Video - We Are Marshall (Coach meets the three living members)
Introduction
I. The world had become exceedingly wicked.
A. Men and women did not obey God, but rather did as they wished.
B. Men and women did not love their neighbors, but rather looked out for only number one, namely self, saying, “What can I get out of this life.”
C. Lawmakers were few, law followers were even fewer, but lawbreakers were many.
D. It sounds a lot like today, or any other day for that matter, BUT
E. Relatively speaking, the world was only a few years old.
II. In fact Genesis 6:12 says - “12 And God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.”
A. Genesis 6
B. The world began with the story of Genesis one, and one chart I looked at developed a time line that said from creation to Noah was only about 1500 years or so.
III. To our way of thinking 1500 years seems like an awfully long time, but wonder with me for a moment,
A. 1500 years from Adam and Eve, I wonder how many people had been born?
B. 1500 years, from the time God walked the earth with man, yet God was still communicating with some men.
C. 1500 years, since the first command of God was broken, and creation has so deteriorated that God was going to destroy every living thing,
IV. But what did God do?
A. In his mercy, He found one man who the bible says was a “righteous, blameless man in his time.” (Gen. 6:9, NASB)
B. God found one man, that would be obedient to even the wildest of ideas and God said, “make (or build) an Ark.”
V. Show video (Gaither Music) (Build an Ark)
VI. So what was this Ark that Noah was told to build?
A. Was it not a type of Christ?
1. All who entered were offered salvation from the coming flood.
B. Even though there were probably thousands, maybe even millions of people alive, how was this salvation made possible?
1. Through a personal invitation of God.
2. Through personal obedience to the Word of God.
C. God said,
1. Build an ark, according to MY specifications.
2. You, your wife, your sons and their wives are invited to enter into this salvation experience, because the rest will be destroyed.
D. Notice,
1. The only person that the bible says was “righteous and blameless” was Noah, yet because of his obedience, a few others were saved.
2. Now don’t misunderstand,
a. I’m not saying that salvation comes to others because of the obedience of the righteous.
(1) Each person must make his own decision.
(2) Even Noah’s family had to decide
(a) I will accept the invitation, or
(b) This guy is crazy.
b. But in one sense, I am saying,
(1) Salvation came to others based on Noah’s obedience to God’s word.
(2) No obedience, would mean, no Ark, which would have meant no salvation for anyone.
VII. I wonder how many people were pounding on the door of the Ark when the waters began to rise!!!
VIII. Consider this as well,
A. God called upon Noah to be obedient to His strategy, and build an Ark, which probably seemed just a bit silly to most folks, if not Noah himself.
B. There were specific plans laid out by God, by which salvation would come,
1. A specific type of wood was called for, Gopher; not oak or pine or anything else.
2. Cover it inside and out with pitch or tar, because the ride will be long and hard.
3. This many decks,
4. This many windows,
5. This many floors,
6. But only one window, AND
7. Only one door by which entrance will be gained.
C. And Noah built an Ark, and offered God’s salvation to a specific group of people, at a specific time in history.
IX. I don’t want to stretch this analogy to far, but in creating “The Connection” we are attempting to follow a strategy for offering salvation.
X. This morning I would like to share with you a bit of the strategy for reaching our community with a message from God.
XI. We want to Build and Ark,
XII. Strategy Step Number One - “It doesn’t take a multitude to accomplish something great with God”
“It doesn’t take a multitude to accomplish something great with God”
I. How many people were responsible for building the ark?
A. Genesis 6:14 - “Make for yourself an ark...”
1. God gave the responsibility for offering salvation to one man, Noah.
2. Now I have no doubt that Noah must have had some help.
a. Maybe his sons and daughter-in-laws helped.
b. Maybe he hired a construction crew to help.
c. After all the job was immense, especially for it’s day.
(1) Three floors,
(2) Massive beams,
(3) Buckets upon buckets of pitch,
(4) Loading provisions,
(5) And the list goes on and on,
d. Many may have helped in one way or another, but one man had the responsibility for seeing the job through to completion.
B. Consider Christ at the beginning of His earthly ministry.
1. I can see Him walking through towns, maybe walking on the sea shore, asking of God,
a. “Where do I begin?”
b. “Who will help?”
2. Christ probably passed over hundreds of people, but how many did He enlist in his circle to help bring light to a dark world?
a. Twelve,
b. And one of them wore a giant “L” on his sleeve.
C. And we know that those 11 faithful accomplished some pretty amazing things for God.
II. I began by showing a video clip from the movie “We are Marshall”
A. The coach is coming to a college that has suffered a devastating loss
1. Loss of life,
2. Loss of spirit,
B. Only three young men remain from a football team of 55 or so.
C. Did you notice what he did, in just that short clip.
1. There is only three people, yet he says acts as if there is a full team;
a. “I need a formula to remember all the names” he says.
b. “It’s going to take me a few days to get the rest down.”
2. They have just lost all their friends in the plane crash, and one friend that was so depressed that though he lived, he couldn’t join them, and the coach said, “I will not leave you, I promise you that.”
3. How in the world will they build a team?
a. I will be with you to the end.
b. And if you saw the movie, you know they only won two games that year, but the coach stayed with those men for four years, which is when that first class would have graduated.
III. Jesus said, “Go and make disciples...” and “I will be with you till the end of the age.”
A. Build and Ark.
B. I am right beside you.
IV. Strategy step number one - “It does not take a multitude to do something great for God,” it only takes a willing and obedient few; it only takes us.
Strategy Step Number Two - “Identify Your Target” “Identify Your Target”
I. This is probably the most controversial steps and most difficult to understand.
II. Identify your target, on the surface seems to be a methodology of exclusion.
A. “Why can’t we offer Christ to everyone” you ask.
B. “What about those people that are outside of the so-called “target group?”
III. Again I ask you to consider Christ,
A. He was walking along the seashore, checking out the fisherman.
B. No doubt he had walked by several, but Matthew chapter 4 reads like this - “And walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19 And He *said to them, ‘Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ 20 And they immediately left the nets, and followed Him. 21 And going on from there He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He called them. 22 And they immediately left the boat and their father, and followed Him.’” (Matt. 4:18-22, NASB)
1. Why those? Why not the boat before, or the boat after? Wasn’t everyone invited?
2. Consider the man by the pool,
a. Many were present, and many needed “salvation”
b. Yet Christ zeroed in on one man and said,
(1) Among all these people, “Do you want to get well?”
(2) Or think about the women that reached out to touch the hem of his garment.
(a) Many were present, many were in need,
(b) But He targeted in on one person, and made her well.
3. Often in scripture we see the picture of multitudes coming, and only “one” offered healing or salvation.
IV. Our community is quite large,
A. About 170,00 people,
B. Within three miles of our church, over 66,000 homes.
C. All age groups, all levels of earnings power, But
1. They are predominantly caucasian, over 95%
2. Predominantly affluent - with a median household income over $90,000 a year.
3. Predominantly married - with 59% of the total population,
4. Predominantly employed - with about 95 plus %
5. And the majority are between the ages of 35 and 55 at 56%.
D. That is the bulk of the community, so it makes sense to focus on that group.
1. Can other come, sure, we pray they bring their children, grandchildren, and grandparents,
2. Are all invited, you bet, we will do all that we can to be prepared for the family members that come.
3. Any can come, yet we will focus the bulk of our resources, both monetary and personal on a slice of the community, walking past some, in order to approach others, “in order that by all means some might be saved.”
V. We are going to follow the example of Christ, and the apostles as closely as we possibly can.
VI. And I believe that is a biblical position to take.
VII. Strategy Step Number Three - “Have a Plan and Work It”
“Have a Plan and Work It”
I. If you are not there, turn into your Bibles to Genesis Chapter 6, beginning with verse 13 again; it reads like this - 13 Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. 14 “Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch. 15 “And this is how you shall make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16 “You shall make a window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit from the top; and set the door of the ark in the side of it; you shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17 “And behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish. 18 “But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19 “And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. 20 “Of the birds after their kind, and of the animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind shall come to you to keep them alive. 21 “And as for you, take for yourself some of all food which is edible, and gather it to yourself; and it shall be for food for you and for them.” 22 Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.
II. God gave Noah a plan, and expected him to work that plan, just as He instructed.
A. Now look at verse 22, for this is the key to the entire thing.
1. Yes the Ark was immense for it’s day, and no small feat even today.
2. The job was huge, and it would take many things from Noah, not the least of which was courage to work the plan.
B. Yet verse 22 says, “Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he DID.”
III. On the cross, do you recall what the last words of Christ were?
A. They are found in John 19:30 “It is finished.”
B. What was finished,
1. His life; No of course not, Christ is from eternity past to eternity future.”
2. His ministry; No, nine times scripture repeats that Christ is at the “right hand of God, and Romans 8:34 says He is “making intercession for you and I” his ministry is ongoing.
C. What was finished was the work of the plan for which He had come to earth.
1. The offer of salvation, by the giving of his life and separation from God the father.
2. The training and equipping of the Disciples, who would be the building stones for the church.
D. Way back in eternity past God had formulated a plan, and a decision was made that Christ would come to earth one day, and execute that very plan.
IV. Ephesians 1 reads - “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,”
A. God had a plan,
B. In order to be successful you must have a plan.
1. Sometimes the plan must be tweaked,
2. Because of our sin, which keeps us from hearing God clearly, sometimes plans even change,
3. But anytime you attempt to move forward without a plan, you are doomed to mediocrity at best, and failure at worst.
V. So what is our plan, please allow me to lay it out briefly.
Part One - Invite as many people as we can to the first preview service of “The Connection” on 21 October 2007.
I. Personal invitation is still the best, so I encourage you to invite anyone you know.
A. Say things like,
1. We are going to try something totally new for us.
2. We are going to try something different, for us.
3. We are making a push into our community, and you might just like what you will see.
B. Personal invitation, that is “One by One” is still the best.
II. But second we are going to mail out 5,000 invitations into this community.
A. Within a radius of about 1 miles are something like 15,000 homes.
B. We are only going to get card into a few,
C. We are actually going to do 4 mailing of 5,000 cards into the same homes over the next 4 months.
1. In real estate it is called “farming”
2. When parents in those 5,000 homes think of church, we want them to think of us.
Part Two - Have Church Only Once Each Month for Four Months
I. Don’t misunderstand, we will have some kind of activity for US every week, but as far as our visitors will understand, it will be once each month; October 21, November 21, December 23, and then January 20.
A. What do we do on the other weeks.
1. The week following each service is a planned “review” to determine what we might need to drop, add or improve on.
2. The next week, we will invite the visitors to return for a luncheon or other activity, where we will build bridges into their lives, and allow them to know us better, and maybe even find Christ. We will also invite them to participate in the next preview.
3. The third week we will meet to complete plans for the next preview.
4. Then the fourth week is another preview service.
B. Since most of us will be manning things like nursery, children’s church and other ministries, having services once a month will not wear us down over the four month period.
Part Three - Invite visitors to Commit.
A. Commit to Christ -
1. Pray that God will bring unchurched folks that need to find Christ.
2. Pray for me to have a clear presentation of the gospel.
3. Pray for us, that we will be open to new people, new ministry, and new ways of looking at church.
B. Commit to Service to God,
1. We are going to be asking people at that first service to
a. Accept Christ - certainly,
b. Decide if they might like to join the ministry here,
c. Invite their friends to the next scheduled service.
d. I will even ask them to write down names of people that can be invited.
C. Commit to growing in Christ.
1. Right now our only small group is Ron Dye’s - Wednesday night Man to Man.
2. Maybe God will bring us some believers with the gift of teaching, that will enable us to have
a. Ladies Study,
b. Basic Bible Study,
c. A regular Children’s Church
d. A weekly nursery,
e. And other ministries where non-Christians, new Christians, and even older Christians can connect with God, and continue to grow.
Conclusion
I. That’s really about it.
A. There is nothing terribly radical in what we will be doing.
B. We want to be prepared for what God might do, and
C. We want to be pro-active in inviting people, and accepting people.
D. I am praying that our worship will look a little different,
1. Teams,
2. More up tempo
3. Include things like drama and skits,
E. I really will be attempting to keep the entire service to about one hour, although I am going to also try and not get to nervous if it is a bit longer.
II. The message will not change, but they way we present it might.
III. Our primary prayer as a church will always be, “God, how do you want to make Yourself known to this community, at this time, through this church?”
IV. Notice the story of Noah,
A. Noah built an Ark, in obedience to God, BUT
B. God brought the animals,
C. God decided when to close the door,
V. I have again placed sign-up sheets in the bulletins.
