The plumber came this week. You remember, those of you who were here last Sunday, how I was waiting for the plumber to come and solve our drainage problems?
The plumber did come this week. He did the job I wanted, and even did it better than I knew it could be done. Not only did he unstop the plugged drain, but he told me some things I should be doing to prevent that kind of problem from happening again. By the way, if you want it or need it, I’ll give you his name and his phone number. I was impressed.
Thereby hangs another parable. Another plumbing parable from my basement.
But before I give you today’s plumbing parable, I think we should review last week’s. Some were absent last Sunday; some have forgotten; and some of you were a little plugged up yourselves. We need to review.
Review
Do you remember that I told you about my plumbing problem as a way of helping us analyze how human beings respond to frustration? How do we react when things just don’t go right and when we can’t get done what we want to get done?
I told you that I tried to unstop my plugged up drain all by my lonesome, using my amateur’s knowledge and my flimsy little plumber’s snake. And that reminded us that the first level of frustration is weakness. We get frustrated because we are just too weak or too ill-equipped to do what we want to do.
And then I pointed out that the next thing I did was to ignore the problem and hope it would go away. I tried to get around the issue. I hooked up a hose to send soapy water into the rose bushes. I fiddled while Rome burned. I spent three weeks just not admitting that I was going to need help. “Mother, please, I’d rather do it myself". The point was that the second level of frustration most of us reach is that we can’t get on with what we want to do because we are unwilling to ask for help. We just won’t keep the sin of pride out of the way.
Finally, I told you that I broke down and called the plumber only when my daughter, my son, and my wife were all on my case, wondering if they would ever again have clean clothes and a dry basement. What really got my attention was the potential of a broken relationship. What really brought me to the end of the line was the knowledge that hostility, enmity, had to be confronted.
And so last week we worked our way through a passage in Romans, chapter 6, in which Paul addresses all three of these levels. And in each case, at each level, he told us how much God cared about us and what God in Christ has done in order to help deal with our frustrations.
What do you remember? Do you remember now the key words Paul used to describe these three levels of frustration? Each one was introduced by the word, "while". Let’ s try: first, while we were still weak; then, while still we were sinners; and finally, while we were enemies.
Now those are the three levels of frustration that we had seen in the plumbing parable: weakness, pride (or sin), and enmity (or broken relationships).
And the question we asked about all of this was, "How much does God care about us?” The answer in every case, at all three levels, was what? Christ died for us. Christ died for us.
I’m almost tempted to preach last Sunday’s message all over again! I won’t, but I will summarize it for you like this:
When you are frustrated because you are too weak to do what you ought to do, remember that while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly, to show us what awesome strength he can bring us, so that we can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us.
Then when you are frustrated because you are too proud to ask for help, thinking that you ought to be able to get your life together all on your own, remember that while still we were sinners, Christ died for us. He died to teach us that we cannot manage the sin problem alone. He died to pay the price for us that we are unable and unwilling to pay for ourselves.
And finally, when you are so frustrated and unable to get anywhere because the relationships in your life are all messed up, then remember that while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His son. And that death is love reaching out to us, love grasping us to show us that we are not alone. We have a savior who will walk with us and be our friend; we have a savior who will teach use how love gives us success.
While we were weak, while we were proud sinners, while we were enemies, Christ died for us. That’s how much God cares about us.
Introduction
Now, today, turn it around. How much do we care about God? What kind of response is called for to a God who loves us enough to permit His son to die for us? Howl much do we care about God? We can measure our response in three levels, and they are just like the three levels of frustration I spoke about last week.
That brings me to this week’s plumbing parable. What did
I experience with the plumber this week, as he got the work done?
Well, first, he did the work just as I had hoped. And he did something I really like for workmen to do: he told me what I needed to be doing in order to prevent problems in the future. He taught me something. I like that. When I’ve gotten a problem taken care of, I want to learn. I got instruction.
Second, you’d better believe that when my wife came home,
I told her all about what had happened. I was quick to share all the details. You see, when something good happens to you, you are quick to share it. You want to tell others. All the pretenses about being able to do it myself were gone, and I was more than happy to tell someone else.
And then, finally, this week I discovered myself reporting to other about what had happened. I offered to give out the plumber’s name and phone number to anyone who needed it. I found myself enthusiastically talking about what a good job this fellow did. That’s what you do when something is good enough that you think other people ought to know about it.
So: how much do we care about it God? You can measure it at three depths.
And Paul puts them down for us in Romans, Chapter 10: Let’s develop this:
I
The first way you can care about God is to confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord. You can learn to interpret your own experience with Christ. In its own way, that’s what I did when I drank in those plumbing hints; I was learning from my experience. I grew stronger in my abilities.
Paul says, "If you confess with your lips that Jesus is lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.”
I hear the apostle telling us that our basic response to God’s love for us is to learn how to interpret our salvation. To confess with the lips, to confess with our mouth, means that we learn how to tell others what our faith is all about. It is not enough just to feel good; it’s not sufficient just to be happy in the Lord. It is certainly not adequate just to get ourselves at peace spiritually. If you really care about God, the most basic thing you can do is to learn how to think about and talk about your experience with Him.
When God cares enough about us to solve our weakness problem, then we need to care enough about God to go ahead and build up our strength, our confession.
Frankly, it continues to concern me that so many of us never, never take advantage of opportunities for Christian education. Our church offers educational opportunities on Sunday morning for every age group from the smallest child to the most mature adult. For adults alone we provide one class that is for those who’ve not had much exposure to the Bible, we provide some five classes that are built around a curriculum that will get you through the major themes of the Bible in about seven years. And we even provide a depth class for people who are beyond the basics. And yet if today is a typical Sunday, barely half of us in this room showed up to study God’s word. Why not? Why not? Do we not care about God at even the most elementary level? Do we not care enough even to learn how to shore up our weakness and explain our faith?
I could go on. I could talk about how we have a carefully planned educational experience every Wednesday night as part of our prayer meeting, but only a handful turn out to learn from it. I could remind you that this building houses a whole library of books just waiting for us to borrow and study on our own. I can assure you that your pastors stand ready even to provide personal, individual instruction on spiritual issues. I just love to lend people my books (as long as I eventually get them back!) and cherish times to discuss with you your questions.
If a mind is a terrible thing to waste, then that means that the way a Christian starts to care about God is to learn to confess with his lips that Jesus is Lord, and to do it carefully and accurately.
II
Next, you can care for God at a second level by your witnessing. You can witness to the truth that He wants to be the Lord of all, without regard to culture or race or other distinction. Just as I was ready and willing to tell my wife about our plumbing rescue, I can respond to God by being willing to tell anybody what Christ means to me.
How much do we care about God? If we have first cared enough to learn what the content of the Christian faith is, then the next level is to share it with those around us. The next level is so to value our relationship with Christ that we will want others to know about Him.
Now I’ve just said that when anything good happens to us, our first instinct is to tell someone about it. We just want to let it out. And yet we seem to have a problem here. We seem to hold ourselves back when it comes to telling others about Christ. What do we say? “Oh, that’s personal. That’s private. I don’t think I could get into that. What another person believes, that’s his own business.”
That’s what we say, but let me tell you what I really hear. What I really hear is, “I’m uncomfortable about me. I just can’t get into anything that personal. I’m afraid I’ll be rejected, I’m afraid I’ll be embarrassed.” What is the issue here? The issue is pride. Once again the problem is that we are afraid to get outside or ourselves. Once again the issue is that we are too proud and too turned in on ourselves, and thus we are disobedient, even though, as we learned last week, even while we still were proud sinners, Christ died for us.
But look: if God cares enough about us to solve our pride/sin problem, then we can care enough about Him to get over our minor little discomforts. We can care enough about Him to set aside our fear of being embarrassed. We can care enough to share a witness with somebody who just might challenge us.
Let me show you how this fetish we have for personal, private religion relates to the Biblical text. I’ve been quoting Paul where he says that "there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, ’Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
That means the same Lord for all persons, right? Except that because we are so private and proud and closed in and introverted, we limit our witnessing. We edit our witnessing. In so far as we share our faith at all, it is with those who present almost no challenge to us.
I’ve talked with people about sharing their testimony with someone, and they will say, “Well, I’ve invited my new neighbor to come to church with me. He’s a Baptist from down in Virginia." And that’ s fine, but there’s not much challenge in witnessing to somebody who’s already a Christian and a Baptist.
And then I’ve given names to others and asked them to visit, and they’ve said, “Well, she doesn’t seem like the kind of person for our church. She’s got all this education and all this political clout. I think she’d want a more prestigious church.”
Or again, “Well, he’s from Korea, and we don’t have any Asians in our church. Looks like the Korean churches ought to get him.” Or, “Well, you know we’re mostly black, and I really don’t think white folks want that.” Or, worst of all, “Well, she’s Jewish. He’s Muslim. They already have a religion. They wouldn’t be interested in becoming Christians.”
But folks, those things are not the issues. Whether people want what we have to offer is not the issue. Whether our church suits what we guess somebody might prefer is not the issue. These are smokescreens that proud, private, shy, introverted people like you and me throw up. The real issue is, “Do they know Christ as savior and Lord?” The real issue is, “How will this person spend eternity?” And we dare not let our personal, private pride get in the way!
How much do we care about God? Enough to witness that “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” And that “there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all.”
III
Now I want to get to the deepest level of all. I want Paul to instruct us about what it is to care about God in a very profound way. Once you’ve discovered that God cares about your weakness problem and so you respond by learning how to interpret the Christian faith; and once you’ve discovered that God cares about your pride problem and so you respond by leaping over the embarrassment barriers … is there anything else? Is there some deeper way yet to care about God and His Kingdom? There is. We call it missions.
We can care for God by going out of our way to find those who have never heard and by proclaiming and giving and sending. The deepest level of care for God is missions; it is looking far and wide for others who need to know the love of God. And so, I’ve gone to some trouble this week to volunteer to tell people how they may reach my plumber. Some didn’t even know they needed a plumber. And just so the Christian who wants to respond to the love of God at the deepest level will do it by choosing missions.
Listen again to Paul: “How are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent?”
God solves the weakness problem; we saw that last week. God solves the sin/pride problem; we heard that last Sunday. And God solves the enmity problem, God bridges the hostility gap. "While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son". That’s how much God cares about us.
Then I would argue that that means we need to care about God enough to go to those who are a long way away from us, those who are different from us, even those who have tagged themselves our enemies. We need to care enough about God to search out every person, every tribe, every nation who have not heard the Gospel. We need to do missions.
Missions work is, very simply, that those who know, go. Those who know, go. Those who know Christ and know the power of His love go to the very ends of the earth to seek out those who do not know and tell them. Those who know, go.
Now I realize there are a whole host of questions people raise about missions. They wonder if it is necessary: is Christ really the only way to be saved? They wonder if it is effective. They even wonder if missions work is disruptive and destroys native cultures. I cannot take the time to respond to all of these issues this morning. That’s what we are doing in our Wednesday night studies on missions.
All I can do this morning is to insist that missions work is what God has commanded His church to do. All I can say is that we as a people of God will be unfaithful if we do nothing more than cater to our own needs and whims. If you want to respond to God and care about God with more than mere tokens, you will choose missions.
Let me be specific. I believe there are people seated here this morning who should consider missions work. I believe there are many people who could do something positive and definite for the Kingdom through missions.
There are young people – high school and college students, young professionals – who could take a career path in missions and ministry. You can make a life work out of missions. Some young person should listen for the call of God to do that.
There are adults, many of us, who should look at the missions option. Some are able to retire early from government service; you could go somewhere as a missions volunteer and let your pension support you. Other adults are working and have to stay with it, but do have vacation time … a week, two weeks, a month … and you could give your time and your skills somewhere where there is a need. All it takes is caring enough about God and His Kingdom to be able to feel the calling in Paul’ s word, “How are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim? And how are they to proclaim unless they are sent?"
Conclusion
How much do we care about God? You know, someone said to me not long ago that most of the people of Takoma Park Baptist Church were not able to share their faith, not ready to do ministry, and not interested in doing missions work. And the reason, he said, was that most of us are so engrossed in our own personal problems that we can’t see anything else. The theory is that most people feel they need to deal with their own failing relationships and their own unhappy lives before they can think about anybody else.
Maybe. Maybe. But I also remember one who said, “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever will lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” I also remember one who cared enough about us that while we were yet weak and prod sinners and enemies of his, went to a cross for us. He unplugged all those problems for us.
It seems we could care enough for him to go out of our way to tell others who the plumber is.
