Wrecking The Roof Series

WRECKING THE ROOF

Real change?

Mark 2: 1 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." 6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 "Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?" 8 Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, "Why are you thinking these things? 9 Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ’Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ’Get up, take your mat and walk’? 10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins..." He said to the paralytic, 11 "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." 12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!"

Our current series over the past weeks is called

Driven by Eternity… (DBE)

We have been asking how we (meaning each of us individually and all of us as a church) can reorganize our lives that we might be DBE.

How can we do that? How can we rethink the way we live our lives… the way we conduct church as we know it… to genuinely reach people?

In the past two weeks we have seen an influx of people and over 50 first time visitors… last week we saw 15-25 people respond to either receive salvation for the first time or to rededicate their lives – at least 10 were first time salvations…

Now what are we doing with that… we are trying desperately to live out our vision as a church.

Our vision is to be real people, living real life, and to experience real change… we are following up with each of these guests and salvations. Several of you today on on your third week here and in the midst of our 4-week challenge…

What can we do to continue to see numbers added daily just as it was in the book of Acts? How can we continue to change that we might be DBE in all we do? So how does one do that within the church? How do we experience real change that leads to kingdom growth?

The truth is – every organization in history that became exclusionary rather than inclusional began a path towards self implosion. When it becomes about naval gazing and focusing on me rather than the greater good – we self implode with selfish greed.

Deitrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian in WWII, wrote from his cell in the Flossenburg concentration camp and said “The church is only the church when it exists for others.”

Again - THE CHURCH IS ONLY THE CHURCH WHEN IT EXISTS FOR OTHERS

The reality of most churches in our nation - Typically most churches are more concerned with self-preservation and keeping people happy then they are about the reality of God’s kingdom and the lost in their own city.

We are more concerned with seeking to be served rather than seeking to serve as Christians… we are more concerned with our own comforts and preferences rather than reaching the lost.

We are more concerned with keeping things in tact rather than restoring lives that are shattered.

That is not our church…

THE CHURCH IS ONLY THE CHURCH WHEN IT EXISTS FOR OTHERS

This morning I want to talk about 3 steps. 3 realities, of what it will take to truly become driven by eternity… to always make sure our centerpoint is not on internal purposes alone – the external reality of heaven and hell – and our call to reach as many as possible for God’s kingdom.

You see one of my values is that the Church should be the most creative and strategic place on the planet. ON the day of Pentecost Peter preaches from the prophet joel and talks about the last days and says the young men will dream dreams, and the older ones will have visions.

He describes the last days church as dreamers and visionaries. And far too often the church looks like managers not dreamers.