Back To The Basics, Part 4

In my last blog, I shared Cx3’s core values: W (Worship), O (Outreach), R (Relationship), and now I’m wrapping it up with the last letter, “D,” of the acronym “WORD.”

“D” is for “Discipleship”: We, Cliffdale Christian Center, are getting back to solid discipleship. It’s not going to be for everybody. I want to go on record: our goal is not to be one of the biggest churches in Fayetteville. Never was, never will be. God bless those who have that vision; it’s a wonderful thing. I hope they see their goal fulfilled, and they have thousands and thousands of people coming to church on Sunday. Our goal is to raise disciples. That doesn’t make us better; it doesn’t make them better. I’m just saying that our goal is to make disciples. And if you’re in, “Come on.”

If you just want to be comfortable going somewhere and putting a little money in the basket every week, well, I don’t know how long you’ll want to remain around here. Stay as long as you’re comfortable, but there will be a time that you’re going to get itchy feet and say, “I ain’t stayin’ here no more. Too much is expected of me. I’d rather go where I feel better, put my money in a basket, and Pastor, don’t get in my face every week.” We’ve tried that. It doesn’t work! Not for us. And who wants that? Man, I don’t want a church full of corpses!

It is time for Cliffdale to return to our first love. Time for us to do what God has called us to do. His calling has never changed. We had changed, but God’s call on this church has never changed. And we’ll only be fulfilled when we are busy about the Father’s business and when we are doing those things that God created us to do, not only as individuals, but also as a church.

I don’t want to follow a god that I imagine what he is, and then he fits my schematic of what my idea of a god is supposed to be like. Sometimes I think that we’ve done that in the American church. Yes, God is love, and He is merciful, but you know what? He’s also fire. What are ya gonna do with that one? We’re sometimes so fearful of a word on judgment. Well, read your Bible! “Oh, we’ll just leave that part out.” What did Jesus say? He said in that day many will come to Me and say, “Lord, Lord,” and I’ll look at them and say, “Depart from Me, workers of iniquity, I never knew you.” May we not be guilty of claiming the lordship of Christ unless we are willing to obey Him!

Every kingdom has a king (king-dom, king’s dominion). The kingdom in which you live has a king, a final authority. Is it you, or is it Jesus? You live in a kingdom. The question is: who is the ruler?

So God is calling us back. Oh yes, He’s calling us up, He’s calling us deep, but He’s calling us BACK! We don’t hear too much about being called back. We want to go higher and deeper, higher and deeper, higher and deeper. “No, I’m calling you BACK to those things that you first did that were making a difference.”

And so plans are underway, and my family and our leadership are saying, “Here we are, Lord,” and if it means selling our stuff, well, so be it. “I’ll sell everything except . . . except . . . my golf clubs. I won’t sell my golf clubs.” I was looking around the other day and saying to my wife, “We gotta get rid of stuff, we gotta get rid of it, and we have to start to do some things here.” And she said, “Tell me!”

Even in the challenge that Wesley made the other day, you don’t sell something so that you can buy other things for yourself. I used the example earlier: “I’ll sell my golf clubs so I can buy a new surfboard. Huh, how about that, Jesus?” And you know what Jesus says, “Do whatever you want, just remember, I see your works. I see them. I see what you’re doing.”

Now, He did have a couple of commendations there in verse 2 of Revelation chapter 2; He saw several good things about the church at Ephesus. They had tested those who said they were apostles and found them out to be liars, and He also commended them regarding the fact that they had not taken the course of the Nicolaitans. And then He said, “He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give to him to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”

What is it that we have to overcome? It’s not just the powers of darkness: Satan and demons. Oftentimes the most powerful force we have to reckon with is that of our own flesh. That is why over and over again Jesus said, “If you’re going to be My disciples, then you must learn to deny yourself.” “Deny yourself,” if you don’t know, means to say “NO” to what you want. Now I would add a further challenge. Tell yourself “NO,” and see how your “self” responds. Sometimes we are so unregenerate in our soul. You can deny yourself a piece of cheesecake and practically have a self-conniption. If you don’t know what a conniption looks like, imagine your picture after you’ve told yourself no about the cheesecake. No. No. No. No. No, you cannot have your plastic Jesus. No, you can’t. God is not going to be conformed into the image that we want Him to be!

My grandmother came from Italy. If ever there was a Catholic grandma, it was my grandma. She went to mass every day and had candles and a little shrine in her bedroom. I was raised Catholic, and we were so Catholic that we had our plastic Jesus up on the dashboard, and next to Him was St. Christopher. And if you don’t know what that one is for, it’s for safe travel because Christopher carried Jesus over the river. Oh my. Hallelujah, thank God for Jesus! Huh?

There is no plastic Jesus, and He will not be conformed according to the mold that we try to put Him in. We’ve been made in His image and in His likeness. As we yield to His Spirit, we can come to a place of knowing and doing His will and that’s where we find fulfillment. That’s where we find true happiness and satisfaction in this life and even greater reward in the life to come.

~ PG