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The heart of God is a missionary
heart. God is a missionary. What I’m saying to you when I say that is
if you want to know God a little better you need to know him as that,
the heart which seeks the lost which goes to find them. A missionary is
a person who normally goes to another person, maybe of a different
culture, maybe of different stripe. He or she will go learn that
person’s language, will go and live with them, will go and be with them
and learn all about them so that he or she can give the message that
they have gone to give. By any standard, God is a missionary. We see it
throughout the Bible. We know the story of Adam and Eve, how they were
kicked out of the Garden. But God did not destroy the earth God didn’t
destroy them. He began the process, the story of seeking them again and
all human beings. We see that particularly in the New Testament.
Remember the scripture last week we talked about the story about Jesus
when he appeared to his disciples. Do you remember what he said? “Even
as the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” I know that it is
early in the morning but lets say that together. Even as the Father
has sent me, so I am sending you. Let’s try it again. Even as
the Father has sent me, so I am sending you. Those are the very
last words of Jesus to the disciples, almost. And what is his first
concern? To go out. He repeats this several times. We have all heard
the famous verse at the end of Matthew: “Go therefore and make
disciples.” The very last instructions, “Go therefore and make
disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit.” And even as he is ascending into heaven as we read
in the first chapter of Acts he says, “You will be my witnesses.
Beginning at Judea and Samaria and the whole world.” God is a
missionary God. The scripture I will read you today is about this. It’s
about God’s concern to send and save the lost, to be a missionary. It
comes from 2 Corinthians Chapter 5. I am going to read the whole chapter
to you. I know it’s a long one, but just drink in what is said here. He
talks about a lot of things. He talks about going to heaven, the
resurrection of the dead. He talks about judgment. But most of all He
talks about our work as missionaries. This is the word of God.
Now we know that if the earthly tent
we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house
in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be
clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will
not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are
burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with
our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by
life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given
us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Therefore we
are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body
we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are
confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home
with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at
home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for
the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. Since, then, we
know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is
plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. We are not
trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an
opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take
pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. If we are out
of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it
is for you. For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that
one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that
those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died
for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a
worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do
so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled
us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting
men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of
reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God
were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be
reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that
in him we might become the righteousness of God.
This is the word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
Would you pray with me.
Oh Father I come before you today and
ask your mercy on all of us. Help us hear us once again the message to
go out. To be sent. Help us be missionaries. I pray Lord for the word
preached. Pray that each one of us might hear what you have to say to
us, and hearing it we might go out of this place a little bit different,
a little bit closer to you. In Jesus name, Amen.
We are as Paul says “ambassadors”.
That means we don’t work for ourselves, we work for God. And we bring
His message to the world. We are all sent. Not just the preachers, not
just the saints, not just those who are educated, not just those who are
good people or bad people. Everyone is sent. You are sent. What’s the
verse again? Even as the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.
But by any standard, at least in the developed world, we aren’t
doing so well with this. The last statistic I read was that every day,
every day in the undeveloped world, seventy thousand people come to
Christ and become Christians. But in the developed world, fifty-six
thousand, every day leave the church. What in the world is going on?
The Presbyterian Church reflects that. I’ve shared with you a couple of
times how over the last forty years the Presbyterian Church has lost
about forty thousand members per year. And this year by the
denomination’s own projections, it’s going to be sixty and by the
denomination’s own projections, next year is going to be eighty. It’s
going up and not down. What is going on? What is going on our
denomination, what is going on with the developed world, what’s going on
with our particular church that this would be true? Well, I think we
have forgotten some things. Paul says it right at the beginning of
chapter five he says, “We know if the earthly tent is destroyed” he’s
talking about our body. That God has a new building, a new body. That
is the glorious promise we have that God is going to take this flesh,
which is deteriorating and if you haven’t looked in the mirror or if you
haven’t felt how painful it is to get up in the morning. Some of you
know that better than others. The glory is we are going to get
something new, but the message is, is that this world is not our home.
Our lives now are a drop in the proverbial ocean of the time we are
going to spend in eternity and yet for most of us we live as though this
world is all there is. We talk about our faith we talk about eternal
but we live as if this is all there is. All we have to do is look at
our checkbooks to see where we put our priorities and time. Yet, God
has said this is not all there is. Now it doesn’t make this world and
this life unimportant. Now Christianity is almost totally future
oriented. I would say it is probably twenty percent and eighty
percent. Yeah we are to look at this life for sure but we look to new
life and that possibility which is really a guarantee informs and helps
us live this life. It makes this life much more important. There is a
philosophy that I studied in college called “existentialism”. You don’t
have to remember that word but it is basically that philosophy says
“this is all there is and you might as well make the best of it”
essentially. And for most of those philosophers that meant you could do
most anything you want moral or immoral it didn’t matter. What you have
to do is justify your existence by doing something, it didn’t really
matter what it is. But if we think about eternity, this life becomes
vitally important, because much of what we do here has importance in the
next life. It has importance for our life. Jesus is always saying
things like “store up treasures in heaven” what does that mean? It
means live as though what you are doing now has eternal significance.
And one of the biggest things that has eternal significance is our
witness to other people. There are people all around us who are lost.
You know it has gotten unfashionable to talk about hell in the modern
world. To talk about what happens to those that who are not in Christ.
Well I am not here to debate heaven or hell with you but in the bible,
people are lost. Think of it in that way, we can talk about the other
later. People are lost. Your relatives, your friends, people all
around us are going to be people who are lost. What we do has eternal
significance. I was watching a debate between a Muslim and a Jew and a
Christian or at least some comments on the TV the other day. I watched
about fifteen minutes of it because after the first fifteen minutes, I
knew what they were going to say for the next two hours. But I did find
out from one of you that I had missed the last part where they all sat
together and talked about things they didn’t like other people saying
about them. And the Christian said “Don’t you say that we are out to
convert the whole world!” Well, dah! He’s left out the whole bible.
Now there is a distinction I want you to hear, it is not our job to
convert. You and I do not have that power. I can’t convert anyone.
That is God’s work and thank God. It’s his work, it’s his power that
reaches into the heart and changes the heart. I don’t have to worry
about that, that’s not my job. And not your job, you don’t have to
worry about that but it is our job to witness. To simply say, “God
loves you.” I’ve told you this story before but there is a man who is a
prominent pastor in Germany in the thirties and forties his name was
Martin Niemoler. And he would have later in life this dream of Adolph
Hitler standing before Jesus and Jesus asking him, “Why did you do these
terrible things? Why were you so hateful and cruel and evil? And
Hitler would say, “No one told me You loved me.” Niemoler had many
opportunities with Hitler. He was a leading and Hitler was trying to
put down the Church and Niemoler would talk with Hitler many times and
he said, “In all those times I had talked with him, I never told him God
loved him.” That’s not to say that Hitler would have changed. Not to
say that anyone would change if you simply take that message. That is
our message. It is not a hard one. That is the heart of the Christian
faith. To talk about the love that God has in Jesus Christ. God is a
missionary god. Even as the father has sent me, so I send you.
Another problem I think is that we
have simply gotten way too comfortable. Paul says, “If I find that I
have become at home in the body I have gotten away from the Lord.” If I
find that I have gotten at home in the body I have gotten away from the
Lord, so somehow the more comfortable we’ve come here with this life is
all that there is we step away from the Lord. God has become more
distant to us. we have become comfortable. We have forgotten in some
ways what God has called us to be. I’ve told you before about the PCUSA,
the Presbyterian Church, and its problem with membership but why is that
happening? Well part of it’s this theology that we aren’t out to
convert anyone. Part of it also is this theology that says that our job
is to simply go do social action. Our job is to go feed the hungry.
Our job is to make sure justice happens. And you know I want to say
that nothing is wrong with that. But if that is all that you do, you
might as well join one of the political parties and not a church. You
might as well join a club that is supposed to do that and not a church
because the message of the church is redemption, forgiveness. The
message today is that we must accept people, and certainly we must, but
there is a huge difference between acceptance and forgiveness. You and
I have to live with one another and all the folks around us must accept
them. We must accept differences in order to live. And that’s good.
You know that I’m an Army chaplain. Well as an Army chaplain I have to
deal with all kinds of folks of all kinds of places, all kinds of
religions, and I like that. And it’s good, there is something Christian
about that. But how one is forgiven is a different issue. Christian
faith is one that is forgiven in Christ. But part of the reason,
particularly for the Presbyterian Church but for many denominations that
churches are dying all over the country our demographics are basically
about sixty seven percent folks over sixty or sixty five and thirty
three percent under sixty five. Nature is simply taking its course and
part of the reason is simply we are not replacing ourselves. We have
gotten comfortable. And what happens is that people come into the
church, see how things are run and how things are done and we don’t have
a mission heart toward those people. We basically say, “If you don’t
like the way we worship or the way we run things you can go somewhere
else” and my friends they are. They are. It’s all about us. I will
never forget being on the church development committee of one Presbytery
and there was a church in the southern part of our Presbytery or an area
where we were trying to plan a church in and there was a little church
of about eighty or ninety members who were up in arms that we were going
to plant a church within two miles of them. And they said, “Well, you
are taking all the members away from us. You’re going to kill us by
planting this new church here.” But when was the last time they had
taken in a new member? Fifteen years ago? When was the last time they
did anything that was different? Never? The clientele we would have
gotten would have been totally different than that. But it was all
about them. We’ve gotten comfortable. We’ve not become missional.
Even as the father has sent me, so I send you.
Last but not least, I think we have
simply forgotten about the power, the message that we have. Paul says,
“And God made him, Jesus to be sin who had no sin, to be sin for us so
that we might become the righteousness of God.” God made Jesus sin. He
placed all the sins of the world and human beings on him. Who himself
was sinless. And he died at our place. What a marvelous trade. The
story I read this week about a man who was describing his sister. He
said this, “My sister, Martha, is three years older than I am and has
always been considerably smarter. This put me at a disadvantage,
teachers in school would compare my work to Martha’s and wondered if I
came from the same litter. When I was four or five and Martha was seven
or eight she sometimes took advantage of my financial ignorance. I would
have a dime and she would have a nickel. Showing me that clearly that
nickel was larger than my dime she would suggest a trade. I would
gladly do so wondering how my sister could be so dumb as to make such an
offer. Not all trades are fair. Some take advantage of the ignorant or
uninformed, but occasionally one bumps into a trade that is so
magnanimous, so caring, so loving that it rattles our selfish bones.
At the heart of the gospel is a
terrific trade, what martin Luther called ‘The Happy Exchange.’ A
sinless Christ took upon himself the sin of all people, bore it to
Calvary, suffered and died for it, and in exchange covered all believers
with his perfect righteousness. ‘For God so loved the world that He
gave his only Son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but
have everlasting life.’”
Last Sunday of course was Easter.
And I love Easter, as I said last week, I like it better than Christmas,
and I love Christmas. But what happens at Easter is the center piece of
our faith: the death of Christ on Friday and the Resurrection on Sunday.
I was telling Buck that I could preach an Easter sermon that I don’t
have to prepare for. I do, but I don’t have to, it just comes out. I
love Easter. But we forget the meaning of it and the next Sunday… you
know what they call the Sunday after Easter? They call it Low Sunday,
cause nobody comes…now you are here, thank you. It’s different. We
just need to remind ourselves of the power of the message. Some of us
forget, all of us forget. Story of a little boy out in California who
fell down one of those wells and was stuck there for two whole days and
they called in everyone, backhoes, and construction people they dug him
out. He was okay. After a little while he talked his father into going
back to the site. And when he went back he saw the huge mounds of dirt
and all the machinery and all the things that were still there. And he
said, “Wow did they do all of that for me?” Did God do all of that for
you? Yes, my friends He did, He did it all for you. Our job is to claim
that, believe that but then to go. It is not good for us to just sit
and be blessed. We must take that message out. What can you do? Well
some of you need to go on a mission trip and we have opportunities for
that, to Tijuana or to the Gulf of Mexico, we are sending another group
there. I have found in my life, and it has made a difference in my
life, that people never come back from those things without having been
changed a little bit, and a lot of bit for many. Its worth every dollar
I takes to send someone. And the thing is, when we go we get eighty
percent of the benefit, and that’s okay. Now I realize some of you
can’t either physically or time, some other ways you can pray for us.
But you can get involved around here. We have lots of opportunities in
our church to build houses, to mow lawns, to have Paint-a-thon, to take
things to prisoners through Midwest Challenge, bibles and some things
that they need. All things the women are doing in different ways.
There is a lot of mission stuff going on around here that I don’t even
know about, but it is going on. And you can pray for that as well.
Last but not least, have a missional heart. It’s not about us. Even
as the father has sent me, so I send you. You may not go to Africa,
you may not go to Mexico, you may not go across town but you are still
sent. You are sent into your neighborhood, to your family, to your own
house. That’s what you are, you are sent ones, you are not folks who
sit. Because God so loved you that he sent his son and whoever should
believe should have eternal life and not perish. In the name of the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
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