WHAT WE DO AND WHY

WHAT WE DO AND WHY 1 Peter 3:15-16 With grateful acknowledgement of these sources of direction and inspiration: the Holy Spirit; the Word of God; Paul Borthwick, Stop Witnessing, and Start Loving; Leighton Ford, Good News is for Sharing; Wayne McDill, Making Friends for Christ; Greg Ogden, Transforming Discipleship; Michael Simpson, Permission Evangelism October 12, 2003 [Additional Notes] Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introductory Everyone knows that the cell phone industry is booming. There is a problem, though. To keep this mammoth industry growing, the companies need more and more cell phone towers for more and better transmission. The trouble is that no one wants big cell phone towers in their neighborhood. So Valmont/Microflect is offering to camouflage them! How? Well, some examples of their cleverly concealed installations include: Lighting structures with curved arms and canisters to conceal antennas; Signposts that are two- or three-legged structures with optional signage; Camouflaged trees. "The design of the Tree Pole ™ is site-specific to the location with careful consideration and configuration given to existing trees", says the company. There's another design that hits close to home-the "Steeple Antenna." That's right, a communications tower with crosses incorporated into the design of the monopole. Steeples are no longer just signs of spirituality-they are now conduits of cellular communication! Across the country churches are getting into the act, big time. They are renting out their steeples to be antennas, and making some serious cash along the way! Motorola pays the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. about $100,000 a year. Sprint has given the New Jerusalem Church in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, a one-time fee of $500,000. Pacific Bell promises the Green Hills Baptist Church of La Habra, California, $14,400 per year, "forever". And AT & T has cut a deal with St. Mary's Church of Annapolis, Maryland, that nets the church $12,000 per year for 20 years. Estimates are that 300 to 500 steeples nationwide are already serving as "antenna sanctuaries" and wireless companies are generally paying about a thousand dollars a month to rent a church's steeple for 10 to 30 years. Speaking of communications, though, weren't the church buildings first built on their locations in order to send messages of a very specific order? The tall steeples, leftover vestiges from yesteryear's church building architecture for the most part, were crafted to be tall and noticeable, so people could find the central place of the community for spiritual nourishment and direction. It seems very few people are looking for those steeples these days, though. It used to be people would flock to the church house for spiritual nourishment and fellowship. Not so anymore. Churches used to advertise revival meetings and the whole town would come out virtually every night to hear the gospel message. But, as the song says, that was yesterday, and yesterday's gone. Is the mission of the church dead? Has the steeple been rendered obsolete? Is the message still worth speaking to a world that doesn't seem to want to hear it? Will it only be useful from now on as a cell phone tower? Evangelist Greg Laurie said, "Jesus did not command the whole world to go to church. Jesus commanded his church to go to the whole world." We in the church are waking up to the fact that we don't "magnetize" people anymore, just by the presence of our buildings, with or without steeples. In fact, we are beginning to wonder if it isn't true that the more we do our religious thing, the more we actually seem to repel non-believers. So, any given church is always coming up against a decision: Seeker services or Spiritual services on Sunday? If we're serious about our calling, we will continually face this quandary. I was amused to read the other day about how music technology has been used in a new and creative venue. Music is being used to keep birds away from a bus station in North Carolina, and it may soon be employed to keep away other "pests". Officials at Trade Street Station in Charlotte, North Carolina, currently use the station's loudspeakers to emit the calls of hawks and owls to frighten away pigeons that roost in the rafters. Now, they plan to use the sound system to play classical music and smooth jazz to discourage loitering teenagers! A spokeswoman told a local newspaper, "The idea is to make the atmosphere at the Trade Street station less pleasant for those who aren't there to catch a bus. We know if we play a certain genre, people won't want to hang around." What kind of music does it take to keep pagans away from churches? I can't say that I know exactly, but somewhere along the way, the church started playing it! But, of course, the church is the people of God, and we honestly try to do what pleases Him. So we are always seeking out the mind of God in matters of outreach and ministry to the unsaved. It really all depends on what kind of church you're talking about. Ted Haggard, in his recent writings, has identified two different types of churches: life-giving churches and non-life-giving churches. The first type has sold out to the culture and become secularized to the point that they have forgotten to put the saving message of Christ at the center anymore. They have become either liberal or so huddle-minded that they are impenetrable by the few honest seekers out there. The other type of church Haggard categorizes is the life-giving church. This is the church who, no matter how "successful" they are, are doing their best to keep Jesus' lordship and His agenda at the heart of all they do. They preach Christ and have an answer for a lost and hurting world. Their agenda is God's agenda-to do all they can to make it hard for people around them to go to hell. What kind of church do you want MECF to be? Let's read the mandate: Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:18-20) That is no new mandate. It has been the heart of God to bring people back from their sins to Himself again ever since the fall in Eden. To Abraham He said, I will bless you . . . and you will be a blessing . . . and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. (Genesis 12:2-3) He told the nation of Israel that He made them a light for the Gentiles (Isaiah 49:6). His purpose was clear-that all men will see God's salvation (Luke 3:6) and His divine plan was that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Acts 2:21) 1 Timothy 2:4 says that He wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. Today, the mandate has been given to the church, God's people, to faithfully share the simple message that God has made a way for sinful and rebellious people to return to Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. To us this morning He says, "Don't forget to tell them!" Tell them because they're going to a godless eternity in hell without Jesus. Tell them because you love me and you told me I was your Lord. Tell them because you want them to experience the abundant life of grace and hope that I have given you. Tell them because I told you to tell them. Just tell them. In September 1985, The Times-Reporter of New Philadelphia, Ohio included an article about a celebration at a New Orleans municipal pool. The party around the pool was held to celebrate the first summer in memory without a drowning at the New Orleans City pool. In honor of the occasion, 200 people gathered, including 100 certified lifeguards. As the party was breaking up and the four lifeguards on duty began to clear the pool, they found a fully dressed body in the deep end. They tried to revive the 31-year old Jerome Moody, but it was too late. He had drowned, surrounded by lifeguards celebrating their successful season. As a church we must never be satisfied that we are doing things well until we are saving souls well. That is our purpose-it's what we do in the world. It's our number one primary reason for being the church. The question I want us to consider this morning and for the next couple weeks is how do we do what we do? How do we make the message of Christ appealing, clear and compelling to the 21st century culture of people who have made messes of their lives, who are bound for a Christ-less eternity and don't even seem to care? I want to suggest that the best answer to that question is to do well what we have been told to do. I am so thankful that our instructions, graciously given to us in the scripture, are clear. I believe the premier text in the New Testament on our calling as evangelists for God is at 1 Peter 3:15-16 - "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…" If you've been around here very long at all you've heard this text taught and you've encountered it in the Design for Discipleship courses. It's what I like to call the "everyman's commission" because it spells out in detail what even the shyest person among us can do as a witness for Christ. You don't have to be a gifted evangelist to be a witness for Christ, and this text shows us how. In this teaching series, I hope to use the salient points in this passage as topics we will study and apply. This morning I am beginning at the beginning with the simple words in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Now, a third-grader with a children's Bible could figure out that the context of this teaching has to do with suffering for being a Christian. The believers to whom Peter writes are facing serious consequences for living holy lives and being witnesses for Christ in their world. Peter is writing to say, "Don't quit when it gets tough. In fact, hang in there and do it even better!" Pick up at 1 Peter 3:13 - Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. "Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened." (a quote from Isaiah 8:12). But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. I see here a direct application to those of us for whom witnessing our faith to others, especially verbally, is a scary thing. In his book, Good News is for Sharing, Leighton Ford reports on research about what makes people hesitant to share their faith. "I am afraid I might do more harm than good." "I don't know what to say." "I may not be able to give snappy answers to tricky questions." "I may seems bigoted or narrow-minded." "I may invade someone's privacy (and make them angry)." "I'm afraid that I may might fail." "I'm afraid I might be a hypocrite." But, by large margin, the greatest fear is that of being rejected. Most of those Christians polled by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association said their biggest problem was the fear of how the other person would react. Why is that a fear? Because we are insecure, and we don't want people to think badly of us or to make us look silly. How incongruent does it sound that our fears about how we might look or feel would keep us from at least trying to save someone's soul from damnation for eternity? If a deaf person were just about to get hit by a train and it was in your power to push him out of harm's way and save him, would you hesitate because you wouldn't want him to be upset with your pushing him? No! It wouldn't matter if he fell and broke an arm when you pushed him-he'll know in a moment the urgency of your action! Peter says: get serious about the Lordship of Christ and those fears will dissipate. Here's a word of advice from Wayne McDill, in his book, Making Friends for Christ: "The secret to neutralizing fear is to embrace the threatened disaster and count it as not too high a price to pay for obedience to Christ. This attitude of faith may not totally eliminate the uneasiness and apprehension. It will, however, allow you to go ahead and act in obedience to Christ. The problem of fear is not the fear itself, but the fact that we allow it to immobilize us. Being afraid is no sin. Shrinking back fearfully from obedience is sin...fear can stop you in your tracks as a Christian...but it doesn't have to. You can trust God...(and) move ahead in obedience because you understand fear and know how to deal with it." How to set apart Christ as Lord 1. Continually focus on what He has done for you. The Bible says He redeemed you from the curse of the law, He saved you from hell and He reconciled you. And He did it all by sacrifice. 2. Worship and thank Him often - very often. If you are serious about serving the Lord you will need to be near Him, so make it a point to always be thankful and take every opportunity to worship Him. J.I. Packer: "I've experienced God's presence most powerfully in worship, often during the singing, I suppose because when we sing to him, we are looking hard in his direction." 3. Grow your faith by stretching. Faith is a muscle and it grows by stretching it to it's limits. We need "rubber band faith" - rubber bands are no good to anybody unless they are stretched. 4. Trust the Holy Spirit's leading and His power. You are always where you are for a reason. You come into contact with others for a reason. You live and work and worship where you do for a reason. Learn to get into your "listening room" and invite God to lead you into places where you can witness for Him. 5. Pray the RWA prayer every morning. This simple prayer includes all the elements of a sincere, humble, impassioned prayer to the Lord-IF when you pray it you are sincere, humble and impassioned. I want us to recite it together as a church family. Then I want you to pray it sincerely, humbly and passionately every morning this week when you first get out of bed. Let's see how God answers.   [RWA Prayer in a new window for printing] RWA PRAYER (Ready, Willing and Available) Lord, I want to be ready today for whatever ministry opportunity You want to send my way. Help me by Your Spirit to be alert, to hear and respond. I am willing to be used by You to influence other persons to come to faith in Christ. So I am asking You to sovereignly lead me to at least one person today who needs to hear the good news. Make it clear to me when they arrive in my life, so I won't have to question whether or not it is Your leading. And finally, I need to admit to You that I do not feel confident to be Your witness to this person, so I ask for the power and wisdom of Your Holy Spirit to give me what to say. Amen.   [Back to Top]