Beyond Cheap Talk and Sentiment
Cayley St
Living in Glendalough
Only owner occupiers in a rental area – parking car in neighbour’s carport to make it look like the house was occupied
New neighbour – watched him walk to his bus stop and then watched him walk home again – always meant to say g’day – get to know him
1 week went by - 2, 3, 4 – life was busy
Then one night… the noise at 3.00am – getting up in a half sleep and seeing Danelle’s car leave the neighbour’s driveway – disbelief – sleepy – banging on the window – Danelle ‘what’s going on?’ – ‘Our neighbour’s mate is stealing your car’
Ran down stairs and out onto the street
Neighbour apologetic – were we making too much noise
‘just thought your friend was stealing my wife’s car – hello I’m Andrew Hamilton
As I went back to bed it highlighted to me that what I said I valued and what I really valued didn’t always look the same.
I said I wanted to help people find Jesus – but when push came to shove I didn’t make time for it. My real values spoke loud and clear. You see talk is cheap.
I had good intentions – but in the end if there is no action its lip service. Its like when we see friends at the shop and say “we must catch up!” – how often in our busy lives that is what happens – we mean well, but we just don’t follow through.
Our lives almost inevitably seem to take the path of least resistance – we will do what comes easiest – whether its right or best or not. UNLESS we consciously plan and choose to do otherwise.
How many of us meant to get fit last year? – meant to lose weight? – meant to paint the house? And we really did mean to – but it didn’t happen!!
Gt Commission
Let me tell you, if the Christian church was started with that kind of good intention and sentiment then none of us would be standing here today.
Ultimately, sentiment is cheap and good intentions count for nothing – what matters is self giving, self - sacrificing action – doing what we say we are going to do – following through on our good intent with a plan that works.
Just before Jesus left the earth he gave his 11 remaining disciples their mission for the rest of their lives. It’s the same mission that they handed on to their disciples and it’s the same mission that is in front of us today.
(Mat 28:18-20 NIV) Jesus said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. {19} Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, {20} and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
It was a huge challenge! One that he had been preparing them for – he called them and said come and I will make you into fishers of men’ – he promised to teach, train and equip them – then he spent three years doing just that – working with them and preparing them – giving them projects to work on – but now the time had come – It was down to them to do what they had been called to do – to go into the whole world and make disciples of all nations. Training was over – the real thing begins!
And Peter said “yeh I’m up for that. Let me just tidy a few things up with the fishing business and I’ll make a few disciples in my spare time. I’ll get around to it shortly It sounds like a really good idea.”
And Matthew said “when I get these books in order and when I get myself a little better established financially then I’ll have a look at that – I’d like to see the whole world reached. Sounds good to me.”
And… no it wasn’t like that. These guys gave their lives to making Jesus call a reality. They put everything else in the background so that this could be their mission. They didn’t just talk about it – they didn’t have good intentions – they did it and the priority of that mission showed in every detail of how they lived their lives. Read the book of Acts and you see them begin the task.
Let me ask a vital question for us here at LBC. How seriously do you (personally) want to take that command of Jesus this year? How seriously do we as a church want to take that this year? Because how we answer that question will determine what kind of church we will become.
It will determine whether we become a church for the already convinced – ‘batten down the hatches and hang on until Jesus comes back’, or whether we become a mission station committed to reaching out to those who don’t know Jesus. Our answer to that question will determine where we spend our time what we devote our energies to – it will determine where we spend our money – what we pray about – it will show in everything we do – it will chart the course for our future.
I think we would like to see it a reality – we would like to see our community and nation transformed and people becoming followers of Jesus. We would like to see the church healthy, alive and growing. We would like to see people in our suburb signing up to be Christians. BUT – let me ask how badly do we want that – how desperately do we long to see God at work in this community?
I know for me its got to the point of deep pain. I can’t bear to see another year go by and us not be more effective than we are at reaching people.
The difference between desire and desperation = my aunt and uncle would like to come to Australia from Ireland – if they could find the time and money – but at present they are flat out and money is going into other things. That’s desire – they would like to come to Australia
If we want a picture of desperation then look at some of the people who enter Australia as illegal immigrants. They spend their life savings to get on a rickety old boat to sail in cramped conditions across dangerous waters to enter a country where there is no guarantee of asylum and more than likely a long period of detention because they desperately want something better. They give up everything to get to a better place.
Do we long that badly for this community & nation to be impacted? God does.
God’s value of lost people
God places incredibly high value on the life of every person. And he wants to see those who don’t know him come to know him. He doesn’t want anyone to perish. Today is entitled ‘loving the world’ – loving the world – because God loves the world.
John 3:16 says God loved the world so much that he gave us Billy Graham… NO – as valuable as he has been God gave his only son… - the only solution to our sin problem was for Jesus to die in our place. God didn’t go half measures – he did whatever it took – to restore a relationship with his people it meant his only son had to die – that’s the love God had for the world. Desperate love! Its love that is prepared to pay the highest price.
God loves this world and he calls us – his followers to love this world with that same kind of self sacrificing love.
“If anyone would comer after me let him deny himself take up his cross daily and follow me.” It’s a call to self denial – to self sacrifice.
We see it again in the story Jesus told of the lost sheep. This one hit me afresh this week. Jesus says
(Luke 15:4-7 NIV) "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? {5} And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders {6} and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ’Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ {7} I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
I’m not sure if you caught what Jesus was saying there – he says leave the 99 because the one is lost. Leave the 99 to look after themselves and go and look for the one that is missing. And when you do that, keep looking till you find it. Don’t give up – don’t have a quick scout around and if nothing’s doing go home – find that one lost sheep because its life is valuable. And then when you find that sheep put it on your shoulders and help it find its way home. And then party – party over the lost sheep being found.
If you’re here tonight and you would not call yourself a Christian then you need to know that that’s how valuable your life is to God. He loves you – he is seeking you out. He is wanting you back. You are not insignificant to him.
Jesus says “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”
Jesus makes finding the lost sheep more of a priority than looking after the others in the pen. That’s where God’s heart is. Finding his lost kids – Jesus said “I came to seek out and to save those who are lost” – that’s what he trained his disciples to do – that’s what he commissioned them to do in Matthew 28. That’s what he calls us to do. It’s the unchanging mission of the church. We will never be on about anything else.
God says ‘Go and find the sheep – they’re lost’. I heard someone say that the church is more like little bo peep in its approach to mission. You know little Bo Peep?
Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep
And doesn’t know where to find them
But leave them alone and they’ll come home
Wagging their tales behind them!
They won’t!!!
There once was a time when that held true to some degree – when church attendance was normal – even compulsory – It was in the fourth century AD when the emperor Constantine became a Christian and made it law – but those days have gone. Even the Christian era some of us have lived in is over.
We’ve said before this is a post-christian world – this is a world where Christian stories, symbols and practice mean very little. But where spirituality is highly valued . Graham Mabury will tell you any time they have a clairvoyant on nightline the phones ring off the hook.
People are open but unaware of much of what we take for granted. Story of English Youth Pastor, Simon Hall – Two girls on the bus – your cross is the same as mine – yeh but mine’s got some woman on it. Completely oblivious!
We need to know that this is the landscape we live in and if we are to be effective in that then we need to be people and be a church who think and live like missionaries. I dream of a church full of people with a missionary heart – who think like missionaries – who live like missionaries – whose every waking thought has to do with the mission Jesus gave us.
Martin Robinson, in To Win The West says, "It is necessary for the church to rethink its stance entirely and to become a missionary church within the west." Sadly, the church seems to be functioning in the West on the now outdated assumption that it belongs.
We do not belong here any more – we are not a part of the furniture any longer and we need to be much more effective in our mission if we intend to last another century. If we want our grandkids to hear the gospel then we really had better get our act together.
In fact George Barna in 1998 said this ‘At the risk of sounding alarmist I believe the church in America has no more than 5 years - perhaps even less – to turn itself around and begin to affect culture rather than being affected by it. We have no more than half a decade to turn things around.” (Retrofuture p.182)
BUT the good news is that this world now is much more open – this is a pluralistic society where everybody’s opinions get heard. And we get a hearing – but we need to be out there to be heard. The sheep will not wander back home wagging their tails. Its our job to go to them.
Even if we had 20 million dollars to spend on advertising and we took out full page colour ads in the west Australian and we had TV commercials, billboards and all the rest would they come? NO! Some would because advertising works – but we would just be one voice amongst many. Those who were spiritually lost would not start suddenly coming to church because of good advertising.
Jesus plan was always that people would connect with people. That the word would spread thru relationships. Jesus invented network marketing!! NOOOO!!!
But Jesus’ plan is one where there is high personal cost – it’s a plan where lip service and good intentions are easy – but where genuine action is costly.
What will it take to see this community transformed?
1. A move of God – an act of the H.S. – that will take our prayers – Pentecost and all that followed was a result of people spending time in prayer. I want to talk about that another time.
2. It will take a plan – Jesus had a plan – Paul had a plan and I want to share a plan with you in two weeks time that we can use in reaching this community.
3.And it will require us to pay the price – the question will be put to us – how seriously do we want to take the great commission? Are we willing to make it a priority or are we going to hope that it will happen.
Let me put to you 4 areas where we will need to decide whether we are prepared to pay the price. If we value this mission then it will show in these areas. If we don’t we are wasting our time and just kidding ourselves that we will ever make a difference.
First – it will cost us Time – the 21st Century currency. There is no substitute for building genuine relationships with people who don’t know Jesus. The only way people will find Jesus is if we seek them out and make connections. And that might mean a re-think of our own priorities if we don’t already have good relationships with people outside the church.
If we are committed to the mission of the church – not just the church here at LBC, then we will spend time with people who don’t know him. We must. All of us – the great commission is not for a select few.
As we look at the life of Jesus we see large slabs spent with ‘sinners’ – so that he even got labelled a friend of sinners. We see him training his disciples, we see him preaching, we see him alone with God. He is our model. BUT in the busyness of his life – all the gospel writers seem to make the point quite emphatically that Jesus made time for lost people.
And for us that will mean less time for other things – but that’s the mission – that’s the call. We make the choice.
Unless we get to know people we can’t speak to the spiritual needs in their lives. We need to earn the right to be heard in that area.
Kim – grown to love –This week – ‘without God you’re history’ You need God in your life!
Maybe you need to do not just a rethink, but a complete reorganisation of your life to give priority to the mission of God.
I will say this – some of us have taken real steps forward in making time for lost people in our lives – in invading their world rather than expecting them to come to ours, but many of us still live lives that are too busy and we know it – but its our choice – no-one is holding a gun to our heads saying we must do these things. We are making a value choice.
My challenge is to stop paying God lip service with our time and get out and hang with some people who don’t know Jesus.
Secondly it will cost our Prayers – Only God changes lives – my friend this week – I could tell that I wasn’t going to persuade him. Got back in the car and I said ‘Kim – only God can change your heart’ – can I pray for you. “I think it’s the only chance you’ve got!’
We can do our part – but we can’t do God’s part! Prayer breaks thru where our persuasion ends.
Paul was always asking ‘pray for me – that I will proclaim the gospel boldly as I ought to’
Deanna Thomas – ‘we were there to pray’ – that was our contribution to reaching Afghanistan. Five hours a day.
Thirdly it will cost dollars
The mission of this church costs money – whether here or further afield – today was going to be about challenging you commit some of your resources to making the mission projects we are involved with more viable – easier to operate.
Let me say that just as with our time, the way in which we use our money makes a statement about what we value.
When Paul wrte to the Corinthian church he said
(2 Cor 8:7-12 NIV) But just as you excel in everything--in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us --see that you also excel in this grace of giving. {8} I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. {9} For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that – though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
Paul says your giving is an indicator of your love – he says Jesus is our example here – though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
He puts a challenge out there to the Corinithians.
{10} And here is my advice about what is best for you in this matter: Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. {11} Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. {12} For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.
God doesn’t want what you don’t have – but he does want us to be generous with what we do have.
Can I challenge you to take the next month to pray this thru and ask God – in light of the mission this church is committed to how much of my income do you want.
Our mission support giving is what we choose to give over and above our normal offering. So if your normal offering is around $100.00 a week then this will be in addition to that.
Paul speaks of the privilege of giving - Bernabes – for the last 8 years we have been planting churches in the Philippines. We have supported these missionaries and just at times when we have been tempted to back out I receive another letter telling me of another 2 or 3 churches that have been planted and how they need every cent they can get.
Their operating budget is over $7000.00 per month now. We have been sending them $30.00 a week for 8 years – in that first year we supplied half of their budget.
We have been involved in planting churches in the Philippines and seeing people who have never heard the name of Jesus reached with the gospel.
If we are committed to the mission God calls us to it will cost us in time, in prayer, and in finance. But maybe there is another area where God wants to challenge you tonight.
Life Maybe he wants your life. And by that I mean maybe he wants you to quit secular work – to give up being ‘normal’ and commit your life to the mission – to become a missionary either here in Oz or somewhere else.
I just feel compelled tonight to put this challenge out there.
My own experience – I am not a leader, a preacher, an evangelist – I am a missionary – my greatest desire is to see Australia reached with the gospel and to see churches effective in their mission task.
Every time I meet a missionary – my confusion – God is allowing me to feel what he feels for those people.
Maybe you have sensed some of that tug on your own life. Maybe in your heart there is a burning passion to reach people who have never been reached or to communicate with those who have been inoculated against religion. Maybe God wants to send you out from here to start a church – to go and reach people who will never hear the gospel otherwise.
I am praying that we will have missionaries from LBC all over the world and all over this city.
You need to respond to that. When Jesus called his disciples he called them to leave what they were doing and follow him – to be fishers of men.
I want to say to you tonight, if God is challenging your heart to serve him then say yes! Work out the details later BUT Respond to what he has put in your heart now.
Hudson Taylor one of the all time great missionaries to China wrote this. Maybe you have felt what he writes.
“ On Sunday June 25th 1865, unable to bear the sight of a congregation of a thousand or more Christian people rejoicing in their own security, while millions were perishing for lack of knowledge, I wandered out on the sands alone in great spiritual agony; and there the Lord conquered my unbelief and I surrendered myself to God for this service. I told him that all responsibility as to the issues and consequences must rest with him; that as his servant it was mine to direct, to care for and to guide me and those who might labour with me. Need I say that at once peace flowed into my burdened heart?
If you feel that then God may be speaking to you.
Conclusion & challenge
There is a scene in Titanic that haunts me as a metaphor for where I see the church being at.
Titanic – the scene – he boat has gone down – the lifeboat have been launched and sit a comfortable distance away – half full while others drown.
From the end of Titanic and we hear the Rose’s words as an elderly lady - 1500 people went into the sea the day Titanic went down. 20 lifeboats were launched - only one returned - ONE.
One boat came back – 19 sat in comfort half full, while people drowned needlessly – what a tragedy – even the boat that went back waited too long.
LBC we need to start rowing back – our community needs us to start rowing back and God is calling us to start rowing back
