Purpose Series #5
(Six Sessions on God’s Purpose for Your Life)
Here’s Your Sign
Matthew 5:14-16
SCRIPTURE READING: Matthew 5:14-16
INTRODUCTION:
This fall, we’ve been studying from Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose driven Life. This week we’re focused on the 4th Purpose: Sharing your life mission every day. Your life mission is to share the Good News about Jesus Christ every day in every way. That’s what Jesus meant when he said You are the light of the world.
Jesus was giving his audience a word picture that made a lot of sense to them. When Jesus said we are to shine like a city on a hill, he may have been referring to a city that all of them had seen. This city, named Tiberius, was built by Herod the Great beside the Sea of Galilee. On any given night, it was visible from the shore, lighting up the night with its multitude of lights.
When Jesus said: Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl, his audience probably burst out laughing. Everyone knew that would be ridiculous! If you lit one of their little oil lamps and put it under a bowl, it would immediately go out … so what would be the point?
Today, I want to use a different word picture that might help us see this familiar scripture in a new light (so to speak.) Not long ago, we put a new Sign in front of our church. It occurred to me that as Christians, we are like human versions of a Church Sign. Now, stay with me on this, and you’ll see what I mean. For one thing, a Church Sign is MEANT TO BE SEEN.
1. A sign is meant to be seen
To paraphrase Matthew 5, Neither do people construct a new Church Sign, and put it behind the building.
When we put up the new sign, one of our goals was to make it readable from West Avenue. The old sign was single-sided and faced the road straight on. Because of that, you’d have to travel under 20 miles per hour to actually read it. (In other words, it would have worked great in the horse-and-buggy days!) The new sign is two-sided and angled so drivers going around 35 miles per hour can easily read the message. Also, it is well lighted so it can be read at night.
This made me think about our lives as believers in Christ. Do we, --- as living and breathing Church Signs --- communicate our faith in Christ in a way that makes sense to the people around us? Is our faith out in the open, fitted for our environment, and well lit so that it shines even in the darkest place? Maybe it’s time for us to update our lives as HUMAN CHURCH SIGNS so that the love of Jesus Christ can shine through to our friends, our co-workers, and our neighbors.
In order to do this, we HUMAN CHURCH SIGNS need to CREATE POSITIVE INTEREST.
2. A sign creates positive interest
A good sign will catch your attention with a catchy saying. Let me read you a few messages found on local church signs:
· "Count your blessings. Recounts are okay too."
· "You can’t hide behind a hypocrite unless you’re smaller than he is."
· "God loves everybody, but He prefers The Fruits of the Spirit to nuts."
By the way, I want to take a moment and “brag” on Taylor Booth who creates the messages on our Church Sign. She is faithful to keep that ministry going, and often uses the help of others to change letters. The sign is often humorous, sometimes challenging, usually positive, and sometimes with a hint of rebuke or exhortation. It represents us and our ministry well. I hope that the HUMAN CHURCH SIGNS around here will also represent us and our Master well.
o If we’re going to do that then --- like the Church Sign --- we should have a distinctive message.
I read some revealing statistics in a magazine article that was published back in 2001. The article reported a study of people in the “Baby Boom” generation. It said that one-third of Baby Boomers call themselves "born again" Christians.
· But it went on to say that one-forth of these Born-again Boomers believe in the possibility of communicating with the dead;
· one-third of them believe in both reincarnation and astrology;
· and half of these “Born-again” Christians believe in psychic powers. “Leap of Faith” My Generation (March/April 2001)
None of these beliefs are Biblical. How can our light shine if we are blending in with the darkness? I’m sad to say that some of us Christians like to walk around wearing camouflage. If our light is going to shine in a dark world, our conduct must be markedly different from the world. People are watching us to see if what we believe really does make a difference in the way we live.
o Besides having a distinctive message, we HUMAN CHURCH SIGNS should have a positive message
Would you walk into a church where the sign in the front yard read, "Come join us. We’re a bunch of negative, conceited, argumentative, stubborn, obnoxious people"? You wouldn’t attend that church --- not unless you were looking for the World Wrestling Federation.
So what kind of message is written on your “sign”?
A comedian named Bill Ingvall has a routine where he tells stories about people who miss the obvious when it’s right before their eyes. He’s known for the signature line: Here’s your sign. Now, the message on his sign is not positive. In fact, the sign says: “STUPID.” And he wants to hand it to people who ask dumb questions with obvious answers.
(Now if you don’t like this part of the sermon, please forgive me. But this is what happens when your Church Secretary loans me a “Blue Collar Comedy” DVD.)
An example of Ingvall’s style would be something like this:
“The other day I had a tire blow out. There I was, jacking up the car, when somebody pulled over. They rolled down the window and asked, “Ya gott’a flat?”
I said, “Nope, I just blew up the other three tires to see what that would look like. ----- Here’s your sign.”
I’ve seen situations like that in church.
A lady sits in a pew crying her eyes out. Someone walks up and asks, “Is anything wrong?”
She replies (crying), “Nope, this is just my way of rejoicing for ever more.” ----- Here’s your sign.
I’m sitting up front on Sunday morning, wearing a suit and tie, with a Big Black Bible in my hand. Someone walks up and asks, “You preachin’ today?”
“Nope, I’m a Gideon passing out our deluxe black leather coffee-table version Bible … for people from up-scale, gated communities. ----- Here’s your sign.”
For us HUMAN CHURCH SIGNS, we need to check the message on our sign. The message our lives portray needs to be positive, compassionate, understandable, sensible, genuine, and unequivocally Christian.
But we don’t need to wrack our brains coming up with clever sayings. Jesus has told us exactly what to write on our sign. Jesus said, In the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good works… Matthew 5:16a
"Good works" is a term that’s easy to define. Are you ready? "Good works" means "doing work… that is good". Now, the part that most folks shy away from is "work". You know, "toil", "labor", “putting out effort,” doing something". But not just doing something: doing something GOOD.
The possibilities are endless. It can be anything from fixing someone’s car to fixing a meal, to working on a house for our Christmas in April event. It can be teaching Sunday School, or --- like I got to do Thursday --- playing Play-Doh with pre-schoolers (explain) It can be something as simple as listening to someone who needs a friend.
The opportunities for GOOD WORKS are endless, and each one enables our light to shine brightly for the Lord. There are just two questions to ask: Is it good? Is it work? If the answer is YES and YES --- then Viola! You gave glory to God!
And that is the whole point, because a good sign always DRAWS ATTENTION TO SOMETHING ELSE.
3. A sign draws attention to something else
Jesus said, Let your light shine before men that they may see your good works … and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16
Back in 1974, when I lived in a little town called Arcadia (between Houston and Galveston on Highway 6) --- we did something bold and innovative. A salesman came by selling what they called Arrow-light Signs. Being real trendsetters in the community, we bought one. Arrow-light Signs cost $600 and sat on a trailer chassis with wheels. They had a four-line lighted message area with a large white arrow on top with yellow light bulbs that flashed on and off continually. It was definitely the cutting edge of technology.
Well, before long there were about 40 Arrow-light Signs all up and down Highway 6. Every store, bar, dance hall, junkyard, filling station, and plant nursery had a sign. All those flashing yellow lights were almost blinding! Maybe it’s not the classiest sight you ever saw, but one thing you have to say for Arrow-light Signs: They shine brightly, and the point to something!
The same should be true for every Christian. We may not all be classy, but we can all shine brightly and point to something. Our mission is not to draw attention to ourselves; we draw attention to our Father in Heaven.
CONCLUSION / Introduction Of Testimony
Telling others how they can have eternal life is the greatest thing we can do for them. That is our mission. Long term Christians often forget how hopeless and empty life is without Christ --- everybody needs Jesus.
Today we have a representative of the Gideons here with us. This organization shares our mission. For ____ years, the Gideons have been dedicated to spreading the Good News about Jesus by distributing Bibles across the world.
Introduce the testimony of ___________________
