INTRODUCTION
Sometimes it is fun to just look around and see what we can learn.
I remember watching cartoons when I was a kid. I learned a lot from watching the Road Runner. (GIVE EXAMPLES)
Sometimes we can learn some lessons from some interesting places. If we would take the time to look around us, we could learn some good object lessons.
One of the things that I have enjoyed about living where I do is that there is a lot of wildlife to watch and enjoy.
During the summer, my neighbors have a lot of geese around their ponds. I enjoy watching the geese, I know that my neighbors would like to see them gone, but since they are not eating my crops or fertilizing my yard, I like to watch them.
I have noticed that geese seem to be able to do something that we in the Church should want to do. Their flocks seem to get larger. These geese do this by reproduction, but they also must invite other geese to come join them. I do not think that geese have a newspaper or radio to communicate with one another, but as I watch the geese, their flocks get larger and larger as the summer goes on.
In John Maxwell’s book, “Developing Leaders Around you”, Maxwell has reproduced part of a story entitled “Are You A Goose?” from a 1992 magazine article that tells us a few things that scientists have learned about geese regarding why they do what they do.
I want to use this little section of the article as a skeleton for today’s outline for our message.
What are some lessons that the church can learn from the world of a goose?
SERMON
I. GEESE ILLUSTRATE THE CONCEPT OF FELLOWSHIP
A. What is fellowship? I am sure that you have heard this word from the pulpit before. Fellowship means “to have in common”, “to share”, “to participate for a common cause”.
1. ACT 2:42 And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
2. I want to ask you, “As Christians, what are we doing together other than meeting on Sunday ?” Why do the geese get together before they head south for the winter (God made them that way, they do not think about it)? The geese get together because together, the journey is easier.
3. When you see geese heading south for the winter flying along in a "V" formation, you might be interested in know-ing that science has discovered why they fly that way. Re-search has revealed that as each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird immediately behind it. By flying in a "V" formation, the whole flock adds at least 71 percent greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own.
B. People who share a common direction and sense of community get where they are going more quickly and easily because they are traveling on one another’s thrust.
C. Part of being in fellowship with one another is making sure that we are going in the same direction and that we are flying in formation. Have you seen a group of geese heading out in all directions as they try to head south?
1. Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to go it alone. It quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front.
2. When we fall out of formation with God, we also feel the resistance pull us down away from our goal of growing closer to Jesus.
3. If we will embark on our journey to heaven together, the journey becomes easier.
4. The geese because of their instinct given to them by God, get together and head south for the winter for their survival. As Christians, we need to get together and walk together, we need to spend time together and grow together.
5. 1JO 1:6-7 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
6. The geese stay together and head south for their survival, we too must work together as one body for our survival.
7. As a church, each of us need to think of ways that we can grow together in Christ.
8. If we as people have as much sense as a goose, we will stay in formation and so will those who are headed the same way we are.
II. GEESE ILLUSTRATE THE CONCEPT OF SHARING THE WORKLOAD
A. I was taught a general rule regarding giving and getting work done in the church. 80% of the work and giving gets done by 20% of the people. This rule applies to churches who are not really growing, growing churches are active churches, the more people involved in the work of the church, the more that gets done.
B. What happens when 80% of the work gets done by 20% of the people? The people who are doing the work become discouraged and sometimes get burned out. (FACTORY BONUS SYSTEM EXAMPLE)
C. When the lead goose gets tired, he rotates back in the "V" and another goose flies the point. (It pays to take turns doing hard jobs.)
D. What would happen to the geese if only 20% of them would take the lead? The geese would not achieve their goal of survival.
E. Sharing the workload ensures that the work will get done. At Leonard we instituted a teacher rotation, it used to be that if you became a teacher, you were one for life, now other people are helping to see that our children are being taught the principles of the gospel. Sharing the work makes it easier.
F. The work of the church is important; we are building the kingdom of God. There are many of you with various talents that could enhance the ministry of this church, make sure that you use them. 1 Corinthians 12 reminds us that we are one body with many parts, if all of the parts are not working in the body, the body does not function properly. What if 80% of you car engine decided to quit working?
G. By instinct, geese share the work load among all the geese, as a church, we should do the same thing.
III. GEESE ILLUSTRATE THE CONCEPT OF ENCOURAGEMENT
A. Have you ever heard a flock of geese flying high overhead? They are making all kinds of noise, they are honking at each other as they fly. I know that on the highway, the only honking you hear from behind is someone wanting you to speed up or get out of the way.
B. Why do geese honk as they fly?
1. The researchers tell us that geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.
2. What do we say when we honk from behind?
3. 1TH 5:11 Therefore encourage one another, and build up one another, just as you also are doing.
4. HEB 3:13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called "Today," lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
5. More times than not, the noise that we hear behind people who are working is not the voice of encouragement, but instead, the voice of criticism.
6. These geese are trying to encourage one another as they are on their long journey south, as Christians, we should do the same thing. We are on a long journey to Jesus and we need encourager’s. In the New Testament, Barnabas was known for being an encourager. ACT 4:36 And Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth, who was also called Barnabas by the apostles (which translated means, Son of Encouragement). We need to encourage one another.
IV. GEESE ILLUSTRATE THE CONCEPT OF SHARING BURDENS WITH ONE ANOTHER
A. This last concept is one that desperately needed in the church. The concept of sharing one another’s burdens.
B. When a goose gets sick, or is wounded by gun-fire and falls out, two other geese fall out of formation and follow it down to help and protect it. They stay with the goose until it is either able to fly again or dead, and then they launch out on their own or with another formation to catch up with their group.
C. GAL 6:2 Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.
D. ROM 15:1 Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves.
E. If we have the sense of a goose, we will stand by each other like that.
F. People need to know that when they need someone, they have a brother or sister in Christ that they can reach out to. We all need encouragement. My Grandmother asked me to do the funeral service for my Grandfather, and I did not know if I could do it. My Grandfather was not a Christian. One thing that helped me along with the support and prayers of my wife was the fact that I knew that I had a church family who was sharing the burden with me.
G. Too many times we shoot the brother who stumbles, we need to stay with them until they heal or die.
CONCLUSION
There are many things that we can learn from God’s creation. The concepts that we can learn from watching geese are concepts that can help make the church stronger.
I hope that as a church we will fly together in the formation, that we will share the workload of the church, that when we are honking at each other from behind, it is to encourage and that we will share one another’s burdens.
If the community knows that is the way this church operates, people will flock to us.
Are you doing your part? What are you doing on a personal level to help grow the kingdom of God? What are you doing on a personal level to enhance the ministry of Parkview Christian Church?
