MonSep292008
At this phase of our church plant, I want to call us to become a CHURCH UNDERGROUND. One day we hope to have an incredibly fruitful church in our community. If this happens, our church will become somewhat visible. But right now we must chose to embrace invisibility. By this I mean we must choose the way of humility and brokenness.
We must recognize that we do not have the resources, abilities, or knowledge to build the church God wants. All we have is Him. But do we act like it? Do we think that that if we just had the money, the staff, the programs, the music, or the preaching we will have the church God desires?
What we need is a heart of desperation that embraces the position of lowliness and humility and surrenders all desires for prominence, position, and power. Before we will see God produce the fruit of the Harvest we must allow him to plant us deeply underground.
From John 12:20-26 we learned that GOING UNDERGROUND means…
• Glorifying Jesus
• Becoming Invisible – Let them see Jesus!
• Getting Dirty
• Choosing Death
• Gaining Security
• Multiplying Fruit
In short, HUMILITY is a key nutrient that will nourish the seed resulting in anticipated fruit.
Will you meditate on these two scriptures as we go deeper in becoming the CHURCH UNDERGROUND…
Isa 57:15 For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
Isa 66:1-2 Thus says the LORD: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.