Have you ever noticed that people need to be around other people? Yet, all too often, what do we do? We tend to build walls around ourselves and keep other people out. We draw lines between us and concentrate more on our differences than our similarities.
A man was a witness to another man jumping off the bridge once. He told the police how it happened. “I was just walking along, minding my own business when I see this guy who was going to jump off the bridge. I yelled to him to please stop, that there was too much to live for.
He asked me what I was talking about and I asked him if he was religious or atheist. He said religious, and I said, ‘Me, too!’ I asked him if he was Protestant or Catholic, and he said he was protestant and I said, ‘Me too!’ I asked him if he was Baptist or Church of Christ and he said Church of Christ, and I said, “Me too!’
Then I asked him if he were Church of Christ Instrumental or non-instrumental, and he said he was non-instrumental, so I said, “Good-bye you heretic”, and pushed him really hard!
This little story was told to add humor to the sermon, but in reality, it shows a very sad truth about mankind, doesn’t it? It goes to show that jokes like these are born out of very real and very tragic divisions that serve to do nothing more than to separate God’s children.
Why push other believers away when Jesus prayed that we would be as one? Why do we have to use words like “Heretic” to describe someone else who is struggling, just as we are, to know the full truth of Jesus Christ?
That’s why it breaks my heart to hear someone stand on their soapbox and proclaim exactly who is going to hell. When someone does that, have you ever noticed how it is always somebody else instead of them?
Jesus was not a giver of condemnation without also offering a way to receive redemption. He never once left someone for dead and condemned them to hell. When he spoke harsh words He always left the door of faith open. He had compassion for everybody.
But, even though Jesus did that, we are too eager to pronounce people condemned, offering harsh words to them, and then walk away from them – leaving them with no chance to receive Christ. We do that while screaming “Evangelize” from the pulpit and the pews each Sunday.
1. A REAL URGENCY EXISTS TO REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST
People are dying every day. If Christians do not reach out to others for Christ, the alternative for their souls is worse than we can even imagine. We never know when someone is going to die, so the necessity of reaching them becomes more urgent than ever before. Today, we are going to talk about Christians who cannot identify the real enemy.
This past Friday was the day we set aside to honor our military veterans. Even though this is not a Veterans’ Day sermon, I do want to take this time to honor all of those who have done so much to keep our country free. This is truly the land of the free and the home of the brave, isn’t it?
But something has happened over the last 25 years. We have become disassociated with honor; we have lost the definition of valor; and we have forgotten what freedom is all about. We went from throwing parades for returning soldiers to spitting on them as they returned from Viet Nam.
Today, we still are not honoring our veterans. We are so busy aiding and abetting the enemy by hating the government, that we take all honor away from our veterans. It is all well and good to disagree with any sitting government, but not to the point where we dishonor our vets. Let us remember that our soldiers must do what they are told to do, and we MUST give them honor for doing so. Having been there, I graciously tip my hat to every soldier and sailor who has stood in harms way to protect our right to enjoy our many blessings.
The Bible tells us that much is expected from those whom God has blessed. If that is the case, every American owes God very much indeed. And I thank God that there are some who are willing to pay that price without shirking our duty and without complaining about it.
One such man was named Pat Tillman. I had the privilege of having talked with Pat while I was in Arizona. The last time I spoke to him was about a week before he went to Afghanistan.
For those of you who have not heard of Pat, he was a safety on the Arizona Cardinals football team. He gave up a $3.6 million dollar a year contract and one of the most promising careers in pro-football to join the Army as an E-1. If you are not familiar with military ranking, that would be the bottom of the heap. He decided to join the military after 9/11, saying that he could not take the benefits of living in this country if he couldn’t also defend her in time of need. That is something too many of us are not willing to do any more.
Pat was over there for just several months before being killed in the line of duty. This man among men was only 27 years of age. I think all of Arizona went into mourning, because he was one of those rare people who brought people of all walks of life together because everybody feels like they personally know them. When the news came, I was at work, and there seemed to be a dark hush that immediately fell over the entire Post Office; employees and customers.
After the investigation, they realized Pat was killed by our own men. It happens in every war. It is called “friendly fire”. What saddens me deeply, is that Pat was a very well liked guy. He had a heart of gold. He had more human integrity than most people ever think about having. But, Pat was not a Christian. In fact, he had made a conscious choice that there was no need for Christ in his life. As great a man as Pat was, it should crush every Christian’s heart that Pat will never see Heaven.
Do you think there were any Christians around Pat as he was growing up? I am sure there were. Do you think any of them reached out to try and reach him? We have no way of knowing. There may have been, and there may not have been. But the point is that there are so many who are not being reached out to. Why not? If God said to reach out, and if we say we are Christians, why do we fight so hard at reaching out? Do you know a young man or woman in your life that isn’t a Christian? How would you feel if that young person went away to war in a few years and died like Pat Tillman did, and you knew they did not know Christ? Do you even want to take that chance?
This church needs to become a church that is known in this entire area as a church that reaches out to the lost. Why? So that we can help prevent any more of our young men and women being in Pat Tillman’s place: losing their life without personally knowing who it was that gave them that life.
As I said, many are killed in every war by friendly fire. In the church, we see this happening all too often. It seems like we are more concerned with shooting each other down rather than building each other up and encouraging one another.
We inadvertently kill any chance some Christians have of growing in spiritual maturity because we condemn them over petty differences without offering them a chance of the revival that is found in unity.
As I said earlier, we need to reach out. If someone had cared enough about Pat to reach out to him when he was younger, maybe – just maybe – he would have died a Christian. Sometimes, we cannot recognize the real enemy; for the real enemy is ourselves and how we fail to show the love of Christ to others around us - as Christ would want us to.
2. CHRISTIANS DESPERATELY NEED A COMMON PURPOSE
In a Peanuts cartoon Lucy demanded that Linus change TV channels,. Linus asks her by whose authority could she demand that. Lucy responded by putting her fist in front of him and saying, "These five fingers. Individually they’re nothing but when I curl them together like this, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold." Linus looks at his fingers and asks, "Why can’t you guys work together like that?"
Jesus did not go to God in prayer for the Baptists, or the Methodists, or the Assembly of God churches. He went to prayer for all believers, that they would be unified as one in their belief.
In JOHN 17:20-21 Jesus prays,
‘My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in Me and I in You.’
In these two verses, Jesus is praying not only for the believers in His day, but for all the believers that were yet to come. That would be you and me. And what was His prayer for? It was that we would become one, united in the faith in Jesus Christ. He never prayed for the divisions of denominationalist. He didn’t pray for us to draw apart. He prayed that we would be drawn together in Christ-like unity.
One denomination believes you must physically wash the feet of other members to establish the servant attitude in your heart. Another denomination believes that you cannot have music in the service. Yet another believes that we must all have the gift of speaking in tongues. Does it really matter?
There are two sides to a Christian’s belief. There is the essential side and the non-essential side. The essential side concerns our beliefs in salvation, baptism, repentance, and in Jesus as Savior. The non-essential side concerns ourselves with what part of the service we receive offerings, or just where we put the Communion Table, or any of the things I mentioned a moment ago.
If the non-essential beliefs of another are not exactly the same as yours, let me ask, “So what?” It does not matter! You are called to remain in unity with them for the sake of Christ. If their essential beliefs differ from yours, then you need to sit down and talk to them and make sure they (or maybe you) have the correct knowledge of Christ, or Lord.
We need God in our lives. And to be true Christians, we must be obedient to God in all things, not just those things we are comfortable in being obedient in. Jesus wanted us to be unified, not torn apart by walls of denominations. Are we going to choose to be obedient or not?
As Brother Rome Ingle said, “We might not be twins, but we are all brothers – brothers in Christ.” We are not all the same, but we do have the same common purpose. We are talking about a sense of real unity this morning, but we are also talking about connecting with other people for the sake of building the kingdom of God. We are talking about having a sense of community among our community.
To accomplish this, we must have a common purpose that will bring us together. In fact, that common purpose should tell us that our Christian duty is to love each other and then to show others God’s love.
In MATTHEW 22:37-40 a man comes to Jesus and asks him which is the greatest commandment. Listen to how Jesus answers him.
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Jesus makes it very simple to understand. All the laws hang off these two commandments. Every rule that God gives is a branch directly off these commandments. Some have become terrified of God because of all the “rules” that are in the Bible. How are we supposed to know who is right? Some even give to a bunch of different churches just to hedge their bet. But knowing Jesus is not about betting on your eternity, it’s about connecting to the grace and forgiveness offered by God through Jesus Christ, His Son.
Sometimes, we might get confused about all the rules, but that is because mankind always seems to want to add more than God demands of us. One thing I was glad to see in our church beliefs is that we demand nothing more (and nothing less) than what God demands to be a Christian. It is my heart that all churches would feel the same. Love God, and love others. Our common purpose is Jesus. Our reality comes through Him.
3. WE NEED TO START LIVING OUR COMMON PURPOSE
Of course, finding the common purpose is just step one.. The next step is to live the common purpose. Now, this is where we want to start telling the preacher to end the sermon, because this is where we start getting very uncomfortable with the message.
We must actually start behaving like a unified body of believers in Christ. How many of you just said “OUCH”? There is an old saying that says, “Do as I say, not as I do.” I think that was thought up by a Christian. Jesus prayed for all of us to be unified. But, we are not, are we? One of my biggest pet peeves is to hear a preacher stand at the pulpit and say some other churches are going to hell. I heard a preacher once say, “Our Christian brothers over at the __________ church are really trying, but they are headed to hell unless they start believing like we do.”
First, how can a man on this earth issue such a condemning statement, and secondly, if they are Christian brothers, that in itself would mean they go to Heaven, right? Let God be the only judge when determining someone’s eternity. All we need to is concern ourselves with sharing His Word. He is more capable than we are to handle the rest of it. I know it is hard to believe, but God really doesn’t need our help in this.
Living a common purpose actually means we start getting down into the thick of it and start serving others. The best way I have found to truly serve others is to offer them some real Christian friendship. Then, I offer them the Word of God; teach them; encourage them; and then something most of us have a hard time with. I actually start to love them as best I can the way I feel God wants me to.
4. WE HAVE TOOLS THAT HELP US DUPLICATE
Now, there are many ways in which to install this type of living into your lives. One way is to do it through something we are getting ready to start, and that through a Small Groups Ministry.
A Small Group is actually living out the Great Commission. In MATTHEW 28:19-20, it tells us to go into the world (our communities), make disciples (friends in Christ), teach them (which is what the groups do) and then to baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Most people in a Small Group will be baptized believers, but it is common to find those who have not been, and that gives us the perfect opportunity to reach these people and baptize them.
Some of you may not be familiar with the purpose of Small Groups. The typical group will consist of anywhere from 4 - 5 people to as many as 15 - 20 people. These people meet regularly, once a week, to come together in fellowship so they can learn more about God and how to apply His Word to their lives.
The meetings will last about an hour and a half, and will be at somebody’s home during the week. They establish the sense of community that should be found in today’s Christian society, but is all too often missing. When people become committed to the Lord, they should also be committed to each other, and these groups help us do that. These groups also establish a way for individual Christians to grow to a deeper level of understanding and belief in our Lord – all while growing true Christian friends that last forever.
This is only a part of living our common purpose, though. I have actually had people tell me that I talk too much about evangelism. That is a concept that I honestly do not understand. I personally feel that if you take evangelism out of the Christian, you are also taking obedience out of him.
When people tell me this, I cannot help but think they are really telling me that they are afraid of evangelism because they do not understand it or they are frightened they don’t know what to say. But, evangelism is not just telling others about Christ.
Evangelism is also praying for others in intercessory prayer or by congregating with other believers and getting encouraged and helped by them, or encouraging others and helping them as they would need. In short, anything you do for others for the sake of Christ is evangelism. And we all should be involved in evangelism every day. And, just as humans, we get married and reproduce so that our family lines keep going, as Christians we are to reproduce those in the faith so the kingdom of our Lord keeps going.
When I worked at the Post Office, I knew I would be retiring to come to Oklahoma. It was part of my job to teach my replacement so the job continue without any problems. As a Christian, it is also my job to teach replacements so that when I am unable to continue, the work of God will continue.
Part of the Great Commission is to teach them everything that Jesus taught His disciples. As Christians, it is our duty to also teach others. Our mature members need to start mentoring some of our younger members so that when they are no longer able to do the job, this church can continue to grow and become an influence in this area for years to come.
There is another part called getting involved. A church has a paid staff, but that staff cannot do everything a church needs done. The biggest and most important workers in a church are the volunteers. Being involved in growing our church will get us excited. When we get excited about the church, we will see the church start to blossom, and when that happens, the Lord will open up new doors of opportunity for us to serve Him.
Because we want to share Christ with everyone, we become involved in the lives of foreign missionaries. Weather it is by supporting missions financially, or by sending our own missionaries abroad, we strive to live the common purpose; which is the Great Commission. I am very glad to say that this church does both.
Because of our common purpose we care about other churches. Inola Christian Church has been helping Town and Country Christian Church with their VBS this year, and we have offered to gather used clothing and give to them to help their clothing drive for the less fortunate.
And, in addition to helping other churches as we can, we also have a burden to help one another. We must remember that sometimes the greatest need is often to have someone who cares, and the greatest gift if to really care about someone enough to help them in the name of the Lord.
Many are just looking for someone to just care about them. But in an effort to look like they are okay, they keep so busy they don’t have time to think much about their loneliness or hurts.
I saw an article once that said upwards of 60% of those sitting in churches every Sunday have a hole in their heart produced by loneliness. In the church there should not be one lonely person! This is the place where meaningful friendships are formed and the message is clear: A church should be a place where the compassion overflows.
Jesus never condemned anyone without offering a chance of being redeemed. Jesus never refused anyone when they came to Him for help either. Let’s take these two aspects and see how we rate.
Do we ever condemn others (for any reasons) without offering them a way out of their sin? If we are not talking directly to someone about their sin, we should not be talking about their sin. In other words, nobody, including God, likes a gossip.
Will the Victory Singers please come forward?
What we are talking about is developing a strong sense of purpose in ourselves and in other believers, and then being able to live that common purpose in each of our lives for the glory of our Lord.
A young boy was seen in the empty lot with a baseball and bat. He was doing what most little boys do; he was throwing the ball in the air and then swinging at it on the way down. Aloud, he kept encouraging himself by saying, “I am the greatest hitter in history. I am the greatest hitter in history.”
He threw it up and when he swung at it, he missed. STRIKE ONE! That didn’t phase him. He threw it up again and repeated, “I am the greatest hitter in history.” Down came the ball and he swung again. STRIKE TWO!
Not phased at all by the two strikes, he threw the ball up again and kept repeating that he was the greatest hitter in history. Down came the ball and he swings again. STRIKE THREE!
At that, the boy picked up the ball and said, “I am the greatest pitcher in history!”
Too many Christians are playing a role, just like that little boy was doing. We are telling ourselves that we are a very good Christian, when in fact, we aren’t as good a Christian as we could be. One major reason for that is we seem to be way too focused on what we think we are. In other words, we need to shift the spotlight from ourselves back to the Lord Jesus. Then, we could be the best Christian we can be.
And, when we do that, we will finally have a true sense of purpose for our Lord, and that is when you will be able to really reach out and live that purpose for His glory. Are you being all you can be for Jesus, or are you still the center of attention in your own mind?
Let’s look at reality and admit when we strike out. Let’s start reaching out and spiritually duplicating ourselves in ways that truly glorify our Lord. We have no idea how many lives will be touched when we do this.
Can anybody say how many lives have been touched by Christ because of Billy Graham? No, and nobody but Christ knows how many lives we can touch either. But to touch the lives of others, we must first know the glory of Jesus in our own hearts.
INVITATION
“Anybody can count the number of seeds in an apple, but only the Lord knows how many apples are in a seed.”
