Lucifer was one God’s most trusted angels. At some point along the way, he chose to assert his authority over God’s. It was as if he didn’t trust God enough to provide for his needs, so he chose to lead 1/3 of the angels of heaven to revolt against God’s authority. The first Dis-Unity in the Created Order.

The result? The dis-satisfied, dis-unifiers were cast down to earth sometime before Adam and Eve were entrusted with their gift of Common-Unity.

As Adam and Eve enjoyed this beautiful relationship that God introduced to them, the Dis-Unifier, Lucifer, came into their midst in the form of a serpent to sow his seeds of dis-satisfaction. The Genesis story records it this way:

The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”
“Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, `You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”
“You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”

As the Dis-Unifier began to sow doubt into the minds of the first couple, he deceived them with the same lie that he once believed. It was the lie that caused him to be exiled from his heavenly position. It’s the same lie that he still deceives people with today. It’s the lie that I have heard countless times in countless conversations throughout the years.

This lie, simply put, is that you don’t really need God.

Eat the fruit. If you eat it, you will not need to rely upon God for your provision or instruction. You will know what God knows. You will be able to take care of yourself. God will be un-necessary. Of course, you will still respect Him. You just won’t need Him. This mindset would poison the first couple’s relationship with God and with each other. Genesis unfolds the rest of the story for us:

The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

The Dis-Unifier succeeded in breaking up the Common-Unity between the couple and their God. This skewed relationship had an immediate side effect. The couples Common-Unity was broken as was their  Common-Unity with the rest of God’s creation.

Paradise lost.

God explained the consequences of their behavior and the rest, quite literally, is history. The story of mankind has been the story of Dis-Unity. But the beautiful Creator of community, the One who has always lived in perfect Unity with the Son and the Spirit would not stand for this deceptive act of the Dis-Unifier.

The damage was done. However, their was a solution. There was a way to repair the damage. But it would not come without a cost.

And this is what we will discuss next time.

Thirsting for Him,
Chris Larsen
Lead Pastor

Webster’s dictionary defines Community as a unified body of individuals; a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society.

When we talk about living in a community, we speak in general terms: our neighborhood; our apartment complex; maybe our part of town. In the church we talk about community in the sense of a group of believers in Jesus Christ with common characteristics or values. We have people meet together in groups to develop a sense of community. We program events that help foster community. Some churches have specific paid positions whose sole responsibility is to create ministries and programs that encourage and nurture community. I’ve served in this role on a couple of occasions and I’ve always had the same frustration: What is the magic bullet that gets people experiencing community the way Jesus intended?

While I now agree with the little bald kid on The Matrix, “there is no spoon”, or in our terms, “there is no magic bullet” I still wonder why we don’t experience a sense of “community” the way we were intended. Well, that’s what we are going to look at this week. And first, we have to find out what the original idea of community was like.

Our starting place is going to be the Garden of Eden. God created Adam and placed him in the Garden to care for it and to ensure the well being of all the animals. God knew that it wasn’t good for the man to be alone, so He created a helper that fit perfectly with the man — Eve. Not only would Eve be the feminine counterpart that would make the human race reproducible, but Eve provided a different outlook on life than Adam. She brought the feminine to his masculine. She brought the soft to his strength. She brought the intuitive to his linear processing. The description for the first couple at the end of Genesis 2 is crucial for understanding the original idea of community.

Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.

It’s interesting that the author of Genesis felt the need to indicate both their physical status (naked) as well as their emotional status (no shame). We’ve become so used to the words that we fail to see the punch in them. It’s not enough to say that they were not ashamed to be naked in front of each other. It’s so much more than that. This lack of shame embodies a sense of openness they had with one another. No self-protecting. No barriers. No mistrust. They enjoyed a level of both physical and emotional connection that wasn’t self-serving or self-absorbed. They weren’t wondering what the other was thinking or if they sounded foolish in front of each other. They didn’t “read into” a statement or assume a negative intention behind a tone. They trusted implicitly; respected unconditionally; valued intrinsically. They genuinely knew everything there was to know about each other with no secrets and no hesitations. They loved their differences and embraced their need for each other. They knew that they needed each other and that they would be lacking if the other wasn’t there.

They had a Common Unity…Community.

This is the way God made us. This is the way God intended for us to relate to one another. This is the way the Father has related to the Son and the Holy Spirit throughout eternity past. This was the beautiful gift that this Communal God gave to His creation. This was how it was supposed to be for everyone who would follow after Adam and Eve. This was the original idea.

But unfortunately, as we’ll discuss next time, it didn’t last very long.

Thirsting for Him,
Chris Larsen
Lead Pastor

As you look at the life of Jesus, one of the obvious things that stands out is His consistent awareness of His surroundings. He was just as at home next to the woman caught in the act of adultery as He was in the synagogue. For Jesus, the line between sacred and secular was gone. Every step was a step on God’s ground. Every breath was a breath of God’s air. Every person was an image-bearer of his or her Creator. He valued everyone in every circumstance: from thief to prostitute to fisherman to religious leader. His goal for each of them was simple: He wanted them to see God clearly and for them to see their value to God clearly.

As followers of Jesus, that is our role as well.

Living our lives incarnationally is all about loving others enough to be bearers of God’s redemptive work in the world for them. That means we must get comfortable with being where people are when they are far away from God. We must go to the streets and to the places where people far away from God go. We don’t imitate their lives, but rather, as Paul said, “We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.” 1 Thessalonians 2:8. Loving others where they are rather than asking them to come to where we are so that we can love them.

For many churches there is a temptation to try and invest a lot of time, energy and resources in making our place a place where people far away from God would come. And in a few instances, it works for those who are interested in checking out church anyway. But if we are going to make any significant move in the world today to reach people who are far away from God, those who would either feel judged or uncomfortable walking into a church, we must go to them.We must live incarnationally.

As a church our hope is to be a place that invests time, energy and resources in empowering people to take the Gospel to the world where people far away from God live. We want to share with them not only our message, but our lives as well. And we want to demonstrate through the things we say, the way we live and the way we love that Jesus brings hope and wholeness to those whose lives feel hopeless and broken. Whether they be homeless or wealthy, blue collar or white collar, irreligious or churched — we want love them by taking the lifechanging message and life of Jesus to them where they are.

Just like Jesus did for us.

Thirsting for Him,
Chris Larsen
Lead Pastor

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”’ Matthew 25

I read a story recently about a group of seminary students who did an experiment together. They took a Bible and underlined every single passage and verse that dealt with poverty, wealth, justice and oppression. Then they took a pair of scissors and cut them out of the pages. When they picked up the Bible, it just barely held together. The Bible was literally in tatters. Why? Because there are almost 2,000 verses in Scripture that deal directly with poverty and justice. Do we think God cares about such things? And yet if we’re not careful, we are tempted to do the same thing in the church. If we do it enough, we begin presenting a Gospel full of holes.

In a moment of pastoral transparency, that used to be me. I didn’t care. Let me rephrase that. I cared enough to “give” to a church that at least said they were doing something for the poor and marginalized. That felt like enough to satisfy my biblical responsibility mentioned above in Matthew 25. To be clear, giving our money to serve the marginalized is very important. But giving of ourselves in community is even more important.

I learned this first-hand in a season on the streets serving my homeless brothers and sisters. To that point, I’d done hundreds of bible studies. I’d lead dozens of small groups. I’d written in a prayer journal for years and stayed committed to my morning “quiet time.” And yet it was the crooked smile of an elderly and feeble woman named Marie, stuck in a wobbly wheelchair, confined to a crumbling efficiency apartment on the east side of Austin, that God used to wreck my life and show me a beautiful picture of the whole gospel.

At Riverpoint Church, if we’re going to be a community of Christ-followers who embrace the whole gospel, we have to quickly and passionately Get Comfortable being Uncomfortable.

A deeper intimacy with Jesus Christ awaits us out there.

This is a huge week for us as a church core team, as we’ll be participating for the first time in Serve Austin Sunday, a city-wide service opportunity created by our friends at Austin New Church. What a tremendous chance for us to rally together as a church community and do something close to the heart of Christ. To embrace The Whole Gospel, as we discussed this past weekend. Please make every effort to participate. There are a lot of needs and roles to be filled, so please read all the way to the bottom and shoot me an email to get involved.

What: Serve Austin Sunday – Grill Out with MLF
When: This Sunday from 4-6pm
Where: Royal Palms RV Park
Address: 7901 East Ben White Boulevard, 78741
Map: Go here.
Park: On the streets of Royal Palms, but make sure you park in front of the trailer houses and don’t block traffic.
Who: We’ll be serving burgers and hanging out with the tenants of Mobile Loaves & Fishes’ HOW program. If you missed it this past Sunday, go here and click on the HOW video. I think you’ll see why God has called us to embrace this special partnership.

Here are some roles to be filled this Sunday.
Griller: Person who cooks the burgers on MLF’s portable grill
Food Server: Passes out the burgers and condiments
Drink Server: Passes out lemonade, water, etc.

Food Items Needed
Please sign up to bring something with you. We’ll be making 100 burgers total.
Hamburger buns
Lettuce/Tomato/Onions
Packages of cheese slices
Bottled water/Other drinks
Personal sized chips
Ketchup, Mayo, Mustard
Paper plates
Napkins/Utensils
Watermelon/Other Dessert

This is who God has called us to be at Riverpoint Church. Come serve with us!

You can sign up for a role, choose a food item to bring, or ask me questions by emailing me at chad@riverpointaustin.com.

Chad Zunker

This week we are looking at what it means to live Incarnational lives. As I type the word “Incarnational” a nice little red squiggly line appears under the word. That’s my computer’s way of telling me that it is not actually a word and then it offers me options for what I may have meant to type. The first option is Incarnation. In the church, we like to make up words or add “al” to the end of them in order to make them adjectives. It’s the new form of “Christianese”, but I digress.

The Incarnation is one of the foundational doctrines of the church. In fact, without the Incarnation, there is no church. Christianity would become little more than simply another religious belief system that attempts to create a morally and relationally acceptable worldview. The Incarnation is the point in history when the second person of the Trinity assumed human form in the person of Jesus Christ and came to earth to live among us. Jesus became both God and man, stepped into our condition and lived among us to show us what the Father was like and to ultimately pay for our sin condition with His own life.

Through the centuries prior to the Incarnation, faith had become a religious system of dos and don’ts. Legalism and adherence to the Law became the ultimate standard for the worth and value of a person. If a person couldn’t live up to a certain code of conduct, well, they were not invited to be a part of the religious group. They were ostracized from religious society and looked down upon by the more pious standard-bearers. People began to realize that even though they felt guilty when the religious people would point out their inconsistencies, it wasn’t worth the hoops they had to jump through in order to fit into the religious worldview. Their non-religious friends loved them and accepted them just the way they were. Why would they exchange love for legalism? Sound familiar?

And then Jesus entered the mix.

Jesus took on human flesh to show the world that God never intended for legalistic righteousness to be the goal. The goal is to love God with everything we have and to love others. But because of Adam and Eve’s sin, everyone falls short of the goal. We have all failed to love God and to love others. That’s why Jesus came to be the bearer of our failure and to pay the penalty for our inability and unwillingness to live our lives the way God intended. We could not get to God. So God came to us, taking the form of man, incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ. He lived among us to show us a better way. He revealed to us what God is really like relationally and He showed us how to love God and to love others.

Incarnational living is essentially following Jesus into world and living the Jesus life among those who are far away from God. Rather than expecting them to clean up their lives and come to us, we go them. We meet them where they are. We embrace their condition and show them the Jesus life through the things we say, the way we live and the way we love.

So this week we are going to unpack this idea of Incarnational living. What does it look like, practically speaking, and how do we get there.

Thirsting for Him,
Chris Larsen
Lead Pastor

The process to live on Mission is always just that – a process. When Jesus called His first disciples, He pulled them from their “normal” lives and invited them to become something different. He opened up a new dimension of living and thinking to which they were unaccustomed. Frequently throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus would demonstrate this new reality through the things He said, the way He lived and the way He loved. His followers slowly picked up on the principles, though they would frequently have to be reminded. Even after the resurrection and the subsequent empowering by the Holy Spirit, the disciples would struggle in their consistency much in the same way we struggle. Paul, considered to be a heavyweight in the early church, wrote in Romans 7:18-23,

And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.

Fortunately, God recognizes that we need Grace in the process. Jesus is that Grace and He covers our areas of lack. God is not looking for perfection, but rather intention followed by action. Here are some practical action steps that will get you well on your way to living your life on Mission.

1. Invest in your relationship with God through consistent prayer and Scripture reading. If you want to live the life of a Jesus follower, you must follow Jesus in making God your number-one priority. There are many “Quiet Time” aids to help you in developing this kind of consistency. Examen.me and YouVersion are great online options with Bible reading plans. YouVersion also has a phone version for iPhones and Blackberries. I suggest setting aside at least 15 minutes first thing in the morning to still your heart, read God’s Word and pray. This will help get your mind in the right framework for your day and begin the process of making God your priority. The goal is not the time, but the relationship. Don’t establish a ritual that doesn’t aid in the relationship.
2. Make a list of all the “normal” places in your life. Home, work, gym, school, park, store, mall, restaurants, coffee shops, whatever. Be as extensive as you can. Check your bank statement, receipts or checkbook register to see if there are any places that you have missed. Begin to pray that God will give you His perspective as you enter these places. Ask Him to help you see the people around you as He sees them.
3. Develop an awareness of God’s presence everywhere you go. One of God’s immutable qualities is that He is present everywhere. As you enter a door into one of your “normal” environments, simply say, “God, You are here.” When you begin a conversation with someone on the phone or in person, say, “God, You are here.” As you sit down to pay your bills or get online, say, “God, You are here.” It’s amazing how an awareness of God’s presence changes our perspective and attitude in a specific location.
4. Surrender everything you own to God. This is perhaps the most difficult part. This is where we discover the little and sometimes large “idols” in our lives. Begin to take a survey of the things in your life that you “own.” Home, car, television, furniture, DVD collection, bank accounts, investments, computers, family members, pets…everything. As you examine these “possessions”, make this confession to God: “God you have given me everything I have. I openly confess right now that this _______ belongs to You. I will treat _______ as though I do not own it. Whatever you desire me to do with _______, I will do because _______ belongs to You.” We are all stewards of what God gives us. We will give an account to the Owner as to how we managed that which was His. When we don’t “own” anything, our hearts are ready to be invested in the Mission of God.

Next week, we will begin to take a look at more practical insights into living on Mission. Hopefully these starter items will help you begin this beautiful process of becoming the people we were made to be.

Thirsting for Him,
Chris Larsen
Lead Pastor

So how do we adjust from being people who are focused on what the world defines as a “normal life” to being people who live their lives on Mission? The answer is simple, though the process will be time consuming. We must invest the time to redefine “normal” for our lives.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul spends the greater portion of his time redefining what life is like beyond the responsibilities of daily living. His goal is to communicate the reality of the spiritual dimension of our lives that we tend to ignore for the more concrete world around us. In fact, Paul contends that this spiritual dimension is vastly more important since at our core we are spiritual beings.

We scarcely even realize this spiritual dimension. And it’s no wonder. Living in the 21st century provides us with a constant array of concrete distractions to fill both our work and free time. We will never run out of world news to discover, games to play, gadgets to conquer or projects to work on. There will always be more information than we can absorb, more cool locations we can visit, more books to read, more movies to watch…more, more, more. A person could live the rest of their lives distracted by all the “more” of life and never even notice the spiritual dimension of their lives.

Which is why most people are lonely and feel as though there must me “more” to life than simply existing and responding to the tyranny of the urgent.

Paul’s exhortation in the midst of this frantic world is simple. He writes in Romans 12:1-2:

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (The Message)

If we are going to live our lives on Mission, we must invest the time to bring the spiritual dimension of our lives to the surface. We must view the world around us through spiritual eyes and listen to the voice of God in the midst of our everyday living. We must redefine what is “normal” for our lives. This process will take time. But everything within our soul is screaming for this kind of life.

Tomorrow we will take a look at the practical ways to make this spiritual living a reality.

Thirsting for Him,
Chris Larsen
Lead Pastor

When Jesus began His ministry here on earth, He went through a difficult trial where Satan tempted Him in the wilderness. Satan sought to convince Jesus to take an easier road to accomplish the tasks laid out by the Father. Satan’s goal was for Jesus to use His divine nature to compensate for His human nature and skip the difficulties inherent in the human condition.

Jesus chose the difficult road.

Immediately afterward, we find Jesus choosing His disciples. He knew these would be the ones who would carry on His message of God’s great love for humanity and His payment for their sin. He knew they would face hardships as well. So he went to where they were most comfortable – fishing and mending nets, working in the marketplace, reclining in their homes, etc. – and invited them to follow Him. As God came to Abram, Jesus came with no roadmap and no itinerary. Just an invitation to be a part of something eternal.

Immediately, they stopped what they were doing and they followed Jesus. Their lives would never be the same.

Others came to Jesus and wanted to be His disciples. But they came with a set of conditions as to how and when they would follow. Money, family and other priorities would have to be cared for first and then they would be more than happy to follow Him. Jesus passed on them.

The calling and conditions of being on Mission with Jesus are not determined by us. After all, it is not our Mission. When Jesus invites us to be a part of His Mission, he does not take into consideration our present comfort. Jesus is concerned with the Mission and how our gifts, abilities and relationships might fit into it. In fact, in order to be on Mission with Jesus, we often have to redefine what we consider to be a normal life.

We must always be careful as to how we react to Jesus’ invitation to be on Mission with Him. It will always intersect with our desire to be comfortable and normal. There will be conflict within us and a familiar voice seeking to justify and excuse why we should take the easier road. But when we choose to embrace Jesus’ invitation, we step out of the ordinary and into the eternal. Comfort and normalcy become trinkets at a carnival compared to the eternal treasures that comes when we drop what we’re doing to follow Jesus.

As you walk through your day today, look around and ask Jesus where He would have you go and with whom He would have you interact as a part of His Mission. You might be surprised at the ease in which you hear His voice. And when you hear His invitation to join Him on His Mission, drop what you’re doing and go!

Thirsting for Him,
Chris Larsen
Lead Pastor

Yesterday we introduced the idea of being a people who live their lives on Mission. Today we’re going to look at where the Mission originated. Let’s go back to the beginning.

When God made man and women, He gave them 3 primary tasks: Love God, love each other and care for the world God has made. Once sin entered the world, the connection between God and man was severed; the relationship between the man and woman was strained; and the harmony between humanity and creation was disrupted.

Man and woman failed and everyone and everything suffered for it.

But God wasn’t satisfied. He began a restorative mission to bring humanity back into proper relationship with Himself, each other and the world that He created.

God came to a man named Abram and sent him to become the first missionary to the world. In Genesis 12:1-5, the Scriptures record this first sending:

The LORD had said to Abram,

“Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. ² “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

⁴So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. ⁵ He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.

I can’t begin to imagine what Abram must have felt. He was told by God to move from everything he knew to be normal and go to a place that God would tell Him about later. No itinerary. No roadmap. Just a “Go!”

Now if it is anyone else besides God who comes with that kind of seemingly ridiculous request, then the answer is, “No, thank you. I am fine here.” But when God calls, the answer you give will tell everything about what you really believe about God. If God is God, and if we have the proper perspective in the universe as to who God is and who we are, then the only sane response can be a quick, unquestioning, “Yes!!” Anything less reveals the areas of our lives that we have not yet yielded to God’s control.

Abram was told to “Go!” Fortunately Abram listened to the rest of the conversation. “I will bless you…and you will be a blessing.” As a result of Abram’s obedience, he and his family moved to the land of Canaan. There they established a people who would one day become the nation of Israel. Through this life-changing act of obedience, Abram set in motion the chain of events that would eventually lead to the birth of the One who would ultimately restore relationship between God and man – Jesus.

And God invites us to participate in the blessing. We are now called to “Go!” For some of us it will mean packing up everything we own and going to another country. For some it will mean sacrificing an evening and going across the street to develop a meaningful relationship with a neighbor. Across the world or across the street – the distance is not the issue. The “Yes!” is everything and will ultimately determine if we receive the blessing and join God in the adventure of being a blessing or if we settle for what the world defines as a normal life.

So what’s your answer to this adventurous God who calls you to go? Weigh your answer carefully. You never know what God may do with the one who humbly, but definitively, says “Yes!”

Thirsting for Him,
Chris Larsen
Lead Pastor