(1) Yesterday, mom and I attended a second cousin’s wedding in Lafayette. During the ceremony they took communion but did so without the help of the pastor.
As they did so I was reminded of a wedding that I performed here a couple of years ago. The couple asked for communion as part of the ceremony and when it came time for communion, I turned to the communion table that was place behind me, and… no communion!
I was embarrassed by the situation and I ended up returning $20.00 of my fee to them for the mistake.
I was also recently sent a video clip of a baptismal service in which a child decided to cannonball himself into the baptistery. It was featured I believe on one of the national video TV shows.
He got the pastor soaked, the pastor’s Bible soaked, the side of the baptistery soaked, and I believe some of the platform furniture soaked as well! It took a while for the laughter to die down.
Then there are those well circulated bulletin bloopers that cause a good chuckle as well. (2) Food announcements can be re-written and cause quite a chuckle. This one appeared probably appeared in the weekly calendar section of the bulletin:
(2A) Thursday night: Potluck Supper - Prayer and medication will follow.
We had a good Easter breakfast a few weeks ago (thanks men!) but aren’t we glad that this request did not get printed in the bulletin: (2B) The Pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday morning.
One of the most important things that a church can do to reach out to the community is provide space for support groups. However, I don’t think that this next announcement is a good way to get the point across!
(2C) Low Self-Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 to 8:30 p.m. Please use the back door.
As we begin this series, I remind us that the Lord loves, as unique and important individuals and as a unique and important congregation.
This series comes of out a significant time of prayer, reading, and reflection over the past several months. It comes, I believe directly from God’s heart and desire for us as the First Church of God. It also comes out of the Easter season and my pastoral concern and desire that we need to live in the power of Christ’s resurrection each and everyday as both individual believers and as a local congregation.
This series is designed to help us prayerfully consider who God is calling us to be as the First Church of God in Kendallville, Indiana. To help us begin our prayerful consideration, here is a clip that I found quite helpful for us to consider who we are and who God wants us to be. As we view it this morning, please reflect on the ideas and questions presented in it. (3) (The clip ‘Who Are We’ from sermonspice.com was used here.)
Over the next three weeks, I want us to keep in mind the following questions raised in the clip:
(4) Who are we?
(4A) What is our assignment?
(4B) Where is God at work right now?
(4C) What are we good at?
(4D) What’s the next step?
Each of these questions are important ones to ask and we will answer them, directly and indirectly in the next three weeks. But the question we begin with this morning is question number 2. What is our assignment? (5)
I believe that the starting point in answering that question begins with our main text for this morning. (5A) ‘For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.’ Notice the underlined sentence, ‘He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.’
There are two key separate but equally important statements in this sentence. (6) The first is the basis for the second. ‘He has created us anew in Christ Jesus.’
This is a foundational statement upon which our identity as believers is built. Neil T. Anderson has clarified this ‘newness’ with three important declarations:
1. (6A) I am accepted In Christ
2. I am secure in Christ
3. I am significant in Christ
Three of the most important needs we have as human beings are in the three descriptive words of each statement – acceptance, security, and significance. All of need to feel accepted, to feel secure in the love and care of another, and to feel that we are significant. But beyond just feeling these things, we need to experience all of these things and we can, and do, when we are made anew, born again by the confession of our sin and the acceptance of God’s forgiveness through Christ. We are new people. Only Jesus can make us truly feel and believe that we are accepted, secure, and significant.
But He also has brought the church into existence to spread the Word of acceptance, security, and significance that comes through saving faith and trust in Christ. This is where the second phrase comes in to play. It is the operational statement in this verse. (7)
How do the two tie together? We have a cause and effect here. The new creation of us, our being born again, makes it possible for us to do the good things that God planned long ago for each one of us here and as part of this church.
I believe with all of my heart, that God knew what He was doing and still wants to do, when He allowed this church to start in 1943. (8) I recently found out that the starting pastor of our church, Rev. Cecil Asbury, started our sister churches in Stroh and Ashley before he came here to Kendallville. But what God wanted, and still wants, this church to be is what He decided long ago it should be. And what He has decided this church to be is a group of growing people and I say growing because becoming the masterpiece that God created both us individually and as a congregation to be is an on-going process.
Now, I want us to look at the cover of our bulletin this morning. There is a phrase on it that has been on our newsletter and letterhead. What does it say?
(9) ‘A fully following and faithfully functioning church’
This is the kind of church that I believe God wants to help us grow to become. What does this phrase mean? How does it fit in with our question, ‘What is our assignment?’ This phrase indicates our assignment which is two-fold: to ‘fully follow’ and to ‘faithfully function’ as God’s people.
To fully follow starts with (9A) being ‘created anew in Christ Jesus.’ Our initial need is a spiritual reorientation. We studied the basics of that reorientation during Lent when we spent time with Nicodemus and Jesus in John 3.
(10) However, Gordon MacDonald has provided a very clear set of descriptors in understanding what it means to fully follow the Lord.
(10A) The first descriptor is spectator. MacDonald notes that there many spectators around Jesus because they were curious about what He had to say and offer. They were part of the crowds that Jesus encountered. Some were vocal in their expressed interest but most of them probably were not.
(10B) The second descriptor is seeker. It is noted by MacDonald that seekers appear in places like John 6 where Jesus, as he puts it, ‘tightened the screws of commitment and the spectators bailed.’ Seekers remained and were very interested in everything about Jesus.
(10C) The third descriptor is follower. This is where a line is crossed. This is where, as MacDonald says, ‘the acquisition of saving faith’ takes place.
(10D) The fourth descriptor is kingdom builder. These are people who are more than just follow Jesus they become, as our guide tells us, ‘proactive.’ They make things, God things, happen.
As we read through John 6 we see that not everyone wants to become a follower or even a kingdom builder. In verses 26 through 29, Jesus says, “The truth is, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you saw the miraculous sign. But you shouldn’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that I, the Son of Man, can give you. For God the Father has sent me for that very purpose.” They replied, “What does God want us to do?” Jesus told them, “This is what God wants you to do: Believe in the one he has sent.”
The context of this statement comes as the crowds of John 6, we read, crissed-crossed the Sea of Galilee seeking Jesus the next day after He performed the feeding of the 5,000. They loved Jesus. He was something else. But, Jesus knew that many if not most of them were interested in what He could do for them instead of believing and experiencing what He had come to earth to provide them.
And His statement we have just read caused a prolonged discussion about what constitutes the true source of satisfaction in life and eventually, as we get to verse 66, ‘At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him.’ The spectators left, some of the seekers stayed, most probably left, even some of His followers decided that Jesus’ requirements were too high and too hard and they left.
But a few of them, who were kingdom builders in the making, stayed as we notice in the closing verses of the chapter. “Lord, to whom would we go? You alone have the words that give eternal life. We believe them, and we know you are the Holy One of God.”
I remind us this morning that Jesus loves us, all of us. But if we are going to become the church that we (and God) have always wanted to become, we need to embrace the goal, individually and congregationally, of becoming kingdom builders because that is what Jesus wants us all to become.
There are two decision points in this chart (really there are more than that) but two that are important when it comes to fulfilling God’s vision for this church. The first decision point comes when we make the choice (10E) to move from being a seeker to a follower. That is probably the most important choice point. To make that decision requires what we have traditionally called, ‘being saved.’ No longer do we merely have an interest in Jesus. We now, purposely and intentionally make a decision to become a follower of Jesus and that means we make Jesus’ agenda our agenda.
Yet the second choice point (10F) is equally important. That is when we make the decision to become a part of God’s solution by becoming actively involved in the life and ministry of the church as a kingdom builder rather than just a follower. In other words, God expects our church to become kingdom builders rather than merely following. Spectators and seekers are welcome, but God’s big goal and desire that we move toward being a kingdom building church.
Remember this chart? (11) This is the results of the survey that we took last summer as part of our church health process.
This is our assessment of eight important areas of church health. The two red bars represent the two weakest areas of health.
Our Ministry Council selected to work on developing holistic small groups and a survey will be coming our way next week so that our church health team can begin to develop plans for some small groups.
But I am also concerned about the other ‘weak link’ noted in this survey - gift-based ministry. One of the reasons that this can become a weak area is when a small circle of people end up doing the majority of the ministry.
This goes against our assignment of being ‘a fully following and faithfully functioning’ church. It is made clear in various New Testament passages that each follower and kingdom builder has a place of ministry in local church that God has selected for them based on His purposes and who we are.
What is our assignment? (12) It is to be made anew in Christ Jesus. (12A) It is to do the good works planned for us to do.
(13) It is also to move from being a spectator to a seeker to a follower to a kingdom builder. This is the way to fulfill the Great Commandment of loving God and neighbor and the Great Commission of helping others become disciples or kingdom builders.
(14) We also need to notice that there is always the reality that we can slide backwards if we are not intentional about our own spiritual growth which affects the spiritual health of our entire church. We can go either direction!
As we conclude today, I have two questions for us to reflect on this morning and seek the Lord about: (15) What is one step that I can make right now that will help me move toward being a kingdom builder? (15A) What is one step that we can make right now that will help us move toward being a congregation of kingdom builders?
No matter where you or we are on the continuum, we can and we must do one thing to move one step forward toward being kingdom builders?
What is our assignment? It is to be a fully following and faithfully functioning church. It is to be kingdom builders for Christ.
Let’s take the next step and move forward. Amen.
Anderson material is from his book, Living Free in Christ.
MacDonald material is from his book, Mid-Course Correction.
Power Points for this sermon are available by e-mailing me at pastorjim46755@yahoo.com and asking for ‘042207slides’ Please note that all slides for a particular presentation may not be available.
