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.

jessecraig