Pastor Brendan Kelly - Outworking The Heart Of The House

Volunteers in this house, not only have a willingness to serve but also a willingness to go through the neccersary measures (such as an induction) to ensure they are effective and responsible in how they steward the culture of the house.

STEWARDING

42 And the Lord said, “Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? 43 Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Luke 12:42-43

• When the master leaves the house, he leaves it in the hands of servants, but if the servants are found to be outworking the heart of the house when we returns he then considers them stewards, increasing their responsibility and stature in the house.
• The core of being able to steward in the house is to be able to thin holistically.
• Often we get caught up with our own 'tasks' that fit into the areas we are passionate about or enjoy, and forget that what we are doing is connected to a bigger picture of what the church is called to do.
• A steward thinks according to that bigger picture, not their own small part that they play.
• When thinking about a task we should ask ourselves, 'how does this effect the whole?'

EXAMPLE:
An example of where we may feel challenged to think holistically is with the concepts of inreach and outreach. Inreach is what we call all care and ministy within the church (such as our sunday services, connects etc). Outreach is what we call ministry that is catered to those not in church yet (mission, community services etc).

Sadly, it is not uncommon for the two to compete with (or distract from) one another in the minds of people. We can find ourselves being so concerned about one that we neglect the other, whereas each has equal importance and value.

King David said 'I was glad when they said to me,“Let us go into the house of the LORD.” So we see that it is a very positive thing to have a heart for the house, including worshiping together. Jesus said Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!’, teaching us that it is important to have a heart and passion for souls and others. Holistic thinking would be having a heart for the house and a heart for harvest.

It’s not an either/or; it’s crucial we think about both and steward them.

TWO BUT ONE

So Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2 When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is God’s camp.” And he called the name of that place Mahanaim. Genesis 32:1-2

• In the above scripture, Jacob had made a camp for himself and his men only to realise that God had a camp there also, so he named the place ‘Mahanaim’ which means double-camp (or two-camp).
• Mahanaim is all about seeing not just the parts but the whole.
• Jacob learnt to see the two camps as one, so connected that it was one camp.
• This is a picture of the church: a type of camp for both man and God, connecting together as a whole.
• When thinking of the ‘parts’ of the church we can call it Mahanaim when we see them as a whole not as different camps with different values.

HOW IS THE CHURCH SEEN?

Return, return, O Shulamite; Return, return, that we may look upon you! What would you see in the Shulamite— As it were, the dance of the two camps? Song of Solomon 6:13

• This passage is commonly considered to be an historic account of Solomon’s
• first marriage to a Shulamite, and paralles are quite easily drawn between the King’s relationship
• with her and the King’s (Christ’s) relationship with the church.
• She asked (as a metaphor of the church) ‘what would you see in me? As it were the dance of the two camps?’
• Other translations and margin notes make reference to it as a the dance of the Mahanaim.
• What made her unique was she was both an ordinary and extraordinary woman, (ordinary turned extraordinary because of her relationship with the king). It was her heart that she wasn't seen as either but as both, like a dance it is an equal partnership in fluent movement.

DANCES WE DANCE

Just as the Shulamite danced a dance of ‘ordinary and extraordinary’, we too dance the dance of the Mahanaim in areas of :

1. The supernatural and the natural.

• As a church we seek neither to be all natural (ordinary) or all supernatural (extraordinary) – we see to understand both and how they work together.

And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. 1 Corinthians 15:49

• We bear the image of Adam, an ordinary, natural man, but we also bear the image of Jesus Christ, an extraordinary, supernatural man.

2. How we understand the past and the future.

• God refers to Himself as the ‘Great I am’, not I was or I will be.

And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” Exodus 3:14

• The present is where the past end and the future starts.
• We live in the 'now' but there has to be an understanding (a dance) of what was and what will be.
• Our 'now' is God-appointed because He appoints our times and boundaries.

3. How we approach the younger and older generations.

• We see generations as one people – not separated.

One generation shall praise Your works to another, And shall declare Your mighty acts. Psalm 145:4

• Sometimes we interpret this to mean the older generation praises God's work to the younger generation, but it is a two-way thing – to another!
• We won't always relate to how the other generation praises, but we accept it and see it as a dance we have to dance.

4. How the church functions corporately and individually.

• For the church to function correction, we can’t just be thinking about ourselves as individuals and what we can 'get' from church, but how the whole body works together – thinking about each other.

• However at the same time, we can't be so concerned about our corporate calling and worship, that we forget about the individual needs that fill the church. They need to be treated with equal importance.

Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Philippians 2:4

A healthy church is made up of people who recognise it is not just all about 'me and my needs' although 'me and my needs' matter within the church. Neither is it just all about the church and the corporate vision, though that is also very important. It is about both – neither compromising the other.

CONCLUSION

God is not only looking for people who are willing to serve in the house, but also steward in the house. The best way to do this is to get our mind around the dance of the Mahanaim.

If we are going to be a church that is going to go to another level, we need to think and steward the whole not just the part.