Unstoppable: Sent, Not Seated

Opening Story

I want to start with a story from Theodore O. Wedel, “There is an old story about a little village that sat at the bottom of a dangerous stretch of coastline. Ships would wreck on the rocks, and the people of that village were good people, so they built a small lifesaving station. It was just a hut and one boat. But a few devoted members kept watch, day and night, and rowed out into the storms to pull drowning strangers from the sea. Lives were saved. The little station became known.

More people wanted to be part of it, so they gave their time and money. They bought better boats and trained new crews. The station grew. But here is where it turns. As the station grew, the members started to enjoy the building itself. They fixed it up. They put in nice furniture. It became a kind of club, a comfortable place to gather. Fewer of them wanted to go out on the dangerous rescues, so they hired a few crews to do the rescuing for them.

Then one day a big ship wrecked offshore, and the hired crews brought in boatloads of cold, wet, half-drowned people. They were dirty and sick, and some of them looked different, and they tracked mud all over the beautiful clean floors. So the club held a meeting, and the majority voted that lifesaving was fine, but it should be done somewhere else, so it would not disrupt the fellowship. And so they built a new, separate little station down the coast for the actual rescuing.

As the years went by, that new station faced the same thing. It grew, got comfortable, and became another club. And it happened again, and again. Today, if you visit that coast, you will find a row of exclusive, beautiful clubs along the shore. Shipwrecks are still frequent in those waters. But most of the people just drown.”

(Source: Theodore O. Wedel, “The Parable of the Lifesaving Station,” The Ecumenical Review, October 1953)

What happens in this parable happens in churches every weekend. Someone comes in smelling like the bar, with a broken marriage, an alternative lifestyle, or a perfected mask and we wonder why they are here. We have this thought, “Don’t they know they need to get it together before they come in?” But that thought is so wrong. IN EVERY WAY. Jesus came to save the lost, not build comfortable rooms for the saved.

Luke 14:21–23 NASB95

“And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ “And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ “And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled.

The church was never supposed to get comfortable in their own place, the church was the original EV charging station: come in, charge up, go out and share hope.

Sent = an Assignment

John 20:21 NIV

Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”

If you look up the word mission, the Latin root simply means “to send.” If you have no sense of being sent, you have quietly lost the mission you were made for.

And notice the order. Peace, then sent. He settles you before He sends you. You do not go out to earn His approval. You go out already carrying His peace. You find hope then you share it.

Jesus did not rescue you so you could sit in a nice comfy chair safely on shore. He rescued you and handed you an oar.

I want you to notice that in the opening story the old lifesaving station never actually closed. It just lost its purpose. We don’t want to row out into the storm, we want to sit comfortably on a cruise ship.

Revelation 2:2–5 NLT

“I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. You have patiently suffered for me without quitting. “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches.

Serve me. Carry my luggage. Feed me. Clean my room. Take me where I want to go. And if the show, the food, the service, is not good enough this week, I am not coming back to your boat. Somewhere along the way we quietly stopped being a crew and started being passengers rating the cruise.

Jesus did not save you to be a passenger. He saved you to be crew.

Ephesians 2:10 AMP

For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].

I wasn’t just saved from something. I was saved for something.

My Monday Is the Mission Field

1 Peter 2:9 NLT

But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.

In the old covenant, before Jesus came, there were only a few priests. Through Peter, God now calls every believer one. You do not need a collar or a stage. Your workplace is your parish.

Let’s not miss the forest for the trees, responsibilities is not assignment. Taking care of your kids, being a godly spouse, honoring your parents, these are responsibilities, and they are holy works. But those are not your whole assignment. God has an assignment with your name on it that involves more.

1 Peter 2:12 NLT

Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.

Neighbors is the focus here, those outside your home should see how you live, and how you live should bring glory to God.

One of the earliest outside descriptions of Christians comes from a Roman governor named Pliny the Younger, writing to the emperor around AD 112. What he wrote spoke of their lives, not their words: they met before dawn, sang to Christ, and bound themselves by oath not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, and to keep their word.

So before you worry about having the perfect words to share, ask a simpler question: is my life making the argument for me?

The sermons most needed today are sermons in shoes.

Charles Spurgeon

Point Three: The Church Was Made to Stop Hell

Matthew 16:18 NIV

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

Greek word for “overcome” means to prevail against, to be strong enough to hold back. Hell is not strong enough. Whatever has been holding your family, your neighbor, your city captive, those gates were never built to survive a church that actually moves.

Some of you have quietly believed it is too late. Too late for that child or family member, for that marriage, for this town/country to change. Hear Jesus, hell does not get a vote. He did not say they might not prevail. He said they will not.

A 2018 study reported that about 94 percent of churches in America are currently losing ground in their communities.

Very few churches in America have ever been destroyed from the outside. Most churches are destroyed from the inside. Rome could not stop the church. Empires could not stop the church. The only thing that ever stalls it is us.

Acts 8:4 NLT

But the believers who were scattered preached the Good News about Jesus wherever they went.

Closing

So how do we take the next step?

Ezra 7:10 (NKJV)  “For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel.”

Seek it. Live it. Share it.

Seek Him until you actually hear Him.

Live it until your Monday looks different.

Then share the hope you’ve found.

Let’s grow in our faith, lets take the next step. The lost pray, God, give me. The growing believer learns to pray, God, use me. And the disciple, the difference maker, finally prays, God, You have all of me. That is the whole journey from seated to sent, one surrender at a time. Share the hope you found.

Isaiah 6:8 (NIV)  “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’”

Everyone say this with me:

Here am I. Send me.