Drop your buffs. I wasn’t sure at first what I was hearing then I realized that what host Jeff Probst of Survivor was telling the contestants to do was to remove the scarves that identified each of four tribes that made up the competition in this season’s Survivor. After only a week on the island the tribes were being reorganized and went from four small tribes to two large tribes.
There was a general shuffling and milling around, people were chosen and ignored as the tribes were expanded. It was almost like school children picking teams for softball or dodge ball. Part of the selection process was based on skill sets, what different people could bring to the tribe and part was simply based on popularity, who was liked or wasn’t liked. And when it was over there were two new larger, presumably stronger tribes.
This is the week 6 of Forty Days of purpose and this is the fifth purpose and that is: You Were Made for a Mission. And what is that mission? It is to expand our tribe. To reach out and touch other people with the good news. Christianity is always 1 generation from extinction. Every Christian alive today, October 29th 2006 will need to be replaced if Christianity is to survive.
So what is the secret to fulfilling our mission?
1) We Need To Care About People. We need to care about people because Jesus cared about people. He cared so much he was willing to surrender his life for people, what are we willing to do? Cornerstone Wesleyan Church needs to put people number one. We need to care that people need Jesus or they will go to hell, in essence
A) We Need To Understand the Consequences.
The contestants on Survivor know two things, 1) If they are the winner they get a million dollars and 2) If they are not the winner they don’t. So they understand the consequences what will happen and what won’t happen. But bottom line is that it’s just a game and they are each concerned with being the winner, ultimately they really aren’t all that concerned with what happens to the rest of the tribe, any one of them could wear that t-shirt that says “It’s all about me”.
But that isn’t the way it should be with us, we need to recognize that the consequences here are much bigger as spelled out in the word of God and that’s always the kicker isn’t’ it? Just how convinced are we that this book is true? How convinced are we that there is a heaven to be gained and a hell to be shunned? If what this book says is true, then those who accept Jesus Christ as the Lord of their lives will spend eternity with God. But by the same token those who don’t accept Jesus Christ as the Lord of their life will spend a Christless eternity in torment.
Now I realize that heaven and hell can be a little abstract to grasp, but somehow we as a church need to become convinced of the value of Jesus Christ in the lives of people, not only for the here and now but for the there and then.
And once we become convinced of that then we have to be ready to communicate that to people in a culturally relevant way. That is culturally relevant to this area, in October of 2006. And that can be tough, after all if it was easy every church would be doing it and they’re not. Too many churches are sound evangelically and sound asleep evangelistically.
If we believe the reality of hell and according to the word of God hell is a reality, then we should be heartbroken over the fact that we have friends and family who will in reality be tormented for eternity. That’s what the book says and we don’t debate the book. Did you know that the Bible speaks more about Hell then about heaven? Listen to how Jesus describes it in Mark 9:48 as a place where ‘where the worm never dies and the fire never goes out.’ and in Matthew 18:9 Jesus speaks of the Fires of Hell and again in Matthew 13:42 and they will throw them into the furnace and burn them. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Are we truly convinced of the reality of Hell? And if we are then the next question has to be: are we that convinced that Jesus is the only solution to the reality of hell?
There are not many ways to heaven, there are not several ways to heaven, and there are not even two ways to heaven. You can’t get there by being good, or by being sincere, following Buddha won’t get you there, following Mohammed won’t get you there, as a matter of fact Jesus said in John 14:6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. And friends that is not being narrow, that is being scriptural. And until we understand that we will never see the need to tell people about Jesus. Cornerstone Wesleyan Church wasn’t started so that we could have a Wesleyan Church in Hammonds Plains, we came here to help depopulate hell. Now it’s not simply enough to understand the consequences.
B. We Also Need To Be Convinced Of the Value Of our Tribe
Have you ever heard how people talk after they have seen a movie they really liked? Or have discovered a musical artist that they really liked, or found a great new restaurant? You can’t shut them up; they want to let everyone in on this wonderful secret.
I am convinced that we have a pretty good thing starting here. And notice that I said starting even though we’ve been in Bedford for over eleven years to many people in the community we started when the doors to this building opened last November. Probably one of the speeches that will go down in history is Martin Luther King Junior’s speech “I have a dream.” I love that speech not just for the content but for the sentiment, friends I have a dream, a dream of a church where people are valued for who they are, a dream of a church that is committed to the reaching of the lost. A dream of a church that will be innovative and relevant, a church that will be bold and exciting. Have you grabbed a hold of that dream?
Can you see that church with me, can you dream that dream with me. Can you see this building full of people who will dream that dream with us, people that Cornerstone Wesleyan Church has introduced to Jesus? Can you see a church that reaches out to help other churches dream, to help other churches reach out? Can you see a church that touches people at their point of need whether it is spiritual, emotional or physical? In 1845 the Southern Baptist Church was formed and a plaque was placed to commemorate the event and this is what it said about the founders, “Men who see the invisible, hear the inaudible, believe the incredible, and think the unthinkable.” We need to see the invisible, hear the inaudible, believe the incredible, and think the unthinkable.
Can you see it? It will only become a reality when we are ready to invite people out. Just about everyone here is here because someone invited them. We need to see the value of Cornerstone Wesleyan Church, not just for us but for our friends, for our family, for our neighbours. Who do we invite out? There are four types of people in our world, in a very simplified sense. Out of those four groups we are really interested in reaching two of them.
Those four groups are a) The Churched believers, pretty basic. These are people who have committed their lives to Jesus and are regularly involved in a Bible believing church, that is a church that believes and practices John 3:3 Jesus replied, “I assure you, unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God.”
The next group are b) The churched unbelievers, these are those who haven’t made a commitment to Christ but who attend a Bible believing church on a regular basis. Those first two groups of people are great to have as friend, it’s super to be with them, but to be truthful they already have a church home. It’s nice if they come out to a special service or two but I’d like to see them fit into their church home.
However there are still two more groups of people out there, c) The Unchurched Unbeliever, Willow Creek Community Church calls these folks unchurched Harry and Mary, Saddle Back Community Church calls them Saddleback Sam and Sue. At Cornerstone Wesleyan Church we simply call them our friends and neighbours. These people have never made Jesus the manager of their lives and don’t have a church home. Oh they might have a church they go to at Easter and Christmas but the other fifty Sundays of the year they’d just as soon go fishing or watch TV or sleep in. It’s these people who need to be shown the validity of the Gospel, doesn’t’ matter who they are, whether they are a friend, family or the guy you work with, they need to establish a relationship with Jesus Christ or they are going to hell, pretty sobering thought isn’t it?
The last group of people out there are d) Unchurched Believers. They have made a commitment to Christ, they are going to heaven, but they are not worshipping on a regular basis with a group of believers in a bible believing church. How come? I don’t know. Maybe they were introduced to Jesus outside the church and have never found a church that they felt comfortable in, or maybe they’ve just moved here from somewhere else. Or maybe they have been hurt, either intentionally or unintentionally in their last church, spiritual abuse is unfortunately a reality, and they haven’t found a church where they can be loved and accepted.
These people have already discovered the validity of the gospel but they haven’t yet learned the value of Cornerstone Wesleyan Church.
Everyone of us knows someone who fits into one or the other of those last two categories. People who are either Christians or pre-Christians but who have no regular church home. They are the people who need us and who we need to love. They are the people that you need to tell about Cornerstone Wesleyan Church. Why?
Because you have something to offer them and it’s a whole lot more valuable then winning a TV show or even a million dollars. It’s the salvation that only Jesus Christ can offer and it’s a loving church family, a church family called Cornerstone Wesleyan Church.
2) We Need to Be Rigidly committed to flexibility. It’s interesting as the tribes change on survivor, how they have to be constantly reworking their strategies. What may have worked when the tribe included certain contestant may not work with them missing.
I want this church to be rigidly committed to flexibility. We will do what ever it takes to reach people with the word of God.
As Cornerstone Wesleyan Church continues to grow and expand we need to be offering programs and ministries to meet the needs of those around us.
Right now we are offering a limited menu but we are trying to provide the very best that we can with that menu, don’t like our music then maybe they’ll like the preaching, don’t like the preaching then maybe it will be the excellent job that Angela and her crew does with the kids. If that doesn’t appeal maybe it will be a social event that we plan, a pot luck or pool Party, maybe it will a Christmas Eve service that we are planning even now, or maybe Easter Sunday. This winter we will be offering a course on parenting maybe that will draw people in. And not everything will work and we’ll learn from our mistakes and go on, it was Mark twain who said, “The man who picked the cat up by the tail learnt 40% more about cats then the man who didn’t.” Well we are going to pick the cat up by the tail and we may walk away with some scratches but we are going to be learn
You are probably looking around and thinking about the past four Sundays and wondering: where will you put them?
We will do what ever we have to do, we can’t become like the restaurant that Yogi Berra commented on when he said “Nobody goes there anymore it’s too crowded.” So the children under grade four go out at the beginning of the service, think of what it would have been like in here last Sunday with 40 children added to the mix. And you need to thank Angela and her teachers for giving up their Sunday morning so you could have a seat.
Coming soon to a church near you will be a Saturday Evening Service, same message a little more music and you’d get to sleep in on Sunday Morning. And if we fill up again then we will offer an earlier Sunday Morning service and if we need to we’ll find a time for another service. But we are not going to sacrifice people because of inflexibility.
One of the biggest mistakes the church has made in it’s past has been the refusal to change. A pastor friend of mine got in trouble with a lady at his church when they put carpet down in their worship centre. It was blue carpet and every one knows that church carpet is supposed to be red.
There is nothing sacred about how a church looks, there is nothing sacred about whether we sing hymns or choruses, there is nothing sacred about whether we have prayer meeting, bible studies or discipleship groups. There is nothing sacred about whether the pastor preaches expositional messages or topical messages. We will use whatever techniques we need to see this area won for Jesus Christ. But we will not compromise the message.
And if you’d rather go to a church that caters to you as a Christian and your musical taste and taste in sermons then to a church which is intent on introducing people to Jesus then probably Cornerstone Wesleyan church aint for you.
The word of God is unchangeable, the message of the gospel will be uncompromised, but we need to present the message in such a way that it will reach the people of the HRM, today October 29th 2006 not 1966, not 1996 but 2006 the challenge will be for us to be able to present the gospel in such a way that the message is fresh in 2007 and 2008 and 2009. The concept isn’t new, listen to what Paul who was one of the greatest preachers of the church in the New Testament had to say when he wrote in his first letter to the Christians in the city of Corinth in 1 Corinthians 9:22 When I am with those who are oppressed, I share their oppression so that I might bring them to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone so that I might bring them to Christ.
3) We need to be persistent in our invitations. If we are going to see people come to our church through our invitations then it will be because of persistence. Just because somebody can’t come out to church the first time you ask doesn’t’ mean that they won’t come the next time you ask, right? I mean maybe their hair really did fall out after the hot oil treatment. We’re not asking them to cut off their arm we’re just inviting them out to church. And in most cases you need to invite people cause they aren’t going to invite themselves, your neighbour probably won’t be driving down the street this week and say, “You know I ought to go to Cornerstone Wesleyan Church on Sunday.”
Sometimes we even have an open invitation, when someone says, “Someday I’d like to visit your church.” Do you know what they are saying? Here is the translation, people; I will say it slowly so you catch it, ready? What they are saying translated into English is; “Please invite me to a service.”
You say but Denn what if I drive them away, where are we going to drive them to, Hell number 2.
That’s why we are in this building, it may not be a white church with stained glass windows, but it is a building that will assist us in meeting our goals of winning people to Jesus Christ.
If we are not committed to reaching the lost, if the only reason we are here and the only reason we have built is to have a church to attend then we might as well close the doors.
But our tribe isn’t limited to our little corner of the world. We also have an obligation to share the message in other places. Now I know that we can’t all get on a plane and fly to the deepest darkest parts of Africa to be a missionary. And that isn’t what everyone was called to do, but if you can’t go you can pray for those who have gone and you can help support them financially.
4) It Can’t Stop Here
Presently our church supports the two new church plants that you saw info on earlier in the service as well as folks who are ministering in Ukraine, Central Asia, Suriname, Peru and …
When you came in this morning you should have received a copy of Passport 007, looks like this and it provides opportunities for short term mission experiences. There may be something in there that makes you set up and go Wow. Or maybe you thinking I’d love to help with something like that but I can’t leave my job for two weeks or I don’t know if I am ready. Here’s the pitch, I’m going to Sierra Leone in March and my Daughter is going to minister to the Karis people in April and while you may not be able to go with us you can help send us. We need your prayer support, both of the areas that we are going to are less then stable, and in Deborah’s case are hostile to the gospel. So pray for us and for our safety and for Angela as she gets to stay at home and worry about us. And the second way you can help is through your giving. My trip is about $ 3,800.00 and Deborah’s is about $2,900.00 so if you interested in helping us make a difference to people on the other side of the world you can donate through Cornerstone and get a income tax break at the end of the year. Just designate it for “Short Term Missions” on you envelope. It is a part of Mission we were made for.
PowerPoint is available for this message just email me at denn@cornerstonewesleyan.ca
