AAEVS - Having a Long-Term Commitment to be Faithful

"Our vision is multi-generational. We realize that the advancement of God’s kingdom is a long-term process, therefore we desire to be examples of faithfulness that future generations would desire to follow." ~ Community Paragraph 3g-h

"His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord." ~ Matthew 25:23

"Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;" ~ Deuteronomy 7:9

Here we come to the last portion of the Elders' Vision on Community, which is focused on the long-term perspective of the Kingdom and how we contribute to it. Looking at where we are right now, it does not look like we as Christendom are close to consummating the Kingdom in our lifetime. It even looks like that we as a church are not going to be able to engage our community until the next generation arises up who are not comfort-centered and/or culturally-compromised. This can be discouraging and demoralizing to our enthusiasm. But God did not mean for us to complete the His work in the earth in ten to fifty years; He means for us to do what we can in advancing the Kingdom and leaving a godly legacy. Then when He calls us home into His heavenly presence, we will watch as Christ uses our legacy in history to transform the world. (Hebrews 12:1-2)

So what does a long-term advancement of God's Kingdom look like? It looks like believers being examples of faithfulness to the word of God. But what does it mean to be faithful?

The word "faithful" in English could otherwise be stated "full of faith." Thus, the one who commits to an object or being believes strongly that this object or being will reward him or her in his pursuit; this one is faithful. The Christian pursues Christ believing that He exists and will diligently reward those that seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6) Faith needs a worldview; it needs instruction; and it needs vindication. Without a worldview, faith becomes muddled and confused. Without instruction, faith does not know how to proceed. Without vindication, faith becomes blind or is lost. God provides us all three to have a strong faith.

Another element of faithfulness is patience; patience is the cheerful endurance of affliction. It comes by finding joy in the providence of God. When patience does her maturing work, she proves to us the love of God and that brings earnest expectation to us. With this hope, we can proceed without the fear of our fellow man and impact the culture without embarrassment, because the Holy Spirit has shed abroad the love of God in our hearts; He draws our attention back to the atonement. (Romans 5:3-11)

So how do we apply this to us? How do we give future generations examples of faithfulness?

First, we look at examples of saints who lived before us, from Abel to the Present. We read their biographies and learn from them. Second, we learn to be meek as we are dealing with each other's failure to commit and remind ourselves of our dept that was paid. Third, we draw a vision from Scripture for a renewed community. Finally, we set our delight on God Himself and trust in His word.

How do we instill in future generations a desire to pick up where we left off? First, we do not pursue what C. S. Lewis calls eternally out-of-date; we apply the word to where they are and encourage them to love Him in their decisions and actions. Second, we live out the Word without hypocrisy or formality; we do not follow Christ when He's nice and convenient and follow the world when it's pleasing and easy. We do not follow Christ because that's what our parents did or that's what our elders want us to do.

Conclusion

This is not some ideological desire to have another generation who think like us; this is a desire for God to use our efforts to bless the nations throughout history and keep blessing them even when we are promoted to a higher position in heaven. For us to have this desire, we need to make Christ our pursuit and joy. Without that, we become sullen and discouraged because we cannot usher the Kingdom in our lifetime.

Jesus came to bring eternal life, and that life is knowing God and knowing Jesus Christ; (John 17:3) the goal of all Christians in every place and every age is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. We do not need to bring in the Kingdom right now because from God's perspective, it is already finished. Nevertheless, we as pilgrims got work to do on this earth to make it manifest that His perspective is so. (Philippians 1:20-26)

This concludes our survey through the community. If you want more, here are Bro. Matt's notes on community. Next we will look at what this community is centered on: worship.