The love of God is a picture of compassion and calls us to live with a heart of compassion. The heart of compassion modeled for us through Jesus Christ compels us to run to those in need, so that as we meet their physical needs we can point them to their deepest need—reconciliation that comes through the love of Jesus Christ.

At Cedarcrest want to be known not just for simply seeing and praying for needs but getting involved to meet those needs. Compassion is a fruit of growth in our faith. Let’s be like the Good Samaritan who laid aside his agenda to meet someone’s physical need while pointing to Christ who meets our ultimate need.

Finally, we’ll look at the next fruit of growth, which goes hand-in-hand with obedience and compassion. It’s the fruit of generosity.

Our world often views obedience as a draining obligation, and that’s exactly what it is without understanding and accepting Christ’s free gift of grace. But obedience as a result of abiding in God’s love offers the believer freedom (John 15:10). This doesn’t mean that God only loves good little Christian boys and girls. Salvation is free and unmerited and leads to the fruit of obedience, not the other way around.

Yes, God loves you with enormous love, but growth in your faith must be evidenced by obedience to God’s Word. Obedience shows that your faith is alive! (James 2:26)

At Cedarcrest, we want love to be at the center of all we do. And what we do must be guided by obedience to the Scriptures. When we are renewing our minds to who God is through Scripture and living our lives in active obedience to His Word, we will surely be growing in our faith.

“A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

John 13:34-35

Love is THE thing that should distinguish Christians from all others. Jesus is saying that the greatest testimony and witness of the love of God to the world should be the love his followers model in the world. Though we can’t see God physically, we can provide a picture of His love.

Think about the person who first pointed you the Christ. Did they show you a picture of love or were their primary defining qualities worldly power and control? What is on display in your life as you point others to Jesus?

Next, we’ll explore how love should motivate all that we do.

Unfortunately, when believers put themselves on display instead of letting Christ’s love characterize them, they sound a lot like my son’s current drumming skills. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 says it this way,

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

At Cedarcrest, our mission statement is Loving God and loving people as we grow together in Christ. We want love to drive all that we do. Because if all that we do, however good it is, is not driven by love, then it all means nothing!

Said another way, if people are only hearing our words but are not seeing our love in action, our message means nothing. Unless people believe that we care, they won’t care what we believe.

We want to continue to grow as a church, not be moved to a quieter place in a basement. We want to be defined in all that we do by the first fruit of growth—LOVE.

The second fruit of growth is Obedience. We’ll examine that next!

In light of the mission statement at Cedarcrest—Loving God and loving people as we grow together in Christ—is LOVE on your list of defining qualities about you? As we pursue our mission at Cedarcrest there should be fruit or evidence that reveals that our lives are devoted to Christ.

Love is the first fruit, or primary evidence, of a life surrendered to Christ. The kind of love I’m talking about is sacrificial love as described in John 15:12-13, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” This is the love that is modeled for us in the life and death of Jesus.

Real love is not in what we gain from the person we love. Real love is displayed in what we are willing to give and sacrifice to demonstrate our love. Jesus laid down his life for us to demonstrate God’s love for us and to model the standard of love that he calls his followers to live. This is a love unlike any other.

How are you demonstrating sacrificial love?

Now that we know what love is, next we’ll answer the question, “Why love?”

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one. I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”

In this passage, Jesus prays for His followers, and as a follower, this prayer is for you—His church. What does he pray for? Unity! Three times in these verses Jesus prays that believers may be one!

As I have prayed about the focus of our church I have been reminded over and over again how important unity in the body of Christ truly is. TOGETHER is in our mission statement, because we want to emphasize the importance of unity in the body of Christ—and not simply for the sake getting along but for the sake of advancing the Gospel.

The world is watching the Church to see if what we say is true. Unity becomes one of the great testimonies to the world. If people look at the Church and see nothing but fighting and turmoil, why would they think we have anything that they need? Unity in the body of Christ presents a picture of God’s love to the world!

Finally, Jesus prays that His church would become perfectly one. The only way to be perfectly one is to be focused on Christ in all that we do. When we focus on Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life, the disagreements and opinions and petty differences fade away, because we are reminded that the church exists for Christ and His glory! It is all about Him!

Are you striving for unity with other believers and reflecting that unity to the world around you?

Loving God and loving people as we grow together in Christ!

My prayer for you is that as you hear this mission, if this is the place that you feel led to call your church home, you will live it out. We show our love for God in the way we love people while we focus on growing in our faith while unified in Christ!

This Sunday, March 13^th following the 11:00am service join us at our future church property for a cookout and a special time of prayer and thanksgiving. Bring camping chairs and blankets for your family and wear shoes you don’t mind getting dirty.

Remember to set your clocks forward one hour on Saturday night for Daylight Savings Time. We hope you and your family can join us this Sunday!

Philippians 3:12-15 “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing it do; forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.”

Here is Paul, the leading spokesman in the early church saying, “Guess what? I have not arrived yet in my faith. I still have room to grow!”

The Christian life is an ongoing growth process. Salvation is a one-time event, but the process of sanctification is a life long journey. Paul says I am not stuck in the past, but I press on toward what lies ahead. There is a concept of straining and longing for more of Jesus. Scripture reminds us that following Christ is about growing in our faith to be more like Christ.

You do not show maturity by acting like you have it all figured out. You show maturity if your faith when you recognize that you need to continue growing.

It is my hope and prayer that everyone who is plugged into Cedarcrest Church would be in an ongoing process of growth. I pray that my life and my faith looks different a year from now than it does right now. If you are alive in Christ you must be growing in your faith. If you are not growing you are either dead or dying. Living things grow!

Loving God and loving people AS WE GROW…

The next blog post will detail the third and final part of our mission statement: …TOGETHER IN CHRIST.