An Authentic Calling: Representing Christ and His Kingdom through the Church

Ses s i on 4: A Ca l l to F reedom

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but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. [11] To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, [12] and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; [13] when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things. 4. This level of freedom leads to greater flexibility but also greater challenge and struggle, 2 Cor. 4.7-12 (ESV) – But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. [8] We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; [9] persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; [10] always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. [11] For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. [12] So death is at work in us, but life in you.

The call to freedom is a call to become all things to all people in order that we might save some through our sharing of the Good News with them. 1 Cor. 9.19-23 (ESV) For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. [20] To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. [21] To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. [22] To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. [23] I do it all for the sake of the Gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

II. Responding to the Call

A. Implications for urban ministry

1. Those who minister the New Covenant in the city must live out the freedom that Jesus has won for us; the call to salvation and holiness is simultaneously a call to freedom .

2. Urban ministry is about deliverance, transformation, and rescue, of ending bondages and setting people at liberty in Christ.

3. We are set free not as a license to sin, but to serve God and love others.