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When my wife and I, Vicki, co-founded Transformation Church, one of our non-negotiables was this. If our community did not get better, we should not exist. If our community does not get better, we should not exist. Or, to put it another way, if we did not exist in our community after a few years, and if we were no longer there, would we actually be missed? So what I'm saying is we wanted to plant a church that blessed our community, that if we were present, God's presence was there, and people's lives got better, the community got better.
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And if we didn't exist, people would demand that we stay because we have made such a difference. And the only way that can happen is if we are rooted and grounded in the deep love of Christ. If we are standing tall, by being on our knees, you will never be taller than when you are on your knees. And we are soaked and saturated in prayer asking for Jesus to manifest Himself through us individually and corporately. So what I want to do right now, ministry leaders, is I want to invite you into having what's called mythical imagination.
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Mythical imagination. What would it look like if the Holy Spirit filled and overflowed you and the staff you lead and your key leaders and volunteers in your congregation? What would that look like? How would the community actually be different? So I want to talk to you about four characteristics of a local church that blesses their community.
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Four characteristics of a local church that blesses their community. Now I want to put my cards on the table. You cannot lead someone where you have not gone. You cannot make someone passionate about something that does not pulsate in your being, because what you're passionate about, you want others to be passionate about. This teaching, this communication is dual.
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It's not only individual, but then it's transferable. Because ultimately, as the leader or leaders, you're going to transfer your passion, what you embody. And so it's important that we are resting and embodying something that's going to anchor us in the truth. And the truth is Jesus. He's the way, the truth and the life.
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So what are the four characteristics of a church that blesses their community? Number one, this is going to seem obvious, but it's really not. Number one, it is Jesus centered. So let me pause here. It is not centered upon vaccinations.
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It is not centered upon politics. It is not centered upon anything other than the risen Lord Jesus Christ. King Jesus is Lord over all. He touches every single aspect of life, every square inch of the universe belongs to Him. So when I say Jesus centered.
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I don't mean just this private, individual faith, that there's a transaction where you receive forgiveness and you don't go to hell, but then the rest of your life is you really want Him to bless what you do, instead of saying, God, bless me to be a blessing, so that your name, your renown, your kingdom will come to earth as it is in heaven. So we want to be Jesus centered. That's number one. The one place that people should come to, the one community that people can belong to, where they get an overdose of Jesus is His very own church. Let me challenge you with this, particularly if you are a preacher or if you communicate and teach.
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Being practical is really important. But sometimes we're so practical, we practically preach Jesus out of the message. And never forget, theology is practical. So number one, the first characteristics of a church that blesses their community is Jesus centered, which means we as leaders must be Jesus centered. Listen to the words of the apostle Paul.
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He's writing to the church at Colossae. It's a multiethnic church. He's dealing with division between Jews and Gentiles. He's also dealing with people walking in the flesh and not bearing witness to the Grace of God. He's also dealing with false teachers.
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And so what does He do? He roots them in the person of Jesus. Now, this may seem obvious, but what I'm seeing more and more and more is not an articulation of Jesus, but a use of Jesus. Like Jesus has become like a divine life coach that helps people achieve their dreams and their goals. Instead of Jesus being Lord God, king, the gracious one, the faithful one, who invites us into His story for His glory, who equips us to be His hands and feet in the world, His body.
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So check out what the apostle Paul says here about Jesus. Now, ministry leaders, get this in your heart. He says He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. In the Greek language, firstborn is not talking about Jesus being born as a human being to marry through the power of the Holy Spirit. Firstborn is talking about His preeminence over all of creation with the Father and with the Holy Spirit.
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This is a sneak peek into the beautiful mystery of the tri personality of God. But notice the reverence that Paul has here for Jesus. He doesn't talk about Jesus as his homeboy. He talks about Jesus as the image of the invisible God. If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus, because Jesus is the image of the invisible God.
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Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. If you want to know what God is like? Look at Jesus. Because Jesus is the human face of what the invisible God looks like. In Jesus, in the incarnation, we see what human beings were meant to be, and we see the very face of God.
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Hey, those of you who preach and teach, and when you lead, do your people know that you are preoccupied with Jesus, that the sweetness of His presence is what you long for? I hope that they do. Don't be a ministry professional. Be a worshiper. Next, it says, for everything was created by Him.
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So that's His divinity in heaven, on earth, the visible and the invisible, where the thrones or dominions are rulers or authority. So Paul is saying, even the demonic world, the different levels of demons and the different levels of angels, everything was created by Jesus. Let me pause here. Just a little preaching point here. If King Jesus is the Creator of everything, don't you think He can create in you the capacity to lead, the capacity to serve, the capacity to teach, the capacity to preach, the capacity to be the leader that he's called you to be?
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Believe His voice more than the voice of doubt. Verse 17. He's before all things. This is speaking of His eternality, that there was never, not a moment that the Father, the Son did not exist. God has always been, always will be.
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He's the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning, the end, the first and the last. He didn't have a yesterday. He doesn't have a tomorrow. He lives in the eternal now. The moment that you were born and that the dinosaurs lived and the moment I die is right now to our sovereign eternal King Jesus.
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And He holds all things together. Think about this. The nail pierced the hands of Jesus. Right now, he's at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us. Those same nail pierced hands hold you together also right now.
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Leaders, I know you're overwhelmed. I know you feel like I can't do this. I know you feel like you're underqualified. While I got good news, all of us are underqualified. He qualifies whom He calls, and He holds us together.
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His blood is the cosmic glue that holds you together. He holds all things together. Now watch the pivot of the apostle Paul here, verse 19. He is also the head of the body. The Church.
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Isn't that beautiful? This king Jesus is the head of His church. The body, we are his body. Let your people know that they are his body. So often we view the church as simply a hospital for people to come to be sick and to stay sick.
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Yes, the church is a hospital where people are sick, and they get well, but then they become paramedics, then they become doctors, they become nurses. They become the ones going out to get the sick, to bring in to the great physician. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. This is speaking of His humanity and His resurrection from the dead. Why did He rise from the dead?
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So that He might have first place in everything. We want to have Jesus-centered churches. There's a lot of places where people can get advice, but there's only one place where there's good news. And good news comes from a good God. Verse 19.
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For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him. This is the incarnation in Jesus and His humanity through Him to reconcile everything to Himself, whether things on earth are things in heaven, by making peace through His blood shed on the cross. Look at the supremacy and the beauty of Jesus. May our pulpits be bloody blood splattered everywhere, because it is His blood that reconciles first and foremost humanity. God is a God of reconciliation.
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He is pursuing us to bring us back to Himself. And He's even going to make everything new. There's going to be a new heaven, a new earth, and until that time, we are appetizers bearing witness to the power and the beauty of His blood. So listen, preachers, teachers, leaders, those of you who love Jesus and want to see people reach for Christ. What we need is not cleverness.
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What we need is not cuteness. What we need is not hype. What we need is a bloody savior who rose from the dead. That's where the power is. We need Christ-centered churches.
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That's the first characteristic of a church that blesses its community. The power and anointing of Christ rests on them. Number two, Gospel shaped. That leaders and churches that bless their communities are shaped by the Gospel. Listen to the words of the apostle Paul in Acts, chapter 20, verse 24.
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He says this, “but I consider my life of no value to myself.” Wow, what a statement.
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Chips are all in. The apostle Paul moved it all in, and that is our reasonable response. That's another way to say worship, that my life belongs to the one who purchased it. My purpose is to finish my course and the ministry I receive from the Lord Jesus. Hey, leaders, the Lord has given you a ministry and He wants you to finish the course, not to be distracted.
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To finish the course to do what? To testify to the Gospel of God's Grace. Our world has no concept of grace. Grace is not simply abstract doctrine. Grace is the God who is the image of the invisible God, king Jesus, coming among us.
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To be and to do what we never could be and do. And that is to be the righteousness of God. And He incorporates us into this righteousness so much so that everything that's true of Jesus becomes true of us. Let me say it again, pastor leader, ministry leader, if you don't understand this, everything that's true of Jesus becomes true of us. We don't live for affirmation.
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We live from the affirmation of the Father over the Son through the Holy Spirit. Teach that, live that, embody that. His grace is amazing. We want to be grace-infused churches because our community and culture doesn't know nothing of grace. And grace is not simply I forgive you.
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Grace is not only I forgive you, but I make you new to be everything I've created you to be. The third characteristic of a church that blesses their community is they are driven by mission. They are driven by mission. Listen to Jesus's words. He says this to His disciples and he's saying it to you and I 2000 years ago and has the same effect today.
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Jesus came near and said to them, “all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I've commanded you. And remember, I am with you always to the end of the age.”
The One who calls us to mission is the One who is with us. The One who is with us is the one who is powerful.
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He is the one who leads us into the mission. We don't take Jesus anywhere. He waits for us to join Him where He is working. So what does that mean to be on mission? It means, number one, that every follower of Jesus is a missionary who is called to bear witness to the grace of God, to share their grace story.
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You know what a grace story is? A grace story is this. This is who I used to be before I met Jesus. This is how I met Jesus. And this is what he's done for me.
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He's forgiven me. He's raised from the dead. He's transformed me. We want to be clear and simple in that mission is not only bearing witness to share the Gospel in word, but also indeed, one of the things that we do in our community here at transformation church is we have what's called the market, and we prepare about 10,000 pounds of fresh food for over 400 people every single month. We want to meet a tangible need.
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Coming out of COVID we knew people were hurting and we thought, what can we do? Well, Jesus gave people physical bread and spiritual bread, and we want to do the exact same thing. What are some things that you can do not in a paternalistic way, but in a Gospel-centered way. We do a thing called Rollout Hope every Christmas. We provide Christmas for people who can't afford to provide Christmas for their children.
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And we set it up in such a way that parents have dignity. They come in and they can get what they need for their kids, and it restores dignity. It's not a handout. It's a hand-up. Recently, we have also paid off medical debt for people in the state of South Carolina to the tune of $4 million.
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Why do we do such things? Paying off debt physically is an example of God paying off debt spiritually in Christ. He paid our debt. Jesus rolls out hope and Jesus is the market. He is the bread of life.
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We want to tie all that together. We are driven by mission, which means we seek and embody justice, which is God's way of making the world right. We live on mission by communicating the good news and being the good news, meeting spiritual needs and physical needs. And here's the deal, you can do that too. You've got missing on imagination.
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Christ wants to do it in you. There's a lost world that needs hope. Dealers get to your block and slaying that hope. Lastly, the fourth characteristic of a church that blesses their community is this. They are prayer-centered.
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Centered on prayer. You are never stronger than when you are on your knees. Prayer is the universal affirmation of God's people in Christ saying, lord, I can't do this. I need the Holy Spirit's power to do it. Leaders ask the Holy Spirit to give you mythinal imagination of how you can bless your community, how you can equip your congregation to be missionaries.
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Ask the Holy Spirit to shift your congregation from being consumeristic to being misinal. Consumerism means I come to get misanal, means I receive so I can go into the world. But we want to be soaked and saturated in prayer. We want to pray for King Jesus. Listen, you can be the leader to have a church that blesses their community, so much so that if you didn't exist, they would demand that you come back because you have beared witness to the glory and grandeur of King Jesus.
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So here are four characteristics of a church that blesses their community. They're Jesus centered, their Gospel shaped. They're mission driven, empowered and prayer empowered.
This is Pastor Derwin. Marinate on that and when we transform the church, the world is transformed.