Embracing How and Why God Saves Us – Pt.2
For far too long the primary message of the Church has focused on “How” someone can be saved. But the Gospel also tells us “Why” we’ve been saved. Understanding the Purpose of our salvation is critical for making disciples of Jesus who make more disciples.
In this episode of the Everyday Disciple Podcast, I continue with Part 2 of this short series on the “two lenses” of the Gospel: Power and Purpose. Most Christians have never been taught the Purpose of the Gospel…in other words, “why” God sent his Son to save us. This changes everything!
In This Episode You’ll Learn:
- Why the Gospel is so much more than a message about how to have a nice afterlife.
- How the Gospel propels us well beyond sin management and behavioral modification.
- How not embracing both “lenses” of the Gospel has led to the lack of discipleship in the Church today.
- The danger in not keeping both the “how and why” of the Gospel central to all we do.
From this episode:
“It is when we grasp and wrestle with both perspectives that we have a gospel that both places our salvation squarely on the work of Jesus on the Cross and sends us out to be his body, his family of redemption, and restoration in the world. It is when the world both hears the good news and witnesses a demonstration of restoration that they are most inclined to believe. This is a BIG Gospel!“
Each week the Big 3 will give you immediate action steps to get you started.
Download today’s BIG 3 right now. Read and think over them again later. You might even want to share them with others…
Thanks for Listening!
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Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
Take your Community Group through the Gospel Primer!
Everyday Disciple: FREE Discipleship Resources and Training.
Missio Publishing – More Missional Books and Resources
Transcript
There's a risk of distorting the Gospel when we view it through only one of these two lenses.
Caesar Kalinowski:If we view the Gospel primarily as the power that sets us free, we could end up focused on our own personal salvation, getting outta hell and going to heaven someday.
Caesar Kalinowski:Which can become a very human-centered Gospel.
Caesar Kalinowski:However, if we view the Gospel as purely focused on the restoration of all things, we can tip over the other way and believe and start proclaiming a social Gospel.
Caesar Kalinowski:This is seen in the churches that are centered primarily on doing good works and acts of service and large social projects.
Caesar Kalinowski:In their cities, but they rarely move toward a proclamation of the Gospel that includes sin, repentance, and salvation found in Christ alone.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's when we grasp and wrestle with both, both of these perspectives, that we have a Gospel that places our salvation squarely on the work of Jesus on the cross, and sends us out to be his body, his family of redemption and restoration in the world.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's when the world both hears the good news and sees a demonstration of restoration that they are most inclined to believe.
Caesar Kalinowski:This is a big Gospel, the Gospel of the kingdom that Jesus was talking about.
Announcer:Welcome to the Everyday Disciple Podcast, where you'll learn how to live with greater intentionality and an integrated faith that naturally fits into every area of life.
Announcer:In other words, discipleship as a lifestyle.
Announcer:This is the stuff your parents, pastors and seminary professors.
Announcer:Probably forgot to tell you.
Announcer:And now here's your host, Caesar Kalinowski.
Caesar Kalinowski:All right.
Caesar Kalinowski:Here we are.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's good to be back with you again.
Caesar Kalinowski:Welcome.
Caesar Kalinowski:Welcome to the Everyday Disciple Podcast.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hope you are having a great week.
Caesar Kalinowski:I am.
Caesar Kalinowski:Doing pretty great.
Caesar Kalinowski:I have to say, I'm feeling a little off.
Caesar Kalinowski:I don't know what's going on.
Caesar Kalinowski:You know, everything that comes up feels a little like, oh, do I, do I, am I sick with this or that?
Caesar Kalinowski:Do I have covid?
Caesar Kalinowski:I, I don't think so.
Caesar Kalinowski:I have none of the symptoms.
Caesar Kalinowski:I don't have a fever, but I've just felt a little off the last few days.
Caesar Kalinowski:Maybe it's just cuz it's so dark out there in the media and so like, such a bummer.
Caesar Kalinowski:I've been trying to.
Caesar Kalinowski:Watch way less news and social media like the last few days or even maybe weeks.
Caesar Kalinowski:I, I don't know about you, but it's, it's, it all seems so dark.
Caesar Kalinowski:I.
Caesar Kalinowski:And rarely positive and really helping to improve my outlook and give me hope.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now I wanna be informed, obviously.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm sure you do too, but I just feel like, wow, maybe, maybe like a lot of us, I've been overdosing on that a little bit.
Caesar Kalinowski:Any who?
Caesar Kalinowski:Um, you can pray for me.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm sure I'll be fine.
Caesar Kalinowski:I feel better.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'll watch less news and it'll, it'll all be good.
Caesar Kalinowski:Uh, anyway, Hey, thanks again for being with us.
Caesar Kalinowski:I wanna invite you to join us, uh, in Facebook or on Facebook in the, in our group, the everyday Disciple group there, um, where we get to have a lot of fun, some discussion if you have questions from the show or, or anything really about life on mission making disciples.
Caesar Kalinowski:As a lifestyle, you can go there.
Caesar Kalinowski:Um, just look us up on Facebook, the Everyday, Disciple Podcast, or to make it simple, you can go to everyday Disciple dot com slash facebook.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I would also love it if you would subscribe to the show on whatever platform you listen on, and leave us a review on that, that platform.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay?
Caesar Kalinowski:Um, there's also a link for that.
Caesar Kalinowski:You can go to everyday Disciple dot com slash subscribe.
Caesar Kalinowski:And that'll take you to a page with all kinds of different links to different players and all the things you might use.
Caesar Kalinowski:Alright, well last week, uh, I did part one of, uh, a message that I had done live.
Caesar Kalinowski:I shared part one of a message, um, that is really looking at how God saves us and why he saves us.
Caesar Kalinowski:And we started looking at the first of two lenses of the Gospel and we're, we talked last week about the power of the Gospel and really how much bigger it is maybe than we proclaim.
Caesar Kalinowski:And how it, you know, the power of the Gospel saves us and sets us free in so many ways, but often that's the, that's kind of where we stop and we don't proclaim the full Gospel, which includes the second lens, which is the purpose of the Gospel.
Caesar Kalinowski:In other words, why God has saved us and, uh, this is foundational.
Caesar Kalinowski:To making disciples if we don't fully understand the Gospel and how big it is.
Caesar Kalinowski:And understand both the power of the Gospel and it's by faith in Christ and Christ alone, that we're saved and set free in every area of life.
Caesar Kalinowski:And if we don't embrace the purpose of the Gospel, which I'm not gonna say too much more about right now because I'm gonna get into it here, coming up here in a second.
Caesar Kalinowski:Um, we, if we don't embrace both, It really shines a light on why maybe the church has been really shy on making disciples in recent years and, and I, praise God, there's a resurgence of, of interest in this, but I really think if the church is not making disciples as our primary mission and really embracing it as a lifestyle, it's a Gospel issue at its core.
Caesar Kalinowski:And this message last week's and today's combined really sort of helps change that and put an ax to the root of that problem.
Caesar Kalinowski:So I wanna go ahead and dip into part two of, of the message.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay?
Caesar Kalinowski:And then I will come back after you hear, you know me, wrap up that message and I'll give you a few other thoughts and I'll give you the big three for the day as well.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay?
Caesar Kalinowski:Here we go.
Caesar Kalinowski:God in Christ has given us both this amazing message.
Caesar Kalinowski:This amazing good news.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:The of message of reconciliation, the Gospel power.
Caesar Kalinowski:But he's also given us the Ministry of Reconciliation, a Gospel purpose.
Caesar Kalinowski:See, we have this amazing Gospel power.
Caesar Kalinowski:This is the other lens.
Caesar Kalinowski:We've gotta help our people see Gospel purpose.
Caesar Kalinowski:The Gospel has a purpose for our lives.
Caesar Kalinowski:It just doesn't save us and leave us there.
Caesar Kalinowski:Two Corinthians five, 17 and 19.
Caesar Kalinowski:Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation and he has committed to us this message of reconciliation.
Caesar Kalinowski:Ephesians two 10 then says, for we are God's workmanship created in Christ to do good works, which God and prepared in advance for us to do, do our folks know that they have good works prepared in advance for them to do?
Caesar Kalinowski:That's what the Gospel purpose is.
Caesar Kalinowski:And that good works probably is not ushering or handing out flyers at the door or just working in children's ministry or doing everything in our box.
Caesar Kalinowski:Do they realize their purpose is so much bigger than that now to.
Caesar Kalinowski:Coming into this purpose of the Gospel sort of brings us into the reason for our salvation and the second lens.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so to, to kinda get this second lens of the Gospel, we need to look at the, at the Gospel through the lens of a story.
Caesar Kalinowski:So can we go to the next slide?
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:So we see the Gospel purpose as we look at a story.
Caesar Kalinowski:If you look at it as a story creation, Fall redemption restoration.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:And man, I could speak for days on how, on how to help form your people in understanding their own story and telling their story and helping to listen to other people's stories through those lenses.
Caesar Kalinowski:But if you look at scripture, not thematically, where we see the power of the God, the power of the Gospel, but you look at it this way as a storyline, what does it appear?
Caesar Kalinowski:I mean, I don't know.
Caesar Kalinowski:Let's take a stab at it.
Caesar Kalinowski:What does it appear?
Caesar Kalinowski:The purpose of the Gospel is?
Caesar Kalinowski:What's it heading towards?
Caesar Kalinowski:Restoration.
Caesar Kalinowski:The restoration of all things.
Caesar Kalinowski:I mean, the story starts in a garden and everything is amazing and there's two trees and it ends in a garden and everything is amazing and there's two trees and they're both the tree of life and it says God will come and dwell of his people.
Caesar Kalinowski:And it all will be restored.
Caesar Kalinowski:No more sickness or pain or death or decay or any of that.
Caesar Kalinowski:It all gets restored.
Caesar Kalinowski:The purpose of the Gospel is ultimately about restoration, and we'll see in a minute why restoration brings about God being glorified in all things I know.
Caesar Kalinowski:US Pipe rights, we we're gonna say.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah, but the purpose of the Gospel is the God would be glorified in all things.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yes.
Caesar Kalinowski:And the purpose of the Gospel accomplishes that.
Caesar Kalinowski:The, this, this restoration of all things accomplishes that.
Caesar Kalinowski:See, the Gospel is not just about my individual happiness and God's plan for my life.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's about God's plan for the whole world.
Caesar Kalinowski:Oh, I, I, I tell you, as a pastor, as, as, as one who lives in community with people, that, that's my number.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's my number one prayer.
Caesar Kalinowski:I.
Caesar Kalinowski:For my kids, for people in our community, I want them to understand that God seriously does have a plan for the whole world.
Caesar Kalinowski:And and just by mystery, uh, and miracle unfolding, we get to be a part of it.
Caesar Kalinowski:And, and this this American dream life where we pretty much as the church look just like our culture, except we hide our sin better and we wedge a little bit of Jesus and church going and a little bit of mission in now cause it's a cool term.
Caesar Kalinowski:Other than that, we're not that different.
Caesar Kalinowski:That is not what Christ died on a cross for.
Caesar Kalinowski:God has a plan for the world, and he's got a purpose for your life.
Caesar Kalinowski:The Gospel has a purpose and it's so much bigger than the American dream world with a little Jesus wedged in years ago, a friend of mine who works in some of the hardest places in the world with the persecuted church and different things.
Caesar Kalinowski:Years ago he, he asked me one day, he goes, And I was still in business and I was a Christian, and I was kinda like upwardly mobile.
Caesar Kalinowski:Our businesses were growing and we were doing just fine.
Caesar Kalinowski:Thank you very much.
Caesar Kalinowski:American Pie, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:And he said, Caesar.
Caesar Kalinowski:He says, is the life you're living worth, Christ dying for?
Caesar Kalinowski:Is the life you're currently living worth him dying on a cross?
Caesar Kalinowski:It's like, ouch, ouch.
Caesar Kalinowski:And what he was getting after, what he was getting after is, oh, there's so much more.
Caesar Kalinowski:There's so much more than just stacking up and amassing and piling up stuff and in church attendance and ushering and maybe tithing and oh my gosh, if you go to a midweek group, you're freaking rockstar Christian.
Caesar Kalinowski:There's way more than that.
Caesar Kalinowski:When we repent of our sin and we receive the new life that God has offered us, we begin this journey of restoration inside and out, and not for just for us.
Caesar Kalinowski:So we'll have a happier life, more peace, less strife.
Caesar Kalinowski:But this restoration begins in us for the whole world.
Caesar Kalinowski:For the whole world.
Caesar Kalinowski:Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now, a word of caution here.
Caesar Kalinowski:There are those that believe that the church, by restoring stuff, accomplishes the bringing about of the kingdom.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's not what we're saying here, and we've gotta be careful that we don't tip our people into that.
Caesar Kalinowski:The kingdom is established by the king.
Caesar Kalinowski:Uh, Jesus is the king.
Caesar Kalinowski:The restoration is his work.
Caesar Kalinowski:We submit to that work.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's amazing that he chooses us as plan A to accomplish that.
Caesar Kalinowski:There is no Plan B that I could find in the book yet, but we, we, we, we, we do not want to tip into, well, we bring about the kingdom.
Caesar Kalinowski:If we could just get enough stuff cleaned up around here.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's not what we're talking about.
Caesar Kalinowski:Jesus gave us.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now here's what's crazy.
Caesar Kalinowski:Jesus gave us sort of like, we've got Gospel power and Gospel purpose.
Caesar Kalinowski:Jesus gave us the Gospel plan for accomplishing this.
Caesar Kalinowski:Do you know what it was?
Caesar Kalinowski:How did, what was the plan Jesus gave us for accomplishing the purpose of the Gospel, the restoration of all things?
Caesar Kalinowski:Anybody wanna take a guess?
Caesar Kalinowski:It's found in Matthew 28.
Caesar Kalinowski:Go and make disciples.
Caesar Kalinowski:Thanks Jesus.
Caesar Kalinowski:Thanks for clearing that up for us.
Caesar Kalinowski:How, how is going and making disciples gonna bring about the restoration of all things and ultimately the glorification of God in all things?
Caesar Kalinowski:How How's that?
Caesar Kalinowski:How's that happen?
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, look at this.
Caesar Kalinowski:When cities.
Caesar Kalinowski:When cultures, when nations are restored as the Gospel what I'm saying, they are restored as the Gospel restores the hearts of the people in that culture.
Caesar Kalinowski:I mean, what does, think about it, what does your city look like?
Caesar Kalinowski:Man, I wish this was a little smaller and we could talk.
Caesar Kalinowski:I, we teach dialogical in our community, um, what is, what is.
Caesar Kalinowski:What does say the educational system, oh boy.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm picking on a hotbed here in this town.
Caesar Kalinowski:What does the educational system look like if all of a, there's no disciples involved in it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like what's the focus of a educational system in this country, in this city, in any city if there's no disciples involved in it.
Caesar Kalinowski:I mean, students use their education and they're told to use their education for personal gain.
Caesar Kalinowski:Or teachers twist kids' minds and college students' mind into their worldview.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're jacked up, self run worldview.
Caesar Kalinowski:But, but what if, but what if the educational system was increasingly full of disciples of Jesus Christ?
Caesar Kalinowski:What if his churches, we specifically laid hands on and sent people into the educational field?
Caesar Kalinowski:And we let them come up here and report on how it's going.
Caesar Kalinowski:Inch at a time.
Caesar Kalinowski:Foot at a time, step at a time.
Caesar Kalinowski:And what if, what if increasingly in the cities, there was more and more teachers, educators, administrators, principals, people on the school boards that were truly disciples of Christ.
Caesar Kalinowski:And they, they, they were, they were bringing about kingdom restoration.
Caesar Kalinowski:By bringing about Disciple making to that people group.
Caesar Kalinowski:See, the mission is always to a people group.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's never a, it's never a, it's never a construct or a building or a system.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's always the hearts of the people in it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Let, let's just go down the list real quick.
Caesar Kalinowski:What about business?
Caesar Kalinowski:What if the business, what about, what about industry and business in this city or any city that you live in was completely devoid of disciples.
Caesar Kalinowski:You know, owners are mistreating employees around the world.
Caesar Kalinowski:This is happening.
Caesar Kalinowski:They use them basically for personal gain.
Caesar Kalinowski:I started a business to maximize me.
Caesar Kalinowski:Just know it.
Caesar Kalinowski:When you work for me, pretty much you exist to maximize me, and we're gonna ring out prophets and we're gonna destroy the planet, or we're gonna do whatever it takes to get a prophet.
Caesar Kalinowski:But, but what if, what if business was increasingly full of disciples?
Caesar Kalinowski:What if seriously, many of you and many of the people in your churches were taught and trained and released and sent and supported to start and run businesses for the sake of the community, for the sake of being a display of the Gospel?
Caesar Kalinowski:Good news that you don't get what you deserve.
Caesar Kalinowski:You get so much more.
Caesar Kalinowski:That that profit exists for the benefit of those who made it, not just the guy who had the original 10 bucks to start this thing.
Caesar Kalinowski:What if communities actually rallied around people?
Caesar Kalinowski:Do you know how hard it is to start a freaking business that succeeds?
Caesar Kalinowski:I've owned about a dozen businesses.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's really hard.
Caesar Kalinowski:Jeff and I still own a restaurant and some property in Tacoma that restaurant's hard.
Caesar Kalinowski:What if the churches like came around people?
Caesar Kalinowski:What if Missional communities came around people and said, you know what?
Caesar Kalinowski:We're gonna cover your salary for the next two years as a missionary because you, you won't make jack squat the first couple years getting this ministry running.
Caesar Kalinowski:And if you take it all out, you're gonna have to just take it all outta the people.
Caesar Kalinowski:What, what if we saw people as missionaries and the restoration of the business realm and the creation of jobs and industry in such a way that a Gospel picture emerged?
Caesar Kalinowski:How about media in the arts?
Caesar Kalinowski:Can you imagine if Letterman and Oprah and Spielberg and others were actually disciples?
Caesar Kalinowski:Can you imagine it?
Caesar Kalinowski:Seriously, I I, I, I sit around and I don't know why, but I just sit around and I dream of these kinds of things.
Caesar Kalinowski:I go like, what if someone with that much mo, you know, that much of, of a, of a, you know, pipeline to the culture.
Caesar Kalinowski:Really got it.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I'm not talking about like Alec Baldwin got it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Or his brother Steven Baldwin.
Caesar Kalinowski:Got it.
Caesar Kalinowski:You know, like, oh yikes, thanks for the presentation of the Gospel brother I'm talking about.
Caesar Kalinowski:Really got it.
Caesar Kalinowski:And took their tens and hundreds of millions of dollars and began to humbly serve and blessed people and support mission and, and live humbly.
Caesar Kalinowski:And you know, can you imagine?
Caesar Kalinowski:And what if our churches like released people to that?
Caesar Kalinowski:Like, do we see that as a high calling?
Caesar Kalinowski:Do we really believe the Gospel has a purpose and it's, it's moving towards the restoration of all things, which is always gonna be, and always has been, and always will be about people healthcare.
Caesar Kalinowski:Oh man, this, this country right now with healthcare.
Caesar Kalinowski:What if the church got back, you know, health, the whole healthcare thing in the world started with Christians, you know, What if we took that over
Caesar Kalinowski:government?
Caesar Kalinowski:Can you imagine if the government was increasingly full of disciples of Christ service organizations?
Caesar Kalinowski:I mean, I, I've been in and out of many countries.
Caesar Kalinowski:I've been and outta Africa so many times.
Caesar Kalinowski:Lost count.
Caesar Kalinowski:We cannot send enough food and aid to certain places to make any difference.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I've got a, we got a brother here from Haiti, port of Prince.
Caesar Kalinowski:We could ship every frigging thing in the whole world over there.
Caesar Kalinowski:And if they don't have the Gospel, if they don't have disciples who are making disciples in all of these domains of culture, Haiti's never gonna change.
Caesar Kalinowski:Is it?
Caesar Kalinowski:It's not stuff.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's gonna be disciples who make disciples in every area of culture.
Caesar Kalinowski:That is what brings about restoration.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's why the purpose of the Gospel restoration of all things gets accomplished by the plan, go and make disciples.
Caesar Kalinowski:Is that central to your churches?
Caesar Kalinowski:Seriously central.
Caesar Kalinowski:A couple years ago for us, God really re rewired us on this at Soma.
Caesar Kalinowski:The mission is Disciple making.
Caesar Kalinowski:Whatever you do on Sunday, whatever your budget line items look like in your budgets this fall, whatever you do midweek, whatever you do, if it doesn't somehow prop up, promote expediate and accelerate the multiplication of disciples who make disciples, you're going the wrong direction.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I don't care how long your church has done it.
Caesar Kalinowski:I don't care how many other guys are doing it.
Caesar Kalinowski:I don't care how many videos are up on Verge or resurgence or any of that.
Caesar Kalinowski:If it's not making disciples who make disciples, we're going the wrong way.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yes, because Making Disciples is how we're gonna accomplish the purpose of the Gospel, the purpose of why Christ died and put his spirit in his church.
Caesar Kalinowski:This is where this gets really good.
Caesar Kalinowski:See when this happens, when disciples increasingly are filling up.
Caesar Kalinowski:Every little nook and cranny of culture in your neighborhood and your neighborhood and media over there in that city and this family that went to LA and is doing it in film and in government over here when every little nook and cranny is reached by the Gospel.
Caesar Kalinowski:When disciples of Jesus fill the earth, and this is the point.
Caesar Kalinowski:The restoration of all things will fill the earth with God's glory.
Caesar Kalinowski:See how it comes back around.
Caesar Kalinowski:When everything is full of Jesus, then everything is full of God's glory.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's why it's all about making disciples.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's all about the purpose of the Gospel being worked out has happened.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's happening, is happening in the every day ongoing.
Caesar Kalinowski:Because when all things get full of little Jesus people, then the Earth gets full of the glory of God.
Caesar Kalinowski:Psalm 72.
Caesar Kalinowski:Praise be to his glorious name forever.
Caesar Kalinowski:May the whole earth be filled with his glory.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now we throw that word glory around a lot, okay?
Caesar Kalinowski:We do.
Caesar Kalinowski:We sing it in songs.
Caesar Kalinowski:We say, you know, to God be the glory if you're an African American preacher, glory, you know, we, we preach
Caesar Kalinowski:it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Glory.
Caesar Kalinowski:What does glory really mean?
Caesar Kalinowski:Glory means.
Caesar Kalinowski:The way something or someone really is in, in Hebrew, the word glory means weight.
Caesar Kalinowski:Weighty.
Caesar Kalinowski:God is the most glorious.
Caesar Kalinowski:He's the most weighty one in the universe.
Caesar Kalinowski:He's the original article.
Caesar Kalinowski:He's it.
Caesar Kalinowski:He's I am.
Caesar Kalinowski:So to bring God glory to glorify is to, is to manifest that hidden essence that amazingness.
Caesar Kalinowski:Jesus, it says was what?
Caesar Kalinowski:The glory of the Father, the exact representation of the Father.
Caesar Kalinowski:He was the glory of God.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's what we're to be.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's what God is doing in us, this glorification process.
Caesar Kalinowski:And when all things get full of glorified disciples, increasingly glorified disciples, than all things in all cultures, in all little cracks of life, get increasingly full of Jesus and God's glory.
Caesar Kalinowski:The purpose of of the Gospel is that the whole world would be filled with Jesus.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's the purpose that brings about the restoration of our cities.
Caesar Kalinowski:Not more church services, not better preaching, not lots and lots of hands outs, not lots of world aid.
Caesar Kalinowski:Jesus filling all things.
Caesar Kalinowski:And that happens through disciples making disciples.
Caesar Kalinowski:Making disciples that fill the world is the plan that accomplishes the purpose.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's why it's so critical that we focus on that and, and I want to call you to that.
Caesar Kalinowski:I want to call you to that we, when, like I said a couple years ago when we got sort of jacked up on that again, here's how it happened.
Caesar Kalinowski:Um, Just through some different conversations and series of things kinda like that.
Caesar Kalinowski:What is the Gospel question?
Caesar Kalinowski:Hit us and we were like, I don't even know if we'd all say the same thing.
Caesar Kalinowski:We started asking ourselves, I wonder how many, I wonder how many people feel like they've been discipled in our church.
Caesar Kalinowski:In fact, I wonder how many even are.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so we were having a Missional Community leaders meeting one night.
Caesar Kalinowski:So these are our best leaders.
Caesar Kalinowski:And we said, Hey, just uh, outta curiosity, how many of you would say in your lifetime you've been discipled in, there was some formal process of some form.
Caesar Kalinowski:You know, somebody, some group of people, some person, whatever.
Caesar Kalinowski:You've been discipled, not just serendipitously killer sermon series here.
Caesar Kalinowski:Read that book here, took this class there, but you were discipled in how to walk out your faith.
Caesar Kalinowski:A very few hands went up.
Caesar Kalinowski:And we were like nervous.
Caesar Kalinowski:We started a little bit of sweat, start to run down.
Caesar Kalinowski:We said, okay, those of you that have your hands up, so you've been discipled, you would say, and it was very few.
Caesar Kalinowski:We said, how many of you right now, if someone was to like knock on your door and beg you to start to make them a Disciple of Christ, you'd know how to begin.
Caesar Kalinowski:Every hand went down and we're like, well, we're fired.
Caesar Kalinowski:We suck.
Caesar Kalinowski:I mean, what are we doing?
Caesar Kalinowski:Like, you know, we're like years into this church plant and stuff, and, and we've got nobody who's been discipled almost and nobody who knows how to make a Disciple.
Caesar Kalinowski:What are we doing?
Caesar Kalinowski:Like, seriously, we had to go back and like repent and cry and weep and ask God to show us and what is the Disciple and, and how to make disciples.
Caesar Kalinowski:Making disciples to make disciples.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's, that's God's plan to accomplish the purpose of the Gospel, the restoration of all things.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's how the world's gonna get full of his glory.
Caesar Kalinowski:Jesus.
Caesar Kalinowski:Let me read this Ephesians passage.
Caesar Kalinowski:It just sort of puts the whole thing into, it's a little long, but it's not too long.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's Ephesians one, starting in 18.
Caesar Kalinowski:Paul's talking to the church and about the same kind of stuff says.
Caesar Kalinowski:I pray also that the eyes of your heart love that term.
Caesar Kalinowski:The eyes of your heart may be enlightened.
Caesar Kalinowski:In order that you may know the hope to which he's called you.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's not just to ush.
Caesar Kalinowski:The riches of his glorious inheritance in you, the saints and his incomparable great power for us who believe.
Caesar Kalinowski:That power of the Gospel is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated at his right hand in the heavenly realms.
Caesar Kalinowski:Far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, far above all the media muck and educational woes and healthcare issues.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's how powerful this power of the Gospel is.
Caesar Kalinowski:Paul saying here.
Caesar Kalinowski:Above every title that can be given, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come.
Caesar Kalinowski:And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, his soma, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
Caesar Kalinowski:Oh, I love that.
Caesar Kalinowski:The fullness of him, Christ, who fills everything in every way.
Caesar Kalinowski:Jesus is the message.
Caesar Kalinowski:Jesus is the Gospel.
Caesar Kalinowski:Jesus is the point.
Caesar Kalinowski:The P, he's the power.
Caesar Kalinowski:Paul's saying, and it, he accomplishes his purpose.
Caesar Kalinowski:And when everything is full of him then, then God is glorified.
Caesar Kalinowski:Jesus is the point.
Caesar Kalinowski:His life, death and resurrection fulfills or fills full.
Caesar Kalinowski:Both the power and the purpose of the Gospel.
Caesar Kalinowski:The Gospel saves us and restores us, and then sends us out to make disciples who make disciples.
Caesar Kalinowski:And how many of us are content to let people sit in our churches and listen to our awesome preaching week after month after year after life?
Caesar Kalinowski:And none.
Caesar Kalinowski:They've never led anybody.
Caesar Kalinowski:The Lord, they've never made any disciples.
Caesar Kalinowski:They've never been a part of a community that lives on the mission of making disciples together.
Caesar Kalinowski:I've talked to more elders and senior pastors about their elder boards, and they go, I don't know if any of my elders have any led ever led anybody to Christ or made anybody a Disciple.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, here's the bad news of that.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's only gonna be worse below the head if, if, if you guys and gals are, if we're not making disciples who make disciples, nobody in your church is gonna like shoot past you on the track and just start blowing it up.
Caesar Kalinowski:If your lives don't have the margin, if your lives aren't completely oriented around making disciples who make disciples because you're so stinking busy with ministry, repent today because that's the purpose of the Gospel, that all things would be full of God's glory through making disciples.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yes.
Caesar Kalinowski:And if we are not doing it, if, if we don't lead in that, if our lives aren't just given to incarnated amongst people, cause that's what elders are amongst the people, Disciple making that no one, where are they gonna follow us?
Caesar Kalinowski:They're gonna follow us to more church services.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now, real quick, as I close this time, we got, okay, right, as I close this, th there's.
Caesar Kalinowski:One last point of why we need both the power and the purpose.
Caesar Kalinowski:If we want to give our people a full Gospel and they can kind of think through it this way, with these handles, what happens if a person or a people only get a steady diet of the power of the Gospel to set them free?
Caesar Kalinowski:What, what are we potentially in danger of them becoming?
Caesar Kalinowski:What?
Caesar Kalinowski:What kind of Gospel might that end up being over time?
Caesar Kalinowski:Man-centered, it's all about you.
Caesar Kalinowski:I mean, think about our Gospel power presentations over the years.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's, oh no.
Caesar Kalinowski:Jesus has a wonderful plan for your life.
Caesar Kalinowski:You need to make a personal decision to accept him into your life as your personal savior.
Caesar Kalinowski:And you have a personal walk and a personal faith.
Caesar Kalinowski:See, it can become this amazingly powerful Gospel that has the power that has saved us, is saving us, will save us, can become very man-centered.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's kind of about you and your happiness and avoiding hell.
Caesar Kalinowski:And we sort of paint heaven like, you know, a trip to the dentist office where we're all just kind of waiting to go in and hoping to God Jesus returns before it's our turn to get our teeth cleaned.
Caesar Kalinowski:You know, it's like, ugh.
Caesar Kalinowski:We have to have the purpose that no, no, see, you have been saved and you do inherit this amazing inheritance in Christ for a purpose.
Caesar Kalinowski:Folks, I, I gotta let you know, and, and it's gonna cost everything you have.
Caesar Kalinowski:Jesus said if you don't lose your life, you won't gain his life.
Caesar Kalinowski:If you try to hang onto your American dream life, you'll lose it.
Caesar Kalinowski:You'll lose everything.
Caesar Kalinowski:But there's also danger on the other side.
Caesar Kalinowski:If we only preach the power of the Gospel, the restoration side of things, we, we can't end up with a very social Gospel.
Caesar Kalinowski:In churches that are busy, busy, busy, get it done, restore everything, fix everything, have every kind of feeding thing, every kind of this sheltering, housing, cars, ministry, we do it all.
Caesar Kalinowski:And people do it without the power and it becomes law and it becomes a heavy yolk.
Caesar Kalinowski:And this is where we get our burnt outness from.
Caesar Kalinowski:Everybody's fried, everybody's burnt out because they're all about the, they're all about the restoration without Gospel power, which means they're doing it in the flesh.
Caesar Kalinowski:Which makes it filthy rags before our father, and they're fried.
Caesar Kalinowski:But if you have Gospel power connected to his Gospel purpose of making disciples to make, make disciples, that's a powerful Gospel.
Caesar Kalinowski:And we've gotta give our people these both lenses and, and we work it and, and we need to work it into everything, not just the Gospel series or not just a tag on the end of the message, but our people need to hear and understand.
Caesar Kalinowski:The power they have in Christ that's transforming them now for the purpose of making disciples to fill the earth with God's glory, call your folks to this point, them to the power that raised Christ from the dead that now dwells in them.
Caesar Kalinowski:There's nothing.
Caesar Kalinowski:There's no scheduling problem.
Caesar Kalinowski:There's no finance issue.
Caesar Kalinowski:There's nothing that is bigger than the power that raised Christ from the dead.
Caesar Kalinowski:God's Gospel power will accomplish his purpose when we believe that.
Caesar Kalinowski:We preached that.
Caesar Kalinowski:Wow.
Caesar Kalinowski:You could tell I was really, I.
Caesar Kalinowski:Excited there, kind of throwing hard, I, I kind of get into preaching mode sometimes, but this is so important.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's that powerful and necessary that we embrace this fully.
Caesar Kalinowski:Both the power and the purpose of the Gospel.
Caesar Kalinowski:I hope this is helpful for you.
Caesar Kalinowski:I hope it's causing you to do a little thinking and scrutinizing, you know, how have we been proclaiming the Gospel and how often and are we leaning one way or the other?
Caesar Kalinowski:Are we proclaiming primarily the power of the Gospel and has it slipped into sort of me centered.
Caesar Kalinowski:Or have we been really in the last few years, just getting super busy with projects out there.
Caesar Kalinowski:The purpose of the Gospel and part of restoration of things, but doing it apart from the power.
Caesar Kalinowski:Anyway, um, I hope this has been helpful to you.
Caesar Kalinowski:I hope you will embrace this and proclaim the biggest of gospels.
Caesar Kalinowski:As big as the Gospel is to all your people, and as you make disciples, they will really understand both the power and the purpose of the Gospel.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay, let me get to today's big three.
Caesar Kalinowski:As always, I like to summarize the show in some ways and say, Hey, if nothing else, don't miss these three things.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're sort of head, heart, and hands and a bit actionable at the end here.
Caesar Kalinowski:Um, and you can always get the, uh, pdf version, sort of a printed version of this in case you're driving or you're at the gym or whatever.
Caesar Kalinowski:Uh, if you go to everyday Disciple dot com big three.
Caesar Kalinowski:B I G three.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay, here I go.
Caesar Kalinowski:Don't miss these three things first.
Caesar Kalinowski:The Gospel is not just about our individual happiness or God's plan for my life.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's God's plan for the whole world.
Caesar Kalinowski:When we understand both lenses of the Gospel, it propels us well beyond a Christianity that is focused on sin management and behavioral modification, and it sends us out to be a part of the restoration of all things.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's amazing, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:Second, the more we embrace both the power and the purpose of the Gospel, the more the church will engage in making disciples of Jesus and filling the world with his glory.
Caesar Kalinowski:Calling people to God's eternal purpose is a powerful way.
Caesar Kalinowski:To help them see all of life as an opportunity for mission.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's way bigger than chasing the American dream or whatever dream wherever you're living.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I just wanna remind you, it's not enough to call people to church attendance and participation in Christian events.
Caesar Kalinowski:The true adventure.
Caesar Kalinowski:The adventure we were created for awaits.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then third God in Christ has given us both the message of reconciliation and the ministry of reconciliation.
Caesar Kalinowski:Don't forget, don't miss it.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's important that we hold both of these aspects of our mission intention together.
Caesar Kalinowski:Focusing on one without the other is not a complete understanding of nor participation in God's eternal purposes for his church.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's just too small.
Caesar Kalinowski:So ask yourself, which do I tend to lean toward or proclaim more often?
Caesar Kalinowski:The power.
Caesar Kalinowski:Or the purpose and, and whichever it is, then ask the spirit to guide you in a fuller embrace and proclamation of the Gospel in all of life.
Caesar Kalinowski:He will, the spirit will do, that God is going to accomplish.
Caesar Kalinowski:He is accomplishing his eternal purpose to fill the world with his glory, and he's doing it through his family, through us.
Caesar Kalinowski:The redeemed.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's amazing, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:How powerful is this is how big this is.
Caesar Kalinowski:I wish I had heard this, uh, years and years and years ago.
Caesar Kalinowski:I wish this was proclaimed from the rooftops and the seats and the pulpits of every church and everywhere.
Caesar Kalinowski:and maybe it is, maybe in more and more it will be.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, that's it for today.
Caesar Kalinowski:And be sure to join us next week.
Caesar Kalinowski:We're gonna continue to talk about these things and keep talking about how the Gospel speaks good news into everyday life.
Caesar Kalinowski:All right, I'll talk to you soon.
Heath Hollensbe:Thanks for joining us today.
Heath Hollensbe:For more information on this show and to get loads of free discipleship resources, visit everyday disciple dot com.