Getting the Job Done
Intro: Last week in the state of the church address we talked about the 5 main purposes of the church and the job God has called us to do. He wants us to help people find out who He really is and help them learn to love and obey Him. In any job it helps to have the right tools. Have you ever been ill equipped to do a job? It is frustrating. You need a flat screwdriver and all you have is a flat or vice versa. You need a metric wrench and all you have is a standard set. You need to break some ice and all you have are plastic shovels. No fun! Well, here’s the gist of what I want to share today: Prop: If we want to really connect with God’s plan, we need 3 essential elements: heart, interaction, and spirit.
I. Heart – shows we really care for people, loving them the way God loves them, seeing them the way God sees them. Rom. 5:5 says the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. That is why we are able to love. 1 John 4:19 says we love because He first loved us. We are not capable of really having heart until we connect with God’s heart and receive a love transfusion.
-In the parable of the good Samaritan, 2 religious people passed the victim by, feeling justified in the fact that their relationship with him left him no worse off than he was before. No further harm was done, but no love was shared either. Love stops but never ceases. Love helps, but never enables. Love reaches but does not shove.
-There is such a thing as receiving a burden of love and concern for people who have not yet come to know Jesus. That burden compels us to express love, to pray, and to look for ways to share the love of Jesus with them. But in itself it is only potential energy. That leads us to the 2nd element that will help us get the job done.
II. Interaction – This is where we intentionally build relationships with the people we have a heart to reach out to. It is one thing to have a burden for them and care for them, but if we never initiate connection, then we are only loving in theory, not reality. Love must have an object. Love does not exist in a vacuum. Love must be expressed.
-One of the greatest explanations I’ve heard for the Trinity (the fact that there is only one God who exists is 3 persons) involves this whole idea that love must be expressed. Without going into great detail, let me give you the condensed version. 1 John 4:8 tells us that God is love. Again, love must have an object. Unexpressed love is not love. If God is eternal (always existed) and was always love (or it was always His nature to love, if you will), then to whom did He express His love for all eternity past? We believe the answer is Jesus, His Son, who also existed for all eternity past. The Holy Spirit also permeated this divine relationship as the substance of love. So, the Father loved the Son and the Son (who is the express image of the Father) loved the Father, and the Holy Spirit was the substance of that love. God is relational! Never has God existed in isolation or solitary oneness. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have had divine interaction and relationship with one another throughout all eternity past. God further expressed His love and power through creation when He created mankind in His own image. Like God, we are wired for relationship – interaction with God and interaction with one another.
-Maybe you’ve heard that a baby if left to itself with no human interaction will die. Even if that little person has plenty of food, nourishment, and has every physical need met, if there is no human touch or loving interaction, that baby will die. How many people attempt to end their lives every day around this world because they think no one cares? In the universal human language, lack of interaction equals lack of love.
-So, may the Lord help us to move beyond the mere idea of loving others to the active reality of loving others, which means interacting with them in relationship. God has blessed us with a loving community here at Christian Life Center. We are family! How close would we be if we rarely or never interacted with one another? Our love would be an unfulfilled idea or concept, not a reality.
-This is why we try to provide opportunities for people to get together and just be friends. We have church dinners each month. We have special occasions like a Superbowl Party, the Valentine’s banquet coming up, an Easter breakfast, a free BBQ at the Stampede Parade, a Church Picnic out at the Walker’s, a Harvest Party, a Thanksgiving Meal open to all, Men’s Breakfasts, Ladies’ Groups, Youth Nites, Camps, Conventions, and Retreats, 5th Sunday Sings, and other events just to be together with people so we can give and receive love and encouragement. We do it so we can build friendships that last.
-I encourage you not to limit yourself to these “institutional” opportunities for interaction but that you would intentionally interact on a personal level with others by having coffee with them, inviting them to your house for dinner, going out to lunch together, going to a ball game together, shopping together, and so many other possible ways. The more we interact both with other Christians and with those who may not be quite there yet, the more we will fulfill God’s design for us.
-See, when man first sinned, the ability to express pure selfless love was damaged. God’s relational image in us was marred by disobedience to Him. That disobedience and the damage it caused has traveled down through the entire human family tree to you and to me. God wants to restore His relational image in us through His grace. What Jesus accomplished by His sacrificial death on a cross was restoring the ability to love and interact lovingly with God and man. Sin is a relationship killer! Sin is selfish and ugly and is all about what I want and what makes me happy. However, through grace & forgiveness, God does an extreme makeover in our hearts & restores the ability to love.
2 Corinthians 5:15, 17 15 And he [Jesus] died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
-So, since God changes our hearts and gives us the ability to love again, we need to make sure that we are finding ways to express that love to Him and to others. The greatest way we show our love for God is through obedience and worship, which really aren’t separate things. Obedience flows out of relationship with God as an expression of worship and gratitude to Him for what He has done for us.
-Before we leave this point, let me pose 2 questions just to help us do a self-check. 1. How is your interaction with God? Do you regularly express your love to Him through prayer, obedience, praise, and giving thanks? 2. How is your interaction with other people? If you are a Christian, is it part your purpose in life to connect with other believers on a regular basis? Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-- and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Also, as a Christian, how is your interaction with the people whom Jesus is trying to connect with? Jesus loves and values every man, woman, and child on this planet, but we are the expression of His love, and in one sense, His attempts to get close to those who do not know Him are limited by our willingness to get close to them.
-Enough said. But don’t let this get away from you. You and I are expressions of God’s love to the world around us. If we aren’t interacting with others, how will they get the message God is trying to communicate to them? God’s message is “I Love You!”
III. Spirit
-There is another component needed in our quest to get the job done. If we want to effectively do what God has called us to do, we need some serious help. We cannot do it alone. If you are a follower of Christ and have a relationship with Him, then you’ve already experienced Romans 5:5 “God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” You have the ability to love others, and perhaps you are finding ways to do that. However, Jesus indicated to His followers that something more was needed. In fact it was so important that Jesus told them to wait for it before they did anything else.
Acts 1:4-8 "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit…. 8 … you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
-Now these followers of Jesus, His disciples, had already received forgiveness and in one sense, they had already experienced Romans 5:5. The HS had already poured the love of God into their hearts, which is why they were able to have the unity and closeness we read about in Acts 1 & 2. In fact, John 20:21-22 shows that they already had the HS in them: 21 “Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
-So why did they need to wait for the Holy Spirit in Acts 1 & 2? Because there is more than one dimension of the Holy Spirit’s work. This is explained partly in John 14:16-17 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” The HS is with us even before we receive the grace of God and come to know Him. He is with us, convincing us that God loves us and that we need to repent of all sin and get right with God. When we repent and ask God to lead our lives, the Holy Spirit comes and lives inside of us. So, the 1st work of the Spirit is to be with us, drawing us into relationship with God. The 2nd work of the HS is to live in us, changing us, cleansing us, giving us the ability to love again. The 3rd work of the HS is found in Acts 1:8 which we already looked at: 8 … you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses.…”
-We need the HS to come upon us to help us boldly and accurately convey the life of Jesus to others. If you read Acts 2, when this promise was fulfilled, a dramatic change take place in Peter, who a few weeks earlier had denied that he even knew Jesus. After the HS came on him, He stood up and interacted powerfully with thousands of people, and 3000 people received the love of God as the HS poured it into their hearts. They were able to love again, and the indication is that they all received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, since that is what they had asked for in the first place. After Peter interacted with them and told them about Jesus, they responded to him. Acts 2:37-39 37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" 38 Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off-- for all whom the Lord our God will call."
-Folks, if we are ever to get the job done, we must have divine help! It starts with coming to God, responding to His love, and receiving His love. But that is just the beginning. The way Jesus set it up was for His followers to be baptized in the Holy Spirit so they would have power and boldness to interact with others on a spiritual level, showing them that there is life in God and how they can connect their lives to the life of God. What happens in the baptism in the HS is that the Seeker of Souls (Jesus) is empowering His followers to invite others into His life – into relationship with Him.
-After being arrested, beaten, and threatened, the followers of Jesus in the early church held a prayer meeting, asking God to give them boldness so they would keep interacting with others and sharing Jesus with them. Acts 4:29-31 29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus." 31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
-Family, if we are ever to help others encounter Jesus in a life-changing way, we must do so first! Jesus wants to change the lives of your friends and family members, but He changes lives through changed lives. The baptism in the HS will change you into the kind of person who not only loves and cares for people, but also brings a supernatural expression of God’s grace to the people with whom you interact!
Conclusion: As we wrap this up, where does that leave us? Heart, Interaction, and Spirit – 3 components we need to get the job done. Do you have heart? Do you care about other people? What about people who are not like you? Some of you really struggle to feel any love for people with extra piercings, tattoos, weird hairdos or other things you’re not comfortable with. Do you have the heart to love and accept every human simply because they were made in God’s image are valuable to Him? Are you willing to create opportunities and make connections with people so that you can share the life of God with them? And how about your spirit? Has your spirit been immersed in the life of the Holy Spirit? Have you received the empowerment that Jesus said His witnesses would need in order to reach the people He is seeking all over this world? Maybe you have heart and you are willing to interact with people, but that’s all the deeper you really plan to go. You’re just not sure the baptism of the HS is for you. If this is you, I urge you to rethink your position. It is the difference between a 2-dimensional life and a 3-dimensional life. God’s plan is Heart, Interaction, and Spirit-Power. Heart and interaction are both essential and cannot be minimized. However, when we partner with the Holy Spirit, we are joining what God is doing rather than trying to make something happen ourselves.
-Maybe today you need some changes in one or more of these areas. Maybe your heart is not right with God, or maybe you just don’t seem to have a big enough heart for the people Jesus is seeking. Maybe you’ve been reluctant to interact and initiate relationship with others and you need God to help you be more intentional about building friendships with the people He is trying to reach. Maybe you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit so you’re not trying to do an impossible task by your own power. For myself, I stand in need of change in each of these areas. If God is speaking to your heart today and you want someone to pray with you, I’m going to be here at the front. Or, maybe you just want to spend a few minutes talking to God on your own. Perhaps you’d like to ask someone else to come and pray with you. You probably already know if the Holy Spirit is prompting you to act. So step out while this song plays and get close to the One who loves you and is calling you closer.
