Sermon from January 2, 2000
My ministry grows out of a very high view of the Church. I am mystical and at times even misty-eyed about the Church, but the only part of the Church you or I can do anything about is this one. Here in communion with our Lord, Jesus Christ, at the supper He left behind, I want to call us to a renewed and deeper commitment to love and cherish this congregation. In doing so I wil try to be very warm, very specific, very practical, and very definite. Your worship guide insert will help.

Last Sunday, I raised a question that I would like to pursue with you today in more detail. Here is the question. How can we believe in Christ and be indifferent to His body, the Church? A husband does not love his wife only from the neck up. He loves the whole person. To love Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, means that we love the Church, His body. After all, He is devoted to His Church. He loved her and gave Himself up for her. If we say, "Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world," the Church is implicated in His saving actions, because the Church is inseparably the body of which He, the Savior, is the head.

BVBC has no other foundation than Jesus Christ. In the words of Ephesians 2:20, we are built on the foundation of the apostle and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. We seek to live under His authority because, as Colossians 1:18 says, He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.

Because we are built on that foundation and acknowledge that supremacy, we look to Christ for our mission in this world. We find that in Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus said, "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. Guided by the Lord Himself, our mission is to make baptized disciples of Jesus Christ, who are seeking to know Him intimately and to obey His Word joyfully. Please say that after me in phrases. BVBC exists for no other reason than that.

The next step is more difficult. How does this obedient disciple behave? If there are a hundred people in a room, there will be a hundred answers to that question. There is no single formula. I offer you the one that has made the most sense to me. I think you will find that my words cover nearly all the other answers you may hear.

One word marks an obedient disciple of Jesus Christ – love. But this love goes in three directions. It goes toward God, toward human beings, and away from the world. The First Great Commandment points our love toward God. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength (Mark 12:30). The Second Great Commandment points our love toward human beings. Love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:31). The Apostle John points our love away from the world.  Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him (1 John 2:15).

By the way, Jesus said of the great commandments, There is no commandment greater than these (Mark 12:31). The Apostle Paul, following Jesus, said, The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love yourself neighbor as yourself" (Romans 13:9-10). Every commandment that Jesus gave applies love in some specific way. This simplifies all that Jesus commanded into something we can get a handle on.

To help us distinguish among these three directions of love I have given them three different labels: worship, which is love for God; love, which is love for human beings; and detachment, which is obedience to the command not to love the world. A person who practices worship, love, and detachment is the obedient disciple of Jesus Christ that BVBC exists to make. We have four primary disciplines for doing this.

The first is public worship. This is the central act which we do together. Here our faces are, so to speak, turned upward. In this moment together, week by week, we can say and do things to express our worship in ways not easily expressed anywhere else. In this moment together, we wait for God to speak to our hearts through His Word.

Our second discipline is small groups. Here our faces are, so to speak, turned to each other. Here we pray and learn to pray. Here we can bring our lives to the table, not as we wish they were, but as they are. Small groups make large churches feel like small churches. New people get connected to the congregation fast in a small group.

Our third discipline is Christian education. Here our faces are, so to speak, turned down to look into the Word of God. Here we look to understand our faith as it is expressed in scripture, theology, and Christian history.  Here we have a chance to measure it against the false claims of our culture on our affection, allegiance, and understanding.

Our fourth discipline is missions. Here our faces are, so to speak, turned outward. It is lethal for a church to become ingrown. So, we partner with other churches and Christian organizations in the task of evangelizing and planting churches throughout the world. We seek to be world Christians, that is, Christians with a global perspective.

A congregation of people practicing worship, love, and detachment within the fourfold disciplines of public worship, small groups, Christian education, and missions – that is at least part of the vision of what BVBC can be. Now, let me challenge you to join me in setting two personal goals for year 2000.

First of all, submit yourself consistently to each of the four disciplines, which are carried out under specific ministry leadership: Pastor Rew and I in public worship, Pastor Karl in small groups, Pastor Bill and Jollie Wilcox and the Adult C.E. team under Dick Lawyer in Christian education, and Peter Leung in Missions. We and our ministry teams oversee these disciplines to give them direction and accountability. We have sought to build flexibility into these disciplines so that every person who calls BVBC home has a reasonable chance to participate consistently in each.

But you have to make it a personal priority to participate. The four disciplines of this Christian community offer a powerful counterbalance to our culture in which we are tempted to forsake Christ and in which we come away some weeks pretty beat up. These four disciplines help us keep a biblical balance and a biblical perspective. They nurture in us the Christ-like qualities of worship, love, and detachment. So do it! Submit yourself consistently to each of the four disciplines.

Here is my second challenge. Commit yourself to deepen your Christian spirituality. I know that people use the word spirituality to mean almost anything. But you know better. You know it means deepening your worship of God, your love of your neighbor, and your ability to say to anything that dishonors Christ, "No, that is not who I am in Christ." Submitting yourself consistently to each of the four disciplines here is a place to start. Your conscience may give you invaluable help in what to do. The ministry of the Word will speak clearly to you about what you should do. Don't be content with who you are. Commit yourself to deepen your Christian spirituality with Christ's help.