*************************************************************************************************Key Verse: Luke 5

The basic idea of Waters Church is that we are here for those who are not yet here.  Every Gospel preaching, Jesus loving, God honoring Church exists for the sake of those who are not yet here.  So often we make church about us or for us.  The longer people have been Christians that is when they tend to look for a church that meets their needs and checks all their boxes for what they want the church to be for them.  But that is completely disconnected from the heart of Jesus.

Q. What experience have you had where you may have fallen into the mindset that the church existed to meet your needs?

Christ came for DISCONNECTED PEOPLE

Genesis 2:18 (ESV)

The problem in our world is the system in the unseen realms of our world that is seeking to divide and conquer human beings. The devil hates humans and unity.  The Devil is dividing us left, right, and center.  The more we divide the more we are alone.  There is a pandemic of epic proportions called loneliness.  More people are isolated than ever before.

Q. What are some effects of division and disunity you have witnessed in your own personal life (in workplace, at home, school , etc.)?

The ROOT of our DISCONNECTION is SINs

James 4:1 (ESV)

Sin separates. Sin is always putting “I in the center.

The ANSWER – to the DISCONNECTING POWER of SIN – is CONNECTING to JESUS.

Hebrews 1:3 (ESV); Luke 5:31–32 (ESV)

Jesus is God and Man.  God and man became one in Christ.  This is how we get reconnected to God and reconnected to man.  Adam and Eve’s sin disconnected them from God and from each other. 

Q. What relationships have you had that have been broken due to sin?

1. Jesus loved PEOPLE who were NOTHING LIKE HIM.

Luke 5:27-30 (ESV)

Levi is disconnected because he is a tax collector.  In Jesus’s day, tax collectors were traders, mob-style bosses, evil, and filled with greed.  They were the worst people on the planet.  Jesus is sitting in this banquet with the worst of Israels society.   The Pharisees don’t understand how a Holy Man can be hanging around with these sinners who rip off their fellow man and treat their fellow citizens as objects, but Jesus knows He is there for those not yet here.

Q. How have you truly loved someone that the world had neglected?

2. People who were NOTHING LIKE JESUS loved being around JESUS.

Jesus is not a prostitute, adulterer, thief,  nor hated tax collector but these people couldn’t get enough of Him.  We are to follow Jesus not people.  The church is full of people that are not perfect.   We, as Christians, are far worse than we realize and far more loved than we can imagine.  We can be moral but morality does not save us.

Luke 5:28 (ESV)

The rich young ruler really believed he was a good person. He walked away because he felt that his morality had achieved for him his income and lifestyle and who was this carpenter from Nazareth to tell him what to do with his money.  When our confession of faith is rooted in what we do and not what Jesus did for us, we are lost and not on the road to salvation.

Q. What was the hardest thing to leave behind when you decided to follow Jesus?

There is something attractive to the goodness of Jesus, and He is the most attractive to the worst of sinners because they see in Him that they desperately need Him. 

3. Jesus creates a COMMUNITY of people who SEEK TO CONNECT others into the COMMUNITY.

Luke 5:29-30 (ESV); Luke 5:31–32 (NLT); Ephesians 2:19 (NLT)

Challenge 1: Reach out to one person this week whom others have neglected or ignored.

Challenge 2: Reach out to someone in church who is not in community and connect them to a Life Group.