Sermon Tone Analysis

The Imperfect Church – 13

The Content Church

Introduction

- 12 Now, I will speak to the rest of you, though I do not have a direct command from the Lord.

If a fellow believer has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to continue living with him, he must not leave her. 13 And if a believing woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to continue living with her, she must not leave him.

14 For the believing wife brings holiness to her marriage, and the believing husband brings holiness to his marriage.

Otherwise, your children would not be holy, but now they are holy.

15 (But if the husband or wife who isn’t a believer insists on leaving, let them go.

In such cases the believing husband or wife is no longer bound to the other, for God has called you to live in peace.)

16 Don’t you wives realize that your husbands might be saved because of you?

And don’t you husbands realize that your wives might be saved because of you?

17 Each of you should continue to live in whatever situation the Lord has placed you, and remain as you were when God first called you.

This is my rule for all the churches.

18 For instance, a man who was circumcised before he became a believer should not try to reverse it.

And the man who was uncircumcised when he became a believer should not be circumcised now.

19 For it makes no difference whether or not a man has been circumcised.

The important thing is to keep God’s commandments.

20 Yes, each of you should remain as you were when God called you.21 Are you a slave?

Don’t let that worry you—but if you get a chance to be free, take it.

22 And remember, if you were a slave when the Lord called you, you are now free in the Lord.

And if you were free when the Lord called you, you are now a slave of Christ.

23 God paid a high price for you, so don’t be enslaved by the world.

24 Each of you, dear brothers and sisters, should remain as you were when God first called you.

As Americans, we have a distinct way that we view how life should go that is unique from the rest of the world.

Because of the radical success of what some have called “The American Experiment,” everything in our lives should show immediate and measurable signs of explosive growth.

Because of a successful democracy and capitalism, we are so used to, and expectant of, everything in our lives to be constantly moving up and to the right.

We get frustrated at things in life that go slowly.

We get bored easily.

We feel contempt for the daily ordinariness of life, instead longing to become famous, or change the world, or make our mark, or leave a legacy.

Whatever language we use, it is clear that we typically long to be more than we are.

We loathe ordinary.

Author Rod Dreher observes, “Everydayness is my problem.

It’s easy to think about what you would do in wartime, or if a hurricane blows through, or if you spent a month in Paris, or if your guy wins the election, or if you won the lottery or bought that thing you really wanted.

It’s a lot more difficult to figure out how you’re going to get through today without despair.”[1]

This frustration with ordinariness is having a negative impact, particularly on the younger generations who have been fed flattery their entire lives.

From Kindergarten on, it seems everyone has been told they can all be whatever they want to be, they are all going to be rich and important, and they are all going to change the world.

The pressure of that is immeasurable.

Tish Harrison Warren wrote a provocative post at the InterVarsity blog about this crushing pressure on her and those around her.

She wrote about a college friend who dedicated his life to teaching in the most at-risk schools.

After a nervous breakdown, he moved back to his hometown, working as a waiter.

Gradually, he recovered from his fall from glory.

She writes, “When he’d landed back home, weary and discouraged, we talked about what had gone wrong.

We had gone to a top college where people achieved big things.

They wrote books and started nonprofits.

We were told again and again that we’d be world-changers.

We were part of a young, Christian movement that encouraged us to live bold, meaningful lives of discipleship, which baptized this world-changing impetus as the way to really follow after Jesus.

We were challenged to impact and serve the world in radical ways, but we never learned how to be an average person living an average life in a beautiful way."[2]

As you heard her say, this desire for more, and the boredom with the ordinary, has infiltrated our faith.

We are no longer content with the regular means of grace in life like faithfully attending church, reading our Bibles daily, loving our families well, while serving in average vocations for God’s glory.

We feel compelled to do something “big” for God.

After all, that’s what “real” Christians do, right?

To really follow Jesus means to move to some village hut in Africa.

To really follow Jesus means committing to personal poverty.

Faithful following is out, radical is in.

After all, we want our lives to count.

We want to change the world for Jesus.

This boredom with the ordinary affects church leadership as well.

Seemingly gone are the days when a church can simply be faithful to worship the Lord, preach the Bible, love hurting people, and shepherd the flock.

All the metrics have to be up and to the right.

Growth, growth, growth.

This year’s attendance, giving, baptisms, all better be higher than last year.

If not, we are failing.

I drank that Kool-Aid for years.

But this fascination with growth and numbers is just an Americanized version of Christianity that focuses more on budgets than Bible, metrics than maturity, and fame than faithfulness.

We were part of a pretty large, metrically successful church.

But it was never enough.

We had to become an emerging megachurch (1,000-2,000).

And we did.

But it wasn’t enough, we set our sights on becoming a megachurch (over 2,000).

We were growing every year.

But that wasn’t enough.

We had to be “rapidly growing.”

And we eventually were, sometimes cracking 20% per year.

But it was never enough.

We only had one campus, and that’s not good enough.

We had to go multi-site.

And we did.

But it was never enough.

Jodie and I decided to get off of that treadmill and go plant a church.

But even in that process we found this same Americanized version of the faith.

We went to the major metropolitan area of Boston, home to more than 4.5 million people, but only about 1% evangelical Christian.

Any progress in that context is a win for the kingdom.

But as soon as we got into the planning of it all, we were told it wasn’t good enough just to plant a church, we had to plant a “church-planting church.”

It’s all about multiplication.

Ok, so we start figuring out what that looks like.

Then I go to some training that was centered around, not planting a church, and not merely planting a “church-planting church,” we had to start a movement of church planting in our city.

When does it stop?

When can we step off that treadmill, not just as churches, but as Christians?

Listen, I admire churches that are culture-changing churches, that are rapidly growing and multiplying.

I admire Christians who are indeed called by God to change the world and do “big” things for him.

You will meet one of them this next weekend.

My friend, Josh, has been called by God to India, and further to Asia, as a missionary.

The things God has him do is mind-boggling.

You’ll hear about some of that next week.

He and his ministry are responsible for tens of thousands of people coming to Christ ever year, thousands of churches being planted, and countless lives being changed.

There are few people in the world I admire more than am not opposed to anyone doing “big” things for God.

It would be great if more people did that very thing.

But here’s the thing…most of us are not called to change the world.

Most of us won’t be called to change our city.

Most of us have enough trouble trying to change ourselves.