Covenant Family

Families have traditions, one of ours is a huge Thanksgiving meal, and cream potatoes are a must… well if we are going to have cream potatoes someone needs to peel potatoes, every one has a job, in a room this size there is probably even someone who LOVES peeling potatoes! If not then someone LOVES cream potatoes enough to make peeling them worth the work.

The Victory Life Church Mission is “We Exist to See People Transformed by Jesus”

We are guided by this mission and our Core Values: The Word, Relational, Family, Integrity, Generosity, and Generational.

Within this guide we have a leadership Covenant led by Unity, Honor, and Trust.

Lilo & Stitch “This is my family. I found it, all on my own. It’s little, and broken, but it is still good.”

We are willing to sacrifice for family.

Surrender: We are on a journey of surrender to our leader, Jesus.

Jesus-Matthew 7:3-5 “Take the plank out of your eye so that you can see clearly to remove the speck out of your brothers eye.

We are all figuring it out as we go, we are imperfect and learning. Thankfully we have others who have gone before to follow!

So how do we walk this our as a church?

We must be established in where transformation comes from: Jesus!

Before we can help anyone else we start with ourselves.

Where did our transformation begin?

Who do you say that I am?

Matthew 16:13-20

“Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.””

Matthew 16:13-19 ESV

“And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.””

Acts 2:38-39 ESV

Remember this is the same Peter who denied Jesus, who was tempted into legalism in Antioch. I really believe that Peters sermon in Acts 2 held so much power to see people repent because Peter himself was quite familiar with repenting and knew his transformation was from Jesus!

Something we say often is “You Belong Before You Believe, You Belong Before You Behave. Does behavior and belief matter? Yes, but is doesn’t start there, it starts with Jesus.

“O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—”

Galatians 3:1-5 ESV

When we know where transformation comes from we become much less behaviorally minded.

“You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a spell on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it’s obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives. His sacrifice on the cross was certainly set before you clearly enough. Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up! Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you? Don’t these things happen among you just as they happened with Abraham? He believed God, and that act of belief was turned into a life that was right with God.”

Galatians 3:1-6 MSG

Family: what would you sacrifice or surrender to see your son or daughter fulfill the enormous potential that God put inside of them?

Prayer: Lord help me to see others how you see them, tune my ears to your voice, aline my lips to your Word, Help me to reflect you!

People are in our lives for a season, we cannot control outcomes, people will make their own choices, but we can commit to do everything in our power to leave them better than we found them.ve

How do we see each other? By the spirit or the flesh?

“For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

2 Corinthians 5:14-21 ESV

He puts the lonely in family: are we reaching out when we are lonely or when we see the lonely?

Sometimes it seems like people get connected so quickly. How? They made a decision, a commitment, they give! When we sow ourselves, Surrender ourselves to Jesus and what matters to Him we can’t contain what He pours back onto us.

“Sing praises to God and to his name! Sing loud praises to him who rides the clouds. His name is the Lord— rejoice in his presence! Father to the fatherless, defender of widows— this is God, whose dwelling is holy. God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy. But he makes the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.”

Psalms 68:4-6 NLT

People are hard. How do we walk this out? I have been hurt!

Forgiveness seems to be one of the most offensive parts of the gospel. 

“Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”

Luke 17:3-6 ESV

““If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”

Matthew 18:15-17 ESV

Are we grieved when we loose someone?

Maintain the heart of Christ, Stay face-to-face, don’t burn the bridge they may come back some day. We can not reflect Jesus if we can’t see Him.

All I know to do is imagine Jesus on the cross saying “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. 

Why would a reasonable rational person behave this way? …

This woman is gossiping… her mother sold her into trafficking at 14… Start with Heart, manage our “Stories”

““If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”

Matthew 18:15-17 ESV

Do you want to see the family grow?

“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

Acts 2:42-47 ESV

We have been given the ministry of reconciliation

1Cor 6:9-11 but you! We remember where we came from.

““‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.”

Revelation 2:2–5 ESV

“We love because he first loved us.”

1 John 4:19 ESV