Church - It’s Not About You!
(Part 2)
Proverbs 22:1, 1 Corinthians 32-33
September 19, 2004
Introduction
Today we look at part 2 of our little mini-series entitled, "Church - It’s Not About You!
The point of the series is to help us understand that the church is more than the service, and that the service is meant to help us worship in ways that allow God to transform us as well as be understandable and relatable to those outside the family of God.
The gist of last week’s message was that we need to think of the church in terms of God and His kingdom, not our personal agendas, nor even denominational ones.
Today we continue those thoughts by looking at today’s main question:
How should the church operate in the world
today?
The answer to that is rather simple, and you can fill in the blanks in your note-taking guide as I give you what I believe is the answer
We build a positive reputation while tearing down barriers to faith.
So let’s talk about these a little bit more and break them down a little bit, shall we?
And let’s start by looking at what it means to build a positive reputation in the community.
Building a positive reputation in the community:
Why is this important? Why should we be concerned with how people view us and our church?
Because God cares. The Bible says that God is jealous of His reputation, and we are to reflect His character and reputation as much as possible.
Romans 2 tells us that when a body of believers doesn’t have a positive reputation, when it’s reputation is marred by hypocrisy, God’s name is blasphemed.
Proverbs 22:1
A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.
1. Celebrate God in Spirit and Truth.
Worship
This section was really where I thought I would be camping for the two messages, but the more I thought and prayed, the more I was convinced that I needed to remind us that church is so much more than the worship service.
The service is only one part of what the church is about, but how we "do" church can make a huge difference on the reputation a church can have.
Like it or not, guests will judge us almost exclusively on how we worship during Sunday mornings.
And if we want to touch those who live, breath, and work in the 21st century, then we need to worship in ways that communicate to our current time.
This is why we sing choruses as well as hymns. This is one of the reasons we are looking to add video projection. People today are much more visual than ever. We need to communicate visually if we hope to reach people today.
We put note-taking guides in our bulletins. I’d love to think that you all remember every word of my sermons from one week to the next. But even I can’t remember them from week to week, so the note-taking guides are a help.
They also serve to help me make sure the messages are actually helpful and applicable.
My point in all this is that our worship service needs to be done in such a way that the vast majority of people who come will be able to understand and participate in a way that is relevant to them.
Why? Because we want others to see people who truly love Jesus, who can worship in spirit and truth and live for Him the rest of the week.
Someone might say, "Well, if they don’t like the way we do it, they can go somewhere else."
First of all, that’s hardly loving, and is not very Christ-like. Second, they generally don’t go somewhere else - they just don’t go anywhere.
The second way we build a positive reputation in the community is for the people in the church to...
2. Act like a family. Fellowship
The church is a family, not just a social gathering. We are to build up the family and its members, not tear it apart for the sake of our own agendas.
We did that enough as kids, right? Right? Was it just MY family growing up? I don’t think so. Oh Lowell, the stories your folks have told me about you and Craig...
Let’s focus on building up the family.
The third way to gain that positive reputation for the church is to...
3. Intentionally live Christlike lives.
Discipleship
Are you catching the pattern here? This is probably at least vaguely familiar if you were here during the 40 Days of Purpose campaign, and of course, you can see the banners on the wall.
How many times have I mentioned that Jesus expects us to live our lives for Him, 24/7, not just in church? Some of you might be thinking, "Too many times, PB!"
Then get with it, and maybe I won’t have to preach about it anymore!
Get serious about living lives that reflect Jesus in word, thought, and deed.
And this only possible by making time for the Bible and prayer, reading and asking God to help us take what’s on the page and making it real in our lives.
The third way we gain that positive reputation in the community is to...
4. Meet the needs of believers. Ministry
I just mentioned a few moments ago that we need to be a family, and we need to act like it.
When a member of the family is hurting, or is in some sort of need that we can meet as a church or as individual members of the church, the church shines.
People see that this is a bunch of people who do more than talk about loving your neighbor or your family member - they do it, and they do it a lot.
And the fifth way to build a positive reputation for the church in the community is to...
5. Display the love of Jesus to unbelievers. Evangelism
Remember, evangelism is simply telling someone else how they can have forgiveness of sins and a home in heaven.
Maybe your way is simply to pray for a particular person to come to Christ, or maybe your way is to bring them to church so they can hear it here.
There are two "types" of love that Jesus has for everyone. The first is...
* "Judicial" love (salvation).
This just means that Jesus has paid the penalty for your sins. There is no longer any judgment for sins, because the love of Jesus and the sacrifice on the cross has taken care of that.
That would be enough, quite frankly, but Jesus has more than that for us. He also offers...
* Transformational love.
I tell people all the time that Jesus loves you just as you are. You cannot come clean enough to deserve Jesus. He takes you and saves you just as you are.
But He also loves you too much to leave you that way. Jesus is in the business of changing and transforming lives.
The stories are countless regarding how Jesus took someone who was an absolute, no good so and so, and transformed them into a wonderful, living example of the love of God.
He has taken murderers, rapists, thieves, corporate executives and even politicians and changed their lives forever.
That’s transformational, and Jesus wants to do that in the life of everyone He touches, throughout their lifetimes.
Well, I’ve spent a good bit of time discussing the issue of the church needing to build a positive reputation in the community so we can operated effectively for the Kingdom of God in our current time.
Now listen up closely, because this is very important.
Our church is standing at a crossroads, in my opinion. This church has existed since at least 1886. And yet few people in this area know who we are. We have the opportunity to forge a reputation in our community.
So what are we going to do with that opportunity? Will we be proactive with it, or will be just kinda hope that others get the word about us?
I think you can guess what I think we should do. We should do all we can to get the word out about the church and our desire to help people become healthy, authentic followers of Jesus.
It is for these reasons that we have made some rather bold moves such as inviting the Christian high school to meet here. I accept speaking engagements whenever possible so people can get some more exposure to what we are doing here. That’s the reason behind having the blood drive.
On Thursday, I attended the annual Student Ministries Fair at Trinity Bible College up in Ellendale. Each student is required to be in some form of ministry in the surrounding area.
I was able to share with the students my vision of looking to impact at least 3500 people with the good news of Christ, and inviting any of them who wanted to be a part of that to check us out as they consider how to fulfill their ministry requirements.
There is a train of thought that says, "Well, all we need to do is be faithful, and God will bring people in without us having to change everything to attract them."
There is some truth to that. We are to be faithful to God and His Word. No question. We are not to compromise the message of Scripture.
But part of being faithful to God is to reach out and bring people to Christ, living lives that tell others that following Christ is worth it, and communicating the love of Christ in ways they can understand it.
You will find no Scriptural support for the notion that "being faithful" will cause God to bring people to church! And I have found that many churches who operate this way are very small, having little or no impact for the kingdom of Christ.
If I were to pick a slogan for our church, it would be, "Christ-centered, community-minded." I like that because it communicates what I think the church should be like. Jesus was around people, impacting them where they lived. We need to do the same.
We need to build a reputation that says we care for people, and want to be involved in their everyday living.
I’ve got a ton of ideas swimming in my head. Some of them are good, some maybe not so good!
I would love to hear if any of you have some ideas to help us achieve our goal of building a positive reputation in the community.
And one of the best ways to do that is to work hard at...
Removing barriers to faith:
Folks, people over time have put up barriers to believing in Christ, and few of them have anything to do with the facts about Jesus, the reliability of the Bible, or whatever.
The barriers usually have more to do with the inauthenticity and the shallowness of so many Christians they run into.
So what do we do about it? Let’s look at
1 Corinthians 10:32-33 and check out some ideas, okay?-
Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God-- 33 even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.
Five ideas for removing barriers to faith. First...
* Remember who owns the church.
We discussed this at length last week. You don’t own the church, that’s why church is not about you.
I don’t own the church, that’s why it’s not about me.
It’s about Christ, who owns the church, and the priorities He has given us to honor Him and expand His kingdom.
Jesus owns the church. Next...
* Remember who you were.
(Outside of God’s family)
You see, before you placed your trust in Christ, you were outside of God’s family, just as I was.
It was when we received Christ as our savior that we become part of God’s family, and outside of Christ, the nicest person in the world faces the same penalty as the vilest murderer.
And outside of Christ, we don’t have access to the life-changing power of God.
So remember where you came from, and who you were. Next, you need to...
* Remember who you are.
(At peace with God by His grace)
That peace was not gained by your own efforts, but by the grace of God. And because of what God has done and is doing in your life, you can take care of the fourth suggestion in removing barriers to unbelief, and that is to...
* Remember to extend grace to others.
Ah yes. When you have a Biblical view of yourself, it’s much easier to see people from a Biblical viewpoint, and you can much more easily extend grace to others, to offer forgiveness to others, and to make sure you have realistic expectations of others.
Too often the church gives people the impression that they are not accepted until they shape up their act.
But we forget that we cannot expect people who are not followers of Jesus to act like those who are. Remember, Jesus does the cleaning we so desperately need.
Here’s the last thing you need to do in removing the barriers some people have to coming to Christ:
* Remember to relate in ways they can understand.
What I mean by this is to act and speak like a real person.
Don’t use "holy"-speak. Work to get away from things that will give people the impression they don’t fit in, or that they have no business here unless they dress a certain way, sing a certain way, use a particular Bible translation, etc.
Jesus wasn’t like that. Sinners were attracted to Him even though He was sinless. Why? Because He intentional about relating to the common person.
Look at the people who didn’t like Jesus very much. They were the religious leaders who were full of themselves and self-righteous. They weren’t interested in relating to those who needed God, they were only interested in avoiding them.
I’m convinced that Jesus didn’t actually say, "Behold," a lot. I’m guessing He said things like, "Hey, check this out. I’m telling you something you need to listen to, okay?"
If we are not relatable, we will make little headway for the kingdom.
Conclusion
A couple weeks ago, I had us listen to a song called Go Light Your World. Today I’m asking you to listen to a song called If We are the Body, by a group called Casting Crowns.
This song has a pretty good beat to it, and if you are not used to this style of music, it may be hard to catch all the words. So I’ve printed them out for you in a bulletin insert.
And after the song, I’ll have just a few comments to end our time.
(Song)
Folks, church is not about you. It’s not about me. It’s about God and His kingdom. It’s more than just the church service, it’s a life lived for God and His kingdom, and it’s a life lived in community for God and His kingdom.
May people see that this local body of Christ loves God and those He sent His Son to save.
Let’s pray.
