Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

I saw a statistic put out this week, that I am unclear if it is a completely accurate one, that there are currently between 200,000 and 500,000 people who are or who have been homeless for a period of time in america, this last year.

There are around 350,000 christian churches, so why are there homeless people?

I found myself disagreeing with posed statement, that because their are 350,000 churches that it should negate the statistics about how many homeless are in america.

To me it wasn’t that simple.

I’m not saying churches shouldn’t or couldn’t work in that arena of ministry, but to suggest it would solve homelessness in america completely, im not sure is the case.

Most dictionaries define home as: “the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household.”

Home is a place of protection, a place of stable living, and a place to grow a family.

You find rest at home.

Home is an intimate place.

Home is also where your family is.

I do feel everyone should have a place to call home.

The more I describe what a home is, it starts to sound what I believe a church is to be.

A place of safety, stability, intamacy, family.

I know some of you have been attending this church if not your whole life atleast decades.

This place has a homey feel to it, some may feel your church is your other home, maybe you wouldn’t know what to if you didn’t have your church family.

Some though have come to look at church differently.

For some church is not safe or stable, maybe it doesn’t feel like a place of family.

Many in this world, given the option to be churched or churchless, many would choose to be churchless.

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For some, giving up your church, being churchless would be similar to giving up your home and choosing to live homeless.

Thats not a perfect analogy, as being without shelter a place to lay your head at night is quite different than not being able to come to church.....but what is true, is many who have left church life and then return often say things like, “I’m back home!”

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America has been and still is one of the most churched nations in the world.

In the 90’s, according to Barna Research group, 30% of adults would be classified as churchless, during the 2000’s it was 33%, and over the last decade that figure has risen to 43%.

If the church is a home, more and more are currently choosing to be homeless?

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2 in 3 unchurched people say they are still spiritual people.

more than half, say their faith is important to them.

99% are aware of christianity (theyve heard some about it) 69% believe Christianity is important

yet nearly half find that church attendance as of no importance.

But why?

Why would someone choose to be churchless over and what about the Seventh-day adventist church, are we lumped in with these same statistics?

What can we do to bring them home?

I hope you all know I am not a gloom and doom preacher.

I would never share a message that has no hope.

Today we are going to look at some solutions in scripture.

What is our role as Adventist Christians?

What can and should we be doing?

Before I go any further, lets begin with prayer.

Body

When I think of the example of Jesus in scripture, he was constantly bringing new people into his fellowship.

Whether they were lepers, prostitutes, tax collectors, fisherman, children, demon-possessed, or even good synagogue attending Jews.

Often the disciples were ready to send people away, often ones they didn’t have great care or concern for, but there was no one to small or insignificant, or even to sinful Jesus did not care about.

If you are like many church goers, you might have mixed feelings about the unchurched in america.

You may often feel sorry for the churchless, knowing they are missing out on the special experiences and relationships accessible only through the community of people devoted to following Jesus Christ.

At other times you may envy them, wishing to flee the church and be free, like the unchurched.

I know there are those out there, maybe even sitting in here, who might attribute living away from the church as “freedom.”

What I sense, is that many may view the church and/or the law of God as something holding you back, or chaining you down.

Maybe thats a failure on church leadership, maybe thats a misunderstanding of the purpose of the law.

As we talked about the last time I spoke.

Living a life dedicated to Jesus is accepting his grace and forgiveness but also we are seeking to be changed.

The law exposes sin in our lives and acts in our benefit, giving us more freedom, and safety that we could imagine.

Last time I spoke, I referenced Galatians 5:14-15

14 For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”15

But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out!

Beware of destroying one another.

Paul also cautions in verse 13:

13 For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters.

But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature.

Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.

Paul was taking the opportunity to counsel the assembled faith communities to hold each other to a higher standard, and understand the freedom that exists by following Christ.

He was also cautioning against the great danger of destroying each other with in these faith communities,.

I would not take time to ask you all to raise your hand if you have ever been hurt atleast once by another church member, by someone a part of your faith community.

I wouldn’t ask you to raise your hand, because I think every one of you would raise your hand, myself included.

I also think I would get equal participation here from everyone who has recieved a great blessing at the hands of your faith community, your church family.

What I see happening all to frequently is people are weighing the hurt against the blessing, and some do find the hurt is just to heavy.

They hear things like, let God take the burden off you, but to some they are saying, how can I do that when the burden is coming from within “the Lord’s house?”

Whether that is a fair assessment or not, for some, I stress some, that is the perception.

If you are like me and have been richly blessed by the church, sometimes there is a feeling of helplessness to share that experience with someone who has had a different experience.

I referenced that 43% figure of adult americans are purely unchurched.

33% of all american adults are de-churched and 10% are american adults never were churched.

That means that of that 43% of american adults that is unchurched, a whopping 76% were at one point a part of a church and then chose to leave.

That is a problem…this means the overwhelming majority of non christians in a america were at one point a christian and found, eventually that they didn’t want to be anymore.

That 10 percent figure will continue to go up as well.

As we watch a large percentage of Christians walk away, their children will be raised without ever even having the option to choose or reject Christ or the church because they won’t have ever been introduced.

One substantial reality is the growing sense among North American christians is that the culture is changing faster than we can seem to keep up with or respond to— and we are not always sure how to live faithfully in a world that feels like it’s headed off the rails.

Not too many years ago, church attendance and basic Bible literacy were the cultural norm, and maybe being a Christian didn’t feel like you were swimming against the current, atleast not quite as much as today.

According to Barna, real data confirms how drastically the moral, social, and spiritual lives of americans have changed and are changing.

As Christians, and more specifically as SDA’s, what can we do?

What are we called to do?

I say it goes back to the example of Jesus.

I will say again and again, we need to embrace the churchless---whether they follow Jesus from home but are disconnected from the church or not following Jesus at all.

Dietrich Bonhoffer, the german pastor and martyr at the hands of the Nazis, observed that the church is the church only when it exists for others,---that is spreading truth and love to the outsiders.

For the sake of the life-changing message of Jesus, and of the great commission to share what message is entrusted to us, we as Adventists especially have an obligation to understand the churchless.

You know it is interesting to me, often when we talk about Jesus spending time with hated tax collectors, we often think of Zachaeus.

Its a good example, Jesus did quite the number on him, His life was completely changed almost instantly as he encountered Jesus.

He was far from the first whose life was changed so dramatically by encounter with Christ.

Matthew the disciple of Christ, and author of the gospel Matthew had a similar encounter with Jesus.

Jesus rebuke to the pharisees is a quote from which critiqued the self-centered focus of the Israelites: placing ritual over mission.

The question posed to Jesus, in other words, was…If you are who people say you are, then shouldn’t you be above these people who were a mixture of both physically and spiritually sick.

Jesus’ answer is one that reflects his desire for all his followers.

“Yes I am, these are the ones I came to save! Shouldn’t you be as well?

I am hear to heal the sick, not those who are healthy.

I don’t think Jesus here is acknowledging the pharisees as spiritually healthy.

I think Jesus working to help those who not only needing his help but were willing to accept it.

Desire of Ages gives further commentary:

The teaching of Christ, though it was represented by the new wine, was not a new doctrine, but the revelation of that which had been taught from the beginning.

But to the Pharisees the truth of God had lost its original significance and beauty.

To them Christ’s teaching was new in almost every respect, and it was unrecognized and unacknowledged.