May 29, 2011 Be There

Week 5 of Elevation Fire. Digging into the 5 passions that Elevation is founded on. This week: Be there.

If you want a study tool to go along with the podcast, see Lift Notes here:

Elevation Fire: Be __________

May 29, 2011

Elevation’s vision….Be Disciples. Make Disciples.

The 5th Passion that will move us towards the future God has for us is: Be ____________.

We have a passion to be there because _____ are the ____________.

We want to name this as a passion because there is deep-seated aspect of our culture that drives us in the opposite direction:______________.

We are taught to be customers who are shopping for the best __________ and __________-the newest, the latest, greatest, and coolest; at the lowest cost possible to serve my latest felt __________.

This has had a major impact on the way we ________ ______ church.

“The US is an open religious ______________ as well as a competitive one. This is the supermarket cereal aisle.”–Pew Forum Research Group

In its full blown form the consumer mindset says “since church exists to serve me I go when I’m in the _________ and for what I can ______ out of it and if I don’t like it that week I ______ around for something else.”

How does Jesus describe church?

The word church (ekklesia) as Jesus used it, and every single time it appears in the New Testament, means simply: ______________.

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church (gathering), and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Matthew 16:18

What makes a church “gathering” different from any other type of gathering is that its _______, meaning that it’s for His _____________ and His __________ is present.

when two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there with them.                                                                           Matthew 18:20

If you don’t gather together you are not only missing out on what God wanted to do ____ you but also taking away what God might want to do __________ you.

All of this is why when the word church is used in the bible, it never takes about something you ____________, and never refers to a _____________, it is something that you ________.

The other 4 passions we want to live out at elevation are part of being church that are only possible if we commit to being there, to __________ the _________ in our schedules, to be the church because they take time.

How on earth can we have time for all this?  ___________ Jesus.

…The news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. ¹⁶ But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.           Luke 5:15–16

One of the most important things Jesus did in life was say no to _______ things, so that he could spend time on the most _________things; so his example gives us ________________ to do the same.

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