Bridge Church Vancouver

Beautiful Feet

May 20, 2007

Rom. 10:1        Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.  2 For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.  3 Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.  4 Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

Rom. 10:5        Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law: “The man who does these things will live by them.”  6 But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’’” (that is, to bring Christ down)  7 “or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).  8 But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming:  9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.  11 As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”  12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him,  13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Rom. 10:14      How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?  15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

Rom. 10:16      But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?”  17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

Last night I got home from a seminar / workshop in Seattle.  I had been home a few minutes and Abby comes to me yelling “Daddy, where are you, come see my room”  I get up and go into her room and she shows me some new curtains her and Sarah had put up yesterday, her room was clean and she proudly says, “I like my room”  she was excited, proud and telling me about her room.

On the way home yesterday, I get a text message from a friend who was excited – they just bought a house!  No small thing in Vancouver.  He was excited, and I was excited for him.

When we have good news to share we are quick to share it

This is the gospel message – life is found in Jesus, freedom his found in him

Jesus said to his disciples:

John 20:21       Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

2Cor. 5:16       So 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.  17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!  18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:  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.  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.

22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.  23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

Speak-up – Purposeful Mission

“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

Beauty

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For beauty as a quality of a person's appearance see: Physical attractiveness. For other uses, see Beauty (disambiguation).

Beauty is a quality present in an object, or person that gives Beauty

intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations (such as shape, color, sound, etc.), a meaningful design or pattern, or something else (such as personality).[1]

Said another way, "beauty" is a quality of a person, object, place, or idea that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure, affirmation, meaning, or goodness. The subjective experience of "beauty" often involves the interpretation of some entity as being in balance and harmony with nature. This leads to powerful feelings of attraction and emotional well-being.

In its most profound sense, beauty may engender a salient experience of positive reflection about the meaning of one's own existence. An "object of beauty" is anything that reveals or resonates with personal meaning. Hence religious and moral teachings often focus on the divinity and virtue of beauty, and to assert natural beauty as an aspect of a spirituality and truth.

The antonym of beauty is ugliness, i.e. the perceived opposite of beauty, which stimulates displeasure and engenders a deeply negative perception of the object. Ugly can also be used to explain a person's actions.

Feet

Get dirty, stinky,

Highly sensitive, ticklish, stubbed,

Take the rest of the body where the body wants to go

One of the most important and intricate parts of the body

Carry the weight of the body

Man with no legs, walked on his knuckles – not made to be walked on

God calls us to take his message of peace, hope and life in Jesus to a world who needs to hear it – and HE CALLS THAT A BEAUTIFUL THING

This summer:

OKC – 6

Southcliff – 24

FBCG – 6

Sports camp

River – 16

FBCG – 4

LiveOak – 5

Bible camp

Colony – 16

Total 77 volunteers

7 teams

5 churches

sing, passout water, doggie biscuits, brochures

coach, play, laugh, run, with kids

share Christ – his love, his hands, his message

why – because they believe in the depths of the souls that life is truly found in a relationship with God through his son Jesus

We too, can and should be involved in sharing Christ with our community.

We must believe we have an imperative message to share

“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Paul presents an airtight logic:

Rom. 10:14      How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in?

A person must take the personal responsibility for their life and in their hearts and minds cry out to Jesus.

9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

Salvation from sin, relationship with God, life is found only in a relationship with Jesus

And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?

We have all had an experience of discovering something that we had no been told of.

Research has found that the vast majority of people will visit church if they are invited.  For many it is easier to invite someone to church than presenting the gospel

 And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 

We can proclaim Jesus in many different ways – speaking the gospel, giving out the gospel,

Nice people living the gospel but never speaking the gospel is not fulfilling this command.  To the rest of the world this looks like nice people getting nicer  --  isn’t that nice.

They still don’t know the source of life.  Unless we share it – unless you share it.

15 And how can they preach unless they are sent?

God has give us – each of us a message

A message of goodness, hope, peace, salvation

A message he has woven into our very lives

God has given us – each of us an opportunity

To participate with him in restoring a generation to Himself

To experience the incarnation

God has given us – each of us a mandate – a commission

To be about advancing His Kingdom

To share what we have been given

To receive is to give

This is very purposeful.  Intentional, planned, commissioned. Initiated. 

“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

when you share the news of Jesus with someone else you are doing what God says is a beautiful thing

when we do this we are fulfilling what Jesus has told his followers they are to be doing

when we share Jesus we are living an incarnational life, where the presence and reality of Jesus is truly in our lives.

This summer – we can see people come to know Jesus. 

This is not a bad thing – it is quite opposite, it is a beautiful thing, it will change someones life, it will change your life.