Figure out what is controlling and limiting people’s ability to be innovative, as well as what is strategic for momentum and growth (especially in college ministry down to children’s ministry which is constantly turning over).
• High accountability requires true relationship.  If the huddle, small group, or accountability partner is not honest with whoever it is they need to be accountable to, then this does not work.  True relationship allows for constructive feedback to be given and powerful questions to be asked.  If there are multiple people holding each other accountable then the group needs to offer both encouragement and challenge when appropriate.
• Where accountability differs as a result of low control is when the questions are different, such as about mission, vision, and plans rather than character or general leadership questions. Character is still highly important to be discussed, but if accountability simply stops there, then it is not allowing for healthy growth and problem solving.
• It is not multiplication…it is maintenance.  Often times we believe that our ministries or missional communities are growing (because they are); however, they are growing through addition and in transitional ministries (children through college).  And often times this involves handing off the ministry and we, therefore, consider this to be maintenance.  Now it is important to not undersell this.  Handing off ministries and transitioning people out is a hard task to do well.  Therefore, handing a ministry off well is highly important; however, we must also allow groups to multiply out while maintaining consistent ‘anchor’ groups.  It can be both/and options and not either/or.

-       Dreams and Goals

• Challenge the thought of settling often within our community.  Just because you have reached a certain level of accomplishment does not mean you have arrived.  A new accomplishment means new goals and an overall dream still in place.  What is our overall dream and our new goals?
• For [lcf] we need missional communities that are both geographic and relational.  Geographic (various dorms around campus) and relational (various networks of commonality) communities will provide a missional community for everyone to feel welcomed into as well as aligning people with their mission and vision.  Both still need to be outwardly focused whether it is reaching a dorm or reaching a particular group of students.  Our dream is that there would be a missional community reaching every area of campus (relationally and geographically).

-       Do you invite questions?

• Live in such a way that your life always invites questions.  This basic principle allows leaders to feel a since of unity as well as the freedom to move as they feel led.
• Freedom is an important concept that should underline your community in multiple ways.  Freedom to explore where God is leading, freedom to innovate new ideas, and freedom to fail.  Questions lead to freedom being felt from all members of our community.

-       Life in tension of all parts of the triangle

• The triangle represents Jesus’ life.  He was always living in these three areas: up, in, and out.
• All expressions and spaces (public, social, private/personal, and intimate) need to have all three parts of the triangle.  This does mean that it will look different for each space.  For example, the personal and intimate settings may simply just be in prayer and accountability for how their “out” is going.  This also means that each missional community and small group, in each space, will also look different in how it lives in the tension of the three parts.  Some groups will go through seasons and some will have consistent and predictable rhythms but everyone and every group (regardless of space) needs all three.

-       Principles not practices

• Here are some of the important principles that are taught in training and leadership development at St. Thomas Philly:
  • Missional Culture
    • How to create a missional culture?
  • Evangelism Strategy (person of peace)
  • • Contextualization (what are ways of knowing who these people are in my context? Ex. Can I pray for you?)
    • Listen, serve, welcome
    • Living in a posture of meekness and not overpowering those around us, while still being intentional
  • Vision vs. values
    • What is the difference in the two?
    • What are the values I have in leading?
    • What is the vision I have heard from God?
  • 4 sizes of church
    • How does the triangle look in all spaces?
    • What does each size do well?
    • How does each size complement each other?
  • spiritual warfare
  • feed yourself
    • scripture, prayer, rest
    • accountability and strong relationships
  • 5 fold leadership
    • What is my role?
    • How do these roles differ in how someone leads?
    • Pioneers vs. developers
  • building team
    • huddle
    • looking, from day one, at whom to disciple and train to multiply out or hand off to
    • spiritual warfare against your team

-       no value, judgment, or comparison

• Each group, whether missional community or small group, is going to look different for a multitude of reasons.  Not allowing for there to be a poster child or ultimate product that your team is pursuing allows for innovation to occur more often and for low control to be active.  This does not mean that a high level of excellence and accountability is not present (because it is), but rather allowing each group to evolve and create whatever it is they feel led by God to do.

I have been asked by Mike Breen to shadow him while he teaches at the 2011 Pilgrimage held at the churches he started many years ago.  He will be introducing me to some incredible leaders that he believes will be very pivotal in my understanding of missional communities and how it applies directly to twenty somethings.

This is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity and given the time of the year and some incredible support from those who believe in me and in the ministry I have been able to get away for a week to make this dream come true!

I would ask that you would pray:

1) that my brain and soul can digest as much as my ears will hear over the next couple of days.

2) that my fingers dont fall off from writing too much.

3) that I soak up everything with a purposeful and intentional heart.

4) that I retain everything the Holy Spirit wants me to and that he will give me new revelation that are both specific to my case and general to my walk and leadership.

5) pray for those who will be impacted by my experience.  Whether it be students, ministry partners, pastor friends, family, or the random Holy Spirit meeting with someone.

6) that God would continue to humble me into the man He is trying to get me to be everyday.  That this would be but another small step in a long journey to look more and more like Jesus and less like Philip.

Okay, well that is all for now.  Once I get off the train I begin today! I am running off an hour of sleep from my redeye and coffee seems to be only thing besides adrenaline that is keeping me awake

peace,

Philip

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“As a non-believer, one would think that a community such as Lynchburg Christian Fellowship (LCF) would have little to no effect on me. This couldn’t be any more false. Coming into college, I had a general view of my beliefs about God, morality, and living a good life. I grew up Catholic but stopped practicing in 7th grade. After this, I grew far away from the spirituality that I needed in my life. LCF brought that spirituality back to me. The community and friendships formed around campus through LCF impact all of those that speak with these young people. Because I was very close friends with many of the church-goers, I grew to know many people involved in the community. Their acceptance of my beliefs and willingness to have open discussions led me to feel the safety and security I needed to begin my journey of exploration.

Throughout the experience, I had a support group willing to dig deeper into who Jesus was, what He meant to us as a global community, and how He affected my own personal life. We unpacked my feelings on many different topics and struggled through the realizations of differing opinions. While I eventually decided that the Christian way of life is not the one I choose to follow, the community continued to have a positive impact on me. They helped me to recognize and accept differing opinions and cultures throughout campus and in everyday life. Their impact on the greater campus community has increased tremendously over the past 3 years.

When it first began, LCF had a very small following. Because of the modern spin that Philip has taken and the compassion shown to everyone on campus, the community has grown exponentially and has allowed so many people to have the experiences necessary to live a healthy spiritual life. It’s given them the opportunity to learn more about God and to expand their beliefs by engaging in the culture created by LCF. Service and community bring the students closer to understanding what it truly means to be a Christian. As an “outsider” with an “inside scoop,” the impact that LCF has had on this campus has made an extremely positive change for many of the students.”

________________________________________________________________

Please continue to pray for a moving of the Spirit on the campus of Lynchburg College.  It is truly remarkable to see what God has done in the 3 years we have had a presence.  Thank you for your support and prayers.

podcast

teaching notes:

So where are we now? Well, obviously weʼve looked at Covenant and Kingdom.

We know that this is about Relationship and Responsibility (our responsibility to represent the King).

It is to do with BEING (i.e. being one with God) and DOING (i.e. doing something for God). It is about invitation and challenge of discipleship. The discipleship that Jesus offered. But is also within the fabric of salvation, it is substitution and victory.

The Cross is about a substitutionary death and the victory of God over our enemies.

If you turn with me to the Scriptures we will begin in Luke 22:20: ʻIn the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.ʼ

And reflecting on this, we have the words of Paul at the end of 2 Corinthians 5, if youʼll turn there.

So Jesus is saying his blood represents a New Covenant. A new release, a new understanding, a deeper revelation, a fresh start in this Covenant relationship that exists between God and human beings.

And it says this in 2 Corinthians 5:14: ʻFor Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.ʼ

Just to make a note here: Covenant is about being ONE―about being ONE with Jesus. If you are one with Jesus, all that is true of Jesus is true of you. So when youʼre reading through the New Testament and it says, “because Jesus was crucified, you have died” ―thatʼs what it means! It means that since you have been gathered into a Covenant with God through Jesus, you have become ONE with the Father through Jesus. That means that everything that is appropriated by Jesus is appropriated by you. Everything that is true of Jesus is true of you. Jesus is described as the Son of God, and everyone, be they male or female are described as Sons of God in the New Testament.

Itʼs not a gender thing. Itʼs because youʼre one with Jesus who is the Son of God. Jesus applies to us everything that is true of Himself.

So, if he died, those who are in Covenant with him have died which means that the penalty of death that you pay because of sin has been paid. Jesus paid it. You too have died in him. Does that make sense to anybody?

Verse 15: 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.If someone has given you their life, the only appropriate response is to give your life in return. So Jesus gave you all of his life, so the only reasonable response is to give all of your lack to him as well. You live for him

Verse 16: ʻSo from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!ʼ

Now you might look at the world and look at your life and think to yourself, “Well, yeah,I donʼt know about that!” What it is saying here is this: The new has come, but it is more like the birds singing before the dawn. There is an inevitability that the sun will rise… and you have the first indications of that in your life. The first indications of that in your life are, at a minimum, is that what is true in heaven, what is true of Godʼs life, is now being appropriated, is now being given to you by Jesus. So each day you know that you are loved. Each day you can live in peace though the world is constantly surrounded by chaos, battle, struggle and war. Each day that peace in your heart can rise up and dance as joy. These gifts are eternal and they start now.

Nothing can happen in your life that can rob you of those realities. They are something that surpasses knowledge and passes our understanding. It goes beyond the normal conditions we face.

Vs 18: All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ…(In other words, he made us ONE with himself again in Christ. Christ becomes our substitute…he becomes our representative.)

(Vs 18 continued) … and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:

He gives us exactly the same task that he gave his son. Why? Because we are his Son! We get the same job. We get the job that Jesus had. And if you think about it (the depths of this will be explored for eternity), remember, that the world was lost through human sin. The world was lost. Godʼs creation was snatched away from human oversight by our own foolishness and the devil took our place as ruler of this world.

But what that means is this: God has committed himself and limited himself to win the world back through the same agent that lost it. The agent that lost the world will now be the agent that wins it back again. Thatʼs why Jesus came as a human being.

The incarnation, Jesus taking on flesh and blood and becoming one of us, it means many things. But in salvation it means this: God commits himself to a salvation, to a rescue, that is forged and won through a human being. And God will cause human beings to be the means by which that gospel that is announced, that Covenant that is sealed…we are the ones who spread it, multiply it and push it out into the world.

So when youʼre sitting there thinking: “Why isnʼt God doing something?” He is.

Youʼre it.

Letʼs say that again, itʼs really important: So when youʼre sitting there thinking: “Why isnʼt God doing something?”

He is. Youʼre it.

Verse 19: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

We quickly get from Covenant to Kingdom, even without trying! Paulʼs really not trying to get into a discussion about Kingdom but he just canʼt help it, it starts to leak out. You see, when you start getting into a conversation about being ONE with God, it almost has to go there. God and I are in Covenant together. Heʼs my Father, Iʼm his son. Heʼs the King of the universe which means I have royal blood and therefore I represent him. Iʼm his ambassador.

Verse 20: We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

If God has won reconciliation and youʼve embraced it once, why wouldnʼt you live in that and pass it on to other people? And then you have the underlying truth that Paul has been working up to, the fundamental act that was achieved on the Cross:

Verse 21: God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

He had no sin. He had not committed sin and he was not “in sin” which means he was not distant, estranged or alienated from God. So he did not have the disease and he had none of the symptoms. He didnʼt have chickenpox and he had none of the spots.

So he had no sin and yet God gave him the disease. And it killed him. Because thatʼs what that disease does. And he gave him that disease so that you get the antibody. By his blood. Itʼs just amazing, isnʼt??!

He became SIN and we become SONS. Again, not gender. We become, to God, exactly as Jesus is. So when he looks at you (and I know you donʼt believe this and itʼs so hard to let it sink in)…when God looks at you, he genuinely looks at you as if it was Jesus. Because you are ONE with him. You are caught up in him. You are in Christ and did it by no effort of your own. Jesus did it all.

So he becomes our substitute, the one who dies on our behalf, who suffers in our place, who takes all of the consequences of sin on our behalf though he knew no sin. And because he does

that for us and because he offers us a Covenant relationship, we get the benefit of him taking our place.

Now within Scripture, Covenant and Kingdom, relationship and responsibility are the warp and weft, the longitude and the latitude of Scripture. Itʼs a richly woven tapestry and if you just stand back you see the panorama of Godʼs love and grace. It helps us to orientate ourselves, not just in Scripture but in life.

You see, Kingdom gives you vision.

Covenant gives you value.

Vision and values are what all of us need.

But values are built on grace and grace is the underlying thing a Covenant relationship is built on. Grace is the initiative that God takes to make a Covenant relationship with you.

What we see in the Cross are the two strands of Covenant and Kingdom woven together.

Christ extends his arms as if to welcome you. And it is as if he is suspended between heaven and earth so that all that is available in heaven is available to you when you kneel at the foot of the cross.

And itʼs interesting that when you look at the accounts of the crucifixion, the writers bring these realities together almost without even thinking about it, they are so seamlessly and beautifully woven in. Now when you look at the first three gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke), they focus heavily on the Kingdom. Whatʼs interesting is that Johnʼs gospel mainly wrestles with Covenant.

And where Matthew, Mark and Luke have a primary text of the Kingdom, their subtext is the Covenant. And where Johnʼs primary text is Covenant, the subtext is the Kingdom. And the place where the subtexts are really brought out are in private conversations in the gospels.

So in the first three gospels which focus largely on the Kingdom, you get the story of Peter confessing Christ in a private conversation and find incredibly deep Covenantal language. Itʼs as if there are certain points where God takes all of the strands together, gathers them up and makes sure that both Covenant and Kingdom are clearly seen.

For instance, the baptism of Jesus at the beginning and the death of Jesus at the end.

So if you were to turn with me to Matthew 27:51: ʻAt that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”ʼ

Now already we have darkness covering the earth and other images that speak and refer to the last day of Judgment―apocalyptic images. Darkness. Earthquake. Open tombs. Resurrection. And the cry of the lost. All of those are absolutely nailed on pictures of the last day of Judgment.

Could the last day of judgment be happening here at the cross? How ?

Because it came upon Jesus. The day of Judgment came because God judged sin. The King judged sin.

And so that future day of judgment has visited the present again in the person of Jesus. In the same way that all that we long for in the future is present in the person of Jesus, so some of the things that we donʼt long for about the future, some of the things that will be consistent with entering into the Kingdom of God that we arenʼt terribly excited about (like the day of Judgment!) also visit the world.

So the future is present in the person of Jesus―even the day of Judgment.

The Kingdom comes. He declares his judgment, but he declares it upon Jesus. And that means simply this: That those of you who are in Covenant with Jesus have already had your day of judgment. Youʼve had it! The earth has shaken. The darkness has come. The tombs have been opened. The declaration has been made and you will not see it again.

I mean honestly, if youʼre not excited about this…!

This is the victory that has been won for us. The battle has been fought and won and our great champion has stepped into the fray and has fought all of our enemies and he has won.

Just finally to underline that, Colossians 2:13-14: ʻWhen you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the Cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.ʼ

The way that the early Christian fathers put it was this: God tricked the devil!

Now C.S. Lewis, who is obviously a genius, shows that trickery when the Snow Queen is fooled by Aslan in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Thatʼs a very common theme in the first few centuries of the early churchʼs writings. Sometimes the early church fathers will use extraordinary language like this: Jesus was the bait that hooked the devil and defeated him.

Here, Jesus comes as our substitute but he comes as our champion also. And when he dies, he takes on all of the enemies that we cannot defeat.

We cannot defeat sin. Itʼs an enemy thatʼs too big for us.

We canʼt defeat the law…the law that describes our sin and holds up a mirror to the ugliness of our lives. We canʼt defeat it. It always defeats us. We never measure up.

We canʼt defeat death. Death is a 1:1 ratio. It comes for us all. And you cannot defeat the devil. But Jesus can!

And itʼs as though he took all of the weapons: sin, law, death…and as each were swung at Jesus, so they were removed from Satanʼs hand because he could not pull it out from the flesh of Jesus. In his death, he disarmed the principalities and powers.

They have no weapons. They stayed with Jesus. He took them to the grave.

And one of the things that has been celebrated over the centuries but many of us here have never grappled with it, is that Jesus went into the world of the dead and announced to the spirits captive there, that he had won.

Jesus walks into the darkest of dungeons and light comes for the very first time. And he knocks (knock, knock, knock), and he says…”GIVE ME THE KEYS!”

“The keys to death and hell. Give me the keys!”

And the devil, who was probably playing cards, thinking heʼd won―again―was suddenly terrified because Jesus took the keys and he locked him up and walked away.

And the Apostle John in revelation says, “He has the keys. The Keys to death and hell. He won them. He is our champion.”

You see, the Gospel is really really good! He has died in our place so that we might be in Covenant with God, so that we might be ONE with him, so that we might be connected again. And he has defeated the principalities and the powers of darkness, bringing forth the brightest of light and healing and is asking us to do the same.

Relationship and Responsibility.

Substitution and Victory.

Covenant and Kingdom.

(this series and notes have been influenced by 3DM and Mike Breen)

podcast:

identity crisis – part two (kingdom)

sermon notes:

So last week we looked more at Covenant, today weʼre going to look more at Kingdom. Today weʼre going to look at the definitive story in the first book of the Bible that describes the process where we hear the word of God to be his representative, to be the expression of his rulership in the world. What is that process? How does it work? What is it that God needs to do so that in our hearts, having formed a relationship with us by the blood of the Covenant, he is able to use us for his purposes in the world? The Covenant is always prior, always primary, always first.

But having established our identity in God, knowing that we are his kids, how then can we go from the place of being forgiven sinners, one with Christ…how can we then go to doing the work of Christ?

Is everybody up for looking into that? Turn to Genesis 37. Today weʼre going to take on 5 chapters so weʼll see how we get on.

Here we are in chapter 37 and it speaks of the life of Jacob being expressed in his kids…he has 11 sons, later adding a 12th. The 11th born son now, for some unaccountable reason unexplained in the text, is given the role of the firstborn son.

Jacob is a preoccupied parent and preoccupied parents tend to spoil their children, one over the other. As Jacob looks at his children he chooses to overlook 10 of them and give preference to the 11th. He gives him the coat that is richly ornamented…or the coat of many colors, as it is spoken of in some texts. In other translations itʼs the coat with long sleeves. All of these descriptions are valid because the coat that Jacob gives to Joseph is the coat that indicates that he will not do manual labor.

Itʼs the coat with the long sleeves, itʼs the coat with the tribal colors of the family, itʼs the coat that is richly ornamented. A coat that really needs to be looked after, hung in a wardrobe, and not really worn in the fields where the sheep and the cattle are. This is the supervisorʼs coat that indicates that he is a manager and not a worker. And usually itʼs given to the firstborn son but here it is given to the 11th born son. You can imagine how the other 10 brothers react.

They feel overlooked. They feel belittled. They feel slighted. Here comes this arrogant, young teenager.Later on in the text we find out what heʼs like: Heʼs gifted, heʼs good looking, and he is tanned. Everybody hates him. It actually says in the text he was ruddy and handsome. King David is referred to the same way.

Heʼs incredibly gifted, heʼs good looking, heʼs tanned and heʼs set above his brothers as their supervisor.

His brothers absolutely despise him.

Now his gifting includes a gift of the prophetic nature. And he shares his dreams unwisely with those around him. He has not yet learned that revelation without interpretation is not a good thing…he needs application as well. All heʼs got is revelation. And he sees him and his brother gathering up the sheaves after harvest and the sheaves of his brothersʼ bow down to his sheaf. His sheaf stands up and theirs bow down. And he shares it with them! And they are absolutely scandalized.

Hereʼs Joseph, heʼs seeing the future. And itʼs not as if his brothers are misunderstanding what heʼs saying here. They say to him, “Do you intend to rule over us?”

So there is already a sense in these brothersʼ hearts that there is a young man who is fashioned in the security of the Covenant, who might, in Godʼs economy, be a ruler.

So he has another dream, the dream of all 17 year old boys. Itʼs not about girls, itʼs about being the center of the universe. He sees the stars and the sun and the moon and they are all revolving around him and he thinks itʼs wonderful and he decides to share it with his dad and with his brothers. “Youʼll never guess what I dreamed last night!” And they listened to him with absolute, open-mouthed wonder. To what level is this boyʼs arrogance going to reach?

So we skip forward to the next phase in the narrative. The boys are off, skipping from one place to another with their flocks, tending after them. Joseph, being a supervisor, is back at the home base and Jacob tells him to go find his brothers and bring back a report on how theyʼre doing. So Joseph really is functioning as a supervisor. So he goes out, finds them in Dothan and one of his brothers says, “Letʼs kill him”…

Talk about a dysfunctional family! The rest of them agree this is a pretty good idea. The oldest one, Simeon, says, “Well hold on a bit, maybe donʼt kill but rough him up a bit. No one likes him, we could all take a go and weʼll think of something else to do with him.” So they beat him up and throw him into a well. Now the well weʼre talking here is really a vertical one, like we know. Itʼs got more of a slope, sort of like the end of a ride at Disneyland and itʼs got a cover to it. Quite a large thing. But once youʼre in it, youʼre not getting out of it. Heʼs down there, he wants to get out, heʼs broken hearted, theyʼve taken his coat away.

And his brothers see great Uncle Ishmaelʼs boys coming over the horizon. Theyʼre estranged from him now…you know how weʼve all got the funny uncle…thatʼs him! They see these guys coming over the horizon and they are slave traders and they see, “Well letʼs sell him!” They concoct a story about his death, put goatsʼ blood on his coat, take it back to Jacob and heʼs broken hearted. He is utterly inconsolable.

Joseph is taken to Egypt. And there in chapter 39:2 it says the most amazing thing: “God was with Joseph and he prospered.” You see, the terms of the Covenant never changed. The terms of the Covenant are utterly reliable. Even though Joseph has been taken to another land, into captivity, in chains as a slave, but the Lord is with him and he prospers. Now the word prosper is a difficult word but prosperity in Scripture means this: There is a smooth road opening up before you that God blesses you with. Itʼs not simply about resources, itʼs about access and opportunity. Itʼs about favor and grace. And Joseph understands, little by little, that God is with him because he sees the favor and grace.

God wants to deliver you from a spirit of poverty. He wants to deliver you from a spirit of poverty because you cannot function in authority in poverty. You canʼt. Blessed are the poor in spirit… thatʼs different than having a spirit of poverty. The ʻpoor in spiritʼ are the brokenhearted who recognize whole heartedly that they are never able to do the things that God asks them to do without his grace. Their weakness and falleness , their liability to sin, they recognize all this in their own hearts. Theyʼve found themselves not at the top of the tree but at the bottom of the tree. Yes thatʼs the right attitude, but it doesnʼt mean that God doesnʼt give you blessing, give you resources, give you the prospering favoring hand of God so that in that position youʼre able to be a blessing as youʼre blessed.

So Joseph, a slave, prospers in the house of his Master, Potiphar. You know the story. Thereʼs this rather lascivious woman who recognizes that he is ruddy and handsome and thinks, “Iʼll have a little piece of that.” And so constructs various different strategies for seduction. And Joseph, being in tune with his inner impulse of the Covenant life which is to walk before Him blameless, chooses to run rather than fight. Because he knows he is really going to struggle to succeed in that fight so the best thing is just to run.

So he runs. If you canʼt fight…run! If you canʼt fight the temptation, flee the temptation! So he runs away.

Potipharʼs wife is particularly chagrined at this situation and she puts together a story about how he attempted to rape her, but Potiphar, frankly, doesnʼt really believe that. If he had believed that Joseph would have been, stoned, spiked, you know, what they usually did. Heʼd be dead. There would have been absolutely no way that he would have lived. Potiphar probably had seen this out of his wife before.

Now Potiphar is the head of security for Pharaoh and in the compound of Potipharʼs house is a special jail that particular prisoners would be put in that he needed to keep an eye on as the head of security. And so Joseph is put in that part of the compound of Potipharʼs property. So heʼs still there within the household of Potiphar and he becomes the trustee of the jail. Heʼs prospering even in the place of extreme captivity. He came as a slave and now heʼs a prisoner and a slave! But the Lord blesses him.

Now what is the Lord wanting to do? Well, yes, he wants to bless him. But he is wanting to do something in his heart that allows the blessing of his life to be released to others. And the thing in his heart that he wants to do in your heart and in my heart is the very thing that is necessary for us to be effective Kingdom operatives: He wants to move Joseph from the center of his universe to its edge. He wants him to move him from the center to the edge.

If God is able to do that, then Joseph will see the fulfillment of his future.

If God is able to do that in you, you will see the coming Kingdom break out more and more and more in your life. You will see more and more of the lost saved. More and more of the sick healed. More and more of the sad made joyful. You will see the Kingdom breaking in. But the Kingdom needs a conduit. The Kingdom needs a door and that door is a heart that is humble. The door is a heart that is open to the idea that God is the center of the world…not us.

Right now Josephʼs picture of himself is that he still is the center of the universe and everything revolves around him.

So here he is in prison, when the baker and the butler are arrested. They are brought to the prison. Maybe there is a sense in Pharaohʼs mind that there has been a conspiracy. You see, the butler eats a taste of the food before the King eats it. The baker is the one who makes the food. So the baker is making some Danish pastries and those pastries are supposed to pass by the lips of the butler but clearly the king has fallen ill…so whoʼs responsible? The baker and the butler! So they are put in prison. And clearly they are wondering if they are ever going to get out alive.

They have these dreams. They come to breakfast one morning, both down, both somewhat concerned about what theyʼve just dreamed. Remember, they are in a culture that understands dreams as integral to the comings and goings of life. Here are the dreams of the butler and the baker and they donʼt know what to do and in walks Joseph and he says, “Cheer up! Itʼs Cornflakes!”

“You know, itʼs just not easy to be sunny and happy today.” Letʼs look at the Scriptures. Genesis 40:8: “We both had dreams,” they answered, “but there is no one to interpret them.” Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.”

Now a journey has taken place here. Itʼs a journey that has taken 11 years. Joseph came as a slave at the age of 17, heʼs now 28 years old. He may feel that the years of his youth have been squandered and lost but he has been taken on a journey and the journey is this: Just enough room is now found at the center of his life that the Lord is at the center with him. “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams!” Heʼs very happy to share the center with God. Hooray! How remarkable.

So they tell him their dreams. Good news for you, butler. Bad news for you, baker. You know the story. The butler gets off, the baker loses his head. And upon leaving the butler is impressed upon Joseph, again, not to forget him. But itʼs difficult. Youʼre in the court of the most powerful man in the world, each day is on the whim of Pharaoh, and he forgets about Joseph.

And in chapter 41, Pharaoh has two dreams; he sees 7 fat, beautiful cows coming out of the Nile and then watches as they are devoured by 7 mangy, scrawny cows. He sees these wonderfully luscious heads of grain that are devoured by skinny, withered, windblown dreams. And heʼs even more disturbed because his counselors, wizards and wise men canʼt interpret the dreams for him. As heʼs hearing these dreams, the butler is like, “DOH! There might be someone to help, actually. A few years ago you werenʼt very pleased with me (and you are pleased with me now, so itʼs all alright!), but you might remember I went for a short retreat, a sabbatical if you will, at your Majestyʼs pleasure, and in that retreat house (letʼs not call it what it was) I met a young fellow that was quite good at this. And Pharaoh says, “well, go get him!”

So they bring him, they shave him, wash him, get him some new clothes and bring him in. Heʼs spent two years pining away in a prison. Letʼs read whatʼs happened. Thirteen years have passed in slavery. Joseph is now 30. In the eyes of the average Jew, he is a man. The time of his preparation is completed. He is 30 years old.

From chapter 41:15 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.”

Verse 16, “I cannot do it,” Joseph replied to Pharaoh, “but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.”

I cannot do it.

Does this mean that Joseph has lost his skill at interpreting dreams? No! Does that mean he has lost his anointing? No! Does that mean he has suddenly lost his confidence? No! What has happened is this: That through the privation, through the journey, through the difficulty, Joseph has moved from the center of his universe, to the edge and God has taken up residence on the throne: ʻI cannot do it. But God will give the interpretation to Pharaohʼ.

Do you see the journey? Do you see what it is that God wants to do in our hearts? Who wants to heal the sick? Who wants to see the lost saved? So if you want to be a Kingdom operative, if you want your life to be a conduit of the Kingdom, if you want your heart to be the door where the future that God has stored up for us breaks into the present so we have a witness of what weʼre waiting for…then you have to move from the center of your world.

You see, God wants hearts through which the future that he has stored up for us can come, the future that is free from sin, that is free from suffering, that is free from sadness and Satan and all of the other Sʼs in the dictionary…itʼs free! Heʼs made a place for us, for you, and Jesus has gone to prepare that place especially for you and that Kingdom will break forth into the present and Jesus teaches us to pray to the King who is our Father (and we recognize that our identity is tied up in him) and we pray to our Father who is the King [say this with gusto!]…”Let your Kingdom come…on earth as it is in heaven. And let the will of the King expressed in Heaven where there is no sickness, no sadness…let the will of the King come.”

Now God wants to do that but the doors of the hearts by which he can do that are so small that he can barely squeak through them. There is barely a crack in the doors because the doors are hearts that are humble, hearts that are open, hearts that are open to receiving the future and take no credit. Hearts that are prepared to receive the coming Kingdom in our present, as a witness to what it is that we are waiting for. If you need healing today and we pray for you and please God you are healed, you will still die!

If you get healed today, it will not be the final healing. There is a Great Day of healing and your healing is supposed to be a witness to that day. If this day God breaks through the cloud of your sadness and gives you joy, there may be some days that you battle again with that, but today is to bear witness to that Great Day. And that Great Day is supposed to be witnessed to by what God does in us and through us and he is looking for doors, heʼs looking for conduits, heʼs looking for ways that his future can break through so that people can get a window into Heaven and they can say, “God is good, Iʼll believe in him!” But for us to do that, for us to be that, for us to function that way, God has to move us from the center of our worlds. And frankly, thatʼs a long process. Itʼs a journey and itʼs a battle every day.

Every day I find myself at the center of my world. Every day!

And I sit there with my Bible every day and He says, “No youʼre not!” And I think, “Thanks God, thatʼs a big relief, it was going to be a big responsibility trying to run everything.”

God says the same thing to me every day. “Iʼm God, youʼre not.” Good. “Whoʼs going to take credit for it?” You. Thatʼs been the story of my life! And if itʼs not, you want it to be your story. Read the Bible. The Bible says this, “Youʼre the child of God by the Covenant of grace and because you are his child he wants to fashion your heart so you can be his representative, so that through you he can rule. But that means a journey.”

The journey of Joseph is this: Move from the center of your world and invite Jesus to be the center.

(this series and notes have been influenced by 3DM and Mike Breen)