FINDING YOUR SWEET SPOT

March 25, 2001

What do a tennis racket, a baseball bat, and a golf club have in common? (OVERHEAD UP)

They all have a sweet spot.  (OVERHEAD UP)

There is a place on them that allows you the opportunity to make the type of contact with the respective balls they are designed to hit that will allow them to go farther than if you were to hit off their ‘edge.’

Think about some of the leading tennis players today. Players like Venus and Serena Williams sisters, Andre Agassi, and Steffi Graf. While they have learned to use all areas of their racket head, I have no doubt that they know where the sweet spot is on their racket and are able to use that spot when they need to.

Then there is Tiger Woods. I love that Nike TV commercial where he stands there with his club and a golf ball and does this number (try bouncing the golf ball off the club.) Golf clubs have sweet spots on them. The bigger the spot, the better we can hit the ball.

Finally, in acknowledging my favorite sport, baseball, there is Sammy and Mark and Junior and a whole host of players who know how to use the sweet spot on their bats and really give opposing pitchers trouble with their hitting. One of my favorite sounds is the crack of a bat that has hit a baseball on its sweet spot. By the way what do you, or some else say, when that happens? “That was so sweet.”

One of my favorite entertainers is the late Victor Borge. It is very easy for me to start laughing when I see him on a TV special. His great sense of humor coupled with his great musical ability at the piano is evidenced to me of a person who found and stayed in his sweet spot. In fact, his quick wit is revealed in the conversation he had with someone who asked him if he played any other musical instruments. Borge answered, ‘Well, yes, I have another piano.”

Now I want us to reflect on what I have just said. Think about the people I have mentioned – Venus and Serena Williams, Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf, Tiger Woods, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGuire, Ken Griffey, Jr., and Victor Borge. How do we know about them? They are famous. They are celebrities. We watch them on TV, the ball field, the stage, and the tennis court. We do not interact with them. We do not play with them on the court, or on the field. We are passive participants in their lives. (OVERHEAD UP)

I say this to illustrate an important point – when it comes to living out our commitment to God, you and I have our own sweet spots, a place of service, of mission of maximum effectiveness in our lives that allows us to live like we were created to live. And that requires us to be active participants in the mission, in the cause, that God has called us to both congregationally and individually. (OVERHEAD UP)

There are two aspects, to sides of the coin; to this tool, this “sweet spot” of God we call talent -ability and giftedness. Ability is the quality of being able, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Other names for ability are power and skill.

Gifted is being defined as talented. Talented is defined as the natural endowments of a person. There is a difference between ability and giftedness.

Pro athletes are a case in point. I recently went to a Bulls game and was reminded of this issue when I looked up into the rafters of the United Center and saw all of the championship banners and the retired numbers hanging above me.

The one that drew my attention almost immediately was one with a big red 23 on it – Michael Jordan’s number. I have no doubt that Jordan influenced professional basketball in many ways.

But, if my memory serves me correctly, Michael Jordan had to work at making his high school basketball team. In fact, if I remember correctly, he was cut from the team his sophomore year. He had to practice and develop his skill to play. Would he be considered a gifted athlete? Some might think so and some may not.

But, there are gifted people in many different areas. They have this natural endowment that allows them to pick up a ball bat, a musical instrument, or a test in school, and just swing it, play it, or pass it without a lot of effort. Somewhat disgusting isn’t it?

During my college days, I moved to the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. and, as part of my education, spent a semester in an internship at a church.

The pastor of that church was one of these gifted persons. Not long after I got there we went to Southern Pennsylvania and skied.

Bob had only good eye, but great balance and ability. I never conquered the intermediate slope. It was one of those straight downhill runs. The bunny, or beginner slope, was iced up and I had trouble even with the ski lift on that one. Well by the end of the day, I had given up on becoming a member of the US Olympic ski team and Bob, he was on the advanced slopes, and this was the first time that he had snow skied.

One of the downsides to this issue of talents is that it creates a lot of tension in our relationships with people and Satan loves to get us all tied up in knots with jealousy and envy. And too often, way too often, we let our natural, God given talents and abilities, be the guidelines for our service in the church. That is not Biblical. Yes, I think that God expects us to use our natural talents and abilities to honor and obey Him, but not to the extent that they are the sole avenues of our service. “What do you mean Jim?”

God has given us to us a far more important means to serve Him. They are our tools of the trade for service to Christ within the church as well as through the church. They are called spiritual gifts and if we have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ then we have been given, by God, spiritual gifts to be used to serve God and help fulfill His mission and purpose. (OVERHEAD UP)

What are spiritual gifts? Here is one definition: “A significant ability given to each believer by the Holy Spirit, who thus equips and moves members of the church to serve in special ways for Christ and his kingdom.”

There are two passages of Scripture that I am referring us to this morning. Both are in the New Testament. One deals with Spiritual Gifts and the other with the issue of talents. Both are important in understanding God’s perspective on these tools that He has given to us to use for His mission and purpose.

But, before we read these passages, I want to again share with you what is current thinking by ‘born-again’ Christians regarding spiritual gifts. This is from the Barna Organization: (OVERHEAD UP)

Among born again adults, the percentage that say they have heard of spiritual gifts but do not believe God has given them one jumped from 4% in 1995 to 21% in 2000. The number who say they are not sure if they have a gift, or what it might be, has declined slightly, from 28% five years ago to 20% today. George Barna makes a very important statement about this decline that I will share in a few moments.

I Corinthians 12 is the classic passage on Spiritual gifts and why they are important. But, we will look at only the first 7 verses of that chapter.

(READ THE PASSAGE)

What is Paul saying in this passage?

In order to be all God wants us to be, we need to understand some clear and correct thinking about the ‘special abilities’ give to us about the Holy Spirit.

The city of Corinth was a very ‘modern’ city in that day and age. Some have likened it to San Francisco. It was a city that was filled with a diverse population of people from many different nationalities.

Its location made it a natural seaport and stopping point for people from around the Mediterranean world. A. M. Hunter is quoted as saying, “’to Corinthianize’ was polite Greek for ‘go to the devil.’”

Corinth was also a center for the worship of the goddess Aphrodite from which we get the word aphrodisiac that means ‘an agent which excites sexual desire.’ Of course, you can imagine what worship might have involved.

In other words, the backgrounds that Corinthian Christians brought to their Christian experience was a familiarity with unusual forms and expressions of worship. Not just sexual, but as we would say today, “New Age.”

Paul wants to correct the misunderstanding about these ‘special abilities’ or spiritual gifts by helping the church at Corinth because they were viewed with eyes that were still learning to live out the Christian faith by seeing things from that perspective.

Paul indicates that their originator, their source is the Holy Spirit, not some goddess or god. And he links this truth with the confessional truth that “Jesus is Lord.”

To confess Jesus is Lord was to go against what would crucify many Christians in that day and age. There was only one Lord in the opinion of that day, and that was Caesar. So these gifts were affirmation of who Jesus was – the lord, the leader of their lives.

Paul states another important claim to counter a popular attitude, one that is a part of our mindset these days. He says in verse 7 that they were to be used, “as a means of helping the entire church.”

To the Corinthian Church, given their cultural environment, the attitude of ‘how these gifts benefit me’ is a very important probability. The same holds true for us. We live in a very similar mindset – how can they help me? What’s in it for me? I want what so-and-so has? Why can’t I have it?

That is not their purpose – they are not given to us for some ‘spiritual high.’ They are to help us serve; help us advance God’s work. Paul reminds both his audience and us that our gifts are to be used to serve, not be served.

Finally, Paul uses two opposite words to acknowledge a tension and also help us deal with a very common issue regarding places of ministry in the church – jealousy and envy.

Those two words are: ‘different’ and ‘same’ as we read in verses 4 – 7.

We are given different gifts, different abilities, different talents, if you will, to serve the same God in the same church at the same time. As Paul clearly states in verse 11, “It is the one and only Holy Spirit who distributes these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.” (OVERHEAD UP)

The focus must be on serving and not jealousy or envy of another person’s giftedness. We need one another. God has given to every one of us, as we accept and follow Him, a gift or talent if you want to call it that. We are a team and we need the tool of spiritual gifts to help us walk with God and serve Him.

The second passage that I want to have us examine this morning is Luke 19:11-27. It is the story of the ten servants and what they did with what they had been given. I am not going to read the entire passage but just a few verses, 16, 18, and 20.

(READ THE VERSES)

Two of the servants take what they had been given and invest it and are rewarded for their actions. The third does not. He hides, keeps safe, what had been given to him and does nothing with it. He too, is rewarded for his actions – with a stern rebuke and having his talent, his gift taken away from him.

In this story, Jesus makes an important point toward the end of verse 26, “to those who use well what they have been given, even more will be given. But, to those who are unfaithful, even what little have will be taken away.” At first reading these words are harsh and seemingly uncaring.

But, I don’t read in this passage anything about failing through trying. I don’t ready in this passage anything about getting back up again and again and again in trying to use one’s talent to determine and use one’s spiritual gifts.

The failure comes when we make excuses and complain and fail to take responsibility to use what abilities and talents God has given us to use and also accept our place in the mission of this church to do what He has called us to do.

Every one of us here this morning has a sweet spot; every one of us here this morning has at least one talent that we need to use as part of God’s team – the church; every one of us here this morning has at least one spiritual gift that we need to discover and place in service.

Remember the statistics I gave a few moments ago?  This is what George Barna said about them “The perception that God has prepared others for special service to His kingdom but has left them out of the process is not just inaccurate, but harmful to the Church. Some believers feel an acute sense of disappointment that they have been spiritually discriminated against, while others use the perception as an excuse to let the gifted believers serve.

“Imagine what might happen if nearly half of all believers had a clear and firm conviction that God has given them a supernatural ability to serve Him in a specific manner. If more believers understood the nature and potential of that special empowerment, the global impact of the Christian body would be multiplied substantially. One of the functions of the local church is to help believers understand who they are in Christ, and how to live the Christian life more fully. Focusing on spiritual gifts – what they are, who has them, how to discover one’s giftedness, and how to use gifts most appropriately – could ignite a movement of service and influence unlike anything we have experienced during our lifetime.”

This past week I received an e-mail from a friend who has been sending daily devotional e-mails. He is a schoolteacher in a small town like ours and is tremendously respected by that community. This particular e-mail asks some important questions that I think we need to ask ourselves when it comes to the issue of not just stewardship of our time, our treasures, or our talents, but of our entire life:

Who are you? Where are you going in life? Our goals and our objectives of life stem from our ideal. Who we are and our purpose for living will characterize our ideal. By the virtue that we have been born as intelligent persons, with freedoms, abilities, self-will, ability to apply logic, values, choices, plans, etc., we cannot live without an ideal.

Our ideals will shape and characterize our entire lives. It tells more about who we really are, rather than the accomplishments that we have succeeded at. An ideal is something that we haven’t reached yet. We aspire for it. We grow towards it. It involves a definite plan for our lives. Three things will determine our ideal: 1) our thoughts, 2) our free time, and 3) how we spend our money.

Now, here is the important part:

If someone followed you around for a week in your life, what would they learn about your ideal? Would your ideal reflect the ideal of Christ? Either we will involve God in our ideal or we will live without Him. What would your answer be today?

When I walk through a Christian bookstore or get brochures or catalogs in the mail featuring the latest in Christian publishing what I see are a lot of books that deal with, quite frankly, how much I can get from God.

Now granted God wants to bless us. I have no doubt about that. But there is more to the Christian life than getting. Giving and serving are also important parts of our faith and life in God. Which leads me to ask a key question, (OVERHEAD UP) “How much of you does God have?”

We have been talking the past three weeks about stewardship. Stewardship is a very important practice for us. It helps us to live a life that is balanced, real, and purposeful. Stewardship is about our lives and how we choose to live them. (OVERHEAD UP)

How much of you does God have?  God needs more than our time, He needs more than our treasures, He needs more than our talents – He needs us.

The future of our not just our church but our faith rests in our hands. It requires us to make a decision about whether or not we are going to give ourselves totally and without reservation to God.

I have asked you to place your watches on the altar. Last week I challenged you to place your wallet on the altar. But today I challenge you to place . . . yourself on the altar. God gave people, you and me, the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. He did not tell our time, or treasure, or talent to go and fulfill those directives. He told us to do so.

Our money does not celebrate Easter; our time does not celebrate Christmas; our talents do not seek forgiveness. WE, human beings, celebrate those wonderful events. But we have been given these tools to fulfill a life of service to and faith in God because that is what stewardship is all about.

“Father, shape and make us into the person who You intended us to be. You fashioned us from the start in our mother’s womb. May we never be anyone that you did not intend for us to be. Use us to accomplish your purpose. As we do that, may we constantly recall the attributes of Jesus Christ Himself as we follow Him, our spiritual model. Amen”

The Purpose of Worship Is…

Acts 2:46 -47

Have you heard about the little boy who attended church for the first time and was asked how it went? He replied, “The music was nice but the commercial was too long.”

Or have your heard about the recent experience of a pastor who changed the order of worship so that the sermon was given before the offering was taken. This upset a four year old who asked her mother, “Why is he talking before he gets paid?”

Worship. What is worship? Is it something we do every week because it is something we do every week?

Is it about a source of stability in a sea of change? Is it merely about the past and not the present or the future?

What is worship? More importantly, what is the purpose of worship? Why are we here? Why are you here? Tradition? Have to be? Want to be? Not sure?

In August we voted by a unanimous vote to operate with a set of by-laws that is organized around the five purposes of the church – which we call magnification or worship, mission or outreach, membership or fellowship, maturity or discipleship, and ministry or service. These five areas are Biblical and they are very important to us because all five are necessary for us to have a balanced and healthy ministry.

For the next five Sundays we are going to examine each of these purposes because we need to understand why we are here at Oak and Mitchell Streets in Kendallville, Indiana. I cannot say this strongly enough: it is imperative that we begin to understand the reasons, the purposes of why we are here. If we don’t we are going to flounder in our efforts, get frustrated in our attempts, and could ultimately fail to accomplish the mission that God has for us.

In your bulletin is a chart from the book The Purpose Driven Church by Rick Warren. We are going to refer to this chart over the next five weeks. Please notice that this week’s chart has the segment on worship circled. Included in that segment is the text for this morning’s sermon, Acts 2:46 – 47 that is also part of this series’ text: Acts 2:42 – 47.

Acts 2:46 – 47 has already been read but I want to read it again to help us understand the purpose of worship:

“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-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.”

What is the purpose of worship? We will answer that question in a few minutes. But, right now I want us to notice a few critical elements of worship in the early church because they are critical for our worship of today.

1. “They worshipped together at the Temple each day.”

Please note the following phrases in this verse:

A. They worshipped together. . . They worshipped God together. The God whom Peter in verses 14 – 40 told them had come to save them from their sins was the God they came to worship. They came together to worship a God in whom they had placed their confidence and trust.

They came together because there is strength in numbers. But, they did not come together just because it was what they were expected to do. They came together to celebrate and praise God for what He had done for them and in them through Christ and for who He was and still is!

Good worship, strong worship is corporate worship. We need this time during which we come together and seek God together. The people that are spoken of in this passage of scripture had jobs, they had families, they had anxieties, and they had hope. They were just like us!

Look at the chart again with me and notice the next to last column. What does it say? It says, “A force for living.”

Now look with me at the column to the immediate left. What does it say? It says, “A power to live on.”

Force and power – two strong terms. Every single human being on this planet needs a force, a reason, a purpose, and a passion for living. What is yours?

The top of that next to last column is titled, “The Church Provides.” The church provides a force for living and worship is means to providing that force.

But, behind that force for living is a power to live on. Notice the title of this column – “Basic Human Need.” And the force for living is not the church it is the God of the church.

Each of us has a need for power. We need power, we need strength to live, to hope, to believe, to love. But, the power that comes through worship comes not through the worship service itself but from the God whom we worship.

One of the purposes of worship is to help us get and use God’s power and strength to help us live for Him. We seek that help in a variety of ways in worship – praising God for who He is, giving thanks to God for what He has done for us and others, acknowledging our many human needs and asking God to satisfy those needs, seeking God’s forgiveness for those attitudes, actions, etc that are clearly contrary to what the Bible says, going to God on behalf of others in prayer, and giving to God what is rightfully His as well as acknowledging God’s ownership of all that we have through the offerings that we collect each week. All these acts of worship are designed to plug us into a power in living that gives a force for living. In other words, a power and a force that gives us strength for living.

B. “Each day.” Now, not only did they meet together, they met together “each day!”

There was a consistent attendance in worship. The power and force for living came as they made the choice to daily show up for worship.

Regularity in worship is as important for our spiritual growth and development as regular and balanced meals are for our bodily growth and development. We usually don’t skimp on the one, and neither should we skimp on the other.

The final column on the chart is about the emotional benefit for each purpose of the church. All of us have emotions. Some of us are considered more emotional than others. But, emotions are a part of our humanity.

Worship has a very emotional component to it. Notice what it says in the last column – stimulation. Why is stimulation important in our lives? What and how are we to be stimulated?

Dr. Paul Tournier was a Christian psychiatrist who lived in Switzerland. He is quoted as saying, “Our vocation is, I believe, to build good out of evil.”

One of the things that worship must stimulate us to do is to what is good and now, more than ever, it is imperative that we do good.

Another thing that worship stimulates us to is to put into action, as Paul says in Philippians 2:12 – 13, “God’s saving work in your lives, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him.” Regular participation in worship stimulates us to want to obey God and do what pleases him.

Someone has said that when geese fly together they go farther than when they fly alone. There is a truth in that for us. We need to worship together so that we can go farther in our walk with God. Joint flight for geese helps them to conserve energy and go farther by using one another to stay aloft with less resistance on each bird.

Worshipping together, on a regular basis, does the same for us. There is a place for private worship. There are moments when we both need to as well as have to worship alone. We need regular moments with God. But, it is important that we gather together as well. And we gather together to experience God. When we come together and worship God on a regular and weekly basis, we find that we are not alone in our problems and pressures. We realize that we are all in the same boat and we need to worship God together to stay aloft and keep moving forward.

3. We also need to notice in our passage for this morning the results of worship as stated in the last part of verse 46 and last part of verse 47:

“[They] met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity . . . and each day the Lord added to their group those who were being saved.”

These effects, these results of worship are very important because, in addition to understanding that one of the purposes of worship is to provide us with the power and force for living, we also need to understand that through experiencing God in worship, it means that we are going to live differently out there!

Notice the results of worship in the lives of these Christians:

A. They met in homes for the Lord’s Supper. Communion was celebrated differently back then than it is today. Homes were places of ministry, places of worship. Churches, correction church buildings, were a thing of the future.

The worship at the Temple created an inner desire to continue the fellowship in homes. People had experienced God’s love and grace in a corporate setting and they were extending what they had experience by reaching out to others who just experience worship as well.

B. They shared meals with great joy and generosity.

Something happened in worship – they experienced God! And as they did – as they opened up the depths of their souls to God’s transforming touch – something happened – they started sharing food willingly – with great joy and generosity.

One of the things about a transformed life is that it moves from being self-centered to God-centered. Worship is not about us, we are not the objects of worship – God is! God is the audience, we are here to worship, to praise, to thank, God!

One of the results of our worship should be that we are less selfish than we were before we came. As we allow ourselves to experience the transforming and healing touch of God, it should make a practical difference in our lives afterwards as we go home, as we go to school, as we go to work, as we live!

Here is another chart that we will be looking at over the next five weeks. It is in the shape of a baseball diamond and it reveals a intentional process of helping people come home to Christ, find fellowship, become a maturing follower of Jesus, discover God’s area of personal ministry, and finally help others come home to Christ.

Please notice where worship is – in the center of the diamond. And what is in the center of a baseball diamond – the pitcher’s mound. And what does the pitcher do? He puts the ball in play. At the beginning of a baseball game, the umpire yells, “play ball!” But, it is not until the pitcher throws the first pitch that the game begins.

In worship, we put the ball in play. God says to us, “Play ball! Get going! Get involved! Seek me and find me! Let me help you! Go make disciples!”

And that is exactly what happened in Acts 2:47, “And each day the Lord added to their group those who were being saved.” The Lord added to their group but they put the faith in play. As they worshipped God, they met with God, as they allowed God to get inside them, deep inside them, and as they allow God to transform their lives others came to Christ as well.

Does worship make a difference in the lives of those who come in contact with you after you have worshipped?

It did in the lives of nameless people, just like you and me, we have been examining in our scripture passage.

I also want us to notice the purpose located in the center row of the chart that you have this morning. What is it? Fellowship!

The kind of fellowship that is stated in our text this morning is a bond, a glue that is central to the life of God’s church. Without this bond, the church begins to unravel. We will be speaking of this purpose of the church in a few weeks.

But, look at what it follows – worship! We need to understand that the link between these two purposes is very important for the life and health of our church. Both are necessary if our church is to thrive and grow.

What is the purpose of worship? The purpose of worship is to experience God in a variety of ways so that we are transformed into a growing follower of Christ that works to fulfill the great commandment to love God, neighbor, and self and to be a part of the great commission of making other followers of God.

In closing, I want to share a song written by Matt Redmon entitled “The Heart of Worship” that really helped me come back to main issue of worship, not the what or how of worship, personal preferences regarding style or format, but the who of worship – God.

(SONG IS PLAYED)

Why do we gather here at Mitchell and Oak streets on Sunday mornings at 9:30 AM? We gather together to worship and experience God so that we can make a difference for God during the rest of the week.

Let us experience God this day, this moment. Amen!

I Give Up!

Luke 14:33

I want to begin this morning by briefly reviewing where we have been in this series “The Five Purposes of The Church. ” We have already examined three purposes – worship, outreach, and fellowship. Today we are going to look at the purpose of discipleship and next week conclude with service or ministry.

(Show overhead with quoted phrases on it).

The first Sunday we looked at worship and I suggested that the purpose of worship is “to personally experience God” in a variety of ways so that we become a better follower of God.”

Then we looked at outreach and I suggested that purpose of outreach is “to help people come home to God” by taking the God of the church into the community.

Then last week we looked at fellowship and I suggested that the purpose of fellowship is “to enable us to live for God everywhere” we go so that others will be interested in following God, too.

A balanced and healthy ministry must include all three of these elements plus discipleship and service. But what is the purpose of discipleship? In fact, what is Discipleship? Discipleship is again one of those church terms that we use a lot but fail to sometimes clearly define.

There are many “things” in the church culture that speak of discipleship. There are discipleship groups. There are discipleship programs. There are discipleship churches – congregations that are built around discipling people. So it is a familiar term to us. But what is its purpose? Why is it important?

Our text for this morning is Luke 14:33. This verse is part of a statement by Jesus that we sometimes like to over look because Jesus says some very hard things. However, I believe that once we have a better understanding of what discipleship is what he says will make sense.

Once again in your bulletin is a copy of a chart from the book The Purpose Driven Church with the segment on discipleship highlighted.  I want to look for a moment at this segment because it helps us understand the purpose of discipleship.

One of the first things we notice is that the task of discipleship is to edify. Now what does edify mean? Well, according to the Merriam-Webster thesaurus, edify means to better, enhance; elucidate; educate, instruct, teach. But to make better how; to enhance what; to elucidate, or make more clear, who; to educate in what; to instruct in what; to teach what?  Christ and Christianity. A purpose of discipleship is to deepen our relationship with God by making the implications of this relationship more clearly to us.

Rick Warren has said that there are five areas of learning or measurements of maturity that are important for becoming disciples: knowledge, perspective, conviction, skills, and character. Now this list is a series in and of itself. But, let me offer a simple statement that helps us understand what discipleship is in these terms. Discipleship is gaining the knowledge of scripture, which changes one’s perspective, provides us with Biblical convictions, helps us develop the skills of a servant, and enables the Holy Spirit to transform our character into a Christ-like one. This is a functional definition of edify – it involves education, enhancement, and instruction.

Now, let’s look at the objective of discipleship – maturity. What does maturity mean?

Well, returning to our thesaurus, the word mature comes up in the search and it means: to age, develop, ripe, ripen, grow, or grow up. What are we to develop into? How are we to grow? What are we to grow up as? One word says it all! Jesus Christ! A part of the purpose of discipleship is for us to grow and develop into a person who is more and more like Jesus as the years go by.

Now, let’s look at the life component section of our chart. It says my walk. Now what on earth does that mean? You may be thinking, “I walk fine! I may have a kink in my knee but I walk just fine. In fact the other day, I . . .” Wait, wait! That’s not what I mean.

Walk refers to how you are living your life. It refers to the sum total of your behavior plus your choices plus your attitudes plus your priorities plus your beliefs. It is the sum total response of how you live your life.

And what that requires is what the next two columns are all about – principles to live by and a foundation for living. All of us, every person here this morning live by a set of principles. Now what are principles? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a principle as a general or fundamental law, doctrine, or assumption.

Everyone one of us has a set of principles that we live by. Every one of us holds a set of assumptions about what is right and what is wrong; what is true and what isn’t true.

And these principles govern our actions and the values and beliefs behind those actions. Now let’s take a moment and list some principles that people live by these days:

Place on overhead

People live by the principle of: (have congregation offer suggestions).

Now, let’s take a few of these suggestions and ask, “What happens when this principle is either taken away or deeply shaken?”

These principles form for us a foundation for living. We build our lives on these principles and when they come crashing down or they begin to crack – our lives start to unravel, don’t they?

Discipleship provides a foundation for living and that foundation is what?  God and a life that is God-shaped and God-led and God-empowered!

Finally, the emotional benefit of Discipleship is stability. All of these principles that we have listed are unstable. Wealth can disappear in a heartbeat. Power can be taken away in a second. Status can be lost overnight. What then is the most stable force for living there is? God.

Now, having said all of this, I want us to take a look at Luke 14: 25 – 35.

Read the passage

Jesus says three important things regarding Discipleship that directly deal with what we have been presented with.

1. If you want to follow me, you must love me more than anyone else, including yourself.

Jesus is speaking of ultimate loyalty. He was saying to the large crowd that was following Him, “If you want to follow me, no one and nothing else must come first.”

Discipleship is about commitment to God first and foremost before anything else. Our walk – the principles we live by and the foundation we build on must now and forever be God-centered. Nothing else can exist there.

Christian history contains numerous stories of people who physically died for their faith because they refused to follow anyone but God. Their walk was based on unshakable principles gained from study of the Bible and an unshakable foundation of Jesus Christ alone.

2. Do you want to follow me? Count the cost; make sure you understand the price to be paid to follow me.

Discipleship is about maturity. It is about growing up, ripening into a full flavored faith. Jesus was trying to help the crowd that was following Him understand that you need to weigh the pros and cons of all of this before you make the decision to follow Him.

In World War II, one member of a German prison camp was not a Jew or an allied POW. It was a German pastor named Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor who had made the decision to join the opposition to Adolph Hitler. The decision would cost him his life not long before his prison camp was liberated by Allied troops.

Several years before he died, Bonhoeffer wrote a book entitled the Cost of Discipleship. In that book he wrote, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him, “come and die.”

That’s quite a statement to make. For Bonhoeffer, it was a prophetic statement about his own life. But, what did he mean?

Bonhoeffer meant that if one is going to really follow God it requires you to give up your agenda and your rights and follow God no matter what, no matter where, no matter why. Jesus says the same thing in our passage.

Discipleship is about a total 100% no-holds barred commitment to God that puts everything else second. And this commitment is carefully and completely understood before it is entered into. In doing so, there is stability, strong principles to live by, and a strong foundation for living.

3. If you are going to be my disciple, you have to give everything up!

Jesus cannot make it plainer than that, can he? If you want to be my follower, my disciples, if you really, really, really, really want to go where I go and do what I ask you to do, if you really want your life to be shaped and formed around me – then you have to give everything up.

The things that we have listed – they have to be let go of. They cannot be our security. God must be our security.

And that security costs us everything – our abilities, our money, our time, our priorities – everything. But, to me, it is worth it!

Let’s take another look at the diamond diagram. Discipleship is at the second base position. It is between fellowship and ministry or service.

It is between growing in Christ and serving in Christ. Why? Because if you choose to be a disciple then the hardest part of that choose is the serving part. Discipleship is the line that is crossed from knowing Christ and growing in Christ to making the conscious decision to serve Christ.

That’s what Jesus turned around to say to the crowd who was following Him. Are you ready to serve me, to do what I ask of you, to go where I ask you to go?

I don’t know about you, but I have found that I have had to recount the cost several times in my life after my initial commitment to Christ at the age of 8.

Once during my teens I remember of really struggling with letting go of the desire, as I look back at it now, of wanting to fit in and be “in” to the extent that I was slowly walking away from God and toward status. I remember the night during a revival service when I almost dragged one of the laymen down the aisle after the praying had started and recounted the cost and made the decision to pay it and come back to God.

Then there was the time in college when one my professors laid it on the line in chapel and I knew that I need to recount the cost and again made the decision to follow Him no matter what.

Another time came at the end of a painful time in my 30’s when I had to decide if I was going to keep paying the cost or finally sell out to my own selfish ways.  I decided to keep paying the cost of following God.

I have never regretted those decisions. They have not been easy. But they have been right. What they have required of me is to basically say, I give up! I give it all up to you, Lord, all to you, I hold nothing back, take it all!

What is the purpose of discipleship? (Put new overhead up) – To turn us from being served to server. Jesus himself said that he did not come to be served but to serve.

In a few moments, the Sunday School class that I lead will be meeting. We are going to be talking about making adjustments. In this particular segment of study the authors, Henry Blackaby and Claude King, of our workbook, Experiencing God, list several different kinds of adjustments that God may require us to make if we are going to follow him. Here they are: (overhead up)

God may require us, individually and congregationally, to make adjustments in our:

1. 1. Circumstances – like job, home, finances, and others
2. 2. Relationships – family, friends, business associates and others
3. 3. Thinking – prejudices, methods, your potential and others
4. 4. Commitments – to family, church, job, plans, tradition, and others
5. 5. Actions – how your pray, give, serve, and others
6. 6. Beliefs – about God, His purposes, His ways, your relationship to Him and others

Take a moment and look carefully at this list. Discipleship is about making the necessary adjustments to totally follow God.  Which of these adjustments do you need to make? Which of these adjustments do we need to make?

We are concluding this morning with a hymn that came in my conscious thought as I read through this sermon on Wednesday. It is a hymn that I used to sing as a kid and it very eloquently states the main point of this sermon. That to be a disciple of Jesus Christ means for us to go deeper and higher in the love of Jesus because it is the love of Christ that we proclaim.

In conclusion, I simply ask, “Are you ready, not willing, but ready to say “yes” to God no matter what that means so that you become the servant of God no matter where, no matter how, no matter what?” The altar is open to make that commitment today. Obey the God this morning and do the right thing. 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.

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^[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

How Do We Please God? Part 8

Ephesians 4:1-16

Main point – We please God when we work together as part of His team – the church!

Three weeks ago, I quoted Rick Warren who said, “You were made for a mission. God is at work in the world and he wants you to join him. This assignment is called your mission…”  “Your life mission,” he goes on to say, “is both shared and specific. One part of it is a responsibility you share with every other Christian, and the other part is an assignment that is unique to you…”

Then I said that I would be addressing the specific part of that mission in a few weeks. Well, that “few weeks” is now here! We conclude our current series, Ways We Please God, by learning that we please God when we work together as part of His team – the church!

As a final review, here is a listing of the ways we please God presented in this series: (overhead 1)

We please God by examining (and allowing the Holy Spirit to examine) our motives and standards against God’s standards. We looked at some churches in the opening chapters of Revelation who were in various states of spiritual growth or decay and who God was both pleased with and concerned about.

We also please God by following God’s plan of salvation. We preach Christ and the Gospel at our church not some current philosophy that changes tomorrow!

We please God by putting the Bible into practice. The Bible stands at the center of our congregational and personal lives. We teach and study the Bible, the true and infallible Word of God. It is the heart of our message and mission. (Overhead 2)

We please God by allowing Him to make us “new creatures in Christ.” We must be “born again.” We must be changed by the work of the Holy Spirit into people that are different and more like Jesus as the years go by.

We please God by cooperating with and proclaiming the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit works to filter out the impurities in our lives so that we are better able to serve God.

We please God by doing our part in fulfilling the Great Commission. The Christian faith is a global faith and each of us has a role in fulfilling Christ’s command to “go and make disciples.”

We please God as we live in peace and harmony with each other. We examined Romans 14 in which Paul wrote, “The Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

Our final stop today touches on the last way we studied two weeks ago because it addresses the need to work together. We please God when we work together as part of His team – the church!

There is so much that I want to share in this sermon this morning because I believe that this way of pleasing God is critical for the long-term life and health of our congregation and ministry. But, we can only take in so much in one sitting and so I am going to give us three or four bites that I believe are important.

Bite number one is what our main text says to us about being a team.

The overall theme of our text is unity, a key ingredient in being a team. East Noble’s football team played like one this year. Granted, there were those who scored more points than others did and one member of the team broke some running records, but everybody pulled together and everybody did his job and the entire team had a great (albeit shortened) season.

Someone has written, “There is no I in team.” Paul says as much in this passage.

The first thing he says in the opening verses is “patience, patience, patience.” When any athletic team, including a pro team, starts practicing together, there is a period of time when they are learning about one another and the plays that they will run during the season. Patience is a necessity during these times. This is especially important when there is a coaching change or a key position has a new player.

For a team to “jell” requires patience, time, and encouragement. The same holds true for the church, “Be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults (not sin but faults) because of your love.” We are still learning together and learning how to work together, (that is an on-going process). But, to please God, we must be patient, patient, patient. Love helps here.

Paul also encourages us to be unified. As he says in verse 5, “There is only one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and there is only one God and Father, who is over us all and in us all and living through us all.”

Unity is a by-product of love, patience, and commitment to the same cause or goal. In our case, the salvation and spiritual life of human beings. We are called by God to help people to come to Christ and to grow in their faith and relationship with Him. We come at the goal in different ways and God has given to each of us a different aspect of this mission to achieve this goal. This is the common ground upon which we stand as the church.

This past Tuesday, Dr. David Sebastian, the Dean of the School of Theology at Anderson University, made a connection at a minister’s meeting in North Webster between verses 11 and 12 that I had never made before. He pointed out that while there are a diversity of gifts (or places of ministry and service) they were all designed to do the same thing – equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church [toward] maturity that comes through unity in faith and increased knowledge of Christ.

As I read these verses, I am reminded of Jesus’ prayer in John 17:21, “My prayer for all of them is that they will be one, just as you and I are one, Father-that just as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us, and the world will believe that you sent me.” Paul paints a picture of Jesus’ prayer that helps us be better and more effective members of God’s team and thus please God.

Finally, our text reminds us that in being a part of a team, maturity is a very important component. A healthy team, a successful team is a team that has matured.

Now I think a very important question pops up here, “What does maturity mean?” It is not about being old. It is not about being intelligent.

Think about a person that you might consider mature, what makes them mature. Our text offers us a key description in verse 14. “Then we will no longer be like children, forever changing our minds about what we believe because someone has told us different or because someone has cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like truth.”

Ever been around someone who keeps changing his/her mind? It gets frustrating doesn’t it?

Stability of thought and commitment is a key characteristic of maturity. We please God when we have settled the issue of loyalty and commitment to Christ. And when we settle this issue we know where we stand and so do others and there is security in that knowledge.

I am reminded of a spat between a well-known pro quarterback and his teammate, the kicker, a couple of seasons ago and even an on camera incident between this same qb and a receiver a few weeks ago. A team that fights among itself is a team that will defeat itself. A church that does the same thing cannot survive for long.

So, we need to keep in mind, “patience, unity, and maturity” as we consider what our text has to say about being the team that pleases God.

Bite number two is about what our team is trying to accomplish.

I have shared a few highlights from a seminar that I attended in late September that has both affirmed much of our work and given me some clarity about what we need to be doing as well. One exercise that we did during that seminar helped me to focus on this second bite.

We imagined a phone call, diary entry, letter, conversation, or e-mail from a new member of our church to another person five years from now. It was a daunting task but also a refreshing task.

I reflected this week on what I wrote that day and made some refinements to it, and share it this morning because I believe that we need to develop a shared picture of what we truly believe is God’s future for us.

“Mom, as we left church this morning I cannot believe how much life has changed for the better. I always believed that there was a God and that I mattered to him but all the different churches confused me.

I think about that first home Bible Study I attended and the feeling of love and care that was present that allowed me to ask questions without feeling stupid. That was the beginning of my coming to faith.

Then there was FW Friends for Steve and Carol and the fact that they knew so many friends from school and really like going there. Friends, as I stop to think about it, who are now friends in the youth group.

Mike had some real hesitation about going to church until he realized that one of the guys from work attended there and invited him to go bowling with other men from the church. Next thing I knew he was up in Angola during the winter at the indoor racing track. He is still not involved as I would like him to be, but he comes and likes Pastor Jim’s puns.

Our church is truly amazing, mom. They scrimped and saved to get into a new facility because finding a parking place was tough and the space they used on Wednesday left little room for growth. But now, the space for ministry!

You ought to see the kids’ area! They call a large room “Kid’s Chapel” that is truly theirs and allows them to spread out and worship. And the teen’s area, wow!

It has two nice rooms for middle and high school group meetings and this large area for fellowship and worship. They call it “The Ark.”

Steve cannot wait to get there. He plays the drum in the worship band on Wednesday nights and is in the Sunday morning rotation for the worship team as well.

Carol is in the drama group and they are head to another church this afternoon to give a performance. She has grown so much in her faith and what a great thing to see her baptized last Sunday!

Remember how you used to tell me that I would make a great teacher? Well, I took a teacher training seminar and now serve as a teaching assistant with the 4^th and 5^th grade Sunday School class!

Well, have to go now. This is a busy week and we have the Christmas Bureau assignment this Saturday to get ready for. The church has agreed to provide gifts for three families! See you later! Lynn”

What do you think? Like the picture? Is it possible? With God, it is possible because what God wants our church to do, He will give us the ability, resources, and time to do it!

Our goal as God’s team is to see more Lynns, Steves, Carols, and Mikes come to Christ. This is what we are all about – changed lives! You have a place in this vision! You have a place in this plan!

God needs you! He needs you to be here – regularly. He needs you to find your place of ministry and service – and serve faithfully and consistently. It pleases Him!

Bite number three is celebrating and thanking one another for service rendered.

I want to thank all who have served this year in the following areas of ministry and acknowledge your service with a simple gift of appreciation.

I have asked some of our teens to help me with this task of handing out this gift from me. (Teens to your stations!)

There are two different kinds of plastic megaphones, in different colors. One says, “We’ve got the SPIRIT!” The other one says, “GO TEAM!”

(You can place a magnet on the back and use it on your refrigerator or you can place it on your key chain. Use it as a reminder to pray for the church and our ministries.)

We have the spirit – the Holy Spirit! He is our source of power and ability to do the work that God has given to us as this local church.

We are a team – God’s team! Now we can “do our own thing” (there are times that has to take place) but we do much better as we continue to work together as the New Testament points out in several different places.

I am going to read a list of various ministry groups and teams and ask those who have been involved in that ministry or team to remain standing as you receive your gift.

Would all those who served on a ministry team and/or trustees this past year please stand?

Would all those who served on our Sunday School staff please stand?

Would all those who served on our nursery staff please stand?

Would all those who served on our VBS team please stand?

Would all those who served on our prayer chain please stand?

Would all those who served those in grief through funeral dinners; celebrated birthdays and anniversaries through cards: and visited in nursing homes and hospitals please stand?

Would all those who served as ushers please stand?

Would all those who served as worship leaders and praise team members please stand?

Would all those who served as FW Friends and youth leaders please stand?

Would all those who served on the CFC team please stand?

Would all those who served on the relocation task force please stand?

Did I miss any groups?

(Honor Church Treasurer)

Thank you!

Bite number four is committing ourselves to the future that God has for us. One of my life verses is Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you.” says the Lord, “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

I cannot say this enough, “Until we die or the Lord returns, this church has a future, this church has a ministry in this community, this church has a mission that is bigger than what takes place at Mitchell and Oak Streets! It is God’s mission! It is God’s ministry! It is the future that God has for it!”

In a few moments, I am going to ask those who are currently serving in leadership and ministry to come to the altar for a time of prayer. We are going to commit ourselves to God and His future for us for another year.

As we conclude our series this morning I want us to spend some time reflecting on these questions, “How well are we pleasing God?” “How well am I pleasing God?” “What is one thing we need to change to better please God?” What is one thing that I need to change to please God?” (Overhead 3)

I believe that as we commit to pleasing God, congregationally as well as personally, we are going to have a great and more effective ministry and there is going to be a growth and newness in our lives that we cannot possibly imagine.

Will you commit to the ministry of this church and a ministry that God has for you? Will you do your part as a member of this church for God’s honor and glory?

Let us spend some time in silent prayer and meditation before we sing. Amen.

What On Earth Am I Here For?

Scripture Passage- Matthew 22:34-40

Description – The introductory sermon to a 40 Days of Purpose campaign

(1) As I began writing this sermon, I had trouble deciding how to start because I wasn’t sure where to start. I have preached on the five purposes, (worship, outreach, fellowship, discipleship, and service) in the past and I think that many here have read the book, The Purpose Driven Life. Yet I believe that the format of this series will be used by the Lord to really help each one of us come to realize that our purpose on this earth is more than mere existence. Rather, it is a very profound and meaningful existence when we allow God to be at the center of life, influencing and directing our decisions, priorities, values, and attitudes.

As I began to write, a very clear, if unusual illustration came to my mind. When you hear it at first you might be taken aback by the suggestion in the question. But, in light of what this series is about, discerning God’s purpose for each of us and our circumstances, it is a very good question to ask ourselves as we begin this series.

So,… ‘I begin with the end in mind.’ In other words, I want us to focus on the result, the product of not just this series but our own lives in light of what the Bible teaches us about God’s good plans and purposes. In other words, I want us to think about the question, (2) ‘How do I want to be remembered at my funeral?’ as a way to think seriously about God’s purposes in your life.

How do you want to be remembered at your funeral? I have read a poem at several funerals entitled ‘The Dash’ that speaks to this question and goes as follows:

(Due to copywrite issues, I am unable to post the poem here.)

(3)Would you smile at the things being said about how you spent your dash? How do you want to be remembered at your funeral?

(a) By your family?

(b) By your co-workers?

(c) By your friends?

(d) By your church?

(e) By your God?

Now the point of this is not to put us in a mood of gloom and doom. I believe, and more important, I believe that the Bible teaches us that with God, life is good and meaningful even when it is hard and difficult. God wants to be, and is, with us during the heavy times as well as the lighthearted times.

Because God has given us life, the natural life that we experience on a daily basis and the eternal life that Christ offers us, we need to ask ourselves today and for the next 40 days, (4) ‘What on earth am I here for?’

It was a pointed question they asked Jesus and it came on the heels of an interesting discussion with a group who did not believe in a resurrection about the resurrection and who will be married to whom in the afterlife. The Sadducees had their shot at tripping up Jesus and He had silenced them as Matthew writes in verse 34 of our main text. Now it was the Pharisees turn.

It is a very good question. It is one of those questions that goes to the heart of the matter. It is a question about what constitutes the essentials of the faith. It is also a critical question because the answer to it reveals what God thinks is most important. (5)

‘Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?’

The debates that Jesus had with the Pharisees and Sadducees, two key schools of the Jewish faith in that day, dealt with interpretations of the sacred text as it related to issues of faith. Issues such as, who the Messiah was and what He was going to do; what constituted sin; what was acceptable on the Sabbath; how God healed; how a follower of God’s loyalty to the governing authorities was to be expressed; how sinful behavior was to be dealt with.

In this situation however, the issue of what was at the top, what was the greatest command of God to the people, is the central issue. ‘So Jesus, what is the greatest thing that God tells us to do?’

What then, is the purpose of our faith, the purpose of our obedience, the purpose of our laws? What is the purpose of life?

Jesus wraps it up in one word – love.

“‘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 yourself.’ All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

In this passage, Jesus simply makes clear what God made clear from the very beginning – that He loves us and wants our love (and obedience) in the return.

However, what about all of the rules and guidelines and rituals that are in the Old Testament? What if we looked at them as the way that God provided the Israelites to learn to love Him because they had to learn how to love Him?

(6) To love Him with all our heart is to put the First Commandment into practice, ‘Do not worship any other gods besides me.’ When we love someone, they usually are constantly in our thoughts, right? The same holds true with God.

(7) To love Him with all our soul is to let go of anything that keeps us from doing so. It is putting the Second Commandment into practice, ‘Do not make idols of any kind, whether in the shape of birds or animals or fish. You must never worship or bow down to them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not share your affection with any other god!’ I will have more to say about this in a moment.

(8) To love Him with all our mind is to think and meditate on the truth of Scripture and the truth of God. It is putting the Fifth Commandment into practice, ‘Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you.’ Taking time for worship, prayer, meditation, and study enables us to think about and on the Lord. Paul wrote in Romans 12:2 ‘let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.’

I think that all of this was obvious to Jesus’ audience as we know they were well versed in the Law and the Prophets. They knew what we now call the Old Testament backwards and forwards as it was their course and subject of study. It was their life. They knew what He was talking about and I think that they would agree with what He had said… so far. But Jesus goes further, ‘A second is equally important,’ He goes on to say, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

It seems to me that the first part of this passage ties in with the first five Commandments all of which deal with our relationship with God. The addition of the second one focuses on the last half of the ten, ones that deal with our relationships with others.

In Luke’s account of this conversation, he notes that Jesus follows up the questioner with the story of the Good Samaritan and in Mark’s account the segment concludes as follows:

‘The teacher of religious law replied, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth by saying that there is only one God and no other. And I know it is important to love him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbors as myself. This is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law.” Realizing this man’s understanding, Jesus said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.

In this key passage Jesus expands God’s purpose beyond the ‘normal stuff’ that we have been told to do. He says that God’s greatest command to us is to not just love Him but to love our neighbors as well. We then get a sign here that God’s purpose for us is multi-faceted and has to do with relationships with others as well as our relationship with the Lord.

I suggest this morning that we take the next five Sundays and the five purposes and view them as a way of loving God and our neighbor. Now our guest speakers may not make that clear connection but look for it.

Speaking of the five purposes, let’s take a brief look at each of them.

(9) (a) Worship brings God pleasure. Listen to Romans 12:1 as translated in ‘The Message’ version of the Bible, ‘Take your everyday, ordinary life –your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life-and place it before God as an offering.’ Many centuries ago a believer name Brother Lawrence came to the place where he realized that he could worship God no matter what he did. His story and journey is found in the book Practicing the Presence of God. Worship is not just a 9:30 Sunday morning activity, it is an attitude and a habit that we need to cultivate each and everyday of our life.

(9b) Outreach brings God and people together. Listen to John 17:18 from ‘The Message:’ ‘In the same way that you gave me a mission in the world, I give them a mission in the world.’ This is Jesus praying for the disciples one last time before He would be arrested, tried, and crucified.

I rejoice in the fact that outreach, that mission, was on Jesus’ mind during this time. He knew that the outcome of the next several hours would form the message of the mission that the disciples and us would spread throughout the world. It is a message of hope for when we reach out to others not just by our words but by our actions, we demonstrate love for our neighbor in Jesus’ name.

You have heard me say this before and I will say it again, (and so has Rick Warren) ‘each one of us has a ministry out there in our community and world.’ In discovering and entering in to it, we bring God and people together.

(9c) Discipleship increases our love for God and care for others. The Living Bible translation of Colossians 2:7 says, “Let your roots grow down into Christ and draw up nourishment from him. See that you go on growing in the Lord, and become strong and vigorous in the truth.” This truth is not merely a set of beliefs that we copy onto a page and recite from time to time. This truth that Paul speaks of is a living and dynamic truth that is found in the Lord Himself and in the life that we are given through a personal relationship with Christ. In other words, when Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life,’ He was describing the reality and power of God as a living and breathing spirit and not a set of ideas to be debated. It is thus about a relationship with God and not a class about God. As we then mature in our faith, it increases our capacity and ability to love God and others.

(9d) Fellowship deepens the bonds of between others and the Lord. The Contemporary English Version of Colossians 3:15 says, ‘Each one of you is a part of the body of Christ, and you were chosen to live together in peace.’

Where would we be without people who care for us and about us? How many times have you been given a much needed boost by a kind word or note from another member of this church? How many times has your faith been strengthened by fellow believer?

Fellowship is a critical aspect of God’s purposes for us. It is a key way that we live the Great Commandment to love God and neighbor.

Granted, we do not see ‘eye-to-eye’ on everything. But, when disagreements occur (and they will) how we resolve those disagreements is based in part on the quality of our bonds. If we have built good bonds of fellowship then the disagreements and tough issues that we face from time to time will be resolved well.

(9e) Service brings people hope. In Romans 12:5 we read, ‘Since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ’s body, let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be.’ A Danish proverbs says, ‘What you are is God’s gift to you; what you do with yourself is your gift to God.’

In serving, we bring people hope because love of God and love of neighbor is best expressed by serving others. Jesus made that clear in his words about the cup of cold water as we read in Matthew 10:42, ‘And if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded.’

As Rick Warren has said, ‘God has a place in his church where your specialties can shine and you can make a difference. It’s up to you to find that place.’

I believe that we are going to hear a good word from the Lord these next few weeks. I believe that the Lord wants to speak to each of us and give each of us a clearer understanding of His purpose for us. Are you ready to hear from Him? Are you ready to listen for and to Him?

(10) I conclude this morning with some comments that were made by Joe Stowell at the Promise Keepers conference in Grand Rapids last month. He called them ‘problems’ I call them ‘barriers to progress’ that we need to be aware of as we enter this 40 Days of Purpose.

We will be dealing with them as we hear about discipleship, fellowship, ministry, service and worship over the next five weeks. God is aware of them as well and wants to overcome them. The Evil One is aware of them as well and he will do all he can to keep us from overcoming them.

(10a) The barrier of personal limitations is the first barrier. The great men and women in the Bible dealt with the things. We need to admit to these barriers and turn them over to the Lord so that we are freed to pursue His purposes for us.

(10b) The barrier of a limited perspective is the second barrier. Our vision is cloudy because we are not perfect and cannot see like God can. Again, think of your favorite Bible character, he or she had a limited perspective. During the next forty days allow the Lord to help you see what He wants you to see.

(10c) The barrier of a predisposition to fear is the third barrier. Fear holds us back and Satan loves to keep us afraid because then he wins! What are you afraid of? List your fears and bring them to the Lord! Be aware they can strike (and they will) at any time. But turn them over to Jesus!

(10d) The barrier of a transitional season is the fourth barrier. Some of us are in a transitional period in life. In some ways I feel that I am especially since mom’s cancer discovery. Life is not the same as it was. These barriers can paralyze us if we let them. But, ‘to everything there is a season, a purpose under heaven.’ Don’t let the transitions of life cause you to freeze but let God come closer to you in them and help you move forward through them with Him.

(10e) The barrier of false expectations is the final barrier. Last month we looked at Judas and considered how his false expectations were a part of his betrayal. I don’t expect this 40 Days of purpose to be a magical cure. But I do expect that it will help each of us move forward as individuals and as a church as we listen and follow the Lord.

Stowell concluded with this comment, ‘What is God getting you ready for that you cannot [rely on yourself to do?]’

Someone has said, ‘the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’ and this morning I am asking you to make a single step into the future that God has for you and us as this church.

I am asking that if you are ready to begin this 40 Days of adventure and discovery that you step out of the pews and simply walk down the aisles to the altar for a time of prayer as we conclude this morning. I am not going to ask you to do anything but that.

No matter where you are in live, no matter what your issues (your barriers are), I challenge you to simply come and express your desire to move forward into the future that the Lord has for you by coming forward this morning. Are you ready? I am! Amen.