welcome to the course Christian spirituality I'm Professor Timothy Moore and this is unit seven a new relationship uh the scripture says that Jesus makes all things new we've looked at a new identity a new outlook we're looking at this new relationship that we have uh with God and it actually goes beyond our relationship with God to our relationship with others um in the book Doctrine what Christians believe Believe by Driscoll and Bashers um we get a snapshot of the nature of God as it relates to the deepest longings of the human heart so we we
have uh the nature of God and we're created in the image of God and we have very deep longings as human beings and we're going to examine how that coalesces how that fits together and so what are the the things that we all long for we long for um selfless trustworthy unending love from someone that we can trust to be faithful and helpful people whether they're Believers or not they're always looking for these things we long for Unity within the great diversity of humanity some means by which we can live in peace and Oneness that
benefits all of us we long for communication we want face-to-face conversations um and the um proliferation of modern technology created for the purpose of letting us know others and be known by them has um has created uh arguably more isolation and we're not expressing who we really are to one another but uh in saying that um we created social media as a way to connect because we still have this deep longing and insatiable passion to speak and to be spoken to we long for Community for significant and Earnest relationships with others so that we're part
of a people devoted to something larger and greater than ourselves we long for humility where people pour themselves out unreservedly for the benefit and well-being of others there are all of these longings and many of them are listed here in this excerpt from from the book Doctrine what Christians believe and I I just want to say we long for peace peace we long for harmony um we long for Safety and Security we long uh to not have abuse and cruelty and misery and painful tears we long for selfless common good we have all kinds of
longings as human beings and so why why do we have those persistent deep longings that occasionally compel us to action and often leave us frustrated or disappointed I believe and I believe I can make the case for the scriptures teaching that this is all by Design we're created in the image of God and God himself his very nature and character is Triune it is trinitarian God is three in one and so that makes God the perfect relationship God is a perfect Eternal relationship an eternal Community an eternal unity and um the word Trinity itself does
not occur in Scripture it it's a word to express what the scripture teaches because there are three that are referred to as God and of having one Essence God the Father God the son God the Holy Spirit but the word that was originally used uh to to express the nature of God and the the trinitarian nature of God is Perry p r i chesus c h o r s i s Perry cesis and the word Perry means around it's where we get the word perimeter when we when a the police say we need to establish
a perimeter it means they need to surround the place so Perry is around and chesus means to dance it's where we get the word choreography from and so peric Caris is an expression that can be um described as a Divine dance it is it's a unity and a relationship within the Trinity where there's this beautiful and perfect relational dance that's happening and so Christianity more than a religion and we're going to talk more about that more than a religion it's it's a relationship in which in effect God is extending his hand to human Humanity inviting
us into the paracesis into the Divine dance and so God is reaching out to human beings saying shall we dance so let's pray about this that we can make this shift and understand this relationship with God father thank you that you came up with the plan to redeem us to yourself thank you that Jesus Christ carried out that plan and achieved our forgiveness and our reconciliation to you and thank you that the Holy Spirit applies that plan in our lives and so now we have this relationship we have the relationship with you God our Father
we have a relationship with you Jesus God our savior and we have the relationship with the Holy H Spirit who is the directing intelligence of God and the creative power of God in our lives and so thank you for the relationship that we have and that you made possible in Jesus name amen so what is the difference between viewing Christianity primarily as a relation ship instead of a religion and I think we should when I think of religion in its irreducible minimums when we boil down religion what we have is a list I know this
is this is very simplified but it is a list of what is required or forbidden everything that we call a relationship a Rel religion excuse me has some kind of list of what you should do or what you should not do in order to achieve some kind of access to God to the afterlife to Enlightenment but the achievement and the accomplishment is all on you and so the the best that that list of what is required or forbidden um can be called is good advice okay well the gospel is not good advice the gospel is
good news and good news is something that is achieved for you something that you benefit from someone else has gained the access someone else is the benefactor that's giving the blessings and so the relation ship is uh when I talk about having a good relationship with someone really what I'm talking about is love and Trust um when I say and I believe when the Bible talks about having a relationship with God it is understanding that God loves you um John 3:16 Says God so loved the world world he gave his only begotten son right and
so this action of God on our behalf to redeem us and bring us into relationship with himself flows out of his very nature to love 1 John 4:8 says God is love love is the motivating factor and so um when I am tempted to doubt God's love for me as a Christian the one thing that stands out on the backdrop of history that can dispel those doubts if you imagine history as a black backdrop there is a neon sign that is flashing there against that black backdrop and that's the cross of Jesus Christ like God
the Bible teaches that God demonstrated his love for us through Christ Jesus Through the sacrifice of Christ Christ is the light and the love of God if you ever doubt that God is love think about what God our savior did for us the sacrifice that he made on the cross and so we when we meditate on that sacrifice that willing sacrifice that God our savior made for us on the cross our trust in him should uh should grow it should increase and as we move forward in the in the regular things that build a relationship
communication when we let God speak to us through his word when we speak to God through prayer when we learn his great promises and truth and and believe what he's done for us and as we live live our lives and flesh out our faith it is a growth in love and trust and and that's primarily what Christianity is it's not a list of what is required or forbidden in order to achieve um access in order to achieve acceptance with God it is understanding the deep deep love of God the length the width the depth and
the height of the love of Christ that passes natural human knowledge that's how the Bible describes it and then living in a relationship driven by that love in Galatians chapter 5 Paul talks about that he also he's addressing two issues um two different types of thinking or philosophies that um that are threatening the relationship that we have with God like if we don't think a certain way if we don't see it as a relationship and it's a relationship of love and Trust there are two different things that will actually Rob us of the benefit of
having a relationship with God and so Paul is addressing those in Galatians and he says in Galatians 51 it is for Freedom that Christ has set us free stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery Paul is and Paul is not talking about physical slavery he's not talking about slave serving an actual slave master he's talking about the way people think about God and we can actually have ways of thinking about God God that don't set us free it says it's for Freedom that Christ has set us
free we can think about God in such ways that it enslaves us and there were two groups of people that if the people in the galatian church believe what they were saying they would not be free in Christ they would be slaves to that kind of religion and so we're going to talk about those two things because those two things are the threats that still exist today they will always exist until Jesus comes back so in the book of Galatians you had two groups the judaizers and the gnostics judaizers were people who said okay believe
in Jesus you can have your faith in Christ you can entrust yourself to Christ that's fine however we have a list some of it from the Old Testament some of it um our personal applications of those teachings in the Old Testament that you need to add to your faith in Jesus in order to make sure that you're accepted by God and have access to God and so they're putting their list of what is required or forbidden on top of faith in what Christ has accomplished for us and so there are special rules in addition to
Christ This is called legalism when you when when when any group when any group comes up with a list of what is required or forbidden and it has nothing it it it is it's not actually what Jesus said it's not actually what his disciples explained about his teaching in the new Testament you have to wear this you can't wear that you have to drink this and you have to eat that or you have to observe this religious ritual or this special holy day this on and on and on and on there are groups everywhere that
have their own list of what is required or forbidden and that's called legalism and the legalists in the book of Galatians Galatians were called the judaizers and if the Believers in galatia subject themselves to the teaching of the legalist Paul says you're you're enslaving yourself you're not living in the freedom that Christ purchased with his own blood on the cross of Calvary Jesus came that you might be free and if you start adding a list of what is required or forbidden rules and rituals to simple faith in Christ and relationship with God you're you're not
going to experience freedom and there are people who call themselves Christians all over the world today that do not live in Freedom because they've accepted someone's list of what is required or forbidden the other group there in galatia was called Gnostic the gnostics and that come from the Greek word nosis which is just knowledge nosis means knowledge and so the gnostics claim to have a special knowledge in addition to Christ so it was a type of spiritualism Beyond biblical Revelation and so in effect um what the gnostics were saying is I know that you have
the teachings of Jesus I know that you have his his Apostles that explained his teaching in the New Testament but we have a special knowledge we have this special understanding of the things of God that Jesus didn't talk about it's not contained in the New Testament and you may be a Christian but you're sort of a a junior varsity Christian and if you want to to to move from junior varsity to Varsity to the top level then you need our special knowledge that is beyond God's revealed word if someone does that and says you can't
find what you need in God's word and the Holy Spirit using the revelation of God's word to to help you grow in your relationship with God you need our special teaching you have to have our special knowledge that's gnosticism and that's a heresy that takes you away from the freedom that we have in Christ they're making it too complicated both of these groups the judaizers the legalist who have list of what is required or forbidden they're making it far more difficult than Jesus ever intended and therefore you lose your freedom the gnostics adding their special
knowledge they believe they have special Revelation and you have to have what they know them trying to add that to what Jesus and the apostles taught are making it too complicated for you to be free in Christ there still going on all over the world today so we need the teaching of the book of Galatians and for our purposes we need to come away from that and we need to focus on what it takes the simple process of growing in a relationship with God through his word his holy spirit within us and the encouragement of
the church his holy people so how do we live out the new relationship that Jesus made possible through his death on the cross it has three parts so the first part is our devotional life the second part is our relational life and the third part is our missional life everything that Jesus talked about in the experience and the expression of our relationship with God and others as a Christian fits in one of these three categories our devotional life our relational life or our missional life These are three ESS essential parts of that relationship and so
I want to break each of these down for us let's talk about the devotional life I'm I'm just going to give some key scriptures here and then we'll go a little bit deeper devotional life um is expressed in passages like John chapter 8:31-32 where Jesus is speaking to a group of people who had decided to believe in him as God's son as the the Messiah but they had not yet become what he described as a disciple he starts in verse 31 saying Believers you become my disciples so he makes a distinction just because you're a
Believer doesn't mean you're a disciple he said Believers you become my disciples by abiding in my word and then verse 32 says and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free so so we need a devotional life with God in his word in prayer we need a daily encounter with God and that's just communication good relationships are built with good communication bad communication can destroy a relationship but good communication is one where two people are um devoted to one another devoted to one another's well-being and they communicate well and communication good
communication in a relationship does not start with our mouth it starts with our ears someone said you've been given one mouth and two ears so you should listen twice as much as you speak and so listening to God and His word through reading his word listening to what the Holy Spirit teaches you from God's word that's a part of that good communication and then God will will listen to you as you pray and express yourself to the Lord but it has to be listening and talking for it to be good communication now let's talk about
relational life um passages like Romans 12:15 Express what we mean by relational life and it just simply says Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep um relational life is a commitment to experience um the celebrations of of life and the challenges of life with someone else with a group of people and we're we're going to talk more about that but that's all of life everything that we experience here on planet Earth is either something to celebrate or it's a challenge and life runs on those two tracks if we're using the Met
for of of train tracks this track over here is celebration this track over here is challenge this track is Rejoice with those who Rejoice this track is weep with those who weep and then missional life is what we do individually and together to demonstrate the love of of Christ in the world and and the Light of Christ which is the gospel and Matthew 5:116 says let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify the Father in Heaven 1 Peter 3:15 and 18 uh verse 15 says always be ready
to give an answer to those who ask about the hope that's in you and verse 18 says Christ suffered once for our sins the just for the unjust in order to bring us safely home to God he was put to Death In the Flesh Made Alive by the spirit and so we let our light shine we give an answer to those who ask about our hope and we share this good news that Christ died for our sins and conquered death so that we could have a relationship with God so a little a little further Let's
uh let's dig a little bit into devotional life I already expressed John 8:31-32 um devotional life itself has at least three essential uh parts and there there's a more explanation at our website our church website ctk hope.net under the tab discipleship and then also we have an app uh we're located in the scet valley our app is ctk scet ctk stands for Christ the King ctk scet and all of that is on there as well under the discipleship tab so the three essential experiences of a devotional life is getting truth and Promises from God's word
and then Galatians 5:116 says yield yourself to the Holy Spirit and so in your devotional life the holy spirit is going to do two things for one reason and the two things the holy spirit is going to do he going to he's going to make adjustments and he's going to give assignments and the reason he makes adjustments is because we're created to reflect the image of Christ we we're when I wake up in the morning uh the world needs more Jesus shining through my life and in order for that to happen if I yield myself
to the Holy Spirit the holy spirit will say let's adjust this he he U his yoke is easy his burden is light that means he doesn't dump a bunch of things on you to adjust every day but usually it's one or two things that the holy spirit is going to be with you and he never says you need to fix this the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart and he says let's work on this because your sins are forgiven and the Holy Spirit is not going to condemn you he will convict you and in convicting
you he's saying something needs needs to be adjusted yielding ourselves to the Holy Spirit can be as simple as praying Galatians 5:116 Holy Spirit I yield myself to you reveal the adjustments and assignments you have for me and he will he will usually uh if there's an adjustment to be made he will reveal adjustments and then he will give assignments and assignments almost always have names and faces assignments are people who need the love of Christ and the Light of Christ in their lives and the Holy Spirit will use you if you're willing and you're
yielding yourself to him and that's what God wants for our devotional life so we get the truth and Promises from God's word we're in God's word devotionally we're yielding ourselves to the holy spirit for adjustments and assignments and I said he does that for one reason that is indicated in John 16 verse4 which says um the holy spirit will glorify me Jesus is talking he said he the holy spirit will glorify me some translations say magnify me and and the reason it says that because the world needs more Jesus more Christ Jesus shining through our
lives and um and that's what the Holy Spirit wants to do make the adjustments give the assignments so more of Christ can shine out through our lives to others and then in our devotional life we don't need to just be focused on ourselves we need to think about um how God might use what he's revealing to us through his word and supporting and encouraging other believers other disciples so um that takes us into relational life so support and encouragement is part of our relational life with other believers again you can find more of this on
our website and app um the celebrations and the challenges celebration is rejoicing in blessings so when someone else is blessed or has some type of achievement or success we Rejoice with them in that blessing and then also we're bearing one another's burdens and we're praying for one another um I believe it's Galatians 62 that says bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ um the law of Christ is Matthew 22 38-40 where Jesus said love the Lord your God with all your heart soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself so
when we're rejoicing in blessings when we're bearing other people's burdens that's say challenges of life when we're praying for one another there's an environment that is created um Augustine St Augustine had a beautiful way of referring to that environment he called it the communio sanctorum and that means the the holy family and so the the church is a uh a holy Community a holy family where no one stands alone when we're committed to rejoicing with those who Rejoice weeping with those who weep praying for one another we create the environment where nobody is standing alone
and that's what Christ intends for his church which is the communio s t s torum the Holy Family the Sanctified Community um this is uh the book of Acts beginning in verse 42 we see the outworking of all of these principles that we've been talking about um as I've stated in previous lectures I believe that the church is in its purest form in the book of Acts when the church was born when the Holy Spirit fell 120 disciples were in an upper room praying 3,000 people followed Christ the these 120 disciples were ready to lead
these new Believers into discipleship into the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ and there was a perfect a nearly perfect expression of devotional relational and missional life right after that happened and it's recorded in Acts chapter 2 and here's just an excerpt of that it said all the Believers devoted themselves to the apostles teaching see they were getting the truth and Promises from the Jesus through his Apostles and to Fellowship they were having the the word Fellowship is coia and it means in in the biblical language of of Greek coinonia means to share common life
the celebrations and challenges of life it says they were sharing meals including the Lord's supper and to prayer it says a deep sense of awe came over over them all and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders and all the Believers met together in one place and shared everything they had they sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need can you can you say love and light so they weren't just having a devotional life with God they weren't just experiencing this beautiful relational life where they supported and encouraged and
prayed for one another rejoiced with those who Rejoice weep with those who weep they were doing all of those things but they took it into missional life so that they were so concerned with meeting the needs and healing the hurts around them that they were willing to sell their own property and possessions to express the love of Jesus to those in need so we have this expression of devotion relational and missional life in the church uh right after it was born it says they worshiped together at the temple each day met in homes for the
Lord's supper and shared their meals with great joy and generosity all the while praising God and enjoying the Good Will of all the people and each day the Lord added to their Fellowship those who were being saved so they had a devotional life they had a relational life they had a missional life and the end result of that was that um people saw something very different they saw something they'd never seen before and through their eyes they became open to the m message of Jesus and that's exactly how Jesus said it would happen in our
missional life the love and the light of his kingdom would come first through what people see it would open them up through what they see Matthew 5:116 let your light so shine before people that they may see your good works and so people come into God's kingdom first not by what they hear but by what they see and these people were even selling their possessions to meet needs and heal hurts and so people's hearts became open they became open Matthew 22 38-40 love God with all your heart soul and mind love your neighbor as yourself
it is Love In Action that opens people to the message of Jesus it's bearing one another's burdens and fulfilling the law of Christ that's what it says in Galatians 6 2 so how do you live out this new relationship you live it out devotionally you learn how to have time with God each day in his word and prayer you live it out relationally bearing one another's burdens rejoicing with those who Rejoice weeping with those who weep and you live it out missionally on assignment from the Holy Spirit sharing the light and the love of Jesus
and you do that with gospel Readiness a Readiness to share the good news of Jesus and again 1 Peter 3:15 happens before 1 Peter 3:18 we love people we meet needs and we heal hurts and in 1 Peter 3:15 it says give an answer to those who ask about your hope that ask is earned through the way we love people and meet needs in people's lives and then once they ask Verse 18 1 Peter 3:18 is the gospel Christ suffered for our sins the righteous for the unrighteous to bring us safely home to God he
was put to Death In the Flesh Made Alive by the spirit Jesus did this he died for our sins so that we could forever have a relationship with God and be in the Kingdom of Heaven forever as God's children Christianity is primarily a relationship with God let's take a look at a video clip that gives some clarity and context to what we're talking about okay what's the death rate on planet Earth I believe it's close to 100% yeah it's kind of alarming one out of one right why do we die here because we were not
made for this place three people got that man you need to let that oil get down into the gears because if you're living for this place you're going to be depressed discouraged discontent in the book of Colossians it says set your minds on things above set your heart on things above where Christ is s seated at the right hand of God there's a throne in heaven and God Reigns in sovereignty and when you're focusing here with your heart and your mind and your life when it's focused here man it can be over in an instant
you weren't made for this place I got a call last Saturday from a lady that I always look out in our in the Ministries no no matter where we're doing Ministry and they'd probably be here this morning I got a call and she's always right back there she had a pain in her hip and she went in and they found out that it was Gan green and she was getting nauseous so it was septic and got into her blood and they they we're taking her into the second surgery at about 11:30 and I was talking
with her having a conversation with her and praying with her at 11:20 and at 500 a.m. they took her off life support it was all unexpected and I did her funeral yesterday but this I know about Carol Sue Underwood Jesus was her King she had fix points in her life and I had lunch with her husband art and art said you know every single evening Carol's Bible was open every evening she he said I can't remember her missing an evening and you talk about the truth of God that sets you free and the promises of
God that Empower you he said Carol was looking for those things every day it was the hope of her life and he said I know I'm going to see my Carol Sue again seek you first the kingdom of God we weren't made for this place it's what we were made for it's also who we were made made for um you know when Jesus shows up in power and somebody's asking for it the kingdom of God is there
