This article was shared during Transformation Connection Indonesia,
which was held in Surabaya, Indonesia on 28 October - 1 November 2008
Recorded by Dr. Sharon Ayabe from Kauai
Bob Moffitt - If Jesus Were Mayor II
30 October 2008 – TCI Surabaya
When the church does a seed project, is it enough for the church to do just one seed project?
When you do seed projects, it’s not good enough to do just one project. Or 2 projects or 3 projects but it needs to be a lifestyle. If you had to take the gospel of Jesus Christ and turn it into one word, what word would that be?
Love. In one word, the gospel is love. And love if it’s real is going to be continuous.
The gospel in one word is love. So, as believers, we need to express love everyday. This needs to be a practice of ours.
What does it mean to be created in the image of God?
One thing it means, is it means to be able to use words. When God made us in His image, He gave us the ability to use words like He uses words. God uses words to create. He spoke words and the universe came into being.
Another aspect of being created in God’s image is creativity.
But there is one part of the image of God that is higher than any other part. Ephesians 2. We read in this chapter that we should be like Jesus. We should have the same attitude Jesus had: attitude of a sacrificial servant. Paul tells us, let this attitude be in you that was in Jesus Christ. Even though He was God, He gave up His rights to be God and He became a servant. And, He became a servant, even unto death.
Do you think it’s easy to die? No. Look at verse 9. “Therefore” is a connecting word connecting what Jesus did and God’s response. Because Jesus was willing to be a sacrificial servant, God gave Him the name above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Why did God do that? Because for the first time in human history we have really seen what it means to be created in the image of God.
Now, we all bore the image of God, we used words, were creative, we had other aspects of the image of God in us. But one thing we missed. We missed what Jesus showed. What did we see, when we saw Jesus? We saw a servant. But not just only a servant, but we saw a sacrificial servant. We saw someone who was willing to give Himself even to death. What does it mean?
It means that our God is a servant God.
Jesus came to serve sacrificially. Jesus showed us what kind of life we are to live when we are restored from our sin. What should we look like?
When people look at you, whom should they see? They should see Jesus.
We should use our hands as Jesus would use our hands. We should use our feet to go where Jesus would go. What does Jesus do? He serves sacrificially.
But this should not be something we do just one time. It should be something we do every day. When we do projects we do them once a month or a few times a year. That’s good, but the main power behind transformation is we are all conscious that our hands and feet are Jesus’.
The most important part of the image of God inside of you is servanthood. We say the gospel is summarized in one word and that word is love.
Go out and love. And how do you love? By demonstrating that love. By being a servant.
What kind of servant? A sacrificial servant. We don’t serve when we feel like it. We serve because it’s the model that Jesus gave us.