Today, as I type this, is an extraordinary day. I have been a pastor for over 10 years now, and this is the first Sunday that the church I was pastoring at the time didn't had a worship service.
Now, I have personally missed Sunday worship services before for various reasons -- participation in weekend spiritual retreats, vacations, etc. -- but, always, our church gathered for worship without me, sometimes with a visiting pastor and sometimes with a lay speaker from within the church. But not today. Today, the meeting place is empty. Today, the doors stay locked. Today, no chairs will be set up, no overheads put on the wall, no words proclaimed from the pulpit. But, you know what, I think it's okay.
You see, the church I pastor now is definitely not a "normal" church. Over half of our members were previously unchurched and joined our church when they were baptized following a true salvation experience with Christ Jesus. They don't know what a typical church does. They don't know what a typical church looks like. They don't have the baggage of tradition and expectations and the constraint of "we've always done it like this and can't possibly change."
These members read the stories of faith in the New Testament and see how the early church had all things in common and miraculous signs and wonders accompanied their preaching and teaching, and they ask me, "Why aren't we doing that? If they did that, then why can't we?" Not, "I wish that would happen" or "That would be nice to see," but "Let's go and do it, too!" And, if that means occasionally missing a scheduled worship service, so be it.
For instance, when God began to call our attention to the homeless that were around our building, we talked about what God would want us to do to help them. Meeting in a doggie daycare/boarding facility, we were kind of limited in our response ability. One day, one of our members failed to show up for worship. "She must have gotten sick," we thought. But, that wasn't the case. On the way to worship, she saw one of the homeless people we had been looking for, a young girl who was wandering in our neighborhood with all her possessions on her back. Our member saw her and said, "I need to mention that I saw her this morning when I get to church," but then God spoke to her. She stopped her car, turned around, loaded up this homeless girl, and carried her to brunch first, and then to worship that night. She missed church, but did so much more.
What I have found in my time pastoring this church is that when the focus of your church is Jesus and sharing the love of Jesus with others, then ministry can, and does, happen outside the walls of the building as your vision grows outward. Alternately, when the focus of your church is on the church service itself, your vision turns inward and ministry gets thwarted.
Reading the gospels, I can only find a handful of instances where Jesus actually attended a formal worship service. However, He ministered where He was, sharing His love and the miracles and signs with all those He happened to meet. Since He wasn't worrying about trying to get to "church" on time, He took time for others (e.g. the 10 lepers and the woman with the issue of blood). If it worked for Jesus and the disciples, why can't it work for us?
So, despite the raised eyebrows and questioning words of my peers, let me proclaim today that our church building is closed. No worship will take place. But lives may be changed instead. As I tell my people, the church is not the building, it is the people. And today, the church has left the building.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Sunday, November 13, 2011
SERMON: WHAT CAN I DO?
WHAT CAN I DO?
7 August 2011
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Judges 6:1-16
1 The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. 2 Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. 3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. 4 They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. 5 They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. 6 Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the LORD for help.
7 When the Israelites cried out to the LORD because of Midian, 8 he sent them a prophet, who said, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 9 I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10 I said to you, ‘I am the LORD your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me.”
11 The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”
13 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
14 The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
15 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”
16 The LORD answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”
-- several years ago, a local businessman decided to convert his business from a dry goods store into a tavern for financial reasons -- and even though the town where he lived was a dry county, it looked like he had enough support from the county commissioners to push it through -- it was just a matter of time before he could open up this bar up for business
-- a group of Christians from a local church got concerned and planned an all-night prayer meeting -- they wanted to ask God to intervene and stop the tavern from opening up in their community
-- so, on a Sunday night, the Christians gathered for their prayer service, and on the very next day, lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground -- well, the owner of the bar sued the church, claiming that the prayers of the members were responsible
-- the church hired a lawyer to defend them in court and argue that they were not responsible -- "we're only a small church -- what could we have done to cause this to happen? -- all we did was pray”
-- the judge who presided over the case was a man who was very wise -- he read the arguments presented by both sides, and after his initial review of the case, he stated, "no matter how this case comes out, one thing is obvious -- the tavern owner believes that God worked through the prayers of this small church and the Christians do not"
-- you know, over the course of my ministry, I have developed this theory about the way small churches think and operate -- I call it the “reverse-Napoleon complex” -- let me explain what I’m talking about
-- everyone in here is probably aware of what the psychologists call the “Napoleon complex” named after the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte -- Napoleon was a very short man -- he definitely did not stand head and shoulders above the crowd -- and because he was so short, he developed this drive to excel in other areas of his life -- most historians agree that Napoleon compensated for his short height by seeking power, war, and conquest -- in other words, because Napoleon was small, he sought to do more and to have more than those around him to make up for the difference in physical appearance -- and it was his short stature that caused him to seek to take over the world in his day
-- in our world today, we see men just like Napoleon who have this same drive for power and influence brought on because they have an inferiority complex about their height or some other aspect of their lives -- this is what psychologists call a “Napoleon complex”
-- but in the church, we see an opposite dynamic at work that I call the “reverse-Napoleon complex” -- based on the Napoleon complex, you would expect small churches to be the driving force in Christianity today -- you would expect that they would be trying to compensate for their small size and their small resources by seeking greater influence and greater power and greater results than larger churches near them -- but that’s not the case
-- just like the church in the story I told you about the tavern that burned down, the mind-set of many churches is, “we’re just a small church -- what can we do? -- if we had more people, we might be able to do something for God -- if we had more money, God could really use us -- if we had more people praying, God would listen and respond to our prayers more often”
-- rather than using their size to motivate them to even greater levels of ministry, small churches tend to get emotionally crippled and end up thinking that God can’t use them because they aren’t big enough -- and, large churches tend to do the same, looking down on smaller congregations in a condescending way because they don’t believe that small churches can accomplish anything either
-- it’s this reverse-Napoleon complex that is driving the church growth movement in America today -- it’s this reverse-Napoleon complex that causes denominations to put on training seminars and courses to help small churches grow so that maybe one day they can start doing real ministry and start having an impact for Christ in their area
-- the overall message that is coming out from the Christian community is that small churches are cute, but just not effective -- small churches are a curious oddity, but they really can’t anything for God
-- but, you know what? -- that type of thinking is wrong -- it’s simply not biblical -- it goes against everything that we see in the Bible -- in fact, I was thinking the other day as I was reading an article about the fastest growing churches in America and looking at an ad for a church-growth seminar that if Jesus was here today, some denominations would be encouraging Him to go to a workshop to help Him grow His church
-- if you think about it, Jesus only had 12 people in His church at the end of His ministry
-- if you get nothing else out of this message today, I want you to get this -- there's nothing wrong with being small -- size does not limit what God can do through you
II. Scripture Lesson (Judges 6-7)
-- if you want to see what God can do with the least of these -- if you want to see what God can do with small churches and small people, look at the story of Gideon here in Judges 6
-- before we look back at this passage in more detail, let me give you the context so you know what’s going on and how this passage fits in the whole scheme of things
-- the Book of Judges covers the first 350 years of the nation of Israel right after they entered the Promised Land
-- this is sometimes called the “Dark Ages” of the Israelites because it was a time when the Israelites would turn away from God and start worshiping idols -- God would respond by sending an enemy against Israel, which caused the Israelites to turn to God for help -- finally, God would raise up a deliverer who would rescue them from their enemies and lead them back to a right relationship with Him again
-- these deliverers were known as “judges” -- and Gideon was one of these judges during this 350 year period
-- look back at verse 1
1 The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. 2 Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. 3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. 4 They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. 5 They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. 6 Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the LORD for help.
7 When the Israelites cried out to the LORD because of Midian, 8 he sent them a prophet, who said, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 9 I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10 I said to you, ‘I am the LORD your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me.”
-- as Judges 6 opens up, we read that the Israelites have once again turned away from God and were doing evil in His sight -- because of this, God allowed the Midianites to oppress the people
-- not only did the nation of Midian come against Israel with their military might, but they also took away Israel’s way of life and their livelihood -- they destroyed the crops of the Israelites and forced them to flee their cities and live in caves and shelters in the mountains
-- their situation looked hopeless -- they had no homes -- they had no resources -- they had no food -- so, finally, they repented of their sins and they cried out to God for help -- they asked Him to send a deliverer who would save them from the power of Midian
-- now keep in mind that Midian was a powerful nation with a vast army and lots of resources -- when God responded and said that He would send a deliverer, the people were expecting Him to send someone powerful -- someone who had a lot of resources -- a lot of men at his disposal -- someone who was comparable to Midian and who could go toe-to-toe with them in a battle -- the people were expecting someone like Rambo or Swarzenegger or the guy from the Die Hard movies -- but look who God sent
-- verse 11
11 The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”
13 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
14 The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
15 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”
16 The LORD answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”
-- God sent Gideon -- Gideon -- here is this guy who is so afraid of the Midianites that he is hiding in a winepress threshing wheat -- he’s not even brave enough to thresh the wheat on the threshing floor where it should be done
-- in verse 15 he tells us that he’s from the tribe of Manasseh, the weakest tribe out of all the 12 tribe of Israel -- and not only is he from the smallest and weakest tribe, but his clan is the weakest in that tribe -- to make matters worse, Gideon points out that he is the least in his own family -- in other words, Gideon is the lowest of the low -- he is the weakest and least powerful of any person or clan or tribe in the entire nation of Israel -- but this is who God chooses to use to deliver the nation of Israel from the power of Midian
-- notice in verse 11 that it says that “the angel of the Lord” came to Gideon at Ophrah -- just so you know, when you say that phrase, “the angel of the Lord,” in the Old Testament, that is an appearance of God in the flesh -- if it says, “an,” angel of the Lord, then it’s an angel -- but if it says, “the,” angel of the Lord -- then it’s God
-- so, God Himself comes to Gideon while he’s threshing wheat in the winepress and in verse 12, He calls Gideon, “mighty warrior” -- Gideon was not a mighty warrior -- as we just saw, Gideon was a small man -- so, why would God call him “mighty warrior?”
-- it wasn’t because of who Gideon was -- it wasn’t because of who Gideon’s family or his tribe was -- it was because the Lord was with him
-- you see, that’s the thing that a lot of people miss when it comes to churches and what churches can do for God -- does a small church have people? -- no -- does a small church have financial resources? -- no -- does a small church have material possessions or large sanctuaries? -- no
-- so, what do they have? -- they have the Lord with them -- in Acts 3:6, when the crippled man at the gate Beautiful asks them for money, Peter and John reply, “silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you -- in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk” -- and the man got up and walked
-- here’s the thing -- Peter and John only had one thing -- they had the Lord with them, and it made all the difference
-- Gideon only had one thing -- he had the Lord with him, and it made all the difference -- Gideon may not have been a mighty warrior when he was hiding in a winepress threshing wheat, but with God, he was about to deliver the nation of Israel from their worst enemy
-- in verse 14, God tells Gideon to go in the strength that he has to save Israel from the hands of Midian -- God didn’t change anything about Gideon’s situation -- He didn’t send an army to gather around the winepress for Gideon to command, although that comes later -- He didn’t have money fall out of the sky for Gideon to use to buy weapons and food and other resources -- He didn’t give Gideon wisdom or strength or stature
-- the only thing Gideon had was the presence of the Lord by his side, but that made all the difference
-- in fact, when the men of Israel did rally around Gideon’s call to fight Midian, God wouldn’t let Gideon take them into battle -- skip over to Chapter 7, verse 1
1 Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. 2 The LORD said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ 3 Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.
4 But the LORD said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”
5 So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the LORD told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.” 6 Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.
7 The LORD said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.”
-- as chapter 7 opens, Gideon has an army of over 30,000 men surrounding him -- he thinks he’s ready to do something for God -- finally, he has enough people -- finally, he has enough weapons -- finally, he has enough resources
-- but look what God says here in verse 2 -- “You have too many men -- in order that Israel may not boast that they defeated Midian in their own strength and in their own power, you need to reduce the size of your army”
-- and so, God told Gideon to send home everyone who was afraid -- and 22,000 men went home, leaving Gideon with a pitiful army of just 10,000 men -- but God looked at that army and said, “Nope, you’ve still got too many” -- so God had the men drink water from a stream to further whittle them down -- and when all is said and done, Gideon is left with only 300 men to fight against the entire Midian army
-- when they looked at that army of 300 men, do you know what Gideon thought? -- “We’re too small to do anything -- we don’t have enough people -- we don’t have enough money -- we don’t have enough resources -- God won’t be able to do anything through us -- maybe if we were larger, He could -- but not now”
-- but, you know what? -- with only 300 men and God by his side, Gideon went into battle anyway, and he defeated the entire Midian army once and for all -- never again would the nation of Midian be a threat to Israel
III. Closing
-- let me remind you what I told you in the start of this sermon -- size does not limit what God can do through you -- the only thing that can limit you is you
-- the only thing that can keep God from working in us and through us in our belief in the power of God to use the smallest things in this world to do great things in His name
-- think about Chick Fil A and the story of Truett Cathy
-- Truett Cathy started out in Atlanta with a restaurant so small, it was called the Dwarf Grill -- later, he called it the "Dwarf House" -- it only had 10 stools and four tables
-- and, when he opened it, he didn't offer a full menu like all the other big restaurants had -- he didn't even offer hamburgers -- all he offered was chicken sandwiches and french fries -- and he did something else strange -- he refused to open on Sundays, even though other restaurants got over 20% of their income on that day -- Cathy wanted to make a stand for God
-- for almost 20 years, Cathy operated the Dwarf House -- it was the only restaurant he had -- but this restaurant met a need in the community -- McDonald's didn't have chicken sandwiches -- neither did the other big restaurants -- and business grew
-- finally, in 1967, Cathy opened the first Chick-fil-A restaurant in Atlanta's Greenbriar Mall -- but he didn't change the way he did business -- he didn't try to do everything the big chains and the big restaurants did -- he just sold chicken sandwiches and fries -- and he didn't try to make his restaurants bigger than his neighbors -- he just did what he felt God had called him to do
-- and, by doing what God called him to do, God blessed him -- currently, there are over 1,000 Chick-fil-A restaurants in 35 states and South Africa
-- a recent article in Atlanta Business Chronicle noted that Cathy could make a fortune if he made a public stock offering for Chick-fil-A, but he refuses to consider it -- he said, "We're able to do a lot of things that we couldn't do if we were a large public company" -- Cathy has made the decision to keep Chick-Fil-A small
-- do we need to be large to do great things for God? -- do we need more people in order to do ministry? -- do we need more finances or more resources to serve God? -- no, all we need is what Gideon had -- the Lord beside us and faith in His power
-- we saw that just this week when we delivered the school supplies to the Valdosta City Schools -- we took a step of faith and God provided the resources that we didn’t have and used this little church of about 20 people that doesn’t even have a church building to provide more school supplies this year than was provided by all the churches and all the people in Valdosta last year
-- God took five loaves and two fish and fed the 5,000 -- and He took our 20 people and provided school supplies for 150 homeless kids
-- so, the question I want to leave you with this morning is, “Do you believe? -- Do you believe that a small church of less than 20 people can do the impossible with Christ by their side?”
-- God took 300 men and defeated an entire nation -- and when the world saw that, they knew that only God could have done it
-- God wants to do the same through us -- He already did it with the school supplies -- and I believe He wants to do even more
-- as we close, I want to encourage you to dream big dreams for this church -- I want to encourage you to envision great ministries that will come to pass -- there is nothing that God can’t do through us, if we only believe -- if we only trust -- if we only have faith
-- as you pray this week, ask these questions, “What does God want to do through us that will make the City of Valdosta stand up and notice? -- Where is God calling us to go next so that His name will be glorified?”
-- let us pray
7 August 2011
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Judges 6:1-16
1 The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. 2 Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. 3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. 4 They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. 5 They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. 6 Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the LORD for help.
7 When the Israelites cried out to the LORD because of Midian, 8 he sent them a prophet, who said, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 9 I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10 I said to you, ‘I am the LORD your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me.”
11 The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”
13 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
14 The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
15 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”
16 The LORD answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”
-- several years ago, a local businessman decided to convert his business from a dry goods store into a tavern for financial reasons -- and even though the town where he lived was a dry county, it looked like he had enough support from the county commissioners to push it through -- it was just a matter of time before he could open up this bar up for business
-- a group of Christians from a local church got concerned and planned an all-night prayer meeting -- they wanted to ask God to intervene and stop the tavern from opening up in their community
-- so, on a Sunday night, the Christians gathered for their prayer service, and on the very next day, lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground -- well, the owner of the bar sued the church, claiming that the prayers of the members were responsible
-- the church hired a lawyer to defend them in court and argue that they were not responsible -- "we're only a small church -- what could we have done to cause this to happen? -- all we did was pray”
-- the judge who presided over the case was a man who was very wise -- he read the arguments presented by both sides, and after his initial review of the case, he stated, "no matter how this case comes out, one thing is obvious -- the tavern owner believes that God worked through the prayers of this small church and the Christians do not"
-- you know, over the course of my ministry, I have developed this theory about the way small churches think and operate -- I call it the “reverse-Napoleon complex” -- let me explain what I’m talking about
-- everyone in here is probably aware of what the psychologists call the “Napoleon complex” named after the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte -- Napoleon was a very short man -- he definitely did not stand head and shoulders above the crowd -- and because he was so short, he developed this drive to excel in other areas of his life -- most historians agree that Napoleon compensated for his short height by seeking power, war, and conquest -- in other words, because Napoleon was small, he sought to do more and to have more than those around him to make up for the difference in physical appearance -- and it was his short stature that caused him to seek to take over the world in his day
-- in our world today, we see men just like Napoleon who have this same drive for power and influence brought on because they have an inferiority complex about their height or some other aspect of their lives -- this is what psychologists call a “Napoleon complex”
-- but in the church, we see an opposite dynamic at work that I call the “reverse-Napoleon complex” -- based on the Napoleon complex, you would expect small churches to be the driving force in Christianity today -- you would expect that they would be trying to compensate for their small size and their small resources by seeking greater influence and greater power and greater results than larger churches near them -- but that’s not the case
-- just like the church in the story I told you about the tavern that burned down, the mind-set of many churches is, “we’re just a small church -- what can we do? -- if we had more people, we might be able to do something for God -- if we had more money, God could really use us -- if we had more people praying, God would listen and respond to our prayers more often”
-- rather than using their size to motivate them to even greater levels of ministry, small churches tend to get emotionally crippled and end up thinking that God can’t use them because they aren’t big enough -- and, large churches tend to do the same, looking down on smaller congregations in a condescending way because they don’t believe that small churches can accomplish anything either
-- it’s this reverse-Napoleon complex that is driving the church growth movement in America today -- it’s this reverse-Napoleon complex that causes denominations to put on training seminars and courses to help small churches grow so that maybe one day they can start doing real ministry and start having an impact for Christ in their area
-- the overall message that is coming out from the Christian community is that small churches are cute, but just not effective -- small churches are a curious oddity, but they really can’t anything for God
-- but, you know what? -- that type of thinking is wrong -- it’s simply not biblical -- it goes against everything that we see in the Bible -- in fact, I was thinking the other day as I was reading an article about the fastest growing churches in America and looking at an ad for a church-growth seminar that if Jesus was here today, some denominations would be encouraging Him to go to a workshop to help Him grow His church
-- if you think about it, Jesus only had 12 people in His church at the end of His ministry
-- if you get nothing else out of this message today, I want you to get this -- there's nothing wrong with being small -- size does not limit what God can do through you
II. Scripture Lesson (Judges 6-7)
-- if you want to see what God can do with the least of these -- if you want to see what God can do with small churches and small people, look at the story of Gideon here in Judges 6
-- before we look back at this passage in more detail, let me give you the context so you know what’s going on and how this passage fits in the whole scheme of things
-- the Book of Judges covers the first 350 years of the nation of Israel right after they entered the Promised Land
-- this is sometimes called the “Dark Ages” of the Israelites because it was a time when the Israelites would turn away from God and start worshiping idols -- God would respond by sending an enemy against Israel, which caused the Israelites to turn to God for help -- finally, God would raise up a deliverer who would rescue them from their enemies and lead them back to a right relationship with Him again
-- these deliverers were known as “judges” -- and Gideon was one of these judges during this 350 year period
-- look back at verse 1
1 The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. 2 Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. 3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. 4 They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. 5 They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. 6 Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the LORD for help.
7 When the Israelites cried out to the LORD because of Midian, 8 he sent them a prophet, who said, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 9 I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10 I said to you, ‘I am the LORD your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me.”
-- as Judges 6 opens up, we read that the Israelites have once again turned away from God and were doing evil in His sight -- because of this, God allowed the Midianites to oppress the people
-- not only did the nation of Midian come against Israel with their military might, but they also took away Israel’s way of life and their livelihood -- they destroyed the crops of the Israelites and forced them to flee their cities and live in caves and shelters in the mountains
-- their situation looked hopeless -- they had no homes -- they had no resources -- they had no food -- so, finally, they repented of their sins and they cried out to God for help -- they asked Him to send a deliverer who would save them from the power of Midian
-- now keep in mind that Midian was a powerful nation with a vast army and lots of resources -- when God responded and said that He would send a deliverer, the people were expecting Him to send someone powerful -- someone who had a lot of resources -- a lot of men at his disposal -- someone who was comparable to Midian and who could go toe-to-toe with them in a battle -- the people were expecting someone like Rambo or Swarzenegger or the guy from the Die Hard movies -- but look who God sent
-- verse 11
11 The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”
13 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
14 The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
15 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”
16 The LORD answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”
-- God sent Gideon -- Gideon -- here is this guy who is so afraid of the Midianites that he is hiding in a winepress threshing wheat -- he’s not even brave enough to thresh the wheat on the threshing floor where it should be done
-- in verse 15 he tells us that he’s from the tribe of Manasseh, the weakest tribe out of all the 12 tribe of Israel -- and not only is he from the smallest and weakest tribe, but his clan is the weakest in that tribe -- to make matters worse, Gideon points out that he is the least in his own family -- in other words, Gideon is the lowest of the low -- he is the weakest and least powerful of any person or clan or tribe in the entire nation of Israel -- but this is who God chooses to use to deliver the nation of Israel from the power of Midian
-- notice in verse 11 that it says that “the angel of the Lord” came to Gideon at Ophrah -- just so you know, when you say that phrase, “the angel of the Lord,” in the Old Testament, that is an appearance of God in the flesh -- if it says, “an,” angel of the Lord, then it’s an angel -- but if it says, “the,” angel of the Lord -- then it’s God
-- so, God Himself comes to Gideon while he’s threshing wheat in the winepress and in verse 12, He calls Gideon, “mighty warrior” -- Gideon was not a mighty warrior -- as we just saw, Gideon was a small man -- so, why would God call him “mighty warrior?”
-- it wasn’t because of who Gideon was -- it wasn’t because of who Gideon’s family or his tribe was -- it was because the Lord was with him
-- you see, that’s the thing that a lot of people miss when it comes to churches and what churches can do for God -- does a small church have people? -- no -- does a small church have financial resources? -- no -- does a small church have material possessions or large sanctuaries? -- no
-- so, what do they have? -- they have the Lord with them -- in Acts 3:6, when the crippled man at the gate Beautiful asks them for money, Peter and John reply, “silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you -- in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk” -- and the man got up and walked
-- here’s the thing -- Peter and John only had one thing -- they had the Lord with them, and it made all the difference
-- Gideon only had one thing -- he had the Lord with him, and it made all the difference -- Gideon may not have been a mighty warrior when he was hiding in a winepress threshing wheat, but with God, he was about to deliver the nation of Israel from their worst enemy
-- in verse 14, God tells Gideon to go in the strength that he has to save Israel from the hands of Midian -- God didn’t change anything about Gideon’s situation -- He didn’t send an army to gather around the winepress for Gideon to command, although that comes later -- He didn’t have money fall out of the sky for Gideon to use to buy weapons and food and other resources -- He didn’t give Gideon wisdom or strength or stature
-- the only thing Gideon had was the presence of the Lord by his side, but that made all the difference
-- in fact, when the men of Israel did rally around Gideon’s call to fight Midian, God wouldn’t let Gideon take them into battle -- skip over to Chapter 7, verse 1
1 Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. 2 The LORD said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ 3 Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.
4 But the LORD said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”
5 So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the LORD told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.” 6 Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.
7 The LORD said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.”
-- as chapter 7 opens, Gideon has an army of over 30,000 men surrounding him -- he thinks he’s ready to do something for God -- finally, he has enough people -- finally, he has enough weapons -- finally, he has enough resources
-- but look what God says here in verse 2 -- “You have too many men -- in order that Israel may not boast that they defeated Midian in their own strength and in their own power, you need to reduce the size of your army”
-- and so, God told Gideon to send home everyone who was afraid -- and 22,000 men went home, leaving Gideon with a pitiful army of just 10,000 men -- but God looked at that army and said, “Nope, you’ve still got too many” -- so God had the men drink water from a stream to further whittle them down -- and when all is said and done, Gideon is left with only 300 men to fight against the entire Midian army
-- when they looked at that army of 300 men, do you know what Gideon thought? -- “We’re too small to do anything -- we don’t have enough people -- we don’t have enough money -- we don’t have enough resources -- God won’t be able to do anything through us -- maybe if we were larger, He could -- but not now”
-- but, you know what? -- with only 300 men and God by his side, Gideon went into battle anyway, and he defeated the entire Midian army once and for all -- never again would the nation of Midian be a threat to Israel
III. Closing
-- let me remind you what I told you in the start of this sermon -- size does not limit what God can do through you -- the only thing that can limit you is you
-- the only thing that can keep God from working in us and through us in our belief in the power of God to use the smallest things in this world to do great things in His name
-- think about Chick Fil A and the story of Truett Cathy
-- Truett Cathy started out in Atlanta with a restaurant so small, it was called the Dwarf Grill -- later, he called it the "Dwarf House" -- it only had 10 stools and four tables
-- and, when he opened it, he didn't offer a full menu like all the other big restaurants had -- he didn't even offer hamburgers -- all he offered was chicken sandwiches and french fries -- and he did something else strange -- he refused to open on Sundays, even though other restaurants got over 20% of their income on that day -- Cathy wanted to make a stand for God
-- for almost 20 years, Cathy operated the Dwarf House -- it was the only restaurant he had -- but this restaurant met a need in the community -- McDonald's didn't have chicken sandwiches -- neither did the other big restaurants -- and business grew
-- finally, in 1967, Cathy opened the first Chick-fil-A restaurant in Atlanta's Greenbriar Mall -- but he didn't change the way he did business -- he didn't try to do everything the big chains and the big restaurants did -- he just sold chicken sandwiches and fries -- and he didn't try to make his restaurants bigger than his neighbors -- he just did what he felt God had called him to do
-- and, by doing what God called him to do, God blessed him -- currently, there are over 1,000 Chick-fil-A restaurants in 35 states and South Africa
-- a recent article in Atlanta Business Chronicle noted that Cathy could make a fortune if he made a public stock offering for Chick-fil-A, but he refuses to consider it -- he said, "We're able to do a lot of things that we couldn't do if we were a large public company" -- Cathy has made the decision to keep Chick-Fil-A small
-- do we need to be large to do great things for God? -- do we need more people in order to do ministry? -- do we need more finances or more resources to serve God? -- no, all we need is what Gideon had -- the Lord beside us and faith in His power
-- we saw that just this week when we delivered the school supplies to the Valdosta City Schools -- we took a step of faith and God provided the resources that we didn’t have and used this little church of about 20 people that doesn’t even have a church building to provide more school supplies this year than was provided by all the churches and all the people in Valdosta last year
-- God took five loaves and two fish and fed the 5,000 -- and He took our 20 people and provided school supplies for 150 homeless kids
-- so, the question I want to leave you with this morning is, “Do you believe? -- Do you believe that a small church of less than 20 people can do the impossible with Christ by their side?”
-- God took 300 men and defeated an entire nation -- and when the world saw that, they knew that only God could have done it
-- God wants to do the same through us -- He already did it with the school supplies -- and I believe He wants to do even more
-- as we close, I want to encourage you to dream big dreams for this church -- I want to encourage you to envision great ministries that will come to pass -- there is nothing that God can’t do through us, if we only believe -- if we only trust -- if we only have faith
-- as you pray this week, ask these questions, “What does God want to do through us that will make the City of Valdosta stand up and notice? -- Where is God calling us to go next so that His name will be glorified?”
-- let us pray
SERMON: BE ALL THAT YOU CAN BE
BE ALL THAT YOU CAN BE
31 July 2011
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Ephesians 4:1-3
1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
-- around the time that I was graduating high school, the Army rolled out a new slogan to highlight their new recruiting campaign -- “Be all that you can be”
-- this slogan was everywhere -- it was on posters around our school -- it was on t-shirts -- and it spoke to the men and women of our generation
-- to this day, I remember the TV commercial that the Army put out around that time -- a young man, in his late teens or early 20’s, was scaling the side of a mountain in a place that looked like it was in the Rockies -- he was struggling on that last little bit -- as he reached for another handhold, he lost his grip and you knew that he was about to give up
-- but he looked up at the top -- he saw the summit -- he knew where he wanted to go -- and that gave him renewed strength -- he reached out again and found a new handhold and kept going towards the top --and as the commercial faded, we saw him standing up on the peak of that mountain as the sun set, looking out over the view from the top as that slogan flashed on the screen -- “Be all that you can be”
-- the message was clear -- you could settle in life -- you could refuse to do the hard stuff -- you could take the easy way -- or you could accept the challenge and fight past the difficulties and push yourself to the limit and exceed where others had failed -- the choice was up to you and the Army was there to help you reach your goal
-- if you were to sum up the message of the Apostle Paul here in this passage in Ephesians, I can’t think of any better words than that old Army slogan -- “Be all that you can be” -- Paul is making the point here that God is calling us to be more than we are -- to do more than we are doing -- to live more than we are living
--so this morning, I wanted us to look at this passage to examine the challenge that God has issued for each of us as Christians and as members of His body to inspire us to go on to greater heights with Him -- God wants us to be all that we can be and to not settle for a life of diluted spirituality
-- so let’s look at this passage together and see what we can learn
II. Scripture Lesson (Ephesians 4:1-12)
-- if you would, look back at verse 1 with me
1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
-- Paul begins by describing himself as a prisoner for the Lord -- we know that when Paul wrote this letter to the Ephesians, he was actually in prison in Rome, waiting for an audience with Caesar
-- some scholars have interpreted Paul’s words here to mean that the Ephesians should listen to him because he has been imprisoned because of his faith -- because he had given everything for the gospel of Christ -- even his very own freedom
-- and while that is certainly true, I think Paul’s words here reflect a deeper meaning than just that given by his physical condition
-- Paul was not only a prisoner in chains, but he was a prisoner in heart -- Paul had learned something through his life -- starting out as a Pharisee among Pharisees and as a persecutor of Christians, Paul had an experience with the living Christ on the road to Damascus -- and his life was never the same again
-- when Paul came face-to-face with the resurrected Jesus, his world was shaken -- his beliefs were shattered and his faith came undone -- at that moment, Paul rejected the falseness of what the Jewish faith had become and became a true believer in Christ -- as he would say in the Book of Romans, he had been held prisoner and captive by sin and death, but through the grace of Christ, Paul was freed to new life -- and, in turn, he became a slave -- a bond-servant -- a prisoner -- to the One who had freed him -- to the One who had saved him from his sins and given him eternal life with God
-- so Paul was bound to Christ -- not with chains, but with love -- not with bars, but with the freedom of choice that made him want to serve Jesus with all his heart and mind and soul
-- that’s what he means when he writes here that he is a prisoner of the Lord -- and he holds his position in Christ up as the ideal for all those who believe
-- he goes on to say, “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received” -- that word, “urge,” is telling -- when you urge someone to do something, you aren’t commanding them -- you aren’t telling them they have to do this -- you are offering them a choice
-- Paul is trying to get the Ephesians to see that they have a choice to make in their Christian lives -- they can continue on as they are going and just settle for an easy life of religion -- or they can choose to live a different life -- a life worthy of the calling that they have received
-- every time I read this passage, I am reminded of Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken” -- I had to read that in school, but I never really appreciated it until I was much older and out in the real world where we are forced with choices everyday
-- let me read that to you right now -- it’s not a very long poem but I believe it makes the point that the Apostle Paul is trying to get across here
The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
-- now as you think about Paul’s words here in verse 1, remember who this letter was written to -- it was not written to a group of people who didn’t believe in God -- it wasn’t written to convince them to turn to Jesus for salvation -- the choice that Paul is presenting is not the choice between accepting Christ or rejecting Christ
-- this letter was written to Christians -- to people who had already received forgiveness for their sins through the grace of God and the death and resurrection of Christ -- so, what is the choice that they are facing? -- to put it in the language of Robert Frost’s poem, what two roads are they having to choose from?
-- they’re having to choose between religion and relationship -- they’re having to choose between being Christians in name or Christians in deed -- they’re having to choose between being fans or followers of Christ
-- Frost tells us in his poem that the two roads he faced were entirely different -- one was well-traveled -- the other was not -- one was the path taken by most of the people -- the other one was selected by the few
-- that’s the choice that is before us as Christians today -- here in this passage, Paul urges the Ephesians to take the path that leads to a life worthy of the calling that they have received -- to be all that they can be -- to become all that Christ wants them to become
-- by implication, the other path leads to a lesser commitment to Christ -- it still leads to heaven -- it still results in salvation -- but it takes the easy way there -- it takes the path of least resistance -- the path of just getting by and not really doing or being all that God wants us to be
-- Paul urges the Ephesians to take the same path that he followed -- to become, like he, a prisoner for the Lord -- even if that means losing their freedom -- even if that means losing their life
-- I like the way Jim Elliot, the missionary who was martyred in Ecuador trying to bring the gospel to a native tribe in the jungle -- he wrote in his journal, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
-- what is it we lose if we choose this path? -- we lose ourselves -- we lose our comfort -- our wants -- our desires -- our goals -- our way
-- and what is it we gain? -- we gain eternity -- we gain life -- we become all that we can be -- we join with God in His work and we take back the ground that the enemy has taken -- we become prisoners of the Lord as He molds us and shapes us into the very image of His own Son
-- let me explain the choice that Paul is offering in a different way that may speak more to some of us -- it’s kind of like this -- last year, Auburn won the national title in college football -- those young men faced all types of adversity -- they faced challenges on and off the field -- they fell behind in most of the games they played, and they had to step up and fight back to get the victory -- they fought and they clawed their way to success -- and they ended up with a perfect season and with the crystal football trophy from the BCS
-- at work we’ve got fans from most of the SEC schools -- so there’s a lot of trash talk -- a lot of joking back and forth -- a lot of comparisons and jeering about how good or how bad your particular team was last year
-- we’ve got a couple of guys who were Auburn fans -- and for the last seven months, they’ve been strutting around the office like they owned the place -- they bad-mouth the other SEC teams and they’ve been talking about how good they are and how they were so worthy of the title
-- but here’s the thing -- they didn’t do it -- they’re not the ones who were out on that field in rain and shine -- they’re not the ones who put in the hard work in the weight room -- they’re not the ones who were out on the plains in 100-degree weather during two-a-days -- they’re not the ones who gave their blood and sweat and tears to win the national championship
-- they want all the glory, but they didn’t do any of the work -- they didn’t do the hard stuff that wins football games -- they want to proclaim “War Eagle,” but they didn’t earn the right to do so
-- that’s what Paul is trying to get us to see here -- that’s the choice that he’s urging us to make -- do we want to settle for comfortable lives and a seat on Sunday mornings or do we want to be all that we can be? -- do we want to join Jesus and follow Him with our blood, sweat and tears -- do we want to give all that we are and join the fight and become a prisoner of the Lord or do we just want to sit on the sideline and watch as others carry the Kingdom to this world?
-- Paul writes here that he wants the Ephesians to live a life worthy of the calling they have received -- we tend to reserve that word, “calling,” for special people -- we say that people are called to be preachers -- they are called to be missionaries -- they are called to special ministries -- the implication is that only some are called
-- but this verse says differently -- it says that all of us were called -- all of us were chosen by God to live out life as true believers of Christ -- fully and totally committed to Him in all our ways
-- Paul says that we have already received the call from Christ to live a complete life in Him -- we received this call at the cross -- we received it when we received the forgiveness of our sins -- we received it when we put our faith and trust in Him -- now, we have to choose to live it out
-- but, how do we do that? -- look at verse 2
2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
-- Paul says we live a life worthy of our calling when we live our lives as Jesus -- when our behavior and our character and our attitudes mirror that of our Savior
-- Paul says to be humble and gentle -- to be patient -- to bear with one another in love
-- here at Koinonia, we’ve taken the slogan, “Doing Life Together,” as our vision and our mission -- that’s the same thing that Paul is saying here -- you fulfill your calling when you live out your faith in relationship -- when you do life together by expressing the love of Christ in all circumstances
-- notice what he says here about love -- he says bearing with one another in love -- when you are bearing with another person, that implies that it is a struggle -- it’s not easy -- it’s something that you are having to work at
-- that’s the real difference between a disciple in name or in truth -- true disciples get their hands dirty -- they get involved in other people’s lives -- they get their feelings hurt -- they give everything in order to show the love of Christ to someone else -- whether that’s a family member that’s difficult to live with or a homeless stranger on the street
-- others give up when it gets hard -- they like things easy -- they don’t want to do work -- they just want to enjoy the good things of life while others are out there doing life -- that’s the difference here
-- it’s easy to love someone who loves you back -- it’s easy to love someone you like -- but it’s not easy to love the unloveable -- it’s not easy to live life someone that you don’t like or that doesn’t like you -- it is a cross that you have to bear
-- skip down to verse 22 and we’ll end there
22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 26 “In your anger do not sin”[a]: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold. 28 Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.
29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
-- once again we see that we are faced with a choice if we want to live a life worthy of our calling -- we have to choose to put off our old self and we have to choose to put on our new self
-- we have to put aside our old way of doing life -- and we have to choose to be humble and patient and to bear with one another in love
-- we have to put off falsehoods and speak truth -- we have to put off sin and sloth -- and we have to work, so that we can share, not only our material possessions, but our very lives with others
-- we have to guard our tongues and put off bitterness and anger and rage and put on kindness and compassion -- forgiving others because Christ forgave us
-- we have to choose to do the hard stuff because this is the only way that we can live a life worthy of our calling -- this is the only way that we can be all that we can be -- this is the only way that we can become more like Jesus in our minds and our hearts and our spirits
III. Closing
-- when you think about people who have accepted this challenge from God to be all that you can be, you have to think of Bill Bright -- Bill was the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ -- he penned down the “Four Spiritual Laws” that have been used to lead people to Christ for over 25 years -- he envisioned the “Jesus Film” which has been seen by over 4 billion people in 660 languages around the world
-- he was an author, a scholar, a speaker -- I once heard him speak on prayer and fasting at a Promise Keepers event in Orlando, and his wisdom and his message impacted a crowd of over 20,000 men there that day
-- but, despite all of these remarkable achievements for the Kingdom of God, if you were to visit his gravesite, you would only find three words on his tombstone, ”Slave for Jesus”
-- Bill Bright lived out a life worthy of the calling that he had received -- he chose the path that was less traveled -- he chose to be a follower and not a fan -- a true believer and disciple of Christ -- and he became, in the words of the Apostle Paul, “a prisoner for the Lord”
-- as we close, let me ask you this question point-blank -- what kind of Christian are you? -- are you living a life worthy of the calling you have received? -- are you following Christ and living out His message in your life daily? Or are you trampling on His blood by receiving and receiving without giving back anything?
-- Paul said that the life of a disciple was a choice -- we could choose to truly live for Jesus -- to give our all for Him because He gave His all for us -- we could choose to be all that we can be in Christ -- or we can just be those who receive all the benefits and never share in the glory of victory
-- what type of Christian do you want to be? -- what type of life do you want to live? -- the choice is up to you
-- let us pray
31 July 2011
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Ephesians 4:1-3
1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
-- around the time that I was graduating high school, the Army rolled out a new slogan to highlight their new recruiting campaign -- “Be all that you can be”
-- this slogan was everywhere -- it was on posters around our school -- it was on t-shirts -- and it spoke to the men and women of our generation
-- to this day, I remember the TV commercial that the Army put out around that time -- a young man, in his late teens or early 20’s, was scaling the side of a mountain in a place that looked like it was in the Rockies -- he was struggling on that last little bit -- as he reached for another handhold, he lost his grip and you knew that he was about to give up
-- but he looked up at the top -- he saw the summit -- he knew where he wanted to go -- and that gave him renewed strength -- he reached out again and found a new handhold and kept going towards the top --and as the commercial faded, we saw him standing up on the peak of that mountain as the sun set, looking out over the view from the top as that slogan flashed on the screen -- “Be all that you can be”
-- the message was clear -- you could settle in life -- you could refuse to do the hard stuff -- you could take the easy way -- or you could accept the challenge and fight past the difficulties and push yourself to the limit and exceed where others had failed -- the choice was up to you and the Army was there to help you reach your goal
-- if you were to sum up the message of the Apostle Paul here in this passage in Ephesians, I can’t think of any better words than that old Army slogan -- “Be all that you can be” -- Paul is making the point here that God is calling us to be more than we are -- to do more than we are doing -- to live more than we are living
--so this morning, I wanted us to look at this passage to examine the challenge that God has issued for each of us as Christians and as members of His body to inspire us to go on to greater heights with Him -- God wants us to be all that we can be and to not settle for a life of diluted spirituality
-- so let’s look at this passage together and see what we can learn
II. Scripture Lesson (Ephesians 4:1-12)
-- if you would, look back at verse 1 with me
1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
-- Paul begins by describing himself as a prisoner for the Lord -- we know that when Paul wrote this letter to the Ephesians, he was actually in prison in Rome, waiting for an audience with Caesar
-- some scholars have interpreted Paul’s words here to mean that the Ephesians should listen to him because he has been imprisoned because of his faith -- because he had given everything for the gospel of Christ -- even his very own freedom
-- and while that is certainly true, I think Paul’s words here reflect a deeper meaning than just that given by his physical condition
-- Paul was not only a prisoner in chains, but he was a prisoner in heart -- Paul had learned something through his life -- starting out as a Pharisee among Pharisees and as a persecutor of Christians, Paul had an experience with the living Christ on the road to Damascus -- and his life was never the same again
-- when Paul came face-to-face with the resurrected Jesus, his world was shaken -- his beliefs were shattered and his faith came undone -- at that moment, Paul rejected the falseness of what the Jewish faith had become and became a true believer in Christ -- as he would say in the Book of Romans, he had been held prisoner and captive by sin and death, but through the grace of Christ, Paul was freed to new life -- and, in turn, he became a slave -- a bond-servant -- a prisoner -- to the One who had freed him -- to the One who had saved him from his sins and given him eternal life with God
-- so Paul was bound to Christ -- not with chains, but with love -- not with bars, but with the freedom of choice that made him want to serve Jesus with all his heart and mind and soul
-- that’s what he means when he writes here that he is a prisoner of the Lord -- and he holds his position in Christ up as the ideal for all those who believe
-- he goes on to say, “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received” -- that word, “urge,” is telling -- when you urge someone to do something, you aren’t commanding them -- you aren’t telling them they have to do this -- you are offering them a choice
-- Paul is trying to get the Ephesians to see that they have a choice to make in their Christian lives -- they can continue on as they are going and just settle for an easy life of religion -- or they can choose to live a different life -- a life worthy of the calling that they have received
-- every time I read this passage, I am reminded of Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken” -- I had to read that in school, but I never really appreciated it until I was much older and out in the real world where we are forced with choices everyday
-- let me read that to you right now -- it’s not a very long poem but I believe it makes the point that the Apostle Paul is trying to get across here
The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
-- now as you think about Paul’s words here in verse 1, remember who this letter was written to -- it was not written to a group of people who didn’t believe in God -- it wasn’t written to convince them to turn to Jesus for salvation -- the choice that Paul is presenting is not the choice between accepting Christ or rejecting Christ
-- this letter was written to Christians -- to people who had already received forgiveness for their sins through the grace of God and the death and resurrection of Christ -- so, what is the choice that they are facing? -- to put it in the language of Robert Frost’s poem, what two roads are they having to choose from?
-- they’re having to choose between religion and relationship -- they’re having to choose between being Christians in name or Christians in deed -- they’re having to choose between being fans or followers of Christ
-- Frost tells us in his poem that the two roads he faced were entirely different -- one was well-traveled -- the other was not -- one was the path taken by most of the people -- the other one was selected by the few
-- that’s the choice that is before us as Christians today -- here in this passage, Paul urges the Ephesians to take the path that leads to a life worthy of the calling that they have received -- to be all that they can be -- to become all that Christ wants them to become
-- by implication, the other path leads to a lesser commitment to Christ -- it still leads to heaven -- it still results in salvation -- but it takes the easy way there -- it takes the path of least resistance -- the path of just getting by and not really doing or being all that God wants us to be
-- Paul urges the Ephesians to take the same path that he followed -- to become, like he, a prisoner for the Lord -- even if that means losing their freedom -- even if that means losing their life
-- I like the way Jim Elliot, the missionary who was martyred in Ecuador trying to bring the gospel to a native tribe in the jungle -- he wrote in his journal, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
-- what is it we lose if we choose this path? -- we lose ourselves -- we lose our comfort -- our wants -- our desires -- our goals -- our way
-- and what is it we gain? -- we gain eternity -- we gain life -- we become all that we can be -- we join with God in His work and we take back the ground that the enemy has taken -- we become prisoners of the Lord as He molds us and shapes us into the very image of His own Son
-- let me explain the choice that Paul is offering in a different way that may speak more to some of us -- it’s kind of like this -- last year, Auburn won the national title in college football -- those young men faced all types of adversity -- they faced challenges on and off the field -- they fell behind in most of the games they played, and they had to step up and fight back to get the victory -- they fought and they clawed their way to success -- and they ended up with a perfect season and with the crystal football trophy from the BCS
-- at work we’ve got fans from most of the SEC schools -- so there’s a lot of trash talk -- a lot of joking back and forth -- a lot of comparisons and jeering about how good or how bad your particular team was last year
-- we’ve got a couple of guys who were Auburn fans -- and for the last seven months, they’ve been strutting around the office like they owned the place -- they bad-mouth the other SEC teams and they’ve been talking about how good they are and how they were so worthy of the title
-- but here’s the thing -- they didn’t do it -- they’re not the ones who were out on that field in rain and shine -- they’re not the ones who put in the hard work in the weight room -- they’re not the ones who were out on the plains in 100-degree weather during two-a-days -- they’re not the ones who gave their blood and sweat and tears to win the national championship
-- they want all the glory, but they didn’t do any of the work -- they didn’t do the hard stuff that wins football games -- they want to proclaim “War Eagle,” but they didn’t earn the right to do so
-- that’s what Paul is trying to get us to see here -- that’s the choice that he’s urging us to make -- do we want to settle for comfortable lives and a seat on Sunday mornings or do we want to be all that we can be? -- do we want to join Jesus and follow Him with our blood, sweat and tears -- do we want to give all that we are and join the fight and become a prisoner of the Lord or do we just want to sit on the sideline and watch as others carry the Kingdom to this world?
-- Paul writes here that he wants the Ephesians to live a life worthy of the calling they have received -- we tend to reserve that word, “calling,” for special people -- we say that people are called to be preachers -- they are called to be missionaries -- they are called to special ministries -- the implication is that only some are called
-- but this verse says differently -- it says that all of us were called -- all of us were chosen by God to live out life as true believers of Christ -- fully and totally committed to Him in all our ways
-- Paul says that we have already received the call from Christ to live a complete life in Him -- we received this call at the cross -- we received it when we received the forgiveness of our sins -- we received it when we put our faith and trust in Him -- now, we have to choose to live it out
-- but, how do we do that? -- look at verse 2
2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
-- Paul says we live a life worthy of our calling when we live our lives as Jesus -- when our behavior and our character and our attitudes mirror that of our Savior
-- Paul says to be humble and gentle -- to be patient -- to bear with one another in love
-- here at Koinonia, we’ve taken the slogan, “Doing Life Together,” as our vision and our mission -- that’s the same thing that Paul is saying here -- you fulfill your calling when you live out your faith in relationship -- when you do life together by expressing the love of Christ in all circumstances
-- notice what he says here about love -- he says bearing with one another in love -- when you are bearing with another person, that implies that it is a struggle -- it’s not easy -- it’s something that you are having to work at
-- that’s the real difference between a disciple in name or in truth -- true disciples get their hands dirty -- they get involved in other people’s lives -- they get their feelings hurt -- they give everything in order to show the love of Christ to someone else -- whether that’s a family member that’s difficult to live with or a homeless stranger on the street
-- others give up when it gets hard -- they like things easy -- they don’t want to do work -- they just want to enjoy the good things of life while others are out there doing life -- that’s the difference here
-- it’s easy to love someone who loves you back -- it’s easy to love someone you like -- but it’s not easy to love the unloveable -- it’s not easy to live life someone that you don’t like or that doesn’t like you -- it is a cross that you have to bear
-- skip down to verse 22 and we’ll end there
22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 26 “In your anger do not sin”[a]: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold. 28 Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.
29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
-- once again we see that we are faced with a choice if we want to live a life worthy of our calling -- we have to choose to put off our old self and we have to choose to put on our new self
-- we have to put aside our old way of doing life -- and we have to choose to be humble and patient and to bear with one another in love
-- we have to put off falsehoods and speak truth -- we have to put off sin and sloth -- and we have to work, so that we can share, not only our material possessions, but our very lives with others
-- we have to guard our tongues and put off bitterness and anger and rage and put on kindness and compassion -- forgiving others because Christ forgave us
-- we have to choose to do the hard stuff because this is the only way that we can live a life worthy of our calling -- this is the only way that we can be all that we can be -- this is the only way that we can become more like Jesus in our minds and our hearts and our spirits
III. Closing
-- when you think about people who have accepted this challenge from God to be all that you can be, you have to think of Bill Bright -- Bill was the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ -- he penned down the “Four Spiritual Laws” that have been used to lead people to Christ for over 25 years -- he envisioned the “Jesus Film” which has been seen by over 4 billion people in 660 languages around the world
-- he was an author, a scholar, a speaker -- I once heard him speak on prayer and fasting at a Promise Keepers event in Orlando, and his wisdom and his message impacted a crowd of over 20,000 men there that day
-- but, despite all of these remarkable achievements for the Kingdom of God, if you were to visit his gravesite, you would only find three words on his tombstone, ”Slave for Jesus”
-- Bill Bright lived out a life worthy of the calling that he had received -- he chose the path that was less traveled -- he chose to be a follower and not a fan -- a true believer and disciple of Christ -- and he became, in the words of the Apostle Paul, “a prisoner for the Lord”
-- as we close, let me ask you this question point-blank -- what kind of Christian are you? -- are you living a life worthy of the calling you have received? -- are you following Christ and living out His message in your life daily? Or are you trampling on His blood by receiving and receiving without giving back anything?
-- Paul said that the life of a disciple was a choice -- we could choose to truly live for Jesus -- to give our all for Him because He gave His all for us -- we could choose to be all that we can be in Christ -- or we can just be those who receive all the benefits and never share in the glory of victory
-- what type of Christian do you want to be? -- what type of life do you want to live? -- the choice is up to you
-- let us pray
SERMON: TRUSTING JESUS
TRUSTING JESUS
24 July 2011
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Matthew 14:22-33
22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
29 “Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
-- one time Mark Twain was on a visit to the Holy Land with his wife and they were they were staying in Tiberius on the shores of the Sea of Galilee -- It was a moonlit night and the weather was perfect -- and Twain got the romantic idea of taking his wife for a boat ride on the lake.
-- They walked down to the pier by the hotel -- and Twain asked a man sitting in a rowboat how much he would charge to row them out on the water for a little while -- Twain was dressed in his usual white suit, white shoes, and white Texas hat
-- The oarsman looked at him for a moment and evidently decided that he must be a wealthy rancher from the USA -- and he said, "Well, I guess about twenty-five dollars" -- which was an awful lot of money then -- Mark Twain thanked him, and, as he turned away with his wife on his arm, he said, "Now I know why Jesus walked!"
[modified from: Ward Williams, "Walking on Water," SermonNotes.com]
-- this morning I wanted to take a few moments to look at the familiar story of Jesus walking on the water -- this is a miracle that most people are familiar with, even if they are not Christians or don’t read the Bible on a regular basis -- everyone knows the story of Jesus walking on the water
-- but the problem with such stories is that they become too familiar and we lose the mystery and the majesty of what is going on -- so I wanted to take some time to look back at this passage with fresh eyes to see if we can glean any new insights into this old familiar story that we can apply to our lives as we seek to follow Christ
-- before we turn again to this passage, let me take a moment to give you the context and background for this story -- the story of Jesus walking on the water is found in three of the four gospels -- Luke is the only writer who chose to leave it out
-- it happens in the middle of Jesus’ ministry on earth -- we find Jesus on the east side of the Sea of Galilee, probably somewhere near Bethsaida -- and just so you know, sometimes in the Bible you’ll see the Sea of Galilee called the Lake of Genessaret, which is what the Romans called it
-- Jesus has spent the day preaching and teaching the people on a hillside -- but now the day is drawing to a close and the sun is starting to set
-- this has been a day that brought lessons on faith and trust -- not only to the crowd, but also to the disciples -- Andrew and Phillip’s faith had grown as they had watched Jesus do the impossible that day -- when they tried to encourage Him to send the crowd away so they could find something to eat, Jesus took the offering of a little boy -- five loaves of bread and two small fish -- and multiplied them to feed the crowd of over 5,000 people
-- but even though the crowd is fixing to be sent home, the lessons aren’t over -- and now the time has come for the rest of the disciples to learn more about trusting Jesus in all situations
II. Scripture Lesson (Matthew 14:22-33)
-- let’s pick up the story in verse 22 and see what we can learn from this familiar story
22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.
-- in one of Aesop’s fables, we read the line, “familiarity breeds contempt” -- the truth of that is no more evident that it is in these verses
-- we read here that Jesus went up on a mountainside by Himself to pray -- that’s something that we see throughout the gospels -- time and time again, Jesus would separate Himself from the crowd -- He would leave His disciples behind -- and He would go off by Himself to pray
-- we’ve seen it so much that we tend to look right past it -- we want to skip ahead to the action -- but this is the action -- this is the real point that is going to be made in this passage
-- everything Jesus did -- everything Jesus said -- all pointed to this moment -- just pause for a second and think about what is happening when Jesus goes up on that mountainside by Himself to pray
-- He is going to God to be reconnected and recharged so that He can continue to minister on earth -- Jesus, who was fully man and fully God, needed to get close and stay close to God in order to live a life pleasing to Him here on earth -- and, if Jesus needed that, then how much more do we need that in our lives?
-- how many times do people come looking for you and they are told, “they’ve gone off to be by themselves and pray?” -- if you’re like me and you’re honest with yourself, that probably doesn’t get said about you very often -- too often our prayers are reactive and not planned like Jesus’ -- we pray when we have a need -- we pray when something goes wrong or when we’ve been taught it’s time to pray, such as before meals -- but we fail to set aside a moment everyday to just go off by ourselves and spend time with God in prayer like Jesus
-- the theme of this entire story about Jesus walking on the water is that we have to stay close to God to get through life -- and that’s what we see modeled for us here in these verses
-- look back at the second part of verse 23
Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
-- here we see the disciples out on the boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee -- it is somewhere between 3:00 and 6:00 am -- but, they’re not asleep because their boat is getting tossed about as they try to make their way to Capernaum -- the wind is blowing and the waves are crashing and they’re all alone out on the sea at night
-- but still, they’re not really afraid -- remember that four of them were fishermen -- Peter and Andrew -- James and John -- they’ve been on the sea in conditions like this before -- they know what they’re doing -- and the other disciples know they have nothing to fear -- they’re putting their faith in the skill of these four fishermen and in the boat they are sitting in
-- but, in the midst of all this, they look out into the night and they see a man walking on the waves and now they get scared -- and I can’t blame them -- think about it -- you’re out there in a boat -- crashing up and down in the waves -- water and wind blasting you in the face -- and it’s pitch black and you can’t see a think -- and all of a sudden, you see a person walking on the top of the water by your boat -- who wouldn’t get scared?
-- Matthew says that they cried out in fear and that Jesus immediately spoke to them -- before we go on, think for a moment about that phrase, “they cried out in fear” -- what does that really mean? -- think about a time in your life when you were in a scary situation -- maybe not even a life or death situation -- but a time when something was going wrong -- you lost a job -- you had a wreck or your car broke down in the middle of the night and you didn’t know what to do -- you were helpless -- what happens then? -- probably, you prayed -- you cried out in fear and said, “God, help me”
-- I think that’s what’s going on in this passage -- when it says the disciples cried out in fear when they saw a man walking past their boat, I imagine their cries were more along the lines of, “God, help us” -- and what happened? -- Jesus immediately spoke
-- when you call out to God -- when you draw near to Him, He draws near to you -- and He immediately comes to you -- that doesn’t mean He’s going to take away the problem or make everything immediately better -- but He’s going to be there with you to take away your fear and to give you the strength you need to continue
-- verse 28
28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
29 “Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
-- by all accounts, Peter was the one who had the deepest faith of all the disciples -- he may not have understood everything -- he may not have understood all of Jesus’ teachings -- but he believed -- he had faith
-- and when he realized that this ghostly figure was Jesus, he had one thought in mind -- not to walk on the water -- I don’t think that was Peter’s burning desire -- Peter wanted to be with Jesus -- he wanted to get close to Jesus and getting out of that boat and walking on the water was the only way to do it
-- a lot of times, Peter gets a bad rap in this story -- we read that he got out of the boat, walked on the water, and came towards Jesus -- but when he saw the wind and the waves and realized what he was actually doing, he got scared and began to sink -- and we hear all these messages talking about Peter’s faith and his lack of faith
-- but, think about this -- as the disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee in the midst of the wind and the waves, what were they putting their faith in? -- the boat and the skill of the four fishermen with them
-- and what did Peter do? -- he got out of the boat -- that first step speaks volumes about Peter’s faith and trust in Jesus -- just like the others, he had been trusting in that boat to get them safely to land -- but, when he saw Jesus, the object of his faith changed -- he didn’t worry about that boat anymore -- he didn’t rely on it anymore, because he knew that Jesus would take care of him if he could only get to him -- and if that meant walking on water, then that was what Peter was going to do
-- that’s the point that Jesus is trying to get all of us to -- to stop relying on our boats and to step out and come to Him and trust in Him with everything that we have
-- what boat are you depending on today? -- is it your bank account? -- your family? -- your job? -- your intellect? -- your looks? -- your resources? -- where is your faith?
-- I was in a finance meeting in a church one time, and it became painfully obvious what boat this church was sitting in -- they would not take on a project or a ministry if the money wasn’t already available to cover it -- they refused to step out of their financial boat and to trust that Jesus would take care of them
-- that’s one thing about Peter -- as Jesus said, he may have had little faith, but he had more faith than the 11 who were left sitting in the boat
-- notice once again what Jesus did when someone cried out in fear -- when Peter saw the wind and the waves and began to sink, he cried out in fear and immediately Jesus reached out for him -- this is a promise from God -- when we cry out to Him, He immediately comes to our aid -- when we come towards Jesus, He comes towards us
-- look at what happened -- Peter started to sink and Jesus reached out and caught him and said, “you of little faith -- why did you doubt?” -- now, a lot of people see this as a rebuke -- they read this as Jesus taking Peter to task for sinking in the waves and not trust in Jesus
-- that’s not the way I see it -- I kind of see it as a parental moment -- I remember taking Brooke down to Kim’s parent’s house in Florida when she was really little -- they had a pool at their house, and Brooke had never been in a pool before -- she was so small she had those water wings on -- and we were trying to get her to try to swim
-- most of the time she would just cling to us and we would carry her around the pool -- but one time, she got brave and tried to swim from Kim’s father to me -- just a few feet -- and she was a doing a good job, but all of a sudden, she was just like Peter -- you could see the panic set in -- she got afraid once she realized what she was doing and she cried out and I reached for her and drew her in -- and I remember laughing and saying, “what happened? -- you doing so good” -- that’s what I think happened here with Jesus and Peter
-- I think Jesus was laughing when He said this -- I think He reached out and grabbed Peter’s arm and pulled him up and kind of chuckled, “Peter -- you were doing so good -- why did you doubt?” -- I think Jesus was proud of Peter in that moment
-- Peter may have had little faith, but he had faith -- and Jesus said if we had faith as small as a mustard seed, we could move mountains
-- we read in verses 32 and 33 that when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down, and everyone worshiped Jesus, saying that He was the Son of God
-- let me ask you a question -- how did Peter get back to the boat? -- did he swim? -- when he began to sink and Jesus caught him, did Jesus make him swim back?
-- no, Peter walked back to the boat -- even after being afraid and starting to sink, he still walked on the water back to the boat and climbed in -- how? -- how was he able to do that? -- because he was with Jesus
-- when we are with Jesus, we can do anything -- when we are with Jesus, we can do the impossible -- when we are with Jesus, we can move mountains and walk on water
-- Peter was able to turn around and walk back to the boat because he was with Jesus -- and how did he find Jesus? -- he left the boat and went off by himself to come to Jesus
-- more than anything, that is the take-home message in this passage -- we have to follow the example of Jesus that we saw in verse 23 and the pattern of Peter that we just read about
-- in order to walk with Jesus, we have to go off by ourselves to pray and seek Jesus where He can be found -- we have to listen for His voice -- we have to look for His presence -- we have to seek Him and ask Him to let us come to Him -- and when He says, “come,” we have to get out of our boats and step out on faith and go where Jesus is
-- just one more point and then we’ll bring this to a close -- look back at verse 32
32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down
-- when did the wind die down? -- after Jesus climbed into the boat
-- why is that? -- why didn’t Jesus calm the wind when Peter stepped out? -- here Peter is trying to step out in faith and all Jesus had to do was say one word and the wind could have stopped and the sea could have been calm and smooth as glass -- but He didn’t
-- and then, when Peter was in His arms and they were headed back to the boat, why didn’t He calm the wind? -- think about it, while all this is going on -- Peter getting out and walking on the water and Jesus catching him, that boat is still being buffeted by the wind and waves -- it is still being tossed up and around all over the place -- why didn’t Jesus do something about that?
-- because He was trying to make a point -- we’re going to go through storms in our lives -- we’re going to get buffeted by winds of change and waves of doubt -- we’re going to go through hardships in our lives -- it is in these times that our faith is developed -- it is in these times that we learn to trust in Jesus
-- and, then, when He knows that we trust Him -- when He knows that we depend on Him in all situations -- when He knows that we are with Him -- then the winds will die down and the storms cease
-- Jesus let the winds continue to buffet the boat so that the eleven remaining disciples might learn the same lesson that Peter was learning as he walked on the water -- we can make it through anything with Jesus at our side
III. Closing
-- what we do in any given situation says more about what we believe and put our faith in than what we might say
-- there are many people in this world who claim to follow Christ -- there are many people in this world who claim to have put their faith in Jesus -- but when you look at their lives, you see they’re really putting their faith in their boats and not in their Creator
-- Jesus wants us to reach the place where we depend on Him and put our faith and trust in Him in all situations -- when the sea is calm and the weather is nice and when the seas is rough and the winds and the waves are buffeting our lives
-- our natural tendency is to trust in ourselves and our resources -- to put our faith in the things of this world rather than in God -- we build our boats out of materials like families, intellect, looks, finances, and education -- and we ride through life saying we trust in Jesus but never getting out of the boat
-- Jesus calls us to step away from the crowd -- to get out of the boat and to get by ourselves and to seek Him -- because the only way for us to truly succeed and to make it through this life is by staying close to Him and having faith in who He is and what He has done for us
-- so, as I close today, I want to encourage you to take a step of faith -- get out of your boat --whatever it may be -- and come towards Jesus -- trusting that He will do the impossible through your life
-- let’s pray
24 July 2011
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Matthew 14:22-33
22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
29 “Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
-- one time Mark Twain was on a visit to the Holy Land with his wife and they were they were staying in Tiberius on the shores of the Sea of Galilee -- It was a moonlit night and the weather was perfect -- and Twain got the romantic idea of taking his wife for a boat ride on the lake.
-- They walked down to the pier by the hotel -- and Twain asked a man sitting in a rowboat how much he would charge to row them out on the water for a little while -- Twain was dressed in his usual white suit, white shoes, and white Texas hat
-- The oarsman looked at him for a moment and evidently decided that he must be a wealthy rancher from the USA -- and he said, "Well, I guess about twenty-five dollars" -- which was an awful lot of money then -- Mark Twain thanked him, and, as he turned away with his wife on his arm, he said, "Now I know why Jesus walked!"
[modified from: Ward Williams, "Walking on Water," SermonNotes.com]
-- this morning I wanted to take a few moments to look at the familiar story of Jesus walking on the water -- this is a miracle that most people are familiar with, even if they are not Christians or don’t read the Bible on a regular basis -- everyone knows the story of Jesus walking on the water
-- but the problem with such stories is that they become too familiar and we lose the mystery and the majesty of what is going on -- so I wanted to take some time to look back at this passage with fresh eyes to see if we can glean any new insights into this old familiar story that we can apply to our lives as we seek to follow Christ
-- before we turn again to this passage, let me take a moment to give you the context and background for this story -- the story of Jesus walking on the water is found in three of the four gospels -- Luke is the only writer who chose to leave it out
-- it happens in the middle of Jesus’ ministry on earth -- we find Jesus on the east side of the Sea of Galilee, probably somewhere near Bethsaida -- and just so you know, sometimes in the Bible you’ll see the Sea of Galilee called the Lake of Genessaret, which is what the Romans called it
-- Jesus has spent the day preaching and teaching the people on a hillside -- but now the day is drawing to a close and the sun is starting to set
-- this has been a day that brought lessons on faith and trust -- not only to the crowd, but also to the disciples -- Andrew and Phillip’s faith had grown as they had watched Jesus do the impossible that day -- when they tried to encourage Him to send the crowd away so they could find something to eat, Jesus took the offering of a little boy -- five loaves of bread and two small fish -- and multiplied them to feed the crowd of over 5,000 people
-- but even though the crowd is fixing to be sent home, the lessons aren’t over -- and now the time has come for the rest of the disciples to learn more about trusting Jesus in all situations
II. Scripture Lesson (Matthew 14:22-33)
-- let’s pick up the story in verse 22 and see what we can learn from this familiar story
22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.
-- in one of Aesop’s fables, we read the line, “familiarity breeds contempt” -- the truth of that is no more evident that it is in these verses
-- we read here that Jesus went up on a mountainside by Himself to pray -- that’s something that we see throughout the gospels -- time and time again, Jesus would separate Himself from the crowd -- He would leave His disciples behind -- and He would go off by Himself to pray
-- we’ve seen it so much that we tend to look right past it -- we want to skip ahead to the action -- but this is the action -- this is the real point that is going to be made in this passage
-- everything Jesus did -- everything Jesus said -- all pointed to this moment -- just pause for a second and think about what is happening when Jesus goes up on that mountainside by Himself to pray
-- He is going to God to be reconnected and recharged so that He can continue to minister on earth -- Jesus, who was fully man and fully God, needed to get close and stay close to God in order to live a life pleasing to Him here on earth -- and, if Jesus needed that, then how much more do we need that in our lives?
-- how many times do people come looking for you and they are told, “they’ve gone off to be by themselves and pray?” -- if you’re like me and you’re honest with yourself, that probably doesn’t get said about you very often -- too often our prayers are reactive and not planned like Jesus’ -- we pray when we have a need -- we pray when something goes wrong or when we’ve been taught it’s time to pray, such as before meals -- but we fail to set aside a moment everyday to just go off by ourselves and spend time with God in prayer like Jesus
-- the theme of this entire story about Jesus walking on the water is that we have to stay close to God to get through life -- and that’s what we see modeled for us here in these verses
-- look back at the second part of verse 23
Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
-- here we see the disciples out on the boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee -- it is somewhere between 3:00 and 6:00 am -- but, they’re not asleep because their boat is getting tossed about as they try to make their way to Capernaum -- the wind is blowing and the waves are crashing and they’re all alone out on the sea at night
-- but still, they’re not really afraid -- remember that four of them were fishermen -- Peter and Andrew -- James and John -- they’ve been on the sea in conditions like this before -- they know what they’re doing -- and the other disciples know they have nothing to fear -- they’re putting their faith in the skill of these four fishermen and in the boat they are sitting in
-- but, in the midst of all this, they look out into the night and they see a man walking on the waves and now they get scared -- and I can’t blame them -- think about it -- you’re out there in a boat -- crashing up and down in the waves -- water and wind blasting you in the face -- and it’s pitch black and you can’t see a think -- and all of a sudden, you see a person walking on the top of the water by your boat -- who wouldn’t get scared?
-- Matthew says that they cried out in fear and that Jesus immediately spoke to them -- before we go on, think for a moment about that phrase, “they cried out in fear” -- what does that really mean? -- think about a time in your life when you were in a scary situation -- maybe not even a life or death situation -- but a time when something was going wrong -- you lost a job -- you had a wreck or your car broke down in the middle of the night and you didn’t know what to do -- you were helpless -- what happens then? -- probably, you prayed -- you cried out in fear and said, “God, help me”
-- I think that’s what’s going on in this passage -- when it says the disciples cried out in fear when they saw a man walking past their boat, I imagine their cries were more along the lines of, “God, help us” -- and what happened? -- Jesus immediately spoke
-- when you call out to God -- when you draw near to Him, He draws near to you -- and He immediately comes to you -- that doesn’t mean He’s going to take away the problem or make everything immediately better -- but He’s going to be there with you to take away your fear and to give you the strength you need to continue
-- verse 28
28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
29 “Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
-- by all accounts, Peter was the one who had the deepest faith of all the disciples -- he may not have understood everything -- he may not have understood all of Jesus’ teachings -- but he believed -- he had faith
-- and when he realized that this ghostly figure was Jesus, he had one thought in mind -- not to walk on the water -- I don’t think that was Peter’s burning desire -- Peter wanted to be with Jesus -- he wanted to get close to Jesus and getting out of that boat and walking on the water was the only way to do it
-- a lot of times, Peter gets a bad rap in this story -- we read that he got out of the boat, walked on the water, and came towards Jesus -- but when he saw the wind and the waves and realized what he was actually doing, he got scared and began to sink -- and we hear all these messages talking about Peter’s faith and his lack of faith
-- but, think about this -- as the disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee in the midst of the wind and the waves, what were they putting their faith in? -- the boat and the skill of the four fishermen with them
-- and what did Peter do? -- he got out of the boat -- that first step speaks volumes about Peter’s faith and trust in Jesus -- just like the others, he had been trusting in that boat to get them safely to land -- but, when he saw Jesus, the object of his faith changed -- he didn’t worry about that boat anymore -- he didn’t rely on it anymore, because he knew that Jesus would take care of him if he could only get to him -- and if that meant walking on water, then that was what Peter was going to do
-- that’s the point that Jesus is trying to get all of us to -- to stop relying on our boats and to step out and come to Him and trust in Him with everything that we have
-- what boat are you depending on today? -- is it your bank account? -- your family? -- your job? -- your intellect? -- your looks? -- your resources? -- where is your faith?
-- I was in a finance meeting in a church one time, and it became painfully obvious what boat this church was sitting in -- they would not take on a project or a ministry if the money wasn’t already available to cover it -- they refused to step out of their financial boat and to trust that Jesus would take care of them
-- that’s one thing about Peter -- as Jesus said, he may have had little faith, but he had more faith than the 11 who were left sitting in the boat
-- notice once again what Jesus did when someone cried out in fear -- when Peter saw the wind and the waves and began to sink, he cried out in fear and immediately Jesus reached out for him -- this is a promise from God -- when we cry out to Him, He immediately comes to our aid -- when we come towards Jesus, He comes towards us
-- look at what happened -- Peter started to sink and Jesus reached out and caught him and said, “you of little faith -- why did you doubt?” -- now, a lot of people see this as a rebuke -- they read this as Jesus taking Peter to task for sinking in the waves and not trust in Jesus
-- that’s not the way I see it -- I kind of see it as a parental moment -- I remember taking Brooke down to Kim’s parent’s house in Florida when she was really little -- they had a pool at their house, and Brooke had never been in a pool before -- she was so small she had those water wings on -- and we were trying to get her to try to swim
-- most of the time she would just cling to us and we would carry her around the pool -- but one time, she got brave and tried to swim from Kim’s father to me -- just a few feet -- and she was a doing a good job, but all of a sudden, she was just like Peter -- you could see the panic set in -- she got afraid once she realized what she was doing and she cried out and I reached for her and drew her in -- and I remember laughing and saying, “what happened? -- you doing so good” -- that’s what I think happened here with Jesus and Peter
-- I think Jesus was laughing when He said this -- I think He reached out and grabbed Peter’s arm and pulled him up and kind of chuckled, “Peter -- you were doing so good -- why did you doubt?” -- I think Jesus was proud of Peter in that moment
-- Peter may have had little faith, but he had faith -- and Jesus said if we had faith as small as a mustard seed, we could move mountains
-- we read in verses 32 and 33 that when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down, and everyone worshiped Jesus, saying that He was the Son of God
-- let me ask you a question -- how did Peter get back to the boat? -- did he swim? -- when he began to sink and Jesus caught him, did Jesus make him swim back?
-- no, Peter walked back to the boat -- even after being afraid and starting to sink, he still walked on the water back to the boat and climbed in -- how? -- how was he able to do that? -- because he was with Jesus
-- when we are with Jesus, we can do anything -- when we are with Jesus, we can do the impossible -- when we are with Jesus, we can move mountains and walk on water
-- Peter was able to turn around and walk back to the boat because he was with Jesus -- and how did he find Jesus? -- he left the boat and went off by himself to come to Jesus
-- more than anything, that is the take-home message in this passage -- we have to follow the example of Jesus that we saw in verse 23 and the pattern of Peter that we just read about
-- in order to walk with Jesus, we have to go off by ourselves to pray and seek Jesus where He can be found -- we have to listen for His voice -- we have to look for His presence -- we have to seek Him and ask Him to let us come to Him -- and when He says, “come,” we have to get out of our boats and step out on faith and go where Jesus is
-- just one more point and then we’ll bring this to a close -- look back at verse 32
32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down
-- when did the wind die down? -- after Jesus climbed into the boat
-- why is that? -- why didn’t Jesus calm the wind when Peter stepped out? -- here Peter is trying to step out in faith and all Jesus had to do was say one word and the wind could have stopped and the sea could have been calm and smooth as glass -- but He didn’t
-- and then, when Peter was in His arms and they were headed back to the boat, why didn’t He calm the wind? -- think about it, while all this is going on -- Peter getting out and walking on the water and Jesus catching him, that boat is still being buffeted by the wind and waves -- it is still being tossed up and around all over the place -- why didn’t Jesus do something about that?
-- because He was trying to make a point -- we’re going to go through storms in our lives -- we’re going to get buffeted by winds of change and waves of doubt -- we’re going to go through hardships in our lives -- it is in these times that our faith is developed -- it is in these times that we learn to trust in Jesus
-- and, then, when He knows that we trust Him -- when He knows that we depend on Him in all situations -- when He knows that we are with Him -- then the winds will die down and the storms cease
-- Jesus let the winds continue to buffet the boat so that the eleven remaining disciples might learn the same lesson that Peter was learning as he walked on the water -- we can make it through anything with Jesus at our side
III. Closing
-- what we do in any given situation says more about what we believe and put our faith in than what we might say
-- there are many people in this world who claim to follow Christ -- there are many people in this world who claim to have put their faith in Jesus -- but when you look at their lives, you see they’re really putting their faith in their boats and not in their Creator
-- Jesus wants us to reach the place where we depend on Him and put our faith and trust in Him in all situations -- when the sea is calm and the weather is nice and when the seas is rough and the winds and the waves are buffeting our lives
-- our natural tendency is to trust in ourselves and our resources -- to put our faith in the things of this world rather than in God -- we build our boats out of materials like families, intellect, looks, finances, and education -- and we ride through life saying we trust in Jesus but never getting out of the boat
-- Jesus calls us to step away from the crowd -- to get out of the boat and to get by ourselves and to seek Him -- because the only way for us to truly succeed and to make it through this life is by staying close to Him and having faith in who He is and what He has done for us
-- so, as I close today, I want to encourage you to take a step of faith -- get out of your boat --whatever it may be -- and come towards Jesus -- trusting that He will do the impossible through your life
-- let’s pray
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