The Purposes of the Church 5: Ministry to the World

A couple weeks ago church hosted 2 groups from Sioux Falls who helped in Parkersburg stayed at Greenhill’s building while working with folks who had suffered from the flooding.

Made possible because of generous help from numerous people in church who provided food, showers, etc. Most of us cannot personally go help with disaster cleanup, BUT we still were able to serve by serving some who could!

Many of you donated things that we sent over to help to effort another act of service!

Last time we discussed how YOU are a key player in God’s plan to reach to world with the message of the gospel. He has promised His presence with His ambassadors who are proclaiming the Good News of the Son of God who died and rose again so those who were strangers and aliens could become friends and family of the God who loves them!

One of the best ways to get a hearing for the gospel is by serving others. Again I am indebted to Pastor Warren for all his wonderful summations of these ideas!

Why did God save you? You are not saved to take up pew space and make our attendance numbers look better – we are glad when you are here, but we need to all realize we are here for some equipping. And the reason we need equipped is because God has some things for us to do:

Eph 2:8-10 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; ⁹ not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Paul points out that we are saved by God’s grace through faith, but the point of our being saved is that God has certain works He has prepared for us to do – salvation is by grace but for you to do some work!

Now 1 Peter 4:10 says “Each one should whatever gift he received to make a lot of money” Oh that is not what it says!

Each one should use whatever gift he’s received to serve others. 1 Pet. 4:10

God has given us gifts and talents and skills to serve others with, not just to serve my own interests. This tells us that The Nature of service is to SERVE GOD BY SERVING OTHERS.

We call this service to others “Ministry”. Now we sometimes think of ministry as being pastors. He is a minister or his ministry is preaching, but Biblically any sort of service performed to honor God is ministry.

The very nature of the word “minister” means to serve another person.

Christ Himself exhibited this attitude of service when He was on earth; Matthew 20:28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

Jesus taught, healed, showed compassion and served others in a myriad of ways, finally performing the ultimate service by dying on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins.

Remember how God’s goal for you (Rom 8:29) is to become like Jesus? Well we are really becoming like Jesus when we are serving others! Jesus whole life was one big service mission, and He wants us to serve others also!

However, sometimes there are things that hinder our service…

What hinders our serving?

SELF-CENTEREDNESS

Philippians 2:4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. (NIV)

This doesn’t mean I don’t have my own interests, it just means I also look out for other people’s needs. The key is “not only” – not only are you to look after your own life, but you are to also look for ways to serve other people in their lives!

A modified form of this can be church-centeredness – we only serve those within the church. Sometimes we can get too busy as a church doing church stuff and taking care of church buildings and church programs that we forget there is a world out there that needs us.

I honestly think that disasters like the tornadoes of two weeks ago can be disguised blessings for churches. Hopefully the area churches in Aplington / Parkersburg/New Hartford/Dunkerton are doing huge ministry by serving their communities!

Sometimes it is not focus on ourselves that gets in the way, but worrying too much about timing and results – we call that hindrance…

PERFECTIONISM

Ecclesiastes 11:4 He who watches the wind will not sow and he who looks at the clouds will not reap.

NLT: “If you wait for perfect conditions, you’ll never get anything done.”

Some do not serve because they need everything to be just so so and have all this stuff just perfect in their own life and whatever. Like someone who never has anyone over to their house unless it is absolutely perfect…

You know what, if you come over to Hacienda Erickson, it is not going to be perfect! We go 120mph all day every day (and the kids go 240!) – but we still enjoy having people over!

But if I wait for the time to be right to go serve leading worship at camp it never will be! Always too much to do!

This also plays into my theory on volunteering: If you can do it 70% as well as I can you should do it, and before long you will do it better than I could! In fact when you come to me and say, “We need to do such and such” we should just consider that volunteering!

Like buying house or having children, the circumstances will never be perfect, but do not let that stop you!

SOLUTION: Making yourself AVAILABLE

Matthew 20:30-32 And two blind men sitting by the road, hearing that Jesus was passing by, cried out, "Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!" ³¹ The crowd sternly told them to be quiet, but they cried out all the more, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!" ³² And Jesus stopped and called them, and said, "What do you want Me to do for you?"

Jesus could have ignored them (it’s not like they could see Him) - Instead he healed them. You know where he was going? It was Palm Sunday and was just about to have his Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem! But even then He took time to serve!

We must be ever vigilant to look for opportunities to use our gifts, talents and skills to benefit others. And believe me if you pray for opportunities God will send them your way!

Now next hindrance is similar to the problems of self-centeredness, it is…

MATERIALISM

Luke 16:13 “No servant can serve two masters… You cannot serve both God and money.” (NIV)

Materialism is when I am serving the money and the stuff instead of me using the money and the stuff to serve God. If you are obsessed with making money and having stuff it is very difficult to serve others because serving others takes time and requires sharing!

Now truthfully I am always amazed at the generosity I see in people – when I said last week we needed food and desserts and other stuff for the teams coming to stay here I got inundated with offers and help!

People brought tons of toiletries and stuff to help folks in Parkersburg…

But every one of us needs to be constantly vigilant, so we always remember where all the blessings we have come from and realize that God gives us those things to serve others!

The solution to any form of materialism starts with being thankful!

SOLUTION: Being Thankful

John 11:41-42 (NIV) Jesus looked up and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard Me. I knew that you always hear Me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here...”

Imagine Jesus – He is God in the flesh and He publicly gives thanks to His Father. Now do you know what miracle He performed after publicly thanking the Father? He raised Lazarus from the dead! Talk about using your gifts for others!

Grateful people do not mind sharing because they understand the real source of everything – God Himself.

See you did not deserve to be saved – but God did it anyway because of His great love for you – in fact it was His plan:

2 Timothy 1:8-9Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, ⁹ who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,

His plan based out of His love was to save you so you could be a part of His holy work instead of sending you to eternity in hell for your sin and rebellion against Him! That alone is worth being thankful for!

Now we often get hung up on the thankfulness of those we serve – but God tells YOU to be thankful – He will worry about them! People are generally grateful when you help them, but if they are not maybe the real problem lies with this last hindrance…

WRONG MOTIVATIONS

Matthew 6:1 "Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

Jesus warning is that if you are doing anything claiming to do it for God – praying ,fasting, giving, serving whatever - but you also want people to give you the credit then your only reward is what you get from people!

The only kudos you need are God’s. If the praise of men comes then great but if it that is why you serve than do not bother looking for anything from God, because God says you already have your reward.

God’s motivation in sending His Son according to John 3:16 is love for us and our primary motivation needs to be love for God and others!

How we can learn to avoid this hindrance? Actually by concentrating on the key to making all service truly acceptable deeply satisfying…

SOLUTION: BEING FAITHFUL

There is something incredibly satisfying and fulfilling about really pouring yourself into something meaningful. It brings us great fulfillment and God glory when we serve Him fully.

Look at what Jesus prays in His prayer in John 17:4 I have brought You glory on earth by completing the work You gave me to do.

Jesus did not bail when the going got rough and the Romans guards showed up and He saw the whip. Faithfulness means sticking it out when the going gets rough or when a better opportunity comes along.

Faithfulness is the cure for wrong motives because if I am faithful then I will not need the praise or rewards of people to continue to do the work of God

Many pastors these days are climbing the ladder like CEO’s – they use ministries as stepping stones instead of building on the cornerstone. If every move is not bigger, better, richer then they will not even consider it. If their church is not feeding their ego needs for more, then they look elsewhere.

Faithfulness reminds us that nothing we do to serve God by serving others is a waste of time or effort or money. It is not about us, it is all about Him!

Paul reminded the Corinthians: 1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

People you serve may ungrateful, other Christians may forget, but God will not!

If we learn to serve as Jesus did then by being available, thankful and faithful we do have a great reward to look forward to – not only whatever treasures we have laid up in Heaven, but the precious words of the Savior welcoming us home with a “Well done good and faithful servant!”

I want to hear those words someday and I hope you do to!

The Purpose of the Church 4: Evangelism

Ever heard the story about the King’s Chessboard? As a reward for some deed, a king offered a man whatever he would like. The man asked that the king take a chessboard and on the first square put a grain of rice, then double it on the second square, and then again on the third and so on and so forth.

Of course within a short time the amount of rice was so astronomical that it could barely be counted. This story of course illustrates the power of exponential growth!

The Church started with 11 disciples and some miscellaneous followers hiding in an upper room waiting for the Holy Spirit. Now some estimates believe there are more than 1 billion Christians (200 million in China alone)

How did so many come from so few? A great marketing campaign? Lots of TV ads (send for a free Bible)? Dropping pamphlets from the sky?

Of course not – God’s plan for church growth numerically is the plan where each person reaches another and another and another…

Christ’s last command – Matthew 28:18-20

Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹ "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

A little grammar lesson; Finite verbs tell us what to do, whereas participles tell us how to do it. The only finite verb in this passage is “make disciples.” The other verbs are participles that tell us how to do this.

“Go” is literally “while going” – in the course of everyday life, as we are going about our business – we often see this as the command because of our English translations, but it modifies “make disciples” – no matter where we are going we are to make disciples.

“Baptizing” has to do with helping people to identify with Christ publicly through the symbol He left for us.

“Teaching them to obey” has to do with increasing the level of discipleship of someone. Repentance and salvation are the beginning, but then the equipping process must take place.

Now God has already put you into a position to spread the news because he has already appointed you as an ambassador from Christ!

We are Ambassadors for Jesus

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. ¹⁸ Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹ namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. ²⁰ Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹ He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

In vs.17-18 – “in Christ” refers to you believer. You are a new creation – that means what you were prior to coming to Christ has passed on and now you a new person with a new mission – you are an ambassador

Whatever your old life contained or whatever struggles you faced or are facing, God has recreated you from your sinful fallen state to a new creature so you can among other things serve in His diplomatic corps.

What does an ambassador do? He represents the interests of his country to a foreign people. According to State Dept. website we currently have about 175 active ambassadors from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe!

As God’s ambassadors for Christ, He has not left us to the work alone (just like in Matt 28:20) but He is actively working to reconcile people to Himself, and in that process he has sent us to bring that message of reconciliation to people. Reconciliation is the restoring of relationship between two estranged parties

Colossians 1:21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.

At the Fall, when Adam sinned, all people became estranged and alienated from God through sin. However, because of Christ a way was made for us to be reconciled to God – through faith in Christ.

However, faith in Christ does not happen by accident:

Romans 10:13-17 for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." ¹⁴ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? ¹⁵ And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" ¹⁶ But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?" ¹⁷ Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

Faith comes by hearing the word of God and people cannot hear unless someone tells them! BUT because He is active in the process, our proclamation is not in vain!

2 Corinthians 5:20 states that as His ambassadors, God is making His appeal through us to those who have not heard the proclamation that He sent His Son so His enemies could be reconciled to Him and be freed from sin and death!

Now realize this is not always easy – people can be hostile, people can think we are weird or fanatics, and the climate toward any sort of Christian religious expression in the US is getting more hostile. So I have some pointers:

Some simple faith discussion tips:

Talking about God can be scary – what if they ask me something I cannot answer or point out they knew some Christian who was a hypocrite or what if they claim the Bible is untrue?

· Keep them focused on the Word ( Heb 4:12).

· Tell what Christ has done for you not only at salvation but today – pretty tough for them to argue with your personal experience even if they are skeptical about the Bible – use this to lead back to the Word!

· Patience and prayer – some people take many years to come to Christ – don’t get ballistic with them – plant a seed and water it with prayer – you are the ambassador, Christ is the King and conquering hearts is His job not yours.

· When they question the truth of the Bible, ask if they have read it. Some people claim that science has disproven the Bible or it is old fashioned – yet they have never read it – ask how come they have rejected something they have never even investigated, especially considering that every few decades science rejects half its own claims on the basis of “new evidence” – theories I learned as fact in college have been overturned!

· Don’t get discouraged by rejection, because the person rejecting is not rejecting you but the hope of eternal life in Jesus. Remember you are on the winning team!

From time to time we hear statistics about how people first came to be connected to a church. These figures I have trace back to the Institute for American Church Growth, which asked 10,000 people about their pilgrimage. What led them in? Answers were: Special need, 2 percent; Walk-in, 3 percent; Pastor, 6 percent; Visitation, 1 percent; Sunday school, 5 percent; Evangelistic crusade, 5 percent; Friend/relative, 79 percent.

Over ¾ of people came to where they are spiritually because of a friend or relative!

YOU are a key player in God’s plan to reach to world with the message of the gospel and He has promised His presence with His ambassadors who are proclaiming the Good News of the Son of God who died and rose again so those who were strangers and aliens could be come friends and family of the God who loves them!

The Purpose of the Church 3: Fellowship

In a scene for the middle of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring a council is called in Rivendell to choose people to take the One Ring and destroy it in Mordor. Much arguing ensues until Frodo Baggins volunteers, but then states, “But I do not know the way.” So many of those formerly antagonistic to one another join together to rid the world of evil. These very different people must work together to save the world! That’s a lot like the church!

One of the purposes of God putting us together in a local church is for fellowship.

What does fellowship mean?

“When I say “fellowship” what comes to mind?”

Fellowship is from Koinonia in Greek and literally means “to have in common” or “to have a share in.”

Fellowship is more complicated than just friendship or potlucks. Biblical fellowship has many aspects, which have to be intentionally cultivated because we are all tend to be quite different. Just like Elves and Dwarves and angry men in Tolkien’s novels (and Jackson’s movie adaptation) we do not always naturally gravitate to one another.

Fellowship describes how believers act toward one another in church life. Ultimately it is based in the simple idea in: 1 John 4:21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

Fellowship is a critical part of our purpose as a church b/c fellowship is a reflection of our relationship with God!

Four “Sails” of Fellowship:

If fellowship was a real ship, it would have four sails that drive it along.

I have borrowed heavily from Pastor Rick Warren who has wonderful discussions of fellowship in both The Purpose Driven Church and The Purpose Driven Life – everyone should read them!

Membership – Romans 12:4-5 For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, ⁵ so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

When we became Christians through our faith in Jesus death and resurrection, we became in a spiritual sense part of something greater – the Body of Christ or the Church.

However, some people choose to be on the fringes, instead of choosing to live what they are in reality. They are made a member of the Body, but they must also choose to live like it!

I am not necessarily talking about “formal” membership, but fellowship requires that we become intentional in taking up our part in the Body! Since we are “members of one another” we are important to one another.

Unfortunately it is easy to avoid one another in our modern society just like we avoid our neighbors many times. I live in old neighborhood where almost every house has a porch with the garage in alley in back. In all the new neighborhoods the garages are in front with decks on back so you can run and hide and shut the garage door behind you!

First sail to get our ship out of port is choosing to belong, in other words seeing that we are members together we each choose to be committed to one another together here at Greenhill!

Once we have chosen to be committed, we can unfurl our second sail:

Friendship – Friendship is the idea that we share with one another: Acts 2:44 And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common;

Now this wasn’t communism. The believers in the early church sincerely loved one another as they loved Christ and if there was a need they sought to meet it as best they could!

There are lots of things we need to share with one another:

Our Experiences

Proverbs 27:17 Iron sharpens iron, So one man sharpens another.

My life is different than yours and together our shared experiences are greater than our individual ones. Through sharing our lives together we rub off on one another and that makes us all better

When I have a ministry question, I seek out someone more experienced than me or with knowledge in that area. When I have a tech support question while working on a computer, I use a variety of shared support resources where everybody contributes their knowledge to help solve each other’s problems.

The church should be the ultimate spiritual tech support! We can get through and learn from each other and be strengthened by each other – but only if we share our lives with one another.

Our homes

1 Peter 4:9 Be hospitable to one another without complaint.

“Hospitable” means literally the “love of outsiders” Most fellowship will not happen at this church building, but elsewhere. Just invite someone over for some dessert or coffee and see what happens. It does not have to be some formal thing, but needs to be intentional. Get someone you do not know over to your house and see how a new relationship forms!

Our PROBLEMS

Galatians 6:2 Bear one another's burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ.

Guess what – you do not have to face life’s issues alone! We are here for you, and hopefully you are here for us! However, this means we must share our needs and hurts and problems with one another, because we are not mind readers! For example, I am always disappointed when I find out one of you are in the hospital and I was not called! We need to be real with one another AND we need to love one another enough that when we are real that is not used against us!

As our friendships grow we will soon be ready to raise the third sail of learning to work together for a greater good:

Partnership – Ephesians 4:15-16 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

Remember the context of Ephesians 4 is that Paul is talking about why God has put us together in the church and that His goal is for all of us to grow to maturity, which is being like Jesus.

God could have chosen to do everything Himself, or maybe use angels, but He didn’t. He has ordained it such that each of us has a role to play in serving His plan, and if you are here then your role has something to do with God using this local church to accomplish His plan.

Every part of the Body or the Church is important! When you do not contribute, then we all miss out on something! If you are not exercising your gifts and using your talents to contribute to the life of the church, then we are not as healthy as we could be, because part of our fellowship is accomplishing what God has called us to TOGETHER

Finally the ultimate expression of fellowship is when we have chosen to be an intentional member of our church, have begun to develop truly caring friendships, and are in partnership to see God’s purposes for Greenhill accomplished in us and through us we become like an extended family:

Kinship – Romans 12:10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor;

John 13:35 "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

1 John 3:16 We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. (compare to the other John 3:16! Where God loves us and gives His Son)

Are you feeling the love here??!! Each of these passages points out the necessity of love for one another. Love being defined as the putting of others as more important than ourselves. Remember the very definition of love is God and God’s love gives for us!

In families, we accept one another with all our faults and blemishes – I am not perfect yet my wife accepts and loves me. In families, when we hurt each other we forgive, not just pack up and leave (although that is rapidly changing in our society).

People were drawn to the early church because they were different in how they loved and cared for each other. They showed real family style kinship!

When the church has all its sails up other people will be drawn to us to want to join in the voyage. But for that to happen we have to work at it!! The Ship of Fellowship does not set sail by accident – everyone has to decide to do their part with one another for all the sails to be hoisted if we are going to get out of port.

So my challenge is this: Do something with one family in the next month you do not know well. That is a start to really getting our sails unfurled for the wonderfully fulfilling voyage of Biblical fellowship!