Flip Wilson was a popular black comedian several years ago, and among the routines he did were skits about a Preacher at the “What’s Happening Now Church.” One of his skits went like this:
He’d shout out: "If this church is going to serve God it’s got to get down on its knees and crawl!!!” And the audience shouted "Make it crawl preacher, make it crawl!” "And once this church has learned to crawl, it’s got to get up on its feet and walk!!!" "Make it walk preacher, make it walk" they cried. “And once this church has learned to walk, it’s got begin to learn to run!!!" "Oooo.. make it run, preacher, make it run!" "And in order to run, its got to reach deep down into pockets and learn to give!!!"
(long pause) “Make it crawl preacher, make it crawl."
So what is that can make a church RUN? Is it having money? Is it a having a great preacher? Is it having great music ministry, or great programs, or teachers, or youth groups?
ILLUS: Francis Chan once wrote: “Years ago, my friend from India drove me to a speaking engagement in Dallas. When he heard the music and saw the lights, he said “You Americans are funny. You won’t show up unless there’s a good speaker or band. In India, people get excited just to pray.”
Now, there’s nothing wrong with a good speaker or a good band. BUT if that’s the main thing a church has to offer - if that’s why the church RUNS they’ve got a problem.
ILLUS: I once knew a church that seemingly had everything. It had lots of money. Hired the best big-name preachers in our brotherhood. They had a wonderful music ministry. It even had its own evangelistic program on the radio. It was a vibrant church of 600 people. They had doctors and lawyers and state officials as members. If any church knew how to RUN … you’d have thought that they did! But there was something missing in that church. They did EVERYTHING just right…except one thing. And because they missed that ONE thing, they eventually had a scandal and split, and they had to sell their beautiful building…. That was my home church.
What was that one thing? What were they missing?
Paul wrote: “I bow my knees before the Father… that he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith — that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:14-19
In those few short verses, Paul laid out for us what makes a church RUN. Power through His Spirit; Faith in Christ; and knowing the love of Christ. If you have that, you have EVERYTHING necessary for a church to run.
Did you realize that the early church didn’t have lots of money? They didn’t have big buildings? They didn’t have impressive youth programs, women’s programs or men’s programs? And yet they literally turned the world upside down. You know how they did that? They had Jesus! They had what Paul prayed that they’d have.
So, let’s take this apart and see what Paul prayed for that would make the church run.
1st – Paul prayed that the Ephesians would be “strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.” Now, why would Paul pray that? (that strengthened with power through God’s Spirit?) Well, because most mortal organizations we belong to depend upon US doing something. Lots of churches have been led to believe that it is THEIR strength that will make the church powerful and vibrant. In fact, there’s all kinds of books and blogs and conferences designed to help the struggling church to learn new methods and techniques to become bigger and more powerful. AND methods and techniques can be very helpful. But… that isn’t where the church gets its true strength! The church’s strength doesn’t come from mortal power… but through God’s Spirit. If a church forgets that… they can fall into a trap!
ILLUS: That’s what happened to Israel - Israel fell into that trap. And God rebuked them “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.” (Zechariah 4:6). In other words: If you want to be strong don’t rely upon mortal power - rely on God’s Spirit.
But too often Israel didn’t do that. Too often they got to looking at all the bigger and flashier nations around them and they got to thinking that – if they could just copy those nations, then they could be bigger and flashier too. And that kind of thinking… always got them into trouble
For example, while Samuel was a judge in Israel (before they had king) the people complained “We want a king over us. Then we shall be LIKE ALL THE OTHER NATIONS, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.” I Samuel 8:19-20
And God let them have their way… but then He said “(Israel) rejected me from being King over them.” (1 Samuel 8:7) They had rejected God because they rejected His power. And what motivated the to do that was that they and wanted to be like other nations.
Now, if we’re going to be a Church Of CHRIST we need to rely on God’s power… not ours!
ILLUS: That’s why, I have been praying for us to grow to a church with 500 in attendance. About a year ago, I asked the Sunday Evening worship to suggest an attendance goal that seemed so high that only God could make it happen! Someone raised their hand and said 500 (I was thinking 300 – I didn’t want to make too hard on God). So Scott and I, and a few others have been repeatedly praying for 500.
Do you think WE could possibly reach 500 in worship here??? NO, we can't possibly do that!!! The only way we’d reach 500 in our church would be if we packed the building in both services (the sanctuary holds 250). And then, there’s this Covid-19 thing that’s been scuttling our attendance figures. Seriously? There’s NO WAY we could humanly accomplish that Goal.
We could never do that... but GOD COULD! God is the one who adds to our number. That’s what Acts 2:47 says - “the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” It’s only by His Spirit that our prayer will be answered. And that’s IF God thinks it’s a good thing for us to reach that goal.
The 2nd thing Paul prayed for the church in Ephesus “… that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith…” (Ephesians 3:17) What does that mean?
Well, think about it this way: In a lot of churches, people will ask their neighbors “Have you heard our preacher?”; or “Have you seen our building? It’s so beautiful”; or “Have you heard about our youth group and our women’s group and our men’s group and all our wonderful programs?”
Now, that’s all well and good (and I’ve often said stuff like that myself) but you know what WE ought to be saying? We ought to be saying “Have you heard about my Jesus?” Because without Jesus we haven’t got anything. In fact you may not be able to win people to ME; and you may not be able to win them to the church; and you may not be able to win programs and outreaches and such… But people will come to Jesus.
Jesus said “… I will draw all people to myself.” John 12:32
He didn’t say He’d draw all men to Jeff Strite. He didn’t say He’d draw all men to this congregation. He said He’d draw all men to Himself! It’s our faith in Jesus that will change the world!
ILLUS: Back in the 1800s, there was a famous preacher got a skeptic to promise to come to church for 4 weeks to hear about Christianity. On the 4th week, the skeptic stepped forward to become a Christian and the preacher couldn’t help asking “Which one of my sermons changed your mind?” The skeptic complimented the sermons, but said what convicted him was a woman who came up to him after church one Sunday and said “I wonder if you know my Savior, Jesus Christ. He is everything in the world to me. I would like you to know Him too."
Now, that said - there was 1 question that bothered me as I was preparing this sermon, and that question was this: “Why don’t Christians sense this power from God’s Spirit and the importance of faith in Christ?” I mean, if there’s POWER in God’s Spirit, and there’s STRENGTH in my faith in Christ, why don’t I FEEL IT in my life?
There are a number of possibilities, but the one that caught my eye was this: it could be because we've grown stagnant in our faith.
ILLUS: Years ago, my dad wanted to put a pond out back of his house. As he told me about it he mentioned that he’d want to put in a fountain in the middle that would shoot water up into the air. Now why would he do that? Why go to all the trouble of putting in a fountain? Answer: he wanted to avoid the pond becoming stagnant and the water wouldn’t be very appealing. Without the fountain there’d be no movement in the water and as a result there’d be a lot of mosquitoes and pond scum and algae. It would get YUCKY. A lot of fish can’t live in that kind of pond.
That’s what happens to a lot of Christians because they’ve grown stagnant in their faith. There’s no flow to their faith. They don’t do much beyond going to church And so - as a result - they don’t sense the power of God’s Spirit or importance of their faith in Jesus. Their stagnant faith causes “spiritual algae” and other kinds of stuff to grow up and make their faith… kind of yucky
One last point – Paul prayed that the Ephesians might “comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge” Ephesians 3:18-19
This is the core of what changes us. It’s in knowing the breadth, length, height and depth of Christ’s love that motivates us to do what we do for Jesus. (I created a meme showing the cross of Christ with these words at the “height,” “depth,” “length,” and “breadth” at different spots around the cross). THIS is what the breadth, length, height and depth of Christ’s love looks like.
Someone described it this way: “His love was as HIGH as heaven itself. His love went DOWN into the very bowels of Hell to draw us to God. It was as DEEP as the pain He bore when He carried our sins away. And it was as WIDE as the length of his arms as He was nailed to the tree.”
It’s only when we understand how much Jesus loves US that our faith can make any difference in the world we live in. Because it’s in our sharing that love that lives change.
PRAYER: What I want to do now is pray something like what Paul prayed for Ephesus – for us. And I want you to go home and pray something like it throughout the week. (PRAYER TIME)
CLOSE: Again – it’s only through the overwhelming knowledge of the fact that Jesus loves me that we can do anything of any value to honor God. I want to close with this true story by a woman named Phyllis W. Zeno. She wrote:
“One day a beautiful, but very troubled little girl came through the door of my day nursery. From the very beginning I was captivated by her – a child who had so little but needed so much. I was heartbroken that a four-year-old could suffer such heartache and pain. She was born in prison after her mom had used marijuana, crack and cocaine her entire pregnancy. The little girl was nonverbal and had very little control. Whenever somebody approached her, she became violent for long periods and ended up in a fetal position on the floor crying out.
I found myself praying for her day in and day out. As months rolled on, I began to bond with this child that no one wanted. Every day, we’d sit in the big rocking chair in my office, swaying back and forth and back and forth. And during our rocking time I sang to her: "Jesus Loves Me." As I sang, she always settled down and became very still. Though she never spoke, peace seemed to fill her face as she listened to the song.
One day after a very long battle I held her to calm her fears and pain. In silence we rocked back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. Then she looked at me with tear-filled eyes and spoke for the first time, "Sing to me about that Man who loves me." Sing it with me:
“Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong we are weak but He is strong. Yes Jesus loves me, yes Jesus loves me. Yes Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so!”
INVITATION
