Mars Hill - Loneliness

So I slept a bit late last night and decided that I'm just going to fall asleep if I attend service, so I took an extra hour then fired up Mars Hill when I got up (yes yes I know I know. I could've gone to Elevation, but I wanted some quietness). Looking through the list of possible sermons I could've loaded up, my eyes got attracted a sermon on loneliness. As someone involved in Caring, I thought it'd be a good idea for me to refamiliarize with this stuff. The following is the notes I made.

Mars Hill Church - "Rebels Guide to Joy in Loneliness" - Mark Driscoll

- There is a decrease overall in hanging out, making friends, and unwilling to make the first move. Within just the context of CCF, one can see that. The sheer size of CCF was a deterrent for me when I first came in, and is still a deterrent for many in our group.

- Even within Christian circles, a survey showed that 40+% of the people feel lonely constantly. Make no assumptions that people are covered.

- God is Trinity -> the three aspects can fellowship with each other -> from this, we want to seek company. "It is not good for the man to be alone." I suppose that verse could be taken to mean more meanings than just wives.

- Sin caused distrust in God and in people...thus we're lonely

- Friendship isn't the solution. It's often invoked by physical proximity or affinity (like similar things) -> but when proximity and affinity change, the relationship changes too. The roots weren't there. Time and distance tests friendship; this is why.

- Paul proposed a Gospel-based relationship -> the sin that causes mistrust and distance between people needs to be addressed, by God, so that people can come together. Give and receive.

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

- Philippians 1.2-11

- Note that Paul opened this with "grace to you"...that we're expected to give grace to each other as God gives grace to the repentant -> this leads to peace in the relationship

-Paul talks about joy...considering that he's in jail, have no family, friends arin't anywhere near by -> Joy is not an emotion. It's a state of mind. The understanding that Christians should be happy leads to people faking it all. Paul put his joy in the forward movement of the Gospel, thus he is able to a very bad shape, but still feel joy

- God is at work. Even if we can't see the seeds grow sometimes

- Remember that grace isn't pivotal on what we're doing. You can't wear out Christ's grace. Recognizing this will make you want to share this grace, thus you end up praying for them, and this type of connection (sharing of grace and prayer) is firmer than proximity and affinity. He will carry the rest

- Christ's renewing abilities will transform. Preserve, and keep your eyes focused. He will equip you with what you need.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.

- Hebrew 4.15

- Would Jesus understand loneliness? He was isolated for 40 days of temptation. His family denied him. His friends ditched Him. Hey...even..."My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?" ... what do you think?

System errors

I don't like incompetence. Especially when it's on my part. The more often you try, numerically, the more often you'll fail. Some things are just difficult to grasp or perform. But I still don't like incompetence. Especially when everyone else gets it, but you.

CCF Retreat - Hands of Discipline

So we ended up talking about alot of different things at Retreat, but I'll focus on the one closest to heart: Discipleship Group workshop. (Yes I know this is super late. Life has been busy)

The presenters talked about Discipleship as something beyond just knowing God.

...Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations (make followers of Christ), baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (so to convert), teaching them to observe all the things that I have commanded you (and educate them)...

- Matthew 28:18-20 (emphasis mine)

So the Great Commission goes beyond just converting people. A report came out a while ago, talking about how "seeker-friendly" service does not help. Among the issues cited was the fact that once we've got them through the door, we do nothing to retain them. They're not taken care of, and thus they never really grow. Our idol becomes the number of attendees.

Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

- Matthew 7.21 - 23

This verse has always sat at the back of my mind. It's difficult to underestimate its implications...there is a difference between true Christians and people just going through the motions. It's possible to attend church all your life, and still not understand. Much less what fellowship can provide someone.

What's the point of all this? Discipleship and mentorship is part of this whole system. Woo, big words. What do they mean?

Mentorship: a formal relationship between a student and a professional adult to further the student's knowledge, skills, or career. (As defined by Dictionary.com)

Discipleship: process of being transformed into the image of Christ from the inside out by the power of the Holy Spirit. (As defined by DG workshop).

Yes...more big words. It's basically saying...mentorship is between two people. Discipleship is between you and Christ. Awesome. The people at the workshop proceeded to list these stuff (I've found no direct Bible support for this, I'm simply listing it without giving it too much thought at the moment...)

• Bible Reading
• Scripture Memorization
• Praying
• Silence and Solitude
• Fasting
• Serving
• Evangelism
• Worship
• Confession

Okay cool. This Walk thing is between you and God. Not between you, your buddy and God. Just you and God. So what's this Discipleship Group business? Think of it more as supportive add-ons. Like the com-sat station to the Terran Command Centre. Such group are designed to bring care, support and accountability to the system. To support this idea, the workshop leaders pulled Acts 2. I'll just list the stuff here. Here are the characteristics of such groups...

• Being Together - Chances are, when you gotta take time off (from fellowship, church, etc), it's when you need God the most. Check up on those people. If you have to hammer at a group to come out, chances are that they dont' know why they are there. This group is designed ot help them.
  
• Sharing and Accountibility - It's about being open to be caught and rebuked. Growing doesn't actually feel good. Not at the moment, anyway. Over time, the little things we do starts to feel normal. The bad stuff becomes to get diluted. Simple truth gets confusing. We need people to "snap us out of it."
  
• Confidentality - Okay. You gotta be able to trust your teammates. Enough said.
  
• Prayer - "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." - Phil 4.6
  
• Reading the Word - "Take ... the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." - Eph 6.17

Seek support. Give support. I firmly believe that God gave us this concept of friendship because He knew that we can't do it alone. So He stuck people around us to point us right when we turn wrong.