“I Love this Place” part 1
(The Power of Purpose)
Brian A. Moon
One of golf’s immortal moments came when a Scotchman demonstrated the new game to President Ulysses Grant.
Carefully placing the ball on the tee, he took a mighty swing. The club hit the turf and scattered dirt all over the President’s beard and surrounding vicinity, while the ball placidly waited on the tee.
Again the Scotchman swung, and again he missed. Our President waited patiently through six tries and then quietly stated, "There seems to be a fair amount of exercise in the game, but I fail to see the purpose of the ball.
A lot of time, effort and energy is put into making Sunday Nights here something that makes you say, “I love this place!” But from time to time we need to stop and remember what the purpose of this is all about. When you’re up to your neck in alligators, it’s difficult to keep your mind on the fact that your primary objective is to drain the swamp. When you put so much time into investing in your friend’s lives and inviting them, and giving up time to serve in this ministry, and you are in the middle of planning and preparing for Sunday nights and so forth… It is easy to lose sight of why we even do all this. Why do we spend so much time on things like PowerPoint and drama’s and cutting edge music and video’s why do I spend hours preparing a carefully crafted message?
The answer lies in our purpose statement, which for some of you it might be familiar, and for others this might be a totally new thing. It goes like this, we exist to: Become a community of people committed to Loving Up, Reaching Out, and Sharpening Within.
Say that with me, To become a community of people committed to Loving Up, Reaching Out, and Sharpening Within. (One more time)
When we were laying the groundwork for this group we knew that it had to be something different, we had to be able to scratch where people itched. If we were to reach people that were closed to and skeptical of this God thing then we had to be very purposeful at what we did. Think of our purpose as a rudder on a giant ship.
The rudder is a very small part of the ship, but without it, it would have no way to navigate through the sea. Every wind that blew, every new current would take the ship off of its desired course. But with a rudder you can sail through the winds and through all the currents and get to that island you are heading for. There were some guys in the Bible who had this down, they had a clear purpose in mind and they were driven by that purpose. They were the men of Issachar and the Bible says they were,
“…Leaders who understood the times and knew what Israel should do. 1 Chronicles 12:32 God’s Word
Having a clear purpose is a must to be able to know what the right thing to do is. So tonight as we begin a new series called “I Love this Place” we are going to look into our purpose statement and make sure we know what it means. The worst thing that could happen is we get down the road from here and have people say, “Remember the good ole’ days?” We want to always be able to honestly say “I Love this Place!” So the first action in our purpose statement is:
Loving Up
If I were to ask you what Christianity was all about in one word what would you say? You might say things like obedience, or service, or morality, and all those are a part of it but the real answer, The real reason that you were even created in the first place is love, love for God. We call this love for God worship.
Neil Marten, a member of the British Parliament, was once giving a group of his constituents a guided tour of the Houses of Parliament. During the course of the visit, the group happened to meet Lord Hailsham, then Lord Chancellor, wearing all the regalia of his office. Hailsham recognized Marten among the group and cried, "Neil!" Not daring to question or disobey the "command," the entire band of visitors promptly fell to their knees!
A lot of people think that is what worship is like, God sits up on his high throne and when he speaks we automatically fall to the ground. But true worship is about a relationship, a love relationship with God.
Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Matthew 22:37 NIV
Look at the emphasis that is placed on loving God in that verse it says to love God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. Lets read that verse again placing emphasis on the “all’s”…
Jesus didn’t say fall down on your face in submission, he said love God, love God, love God!!! One of the reasons people say, “I Love this Place” is because we do just that, we practice loving God. We do it through songs, we do it through videos, we do it through messages, and even through just hanging out and having fun together. Worship is life! Anytime you do something out of love for God that is worship. When I was first starting to date my wife she was all I could think about. From the time I woke up to the time I said good bye to here over the phone at night she consumed my ever waking thought. Love makes you do all kinds of crazy things, and I did some extreme things to show Cheryl that I loved her more than anyone else on this planet. And the same should be true for us in this room tonight. We should love God with all that we have, with all that we own, and with all that we will ever be in life. That is what our first action in our purpose statement is all about, Loving Up! The next action is:
Reaching Out
This action statement has three parts to it, and you can remember them like this: Invest, Invite, and Incorporate. Say that with me (Invest, Invite, and Incorporate)
One time Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was and he said to love God, like we just talked about, but the second greatest commandment he said was this,
“…Equally important: ’Love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:39 NLT
Jesus said love God, but also love others! Love other people the way that you want to be loved, or treated.
This is where the Invest part of this comes in, we are here to invest our lives into others, like our friends and family, and even those who are less fortunate.
Years ago, the Salvation Army was holding an international convention and their founder, Gen. William Booth, could not attend because of physical weakness. He cabled his convention message to them. It was one word: "OTHERS." God has given this group the purpose of serving others by investing our lives in theirs. It could take the form of being a friend to someone when they are down, to buying food for the less fortunate, to helping someone with a project that needs to be done. It is being Jesus with “skin on” to the people that you have in your life.
Jesus said, “For even I, the Son of Man, came here not to be served but to serve others.” Matthew 20:28
Circle the words “to serve others”
Investing in others lives not only shows them that you care and love them it earns you the right to do the next part, invite. Sunday nights are designed to help assist you in inviting people who are far from God into a personal relationship with him. Part of Reaching Out is inviting people you have a relationship with to come to know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. We have been given the unstoppable mission of bringing people into a right relationship with Christ.
Jesus’ Great Commission to us says, “Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples” Matthew 28:19 CEV
He is saying go out to your schools, go out to your families, go out to your jobs, go out to your friends and invite them to come know me.
Fritz Kreisler, the world-famous violinist, earned a fortune with his concerts and compositions, but he generously gave most of it away. So, when he discovered an exquisite violin on one of his trips, he wasn’t able to buy it. Later, having raised enough money to meet the asking price, he returned to the seller, hoping to purchase that beautiful instrument. But to his great dismay it had been sold to a collector. Kreisler made his way to the new owner’s home and offered to buy the violin. The collector said it had become his prized possession and he would not sell it. Keenly disappointed, Kreisler was about to leave when he had an idea. "Could I play the instrument once more before it is consigned to silence?" he asked. Permission was granted, and the great virtuoso filled the room with such heart-moving music that the collector’s emotions were deeply stirred. "I have no right to keep that to myself," he exclaimed. "It’s yours, Mr. Kreisler. Take it into the world, and let people hear it."
We have the most amazing message in the world, the message that God came to earth and made a way for us to have forgiveness and a new life filled with hope, and meaning, and joy. But, it is not for us to keep within these walls, it is to be shown to people by investing in their lives, and told to them by inviting them here. So we Reach Out by Investing, and Inviting, and now we are here to Incorporate. We are here to simply hang out and have a good time together. God made us for each other, we are not designed to live in isolation never having people truly know us, and never truly knowing others. We are to be a family, we are to “do life together.”
Jesus said, “Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Matthew 28:19b TEV
Baptism was the first step in a new believer’s life in the 1st century. It was a public demonstration that this person was now one of us, they were apart of the family of God. Today we need each other just as much and that is why one of the ways we Reach Out is by incorporating each other as our family. This group exists to Love Up to God, to Reach Out by Investing, Inviting, and Incorporating, and to:
Sharpen Within
Being a follower of Christ is more than saying a prayer it is about a total life change. When you first became a Christian you were a spiritual infant, a baby, you were spiritually immature. The problem is that most people who make a decision to follow Christ stay right there, they stay little baby Christians.
Think about this though, why don’t 28 year old guys decide to date 8 year old girls… other than being against the law, they don’t do this because a 8 year old girl does not have the maturity of a 28 year old.
They would be out on a date and the guy would be talking about the stock market and world politics and the girl would be talking about the newest Barbie doll out this month.
That is a crazy example but it illustrates the problem of just being an immature follower of Christ. God has to baby us along and there are certain things that he will keep from you because you are just not mature enough for them. That is why God desires for each of us to grow into full spiritual maturity. And the way to grow up spiritually is to grow more like Christ.
Jesus said, “Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.” Matthew 28:20 NLT
Jesus gave us an example of what a perfect life here on earth looks like and that is what we strive to imitate. We will never be totally perfect in this life, but our attitudes, our actions, and our priorities should constantly over our lifetime become more and more like Jesus attitudes, actions, and priorities. Just like with any muscle, your spiritual muscles will only grow with regular exercise. And there are all kinds of spiritual exercises you can do to grow into spiritual maturity. Things like reading your Bible’s, praying and listening to God, serving in a ministry like CrossEyed, hanging out with other believers, singing about God, practicing what Jesus taught and so on…
The Bible says, “We use all our wisdom to warn and teach everyone, so that all of Christ’s followers will grow and become mature.” Colossians 1:28 CEV
We don’t want this group to be a bunch of baby believers, we want everyone who comes in to begin a process of becoming more like Jesus. That is what we mean when we say “Sharpen Within” So that is why we do all that we do here. That is why we put so much work into Sunday Nights so that we will become a group of students and leaders committed to Loving Up, Reaching Out, and Sharpening Within. It is because of that purpose that people leave here saying, “I Love this Place” So what can you do to help fulfill this purpose?
Here are several things that you can do: (1) Commit to making Sunday Nights a priority in your life. (2) Invest in your friends lives and Invite them to come on Sunday Nights. (3) Give your life over to God’s control for the first time or renew your commitment to God. Here is how you can do that last one:
Prayer – God tonight I ask that you come and take total control of my life. I hand the controls of my life over to you and ask that you move in and take up a permanent home in my heart. Help me to walk away from my old life and live the new one that Jesus has given me. Amen.
That is awesome guys, I am excited to see how God will answer those prayers in the coming weeks. Make sure you come back next week for part 2 of “I Love this Place” with a look at our strategy called “Relevant Environments”
