The Irresistible Church

   Reverend John Ward

The scripture for this morning can be found in Romans 12:9-13. Romans is that wonderful letter written by Paul which gives the church its first systematic theology. Paul spends a good amount of time making sure that both the Hebrews and the Greeks, the Jews and the Gentiles, know that they are one in Christ Jesus through the work of Christ on the cross; that salvation now comes through the cross of Jesus Christ who is our Savior. It is open to all people, not just to a select group. It is open to all who will trust in what God has done in Jesus Christ in the spirit. Romans spends a great time on systematic theology but it doesn’t stop there; it always gives us practical realities as to what this faith, this theology, should look like with regard to the believers. Because God’s intention is for the church, the body of Christ, the sum total of all believers (whether it be all of Christendom which is truly invisible or through the churches which is quite visible), to know what it’s like to practice grace, to believe in Jesus Christ and to be what I am encouraging Faith Church to continue to be. And that is a church that is irresistible; one that, by your very nature as the body of Christ, practicing good theology in grace-filled activities, has the ability and is given the ability, not only to build one another up, to be a place where people will continue to come because you know Christ and you live Christ. We hear of systematic theology in Romans. Just before I read this passage, there is an excerpt on spiritual gifts. Just after this passage is an excerpt on what it means to bless those who persecute you. So, there are very strong passages in here…but every once in a while we need to be reminded of the simpler ones. That’s what I have chosen for today.

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

What I gave to you really is an excerpt of what it means for us to be an irresistible church. I notice that you are preparing for the 40 Days of Purpose campaign; it’s a wonderful campaign but it doesn’t do the work on its own, anymore than any other campaign that Faith has been a part of during its church life. There are many campaigns that churches can take advantage of; in fact sometimes we can be overwhelmed by all the opportunities given to us to do someone else’s project. But the success of any project has its success in the rooted-ness of Christian faith for the particular church. It’s you as Faith Church that will make your 40 Days of Purpose successful in that you practice what I just gave to you in the words of the apostle Paul with regard to loving people and regarding motivating them with grace. There have been many kinds of campaigns but the reality is that they are wonderful because they give us a systematic way of presenting the gospel to each other and an organized way of carrying out that love. But it cannot be done unless you have a culture of love and grace within your community.

What I did for you was I took out some excerpts from Romans, right in the middle of the great theology, and give you what I would consider a wonderful laundry list to help you remember to be an irresistible church. I want you to remember that whenever Paul writes, he doesn’t write to one individual, he’s writing to a community. So the thirteen points he gave to us is for you as a community to carry out as the body of Christ, for a community of people outside of this body that will come here as long as the doors are open with a curiosity about whether Jesus is really who he says he is and that is shown by your action of Christian love. I broke this down into thirteen points; so this is a thirteen point sermon. I will go over these points very quickly regarding what was listed and if you think of it as a list that you could post on your refrigerator door or somewhere else where you could ask God to show you what points He wants you to work on, even this week, then I think you will be taking part already in being an irresistible church and preparing yourself for a program like the Purpose Driven Life.

The first thing that Paul calls the Romans to do is to act out lovingly without hypocrisy. In other words, with a true and free love, filled with grace – because grace, not pressure, is the ultimate motivator. You will have the opportunity to participate in Purpose Driven Life and you heard the announcements that are inviting you to open your homes. The best way to get the job done is to freely invite you to listen to the Lord calling you to open up your home. Grace is much better as a motivator than pressure. Even now as you prepare your fall’s ministry, you must prepare those with a sense of grace, a way in which you will, listening to the Lord, open your doors up in your home for people. We must act lovingly.

The next bullet point is to abhor evil and the one after that is to cling to what is good. To abhor evil mainly means to be sickened by it, to hate it, to walk away from it. If you have a new life in Jesus Christ, if you were freed and forgiven of your sins, then you live a new life in Christ and you look for opportunities to walk away from your old ways. You look for an opportunity for God to free you from your sin and to walk in the new ways that are loving and gracious. And to love what is good and to cling to it means you find yourself purposely in places that you know are God-honoring, not so much to make you a better person, but to bring joy to the Lord Himself. When you walk away from evil, you indeed help yourself because you quit injuring yourself. And when you walk toward good, what you do is you honor God.

You are also called to be devoted to each other, again in this thing called love…to understand yourselves not as private Christians. People with a personal relationship in Jesus that is true are not people with a private faith. We do this together. Once again we are reminded that Paul is writing to us, to a church, to a gathering of people, not to me and not just to you as individuals. Our devotion shows irresistibility. To give preference to one another in honor, to be diligent – which basically means to put the life that you have as the body of Christ as your first priority, not your second. It doesn’t come after career, it doesn’t come after family…this is your family. Your vocation is to serve the Lord. So the community of faith that will be irresistible is one that shows that its members are clinging to one another and diligent for the cause of Christ through it.

The other bullet point is to be fervent in spirit and that basically means to be enthusiastic about your faith. Living that new life in Christ makes you excited for who you are now in Christ and who you can be for others and how God has gathered you all to be together in Him. It makes you fervent, it makes you enthusiastic.

Another bullet point means to serve the Lord because we are reminded even at the beginning – if you have not had the opportunity yet to read the book Purpose Driven Life –the first chapter says it’s not about you, that’s the opening line. It reminds us that it is all about the Lord. So, to be an irresistible church means to be people who are serving God first, because it is indeed all about the Lord.

Another bullet point is to rejoice in hope. To rejoice in hope does not mean to be anxiously hoping. To be anxiously hoping means that I know that God will provide and I am anxious about it, I keep praying about it, I’m certain that God is going to give it me, but I need it before I burst. That’s not what we are called to do. To rejoice in hope is to know that it is accomplished and God has brought it about in history and God will bring it to you in His time and therefore you can relax and rejoice. In my mind that’s one of the greatest signs of a church that can be irresistible, one that is hopefully rejoicing and not doing so out of anxiety.

The next bullet point is persevering in tribulation; in other words, willing to suffer, willing to make a sacrifice for a cause that is important to the Lord, along with your brothers and sisters in Christ. Standing up for your faith when it may not be popular to do so, making decisions on your family life, on your activity life, on your vocational life based on what the Lord is calling you to do, and to persevere when it may cause you to make a sacrifice.

To be prayerful goes without saying; to be praying for one another and to be praying to the Lord and to be entrusting to God all of your joys as well as your sorrows.

The second to last bullet point says to contribute to the needs of the believers, not only as you give your gifts and tithes, but also as a church itself making decisions about what to do with what you receive. The task of the session and Pastor Chris is to make sure that you spend the money that you receive in God-honoring ways, for the church, for the community, and also for the world.

Finally, practicing hospitality is the thirteenth bullet point; to practice hospitality, to just merely be friendly. I’m going to tell you a story from a visiting pastor who came here once. Three churches will be mentioned; one of them is this church, another is another church in the area, and the third church is where I am working now. We had a visiting pastor and his wife who were making the rounds visiting churches. He was in between ministries; he’s now a chaplain at a local home. I knew this gentleman before he came here and when he came to visit it was good to see him. He also visited Hope Church in Richfield, where I work now and he also visited another church in the local area. I had the opportunity to talk with him, along with other associate pastors from the area, at a meeting. He said, “I want you all to know” – because all three churches were represented – “I went and visited these three churches. The friendliest church, the one that I didn’t have to work at, was Faith Presbyterian.” Isn’t that wonderful? When pastors come in, they know the ins and outs of churches, they know what true friendship and hospitality is. You have a way of doing that here without systematizing it. No one forced anyone to sit at the Information booth or to shake hands. You began the process of organizing that but you know the hearts of those who have the passion to make that happen. There are people who long to stand there and greet. You have always been a welcoming church and you continue to be. That helps you to be irresistible.

I’m going to give you a couple of examples of what an irresistible church looks like. I will use some illustrations of other churches, but I could use illustrations of this church because you do this. I encourage you to continue to do so. Phillip Yancey writes in his book, “Rumors of Another World” about a certain pastor who himself tells a story of a visit to the University of Southern Mississippi. While touring the campus with the University President, this pastor noticed a towering male student, sic foot eight inches, holding hands with a little female person, barely three feet tall. His curiosity peaked and this pastor stopped to watch as the tall young man dressed in a warm-up suit tenderly picked up the young, small woman, kissed her, and sent her off to class. The president explained that the student, the tall one, was a star basketball player. Both of his parents had died in his youth and he made a vow to look after his little sister. Many scholarship offers came his way, but only Southern Mississippi offered one to his sister too, so he accepted to play basketball there. The pastor went over to the basketball star, introduced himself, and told him that he appreciated him for looking out for his little sister. The athlete shrugged and said, “Those of us whom God made six foot eight have to look out for those He made three feet tall.” That would be the sign of an irresistible person, one whom is among the greatest and most popular. This church is well filled with people like that – you are some of the best and brightest in this community. An irresistible church is one where the best and the brightest are known to attend, but when you find them there, they are tending to the one in the most need. Together, hand in hand they celebrate the irresistibility of the spirit of Jesus Christ.

Let me give you another example…this one has to do with what it means for us to trust in God, not only in love but also in the truth of who Jesus is for us and the transformed life that is offered us as an irresistible community. The late Bill Bright, the founder and president of Campus Crusade for Christ, talks about two lawyers. He knew these two law partners and has this to say about them. He says, “I know two law partners who used to hate each other. When one became a Christian, he asked me what he should do. I told him to ask his partner to forgive him and tell him that he loves him. This is two lawyers, two secular lawyers, and one is called to say ‘I love you’ to the other, so you can see that might be hard. The lawyer says, ‘I could never do that because I don’t love him.’ This is the new Christian, the one who is learning. That lawyer had put his finger squarely on one of the greatest challenges of the Christian life. On the one hand, everybody wants to be loved but on the other hand, many people never experience it. That’s why we need to learn to love as Christ loves, unconditionally. We can’t manufacture that kind of love, it only comes from God and it’s a love that draws people to Christ. I prayed with that attorney. The next morning he told his partner, ‘I’ve become a Christian and I want to ask you to forgive me for all I’ve done to hurt you and tell you that I love you.’ Talk about operating out of his comfort zone but trusting in the word of the Lord and being a person who brings an irresistible love to another person. Well, that partner who said that – the new Christian – he was so surprised by what he heard in response. The partner that he hated and now learned to love through the love of Jesus Christ felt convicted and he too asked forgiveness and said, ‘I would like to become a Christian. Would you tell me how?’”

We are called to be, as an irresistible community, as one that not only loves but also speaks the truth in love and does courageous things so that others can understand the irresistible love that we’ve been given. It’s not a love we create, it’s not something that just comes out of our heart, it comes from our transformed hearts. An irresistible church is based on the transformation of Christ, who causes us to be obedient, faithful, and courageous for the sake of others. An irresistible church is based on the transformation on, not ourselves, but Christ in us who causes us to be obedient, faithful, and courageous for the sake of others.

If you were indeed going to make that list and put it in a place that was important to you and to ask God to show you how He will help you to become an irresistible person in the life of Faith Church, for your work in the church and outside, you might ask how you would do something like that. Maybe it’s easy to love another person, but it’s ten times harder to ask forgiveness unless you’ve been forgiven in Jesus Christ. Unless you understand that, none of this will make sense. The good news is that this is all you have to do. You make the list. You put it in a prominent place. You ask God to show you how to do it and God will begin to work on you, because that is who He is. He loves you and He loves the people with whom you are in contact. You do what I just said; you be obedient, don’t worry about it, just be obedient. Be a witness. Be a city set on a hill in places where God is choosing you to go. You will feel it in your heart; it will begin to tug at you and tell you when it’s time to say something important or to show an act of kindness or that it’s important for you to ask a person if they would like prayer from you. You be obedient and faithful and courageous and God will do the rest.