Loving The World Series

Beyond Cheap Talk and Sentiment

Cayley St

Living in Glendalough

Only owner occupiers in a rental area – parking car in neighbour’s carport to make it look like the house was occupied

New neighbour – watched him walk to his bus stop and then watched him walk home again – always meant to say g’day – get to know him

1 week went by - 2, 3, 4 – life was busy

Then one night… the noise at 3.00am – getting up in a half sleep and seeing Danelle’s car leave the neighbour’s driveway – disbelief – sleepy – banging on the window – Danelle ‘what’s going on?’ – ‘Our neighbour’s mate is stealing your car’

Ran down stairs and out onto the street

Neighbour apologetic – were we making too much noise

‘just thought your friend was stealing my wife’s car – hello I’m Andrew Hamilton

As I went back to bed it highlighted to me that what I said I valued and what I really valued didn’t always look the same.

I said I wanted to help people find Jesus – but when push came to shove I didn’t make time for it. My real values spoke loud and clear. You see talk is cheap.

I had good intentions – but in the end if there is no action its lip service. Its like when we see friends at the shop and say “we must catch up!” – how often in our busy lives that is what happens – we mean well, but we just don’t follow through.

Our lives almost inevitably seem to take the path of least resistance – we will do what comes easiest – whether its right or best or not. UNLESS we consciously plan and choose to do otherwise.

How many of us meant to get fit last year? – meant to lose weight? – meant to paint the house? And we really did mean to – but it didn’t happen!!

Gt Commission

Let me tell you, if the Christian church was started with that kind of good intention and sentiment then none of us would be standing here today.

Ultimately, sentiment is cheap and good intentions count for nothing – what matters is self giving, self - sacrificing action – doing what we say we are going to do – following through on our good intent with a plan that works.

Just before Jesus left the earth he gave his 11 remaining disciples their mission for the rest of their lives. It’s the same mission that they handed on to their disciples and it’s the same mission that is in front of us today.

(Mat 28:18-20 NIV) Jesus said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. {19} Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, {20} and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

It was a huge challenge! One that he had been preparing them for – he called them and said come and I will make you into fishers of men’ – he promised to teach, train and equip them – then he spent three years doing just that – working with them and preparing them – giving them projects to work on – but now the time had come – It was down to them to do what they had been called to do – to go into the whole world and make disciples of all nations. Training was over – the real thing begins!

And Peter said “yeh I’m up for that. Let me just tidy a few things up with the fishing business and I’ll make a few disciples in my spare time. I’ll get around to it shortly It sounds like a really good idea.”

And Matthew said “when I get these books in order and when I get myself a little better established financially then I’ll have a look at that – I’d like to see the whole world reached. Sounds good to me.”

And… no it wasn’t like that. These guys gave their lives to making Jesus call a reality. They put everything else in the background so that this could be their mission. They didn’t just talk about it – they didn’t have good intentions – they did it and the priority of that mission showed in every detail of how they lived their lives. Read the book of Acts and you see them begin the task.

Let me ask a vital question for us here at LBC. How seriously do you (personally) want to take that command of Jesus this year? How seriously do we as a church want to take that this year? Because how we answer that question will determine what kind of church we will become.