Chad Gregory- Community Churches Vision To Treasure and Spread The Surpassing Worth Of Christ

Our vision statement here at Community Church reads as follows, let us say it together: 

 As a people living side by side, Community Church exists to pursue the transformation of hearts and minds by treasuring and spreading the surpassing worth of Jesus. 

Today we will discuss this section of our vision statement, “by treasuring and spreading”.  Just four words, one preposition and two verbs.

Before we look at scripture as it pertains to our section of the vision statement today, let us remember what we have heard from Bob and Klaven. 

Bob shared scripture that taught us that the Church is a community of believers that God has strategically and skillfully woven together. Bob used the word knitted during his sermon and I really like that word. To knit means: to weave, to unite. Think of a yarn blanket or a wool sweater. Does anyone here know how to knit or has anyone watched a highly skilled person knit, I think it is fascinating. My mother in law, Nancy,  is a fantastic at this. In fact, here are a few examples of her work. The way her hands move in unison to create these seemingly unrelated, unorganized loops of material, doesn’t make sense at first. At first the jumbled mess of yarn or wool looks like a cake eaten by a one year old at their first birthday party but as the person continues you see the object start to take shape. As I watch closely, I get lost in the detail of the throws of each needle. So tightly bound that it is hard to see the beginning of one loop and the end of another and in fact each throw is very precise and very intentional. In the end, a beautiful work of art is created and it has a purpose. I love this word imagery as it pertains to the church. God, the most skilled knitter that has ever existed, is weaving and connecting each of us here. God placing us so purposefully, so intentionally. Creating a beautiful work of art that displays His glory to the people around us. I think of Isaiah 64:8, “But now, O Lord, you are our Father, we are the clay and you are our potter; we are the work of your hand.” God is sovereign over all and is the master architect. We also learned that we are connected to the church of the past and the global church. And as a church that is knitted together, one body, one spirit (Ephesians 4:4) we are to be walking out our faith and doing life together, side by side. It is how God designed the church to function.  

Klaven shared with us lots of scripture discussing what it means to pursue the transformation of hearts and minds. Klaven first reminded us that the church exists to help us walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. We also learned that pursue is to accomplish a goal and that Community Church’s goal is to transform hearts and minds. We learned that the word transform means to change permanently. I think of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. This process of metamorphosis produces a permanent change in the caterpillar. This is what God does for us. We learned that God does this through means of Grace: The word of God, Prayer and the ordinances. As a church who is trying to accomplish this goal of transforming hearts and minds we must commit to regular scripture reading, prayer, participation in the Lords supper and christian fellowship. We must encourage each other and cultivate a passion for salvation and sanctification of others.  

And now to our section today, “by treasuring and spreading”.  

Acts 2: 42-47. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

This is one of the examples we have of what a church should look like and what they should be accomplishing (goals). After I read this, I immediately had questions. How do we become a church that looks like them? How do we become a church of people who are fully invested in each other and fully committed to each other, wanting nothing more from each other than to see our hearts and minds and those that we come into contact with hearts and minds transformed/ permanently changed? Well, we do this BY treasuring and spreading the surpassing worth of Jesus. The use of the word BY here means to identify the means to which something is achieved. So in order to achieve the former we must do the latter. If we want to look like a church that eats together, laughs together, cries together, morns together, rejoices together, grows in knowledge and understanding of our Lord Jesus together, if we want to see God change our lives into something the world doesn’t know what to do with and just has to see what it is all about, WE MUST treasure and spread JESUS.  Do you think the believers in Acts treasured Christ? Lets look back:

“Acts 2: 42, And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”  

In other versions the word steadfastly is used in place of devoted. And they held steadfastly to… This is the Greek word, proskartereo, pros-kar-ter-eh-o, which means to be earnest towards, to persevere, to be constantly diligent, to adhere closely, to attend closely. The verb in our vision statement treasuring or “to treasure” is very similar to this idea of proskartereo, it is defined in the dictionary as keeping carefully or to value highly. So then to answer the question, I would have to say yes.  These believers of the early church treasured Christ by pressing in earnestly, diligent to adhere closely to the words of the apostles(Gods word), fellowship, breaking of bread and prayers. So now I have to ask, how were they able to accomplish what they did? Was it under their own power and strength to do these things? Did they accomplish these things out of their own grit and determination to be better people? Did they just decide to do these things and they were suddenly able to do them? NO, no they did not. How can I say this? Well let us imagine what we would see if a random group of people were to gather together in our world today, what would this look like?  I would venture to say that typically, what we would see would be the exact opposite of what we see in Acts. So this TRANSFORMTION had to happen because of something greater than themselves. Just before our passage today the Holy Spirit had been poured out. This has to be the explanation for how this church was depicted. It is only by the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that these Christians were able to do what they did BUT they took the step of obedience and laid the foundation by TREASURING Christ above all else. And the results were staggering. 

 Acts 2:43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. (can you imagine) And all who believed were TOGETHER and had ALL things in common (that is a miracle also, when is the last time you had ALL things in common with someone else). And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. (selling whatever they had to meet the needs of those around them so incredibly selfless) And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with ALL THE people. (and there is more) And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. 

WOW!!! May we be a church that looks like this, please God help us!!

Let’s step out of Acts for a second and look at a passage in Luke:

Luke 12:32-34 , this is Jesus speaking, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” 

Now the word treasure in this passage simply refers to wealth but we see something unique about a connection between treasure and the heart.

This passage comes just after Jesus spent several minutes exhorting the people to not be anxious. It starts with a promise from Jesus, that as a member of his flock, that is important to see here. If you are not a follower of Christ who has professed that you are a sinner and acknowledges that Jesus died for you to take the punishment that you deserved for your sin. If you do not profress that Jesus conquered sin and death by rising from the grave 3 days after he was buried. And if you have not allowed Him to be Lord of your life meaning if you have not dedicated yourself to knowing and doing His word then you are not able to claim these promises. And if you would like to become a Christ follower today I would encourage you to talk with one of the elders or someone sitting around you before you leave today. If you are a Christ follower then, God delights to give you the kingdom. Whose kingdom is this, THE KINGDOM of GOD. Where we have access to all the heavenly riches and can be full of the fruit of the spirit. Where neither rust nor moth can destroy. Where God clothes us and feeds us and supplies us with our needs as they arise. Notice that this is not an earthly kingdom with riches, expensive cars, elegant foods and huge houses but in this kingdom you are required to give of your possessions. You may ask yourself, well how can God ask this of me? Well, we are living in God’s kingdom and as God sits on the throne He owns everything. In giving we are just returning what God has graciously allowed us to use for a time. Our passage says that in giving of our possessions we then will become rich. This is a paradox right? How can we become rich if we are giving everything away. We will not become rich by our own standards or this world’s standards but by the Kingdom of God’s standards. And the treasures we earn will never fail, Jesus says. No one can take them away, no one can destroy them. And then Jesus finishes with the dagger. What you treasure is where your heart is. I dont know about you guys but I find myself treasuring a lot of things outside of God. I have to constantly battle and reorient my mind to the truths of the scripture. I went to a gathering at a coworkers house several months ago. There was 10-15 people there that I did not know. There was one man however that dominated the conversations and within about two sentences out of his mouth I knew what he treasured. It was wealth. All of his stories involved needing great wealth to accomplish. I went skiing in the Alps. I was drinking this insanely expensive bourbon on this yacht in the Cayman islands, I had just flown in from Italy, well you get the picture. Have you guys ever met someone who shows their cards immediately? Unfortunately, we are all like this man in one way or another. We may not be as vocal as he was but we are all treasuring something. Money, wealth, fame, food, love, family, comfort, God. How can we know what we are treasuring? 

Luke 6:45, Jesus says, “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

So we can look at what we talk about and how we spend our money and time and this will show you what you are treasuring. What do you find yourself talking about outside of church? What topic dominates your conversations with believers or non believers ? What do you spend the majority of your money or time on? This is what you treasure and if Christ was not your answer, there is a problem. We must treasure Christ above all else.  He calls for us to be ready and willing to give everything up for His sake and to not look back. 

Mark 8:34, Jesus says: if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? 

Jesus also asks that we be willing to leave our mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters if needed for His sake.

 Luke 14: 26 Jesus says, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” 

Jesus requires everything of you. This is how much we should treasure Christ. 

Well not only do we need to treasure Christ above all else in order to accomplish our goal of living side by side pursuing the transformation of hearts and minds but we must also spread. To spread means to gradually reach or distribute to a larger and larger area. Lets look back at our text from Acts. 

Acts 2:43-47. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

 I think that it is very interesting that with this first church during these first couple of days, at least here in Acts, there is no proclaiming of the gospel. Now we know that proclaiming the gospel is part of what we are supposed to be doing as Christ followers. 

Lets take Mathew 28:18-20

-And Jesus came to them and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.

Here Jesus commands us to go forth and spread his gospel message and to teach all of his statutes/commands not by our own power but by the power of the Lord who has all authority in heaven and earth. This is obviously a command to spread the gospel message using spoken word but I think that this is just part of the whole picture of spreading Jesus to the world. I think it also involves how we act and what we do. In Acts chapter 2 we see signs and wonders being performed by the apostles through the Holy Spirit. (vs43). We see fellowship and unity (vs 44). We see acts of kindness and selflessness (v45). We see corporate worship, observance of the sacrements and the people being content with what they had, or the lack there of (v46). We see praise and worship and the people were favored by EVERYONE. And then what does God do, the Lord adds to the number of believers day by day (v47). I think we must conclude that spreading is not just simply speaking Gods word but also living in such a way that captivates the heart and minds of those around us. I don’t know about you but I really feel the weight of this. You mean to tell me that every word out of my mouth and every action of my body can be a proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Lord please help me to do better. Lord please help us to be more like you. I think that this idea is supported by John chapter 13: 34-35, 

Jesus says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” 

Isn’t this what the believers in Acts were doing. They had such a compassion for each other that other people just had to see what it was all about and the Lord used this compassion, that He gave to us, to draw more and more people unto Himself. Isn't this just so completely beautiful? So to spread is not only to use our spoken word to proclaim the gospel but to live side by side in such a way that people can’t help but notice. 

Let’s look back at Luke 6:45, Jesus says,

 “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. 

Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks/ spreads. So when we treasure Christ appropriately we will naturally speak/ spread/ live out His message. We will talk about the things that we treasure. Just as we all treasure something, we all also spread something. And as we learned earlier, what we treasure dictates what we spread. In other words, spreading is a natural progression from treasuring. Just like my example above, the man treasured wealth and so everything he spoke about had wealth intermingled into it. On the opposite spectrum was our brother Byron. Now that man treasured Christ and when you spoke to him it didn't take but maybe 2 sentences before you were hearing Christ come out of his mouth and it didn't take but 2 seconds before you felt the love of Christ coming through his actions. There are many others in our congregation who do the same and they are examples that we have to look at. 

So we are to accomplish living side by side pursuing transformation of hearts and minds by treasuring and spreading Jesus. How? How can we do this? I think Klaven covered this well and I also think that the Lifeplan that we are going through will help us with this. We have to be reading scripture regularly and keeping ourselves accountable to what we learn. Keep a notebook near by. Write down what God has revealed to you and go back and look at it through the week. Commit to obeying what God has revealed to you. We need to be memorizing scripture. In Sunday school this last week, we learned that sin is our greatest danger. One of the ways to combat this is by memorizing scripture. 

Psalm 119:11 says,” I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” 

So literally memorizing scripture will help us avoid our greatest danger. Why wouldn’t we want to do this? Adults, we were challenged a couple of weeks ago to begin to memorize scripture and there was a hand out in your bulletin that outlined the verses, dates and tools to help memorize the Word. Were you able to accomplish this this week. Let’s see, here is your test: Romans 6:23, lets say it together, Just adults, Children you will have your turn. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” How did you do? Did you get all the words? Ok children, it's your turn! Romans 6:23… 

Before we close, I wanted to tell you a story from last week that proves that what God has guided us to be doing here at Community Church is bearing fruit. I was leaving last Sunday. I was walking through the foyer and I overheard Reed telling Aly what he learned in Sunday school. So naturally I bent down to listen close and he turned to me and said, “I learned about sin.” And so I asked, is sin your greatest danger, and he emphatically nodded his head yes. How cool is that. Reed is 4 years old and the Holy Spirit is already pressing in and revealing Himself to Reed. The Holy Spirit is using scripture and his Sunday school teachers to show Reed that sin is in fact his greatest danger.

So in conclusion, in order for us to be able to pursue the transformation of hearts and minds while we are living side by side, we must treasure Jesus which will lead to spreading both by spoken word and by how we act towards each other. Some practical ways we can treasure and then spread include reading Gods word, memorizing Gods word, and keeping ourselves accountable to what God is teaching us. We can encourage one another and we can truly seek to live like the believers in Acts. The lifeplan will also continue to explore several other ways we can treasure and spread Jesus so I highly encourage you to attend Sunday school. You will be blessed.  Let’s Pray.