Maximum Impact # 6
“Live for maximum impact! Make a difference!” is what the Lord has been saying to me this month!
In this series of messages, we have considered the new identity that God offers to each of us in Christ, about the reality of God’s Presence all around in daily life. We considered Gideon, a frightened farmer that God called to be a “Mighty Warrior,” Israel’s deliverer.
I spoke about walking with God, like Abraham, who lived with his eyes fixed on God’s promises, and walked out His will, day by day.
I urged you to set goals and encouraged you to be sure they are worthy of our status as those called to make God’s love and purpose known in our world! We took the negative example of Judas Iscariot, who began well with Jesus, but then became captive of his own dreams, and in the deception of self-will, became a traitor who died tragically!
We took a look at prayer; the essential importance of wiring ourselves into the wisdom of God. And last Sunday, I talked about the importance of having a dream, letting God out of the box. We saw how God stepped into Peter’s life and with a dream, changed the course of Christianity from being a Jewish sect to a Gospel for the whole world!
The challenge today will take us to the story of Jonah, a prophet who believed that God’s favor was reserved only for people like himself!
Extend Your Vision - Include the Whole World!
If we want to live for maximum impact and live to make a difference, we will have to identify with God’s heart for the world, and become world-class Believers. Many of us easily slide into a life wrapped up in involvement with people who look, talk, act, and think like we do!
We slide into Parochialism. That means we become narrow in scope, or consider only small sections of an issue. The term comes the root word - ‘parish.’ which describes the smaller division within the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches. When events, groups and decisions within a parish are based on around local concerns, taking little heed of what is going on in the wider Church, they are said to be parochial.
Disciple, one of the plagues that hides the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the “you gotta be just like me or God can’t love you” attitude that is too often part of church life!
Many churches are exclusive clubs with social networks that are nearly impenetrable from the outside. That’s not because Christians are evil people, that’s because living around people who are most like us is what is easiest and most natural in human relationships. It takes real work to bridge the gap with people who see the world differently, who value different things, who make messes, who won’t get their act together as we think they should.
To get outside of our parochial mind set and see the BIG PICTURE of God’s work and our part in it is hard work. Becoming a person who encourages others, who is actively compassionate, and who is accepting of people who are different must be an INTENTIONAL WAY OF LIFE!
Are you a parochial Christian? Need a clue to figure it out?
Here’s a simple way to check.
· Were your prayers only focused on your needs and those of your extended family; kids, brothers, sisters? Did you pray for people outside of your circle of acquaintance, for those serving God in other places, for peoples and/or cultures not yet widely touched with the message about the Kingdom of Christ?
· When you rubbed shoulders with someone who was ‘different,’ was your first thought about moving away, being safe, or trying to change them? If you cared about them, was it out of pity or because you saw them as a person?
With that said, let me ask you once again – are you a WORLD-CLASS Christian with an extended vision that is worthy of a true citizen of Heaven?
Paul Borthwick defines ‘world-class Christian’ for us –
A world-class Christian is one whose lifestyle and obedience are compatible, in cooperation, and in accord with what God is doing and wants to do in our world. The world-class Christian is willing to wrestle not only with what it means to be compatible with God’s purposes but also what it means to live in harmony with our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world. - How to be a World-Class Christian
John Stott, a respected Anglican pastor and well-known author tells of visiting a rural church in England while on a study leave. He worshiped with them each Sunday and shared in their fellowship. Week after week he heard the pastor address issues facing the village and pray about the concerns of the church.
Stott said, “I came to the conclusion that these people worship a village God.”
Is that an isolated conclusion fairly unique to that one church? Sadly no.
Visit many churches in America today and you will not hear a mention of a single interest beyond the aches, pains, broken hearts, deaths, and divorces of the immediate congregation. Occasionally you might hear a prayer for someone in the same town, and sometimes a mention of America’s political leaders. But, from the congregational life of the average church, you would have to conclude their god was very parochial in his perspectives and concerns; that he was a village god!
We slide so easily, as I’ve already said, into a small world limited by the range of our natural sight. We come to think that the best people, perhaps God’s people, are those who are just like us.
(Transitional illustration...... ??? )
The Bible has a story about a prophet who felt just that way about some people to whom God was sending him. He wanted them to die! He was afraid to go and preach to them, not because they might kill him or reject his message. He was fearful that they would believe, repent, and be forgiven by God! Who was he?
His name is Jonah!
Take a look at his story. It’s found in the little book that bears his name.
You can find it on page 1436 of your Pew Bible. Turn there and stay with me over the next few moments....
[Text: JONAH]
READ 1:1-2
Know where Nineveh was? It was near the modern Iraqi city of Mosul! About 750 years before Christ, the Assyrian civilization was incredibly powerful in that region. At the height of power, their empire stretched from the borders of Egypt, through Israel and Judah, across Syria, and to what is modern Baghdad. The ancient city of Nineveh was the capitol of the empire, a huge metropolis for its time. The Assyrians were fierce warriors who conquered with great cruelty and maintained their power by extensively resettling conquered people to prevent uprising.
Historians tell us they would ram a sharp stake through the chest of soldiers they captured. Then they would plant the stake in the ground and laugh while the prisoner writhed in pain as he died. They would decapitate their defeated enemies and pile their heads outside the city gate so they could have a literal “head count.” That’s why God said, “Their wickedness has come up before me.”
At the time of Jonah, Judah had not yet been conquered but they were feeling the threat of this growing empire to their north. So when God told Jonah, “Go preach in Nineveh,” Jonah made a different choice.
READ 1:3
Dumb move! Of course, you know the story. As the ship sailed the Mediterranean Sea, a huge storm swept down on it. Jonah knew it was because of him. He told the crew to toss him overboard. They did. The storm stopped and Jonah was swallowed by a huge fish where God gave him a 3 day time out to think over what he’d done! Jonah repented and the fish got sick!
READ 2:10-3:6; 10 Because of Jonah’s obedience, Nineveh - from the king down – had a spiritual awakening! The result was that the Lord turned aside judgment and the empire was spared.
Now wouldn’t you think a guy who had been through all that Jonah went through would be glad that his ministry was rewarded with a national revival?
The next part of Jonah’s story doesn’t get told very often in Sunday School, but it is the most important part.
READ 4:1-3
What’s Jonah saying? Basically, he’s saying,
“God, we want your blessings for ourselves. You’re not supposed to bless Assyrians. They’re awful people. I hate them. I you to blast them off the face of the earth and send them straight to Hell! But, God I know who you are and how compassionate You are. I knew if I preached to them and they repented, you would love them too.”
Jonah had the mind-set of a person who serves a village god. He was not a world-class prophet!
When you pray for your enemies, do you really want God to bless them as Jesus taught?
Do you actively reach out to people that seem threatening or do you make a token effort just because you think it’s the right thing to do?
OR, like Jonah, are you afraid your prayers might be answered, so you prefer to run in the other direction?
God’s dealing with this stubborn, selfish, and foolish prophet instructs us after all these years.
READ 4:4-11
This selfish prophet was a real spiritual runt! His shriveled soul was so self-centered he hung around hoping to see God blast Nineveh even after they repented! There he sat on the hillside outside of Nineveh, waiting for divine fireworks. When they didn’t happen, he got mad!
God wants you and me to love the world like He does. He doesn’t see race, ethnicity, sex, or age as a qualifier for His love! Nor can we!
· World class Christians understand that God doesn’t belong to ‘us,’ whoever ‘us’ is.
· World class Christians pray and work for the Kingdom of Heaven. They pray for God’s work to happen in their city, in their nation, among people in the urban ghetto, among people all around the world!
· They will not try to co-opt God’s blessings for themselves because they think He only has so much to go around! They know His grace is limitless and thus needs no hoarding! They share love with incredible generosity because they are rich in love that cannot be exhausted.
Jesus’ challenge is this:
“I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and on the unjust, too. If you love only those who love you, what good is that? ...If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else?”
Fredrick Beuchner in Listening to Your Life writes:
The love for equals is a human thing—of friend for friend, brother for brother. It is to love what is loving and lovely. The world smiles.
The love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing—the love for those who suffer, for those who are poor, the sick, the failures, the unlovely. This is compassion and it touches the heart of the world. The love for the more fortunate is a rare thing—to love those who succeed where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of the poor for the rich, of the black man for the white man. The world is always bewildered by its saints.
And then there is love for the enemy—love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens, and inflicts pain. The tortured’s love for the torturer. This is God’s love. It conquers the world.
Maximum Impact believers pray for a great heart that loves as our Lord Jesus loves. They challenge prejudice, even the silent, hidden kind that shapes attitudes and assumptions.
We will never reach the world for Christ as long we assume that we are superior to them, as long as we are ‘looking down’ on those who are different. God calls us to love and not pity! He asks us to extend our arms to others, not just in sympathy, but as brothers and sisters. How easily we confuse pity with genuine love! Pity says, “let me alleviate your pain at this moment,” but it never actually moves us to work at a real relationship.
Might it be that we bring so few to a living relationship with Christ because we do not really love those who sin, but only pity them?
I am praying that God will speak to your heart about reaching out actively– beyond your culture, your friends, and your family.
· Perhaps you can start with ‘adopting’ a child through an agency like Samaritan’s Purse.
· You might choose to commit to write to one of our missionaries so you can pray with them in an informed way as you learn about where they work and the people they are reaching.
· You may begin to show your kids the larger world by consciously educating them about other cultures in a non-condemning way.
· You should work to correct bigotry and/or prejudice in your own life and wherever it crops up around you.
· And, I hope you will be building bridges to Christians in other churches and from differing areas of this nation understanding the real difference between church (our local congregation) and Church, God’s people in the world.
· If you have a teenager, try to send him or her on a short term missionary trip where the experience of sharing God’s love with people in an alien land will potentially change his life!
It is true that Christianity is the largest of the world religions, yet something less than 1/3 of the world’s population has had a presentation of the Gospel of Christ in any form. Fewer than that have heard that Jesus Christ loves them and died for their sins. A huge opportunity exists! Why are so few, relatively speaking, taking up the challenge of spreading the Good News?
Robertson McQuilken answers,
“Because we are blinded by preoccupation with self-fulfillment we cannot see the world as God sees it; because we are deafened by the raucous demands of our personal desires we cannot hear His call, we are deadened by persistently choosing for self-interest so that we no longer feel His heartbeat.”
Let the experience of Jonah challenge you today.
If you see that you, like him, are trying to hold onto God’s blessings only for yourself, your family, your kind of people – repent! Ask God to give you supernatural vision that sees Him as He truly is, not as the ‘village god’ of your town or your church!
Amen.
