My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4 (NRSVA)
Spiritual maturity comes in a lot of different packages. Rick Warren, author of The Purpose-Driven Life, is pastor of Saddleback Community Church in California. It is one of the largest churches in the Southern Baptist Convention, with some 20,000 members attending multiple weekend services. Fewer than half of their membership comes from people transferring from other churches. They win and baptize over 50% of new attendees.
But numbers alone is not the only thing for which Saddleback is known. That church is also a pacesetting example of high expectation. Members are expected to do more than attend; they are expected to grow as disciples and use their spiritual gifts in service. That is stated in the covenant new members sign when they join that fellowship.
So, what does the pastor of a vibrant, growing, discipling and church-starting church have to say about growing strong as believers? This:
“The truth is that it takes a variety of experiences with God to produce true spiritual maturity. In addition to Bible study it takes worship experiences, ministry experiences, fellowship experiences, and evangelism experiences. In other words, spiritual growth occurs by participating in all five purposes of the church.” [1]
Where did Rick Warren get such an idea? The Bible!
This morning I want to take Pastor Warren’s statement, and our text, from which he draws the five purposes of the church, and invest our time looking at the process of becoming a mature disciple of Jesus Christ.
Incidentally, I want you to know [up front] that I agree with Rick Warren about these five purposes for all members of the church. I also want you to know I have a goal for this message. That goal is your heart. The goal is to have God’s Word and purposes clearly capture our hearts this morning so that we will turn to following Him more closely than ever. The goal is for us to become “purpose-driven” people for Christ.
Study with me the five purposes of the church – five experiences that can make us strong disciples, able to serve our Master.
1. Worship Experiences
Worship was pretty exciting for the first church, especially the first service they had. Three thousand got saved and baptized that day! There was a sense of awe and reverence that gripped the whole group. I’ll bet they just couldn’t wait to get to church each Sunday. In fact, I know they didn’t wait til Sunday; Scripture tells us they had church every day.
I have to admit that going to church service every day may sound a bit “over-the-top”. On the other hand, that constant exposure to the Word of God and worship made the church so very strong and vital then. They were so full of Jesus that people were getting saved every day. We could use a little of that “over-the-top”!
I’ve been a pastor a long time, and I’ve encouraged a multitude of folks to get regular about worshipping. But I’ve also been told a similar multitude of times, Preacher, you don’t have to go to church to worship.
Now, I would say that that is true; I am also certain that if you say you believe that, you really need to say the whole sentence, which is:
You don’t have to go to church to worship,
but if you don’t you probably won’t.
Can we talk? Aside from spending time with my wife, golf is my major hobby (if you can call something you do twice a year a bone-fide hobby). I will tell you this, I cannot recall the last time I recited the Lord’s Prayer or the Shorter Westminster catechism before the first tee.
I have prayed – to make a good shot; at least to not embarrass myself in front of a good golfer – but mostly I am not worshipping! I am thinking about back-swing, follow-through and putting. I have never thought of the Book of Discipline, or sung a hymn of praise to Jesus on the golf course. And it is certain the only offering I’ve ever given on the golf course was required – they called it “greens fees” – and they didn’t use it for missions!
Friend, you can use that “don’t have to go to church to worship” thing any time you want…just don’t do it with a straight face when you’re talking to God – He doesn’t buy it. He knows it means, “I really don’t want to worship God, and I’m gonna talk my way out of it if I can.” You can’t!
I have shared with you that I was saved at a young age, and then turned my back on the Lord in my teens. When I came back to Jesus in my mid/late twenties, it was largely due to the efforts of my dear wife who was seeking God, and a dear, tenacious neighbor lady. (Tenacious is a word you use when you learn to love someone who was formerly just “obnoxious”.
This neighbor badgered me about church so often I finally said “yes” just to get her off my back. That’s when it happened; one service led to another, and before I knew it, worship became an addiction.
Folks, I want you to know that when Jesus finally got my attention through that pushy next-door neighbor (bless her overbearing and loving heart), I could not get enough of worshipping the One who loved me enough to die for me. Worship has made me a stronger disciple.
It’s like filling the gas tank. Some folks can go a long way in-between; I can’t – not if I’m going to hear “Well-done thou good and faithful servant.”
2. Fellowship Experiences
Breaking bread means dinner-on-the-grounds; it means sharing the Lord’s Supper. It means both; but it means more. Breaking bread (in the sense of the church) means joining lives. The members of that first church hung out at church, but they also cooperated daily in doing things that draw people together.
We live in a fallen world. When Adam and Eve sinned, God came to them in the garden and had a hard time finding them. They were hiding so they didn’t have to face His face. Everybody here can identify with that…who wants to see a holy God when you’ve sinned?
Unfortunately God is not the only one from which we hide; we also hide from each other. It is because we recoil from the idea of trusting others. We know ourselves well – we know that we are not trustworthy because we know our sins. Looking at others we see the same species; my brother is no more to be trusted than I.
It is a fallen world. One preacher told his congregation about when he was just a boy one of his life’s goals was to make all four of his sisters cry at the same time. He waited until they were all in the family car headed for Grandma’s
I decided that this was a good time to launch my attack. I pinched Cathy, pulled Jean’s hair, insulted Mary, and threatened Beth. As I sat there with a big grin on my face while they cried, my dad, who is normally a soft-spoken man, said, “All right. That’s it.” He then pulled over to the side of the road, slammed on the brakes and said, “Get out. We’ll pick you up on Sunday.”
I couldn’t believe it. I had finally accomplished my goal and here I was standing on the gravel shoulder on a deserted country road in Wisconsin. As I shut the door, my dad pulled away and drove off…
Now, that is descriptive of the anti-fellowship rule of a fallen world. But, there is more to the story…
After my dad left me by the side of the road, my sisters stopped crying and started pleading with my Father to come back and get me. Eventually, what seemed like hours (which in reality were only minutes), my dad turned around and picked me up.
Do you know what my sisters were doing? They were embracing me. Even though I had wronged them, they extended grace and community to me. Even though I deserved to be excluded, they reached out to me. I’m sure they had second thoughts after I got them all crying again just a short time later…Do you know anyone standing by the side of the road this morning? [2]
It is a fallen world. In the TV world of Jerry Springer, Survivor, American Idol and others, its all in-your-face screaming to come out on top. In Survivor it is cut-throats, stab backs and claw your way to the prize. With Oprah and Dr. Phil you are urged to be sensitive and make “nice-nice” with everybody so we can all be sensitive and “nice-nice”. In corporate America it is lie, steal and cheat, but get off with 5 months behind bars with 5 billion in the bank. Terrorists say “fly your plane into a government building, and fulfill your destiny”. That’s a fallen world.
Real fellowship is a matter of facing the “real fallen world” and knowing that your brother in Christ is not the enemy. It means breaking the bread of life together so, arm-in-arm you can storm the gates of hell like Jesus said we should.
In so many churches across the land Christians are so busy tearing each other to bits with gossip and selfishness because of a worldly mindset. We need the fellowship of believers, not believers who are friends of the world. We need believers with the mind of Christ in fellowship!
3. Discipleship Experiences
Acts tells us that the people devoted themselves to learning all about God. They received the word, they learned the doctrine. My friends you can’t do that listening to a 30 minute sermon once a week.
If you are serious about following Jesus there are some things that have to change. It isn’t hard to figure out where we are going these days.
• Forty years ago we had televisions the size of a sofa with a 6-inch screen. Technology has given us a 6-foot color screen in a cabinet so light you hang it on the wall. Are we better off?
• Forty years ago we watched Mayberry and then read our Bibles because late night TV ended at 9pm. Today the filth pours into our homes 24 hours a day while the Bible gathers dust in the closet. Are we better disciples for the technology?
• Forty years ago we went to church on Sundays and Wednesdays. We took two weeks’ vacation and that was the only time we missed our Sunday School class. Did we not give out pins for perfect attendance? Today everything else comes before Sunday School and Worship.
There just aren’t many disciples these days devoting themselves to the apostle’s doctrine and prayer! I would suggest that may be one reason even some leaders in our churches can get along on personality or “think-so” religion, rather than knowing the Word of God. Disciples are trained in the Word of God.
4. Serving Experiences
Serving is sacrifice. As with discipleship, serving God means you give up things of the world in favor of giving glory to God.
The Bible tells us that the people were so caught-up in the love of Jesus that they went as far as selling-off personal property to make sure nobody went hungry. Now, that doesn’t mean it is wrong for us to have personal property. It simply points out that the heart that is right will sacrifice to meet needs if sacrifice is called-for.
Serving is a form of leadership. Jesus led his disciples into servant-living by taking a towel and basin to do the lowly job of washing dirty feet. And He did it while they were debating over who was going to be the greatest in the Kingdom.
I want to say this with loving care, but there is a need for leaders who will put leading above personal pursuits of amusement, vacation and every opportunity that comes along to get out of serving. It is much better to decline to serve than to say you will serve and then drop the ball.
Jesus talked about putting a hand to the plow, and then looking back. He told a parable about a father telling his two sons there was work to be done in the field. One son said, “No way – I’m not going”; but he re-thought and then went to work in the field. The other son said, “Sure Dad, I’m your man”; he too reconsidered, and went to take a nap. Which served the Father, lip-service or life-service?
I wish you could have known Louise Blair. Louise was in our church in Jacksonville, Florida. She was near 80 when I met her. She was still going strong until she died a few years ago. She was our Women’s Missions director, and the Association [sic district] Assistant Director for W.M.U. She was an absolute delight for any pastor. Her one question was always, “Pastor, what can we do to help?” At 80 she was still going out on outreach.
One summer day we held a neighborhood block party with game booths, clothes for the poor, food, pony rides, popcorn and a spacewalk. Carrie was dressed in a ball gown as Snow White, and each child got his or her picture taken with the princess. Do you know what Louise chose to do that Saturday morning? Louise rented a clown outfit and manned the booth marked “Clowns For Christ”. She handed out tracts and bubble gum until every last kids’ cheeks were bulging with Double-Bubble!
Audrey Helvenston was one of Louise’s friends and cohorts in service. She and Martha Thompson (one over 90 the other just under…they wouldn’t admit to which was which) were still teaching Sunday School the last I knew. Servants do that kind of thing! God needs more servants – less spectators!
5. Evangelism Experiences
This is one of those “easy-to-connect-the-dots” scenarios…Peter shared Christ with a whole crowd…and 3,000 responded; they were saved. In turn, they went and shared that with others. How simple is that?
We sometimes make it rather complicated, but sharing the Gospel as it came to us is effective – after all, it worked that way at least in your case. The problem is not with evangelism being too hard – it isn’t. The problem is more with saints who won’t even give it a try.
My brother Thom has a sister-in-law, Anne. Anne visited the church I was serving a few years ago. She is the opposite of a Yankee in North Carolina; Anne is from the South, married and moved to New York. Go figure! Anyway, Anne told me about her young Grandson, David:
David was sitting at the breakfast table this morning when he made a little noise and jerked backwards. He mashed something in the tablecloth and threw it on the floor. John asked, "What happened?"
David answered, "There was a spider there. I killed it."
"Wow! You were so brave to kill it," I exclaimed.
True honesty came to the fore when David explained, "I’m only brave when the spider is little."
Friends, let me sum this up by saying that when it comes to evangelism, serving, discipleship, fellowship and worship, ALL the spiders are little! Next to God, everything in this universe is little, and under His control.
Do you want to move on to maturity in Christ? Put these five areas of experience under the column of your life’s major commitments:
WORSHIP
FELLOWSHIP
DISCIPLESHIP
SERVING
EVANGELISM
Still worried you can’t cut it? Take a little advice from a great old preacher who helped many overcome their fear of serving well…
"Do not pray for easy lives; pray to be stronger people! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then doing what you would shall be no miracle, but you shall be a miracle. Everyday you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come to you by the grace of God. -- Phillips Brooks
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Let the church say, Amen!
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ENDNOTES
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1] Rick Warren, Moving Members To Maturity, SBC Life, Nashville, Jun/Jul 2002, 10.
2] Brian Bill , Caring for Other Beleivers on SermonCentral.com
