Continuous Breakthrough - The Circle
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This document discusses the biblical concepts of time, repentance, belief, and becoming a disciple. It explains that Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God was near and people should repent and believe. It defines kairos as a significant moment that can transform one's life, and notes Jesus commanded his disciples to go make more disciples through baptism and teaching. It provides guidance on observing, reflecting and discussing to facilitate repentance, and on planning, accounting and acting to demonstrate belief. The overall message is that one should respond to God's call to repentance and faith through ongoing learning and application of scripture.
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Continuous Breakthrough - The Circle
- 2. The Time Has Come Repent and Believe After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” Mark 1: 14 – 15
- 3. Time - Chronos • The sequential passing of time; chronological time • Its about dates and clock time
- 4. Time - Kairos • An event or moment or a crisis when time can seem to “stand still” • A period of “time” when chronos is of no importance • It could mark a significant shift in your life
- 6. “Therefore 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. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28: 19 - 20
- 7. What is a Disciple? • A disciple is a learner or student • A disciple is someone who has committed to being a lifelong learner
- 9. The Time Has Come Repent and Believe After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” Mark 1: 14 – 15
- 10. KAIROS B R E E L P I E E N V T E
- 11. Repentance • A complete change of mind and heart • A process of transformation that takes place within a person
- 12. R Observe E P Reflect E N T Discuss
- 13. “ What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 18But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. James 2:14;17-18
- 14. Believe • Active trust • A trust based on something you’ve been persuaded about; a continuing process of belief and action • Can also be translated as faith; something you are sure about
- 15. Act B E L Account I E Plan V E
- 16. KAIROS Act B Observe R E E L Account P Reflect I E E N Plan V Discuss T E
- 17. Repentance Observe: Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them (Matthew 6:26) Reflect: Are you not much more valuable than they? (6:26) Discuss: Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? (6:27)
- 18. Believe - Faith Plan: But seek first His kingdom… (Matthew 6:33) Account: A good tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit (Matthew 7:18) Act: Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on a rock (Matthew 7:24)
- 19. KAIROS Act B Observe R E E L Account P Reflect I E E N Plan V Discuss T E
Editor's Notes
- When our son Zachary was born, because he came so early there was such a deep concern for his life and for his well-being that time... the normal “tick-tock” schedule of life really didn’t seem to matter.... because in that event, regardless of how things would turn out (although thank God they turned out well) I knew my life would never be the same again... and it hasn’t been it was a KAIROS EVENT... a TIME that marked a significant shift in my life... a time where, more than any other time in my life, I began learning to trust God in way that I don’t think I ever had before.
- So you might be asking yourself, what does any of this have to do with anything? Well, today we are beginning a brand new series to introduce what we are calling Lifeshapes, where over the next 8 weeks we will be introduced to eight shapes... simple images that are easy to remember, each linked to the discipleship principles that Jesus identifys in the Bible. But to get to where we are headed, we have to know first where to begin... and THIS is where we begin.
- By identifying the KAIROS moments or events in our lives and then, as we will see later, entering into a process of transformation that will, if we can learn and apply, will lead to continuos breakthrough as we try live our lives as people following Jesus. So it is my prayer, that this time... right here and now will mark a Kairos event in your life, and in our life together as a church community... that this will not simply be another Sunday morning, but that it will mark the beginning of a time where each one of us will know and experience the presence of God like never before. PRAY.
- By identifying the KAIROS moments or events in our lives and then, as we will see later, entering into a process of transformation that will, if we can learn and apply, will lead to continuos breakthrough as we try live our lives as people following Jesus. So it is my prayer, that this time... right here and now will mark a Kairos event in your life, and in our life together as a church community... that this will not simply be another Sunday morning, but that it will mark the beginning of a time where each one of us will know and experience the presence of God like never before. PRAY.
- When I was in college I had this English literature class my freshman year that I think wa one of the hardest classes I had in those four years. I love to read, but I just had a difficult time connecting to our realting to the kind of things we were being assigned. Most of our grade in the class was taken from a series of analysis papers we wrote on the books we were reading.. and it just seemed like no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't get better than a C on any of these papers. I'll never forget the day I got one of my papers back... I had worked so hard and when I opened it up there wasn't any red ink as I was flipping through the pages. I thought this might be a good sign, but then I got to the last page and read the lone comment. It said, "A wonderfully written, thoughtful exploration of the text... but of course you missed the whole point of the story." This was tough for me, because I didn't want to simply write well and miss the point. I WANTED TO GET THE POINT OF THE STORY, BUT I WAS NEVER TAUGHT IN THAT CLASS HOW TO DISCOVER WHAT THE POINT WAS.
- See, I have worked in ministry now for 16 years and if there is one thing that I have encountered more than anything else it is that people are longing for a life of significance... a life intimately connected to the God of the universe. So often we hear the promise of this kind of transforming, life-changing relationship with Jesus, but in reality most of us have no idea how to actually take hold of that promise and experience the kind of life that God has to offer. As this church, I don't want us to just be a group of people that gets together and hears a nice message and sings some good songs and learns the right things to say at the right time... I don't want us to MISS THE POINT... and the point is Jesus. We are striving in this community to know Jesus in such a way that transforms the way we live in this world... and in such a way that leads others to the POINT... that leads others to Jesus as well. So the word we use to describe this pursuit is DISCIPLESHIP. IN THIS COMMUNITY WE WANT TO BE ABOUT LEARNING TO BE DISCIPLES OF JESUS.
- BUT WHAT IS A DISCIPLE. We’ve talked about this some before, but here is just a brief description for us to work with. So the question then becomes, how do we become this kind of learner? How do we enter a lifestyle of learning? It really is a lifestyle... an ongoing process. Texas Hold Em’... takes a minute to learn, but a lifetime to master. So we have to ask ourselves, “AM I WILLING TO COMMIT MY LIFE TO THIS?”
- IN LIFESHAPES WE represent this “Lifestyle of Learning” the Circle. - The Circle is continuous... it has no end... we are always learning... and to look at what it is that makes up this process of learning... this continuous journey of discovering what it is to follow Jesus and why that makes any difference in our lives at all... we have to go back to where we began this morning with this text from Mark 1
- Mark 1:14-15
- Learning happens by event and process... it’s not just that karios events happen, it is what we do with them. An event can happen and we don’t learn a thing from it... we’re not transformed in any way. We just keep moving in the same direction. We can either experience the event and then keep on moving like nothing ever happened, or if we can learn to recognize these events we can decide to enter a process of repentance and belief. The result of entering into this process is experiencing God’s kindgom at hand in your life. Being the father of a two-year-old I think in some ways I witness the Circle everyday... Kairos in y life this week... WE NEED TO DO SOME WORK WITH THESE WORDS “REPENT” AND “BELIEVE”
- Repentance is not so much, “I’m sorry”... or begging for forgiveness. We don’t need to beg for forgiveness because God has already offered it to us at no cost of our own. Saying we are sorry... and actually meaning it might be a part of it, but repentance is the ongoing, life-long process of changing our hearts and our minds and our lives. So often we think of repentance as like, “turn from you wicked ways o vile sinner!” But more accurately, the word means “turn towards”. So when we experience KAIROS and we enter into the Circle our repentance is taking that event or experience and from it, turning to God and allowing him to lead you in a process of transformation. And often times people will say stuff like that, but people like you and me have no idea how to actually do this. But here is the great thing! Time and time again in the Bible, Jesus shows his disciples (and he shows us) how we can repent or turn to God. So let’s look:
- The first part of the repent process is observation. To change our lives, we need to observe where we are. When a kairos moment stops us in our tracks, this is the time to observe our reactions, our emotions, our thoughts. We have to be honest in our observations - see things as they are - if we want to change inwardly. Once we observe our condition, we need to reflect on our observations. We need to ask ourselves why we reacted as we did, why we feel the way we do, why a certain event brought these emotions to the surface... asking questions is a great way to reflect, but again we have to be honest if any change is going to take place. But here is the tough part for some of us. If observing and reflecting is going to lead to any kind of lasting change, we must invite others into the process with us. We need trustworthy friends who will stand with us, pray with us, fight alongside of us, but who won’t flatter us with empty words... this is one of the reasons why we confess in worship...THIS IS NOT EASY!
- Here’s the thing. Just because we experience something... just because we go through a kairos moment does not mean that we actually learn anything from it. And repenting will not by itself bring about any change. Repentance is on the first part of the circle. Stopping after we repent only invites the experience to return... and when it returns it gets harder and harder to repent the next time. So we have to move from repentance to belief or faith. Faith for a lot of people looks like this: SHOW INDIANA JONES...
- Faith is not some flying leap with the expectation of falling to your death and being surprised when you don't. Faith is not just some nice little belief... like "yeah, I guess in my head I think this is true." In Hebrews 11, the writer says," Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." and as we just read in James our "faith" is accompanied by deeds... our faith is demonstrated by what we do. So if you are acting in faith you are simply doing what you know God wills to be done. It's not risky... it's not a flying leap off a cliff... it is acting in the assurance of God's promises.
- We don’t get to hear the response of the people listening in the text, but you can see the pattern and the process.
- This is not a one and done kind of thing...SLINKY