Blessing Our Community (2)
Blessing Our Community • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Turn to Luke 10. Thank you, Teri for sharing. As we continue our series about Blessing Our Community, PHC is one of many ways to bless. The heart of this movement is not to come up with church programs or service projects just for the sake of having programs and service projects.
Blessing Our Community is about seeking first the heart of Jesus and allowing Christ to capture our hearts so that we are compelled by His love for us and for all people.
Remember, it’s
By the blessing of the upright a city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked it is overthrown.
(brought to life, healed, restored …). How so? The core meaning of blessing is to give or create life where there is none or it’s been diminished. That’s what PHC is doing ….
Our prayers should be centered on asking God to transform us from the inside. We should be praying for God to give us compassionate hearts, to help us to see our community as God sees it and asking the Holy Spirit to help us prioritize His mission and His Kingdom – and prioritize His call on our lives. We should ask God what is needed most, what is needed here, and what is needed now in our neighborhoods, schools, in community. Here’s the cool thing, as you seek God, you might see something different ….
Pursuing Christ is where Blessing Our Community begins.
… doing something about it – without an agenda.
Let’s talk about agendas for a moment. By agenda I mean an underlying plan that’s often hidden from the person or community. Let’s be honest, Christians and churches have been guilty of having hidden agendas when doing what we call outreach. The agenda is to “get ‘em saved.” Example – A local church invites the community to a free carnival. The church advertises the carnival as a day for families to have fun together. The neighborhood shows up – thankful for a free event. Then the church says – we have them right where we want them (moo ha ha). Slip in the gospel that they had no idea they were going to hear. The community was not invited to a family event – they were invited to an agenda. We can have these hidden agendas as individuals or as churches.
Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.
Helping people come to Christ is our hope, but I’m not convinced that should be our agenda. See, as followers of Christ we are called to love, to serve, to do good works, to bear fruit, to confront evil, and to make disciples. We are not called to save anyone, because we can’t. That’s what the God does through His Spirit. Our job is not to save, but to serve, help, bless – and through that we hope people experience and meet Jesus.
As we seek God’s direction for Blessing Our Community, perhaps we need to reevaluate our agendas. Rather than seeking to evangelize and save - and somehow, I need to slip in the 4 Spiritual Laws – how about simply seeking to be a blessing, to love, to have a conversation, to meet a need without an agenda. Sometimes our underlying hidden agendas actually impede genuine Christ-like love and compassion for others because we’re focused on an outcome and our performance and not the person in front of us.
People don’t want to be an agenda.
Illustration – invite someone to confide in me …
I hope you’ve been reading the daily prayer journal. I have found it to be good, encouraging, and challenging. This past week, the parable of the Good Samaritan got my attention. Briefly go through this ….
And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”
And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
Interesting. Jesus equates loving God and loving neighbor with having eternal life. Didn’t tell him to say the sinner’s prayer.
But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.
Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.
So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
The priest and Levite, in our world, represent people who claim to know God but fail to put that love into practice by having compassion for another human. Or as James would say, failed to put faith into action. All talk.
But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.
He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.
And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’
Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”
He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
Go, show mercy, compassion, truth, love … without an agenda.
Let me know what God is putting on your heart …
Where are you already blessing?
What are you praying for?