Follow Jesus! Series

The Church

Ephesians 4:1-7

September 25, 2022

As I’ve been thinking about the church, I’ve been thinking about God’s call in my own life. What that meant and how it totally changed my life. That call from God led me to Him, the church . . . and ultimately to ministry. I’ve said it before, this is the absolute last thing I ever expected to be doing. If you told me when I was 25 that I would be a Christians and a pastor in central Indiana, I would have thought you were joking or crazy. But here I am . . . and here we are.

My point is that God is calling us!! It comes in all different ways. We’ll be called to do many different things in the kingdom, once we’ve accepted the call to proclaim Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

As we talked about last week, in Matthew 4, Jesus began to call His first disciples. I believe the call from God to you and I is the same as the call to Peter and Andrew, James and John --- Jesus calls out - -

FOLLOW ME

FOLLOW ME

I really believe that even if you’ve been a Christ follower for years, there’s still a constant call from Jesus. It’s an invitation to a life of purpose, a life filled with His grace, His power, His passion and a hope that is everlasting. It’s all in those words . . . come . . . . follow me.

Sometimes I think this invitation from Jesus feels out of reach to many of us. On the one hand, He calls us to follow Him as a believer. Well, what does that mean? Do I need to totally change my life? Or can I keep doing what I was? What will my family and friends think? We can ask a lot of questions, just in thinking about what it means to accept a relationship with Jesus.

If we really embrace a relationship with Jesus, then that means we have to make some changes. Not that we were necessarily terrible people, but now we are claiming to believe in someone who died for us, so that we could experience spiritual freedom. That in and of itself - can be kind of heavy to consider.

Then comes the call to do something, to be active in the church. To become part of the church, part of the kingdom, attend worship, worship on line, to contribute as a servant, to give my time, to give my money and talents. To discover my spiritual gifts, so I can serve in the right place, doing what God’s called me to do.

How much does God really want of me? Because when I tell you He wants everything, I know for many the answer may be quick and easy . . . NOPE! I can do it my way and hope for the best.

That’s the way of Jesus. It’s not always rosy, it’s not always easy. Yet, there’s that big BUT . . . because the life Jesus offers us is bigger and better and gives us this amazing hope that the rest of the world doesn’t have. That makes us different in who we are, but we have the secret formula, which isn’t really secret.

Church statistics tell us in most churches - -

20% of the people give 80% of the offerings - - - - AND

20% of the people do 80% of the work.

And for the most part that’s true. And I have to tell you, here’s my conundrum . . . while I understand the numbers, I don’t really understand why! Its would seem that we would want to serve and want to give to the church. We would want to see the kingdom of God growing and would want to be involved in that mission.

Our struggle comes in being the church. If I asked you, who wants to serve in the church, not many hands would go up, not many people would have their hearts burning. They need someone else to create and do the slides, or be in the nursery, or cut the grass, or help with sound or teach a Sunday School class or usher. I can’t wait to do it ... pick me! Pick me!

I’m not trying to be sarcastic or cynical, but the reality is if I said I have tickets to a concert or football game, or a gift card to a restaurant, more of you would get a burning in your heart. You’d get excited.

Why is that? I think there’s something in us that feels that the life Jesus talks about, this abundant life, is just out of reach for us and we lack the boldness to say an outright YES when He calls us. Our reply is more of a ‘kinda-sorta’ embracing of His call.