20000430a - Holding Ourselves Accountable!!! Mt. 28
Opening: (Responsible Agents)
Responsibility -- others can’t always do it for us.
How about spiritual responsibility? If we have responsibility in the mundane things of life, how about the bigger things? Have you con-sidered your responsibility to God?
TROUBLE THEN was what would they do with it?
Needed a clear sense of purpose!
Needed to take responsibility!
What if they didn’t?
TROUBLE NOW is the same!
What will we DO with the resurrection?
We’re to be people with a mission!
We’re to take responsibility!
What if we don’t?
RESOLUTION [Jesus’ “alls”…]
They were mobilized by a command from Jesus - clear.
Have you heard the command of Jesus?
Sometimes we can pretend we didn’t hear this call. Sort of like the child who suddenly develops a severe case of deafness when mom yells up the stairs ..
Say what? Ooohhhhhhhh. You were talking to me???
We need to believe, REALLY believe, that Jesus is Lord! Has all au-thority! Commands!
Not the great suggestion! He places demands on our lives! He may! He is in charge around here...
28:19a - not be transl "as you go", but "get moving!"
Do you have a high view of God? Have you read through the Scrip-tures and discovered the awesome, terrifying Holy One? Have you looked around the world, seen His works and let yourself to be awe-struck?
Sometimes being part of the church is too much like membership in a country club, except instead of a shared love for golf, we have a com-mon interest in God.
The Church is God’s organization, His vehicle to bring His word and His work into the world. The church exists not primarily for the benefit of its members, but for the benefit of those outside of it! Our mission is to bring the message of redemption to the world. (JI Packer)
They were mobilized by the heart of Jesus for all.
We need to believe, REALLY believe, that everyone needs Him. Illust - Sin: not really living as though people we say we love are lost without Christ.
Temptation of pluralism: Respect is right, but does not need to mean agreement or passivity.
Have you got his heart for people? (of Sovereignty):
“…this truth becomes courage-building, hope-inspiring, excitement-filling.... unless, of course, you believe that all the elect in our city have already been drawn into the Kingdom. And that is hardly likely.”
What about your view of people? If we believe that people are simply the part of a natural process of selection, the long distant cousins of lowly bacteria, we won’t be likely to want to radically give our lives for them? BUT we are each one created by God. Every one is of great value because God made and claims us!
Officer Tori Matthews of Humane Society got an emergency call: a boy’s pet iguana had been scared up a tree by a neighbor’s dog. It then fell from the tree into a swimming pool, where it sank like a brick…
Dove into pool with net, emerged with limp body.
Arizona Republic reported, she thought, Well, you do CPR on a per-son and a dog, why not an iguana? So she put her lips to the iguana’s.
"Now that I look back on it," she said, "it was a pretty ugly animal to be kissing, but the last thing I wanted to do was tell this little boy that his iguana had died." The lizard responded to her efforts and .. full recov-ery.
Tori M. didn’t see a water-logged reptile; she saw a little boy’s pet. We may never see the beauty in some people, but when we realize how much they mean to God, we’ll do all we can to keep them from drown-ing.
"Evangelism is the church’s most important, but least pressing, busi-ness." -- Robert Meneilly
They were mobilized by call/vision to be transformational.
“God’ll understand, because I have so much to do." Then my dad said, "Whatever you think God would want you to do, that’s what you should do."
Suddenly, I realized how selfish I was being with my time. Sure I was involved in a lot of good things. But I was also involved in a lot of stuff that was just about me, just for my own fun. God blessed me with ath-letic talent, but I was taking it a little too far. I knew I needed to get my priorities straight and start using my time and energy for God, not just myself. How do we stack up?
Was salvation a radically changing event for you? Or did you just add Jesus to your shelf of interests?
We need to believe, REALLY believe, that his truth is the thing that can transform our world! The truths held up by biblical Christianity are im-perative!
John Wesley, the famed revivalist and founder of the Methodist church in 18th Century England, literally changed the course of England’s his-tory with the power of the Gospel. J. Wesley Bready wrote a book called, England Before and After Wesley. He describes the awful state of that nation in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was a cruel time. Chemical dependency was a widespread social problem. Mer-chants were getting rich from Slave trade. The prison system was sav-age, the institutions for the poor, the orphaned, the sick were awful. The state church was arrogant and out of touch with the people it was supposed to minister to. Lawlessness, superstition, and lewdness epi-demic.
Then in the mid-19th century, a change occurred. Slavery was abol-ished. Education became available to the poor. Working conditions were improved. One strong component that fueled the change was the Evangelical Revival instigated by John Wesley, who gave his life to proclaim Christ and believed that the Gospel should be linked to practi-cal works of kindness.
There was a radio commercial for a company called "Account Temps" where a college football player is talking to his coach. Coach encour-ages to give 110%. He says that’s impossible, he’s budgeted 7% of his time for football and the rest to his studies so he can be good enough to work for Account Temps. (Do we?)
"We in America need the fire and the passion for the gospel that some of our bro/sis in dev. World have."
They were mobilized by promised presence and empowerment.
FD Bruner (BI119,1089,f.) Sandwich structure: Commander - Com-mands - Commander
Jesus’ grace precedes, accompanies, and follows the disciples’ obedi-ence: the indicative of Christ’s strength goes before, alongside, and af-ter the imperative of disciple’s responsibilities. (1089) 16a - the number Eleven "limps" -- it is not perfect like 12. The church that Jesus sends into the world if fallible, "elevenish", imperfect. Yet Jesus uses exactly such a church to do his perfect work. (1090)
We need to believe, REALLY believe, that he is with us.
Surely! Always! To the end! So, why are we not more bold? He’s right there!
These final words of the Lord were carried out by the apostles as they went everywhere, proclaiming the story of theMessiah, Jesus Christ, the King of the Jews.
A small town church in Pennsylvania: Members are excited about the stories of conversion and now say, "I think I have a white-rose story." Last year we had 64 roses.
Closing:
If only Christians were as quick to act upon their responsibilities as they are quick to assert freedom. The tortures and agonies through which this generation is only the latest to go represent the inevitable judgment upon people and nations that refuse to live by the law of love. I think Christians should stop blaming God for being absent when they them-selves are not present. They should stop blaming God for all the ills of the world as if humanity had really been endlessly laboring to cure them. - William Sloane Coffin
A college choir was all set to present in a large church. The program to be carried live by a local radio station. When everything appeared ready, announcer made his final introduction and waited for choir direc-tor to begin.
One of the tenors was not ready, however… dead air. (Mic) "Get on with it, you old goat!"
Later in the week, the radio station got a letter from one of its listeners--a man who had tuned in to listen to the music from the comfort of his easy chair. When he heard "Get on with it, you old goat!" he took the message personally. He had been doing nothing to further God’s work, and the message was enough to convict him and get him going again.
Sometimes we need a wake-up call. We need to be reminded that before Je-sus left this earth, He gave us all the instructions we need. He told us we should go and make disciples. We need to get on with it! (Our Daily Bread)
It’s time for us to take responsibility! To hold ourselves accountable!
