“Investment Quality Exposed”

Week 2
Main Point and Overview:

“Mission drift” is not difficult to experience if we are not careful. All of a sudden, we could become more about “comfortable activities” or “relational experiences” or even “information overload” and be slowly drifting away from the Gospel. The church in Corinth was in danger of “missing the point!” Over the years, many churches have eventually lost their influence as they became “country clubs” or “us four and no more” meetings. Some have even become “graveyards of information” with no community impact. What happened? They built their lives and their churches on “flammable materials.” In other words, they built their churches on “temporary treasures!” Emmanuel must NEVER let this happen! Our mission is clear: we exist to honor God by making passionate disciples! We don’t exist to play softball! We don’t exist for parties, programs, policies, or productions…and we surely don’t exist for potlucks ?! We are a Gospel-centered church with Jesus as our Lead Pastor! He is the one that we adore and serve; not a pastor, elder, deacon, or anyone else. The result of this kind of missional focus is love and unity around the cause of the Gospel. The reality is that we are going to have disagreements, but because what unifies us is stronger than what divides us, we move forward together with “one mind in Jesus Christ!” For the Corinthians, they were having a very hard time doing this because they allowed personalities, perceptions, and policies to get in the way of people. The Apostle Paul was NOT pleased, and he made sure to remind them of what was at stake. One day they would stand before the Lord. When that day came, he told them that they were in danger of having everything that they had invested in “burned up” because it was selfish and temporal in nature. The analogy he gives is of a person literally “jumping away from the fire” being saved but with nothing left. What a tragedy. Imagine as a disciple of Jesus, you are standing before him one day with nothing to “give back!” In other words, you lived for temporal instead of eternal things! Just because you “come” to church doesn’t mean that you are “being” the church. What kind of foundation are you building on, and is it advancing or hindering God’s church?