Jeff Vanderstelt is a pastor at Soma Communities, an Acts 29 church in Tacoma, WA.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. (1 Peter 2:9-12 ESV)

Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, (1 Peter 3:13-15 ESV)

Missional living is living in such a way that it demands a gospel explanation that will then point back to God. Doing the things that no one else is doing.

Our behavior should not be able to be explained by saying “those are nice people”.

The motive needs to be right – we love because we’ve first been loved.

The method of how we love is fed by how we’ve been loved.

Why? We are a chosen race (remember who you were). We were not just orphans. We were orphaned enemy people.

Don’t put your hope in what you do. It is found in who He is and what he’s done for us.

What if we loved our neighbors as if they were our kids? What if we loved other kids like we love our kids?

Do your kids even know really how much God loves them?

Our lack of love for other people is based on our lack of understanding for what God did for us.

We are not called to be a replacement Savior. We are to point them to the cross.

God never calls you to do what you can do. He calls you to do what he can do.

Matthew 25 we need to remember that WE were one of the “least of these”. Our response isn’t “charity” – it is our only response to what he has done for us.

Yay, I got the super secret wireless access code for the bloggers so I can post live after each session.

So these are going to be really rough notes.

“The Church as the Theatre of transracial Adoption”

Bryan Loritts is the lead pastor of Fellowship Memphis – multicultural church in Memphis.

Went to Memphis to build a multi-cultural, disciple-making church in Memphis. He was told by other church leaders that it “would never work here”. Memphis is a city with a lot of racial tension.

Heaven is gng to be a multi-ethnic experience. If we are to bring a slice of heaven here in earth we must live out “adoption” (vertically).

Gospel-centered people understand they were once orphans.

We need to figure out how to get more minorities in adopting. (Love this topic – lots to explore here.)

Matthew 25 (Jesus last message prior to the cross)

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:31-46 ESV)

Jesus equates himself with the least of these.

William Wilberforce could not reckon his faith with the social evil of slavery and he wanted to quit his job in the parliament. John Newton told him the Lord had raised him up to do good in that nation. Wilberforce then set out to abolish slavery in England. He fought for 20 years before he would see his dream come true.

You don’t need to quit your job to make a difference for Christ.

The issue of fatherlessness, abortion, and orphans is our 21st century issue of slavery.

Slavery bequeathed a legacy of broken families to minorities. Slavery was built on the breeding and separation of families.

Someone needs to step in and say “the cycle breaks here”. We pass on our legacies (god and bad) and they are felt for hundreds of years.

It’s not that there is no difference between the races. It is that at the foot of the cross it doesn’t matter.

Do the hard work and raise your kids in a multicultural environment.

Romans 5:8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8 ESV)

Christ loved us WHILE we were sinners. God sees us “as is” and loves us “as is”.

How do we know we are saved? FRUIT

We may not be fully arrived on our spiritual journey, but we are not fully where we once were.

Matthew 25 does not deal with the root of salvation it deals with the fruit of salvation. Don’t sit on the grace God gave you, give it away!

For any Christ follower who does not even contemplate caring for the least of these, it is totally incompatible with the gospel.

Over 2000 verses that deal with social justice – poor, widow, fatherless, least of these.

The problem is we have preached a gospel that tells us we can be as greedy as we want and still be a Christian. (Never seen a case of church discipline over greed.) materialism has become such a part of our culture that trying to explain materialism to a christian is like explaining water to a fish.

We need to learn to leave margins in our budget. We need to wrestle with the issue of ENOUGH.

How much is enough house, car, etc. (What is enough for me may not be for someone else – don’t go legalistic.)

Life is not about building a nest egg. It is about living out the gospel.

We need an army of William Wilberforces