The Mission of the Church
Luke 19:10
July 5, 2009
Note: The ME/WE/GOD/YOU/WE format is from Andy Stanley’s book, "Communicating for a Change."
Me: The news over the last couple weeks regarding celebrity deaths took a little out of me, I have to admit.
First it was Ed McMahon. Then it was Farrah Fawcett.
When I was 11-12 years old, I was in love with Farrah Fawcett, along with about 99.9% of the world male population.
Then on the same day, Michael Jackson died.
Then a week ago yesterday, Billy Mays died. He was that boisterous pitchman for so many products on TV.
Within about a week, four famous people died, and found themselves facing God.
Now, people die every day, obviously, and the vast majority of them aren’t famous. But they will all face God whether they were famous or not.
And for many of them, facing God won’t be a joy, it will be a nightmare, and they will find themselves paying for their sins in hell because they don’t know Christ.
We: We all know people who have died, and some of them were people that as far as we can tell didn’t know Christ.
And if that evidence is correct, then they are facing an eternity in hell.
Have you really thought of that? That they may not be in heaven, as much as you might want them to be, but rather in hell?
I don’t like thinking about it, either.
But the fact of the matter, folks, is that the knowledge that people we know will go to hell because they don’t know Christ should break our hearts.
But the good news for you today is that God invites us to be part of the solution – to be part of His plan to help as many people as possible avoid that and rather, experience heaven for eternity, and have access to the full life Jesus wants for everyone who will take it.
God: My family and I were at Family Camp out in Rapid City, and it was really great.
The messages were great, the music was great, getting to visit with other pastors I appreciate and admire was great.
The District Conference Meeting on Monday was awesome. God is doing awesome things in the Dakota District.
God is moving in the Native American people in our District, and we’re becoming much more intentional about being involved and resourcing them to effectively reach their culture. It’s a beautiful thing.
The Dakota District is adding Utah to our territory. There’s not one single Wesleyan church in Utah. But one is being planted even as we speak.
But to me, the most amazing thing about the meeting was the report that over 2000 people came to Christ in our district this last church year.
That night at the service, Chris Conrad, who was the featured speaker, mentioned that amazing statistic, and it got a pretty good response of applause.
But that wasn’t good enough for Chris. He then reminded us that all heaven celebrated when every single one of those people came to Christ, and that we needed to get excited about it as well.
That started the conviction going in my heart.
The message I’m going to share with you today is what I believe God put into my heart that night.
A lot of this isn’t easy for me to talk about, and some of you won’t like it. I’m praying that my words don’t get in the way of what I believe God wants you to hear today.
And I have a feeling this message will resonate in the hearts of many, if not most of you here.
The basis for Chris’ message was Luke 19:10 –
10 “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”
God used this passage, and Chris Conrad’s message to break my heart, and I’ll tell you why as we go through the message.
For now, I want to talk to you about the mission of Jesus, and therefore, what the mission of His church should be.
Of all the things Jesus mentions that He came to do – bring freedom for the captive, give sight to the blind, bring a full life, and to serve, this is the bottom-line reason Jesus came to earth: to seek and save the lost.
This was the mission of Christ. And that, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, is what the mission of the Church is supposed to be.
Jesus didn’t create the Church to be a religious social club. He created the Church to be His agent on earth to bring as many people as possible to salvation through Him.
A couple years ago, your leadership spent a large amount of time praying and talking about what we felt was the bottom-line purpose of Aberdeen Wesleyan.
And during those discussions, one of the things I felt God wanted us to understand was that the mission of Jesus, whatever that was, needed to be the mission of this church.
We came to the idea that the purpose of Jesus was to restore relationships with God, and that’s what we adopted.
But folks, what’s at the bottom of all that?
It’s the fact that without Christ, there is no hope for forgiveness of sins and heaven. None.
Folks, do you really understand that? Do you really understand that without Christ, you would face eternity in hell?
Do you really understand that that is what your loved ones face unless you or someone else helps them find Jesus?
Do you really understand that? Not just in your head, but in your heart of hearts?
Because if you did, it would break your heart for the unsaved, and you would want to do something, however small it might be, to help them find Jesus.
Now folks, you have to understand what I’m saying, so let me quickly tell you what I’m NOT saying.
I’m NOT saying that everyone here needs to become an evangelist.
But Scripture is very clear that whether or not you have the gift of evangelism, you are called to share your faith, as we’ll see later.
I’m NOT saying that evangelism is the only thing we should do as a church.
I’m NOT saying we shouldn’t try to strengthen the Body through discipleship, worship, fellowship, and ministering to the Body’s hurts and challenges. All these things on the wall are still intact and are vital to the mission God has for us.
What I am saying, however, is that the primary mission of the Church is to reach the lost for Christ, because that was the mission of Christ.
Here’s a question that you need to let sink in for a moment:
If the primary mission of Christ was to seek and save the lost, and the primary mission of the Church should be to bring the lost to Christ, then how do you think Jesus must feel to see His Church not doing it to the degree that it could be?
During my first year as your pastor I said that if this church isn’t going to be concerned with reaching the lost, then you shouldn’t call yourself a Wesleyan Church. And I still believe that today.
Folks, to be a Wesleyan Church means to be concerned with helping as many people as possible find Christ and to help them live in holiness for Him.
John Wesley said, in one form or another:
"You have nothing to do but to save souls; therefore spend and be spent in this work."
Why aren’t more Christians heart-broken over the lost?
I think it’s because they have lost sight of the mission of Jesus as being the mission of the church.
They see church as being that religious social club I mentioned a bit ago. They feel that the church is only around to minister to them, to make them comfortable Christians, and it’s the pastor’s job to lead people to Christ; but that’s only if he has time after taking care of all their needs.
Let me give you a bit of personal history. Some of this is familiar to some of you, but not all of it, and some of it is rather painful for me to talk about.
When I first preached here that summer Sunday in 2000, I had no intention of becoming the pastor. I was just filling the pulpit while the church searched for a pastor.
After the service I hung out at the church to do some classwork for my ordination, before meeting my family at the Bristol church that night.
After a while I felt like I should pray, so I went through all the classrooms, as well as the library, the sanctuary, and even the lobby, asking that God would use the rooms and the people in them to reach many people for Christ and help them become real disciples of Jesus.
I had no idea at the time that among other things, I was praying for the Christian school to come to this church.
But while I was in the lobby, God spoke to my heart.
I’m not one of those guys who “hears” God in an audible voice, and to totally frank, I get a bit skeptical when most folks say that God “told” them something, because often I can’t find anything Scriptural about what they say God told them.
But here’s what God said to me:
He said, “Brian, there are 25,000 people in this town and most of them don’t know Christ. A bunch of them are gonna die this week, and this church is too busy licking its wounds to do anything about it.”
How did I know it was God speaking? Because it echoes His heartbeat from Scripture – bringing people to salvation.
It certainly wasn’t the devil! He doesn’t want people working to bring people to Christ, right?
I knew at that moment that God was calling me to be the pastor of this church, to help it move on from the hurts of the past to become an effective part of the Body of Christ in reaching literally thousands of people for Him in Aberdeen and the surrounding area.
I began my ministry here with much zeal, because helping people find Christ was a passion of mine long before becoming a pastor.
My zeal, however, did not come with as much wisdom as I would have liked, and I ended up hurting people, some of whom left the church because of it.
I’m not happy about that, and it hurts to know that I hurt people, even though in every case it was completely unintentional, and in most cases I hadn’t even known I had done it until years later.
But about 3 years ago, knowing that I had hurt these people, I started slowly moving away from the mission God had given me, and toward being a person who tried to not rock the boat very much.
Because I had hurt these people, I became more worried about not offending, not hurting people, and not causing any waves than I was about doing the job God had called me to do here.
I allowed myself to become scared of how some of you might react and I allowed my zeal and excitement and burden for reaching lost people be pushed aside for the sake of not getting you upset with me.
I became fearful of you. I set out to please you.
And I didn’t even fully realize it until last Monday night.
As I was sitting in that seat, God reminded me of Galatians 1:10 –
Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been a real fan of conviction by the Holy Spirit about sin in my life, and this people-pleasing business is just that – sin.
So today I’m publicly repenting of my sin of trying to please people instead of trying to please God by completing the mission He sent me on here.
And I’m publicly re-committing myself to that mission. I’m committing myself to spend and be spent in the work of helping people find salvation in Christ.
Chances are that I will step on toes from time to time. It probably won’t be on purpose. God is still working on some things in my character that had to learn about myself over these last three years.
And if I step on yours, then I ask you to come to me and tell me so I can learn to avoid that in the future.
Folks, I’m not the brightest bulb in the toolbox, and I’m going to make mistakes, from time to time…
But one thing I won’t do and that’s apologize for putting the mission of Jesus for reaching the lost before your comfort and convenience.
Their eternity and the spread of the Kingdom of God means more to me than making you happy.
Another thing this means is that I will be out in the community more.
And that I won’t be in the office all that much, as I plan to be out where I can meet people and establish relationships with people who are without Christ.
I was talking to District Superintendent Isaac Smith the other day about this, and I told him that it is extremely rare that someone comes to my office to talk about anything spiritual or church-related.
Usually it’s a call or an e-mail. And since I’ll have my laptop with me, I’ll be able to get those anytime.
So if you drop by and I’m not in the office, call my cell phone (216-2005) and I’ll meet you at the office or you can come to wherever I am, or we can set up an appointment at the office. Okay?
Now I need to hear this because I believe that this is what God wants you to know regarding my role here:
I am convinced that God has a direction for us to go, and I’m going to lead us in that direction, whether it’s popular with everyone or not.
I refuse to stand before God someday and tell Him that I set His mission aside because I cared more about being liked by the congregation than I cared about carrying out His commission.
So help me God I’m going to work to fulfill what I believe God wants to do in and through this church.
You: So much for how God has been dealing with me. What about you?
Has God been speaking to your heart today like He’s been speaking to mine over the last week?
If so, I’d like to invite you to do the following four things:
1. Ask God to break your heart for those outside of Christ. And I mean cause you to weep for them as you contemplate the fact that they face eternal torment without Him and pray specifically for those you know who are outside of Christ.
2. Pray for 15 people high school age or older to come to Christ through the ministries of AWC and the personal sharing of our people during this current church year.
3. Learn how to share your faith.
1 Peter 3:15-16 –
15 But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
Some of you are probably thinking, “Here he goes again with that passage. We’ve heard him read this a thousand times…” Well, you’ve just heard it again.
For years I’ve been urging you to take this passage seriously, but today I’m going to go farther than that.
I’m going to point out that this passage isn’t a suggestion. It’s a command. We are commanded by Scripture to be prepared at any moment to be able to share Christ, even if that means simply inviting them to church or maybe sending them to the website to learn more about what it means to be a believer in Jesus.
He tells us what to do and He even tells us how to do it – with gentleness and respect.
I also want you to notice the first part, which is also a command:
In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.
Folks, I’ve been convinced for many years that if a person really has Christ as his or her Lord, then he or she would take the second part about being ready to share Christ serious and they’d do something about it.
A few months back I mentioned that I would be offering the study, “Just Walk Across the Room,” by Bill Hybels.
I’ve made contact with a church that will let us borrow the teaching DVDs and such, and soon I’ll be setting up the dates for that.
It’s an extremely down-to-earth study on how to impact the people around you with the gospel of Jesus, and it’s stuff that literally everyone in here would enjoy and benefit from. I can’t recommend making time to go through this book and study highly enough.
And then I have this offer for you.
For everyone who will actually commit to reading it during the month of July, I will order a copy of this great little book, “5 Things Anyone Can Do to Introduce Others to Jesus,” by Chris Conrad.
I’ll pay for them myself if I have to, if you’ll commit to reading the book and asking God to help you put it into practice.
4. Pray for the church.
If we get serious about taking on the mission of Jesus, the enemy is going to go nuts.
He’s already started by trying to make me second-guess some of this stuff I’m talking about today.
He will bring up stuff that is meant to distract us from Christ’s mission.
He will try to bring suffering on the church and its people.
He will try to bring people into the church to try to take us off the task – people who on the outside look like sheep but who are really wolves trying to destroy the flock and destroy the mission.
He’s going to attack my family and me.
The enemy hates those we’re trying to reach, and he hates us for trying to reach them. So pray.
Here are a couple others that came to mind after I finished the bulletin:
Pray and volunteer for Vacation Bible School the last week in July. Once again we’re praying for 50 children, and for 5 new families to become part of our church family through VBS.
Pray for many children and even their whole families to come to Christ. If you can come and help on even one night, whether it’s helping with snacks or cleaning up after each evening, or whatever you feel you can do, you are helping to reach people for Christ.
Talk to Jolene if you’re interested. One thing I can guarantee we’d be glad for is for people to commit to praying during VBS each night.
We: Listen to this quote from a guy named Alan Hirsch, which Chris Conrad mentioned in his message, and I hope that it grips your heart like it did mine that night:
“The Church does not have a mission. The mission of God has a Church.”
You get that? The mission of God has a Church – US!
God’s plan is to allow you and me to partner with Him to reach people for Christ – saving them from an eternity in hell and giving them eternity in heaven, as well as the life-changing presence of Christ in their lives while they’re still on earth.
What a privilege! God can use anyone in this room, and what’s more, He WANTS to use you, if you’ll let Him.
So the question we have to wrestle with as a church is this: Are we buying into the mission of Jesus?
My dream for this church is that it will be a place where all are concerned for the lost, and that many will be active in bringing people to Christ.
That dream includes not just finding salvation, but finding that Christ offers help and healing and restoration and transformation from what the apostle Peter describes as an empty way of life, into a life of meaning, significance, and security.
And that dream includes those currently outside of Christ coming in here and seeing the love of Christ flowing in and through and out of you as you reach out in love and acceptance.
It includes them seeing you out in the world in your day to day living and seeing Christ in you, and wanting Him for themselves.
And I believe that if we’ll embrace that mission – the mission of Christ for the world, we’ll see Him do awesome and mighty and miraculous things in and through this Church.
Let’s pray.
