The Commitment to Follow

Text: Joshua 1:6-9

Main Point: To fully follow God requires commitment that is rooted in God’s Grace and Power.

The story is told of visitor from another part of what once was the Soviet Union to the Moscow Circus. As part of the circus performance a beautiful lion tamer would have a lion come to her and then put his paws around her and muzzle her with affection.

The visitor exclaimed, “What so great about that? Anybody can do that! “The ringmaster challenged him, “Would you like to try it?” “Yes,” was the visitor’s reply, “but first get that lion out of there.”

Then there was the man who watched with amazement as his neighbor strung wire higher and higher between two towers in his large back yard and practiced carrying a wheelbarrow loaded with on the wire between the towers. When his neighbor asked what he was doing, the high wire artist said, “Getting ready to cross Niagara Falls! Do you think that I can do it?” “Yes,” was the neighbor’s reply.

Each day as the high wire artist practiced his act as he went higher and higher asked his neighbor, “Do you think that I can do this?” “Yes!” was the always emphatic reply.

Well the big day came and the neighbor gathered with thousands of others to watch the stunt. Spotting his neighbor close by, again the high wire walker asked, “Do you think that I can do this?” “Yes! Yes! Yes!” was the final emphatic reply. “Well then, get in the wheelbarrow!” said the wirewalker

Now, I have a question, “What did these two people lack?”

Some would say, courage. I don’t know about you but it would take a lot of courage for me to get in the cage with those lions as much as I love big cats. It would also take a great deal of courage for me to get in that wheelbarrow.

But, there is a common element to both stories – both men were outsiders, they were not involved except as by-standers. They had not made a commitment to step into the cage or get into the wheelbarrow – they had yet to make a choice to get fully involved.

Commitment is essential for walking with God. Because if we are going to fully follow the Lord, we need the commitment to follow Him by becoming decisive followers like Joshua, courageous followers like Esther, wise followers like Solomon, willing followers like Peter, and committed followers like Paul.  (Overhead 1)

We begin 2003 with a word of vision from God. As I shared two weeks ago, I believe that God has a vision for this church that was in place when Carter Cummings was called as our first pastor, when Daniel Frost led us in the building of this sanctuary, and when Bob and Dale Neace led us for nearly 10 years, the longest tenure of any pastor. It is a vision that will be a part of this church long after we are gone and our children, and their children, and those whose names we do not yet know, will be here, God willing.

I believe that God’s vision for us is to be, like the Israelites of Jeremiah 29 that we visited two weeks ago, a fully following and faithfully functioning church. (Overhead 2) This month, we will examine the first part of this vision – a faithfully following church.

And for us to fully understand what it means to be a faithfully following church we need to see it in the lives of Biblical characters that demonstrated faithfulness in a variety of ways. Bill Hybels, in his book Courageous Leadership, reviewed the lives of 10 persons who demonstrated to him Biblical leadership. I believe they are also illustrations of Biblical follower ship as well. And this morning we briefly look at 5 of them who demonstrated their commitment to God in several ways.

The first person we look at is Joshua. Now Joshua had a big job ahead of him.  First of all, Moses, the first Israelite leader, was dead and, as we read in the opening chapters of Joshua 1, Joshua was selected by God to become Moses’ successor.

So Joshua is given the command by God, “ you must lead my people across the Jordan River into the land I am giving them.”

Now Joshua was no rookie by any stretch of the imagination. He was known by the Israelites. 40 years earlier he had been one of two spies, sent by Moses with 10 other spies to find out more about the land that God had given to them, who had said, “We can take this place!” But, the others did not share his faith and optimism and so he and his countrymen were to wander for 40 more years before they crossed the Jordan.

So now, here he is, 40 years older and in charge of a nation who is not yet in possession of the land that their God has given to them. In fact, Joshua’s assignment is two fold: 1. Get them across the Jordan. 2. Possess the land.

How would you feel at this point? New leader. Old, and only leader, is dead. A major task is before you – you have to get an entire nation to it’s new home and you have to help them possess that new land. It’s one thing to get across, it’s another thing to possess and take charge of the land.

So, what are God’s words to Joshua as he commences to lead the Israelites? “Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” In other words, “Don’t worry Joshua. Lead! I am with you! Lead! This is my plan. Lead!”

Joshua believed what God said! And he led with decisiveness! It was not easy at times like the major defeat at the city of Ai on the heels of the great victory at Jericho because of the tragic choice of Achan and his family. But, as we read the rest of the opening chapters of Joshua, we see a person who faithfully followed God’s instruction and did so with decisiveness. And because Joshua was decisive, God’s people moved forward.

Now, not only do we need to demonstrate our commitment to God with decisiveness we also need to do so with courage. And the Bible is filled with stories of people who demonstrated courage. One is Jewish queen who lives nearly 700 years after Joshua leads the Israelites into the Promised Land.

But, this Jewish queen is not in the Promised Land. In fact, the Promised Land is anything but promised when Esther comes on the scene. It is the conquered land and Esther finds herself, and that of her fellow Israelites in a place that is increasingly inhospitable to them.

The story opens with the deposing of one queen of Persia and the finding of another one. The new one is Esther, who is of Jewish descent. She has an uncle named Mordeci who, as the story unfolds, refuses to give the appropriate public honor to a new prime minister, named Haman, who is angered by the lack of respect and decides to kill all the Jews.

Now, Mordeci is faithful to the King and, as we read in Esther 2 verses 21 through 23, helps to prevent a plot to assassinate him. But, Mordeci is also a faithful Israelite who refused to bow down to Human.

Well, the plan of elimination, which today we would probably call “ethnic cleansing,” begins to unfold and so Mordeci seeks the intervention of Esther in the situation. However, there are a couple of problems as we read in Esther 4.

One problem is that Esther, even though she is queen, cannot simply walk in to see the king. She has to be requested by him. To do otherwise is to die. And she had not been requested in over a month.

The second problem is that up to this point, Esther has kept quiet, at her uncle’s urging, about her nationality. No one knows that she is Jewish. What is she going to?

Ever been in a situation like this? Your position puts you close to the center of influence and you know that a word from you to the appropriate person or persons might make a difference, or it might not. What would you do?

In 4:14 Mordeci asks Esther a question, “Who can say but that you have been elevated to the palace for just such a time as this?” What does Esther do?  We find out in verse 15.

“Then Esther sent this reply to Mordeci: Go and gather together all the Jews of Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will do the same. And then, though it is against the law, I will go in to see the king. If I must die, I am willing to die.” So Mordeci went away and did as Esther told him.

Lives are at stake – not just Esther’s but all of the Jewish people there in Persia. God’s plan is threatened. And it is Esther who has the opportunity to show courage in following God’s plan.

She goes in uninvited. Will she be allowed in or not?

She is welcomed and tells the King of what is going on. Haman’s plan is thwarted and he is executed on the gallows meant for Mordeci.

To faithfully follow God requires courage to stand for God like Esther did. We have, we do, and we will face moments when we must make the decision to publicly stand for God or not.  It takes intentional courage.

But, there is more to following God that just courage and decisiveness. We also need to demonstrate, individually and congregationally, our commitment to God as fully following persons through a life that is laced with wisdom. Now, there was another king, the third king of Israel, who demonstrated commitment through decisions that were made with God-given wisdom. That king was Solomon.

As we read in the opening chapters of I Kings, Solomon is anointed king by David’s command under hurried up circumstances in order to prevent a possible overthrow by his brother Adonijah. Finally, David dies and Solomon is now the king and sets out to establish his kingdom.

Then one day after a time of worshipping God, God comes to Solomon in a dream and asks him, “What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!”

What an offer! God is telling Solomon, “What do you want? Ask me, I will give it to you!” What would you answer? Solomon asked for wisdom, as we read in I Kings 3:6-9, because he realized that he could not govern Israel in his own strength and way.

And soon that wisdom would be put to the test as we read further through chapter 3, starting with verse 16. Two prostitutes come before him with an argument regarding the custody of a child.

Both argue that the living baby, for one had just died, is hers but the one who died was the other’s baby. So Solomon does something drastic, but wise. He orders the baby to be cut in half with one half going to the one and the other half going to the other woman.

Well, the one woman reacts, in horror and shock, “No, no let him live! Give him to the other woman.” The other one agrees to the decision. Solomon recognizes the mother as the one who would save the baby’s life and gives full custody to her. And, as we read in verse 28, “Word of the king’s decision spread quickly throughout all Israel, and the people were awed as they realized the great wisdom God had given him to render decisions with justice.

As God’s people – there is a wisdom we need, a Godly wisdom, to fully follow God. For as we commit ourselves to follow God fully and completely, we need to allow His wisdom, which He wants to give us, to become a part of our planning and thinking.

But, commitment also requires, well commitment – a willingness to get into the cage, or wheelbarrow or a willingness to get out of the boat. That’s what we see in Matthew 14 where Peter’s willingness causes him, shall we say, “to get a bit in over his head.”

“Jesus made his disciples get back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake while he sent the people home. Afterward he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night fell while he was there alone. Meanwhile, the disciples were in trouble far away from land, for a strong wind had risen, and they were fighting heavy waves.

About three o’clock in the morning, Jesus came to them, walking on the water. When the disciples say him, they screamed in terror, thinking he was a ghost. But Jesus spoke to them at once, “It’s all right,” he said, “I am here! Don’t be afraid.”

Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you by walking on water.” “All right, come,” said Jesus.

So Peter went over to the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. But when he looked around at the high waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted.

Instantly Jesus reached out his hand and grabbed him. “You don’t have much faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt me?” And when they climbed back into the boat, the wind stopped. Then the disciples worshipped Him. “You really are the Son of God!” they exclaimed.”

There is a book by John Orterberg that I really want to read. Either it’s title or subtitle is If You Want To Walk On Water, You’ve Got To Get Out of The Boat.” I wonder what he has to say about Peter in his book.

Many, if not most of us, can probably relate more to Peter than the other disciples. He was impetuous. He engaged mouth before putting brain in gear. He made great promises only to fail miserably to keep them. But, we also can relate to his intense desire to follow Jesus no matter what.

We can be full followers of God and be wise, courageous, and decisive, but we cannot be full followers of God without willingness. Life with God entails risks. The life to which Jesus called the twelve was challenging. It was uncertain. It was hazardous. God calls us to the same kind of life.

Now, I know that we often don’t like to hear this. We want the assurance of God that helps us feel warm and loved and cared for. And God wants to assure us in that way. But, He has also called us to follow Him wherever He leads us. And so willingness is an essential ingredient in being a fully following Christian and church.

There is another thing that causes us to really identify with Peter and those are his failures. He failed not just in the passage we just read, but when he said “I will go with you to the death!” he failed in response to Jesus’ arrest, he brandished a sword, and he failed when denied Jesus.

But as we look at this passage in Matthew, as well as other passages in which Peter “failed” we need to ask the question, “Did Jesus kick Peter out of the disciples?” No. He challenged his lack of faith, but He did not expel him for failing to come to Him on the water.

Jesus saw from the very start a willingness in Peter that He, that is Jesus, would build upon. It was upon Peter’s statement of faith, that Jesus was the Christ, the son of the living God that Jesus said He would build the church. “Upon this rock, I will build my church.” And it was Peter who would stand boldly, as we read in Acts 2, and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit preach a sermon that would cause deep conviction in those who listened to it to repent and turn to God.

And one of those who would eventually be deeply and profoundly affected by the work of God that began with Peter’s sermon illustrates the final characteristic of fully following God – Paul and his passion.

We are introduced to Paul in chapter 8, when as Saul; he witnesses the stoning of Stephen. He is an enemy of the faith. But, at the beginning of chapter 9, God confronts this hate filled and passionate man and the confrontation turns Saul into Paul and the leading missionary of the early church.

The journeys of Paul, which read of in the remaining chapter of Acts, form the basis for the majority of the New Testament books in which Paul writes to the churches that he helped to start in his missionary work.

In one of those letters, which we now call the book of Philippians, Paul said this, “I once thought all these things very important, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ and become one with him.”

Listen again to these phrases:

• Now I consider them worthless
• Everything else is worthless
• I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage
• So that I may have Christ and become one with him.

These are the words of a man who is passionate about God and following God, fully following God. We can be committed, we can express great wisdom, we can be courageous, we can be willing, but it must be touched by a passion for God that is exceeded by nothing else.

Paul gave it all – himself, his gifts, and his abilities – to God. He held nothing back and he discounted the past and all of his accomplishments for the sake of knowing and following God!

A passionate pursuit of God must be a daily part of our lives and our church. It must infuse us to live for God far beyond the minimum requirements.

So what does all this mean for us? After all, we have looked at quite a list of people who really hung out for God. Can we do the same? Should we do the same?

Where do we rank our church and ourselves on each one of these characteristics as it relates to our commitment to God? (1 is low and 5 is high.) (Overhead 3)

• A decisiveness to follow like Joshua
• A courage to follow like Esther
• A wisdom to follow like Solomon
• A willingness to follow like Peter
• A passion to follow like Paul

After I gave Linda my sermon title earlier in the week, I changed it after the bulletin was printed. It says in the bulletin The Courage to Follow. I changed it to The Commitment to Follow because courage can give strength to our commitments and we can get courage from our commitments.

But, it is who we are committed to that is the main thing that we must remember this morning. We are committed to God. We are God’s people. We are on God’s mission. We exist for God’s pleasure and purposes. Joshua, Esther, Solomon, Peter and Paul sought to follow God not someone else. They joined to advance God’s agenda, not their own. They were part of God’s mission not someone else’s mission.

A couple of verses further down in the Philippians passage that I read a few moments ago, capture what I believe is what a person would who is fully committed to fully following God would say: “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection! But I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Jesus Christ saved me for and wants me to be.”

My prayer, my desire for us is that may it be so for us, may it be so for us. Amen.

PEOPLE: Need the Lord

Text: James 4:13-16

Main point: People need the Lord!

Did you hear last week about the family that tried to auction itself off on the Internet website called E-Bay? E-Bay is a well-known site that auctions off thousands of items from the memorable to the ridiculous!

A family composed of a husband and wife and two kids, offered themselves to provide life-long friendship and support among other things. Bids went into the millions for the family. However, it is illegal to sell people in this country and so no bids could be accepted.

Sounds incredible and ridiculous doesn’t it? But, people pay money for peace and love and contentment, correct? Some of that money goes to things like drugs and alcohol. Some goes for various aspects of sex. Some goes into buying things to impress people and get friends.

People, and that includes you and me, need love, companionship, respect, honor, and a whole host of other things. But, the problem is that we turn to all sorts of sources but the primary source to meet these legitimate human needs.

Last week we looked at five Biblical characters as illustrations of what it means to be fully following persons of God by being decisive like Joshua, courageous like Esther, wise like Solomon, willing like Peter, and passionately committed like Paul. (Overhead 1)

This week we continue to discover what it means to be fully following persons of God by understanding that we express our commitment to people by being hopeful like David, holy like Joseph, authentic like Jeremiah, and celebrative like Nehemiah. (Overhead 2) But how do we do that? (Overhead 3)

In James 5:14-16, which was read a few moments ago, there are two ways that we faithfully and Biblically express our commitment to others. One way is clearly stated in the passage – prayer. The other way is implied in the process of prayer and confession – relationship.

As we read through this passage, it assumes there are good and trusting relationships in place. Otherwise why confess your sins and acknowledge your physical needs with corporate intercession and anointing?

Laced throughout this passage is an unspoken assumption that when the church is at its best as God’s people, meaningful relationships are in place that God uses to draw people closer to one another and to Himself. In other words, a very important avenue to being a fully following congregation is the avenue of standing with others during times of trial and difficulty – physically and otherwise.

But in this process of prayer and intercession, what do we have to offer? I suggest that what we have to offer is hope, holiness, authenticity, and celebration based on the acts of God through Christ as stated in the Bible and in our own lives.

In Psalm 40 we read these words, “I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what he has done and be astounded. They will put their trust in the Lord.”

Time and again throughout the Psalms, David expressed hope in God as He came to work in the circumstances of David’s life.

People need hope and it is a hope that is not based on circumstances or things that are here today and gone tomorrow. It is a hope that is based on God. People need hope! People need the Lord!

Notice in this passage of scripture how David chose to respond to his situation. “I waited patiently for the Lord to help me.” The key word is patiently.

Something has created a troubling situation for David and he has a choice in how he is going to respond to it. He chooses to wait patiently. He chooses to wait patiently for the Lord to help him.

Waiting for God to act during difficult and stressful times is hard. Waiting patiently is even harder! But that is what David did!

Peter wrote in 2 Peter 1 verse 5 and following: “A life of moral excellence leads to knowing God better. Knowing God leads to self-control. Self-control leads to patient endurance and patient endurance leads to godliness. Godliness leads to love for other Christians and finally you will grow to have genuine love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more you will become productive and useful in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

David demonstrates that patient endurance in his patient waiting because the other things Peter lists are also a part of his life. But, David also waits for God to act on his behalf because David has great hope in God!

This is illustrated through the written Biblical record of David’s life. I think that one of the best places that we see this deep and strong hope is when he takes on Goliath, the Philistine giant. The encounter is recorded in I Samuel 17.

When it finally comes time for battle and Goliath mocks David by cursing him by the names of his gods, David grounds his actions on a hope that God will act on his and his people’s behalf. And he does! And the giant came tumbling down.

Churches who are attempting to fully follow God express that commitment by caring for people due to a great hope that they have in God. In fact, as we read in I Peter 1, we are encouraged to remember and be ready to express the hope that is within you.

Peter also speaks of the need for moral excellence.  Another name for moral excellence could be holiness. Now holiness is one of those “church words” that cause all sorts of emotional responses.

Many times we have defined holiness in negative terms with the word “don’t:” don’t smoke, don’t chew, and don’t go with those who do! Yes, God says that His people are not to do certain things.

But, moral excellence is also about some things that are positive and good and right. For example, honesty, integrity, loyalty, and commitment. And we see these demonstrated in the life of Joseph.

And the critical point in Joseph’s life that we see holiness expressed is found in Genesis 39:6-10:

“Potiphar gave Joseph complete administrative responsibility over everything he owned. With Joseph there, he didn’t have a worry in the world, except to decide what he wanted to eat! Now Joseph was a very handsome and well-built young man. And about this time, Potiphar’s wife began to desire him and invited him to sleep with her. But Joseph refused. “Look,” he told her, “My master trusts me with everything in his entire household. No one here has more authority than I do! He has held nothing back from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing? It would be a great sin against God.”

As the story goes on, Potiphar’s wife keeps pressuring him until he flees from her, as she grabs for him and rips his shirt off. She cries “rape!” And he is jailed.

But, notice holiness at work in this situation in two ways: his actions and his statement to her. Both are clear illustrations of how being holy is evidence of someone honestly trying to follow God fully.

His actions indicate someone who knows that God’s standards are higher than anyone or anything else. His standards are a reflection of His holiness and our God, the God of the Bible, is a holy God and He expects us to be more and more holy as the years go by.

But, Joseph’s statements are also indicative of someone who is trying to be holy as God is holy. What comes through in these statements however is an honesty and integrity that goes beyond the minimum.

Joseph is aware of the power and responsibility that he has been given and the level of trust that has been placed in his hands by Potipher and his understanding of this is evidence of a conscientious individual.  Joseph is living with moral excellence. And God’s vision for us as fully following people means that we need to live lives of moral excellence like Joseph.  People need moral excellence. People need the Lord.

A recent e-mail asked readers to reflect on the following questions: 1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world. 2. Name the last five heisman trophy winners. 3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America contest. 4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize. 5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress. 6. Name the last 10 World Series winners.

Then as we sit and realize that we don’t know the answers to these questions, another set of questions are asked: 1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school. 2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time. 3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile. 4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special. 5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with. 6. Name six heroes whose stories have inspired you.

The point of the e-mail is this: “The people who make a difference in your lives are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones that care.”

That is clearly true in our primary text. Think of the people who have prayed with you over the years. Can you see the faces of those who have heard your confessions and your pain and your joy?

All of us need and continue to need people that we are honest with because one of things that fully following persons and people of God are characterized is an authenticity that creates credibility as we go through the days of our lives.

As we fully follow God on a daily basis, we build credibility with people by being honest and real.  One of the things that we must offer is an authentic ness that is rooted in the grace and mercy of God.

The prophet Jeremiah is one who helps us learn how to express an authenticity that allows good relationships to develop with people. I like what Bill Hybels says about Jeremiah. “He didn’t deny his disappointments, but because he turned to God honestly in the midst of them and opened his heart to divine strength and encouragement, he was able to move from despair to hope. Despite the disappointments and thwarted expectations in his life and ministry, he never lost his confidence in the faithfulness of God. I wonder how many of us need to pray, “God, give me the emotional authenticity of Jeremiah,” so we can experience the authentic faithfulness of God.”

In Jeremiah 12:1-4 we read his honest words of frustration and complaint. “Lord, you always give me justice when I bring a case before you. Now let me bring you this complaint: Why are the wicked so prosperous? Why are evil people so happy? You have planted them, and they have taken root and prospered. Your name is on their lips, but in their hearts they give you no credit at all. But as for me, Lord, you know my heart. You see me and test my thoughts. Drag these people away like helpless sheep to be butchered! Set them aside to be slaughtered! How long must this land weep! Even the grass in the fields has withered. The wild animals and birds have disappeared because of the evil in the land. Yet the people say, “The Lord won’t do anything!”

How often do we feel this way? Quite often. Perhaps more often than we care to admit! But, in this day and age, words like this spoken public ally can cause all sorts of trouble. But, Jeremiah is not talking to the public, he is talking to God.

This kind of honesty sometimes scares us. We think, “How can I say such things?! I’m supposed to be loving and caring and not feel such things!” But we do, don’t we?!

People are looking for honesty these days. They are looking for friends and role models and mentors who live an authentic life.  As fully following people of God, there must be an appropriate authenticity in our lives that builds credibility as to the power and place of our faith in our lives. People are tired of platitudes and clichés. Talk is cheap!

As we do our best to fully follow God there must be an honesty that deepens our faith and makes it credible to those who are making up their minds about it. People need authenticity and honesty! People need the Lord!

But, while we need to be hopeful, holy, and honest, we also need to be celebrative. We need to know how to party!

We need to laugh! We need to express joy! God has given us life – this life and eternal life!  And it is to be celebrated and joyful! God is good! Amen?

Nehemiah led God’s people during a very challenging time – the rebuilding of the Jerusalem, especially it’s wall. The work was hard. The stress was tremendous. The opposition was strong.

That’s a good description of our lives isn’t it? It’s work, it’s hard at times, and there is conflict. But, there are also times of celebration.

And that’s what happened when the Wall was finished. Nehemiah 12 (27-29, 43): “During the dedication of the new wall of Jerusalem, the Levites throughout the land were asked to come to Jerusalem to assist in the ceremonies. They were asked to take part in the joyous occasion with their songs of thanksgiving and with the music of cymbals, lyres, and harps. The singers were brought together from Jerusalem and its surrounding villages and from the villages for the Netophathies. They also came from Beth-gilgal and the area of Geba and Azmaveth, for the singers had built their own villages around Jerusalem. Many sacrifices were offered on that joyous day, for God had given the people cause for great joy. The women and children also participated in the celebration, and the joy of the people in Jerusalem could be heard far away.”

Life is hard. Life is unfair. But God is good and God is fair. And we need to celebrate that truth on a regular basis. We need to celebrate the goodness and faithfulness and love of God in our lives.

The Israelites needed this celebration that we have just read of. They had worked in dangerous conditions. They were rebuilding their center of worship and God had been faithful to them in His protection and strength as they did their part. And it was cause for celebration!

People need to celebrate! People need the Lord!

How are we doing in these areas? Last week I asked us to evaluate ourselves with regard to our decisiveness, courage, wisdom, willingness, and passion. This week we need to ask ourselves about the level of hope, holiness, authentic ness, and celebration we express as fully following followers of God. (Overhead 4)

Ev’ryday they pass me by.

I can see it in their eyes.

Empty people filled with care.

Headed who knows where.

On they go through private pain

Living fear to fear.

Laughter hides the silent cries,

Only Jesus hears.

We are called to take His light

To a world where wrong seems right.

What could be too great a cost

For sharing life with one who’s lost?

Through His love our hearts can feel

All the grief they bear.

They must hear the words of life

Only we can share.

People need the Lord.

People need the Lord.

At the end of broken dreams

He’s the open door.

People need the Lord

People need the Lord.

When will we realize

People need the Lord.

© 1983 Shepherd’s Fold Music (a div. of EMI Christian Music Publishing) / River Oaks Music Company (a div. of EMI Christian Music Publishing)

CCLI License No. xxxxx

People need the Lord! We’ve needed Him! We still do! And the primary mission of the church, a fully following and faithfully functioning church, is to help people connect with God through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and then help them live that commitment out in the rest of their lives. How are we doing? Amen.

Best Friends

I Samuel 18:1- 4

Main point – Fully following followers of God express God’s love like Jonathan did with David.

I begin this morning with a question, “Who would you call your best friend?” For some of us, it is our spouse. For others of us, a sibling is our best friend. For others, a childhood friend whom we still communicate with today holds the title of being our “best friend.”

Best friends are very important. Best friends are our confidants. They are our counselors. They are our PR persons. They back us up when others are against us.

We have spent two of the first three Sundays of 2003 looking at God’s vision for us: (Overhead 1) “A fully following and faithfully functioning church.” This month we have been looking at the first part of this vision – “fully following.” Next month, we will be looking at the second part of it – “faithfully functioning.”

So far this month we have looked at 9 people who have given us some guidelines for being fully following persons. (Overhead 2) Today we conclude our study with person number 10 – Jonathan.

A fully following church, a fully following Christian, not only incorporates these characteristics into their lives (refer to overhead 2) but underneath all of these things is a central characteristic that must be a part of a fully following church and believer’s life – love. And we see in Jonathan’s life, a love that must be a part of why and how we live a fully following life.

The story of Jonathan and David begins in I Samuel 18, continues with what would be the final contact between them in chapter 23, and tragically ends with Jonathan’s death on the battlefield in chapter 31. It is a story that covers perhaps 10 years or so. And that, I think, is important to remember because the love that God expects us to demonstrate toward others is not a short-term love but a long-term and life long one. Jonathan and David’s relationship was one that remained until death.

There are three episodes in the story of Jonathan and David we need to briefly review before we consider the why and how of love as part of being fully following persons of God.

The first episode is seen in the passage that was read a few moments ago; I Samuel 18: 1 – 4. Two things are of note: First in verse 1, we read, “There was an immediate bond of love between them and they became the best of friends.”

Have you ever had that happen to you? You met somebody and you “clicked” with him or her. You immediately liked them. You became good friends, even best friends. That’s what happened here. Jonathan and David liked each other immediately and they became “like two peas in a pod.” Where one was, the other one was close behind.

The second thing to notice occurs in verse 3 and 4. Jonathan made a vow of friendship with David and sealed the vow by giving David his robe, tunic, sword, bow, and belt. What does this mean? It means something of deep significance.

Jonathan was so committed to David that he gave things of great value to him. Now this does not mean that he was trying to “buy” David’s friendship. But, it does mean that Jonathan was committed to David at any cost and he sealed that commitment by giving David items that were of great value to him.

By the way, remember what happened when Saul gave his armor and weapons to David to fight Goliath? They did not fit! David could not fight Goliath with Saul’s armor because it was too big and cumbersome.

But, what about Jonathon’s items? I think that we can assume from the text, that they fit David. They became part of the tools he used to do battle for God, Israel, and Saul, in that order.

Now the second episode is found in chapter 20 where Jonathan intercedes, at great risk to his own life, on behalf of David. The chapter opens with David, running for his life from Saul, Jonathan’s father and the King of Israel, catching up to Jonathan and asking him, as we read in verse 1, “What have I done? What is my crime? How have I offended your father that he is so determined to kill me?”

Jonathan denies that his father would do such a thing and David presses him to prove otherwise. So Jonathan devises a plan that allows him to find out what Saul is planning to do and then tell David.

Well the plan is put in place and Jonathan learns, as we read in verses 30 and 31, what his father’s true intentions are – murdering David so that Jonathan becomes king. Then, as we read in verse 33, Saul hurls his spear at Jonathan, which causes Jonathan to leave in anger, find David, and tell the truth about what is going on.

Jonathan takes great risk to both maintain his relationship with David and tell him what is really going on. But, he does because of his love and respect for David.

The third and final episode occurs in chapter 23 where Jonathan encourages David in his faith. Listen to Jonathan (verse 17): “Don’t be afraid,” Jonathan reassured him. “My father will never find you! You are going to be the king of Israel, and I will be next to you, as my father is well aware.” So the two of them renewed their covenant of friendship before the Lord. Then Jonathan returned home, while David stayed at Horesh.” And from at least the Biblical record, they never again saw one another.

Jonathan has the position and place to make or break this relationship. He is the one who initiates the vow and pledge of friendship. He is the one who risks his life to find out the truth. He is the one who encourages the faith in one who would be called “A man after God’s own heart.” Why? Love.

When we look at Jonathan, we see the love of God flowing out of one who was in line to have it all! But, he gave it all away out of love for another who was to take his place. Is this our kind of love? Is this evidence of our relationship with God – individually and collectively?

We need to keep the example of Jonathan before us on a daily basis and ask God to help us love like him because that is the way God wants us to live. But why? And how do we do that? Jesus gives us the reason and Paul tells us how to love.

In the days just before His crucifixion, Jesus is again approached with a trick question. But, like a lot of trick questions, Jesus used it to His, and our, advantage. Matthew, Mark, and Luke record both question and response. This is Matthew’s version, Matthew 22:36 and 37: “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the Law of Moses?” Jesus replied, “‘you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’” This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as your self.’ All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

This question, “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the Law of Moses?,” is a critical question. It is a question about what constitutes the core of our faith. It is a question that asks, “What is the best way we are to fully follow God?”

The questioner goes back to the very beginning of faith. He goes back to the covenant, the requirements that God gives to Moses as the guide for the Israelites to live out. And Jesus’ response is also critical because it is a succinct summary of what God says is the core characteristic of one who is fully following God. “You must love.”

Matthew quotes Jesus quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 when He says,“‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’” This is from a statement from Moses to the people about the issue of commitment that God was expecting the Israelites to make and do. And it was spoken in the context of Old Testament Law.

When we think of Old Testament Law, what do we think of? When we think of the books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, which contain the heart of Old Testament Law, what do we think of? We think of the Ten Commandments.

In Deuteronomy chapter 5, the chapter prior to the chapter from which Jesus quotes; Moses lays out the Ten Commandments:

1. Do not worship any other gods besides me.

2. Do not make idols of any kind, whether in the shape of birds or animals or fish.

3. Do not misuse the name of the Lord you God.

4. Observe the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you.

5. Honor your father and mother.

6. Do not murder.

7. Do not commit adultery.

8. Do not steal.

9. Do not testify falsely against your neighbor.

10. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife or anything else of your neighbor’s.

That’s some major don’t is it not? And they are important don’ts. They lead to conflict, broken homes, broken relationships, and God says they are wrong. But, isn’t there more to fully following God that a bunch of “don’ts?”

Why is love a core expression of commitment? Because it is a sign of commitment. Think about the people we love. How do others know that we love them? We spend time with those we love and follow what scripture says about how to love them. It is a sign of commitment!

In his response to the trick question, Jesus went to Deuteronomy 6 when I think that maybe the questioner and his cohorts were looking for a Deuteronomy 5 answer. Why? Because God is looking for fully following, fully commitment followers who love Him with their entire being and others as much as they love themselves. In the 10 Commandments are fulfilled by love. When you love God and others like Jesus says in Matthew, you fulfill the commandments and Old Testament law.

A few weeks ago it was suggested that we probably identify with Peter more than any other disciple.  Today, I would suggest that when it comes to church life, most churches can probably identify more with the Corinthian church than any other churches written about in the New Testament.

The Corinthian church had the same problems and challenges that churches today have. There were lifestyle issues that created dissention and conflict. There were theological issues that caused people to form groups of “us” verses “them,” and there were attitudinal issues of jealousy and pettiness that created challenges to Godly relationships.

Into the middle of his statements I Corinthians about these issues and conflicts, Paul wrote a chapter that we need to not just memorize but practice daily. We call it the “love chapter.” It is I Corinthians 13.  Let me read you a newer translation of it: (overhead 3)

“If our church could hold services in five languages or our members could speak three, but we didn’t love others, we would be all talk and no action.

If our church really expressed it’s spiritual gifts with wholehearted service and we became spiritual giants, but we did not love others, what good would we be?

If our church had such faith that resulted in great healings and great miracles taking place, but we really did not love others, what would be the point? If we gave 50% of our budget to various missions across our nation and around our world so that a great deal of spiritual and physical poverty was alleviated, but we did not love others, why would we do it?

Our church is patient and kind. Our church is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Our church does not demand its own way. Our church is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. Our church is never glad about injustice but rejoices when the truth wins out. Our church never gives up, never looses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

God and His love will last forever. But, our church’s pronouncements and decisions and giftedness and abilities will all disappear. Our church now knows only a little but when the Lord returns, our church will know everything.

It’s like this, “When we were still new believers, our church spoke and thought and reasoned like a new believers. But as we grew up, we became mature believers. Today, we don’t see things clearly or fully understand every thing that has happened to us. All that our church knows at this point in time is partial and incomplete, but one day our church, and all of those redeemed by God, will know everything that God knows!

There are three things that will endure beyond our church – faith, hope, and love – and the greatest of these is love.” (Based on NLT of I Corinthians 13)

Being a church, a group of people who are fully following followers is not easy. But, as Paul points out to the Corinthians, and God points out to us, that best way to serve, the best way to fully follow Him is not with razzle dazzle. It is not having the star pastor or the best of this or that. It is by loving that the church is at its best!

How well are we doing in this area? How well are we loving?

In the three episodes of Jonathan and David’s life that we have looked at this morning, something took place every time. What was it? They recommitted to one another. They made sure that they said to one another, “I’m behind you, I’m with you. We are in this together.”

One of the most important vows that human beings make is wedding vows. Unfortunately, breaking those vows has becoming extremely commonplace these days and they have seemed to lose meaning.

Many believe the same holds true for the vows we have made to God and to one another regarding our church and its ministries. As we conclude this segment of our series regarding God’s vision for us, I am going to read a slightly modified version of the traditional wedding vows for the expressed purpose of giving us something to think about as it relates to fully following God as we love one another. (Overhead 4)

Will you ___________, take your church to be your church; to live together in the holy covenant of membership? Will you love, comfort, honor, and keep your church and be faithful to your church as long as you live?

Do you ___________, take your church to be your church, from this day forward, for better or worse, in good and bad times, when the treasury is full and when it is empty, when it is healthy and growing and when it is weak and struggling? Will you love it and honor it and serve it until death, as God is your witness?

Now we can take this analogy only so far, but let us be reminded that the vows we take when we are married are not to the institution of marriage but to a living breathing and imperfect human being. And likewise, when we become members of God’s church through a salvation experience, it is not membership is some abstract idea or institution, it is with a community of imperfect human beings that need to be loved.

The reason that Jesus said that loving God is the greatest commandment and the explanation that Paul gave for love to be the greatest gift that the church can have and give, is that it the most important sign of commitment that a fully following church can give as evidence of its commitment to God and, I think must be added, to one another.

Love was a major hallmark and sign of commitment in the early church. It made others notice that there was something different about those who would eventually called “Christians.” It is the same for us today? Do the people of our community see the same evidence of commitment in us? May it be so. May it be so. Amen.

What’s Driving Our Church?

Text: Acts 2:42-47

Main point: A fully functioning church is one driven by the five main functions – worship, outreach, fellowship, discipleship, and service.

Rick Warren tells the story of Westside Church’s yearly church council meeting whose sole agenda item was to determine the church program for the next year. Convened by the chairperson, Steve Johnson this is a summary what happened:

“We’ve got a lot to cover tonight, folks, so we’d better get started. As you know, our agenda is to agree on a unified church program for the next year. We’re supposed to present it to the congregation in two weeks.”

As chairman, Steve’s anxiety over this meeting was equaled only by the anxiety he felt when the annual budget was discussed. “Who wants to go first?” asked Steve.

“This ought to be easy,” said Ben Faithful, a deacon who’d been a member for twenty-six years. “Last year was a good year. Let’s just repeat all the good things we did last year. I’ve always believed that the tried and true is better than a lot of newfangled ideas.”

“Well, I’d have to disagree with that,” said Bob Newman. “Times have changed and I think we need to reevaluate everything we’re doing. Just because a program worked in the past doesn’t automatically mean it’s going to continue working next year. I’m especially interested in starting another worship service with a different style. We’ve all seen the growth that Calvary Church has had since they started a contemporary service to reach out to the unchurched.”

“Yes, some churches will do anything to get a crowd, “ replied Ben. “They forget who the church is for: It’s for us Christians! We’re supposed to be different and separate from the world. We’re not to pander to whatever the world wants. I sure don’t intend to see that happen at Westside!”

Over the next two hours, writes Warren, a worthy list of programs and causes was presented for inclusion in the church calendar. Karen Doer passionately insisted that Westside church take a more active role in Operation Rescue and the pro-life movement. John Manly gave a moving testimony about how Promise Keepers had changed his life and suggested a full slate of men’s activities.

Linda Loving spoke of the need to develop various support groups. Bob Learner made his usual pitch for the church to begin a Christian school. And, of course, Jerry Tightwad kept asking, “How much will it all cost?” as each proposal was presented.

They were all valid suggestions, says Warren. The problem was there seemed to be no standard of reference by which the council could evaluate and decide which programs would be adopted.

Finally Clark Reasoner spoke up. Clark was the voice everyone was waiting for at this point. Whenever issues became confused at church business meetings, he’d usually make a short speech, and a majority would vote his way. It wasn’t that his ideas were better; in fact, people often disagreed with him. But the sheer force of his personality made whatever he said seem sensible at the time.

What is the problem with this scenario? asks Warren. This church is trying to head in several different directions all at once. “Every church,” he notes, “is driven by something. There is a guidance force, a controlling assumption, a directing conviction behind everything that happens.”^[1]

I ask us this morning, “What is God’s controlling assumption for our church? What is it that He wants? What is it that He expects?”

We are entering the second part of a series on God’s vision for the church: “A fully following and faithfully functioning church.”  (Overhead 1)

Last month, we addressed the first part of this vision – the fully following part. And, for the sake of review, we looked at the lives of 10 Bible characters that demonstrated what it means to be full followers of God. (Overhead 2) Today, we begin the second half of our study: the faithfully functioning part.

The first part of our series dealt with the inner aspects of God’s vision for us. It dealt with our character and our commitment. The being part if you will.  In other words, when we accept Christ as our savior and ask for and receive His forgiveness, it means that our character must change to become more and more like Christ’s.

This part of our series deals with the doing aspect of God’s vision. God has saved us not only from something – namely sin and eternal death but also for something – a mission, a ministry, and a task that is not only specific but also multi-purposed. So in this second segment, we are going to review these main purposes, these main functions that God expects every believer and every church to fulfill.

Now, let’s return to Westside church for a moment. Can you relate to their situation?  Can you feel their frustration? Does it sound familiar?

What drives a church to do what it does? What drives this church to do what it does?

Studies have indicated that there are seven different kinds of assumptions or convictions that guide a church’s priorities and decision-making process.^[2] (Overhead 3)

The first assumption is tradition. In an established congregation, rituals such as a yearly program or event or a certain way of conducting meetings tend to be traditions that guide the priorities and decision-making process.

The second assumption is personality. We saw this with regard to Clark Reasoner. When Clark spoke people listened. Clark in this case was a layperson. Clark could also be a pastor.

Every congregation has a dominant personality that people turn to during decision-making time. And when that person or persons speak, what they say is often what is followed.

A third assumption is finances. “How much will it cost?” Good stewardship is important. But, money is not the issue. Souls are the issue. People are the issue. Christ did not die for our bank accounts. He died to give us eternal life. The church is a non-profit organization for a very good reason.

Reason number four is program. We need programs. I believe in fact that we need to add one or two other programs to our ministry menu. We have developed 3 and 5-year goals that include additional programs. But, all to often, keeping the programs going becomes more important than anything else.

I once heard at a youth ministry retreat a very wise person say, “I have been a youth minister for 23 years and I have done youth ministry once – 23 different ways.” I can relate to that statement.

Having spent 13 years in youth and Christian education ministry, one learns how to spot programs that might do the job. The challenge is finding enough people to do the program.

One of the things about you that I love is your willingness to serve. And you serve well. I know that staffing is always a challenge in any church, but your willingness to take on multiple tasks has been exemplary.

But, none of us can keep that up for long periods of time. We get tired and weary. Teaching or leading or watching children becomes a duty rather than a ministry and a pleasure. Staffing becomes a stressful challenge.

A colleague in ministry recently told me about one particular summer Sunday School ministry that took 20 or so persons to staff because people were only willing to give 2 Sundays. Most of the classes had two or three different teachers during the summer.

Granted vacations are important, and I expect you to take your vacations because all of us need to get away, but when there were not many who were willing to commit to 8 or 9 Sundays, it became a challenge to find people. And it was stressful and wearying to my friend.

In fact, she wanted to not have Sunday school during the summer. But, that was not an option. She was told, “We have Sunday school and we have it during the summer.”

She also told me that after she left that particular congregation they did not have a summer Sunday school a few years ago and from what she heard it was not a popular decision.

Programs are important because they are a key way of helping people come to Christ and become a responsible follower. But they are not the reason the church exists.

A fifth assumption that churches use to make decisions and choose a course of action is buildings. Winston Churchill one said, “We shape our buildings and our buildings shape us.”^[3]

Buildings are a part of ministry. To some they are sacred places. And they are sacred because events of great significance have taken place in them or because of the personal involvement in seeing one get built. But buildings, and the finances associated with them, can hinder the decisions made in regard to ministry.

The sixth factor is events. Events and activities are good. We need them. We need fun fellowship events. We need times of serious study and reflection. But, why do we do what we do? Congregations with a full calendar of events may be busy but are they busy for the right reasons?

Finally, seekers or the unchurched are the seventh type of assumption that churches operate from. Now, the central message of the Christian faith is salvation. God’s great desire is that all may come to repentance and faith in Him.

However, the danger lies is trying to accommodate the unchurched too much. There is a grave danger of compromising the message in order to draw a crowd.

Now Jesus drew crowds. But as we read in the gospel accounts, as some people got closer and closer to Jesus, He raised the standard of what it meant to follow Him and many quit following Him.

We have seen in many churches and in some denominations a “watering down” of the Christian faith. And while those groups and churches grew for a while, many of them are now in decline.

We need to be seeker sensitive. We need to listen to those who, while they have an interest in spiritual matters and the Christian faith, have issues with “the church.” They are interested in what the Bible has to say, but they have some problems with some of the living interpretations that they have seen.

At this point, there are two questions, two very important questions that we need to answer (overhead 4):

1. Which of these factors drive us?

2. What does the Bible have to say about all of this?

Within the story that begins with creation in Genesis and ends with God’s final triumph, there is a very important passage about the purpose, the reason for the church. We heard it read earlier, but I want to read it again, Acts 2:41-47:

Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church—about three thousand in all. ⁴² They joined with the other believers and devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, sharing in the Lord’s Supper and in prayer.

⁴³A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. ⁴⁴ And all the believers met together constantly and shared everything they had. ⁴⁵They sold their possessions and shared the proceeds with those in need. ⁴⁶ They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—⁴⁷ all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their group those who were being saved.

There is an important process at work in this passage that directly speaks to the two questions before us. We need to pay attention to it:

The passage begins with a summarization of what had taken place in the previous 26 or so verses, namely Peter’s sermon about Jesus Christ and what He had done on the cross for humankind. As a result of the response – a response of belief by the way – to Peter’s message, the church began. In fact, a plausible case can be made that Peter’s proclamation is really the first function of the church – outreach. So what follows verse 41 are the remaining functions of the church that grow out of the function of outreach.

In verse 42 we notice that the new believers joined with the other believers and did three things: 1. They allowed themselves to be taught by the disciples now called apostles. 2. They joined in the fellowship that resulted from such teaching. 3. They shared in the Lord’s Supper and prayer.

Action number 1 was the action of discipleship. This is an action of maturing in the faith. God expects us to grow up and become more and more like Christ. The Bible is clear on that.

Action number 2 was the action of fellowship. This is an action of membership in the faith. And by membership we mean full participation and commitment to the message, mission, and ministry of the church.

Action number 3 was the action of worship. This is an action of magnifying or praising the God of our faith. When we gather to worship – we gather to worship God who has saved us and delivered us from our sins.

As we continue through the passage, we come to another action in verses 44 and 45, the action of service. And all the believers met together constantly and shared everything they had. They sold their possessions and shared the proceeds with those in need.

People have both a spiritual need that can only really be satisfied by a full and thorough salvation experience and they also have other needs – physical, emotional, financial, occupational, and the like – as well. And in the very beginnings of the church – there was an action of service to meet all of these needs.

We are required to share, to serve others in Jesus’ name. Jesus spoke of these needs through His ministry. There was the need for physical healing and Jesus healed. There was the need for food – and Jesus provided a large group with an unforgettable lunch. There was a need for love and care and Jesus told a wealthy and short man to come down from the sycamore tree because I am having dinner with you tonight.

Finally, we need to notice something else. As the young believers of the developing Jerusalem church continued to do these five things, they partnered with the Holy Spirit as they did so. And as they did so, we see the results stated in verse 47, “And each day the Lord added to their group those who were being saved.” (Overhead 5)

These believers, these church people, threw themselves wide open to the work of the Holy Spirit in them and through them. They reached out, the taught, they fellowship, they worshipped, and they served under the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit.

They submitted to the Spirit’s direction and power. They let go of their goals and desire and surrender to be used as God saw fit.

This is what a faithfully functioning church is like. And it is God’s will that every church, including this one, operates like this. This is God’s vision for the church.

In the weeks ahead, we are going to study in more detail each of these functions and also examine ourselves as to God’s place for us in this plan. And when we conclude on that last Sunday, I am going to ask you for a response.

But, in the meantime, let’s seek God and let us say to Him, “your will, not our will be done.’ Amen.

---

^[1] Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Church, pages 75-77

^[2] Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Church, pages 77-80

^[3] Quoted in Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Church, page 78.

Making God Smile

John 4:19-26

Main point: The function of worship is to bring God appropriate pleasure.

(Overhead 1) This time of year is a time for love, romance, and passion. Millions of dollars are spent on Valentine’s Day gifts. In fact a 1998 report from Ball State University indicates, “Valentine’s Day ranks second behind Christmas in total sales of candy, flowers and cards.”[1]

Love is important to us isn’t it? We want to love and we want to be loved and one of the ways that we show love is by buying gifts this time of year.

One of the things about love is that it makes us passionate, it gets us excited! The people or things we love, we get passionate about!

I sent an e-mail question to those of us who have e-mail and I asked you the question, What Gets You Excited?

Here is what some of you said: (Overhead 2)

•something that keeps me busy

•my family, the birth of a new baby and love

•music, sporting events that relatives are playing in, and shopping!!

•God working in my life

•Seeing the sanctuary full of worshippers

•seeing someone new participate in God’s work

•Knowing I’m doing what God wants

Others of you said:

ü Knowing that what ever happens, God is still in control.

ü Hearing how God is working in the lives of others

ü     The sunshine of Spring, especially when it’s this cold out.

Let me suggest this morning that from the very start love and passion was a part of God’s plan. He wanted to create creatures that would love Him as well as one another. He wants us to enjoy the life that He has given to us. It is a part of God’s purpose for our lives and our very existence. But how do we love God?

In both the Old and New Testaments, God has commanded us to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and all your strength.” In the New Testament Jesus calls it the Great Commandment and among His last words to the disciples, Jesus said that the best evidence they were following him was by loving as well as obeying Him. As John 15:10 indicates, “When you obey me, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father and remain in his love.” (NLT)

A very important way that we love God is through worship. Worship, true worship, honest worship, is pleasing, extremely pleasing to God. It makes God smile. God rejoices and gets great pleasure in our worship.

In a passage that is commonly used to talk about outreach, there is a discussion about worship. And I think that we need to look at the link between the two because there is a very important link between outreach and worship as follows: We worship what we believe in and what we believe in we are going to tell others about.

The passage, John 4:19-26, has already been read, and now I want to set it in the proper context. Namely, that Jesus has met a Samaritan woman at a well in the mid-day heat.

And a dialogue ensues between the woman and that leads Jesus to disclose to the woman that He knows about her martial status. And that is where we pickup our text for this morning.

Christ’s disclosure unsettles her. And may be because of this unsettledness she tries to change the topic and asks a question, “Why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?” Or maybe, in her search for God, the issue, or rather the conflict, about worship is keeping her from fully committing herself to God. Or maybe it is a little of both!

Anyway, a discussion ensues about worship. And Jesus says to her several important things about worship that we need to be reminded of today.

Basically Jesus says, “Where you worship does not matter. It’s who you worship and how you worship that does matter.” Let’s first look at the whom.

Now a second question that I asked earlier this week in my e-mail was Growing up, what was your picture of God? Here is what you said: (overhead 3)

•was up in the sky somewhere

•could do anything and sees everything

•a sense of love, kindness, someone to embrace you, and he would always be there to protect me

•always thought of God as a man high up on a cloud, listening to my prayers

•A little blond boy in blue and white-stripped pj’s kneeling by a bed praying.

•An old man in the sky who sees everything I do

Others of you said:

ü A judge on a throne. Was never informed of His love.

ü     God was like a very loving father

In response to Jesus’ prophetic statement about her marital status, the woman says in verse 10, “Sir, you must be a prophet.” She does not yet understand or realize that Jesus is the Messiah. She thinks that He is a prophet, a Jewish prophet and I think that we can safely say that is implied in the wording of her question about “you Jews” and about the object of her worship – which we assume is God.

But it is not until after Jesus makes clear that true worship is a matter of the heart and not location, she admits in verse 25 that she believes in the Messiah and that “He will come and explain everything to us.” And then as we read in verse 26 Jesus says “I am the Messiah!”

This Samaritan woman represents us so well. Many, many people are just like her. They believe in God, or about God, even though their lives may not be fully committed to Him like God desires. They have questions, they need answers, they want to worship God in the right way. But they are confused. They are confused for a couple of reasons: 1. They really don’t know who God is. 2. The issue of worship confuses them.

Let’s think about it for a minute. At this time of the week, those who are unchurched in our community could come to our church or First Baptist next door or Grace Christian down the street and perhaps become confused. Our congregations worship differently and we have different expectations of worship and have some different beliefs about worship! And herein lies a critical question – just whom is worship for? The correct answer is: It’s for God! It’s about God! Not us!

There has been so much energy wasted on worship preferences. Now I know in our congregation for as many different people as there are present this morning, there are that many different worship preferences. Some of us like fast paced upbeat music only and others of us like a more meditative style only. Others of us like some of everything.

What matters to God is that all this singing, no matter how fast or slow it is, all of this singing is for Him! Why? Because it is not how we worship (how being concerned about style and preference) but whom we worship, we worship God! Good and God-honoring worship brings a smile to God.

It pleases Him!

But, we also need to be concerned about the how of worship. And that involves the how of our motives and attitudes that we bring to worship.

In our text, Jesus makes it very clear that those who truly worship God “do so in spirit and in truth.” What does this mean?

When a person dies, according to the Christian faith, his or her spirit leaves this world and goes to either heaven or hell. But, there is more to this issue of spirit than just our traditional views. Spirit also deals with our attitudes and values and motives. And this aspect of our spirit is what Jesus is addressing in our text.

“Worship that honors God, worship that pleases God,” he says, “is worship that is honest, faithful, true, and God-centered worship. And that can only come from hearts that are truly devoted to God.”

Now, at this point we need to do some soul searching in regard to worship because if we are going to be a fully following and faithfully functioning church, then worship must be a part of our individual and congregational life because worship, God-honoring and God-centering worship, is central to experiencing God and then living for Him.

(Overhead 4 up) On the overhead are some questions for personal reflection regarding worship. Take a moment and rank yourself, 1 low to 5 high, on each of the items[2]

How Well Do I Worship?

1 (Low) to 5 (high)

I experience God’s power and presence more often

I faithfully attend worship to worship God

I have a great desire to please God in every area of my life

I am learning to accept those things that I can’t do anything about and have a greater share of gratitude

In becoming a fully functioning church, worship is a foundational element because in worship as well as in outreach, discipleship, fellowship, and service, the focus is on God not the church or the pastor or someone else. God is the founder of our faith and the Church and it is He and He alone who is to be worshipped and followed. So, good worship is critical in helping us to fully function in God honoring ways.

(Overhead 5 up) We are already addressing this important function through our worship ministry team that is currently led by Kathy Brinker. In addition to Kathy there are at seven other persons who serve on this team.

There is also the praise team that has _______ and ____________ as part of it. And then there are the numerous persons who give leadership by taking their turn with childcare help in the nursery during worship. Thanks to all of you.

The purpose of our worship ministry is to help persons personally experience God. And in addition to weekly worship they are working toward the following three and five year goals with regard to worship. They are as follows:

3 Year: Develop more opportunities for the youth and teens to participate in worship leadership.

5 Year: Develop a variety of special occasion, choral groups to augment worship.

I believe that these goals are a part of the important function of worship in our church but there is much more than can be done. Maybe the Lord has and is calling you to become involved in this area of ministry. If so, Kathy or I would be happy to talk with you.

(Overhead 6 up) The heart of our worship is not what but who – God! It’s not how but why. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Let us conclude today by reaffirming that in our hearts. Amen.

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[1] “High Prices for Valentine’s Day items a common business practice,” from Ball State University website, www.bsu.edu by Marc Ransford. Quote statement is from Joe Chapman, associate director of the Ball State Professional Selling Institute. Date of publication is 02/06/98.

[2] Adopted from the Purpose Driven Health Assessment worksheet, p54 in the 40 Days of Purpose small group guide, published by Saddleback Church.

The Best Kind of M and M

Text: John 17:18, John 20:21

Main point – God has a mission for us.

Since it has been two weeks since we gathered together for worship, let me briefly remind us that we are in the closing weeks of our series on God’s vision for us. And what is his vision – that we be a fully following and faithfully functioning church.

For the past four weeks we have focused on the second half of this vision – faithfully functioning and I remind us that there are five main functions of the church – worship, outreach, fellowship, discipleship, and service. So far we have examined the first function – worship.

Today, we look at the second function by starting with a very familiar and tasty product -M and M’s. I love m & m’s! Don’t you?

I recently asked some of us via e-mail what your favorite M & M color was. And this is what you told me: (Overhead 1)

·         Red (7)

• Purple (3)
• Variety
• What’s Inside

·         Green (2)

·         Pink (2)

·         Yellow

I checked the m & m website, www.mms.com, and found out a little more about m & m’s.

The concept for M & M’s began during wartime – the Spanish Civil War that is. Forrest Mars, Sr. of the Mars candy company, discovered on a trip to Spain that soldiers were eating “pellets of chocolate that were encased in a hard sugary coating to prevent them from melting.”

Inspired by the idea, Mars returned to his kitchen and invented his version of we now call M & M’s. They went public in 1941 and quickly became a part of the American GI’s rations and were packaged in cardboard tubes for them.

As time went on, more colors became available and the product line began to include my favorite – Peanut M & M’s, Crunchy M & M’s, peanut butter M & M’s, Almond M & M’s, and a whole host of other products. [1]

One of the things about M & M’s over the years that generated a lot of interest has to do with the colors they come in. Just how many different colors do M & M’s come in? Well, from the website you can order 21 different colors of M & M’s on-line![2] Here are the colors (Overhead 2):

Black      Dark Green

Purple          Green

Pink            Silver

Dark Pink       Yellow

Blue            Dark Blue

Red             Light Purple

White Cream

Orange          Aqua Green

Gold            Maroon

Teal Green Brown

Light Blue

This means you can by your M & M’s in your favorite sports team colors, your company colors, your favorite racing team colors, or your favorite holiday colors! Or you can mix and match your colors! Among my favorite mixes would be Western Michigan Bronco Brown and Gold or Cincinnati Bengal orange and black!

And of course, now that the NASCAR season has begun, they also sponsor the #38 Ford Taurus driven by Eliot Sadler! (Overhead 3)[3] And you can also order NASCAR #38 M and M’s on-line as well!

But, there is another kind of M & M that we must acknowledge this day. It is an M & M of a more important and eternal kind. Each of us who claim a personal relationship with Jesus Christ through the confession of our sins has this M & M. (Overhead 4)

• Our ministry to one another
• Our mission to the world

We will soon address the ministry to one another. This morning however we are addressing the second point – our mission to the world. What is our mission as Christians to the world? Our two texts that have already been read this morning give us a hint- it is an extension of Christ’s mission. It is the Great Commission – God’s call to us to “go and make” disciples who are mature and responsible believers.

But it starts with outreach. It starts with our intentional commitment to build a relationship with people who need God in their life and need someone to help them come to God. Let me use a familiar image to give us a starting point – home plate. (Overhead 5)

In baseball home plate is two things – the starting point of the game and the measure of progress. It has a dual purpose. Let me suggest that outreach also has a dual purpose – the starting point of faith and the measure of our progress in furthering the Great Commission. In other words the purpose of outreach is to help people come home to God! Why? Because until they do, they are lost! And speaking of lost, Jesus told three stories that comprise the entire 15^th chapter of Luke’s gospel. These three stories say something about outreach.

The first story that Jesus told was the story or parable of the lost sheep. A few weeks ago I watched a cable TV news channel feature story in the Middle East, I can’t remember where, about residents of this one country who were looking for a sheep to sacrifice as part of an upcoming religious celebration.

The TV crew filmed the segment alongside a busy highway where people would stop and get out of their expensive cars like a Mercedes and deal with the herders. Price and quality were a big deal for them and then when the transaction was complete, they would drive off with the sheep in their trunk.

One of the things that stuck me was that here were people who were wealthy enough to drive a Mercedes buying sheep from someone who perhaps drove an old truck or did not drive an automobile at all. But, who were the sheep more valuable to? Those who owned the sheep! Those who were looking could buy anything they want and if they lost their sheep they would be out what they had paid. But, for the shepherd to have lost a sheep, it was a tremendous loss because it was a source of tremendous revenue!

The featured help me better understand the joy of verse 6 at the recovery of the lost sheep? Now some people might frankly say, “Hey! The shepherd still had 99 sheep left. Maybe he’s better off one less sheep. Maybe that sheep was nothing but trouble!” But, we miss the point of the story, especially from God’s perspective.

As Jesus says in verse 7, “Heaven [rejoices] over one lost sinner who returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!” The one matters to God! God is interested in finding the lost sheep! And He needs our help in doing so because a key function of a fully functioning church is outreach. But, Jesus does not stop with the sheep, he moves to the story of the lost coin. He is trying to prove a point.

How many of us get so frustrated when you lose something and you spend a great deal of effort trying to find it? And sometimes we do some crazy things to find things. For example, a few weeks ago I lost the cordless phone in our house. It was somewhere where we could not see it.

Know how I found it? I used the cell phone to call the house phone and listened for the cordless phone’s rings! It took me two rounds of calling to find it! The cell phone’s voice mail kicked on before I could find it!

As we read the story of the lost coin in verses 8 through 10, we understand the desperate search for something of value don’t we? The search for the car keys, or the diamond ring, or the childhood keepsake, or the TV remote gets us possessed. We are no longer are in the hunt mode, we are in the search and rescue mode!

This woman that we read of in Luke 15 probably did not have a great deal of money. Things were probably tight for her. That coin was going to buy food or pay the rent or a bill that she owed on. Where was it? How am I going to survive!

But, she finds it! And she celebrates the finding! And Jesus says in verse 10, “In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.” Lost people are of great value to God. Lost people matter to God.

Then there is the greatest story of the three – the story of the lost son. This time Jesus does not speak about a lost animal or lost coin but a lost person.

Very briefly it is the story of a father and two sons. The youngest decides he wants to live life his way and asks for his share of the inheritance.

He leaves and goes to another country and lives, no pun intended, high on the hog until there is nothing left of his inheritance. He ends up feeding the pigs to survive.

Then one day, “When he finally came to his senses,” as stated in verse 17 he makes the decision to return home and become a servant at his father’s house. He has screwed up and he longer feels worthy to be a son to his father. He even rehearses his speech.

He goes home and there is dad who spots him from a distance and runs to him and welcomes him home. A party follows and the older son finds out about his younger brother’s return.

He confronts his father about why this party has been done for this irresponsible brother when he has been so faithful to him. And what does his father say? Verse 32, “We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!”

Every one of us here this morning can name a person they wish would come home to God. They are a brother, a sister, a parent, a grandparent, a wife, a husband, a friend, or a neighbor.

We desperately want to see them turn their life over to the Lord. And if we are so desirous of this, think about how God must feel! He wants them worse than we do!

I think that Jesus was intentional in how he organized his story. He was setting up his primary audience whom is identified in verse 2 – the Pharisees and the teachers of religious law who complained about the kind of people that Jesus was associating with.

He starts out with a story designed to evoke sympathy. His target audience knew the value of those sheep for the faith they proclaimed required the use of them.

Then he moves to a story that they understood even more clearly because it dealt with money. And they liked money.

Then he nails them. He humanizes the story. He deals with what is closest to the heart of God – lost people -those very prodigals that kept gathering around Jesus that were despised by the “religious” people.

I wonder from time to time about the facial expressions on those who heard this story. The religious people did. The disciples did. The prodigals always around Jesus did.

Lost and seeking people matter to God. That’s who Jesus was after. He did not sit in some synagogue somewhere and hope that people would show up for the service. He did not have a home church. He went where the people were.

Think about the term outreach. It is composed of two words – out and reach. That’s what Jesus’ mission was – reaching out through His ministry and His death and resurrection to bring people home to His father.

That’s the mission he prayed for in John 17:18, “As you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world.” That’s what he told them to do in John 20:21, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” That’s part of being a fully functioning church.

Outreach is a part of our church. The purpose our outreach ministry team is to help people come to God! We cannot make the decision for them. We cannot force them to come to God.

In fact one great and grave challenge for us today is to proclaim the gospel in such a way as to attract people not repel them. In a recent article, “Evangelism As Companionship,” Katie Hayes made this very pointed observation. “We must address the new and growing reality that people are wary of the religious equivalent of telemarketing. They have a sensitive detection system that alerts them when they are just another target for the evangelistic sales pitch. To be perfectly crass about it, evangelism the old way allowed us to check people off our list when they were “finished.” Once we got them in the water, we could move on to the next one.”[4]

Outreach involves relationships. And if there is one thing that I have truly learned over the years it is this: relationships require time, lots of time, to grow and mature in order to be honest and real and authentic.

(Overhead 6) Here are some important questions that we need to ask ourselves regarding outreach:

• Am I consciously developing relationships with unchurched persons and asking God to help me with opportunities to share His love and forgiveness with them?
• Am I investing in a person or group of people who need God in their lives?
• Am I regularly inviting unchurched or unconnected friends to church?

(Overhead 7) We have an outreach ministry team that is currently combined with our fellowship ministry team. I hope to see that changed with the election of new leaders this fall. Right now there are two main outreach ministries that we have – FW Friends and VBS. In the works are two goals:

3 year – Develop a future facility plan based on the work of the Facility Study Group.

5 year – Develop a small group ministry for various needs and life stages.

Both of these goals are important. A good facility can enhance our ability to reach new people. And small groups have been proven effective in bringing people to faith.

But, more than facilities and more than another program a faithfully functioning church that wants to partner with God in helping people come home to Christ is one who makes a choice, a very strategic choice. Namely, they make the choice to develop honest and caring relationships with unchurched people and love them into the Kingdom of God. This choice is not an easily made choice. It is a choice that is made again and again and again when it is easy and when it is hard.

Finally why are we reaching out to people? Why do we say, “come to church with me?” Why should we reach out to those who have no faith or little faith?

People need hope and love and security in their lives. Things are out of control in many person’s lives. Jobs, war, money issues, all of these things are uncertain. We need to be grounded in something much more permanent – we need to be grounded in God. God wants to find us and save us, He wants us to come home.

I like what you said about being saved, which was the second question that I asked.

• Eternal life with Christ
• Changing your lifestyle to reflect Christ
• I am going to a better place when I die
• To be free from the power of sin
• I have accepted Jesus as my Savior
• Knowing that I lack the power to turn myself from destruction
• My sins are forgiven
• Forever in the light of Christ
• Receiving Christ into my heart
• I have been place in God’s hands and one day will be forever with Him
• Jesus died for our sins
• Forgiven of your sins and going to heaven
• You have lived your life without God but you found Him later in life and you follow Him for the rest of your life

I conclude with this thought: Think about the people in our lives who made the choice to help us make our commitment to Christ. What if they hadn’t? Amen.

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[1] History of M & M’s from the website www.mms.com

[2] Colorworks, information available at www.mms.com

[3] Copyrighted by the Mars Company.

[4] Evangelism As Companionship, Katie Hayes. From The Gospel and Our Culture newsletter, volume 14, numbers 3 and 4, September to December, 2002. Web address is http://www.gocn.org

Playing For God

Colossians 3:1-16

Main point – The function of fellowship is to be a better member of God’s family.

This morning we continue toward the conclusion of our series on God’s vision for us, “A fully following and faithfully functioning church.” We spent the month of January looking at the lives of 10 Biblical characters and how they illustrate what it means to fully follow God. And we have spent the past 6 weeks studying the five primary functions or purposes of the church. We will conclude this series in two weeks with the opportunity to respond to this vision.

Someone recently told me in a half-jesting and half-serious way that I have too many sports illustrations. I thought, “Well I’ll try to broaden the illustrations so that it won’t be that way.” Then, I looked at the working title of today’s sermon, which has become the bulletin title, and thought, “Well maybe next week!”

I asked this past week in another e-mail sermon survey, “Name the first sports team that comes to your mind.” This is what you said: (They are listed alphabetically and be nice as you hear the teams called off!)

Chicago Bears

Chicago Bulls

Chicago Cubs

Denver Broncos

Florida Gators

Green Bay Packers

Indiana Pacers (2)

Indianapolis Colts

Kentucky Wildcats

Miami Dolphins

Purdue Boilermakers(2)

At first glance, today’s title might seem a bit shallow. A lot of people seem to “play” at and with life and not really take it seriously in appropriate ways. Now, there is a place for “play” in our lives, but can we “play for” God?

When I looked up the word play in a dictionary I came across a couple of interesting definitions: 1.”An effort to arouse liking.” 2.”To behave in a specified way.”

Let’s think about this for a moment. When we play a game or sport, we are expected to behave in a specified way. A baseball player is expected to play like a baseball player not a football player or a soccer player. The same holds true for musician in a band or an orchestra. And they are also to play with passion in order to arouse support for their team and their sports or work.

I also spent sometime looking up the word “for.” To be “for” something is to be in support of it. So, could we not combine these two word definitions and translate the sermon title something to the effect of “Making an effort to live for God in a specified and enthusiastic way?”

Last week we looked at the second of five important functions of the church – outreach. Outreach is an important function of the church. A church that does not continuously reach out to the unchurched will begin to decline and eventually die.

On the other hand, a church that exclusively focuses on outreach to the exclusion of the other functions – service, discipleship, fellowship, and worship – creates congregations that can lack the necessary spiritual nutrients required to have both fully following and faithfully functioning members as well as a fully following and faithfully functioning congregation. In other words, there is more to our faith that just being saved. I believe that it is Glenn Wagner, pastor of Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina who says, “We’ve got to do more than get the people into the kingdom. We’ve got to the kingdom into people.”^[1]

Now before we examine Colossians 3, we need to understand what fellowship is. I asked this past week for a response to the question, “What is the purpose of church fellowship?” This is what some of us said:

to get to know and learn from one another

to come together for one purpose

to build up each other in Christ

to be team players

to fulfill our place in God, family, church

to hang out with fellow Christians

to have fun in a Christian environment

to develop and strengthen the bonds of Christian friendship

to pray and be accountable to one another

to get to know everyone

to encourage one another through fun times

to nurture and encourage one another

Thanks for sharing and let’s keep these thoughts in mind. And let me also suggest that the purpose of fellowship is to help people live for God.

Fellowship is a critical element in the kingdom of God. It is an important spiritual nutrient.

One definition of fellowship is the “condition of friendly relationships existing among persons.” Rick Warren says, “You were formed for God’s family.”^[2]

Now, we all know that life with others is not 100% wonderful. There are stress and strains. But, it is God’s purpose that as His people, the church, we live well and live well together in Him. But just exactly how do we do that? Paul gives us some very important suggestion in our text for this morning, Colossians 3:1 – 16.

Good fellowship, the kind that helps us not just be converts to Christ but disciples of Christ involves, among other things, three important aspects of our lives: character, commitment, and conduct. Paul addresses all three in this segment of scripture.

When someone asks you for a character reference what are he or she asking for? They are asking for a reference on who you are. Are you trustworthy? Are you honest? Are you truthful? In other words, will this person be a good employee?

If someone asked for a character reference about us, as a congregation, what would be said? I suggest that our text for this morning gives us a good idea of what should be said about us because individually and congregationally our character does matter and as fellowship helps us live for God it also affects our character.

Simply put, fellowship can enable our character to move from self-centered to God-centered. Fellowship enables this to happen as we gather together to think about the things of God. Paul makes it clear in the opening verses of Colossians 3 that our thinking must change from being preoccupied with only earthly matters to thinking about heavenly things, the things of God.

Notice that Paul does not say forget your earthly situation. He says, at least in the translation that I use, “Do not think only about things down here on earth.” In other words, to quote an old saying, “don’t be so heavenly minded that you’re no earthly good.”

To think the thoughts of God, to have the mind of Christ, is to think, as God would have us think about our lives and how we are to live. Fellowship helps us in this area because our confession of faith and our commitment to Christ makes us a part of the church. And in becoming a part of the church, our personal faith and life in God grows as we formally and informally gather together for the purpose of fellowship.

Now can we live without fellowship? For a time. But living without the kind of fellowship of which Paul speaks in our passage will cause our faith and walk to suffer and even collapse. Think about a plant trying to survive with out water or air. It can’t.

The thing about fellowship is that it sometimes forces us to deal our self-centeredness. I can recall in a small group meeting that took place during a very difficult time in my life asking out loud as I shared my frustration and pain, “Is this all there is?” I needed to do that because I needed to be honest about myself and asking that question actually strengthened the bond of fellowship that I had with that group and helped me move forward.

In a passage that also speaks to the issue and function of fellowship, Romans 14, Paul says in verses 7 and 8, “For we are not our own masters when we live and when we die. While we live, we live to please the Lord. And when we die, we go to be with the Lord. So in life and in death, we belong to the Lord.”

As the church came to life in the early chapters of Acts, fellowship was a key function of her strengthening and growing life and ministry. As Acts 2:46 says, “They worshipped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity.”

Fellowship takes place in various ways and this verse highlights some of those ways – as they gathered for worship, as they gathered in homes to partake of the Lord’s Supper, and as they ate together. Fellowship also takes place one-on-one as well. In each case, fellowship takes place to help us live for God.

Fellowship also helps us deal with our commitments as we move from self-serving to God-serving and our conduct as we move from being self-focused to God-focused. Notice the changes in verses 5 to 11 that Paul says must take place because as our commitment is focused more and more on Christ, our commitments to a certain life-style must change.

He first speaks of the things that must go: Sexual sin, impurity, lust, greed, idolatry, slander, dirty language, rage, and lying. A commitment to these things indicates a self-serving life.

They are also conduct issues. They are habits and actions that impair our relationship with the Lord. How can we get rid of these habits and commitments and live for God? One critical way is by fellowship.

In his book, The Church You’ve Always Wanted, Glenn Wagner tells the story of a married couple whose marriage was on the rocks. “This couple had tried all kinds of remedies; in and out of counseling, meetings for men, seminars for women, marriage conferences for couples. But nothing seemed to work. The proverbial straw had broken the camel’s back. Despite everything, the marriage had come to an end.

But then. . . the miracle.

The body of Christ began to embrace this hurting man and woman, although in a different way than before. The talk and prayers and presence not longer focused on managing sin and controlling behavior but a divine relationship fully able to transform sick hearts. For months this lovingly potent atmosphere perfumed the air around Calvary, filling the lungs of a broken man and woman with new strength and hope.”

When I read that passage I saw the fellowship of the church at is best. Now, fellowship cannot always be focused on crisis experiences. But, the kind of fellowship, the kind that honors God and of which Paul speaks in this passage, is often seen in moments like this.

Paul does not continue to dwell on the negative in Colossians 3. He moves to the positive. He makes clear what kind of fellowship, what kind of relationship, helps a church to deepen and develop into a church that honors God. We read of these things in verses 12 through 17:

Clothe yourself with mercy, kindness, gentleness, and patience

Make allowance for one another’s faults

Forgive the person who offends you

Wear love

Let God’s peace rule in your heart

Live in peace and be thankful

Let the word of God live in you

Use God’s words to teach and counsel

Sing! Worship!

Do everything as God’s representative

Fellowship is the glue that cements a fully functioning church together. Without it a church will be unstable and in moments of conflict and stress, fall apart. But, when those things that have just been mentioned characterize our fellowship, and we allow the Spirit to really have His way, times of conflict and stress will only strengthen the bonds of love.

Rick Warren has written some of the most elegant and meaningful things on fellowship and as we move toward the end of worship this morning, I share them with you:

He speaks of community, of a sense of belonging, when he speaks of fellowship. One of the challenges to community he notes are those he calls EGR people – Extra Grace Required people. People who challenge us and some time frustrate us and try our patience. Listen to what he says about them.

“God put these people in our midst for both their benefit and ours. They are an opportunity for growth and a test for fellowship: Will we love them as brothers and sisters and treat them with dignity?”

One of the things that community requires is honesty. And sometimes honesty creates conflict. But, Warren says, “The tunnel of conflict is the passage way of intimacy in any relationship.” God wants us to be real and honest with each other. Such realness and honesty takes time to fully develop. But, it is important in the fellowship ministry of the church.

When conflict and disappointment and unforeseen circumstances occur in a church, and they do, sometimes the first casualty is spiritual intimacy. People take sides. Feelings get hurt. Pain is real. Trust is shattered. Love is diminished.

And when, and if, the time comes for healing and restoration, sometimes the last thing to return is community, fellowship. Two choices are critical in that restoration. A willingness to forgive and second, a willingness to rebuild community.

Here are some things to think about related to fellowship. How do you rate yourself?^[3]

I am deepening my understanding of and friendship with God in community with others.

I am growing in my ability both to share and to show my love for others

I am willing to share my real needs for prayer and support from others

I am resolving my conflict constructively and am willing to forgive others

What is it that makes you feel a part of a group? What is it that makes us want to do something with someone or others that we probably would not do alone? Let me suggest four things – authenticity, mutuality, sympathy, and mercy.[4]

Being around real and honest people gives us a boost. We experience enough fakery and deception to last lifetime. I believe that when a church is authentic and real, it becomes credible. How credible, how authentic, how real is our fellowship?

When we share a common goal, a common bond, there is a give and take that challenges us and helps us grow and accomplish things that we could have not done by ourselves. Helping solve a problem or finish a project or, as we heard earlier, helping a marriage to turn around, gives us a boost. We look back and say, “Wow! Thanks God for your grace and mercy at work!” It is called mutuality.

Does our fellowship include mutuality?  Are we cooperating and building bonds of love and respect? Are we living out Colossians 3: 12 – 15?

When my father passed away in 1991, two members of the church that we served in Kalamazoo drove all the way to Ohio for the funeral. I will never forget that. They were not ministers. They were layperson! They took off from work to do that. Sympathy was well expressed that day.

When we are down due to grief or the pain in life, is sympathy well expressed through our fellowship? Do we mourn with those who mourn? Grief, I would remind us is not just done during the death of a person. Grief comes when there is a loss of any kind. Do we grieve well with one another and with others outside of our fellowship?

When kids in our town play tee-ball, everybody hits and runs the bases. When one side has hit they go to the outfield. Why? There is mercy at work. In several of the softball leagues that I have played in, there has been a mercy rule that kicks in after a certain number of innings have been played and a certain run differential has been achieved. Mercy is at work.

How well do we show mercy in our fellowship? Or is there evidence that memories, and the grudges that are a part of those memories, are long? The church is a place of grace. Grace and mercy go hand-in-hand.

Now, it does not mean that we look the other way when there is sin present that needs to be dealt with. Accountability is an important part of fellowship. But when accountability is taken too far, mercy takes a hit.

Is our fellowship a place of grace? Are we embracing both accountability and forgiveness? Are we caring and loving in spite of our flaws and quirks as Colossians 3:13 indicates? How well are we showing mercy?

I am glad for the fellowship of the church. God has used it to sustain me through thick and thin. God has used it to hold me in moments of grief. And He has used it to hold me accountable for the stewardship of my life.

But, I also believe that our fellowship function calls us to more than Sunday morning worship and a few moments of “meet and greet.” It calls to care and love and respect and lift up one another. It calls us to get together in groups and pairs for prayer and study and support. It calls us to reach out to all ages and stages of life. It calls us to help one another as we live for God throughout the week.

Fellowship is part of how we do business here. Our fellowship ministry team is currently combined with our outreach team. And there is an important connection between the two. But, I hope and pray that we will have two separate ministry team this coming year.

Our current fellowship ministries are:

Men’s group

Women’s ministry

Fellowship Events

Care Giving

_______, ________, ________, ________, and _________ make up this team. Our goals for this team include developing an active men’s, women’s, and senior adult ministry. Maybe God is calling you to be a part of this ministry.

I conclude this morning with a chart that signifies something important about fellowship. It is a four-year comparison of our average worship attendance from September through February.

The first bar represents 1999-2000 when we average 43. The next year is 2000-2001 when the average bumped up to 59. The third bar is 2001-2002 when the average rose to 65 and the final bar is this year 2002-3003 when the average rose to 73. The average annual rate for the period is 20+%!

What role has fellowship played in this increase? What role has authenticity, mutuality, sympathy, mercy played? I think that it has played a major role.

Praise God! We have turned around! And now it is time to move forward and together write a new chapter in the history of this congregation.

But, for us to do so, our fellowship must be strong. It must continue to grow. it must continue to develop more deeply and more consistently. It must be unblocked by confession and humility, which Rick Warren reminds us, is “not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less.” It must be allowed to flow freely as we let go of grudges and past slight and hurts as we choose to forgive one another.

We can have the greatest evangelism ministry around. We can have the best worship services in which we truly meet with God. We can serve the needy like nobody else.

But when we look back at our life and involvement in the church what is it that we will remember? It is the quality of relationships, the quality of community, and the quality of fellowship, or the lack of, that we will remember.

What is God saying to you, to me, to us in this area? Fellowship is too important to ignore. Let us not forsake our gathering together. Amen.

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^[1] From the book The Church You’ve Always Wanted.

^[2] From 40 Days of Purpose Small Group Curriculum, page 54.

^[3]Taken from the 40 Days of Purpose small group curriculum, published by Saddleback Church. Page 54

[4] From the book Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren.

The Dangers of A Fast-Food Faith

Hebrews 5:11-6:3

Main point – We are to be disciples not converts.

This is the season of Lent. Lent is the 40 period prior to Easter in which Christians have been encouraged to remember the sacrifice of Christ on the cross for our salvation by giving up something for the entire 40 days. For some persons some type of food, like chocolate, is given up.

Speaking of food, much has been said this past year about the fat content in fast food and there has been at least one lawsuit filed against McDonalds for their negligence in contributing to the obesity problem in this country.

Earlier this year a federal judge dismissed a class action lawsuit on behalf of New York children against McDonald’s. In fact, there were five counts of alleged wrongdoing against the fast-food company.

One count charged that McDonald’s “deceived the public by stating its foods were nutritious and encouraging consumers to “supersize” meals without disclosing negative health effects.”[1]

Another count alleged that McDonald’s “acted negligently by selling foods high in cholesterol, fat, salt and sugar – ingredients that cause obesity and detrimental health effects.” In response to this count the judge said, “Nobody is forced to eat at McDonalds [or to] supersize their meals… [And] as long as a consumer exercises free choice with appropriate knowledge, liability for negligence will not attach to a manufacturer.”[2]

So I ask you, McDonald’s or Cracker Barrel? Golden arches or rocking chairs and great gifts? Big Mac or Turnip Greens?

I asked this past week both via e-mail and face-to-face  “McDonalds or Cracker Barrel?” Of those who responded 12 were for Cracker Barrel and 4 for McDonalds. A 3 to 1 margin.

As we continue to consider what it means to be a faithfully functioning church, we must also consider the dangers of a fast food faith as well. For just as poor eating can lead to health problems so can the lack of proper spiritual nutrients lead to a lack of spiritual growth and health.

In a very important passage of scripture, Matthew 28: 19, Jesus tells His disciples to go and make disciples not converts. Have you ever wonder why Jesus used the word “disciple” and not the word “convert?”

We preach in our tradition the need for conversion. And, of course, it is my desire, as well as yours, that people experience saving faith through confession and repentance of their sins. But, there is more to the Christian life that just getting saved. Scripture is clear that spiritual life and growth is essential and necessary to fully experience life with God.

In our main text that was read earlier, Hebrews 5:11 – 6:3, the problem and more importantly, the dangers of a fast-food faith is confronted. And we need to understand the context of this segment before we look more closely at it.

The opening chapters of Hebrews deal with the person and work of Jesus Christ. But, by the time the author gets to verse 10 of chapter 5, there is a pause and a change of direction, “There is so much more we would like to say about this. But you don’t seem to listen, so it’s hard to make you understand. You have been Christians a long time now, and you ought to be teaching others.” Why is this statement made? Why is there a sudden change of direction? Why does the spiritual maturity of this group of followers become an issue? One possibility comes to mind, the lack of spiritual maturity is keeping this church from understanding and experiencing more of what God has for them!

Now let’s be honest, some people get offended at these statements. “How dare this is said about believers! What right have you to tell us we can’t handle this teaching! What right have you to tell us that we are still like babies who can have solid food! We’re Christians! We’ve been saved!”

As I reflected on this passage, Id something that I often do with scripture for the purpose of trying to understand it. I read it backward, starting with the last verse and ending with the first verse.

Let’s read this passage backward, “And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding. You don’t need further instructions about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. So let us stop going over the basics of Christianity again and again. Let us go on instead and become more mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start all over again with the importance of turning away from evil deeds and placing our faith in God.

Solid food is for those who are mature, who have trained themselves to recognize the difference between right and wrong and then do what is right. And a person who is living on milk isn’t very far along in the Christian life and doesn’t know much about doing what is right. You have been Christians a long time now, and you ought to be teaching others. Instead you need someone to teach you again the basic things a beginner must learn about the Scriptures. You are like babies who drink only milk and cannot eat solid food. There is so much more we would like to say about this. But, you don’t seem to listen, so it’s hard to make you understand.”

Now, does it make more sense? It did to me. The author says what he says not to intentionally offend but to encourage his audience to mature and grow beyond a basic understanding so that they both experience and understand all that God has for them. In other words, they need to be more than converts. They need to become disciples. But, what is the difference between the two?

Dictionary definitions of “convert” emphasize religious conversion and change of beliefs. And the definition of “disciple” indicates the same type of dynamic. However, we need to understand the Biblical meaning of the words.

In his Dictionary of the New Testament, Leon-Dufour, says this about the biblical meaning of disciple, ‘in the [New Testament], the word does not appear except in the gospels and in Acts. It is never a case of the “pupil” who receives instruction from a master, but always of someone who shares a close and definitive relationship with one person.[3]

A convert is like a pupil. He or she is new to the faith. Training in the basics must be a part of the convert’s life. Think of a soldier or sailor. The first place they go is called what? “Basic training.”

What happens in basic training? You learn the skills, discipline, and attitudes to become a soldier or sailor (or a Marine). Our military does not entrust you with an M-16 or a M-1 Abrams Tank or an Apache helicopter right away.

You have to learn a whole new way of thinking, acting, and living. So it is with a new convert to the faith. There are certain things that we must learn that will help us become more complete followers of Christ. But, just as basic training ends and we go on to specialized training before we are put in the field or at sea or in the air, there comes a time when we must move on in our relationship with God from being only a convert to becoming a disciple.

I like what Rick Warren says, “There are no shortcuts to maturity.” And he goes on to basically say, “How many of us like fresh tomatoes right off the vine? (I’m not sure that I should say this but) in some grocery stores in our country, the tomatoes are shipped unripened so they won’t bruise and hence green. Then before they are sold are given a shot of carbon dioxide gas that turns them red and ready to eat.5 “

I believe that sometimes the same approach as been taken in the church to help us mature more quickly in our faith! A shot of maturity here, a shot of maturity there.

I recall the story of a prominent west coast church of another generation who had such rapid conversion growth that the leadership ranks were filled more and more with new believers who were still learning the faith and it created tremendous problems for the church.

There are no shortcuts to becoming a disciple. It is a daily process. Why does it take so long? Why does it get so hard?

Here are some reasons from the pen of Rick Warren:

• We are slow learners.

In my recent daily Bible reading, I again visited the Israelites as they wandered through the desert after getting away from the Egyptians. It was not very long after their deliverance that they began to grumble and complain and wished they were back in Egypt. They forgot about God’s ability to provide for their needs.

Some lessons in life take longer than others to learn. Now this does not offer us an excuse to give up and think that it is all God’s responsibility. Nor does it mean that we are dumb. But, it means that to become a mature follower, a disciple, certain things will take time to understand and master. Perhaps it will l take a lifetime of willing obedience.

• We have a lot to unlearn.

In 2nd Corinthians 5:17 the New Living Translation, the translation that I use, there is concluding statement. A new life has begun. The rest of the verse says this, “What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. (A new life has begun!)”

Let’s think for a moment about a newborn baby. We often look at one and say, “You’ve got a lot to learn!” But, they also have a lot to unlearn. For example, communicating.

When a baby is born, it communicates through crying and we have to define what the crying means. At first, it means, “I’m hungry!” Then as it matures crying may mean, “I’m lonely or I’m wet.”

As time further goes along, we expecting the crying to be replaced with words that make clear what the baby, now a child, wants. Crying, especially when hurt, still has a purpose, but whining and moaning is not acceptable means of communication anymore.

Becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ requires us to unlearn how to be selfish, evil, mean, and a whole host of other things. And that means we learn a whole new way of learning other important things like the “fruits of the spirit.” That takes time.

• We are afraid to humbly face the truth about ourselves.

Someone has said “the truth does set us free but it often makes us miserable first.” Before we can experience the best that Christ offers us through salvation, we first have to deal with the worst in our lives.

Jesus wanted those who opposed Him during His earthly ministry to be set free from the life that they were living. But, they couldn’t be set free until they admitted the truth about themselves. Those who did admit the truth about themselves were the ones who experienced healing and salvation.

This is illustrated very well in Luke 18:9 – 14, the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector. It is a story about pride because from the opening verse of the segment, we read that Jesus told this story to “some one who had great self-confidence and scorned everyone else.” The Pharisee fails to see the need for confession in himself but definitely sees the need in the tax collector who stands a few feet away. The tax collector, on the other hand, realizes his need for a change in his life and pleads for God’s mercy. And in conclusion Jesus says, “For the proud will be humbled, but the humble will be honored.”

A follower of Jesus Christ who tells the truth about him or herself to a trusted follower will, through that honesty, create a climate for spiritual growth because God can then begin to work with and honest and willing heart.

• Growth is often painful and scary.

Last fall, you gave Susan, the boys, and I some wonderful pastor appreciation gifts. They were from the heart and they were greatly appreciated. But, do you know what I valued as much as the gifts? It was Tausha’s presentation of them to us. That was marvelous!

I remember her saying something about hearing a sermon about getting out of the comfort zone and that she had been invited to do so. And what thrilled me the most is that she did it! It probably was not easy for her to get up and do that! But, she was willing to try! And she did!

I think that we have gotten a picture of the Christian life as being tranquil and idyllic as we are safe in the arms of Jesus! But, scripture tends to challenge that picture. It paints a picture of discipleship as costly, even dangerous.

Jesus talked about being scorned, hated, mocked, and ridiculed as His followers. Did you or I sign up for that kind of duty? No, we didn’t! But, it is a part of becoming a disciple not a convert.

God does call us to let go of habits, priorities, people, and a whole host of other things in order to follow Him. It’s part of being a disciple. But, He will also help us let go.

• Habits take time to develop.

To become a disciple requires us to learn new habits. Like the newborn that has to learn new ways of communicating a disciple has to learn new ways of living and walking with God. Why? We are talking about a change in our character from self-centered to God-centered.

What habits do we need to learn? I suggest the following:

• Love
• Joy
• Peace
• Kindness
• Goodness
• Faithfulness
• Gentleness
• Self-control

These characteristics, listed in Galatians 5:22 and 23, and known as the “Fruits of the Spirit” are also “Habits of a Disciples.” These are targets to become a fully functioning church and believer. These are what God expects each and every follower to develop, with His help of course, in his or her lives. And I think, every church as well.

Here are some questions we need to ask ourselves, individually and corporately, regarding discipleship:5

1. Do I have a growing relationship with God through consistent Bible study and prayer?

1. Am I both experiencing and demonstrating the fruits of the spirit in my life?

1. Am I avoiding addicting behaviors which keep me from fully experiencing God?

1. Am I spending time with a fellow believer who both celebrates and challenges my spiritual growth?

Our discipleship ministry team exists to help us become responsible church members. Susan Kane, Corey Boese, John Green and myself are a part of that team.

The 3 and 5 year goals for our discipleship ministry is to offer a process to help each one of us find our place in ministry and, to those who might be called, to partner with Indiana Ministries in becoming certified lay ministers. If you have questions about these opportunities please let me know.

Finally, I would suggest that we are living with the dangers of a fast-food diet. It has affected us individually and as a nation. Eating is a problem.

The same holds true for the church. We need less fat and sugar in our spiritual diet. We need less reliance on technique and more on power, God’s power.

We need to move beyond an introductory understanding of the Bible. We need the meat of the Word. We need to wrestle with scripture. We need to memorize and meditate on it.

We need to move beyond a basic relationship with God. We need to go deeper with God. We need to be more surrendered to him. We need to follow him wherever He calls us to follow. We need to obey. Amen.

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[1]From http://www.foxnews.com 01/24/03 news article by Steven Milloy. Web address is http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,76443,00.html

[2]Judge Robert Sweet quoted in ibid article.

[3] Xavier Leon-Dufour, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, page 166

4From the Purpose Driven Life, page 217.

5 Adopted from the 40 Days of Purpose small group guide. Published by Saddleback Community Church, 2002.

This Is My Father’s World

Psalm 2

Main point – God is sovereign!

I feel this morning somewhat like the numerous TV reporters covering events in the Middle East, who have to stay alert to a variety of events beyond their control while trying to focus on the story they are reporting. Off-balance is probably a good description.

Being off-balance also describes us. We don’t have to be standing the desert with missiles dropping around us and scrambling to get chemical protection suits on to feel off-balance. And we feel off-balance not just because of events in the Middle East, but because of employment issues, health issues, family issues, and a host of other issues that have kept us on the move, and sometimes it seems, on the defensive. We have alternated between a quiet hope and a deep uncertainty. But, I also believe that we have had and continue to have moments when the presence and peace of God has been real to each one of us.

My main point this morning is a simple one – God is sovereign! Now what does that mean? For something or someone to be sovereign is to be “supreme in power or authority!” So what I am saying in total this morning is that God is the supreme authority! And we can take comfort and strength in that fact.

But, what do I say this morning? My desire and my intention is to say what God would have me say because I believe that we need to focus on God this morning even though world events and personal issues impinge upon us.

So my sermon this morning are not my words, but those of scripture. They are from the Psalms because I know that the words of the Psalms provide us with comfort and strength during difficult and challenging times. The Psalms also give us words to our emotions that we sometime do not know how to adequately express.

Let us hear the word of God this morning as a reminder of the fact that this is our father’s world! I am going to read the following Psalms: 2, 14, 23, 27, 37, 42, 91, 121, and 150. As you hear them read I challenge you to reflect upon God’s sovereignty that is expressed in them. Following the reading of scripture, we shall spend extended time in personal and corporate prayer this morning. No one will be asked to pray aloud unless you feel led to. And we will be praying for some specific groups of people today that I will name in a few moments. Now, let us hear the word of the Lord.

Psalms 2

Why do the nations rage?

Why do the people waste their time with futile plans?

² The kings of the earth prepare for battle;

the rulers plot together

against the Lord

and against his anointed one.

³ “Let us break their chains,” they cry,

“and free ourselves from this slavery.”

⁴ But the one who rules in heaven laughs.

The Lord scoffs at them.

⁵ Then in anger he rebukes them,

terrifying them with his fierce fury.

⁶ For the Lord declares, “I have placed my chosen king on the throne

in Jerusalem, my holy city.”

⁷ The king proclaims the Lord’s decree:

“The Lord said to me, ‘You are my son.

Today I have become your Father.

⁸ Only ask, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance,

the ends of the earth as your possession.

⁹ You will break them with an iron rod

and smash them like clay pots.’”

¹⁰ Now then, you kings, act wisely!

Be warned, you rulers of the earth!

¹¹ Serve the Lord with reverent fear,

and rejoice with trembling.

¹² Submit to God’s royal son, or he will become angry,

and you will be destroyed in the midst of your pursuits—

for his anger can flare up in an instant.

But what joy for all who find protection in him!

Psalms 14

Only fools say in their hearts,

“There is no God.”

They are corrupt, and their actions are evil;

no one does good!

² The Lord looks down from heaven

on the entire human race;

he looks to see if there is even one with real understanding,

one who seeks for God.

³ But no, all have turned away from God;

all have become corrupt.

No one does good,

not even one!

⁴ Will those who do evil never learn?

They eat up my people like bread;

they wouldn’t think of praying to the Lord.

⁵ Terror will grip them,

for God is with those who obey him.

⁶ The wicked frustrate the plans of the oppressed,

but the Lord will protect his people.

⁷ Oh, that salvation would come from Mount Zion to rescue Israel!

For when the Lord restores his people,

Jacob will shout with joy, and Israel will rejoice.

Psalms 23

The Lord is my shepherd;

I have everything I need.

² He lets me rest in green meadows;

he leads me beside peaceful streams.

³ He renews my strength.

He guides me along right paths,

bringing honor to his name.

⁴ Even when I walk

through the dark valley of death,

I will not be afraid,

for you are close beside me.

Your rod and your staff

protect and comfort me.

⁵ You prepare a feast for me

in the presence of my enemies.

You welcome me as a guest,

anointing my head with oil.

My cup overflows with blessings.

⁶ Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me

all the days of my life,

and I will live in the house of the Lord

forever.

Psalms 27

The Lord is my light and my salvation—

so why should I be afraid?

The Lord protects me from danger—

so why should I tremble?

² When evil people come to destroy me,

when my enemies and foes attack me,

they will stumble and fall.

³ Though a mighty army surrounds me,

my heart will know no fear.

Even if they attack me,

I remain confident.

⁴ The one thing I ask of the Lord—

the thing I seek most—

is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,

delighting in the Lord’s perfections

and meditating in his Temple.

⁵ For he will conceal me there when troubles come;

he will hide me in his sanctuary.

He will place me out of reach on a high rock.

⁶ Then I will hold my head high,

above my enemies who surround me.

At his Tabernacle I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy,

singing and praising the Lord with music.

⁷ Listen to my pleading, O Lord.

Be merciful and answer me!

⁸ My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.”

And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.”

⁹ Do not hide yourself from me.

Do not reject your servant in anger.

You have always been my helper.

Don’t leave me now; don’t abandon me,

O God of my salvation!

¹⁰ Even if my father and mother abandon me,

the Lord will hold me close.

¹¹ Teach me how to live, O Lord.

Lead me along the path of honesty,

for my enemies are waiting for me to fall.

¹² Do not let me fall into their hands.

For they accuse me of things I’ve never done

and breathe out violence against me.

¹³ Yet I am confident that I will see the Lord’s goodness

while I am here in the land of the living.

¹⁴ Wait patiently for the Lord.

Be brave and courageous.

Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.

Psalms 37

Don’t worry about the wicked.

Don’t envy those who do wrong.

² For like grass, they soon fade away.

Like springtime flowers, they soon wither.

³ Trust in the Lord and do good.

Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.

⁴ Take delight in the Lord,

and he will give you your heart’s desires.

⁵ Commit everything you do to the Lord.

Trust him, and he will help you.

⁶ He will make your innocence as clear as the dawn,

and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun.

⁷ Be still in the presence of the Lord,

and wait patiently for him to act.

Don’t worry about evil people who prosper

or fret about their wicked schemes.

⁸ Stop your anger!

Turn from your rage!

Do not envy others—

it only leads to harm.

⁹ For the wicked will be destroyed,

but those who trust in the Lord will possess the land.

¹⁰ In a little while, the wicked will disappear.

Though you look for them, they will be gone.

¹¹ Those who are gentle and lowly will possess the land;

they will live in prosperous security.

¹² The wicked plot against the godly;

they snarl at them in defiance.

¹³ But the Lord just laughs,

for he sees their day of judgment coming.

¹⁴ The wicked draw their swords

and string their bows

to kill the poor and the oppressed,

to slaughter those who do right.

¹⁵ But they will be stabbed through the heart with their own swords,

and their bows will be broken.

¹⁶ It is better to be godly and have little

than to be evil and possess much.

¹⁷ For the strength of the wicked will be shattered,

but the Lord takes care of the godly.

¹⁸ Day by day the Lord takes care of the innocent,

and they will receive a reward that lasts forever.

¹⁹ They will survive through hard times;

even in famine they will have more than enough.

²⁰ But the wicked will perish.

The Lord’s enemies are like flowers in a field—

they will disappear like smoke.

²¹ The wicked borrow and never repay,

but the godly are generous givers.

²² Those blessed by the Lord will inherit the land,

but those cursed by him will die.

²³ The steps of the godly are directed by the Lord.

He delights in every detail of their lives.

²⁴ Though they stumble, they will not fall,

for the Lord holds them by the hand.

²⁵ Once I was young, and now I am old.

Yet I have never seen the godly forsaken,

nor seen their children begging for bread.

²⁶ The godly always give generous loans to others,

and their children are a blessing.

²⁷ Turn from evil and do good,

and you will live in the land forever.

²⁸ For the Lord loves justice,

and he will never abandon the godly.

He will keep them safe forever,

but the children of the wicked will perish.

²⁹ The godly will inherit the land

and will live there forever.

³⁰ The godly offer good counsel;

they know what is right from wrong.

³¹ They fill their hearts with God’s law,

so they will never slip from his path.

³² Those who are evil spy on the godly,

waiting for an excuse to kill them.

³³ But the Lord will not let the wicked succeed

or let the godly be condemned when they are brought before the judge.

³⁴ Don’t be impatient for the Lord to act!

Travel steadily along his path.

He will honor you, giving you the land.

You will see the wicked destroyed.

³⁵ I myself have seen it happen—

proud and evil people thriving like mighty trees.

³⁶ But when I looked again, they were gone!

Though I searched for them, I could not find them!

³⁷ Look at those who are honest and good,

for a wonderful future lies before those who love peace.

³⁸ But the wicked will be destroyed;

they have no future.

³⁹ The Lord saves the godly;

he is their fortress in times of trouble.

⁴⁰ The Lord helps them,

rescuing them from the wicked.

He saves them,

and they find shelter in him.

Psalms 42

As the deer pants for streams of water,

so I long for you, O God.

² I thirst for God, the living God.

When can I come and stand before him?

³ Day and night, I have only tears for food,

while my enemies continually taunt me, saying,

“Where is this God of yours?”

⁴ My heart is breaking

as I remember how it used to be:

I walked among the crowds of worshipers,

leading a great procession to the house of God,

singing for joy and giving thanks—

it was the sound of a great celebration!

⁵ Why am I discouraged?

Why so sad?

I will put my hope in God!

I will praise him again—

my Savior and ⁶my God!

Now I am deeply discouraged,

but I will remember your kindness—

from Mount Hermon, the source of the Jordan,

from the land of Mount Mizar.

⁷ I hear the tumult of the raging seas

as your waves and surging tides sweep over me.

⁸ Through each day the Lord pours his unfailing love upon me,

and through each night I sing his songs,

praying to God who gives me life.

⁹ “O God my rock,” I cry,

“Why have you forsaken me?

Why must I wander in darkness,

oppressed by my enemies?”

¹⁰ Their taunts pierce me like a fatal wound.

They scoff, “Where is this God of yours?”

¹¹ Why am I discouraged?

Why so sad?

I will put my hope in God!

I will praise him again—

my Savior and my God!

Psalms 91

Those who live in the shelter of the Most High

will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

² This I declare of the Lord:

He alone is my refuge, my place of safety;

he is my God, and I am trusting him.

³ For he will rescue you from every trap

and protect you from the fatal plague.

⁴ He will shield you with his wings.

He will shelter you with his feathers.

His faithful promises are your armor and protection.

⁵ Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night,

nor fear the dangers of the day,

⁶ nor dread the plague that stalks in darkness,

nor the disaster that strikes at midday.

⁷ Though a thousand fall at your side,

though ten thousand are dying around you,

these evils will not touch you.

⁸ But you will see it with your eyes;

you will see how the wicked are punished.

⁹ If you make the Lord your refuge,

if you make the Most High your shelter,

¹⁰ no evil will conquer you;

no plague will come near your dwelling.

¹¹ For he orders his angels

to protect you wherever you go.

¹² They will hold you with their hands

to keep you from striking your foot on a stone.

¹³ You will trample down lions and poisonous snakes;

you will crush fierce lions and serpents under your feet!

¹⁴ The Lord says, “I will rescue those who love me.

I will protect those who trust in my name.

¹⁵ When they call on me, I will answer;

I will be with them in trouble.

I will rescue them and honor them.

¹⁶ I will satisfy them with a long life

and give them my salvation.”

Psalms 121

I look up to the mountains—

does my help come from there?

² My help comes from the Lord,

who made the heavens and the earth!

³ He will not let you stumble and fall;

the one who watches over you will not sleep.

⁴ Indeed, he who watches over Israel

never tires and never sleeps.

⁵ The Lord himself watches over you!

The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade.

⁶ The sun will not hurt you by day,

nor the moon at night.

⁷ The Lord keeps you from all evil

and preserves your life.

⁸ The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go,

both now and forever.

Psalms 150

Praise the Lord!

Praise God in his heavenly dwelling;

praise him in his mighty heaven!

² Praise him for his mighty works;

praise his unequaled greatness!

³ Praise him with a blast of the trumpet;

praise him with the lyre and harp!

⁴ Praise him with the tambourine and dancing;

praise him with stringed instruments and flutes!

⁵ Praise him with a clash of cymbals;

praise him with loud clanging cymbals.

⁶ Let everything that lives sing praises to the Lord!

Praise the Lord!

God is sovereign! God is all knowing! God is all-powerful! God sees all.

There is no one on this earth who is like God! There is no earthly leader who has the power and authority that God has! Let us gain hope and gain strength in this reality and truth!

We are going to spend sometime in prayer this morning as a congregation.

We will spend a few moments in silent prayer for each group and then 2 or 3 persons those who feel so led to briefly pray for this particular group can do so.

Let us pray for:

Our nation and our leaders – at all levels

Our men and women in the military

The Iraqi people especially the Christians

____ and ____ and their families

One another

May Jesus Christ be praised! Amen.

What kind of SHAPE are you in?

I Corinthians 12:27

We are called and equipped to serve – in Jesus’ name!

One of the beliefs about our economic system is that it has moved from being an industrial economy to a service and information economy. In other words, more and more jobs are based on providing a service or information than providing a product.

Service has therefore become an important part of business life as the following stories illustrate:

A resident in a seaside hotel breakfast room called over the head waiter one morning and said, “I want two boiled eggs, one of them so undercooked it’s runny, and the other so overcooked, it’s about as easy to eat as rubber; also grilled bacon that has been left on the plate to get cold; burnt toast that crumbles away as soon as you touch it with a knife; butter straight from the deep-freeze so that it’s impossible to spread; and a pot of very weak coffee, luke-warm.”

“That’s a complicated order, sir,” said the bewildered waiter. “It might be a bit difficult.” The guest replied, “Oh, but that’s what you gave me yesterday!”

Or how about the businesswoman who stopped at a coffee shop and ordered a cup of coffee. The waitress grudgingly delivered it and asked, “Anything else?”

“Yes,” said the businesswoman, “I’d like some sugar, cream, a spoon, a napkin, and a saucer for the cup.” “Well, aren’t you the demanding one,” snapped the waitress.

“Look at it from my point of view,” said the businesswoman, “You served a cup of coffee and made five mistakes!”

We expect good service when we go out to eat or to buy something or to get something. We like to be treated with respect when we are served or waited upon. Service is an important commodity these days.

We are at the concluding point in our series, God’s vision for us: a fully following and faithfully functioning church. (Overhead 1) And we conclude this morning with the fifth function – service or ministry. The purpose of our service ministry is to serve others in Jesus’ name.

But, before we examine this very important function, a brief review is necessary. We spent the month of January looking at the first part of this vision – the fully following part. And we examined the lives of 10 Biblical characters that exemplified a fully following commitment and life. (Overhead 2)

Then during the past two months we have examined the second half of God’s vision for us – a fully functioning church – by looking at the five key functions of the local church. (Overhead 3)

This morning I suggest that the important function and ministry of service stands at the point where a local church meets the community in which it resides. (Overhead 4)

Service is the avenue to reach out and bring people to Christ. Service is simple. Service involves the human touch in Christ’s name. Service is our faith and our commitment in action.

Jesus made that plain in Matthew 25, when he notes in verses 31 through 46 that service expressed in the acts of feeding those who are hungry, giving water to those who are thirsty, inviting in those who are without a home, clothing those who are in need of clothing, and acknowledging those who are sick or in prison with a simple visit, is a sign of discipleship, of commitment. Service is a key way of expressing our faith at a very practical level. And all of us are called and expected to serve. Jesus does not make a distinction between clergy and laity in this passage. He expects all of His followers to serve others in his name.

In our main text for this morning, I Corinthians 12:27, Paul makes clear that a fully functioning body, that is a fully functioning church, functions best when all its parts work together. Each of us, as individual followers of Christ, must work together. And we work together as we serve.

Service exercises the body. Service strengthens the spiritual muscles of the church. Someone has said, “If you take in and don’t give out, you become fat. If you give out and don’t take in, you become faint. If you give out and take in, you become fit.” Service, when balanced with worship, fellowship, outreach, and discipleship can help us to become fit and fully functioning.

Three weeks ago we considered the dangers of a fast-food faith. We considered the diet problem in our country with expanded waistlines and reduced capability to maintain a healthy body and life-style. Exercise is another ingredient in staying in SHAPE. Regular exercise helps to maintain our health and bodies in God-honoring ways.

The same holds true for the church. Discipleship is essential for spiritual vitality and nutrients so that we grow and develop, as we should. But, service helps us to exercise our spiritual muscles so that we develop into healthy Christians and churches. What kind of SHAPE are you and I in?

If you noticed the sermon title in the bulletin this morning, you notice that the word, SHAPE, is in capital letters and there is a reason for that because the strength and depth and health of our SHAPE determines our strength and depth and health of our service. And that determines the strength and depth and health of our outreach, of our worship, of our fellowship, and of our discipleship. In short the strength and depth and health of our functions determines how well we fulfill God’s vision of a fully following and faithfully functioning church.

What does our SHAPE contain? What does our SHAPE mean?[1] (Overhead 5)

It first means that part of our SHAPE for service is our Spiritual Gifts

We also read in I Corinthians 12 about what Paul calls in verse 1, “special abilities the Holy Spirit gives to each of us.” The special abilities are called spiritual gifts. They given to us by God, through the Holy Spirit, as, Paul says in verse 11, the Spirit decides.

The purpose of spiritual gifts, as stated in verse 7, “is given to each of us as a means of helping the entire church.” Spiritual gifts are used to serve one another. They are used to strengthen the body.

There are different kinds of gifts. Some are “upfront” or equipping gifts – such as evangelism, leadership, and teaching. Other kinds of gifts are called “behind the scenes” or supporting gifts – such as administration, mercy, or service. But, no matter what gift you are given, it is given to serve.

Our SHAPE for service also includes our Heart – that is our passions, our hopes, and dreams.

In Acts 2:17, Peter quotes the Old Testament prophet Hosea during his first sermon, “In the last days, God said, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophecy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.” Dream dreams? What did Peter mean? What did Hosea mean?

God has a dream, a desire. His desire, His dream is that all people everywhere will come to Him in saving faith and trust through the confession and repentance of sins. God, through the Holy Spirit, has given to each of us, if you will, a portion of that dream that includes our place of service.

Look again at the verse. The dreaming comes as a result of the movement of God’s spirit within us as we read in verse 18, “In those days I will pour out my Spirit upon all my servants, men and women alike, and they will prophecy.” God’s portion of His dream for each of us is part of His dream. And our portion includes not just our spiritual gifts but also the desires of our heart to serve God as we dream for God.

Last month, Deno Rousopolous, our interim state minister led a leadership retreat here and one of the exercises we did was to answer the question, “What would you do, if you knew you couldn’t fail?” We shared our answers to that question.

During the past year and a half we have been using Paul Ford’s Discovering Your Ministry Identity: Learning To Be Who You Already Are to help us determine where we might be called and gifted to serve. In one of the exercises, this question is asked: If I were to create a new ministry, group, or serving area it would be_________. What would you say?

If you could create a new ministry or group or means of serving what would it be? Take a moment and reflect. Write it down on a piece of paper. (Pause for a moment)

One of the most important things that we need to be in SHAPE for ministry and service is a Heart that is open to God’s work and God’s dream for us – individually and congregationally. What is your dream, what is your passion for God and His ministry for you?

To be in SHAPE for service also means that we use our Abilities. Some of us are natural athletes, or gifted artists, or we can speak in front of people. But all of us have abilities; all of us can do something.

It is a part of how God has created us. Our abilities come from God. They are to be used in God-honoring ways.

What abilities do you bring to our church? I think of those who built the Tabernacle, the first place of worship for the ancient Israelites. They used their abilities to serve by helping to construct the tabernacle and the furnishings in it.

In fact, most of the final 16 chapters of Exodus deal with the design and construction of the Tabernacle and in 31:6, God says this about the craftsmen who will build the tabernacle, “I have given special skill to all the naturally talented craftsmen so they can make all the things I have instructed you to make.” God gave additional ability to those individuals’ natural abilities as they served. Through our abilities we help to build not just our church and our personal service and ministry, but the very Kingdom of God!

To be in SHAPE also means that we acknowledge who we are. In other words, we need to acknowledge, accept, and understand our Personality.

Now, I believe some things need to be said about personality. Too much ministry is built around personality whether it is the pastor or someone else. Our ministry is to be built on Christ!

Another issue about personality is that it cannot be used as an excuse for things that must change in our lives as we live for God. In other words, “that’s just the way I am,” is not an excuse when it comes to being obedient.

Judas may have thought that and look where it got him. Peter probably thought that until he was truly given to God and the Holy Spirit began to change him for the better.

And yet we can also celebrate our personality. Some of us are extroverts who interact with people and opportunities. Others of us are introverts who think and reflect before we act or speak. The church is made up of both. God uses both kinds of people.

Some of us love routine. We live by lists! “A place for everything and everything in its place,” is our motto. Others of us like variety. We burn the lists or misplace them! Our motto is, “Don’t touch that pile, you’ll mess up my organizing system!” The church is made up of both. God uses both kinds of people.

Some of us like to think and debate. A good book is a treasure. Others of us are feelers. “Are you okay? How are you?” A good friend is our treasure. The church is made up of both. God uses both kinds of people.

Look around this sanctuary. Are we alike? Thank goodness no! We are different! Thank God we are! It takes all kinds of people to reach all kinds of people. The Body of Christ – the church – is the most diverse group of people in the world!

Finally to be in SHAPE is to acknowledge our Experiences as part of our service in Jesus’ name. Rick Warren suggests that we keep in mind six kinds of experiences[2] (overhead 6)

• Family experiences: What did you learn growing up in your family?
• Educational experiences: What were your favorite subjects in school?
• Vocational experiences: What jobs have you been most effective in and enjoyed the most?
• Spiritual experiences: What have been your most meaningful times with God?
• Ministry experiences: How have you served God in the past?
• Painful experiences: What problems, hurts, thorns, and trials have you learned from?

Now at first glance, that last question may seem to be way off base. But, listen to what Warren says: “The very experiences that you have resented or regretted most in life – the ones you’ve wanted to hide and forget – are the experiences God wants to use to help others. They are your ministry!” He goes on to say, “People are always more encouraged when we share how God’s grace helped us in weakness than when we brag about our strengths.”[3]

Now, I don’t think that these kinds of experiences are to be shared too soon or flippantly.  But, to paraphrase Warren, “There are no wasted experiences with God. He can and He does use all of our experiences to help us and others experience His power in our lives.”

Finally, if we want to serve effectively, then we must serve with our compassion. Show me a church that serves with its compassion and I will show you a church that is filled with love, grace, and mercy.

So what does all of this mean as we conclude this series? What does it mean to be a fully following and faithfully functioning church? (Overhead 7)

More important, do we believe that this is God’s vision for our church? Do we intend to support this vision?

This vision requires each of us to do our part, the part God calls us to do. It requires us to surrender our own agendas to God and take up His agenda. It requires us to change our priorities and even our schedules. It requires us to make an intentional commitment to intentional serve God in this church and as part of this church in the communities of work, school, and life that are a part of our lives.

It requires us to become more and more like Him as the years go by. It requires us to walk by faith and not by sight. It requires us to mature in our faith. It requires us to surrender to both the guidance and work of the Holy Spirit.

This vision is not about me, it is about us and our willingness to both be and do as God’s people – the church. It is about God! It is about His purposes and His plans for His kingdom as we serve Him.

In a moment, Susan is going to sing “Go Light Your World.” As I thought about the closing of this series, this sermon, and this service, I wanted to offer you the opportunity to respond.

I thought about what kind of image illustrates this vision. And the statement of Jesus to the disciples in Matthew 5:14-16, “You are the light of the world – like a city on a mountain, glowing in the night for all to see. Don’t hide your light under a basket! Instead, put it on a stand and let it shine for all. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father,” came to my mind.

(Overhead 8)To best fulfill this vision, God’s vision for the church, we need to let our light shine – in how we live and how we function as the church.

I believe that it is time to write a new chapter in the history of this church. I think that we have moved out of a time of recovery and renewal.

I think that God has called us now to move out into this community in some new and exciting ways as we fully follow and faithfully function for Him. This call is to all of us, not just me, and not just those who have faithfully served year in and year out.

I ask you this morning, “Will you join me, and more important, God, in doing your part to help fulfill this vision? It is bigger than you and me! It will be here, God willing, long after we are gone. But, it is God’s vision for us.

This vision is about relationships and God’s work and not only about programs. It is about the great commandment to love and the great commission to go and make disciples. It is about compassion. It is about salvation and helping people come home to God.

As Susan comes to sing, I am going to ask you to commit to this vision and join me on this journey by coming up and getting a candle, and lighting your candle off of the Christ candle. Jesus is the light of the world. And while we can encourage one another to keep our candles lit, only God can light our own candle.

Adults will you join me on the journey? I truly believe that God is calling some of you to new areas and avenues of ministry. Will you obey Him and find your place of service and ministry?

Teens, what about you? God wants you on board as well. Are you willing to give God your life and your agenda and follow Him and His vision for your life? Will you join us? This is your church as well and I challenge you this morning to look beyond an attitude of “what’s in it for me” and let God lead you in the direction He would have you serve and ministry. You can make a difference in this community. Will you?

Kids, what about you? Jesus needs your help. Will you do your part? Will you follow Jesus and help your church do what Jesus wants it to do?

Let us obey the voice and the movement of the Holy Spirit this day and move forward into the future and the plans God’s has for us! Amen.

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[1] The concept of SHAPE comes from the work of Rick Warren and Saddleback Community Church.

[2] The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, page 246.

[3] The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, page 247.