The 3 C’s of a Healthy Church - Celebrate a Shared Vision
Acts 4:31-37 (p. 761) February 19, 2017
Introduction:
Every Sunday afternoon while I was growing up you’d find me and my brother Sammy glued to the TV watching Ohio Valley Wrestling.
And let me tell you…We got into it…cheering for our hero and booing the ones we loved to hate.
SHOW PICS AS NAMES ARE MENTIONED BELOW
When Randy “The Macho Man” Savage took the ring against ToJo Yamamoto or Jerry “the King” Lawler went against Rick Flair it was easy to tell who the good guy was and who the bad guy was. It was part of the fun.
Having your favorite come off the top rope with an atomic elbow to put the enemy down for the 3 count was awesome!
But sometimes, over time, the bad guy would become the good guy and vice versa…Sammy and I hated that…it’s hard to cheer for ToJo Yamamoto as a good guy after he’s clocked your hero with that wooden shoe.
Once you have a certain perception about someone…it’s hard to change that perception.
When I was growing up here in Lexington KY…in the Bible belt church was the norm…
On Sunday and Wednesday nights we went to church…Most of my neighbors and friends went to church or Mass. We grew up learning the common Bible Stories. Church was part of our everyday life…We knew what it was to be saved…to be “washed in the blood,” to go to a revival…Church was the good guy.
But now we live in a culture where most people don’t attend church anymore. The North American Mission Board did an assessment of churches in the South and said, “Most churches are not growing here. Statistics show that like most regions, most people don’t attend church regularly here.”
As they talked to a multitude of people and asked, “Why don’t you attend church?” They were told church was “boring,” “hypocritical,” “stuffy,” “irrelevant,” “out of touch,” “all about the money,” “a big show” and many other unflattering things. (Be Mean About the Vision by Shawn Lovejoy p. 13-14)
So why has the perception of the church changed? Why do most unbelievers and those who didn’t grow up in it, and many who did, want nothing to do with it? As our nation becomes more and more unchurched is there anything we can do? Why do they believe the church is now the “bad guy?”
I. IT’S TIME FOR THE CHURCH TO WRESTLE WITH GOD
If you’re familiar with the Old Testament at all you know God’s chosen nation, Israel, was named after a man.
He was a twin…the 2nd out of the womb. His brother was named “Esau,” which means Red and Hairy. (Lousy name huh?) He was given the name Jacob which means “deceiver.” (Even lousier right?)
And for the 1st part of his life Jacob wised up to his name…He spent the first half of his life deceiving, manipulating and using people to succeed…He even stole his brother’s birthright in Genesis 25.
But one night, that all changed. In Genesis 32 God came off the top rope…Jacob found himself in a wrestling match with God (some say it was a messenger from God…you decide). He wrestled all night and scripture records that Jacob wouldn’t let go of God until He blessed him.
Please understand this blessing isn’t “Gesundheit” (German for “Good Health”). Blessings in Hebrew culture are “a plan for the rest of your life.” Jacob is asking God to provide a vision for his future. And God did bless him. “Everything great that happened in Jacob’s life started with a holy wrestling match with God over the vision for his life.”
As Shawn Lovejoy says,
When the wrestling match was over, Jacob’s life was forever marked by this event. From that point onward he walked with a limp as a reminder of that night. God also renamed Jacob, which means “deceiver,” to Israel, which means “he has striven with God.” Because of his willingness to wrestle with God over the vision for his life and family, Israel became God’s chosen people! Jacob simply would not let go of God until God blessed him with a clear vision, purpose, and the power to carry it out.
From “the deceiver” to “the one who has wrestled with God,” it changed the direction and purpose of Jacob’s life. Wrestling with God will leave you walking with a limp…but you’ll be headed in the right direction.
The Church needs leaders that have wrestled with God, who walk with a limp in the right direction.
The limp is a reminder…it keeps us humble…and it lets us go slow enough that people can follow.
The Early Church was led by people who had a limp…each one knew it was the power of the Holy Spirit that enabled them…each one knew it was Jesus’ resurrection and God’s grace that was powerfully at work in them all.
The Church was:
II. A UNIFIED FAMILY LED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT AND GRACE
I saw this amazing video the other day…it was about sunflowers…Yeah, I know I need to get a life…but:
SHOW VIDEO
The sunflower is probably the most amazing flower God created. They literally follow the sun.I don’t know about you, but one of the most amazing things I have seen is a field of sunflowers. Watching one follow the sun is cute. Watching hundreds in absolute unison follow the sun is actually quite incredible. Something I found out recently, is that sunflowers continue tracking the sun’s direction long after the sun set. Through 360 degrees they ensure that they are always oriented in the direction of the sun. Their unity is totally dependent on one thing, their relationship to the sun.
I sat praying with one of our leaders last week, Dennis Truesdell, and he said something very powerful…“Division is never from God, it’s always from Satan.”
He is absolutely right…in fact when they accused Jesus of being from the Devil, He said much the same thing…“If a kingdom is divided against itself that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” (Mark 3:24-25)
The reason that the early Christians in our text were so unified where “All the believers were one in heart and mind…no one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but shared everything they had” was because they were totally dependent on one thing….“their relationship to the Risen Son.”
Their commitment to each other was completely dependent on a leadership…and a message that powerfully proclaimed…“The Lord Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.”
Maybe the church has become the bad guy because we aren’t unified around this message…maybe we tip our hat at it…maybe we nod our head when we hear it or read it…maybe we even say we believe it…but it’s become information we’ve stored in our brains instead of the driving principle of our lives.
When this happens people divide themselves over peripheral issues and instead of God’s grace powerfully working in all our relationships, we get selfish, divisive, critical and judgmental.
I’ve got news for you…you can love refugees and veterans at the same time if you are living a new life in the grace of a risen Savior!
You see the reason that no one claimed that any of their possessions were their own was because…when you have committed your life to follow the risen son…it all belongs to Him! I surrender all wasn’t just something they sang…it was the truth. Well, except for a few…
Our text say people in the family of God sacrificed their money…sold their stuff so the mission of the church could flourish. It even mentions a guy named Joseph…nicknamed “Barnabas” (son of Encouragement) that sold his field and donated the proceeds to the leadership…powerful stuff.
But Satan sways leaders, doesn’t he? Prowling…seeking…devouring…listen to this story again…one you’re familiar with.
ACTS 5:1-11 (p. 761)
Let me ask you a question…One I am terrified to answer in my own heart.
“Have you ever done something worse than what Ananias and Sapphira did, even after your baptism?”
You say one thing, but in your heart you know it’s not completely true…In your heart you know your trying to one up Barnabas…and it’s more about you than others…you do it so quick or ignore the feeling of uneasiness created by the Holy Spirit?
Let’s not raise any hands on this one, huh?
I believe with every fiber of my being that God…the Almighty, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort…is teaching a powerful truth in this situation…a truth the church had better acknowledge fearfully.
[KEEP JESUS MY SON AND OTHERS AS YOUR PRIORITY…YES, I AM A GOD OF GRACE…BUT YOUR HEART IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN APPEARANCES. I’VE GIVEN YOU THE SAME SPIRIT THAT RAISED MY SON, TO LIVE IN YOU…DON’T CONSPIRE IN YOUR HEART TO TEST THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD.]
It gets my attention because the church has become the bad guy to the world, not because we have loved Jesus…and lived in the power of His resurrection and grace, but because we’ve become more about how people appear.
Maybe it’s time each of us wrestle with God again…find His purpose and blessing again…It will make us humbly limp…but leaders with a limp are easier to follow.
Let’s pray.
