How Do You Love Your City? Part 1



How Do You Love Your City?

This is the question we have been asking our church LakePointe. We’ve been talking about how to love the city we live in as a community of believers. The discussion has taken us to Matthew 25. We realize something that changed our mindset. The fact that “we are the least of these,” and as “the least of these” we are to be out reaching to the “least of these” that are still out there! To understand put yourself in Jesus story as the “I” and put Jesus in as the “YOU.” Also, look at the physical needs that were met in the narrative and see how it plays out with these as spiritual needs:

35 “For I(insert your name) was (spiritually) hungry, and you(JESUS) fed me(the bread of life). I was (spiritually) thirsty, and you (JESUS)gave me a drink(from waters where I would never thirst again). I was a stranger(estranged, lost spiritually), and you(Jesus) invited me into your home(a relationship with Him, His church). 36 I was naked,(not clothed in righteousness) and you (Jesus)gave me clothing(baptismal clothes, white as snow clothed in His righteousness). I was sick(spiritually), and you(Jesus) cared for me(and healed me). I was in prison(bondage of sin), and you(Jesus) visited me(left heaven came to earth lived the life I couldn’t and released me freed me from my prison of sin and the hell I deserved, by dying on the cross).”

This description defines who we are prior to faith in Jesus who came and restored what was broken from the sin in our life!  We are the least of these described here in Matthew 25.  We are the Spiritual vagabonds, in-prisoned in sin, hungry and thirsty for something that will really satisfy our spirit because we’ve tried everything else and although it tasted great at the time quenched our thirst for a moment it never satisfied! As we live in the grace won for us by Jesus it overwhelms us and transform our life. As we follow Jesus we begin to look at others in our community who don’t know His grace and mercy as we do and it causes us to want to share this with them. We were the least of these and we want to share this same love of Jesus with them.


“You can’t proceed to love your city without understanding first who you are before Jesus and then who you are as a result of Jesus love.”


When we experience that LOVE, God’s love, a love that doesn’t ask anything from us first but loves us first. A love that no matter who we are and what we do we can’t make God love us any more or any less because He’s already radically in love with us. This kind of love changes us. God loves us, God loves our city and He wants all to know of His love! We love our city, it’s one of the reason’s we exist.

 
LakePointe EXISTS to love Hot Springs!  We want to let Hot Springs know they are loved by GOD!

This is the start of loving your city. Understanding first the love God has for you and who you are before God. More to come soon...
Location: hot springs, AR

Comments

  1. Dana GoodmanJanuary 24, 2015 at 10:36 PM

    Wonderful post, Greg. I love going out into the city and giving out coffee. People love it and we get plenty of opportunity to pray with them. His reckless, beautiful grace transforms lives!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Using Mixed Martial Arts Share The Love Of Jesus?

Image
It's been about 3 weeks since the 2nd Annual Spa City Stomp Out! This is the second time LakePointe Church has hosted this MMA Fight in Hot Springs, AR. Last year through this event we handed out 4 cases of Bibles and had an opportunity to pray with many families. We saw many people, including several fighters, begin to follow Jesus that day! It was a no- brainer when we had the opportunity to host the event again this year. The big difference, as our team recapped this event, was that we would be more prepared for those who needed prayer and didn't have a Bible. Last year we were prepared for people who would come drunk, high, or just ready to pick a fight. The only person we had to escort off the premise was some guy who was slamming people over the head with his Bible telling them that they were going to hell! A turn or burn talk, which we don't condone. When this man was asked to leave by one of our pastors, letting him know we had the teaching covered, he wo...
Read more

(BE) Salty...

Image
Matthew 4:17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Our team is reading through Matthew this month correlating the day of the month with a chapter. I just read Matt 4 & 5 as I watched the snow fall to the ground. I know that we are not at chap 5 yet call me an overachiever but with everything happening in the Middle East particularly Egypt (which is now only Christian ally of The United States ) it seems the following verses really apply to us today: Salt and Light 13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. 14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others,...
Read more

In Greed We Trust?

Image
We talked about GREED yesterday and how it is this intense selfish desire of wanting more. The desires take over our hearts and minds and cause us to get lost chasing the "things" from "StuffMart." I received an email where someone gave me this definition for GREED: "get all you can, can what you get, and sit on your can." That certainly falls in line with what Jesus was talking about in Mark 14:3-11 with the Foolish Rich man. It is evident that "In Greed He Trusted!" Today, studying the book of Numbers I'm wondering if there isn't a more subtle GREED that plagues our lives, especially those who are following Jesus? I've read the story before, as I'm sure you have too, in Numbers 20 where Moses faces the grumbling people of God again for the umpteenth time. It seems like they have run out of things to complain about so they are back to an old complaint of no water. Moses and Aaron do the right thing in crying out to G...
Read more