In January and February of 2008 JD preached on the mission of our church: to love God, love each other, and love our world. The sermon series came in a 5 week study of John 15, the scene of Jesus’ last conversation with his disciples before his death.
Many of us remember that sermon series as an important time for our church, as we began to understand the main focus of Summit. Since then, our church has more than doubled in size. So if you heard this sermon series, chances are that people in your small groups or sitting next to you in the weekend services have not. Share our mission with them! If you are new to Summit, here’s a chance to discover the core of who we are as a church. Follow this link and type “organic” into the search tab on the media player to listen (lower-right hand corner).
Here are some observations about that sermon series from Saturday PM campus elder and seminary professor Bruce Ashford:
Love God (John 15:1-17)
Jesus tells us to abide in him, and makes clear that abiding implies three things:
1. Jesus is the person to which I look for acceptance
2. Jesus is the source from which I draw satisfaction
3. Jesus is the source from which we draw power
Love Each Other (John 15:12-17)
During the introduction to this message, JD said, “Jesus says in John 15 that the most significant aspect of that change is that you love. Your life begins to be characterized by a tenderness, a compassion, and a generosity. Later in the message, he remarks that Americans tend to expect their church to be a “show” rather than a community. We must find ways to foster this type of loving interaction and relationship-building (small groups!!).
Love God’s World: Prayer (John 15:5-8)
During the introduction to this message, JD said, “If you don’t pray, it’s a problem in what you believe about Jesus … I’ll be honest with you, for a lot of my life I’ve done a lot of things spiritually … been a good church attender, memorized a lot of verses, told lots of people about Jesus, but prayer has always been a struggle. I realized it is because I didn’t really believe in Christ in the right way … I believed in the sense of mental assent, but not in heart.”
Love God’s World: Generosity (John 15:12-13)
In this message, JD states that our generosity (or lack thereof) is one of the best indicators of the condition of our hearts. Later, he argues that we are motivated to be generous because we love Christ, we love others, and we recognize that giving is the means through which God blesses us.
Love God’s World: Witness (John 15:16, 17:15-17)
Throughout the series, JD unpacks a theology of being a Christian in the workplace. This is hugely important to us as a church. We believe that Christians in the workplace are doing the ministry and the folks on staff at Summit are here to help equip you to do that ministry.