Engage 09
Engage 09 was great. it was really a good reminder for me of evangelism at work, of the faith that works. I used to be very enthusiastic to start my day when i first started at my current work, enthusiastic to build relationships and especially to look for opportunity to share Christ at work. But then when the Doggie came it just died.
Then William Taylor at Engage reminded us of the bigger picture from the gospel of John – if we want to serve God, we need to know where God is going/doing and channel our energy to that; otherwise it’s gonna be nothing/wasted. Establish the mission first before going to the operation. Identify God’s bigger plan, of what on earth he is doing.
To know WHAT on earth God is doing, we need to see what on earth Jesus is doing (since Jesus does what the Father does). And the Scripture is full of reasons why Jesus came to earth: to bring life and to execute judgement. (John 5:24, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life”.)
And Jesus’ primary task is NOT:
1. primarily political (John 6:15)
2. primarily material (not feeding the world – John 6:26)
3. primarily charitable work (6:28)
4. primarily about signs and wonders (6:30-31).
But to bring life, spiritual life!
Especially to the people who do not know Christ: who are dead and condemned (5:24), helpless (6:63), blind/in darkness (8:12), slave to sin (8:34), evil (7:7).
So, the question now is: what on earth are you doing??
Make your agenda = God’s agenda = to bring life! Then all the joy and delight in working will come if you align your life with what He’s doing.
Imagine tomorrow you come into work, and you’re walking among these dead, condemned, helpless,blind, enslaved, and evil colleagues – you can’t help but want to introduce them to Christ who brings life & execute judgment!
But HOW is that God is doing his work on earth??
Again, God is doing his work by his Spirit through his Words! How did God create the world, call Abraham, summon his people at Mt Sinai, breathe new life @ Ezek 36, and (Jesus) breathe life to the paralysed man (in John 5)? HE SPOKE! So we need to create opportunities to share His Words! And PRAY, PRAY, and PRAY!
5 applications:
1. for interested observers who are not there yet: pray & ask God by his Spirit to bring you life. Find someone to read Bible with, and find a good church that teach his Words faithfully.
2. for weary/battered believers: hear God’s Words, set up priority in your life, make God’s agenda yours, and hence be refreshed and renewed!
3. for working Christians: how do you expect God to work through your life? Godliness! And we need to expose people to His Words!
4. for those who have specific Word-ministry gifts: not everybody! God can place you in the workplace. We need to support & value & help them. If you think you have that gifts but hanging around workplace, think: how does God work? how can I spend my life living for myself, while thousands of others stay lifeless & dead & hopeless? Don’t waste your life!
5. for Bible-believing Sydney evangelicals: watch out for those mystics/experientalist and liberal movements, stay back to the true and authentic Christian life to his Words. Be careful of the (Christian) experientialists who judge Christian faith by what makes me feel good, how passionate/engaging/moved i am by the preachers, or by the music or atmosphere that makes me feel right/good. Will you stay evangelical? Wage the good warfare, guard that good deposit! See that our church has the most exciting thing: the Word of God as it’s taught and explained! This one strikes me the most.
Yeah, so that’s my summary of William Taylor’s talks. It reminded me of the bigger picture of God’s mission again: he puts us in the workplace for a purpose. This is the prayer that i used to pray and now will pray again everyday on the bus trip in the morning to work – it helps me to stay on track and expect & use every opportunities that come. See if you can pray this prayer too, very short and simple and only takes a few seconds:
Dear Heavenly Father,
I am your child, you are my Father. Heaven is my home, everyday is one day closer to heaven. My Saviour is my older brother, and every other Christians is my brother and sister too. Please give me today opportunities to build relationship with my colleagues (and/or friends) and opportunities to share Christ. Help me to glorify you today with all my thoughts, words, and deeds.
Amen
September 4th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
hey jess!
thank you for the summary!!
re 5.5 it’s very sad to know that some evangelical leaders (moore college graduates) are turning liberal…We need to pray for our leaders and ourselves to stay evangelical.
September 4th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
May i know who among of the moore college graduates turning liberal?
September 5th, 2009 at 12:20 am
hehehe no worries manda
i’m not sure about those moore college graduates turning liberal, but i’ve heard of the other end, i.e. toward more experientalist/charismatic… i’m pretty sure the next interesting movement would be those who call themselves ‘reformed charismatic’… ^^;
September 7th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
sorry, by saying “liberal” i meant experientalist/charismatic…
that’s liberal to me anyways…:P
those of you who don’t have bible study on Friday nights, please join Fridays night with Philip Jensen, who gives training on different topics. It’s open to people from different churches….not necessary thinking about Full-Time. I can learn so much from Philip.
September 7th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
by saying “i can learn so much from philip”….i meant the good teaching from philip, who tirelessly teaches us to teach God’s word faithfully and truthfully.
i’ve started to appreciate more and more the good teachers that we have in sydney and the importance of equipping ourselves with God’s word as we can very easily fall into the trap of those movements, whose message seems to be more attractive than the truth.
September 13th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
yep… indeed william taylor (the speaker at Engage) said he’s seen lots of those experientalists movements come and go (he’s almost 50 y.o?), and he’s really thankful to the generation before us, the Sydney evangelicals who keep calling the UK evangelicals to always go back to the truth as revealed in the Bible.
i’ve heard that Phridays with Phillip, been wanting to see what it’s like but unfortunately our BS is still on Friday nights :-S It’s based on terms, isn’t it?