The Purpose of Vision Calvary Chapel is to “work hard as a team for the faith of the Gospel.”
Philippians 1:27
God has called us to be united and for every one of us to work together to accomplish His purpose.
We are called to work as a team in the most important purpose in the world – to exert our collective energy (through the power of the Holy Spirit) in the faith of the Gospel.
- We are to labor as a team in the faith – Ephesians 4:1-6
- “The Faith” means there is no other true faith – John 14:6; Acts 4:12
- We are to exert our efforts as a team in the Gospel – 1 Corinthians 15:1-8
- We are to live the Gospel. We live the Gospel by living in its heart transforming power daily in our private and public lives – 2 Corinthians 5:17
- We are to live the Gospel by making disciples – Matthew 28:18-20
- We are to live the Gospel by teaching and training our own children – Ephesians 6:1-4
In unity, we will accomplish the purpose for which the Lord Jesus Christ has created our fellowship.
Our unity is based on four facts – Philippians 2:1-2.
The four facts are what we experience in our relationship with Christ: encouragement, comfort, fellowship, and tenderness and compassion.
When we fellowship with Christ, we acknowledge and believe:
- His Lordship – Luke 12:46-49
- His Friendship/Loveship – John 15:14
- Our voluntary slavery – Romans 6:22
Our fellowship in Christ involves our daily coming to Him in faith that He is alive, present within us, and seeks to communicate His truth to us, so we may be empowered to live and do His truth. He tells us to: Come, Take, & Learn from Him and we can – Matthew 11:28-30.
Fellowship with Christ is going to result in our desire to be unified with all who are in fellowship with Christ. If we do not seek to be in fellowship with those who are in fellowship with Christ, then we are proving that our individual and personal fellowship with Christ is insufficient to no fault of Christ.
Our Bibles teach us that if there is encouragement, comfort, fellowship, and tenderness and compassion experienced by those who are in fellowship with Christ, then the result will be unity. In the Greek, Philippians 2:1-2 expresses fact – not a hypothesis or a possibility but concrete, objective fact. So, the Greek communicates: Since there is encouragement, comfort, fellowship, and tenderness and compassion experienced by all who are in fellowship with Christ, then you will be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord – all these are expressions of unity.
We must evaluate how poor or how wonderful our fellowship with Christ actually is by our heart’s desire to be unified with all those within our body (& those outside our body) who are truly in Christ.
If our heart is to do our own thing, go our own way, and be our own accountability, then we will know that the personal state of our fellowship with Christ is very, very poor. We are not, presently, Spirit-filled.
The purpose of our unity is to produce heart motivated and mind concentrated teamwork in the work of God: specifically, the Gospel – living it and sharing it.
God has designed that teamwork is required to accomplish His purpose.
The exertion of our collective energy, empowered by the Holy Spirit, “for the faith of the Gospel” is God’s purpose – Philippians 1:27. By doing this, we glorify Him – Ephesians 3:21.
Through our teamwork, we have accomplished wonderful things. May we continue.
May we evaluate our hearts in honest and open reflection.
May we be obedient to Christ and His truth.
May we love one another.