Learning about Compassion

We are in week two of our three week look at the three aspects of our mission statement. In case you missed it last week, our mission statement is that we, with help from God, will form, develop, and release disciples into our communities to serve God and the world.

Last week we looked at “form” and how we are called through our actions and our teachings to as a church help God to form believers. We never stop being formed but there becomes a time when we need to choose to form a closer relationship with God.

This is about becoming followers of Jesus. We become in some ways like Jesus’ disciples. We spend time with Jesus. We learn the ways of Jesus. We also will at times begin helping others get to know Jesus’ better. Kirkersville United Methodist church wants to help God help each person develop a closer relationship with God each and every day.

Our scripture for today comes from Ephesians 4:11-16. The words are on the screen.

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Please pray with me…

The scripture tells us that we all begin our faith journey like we are little children. We need direction. We need help in understanding the Scriptures and the way that God wants to guide us in our lives.

This is where we are being formed. We may have known enough to want to follow Jesus but we are still unsure what that might mean for us. We are children who are always learning and always listening to what others tell us.

As we know what a child learns and hears can be both a good and a bad thing. Have you ever heard a child repeat something not so appropriate that they heard from their parents or sibling? Our understanding of God can also have a good or a bad result.

It is possible that it can lead us to listening to the wrong voice. It can cause us to be led astray. It becomes possible that we receive insights that we believe are good but, in the end, can lead us away instead of towards God.

Our first reading has Jesus speaking of this issue. The difference was that in the case of the Jewish people they had been given this wrong information for many generations. It was ingrained within them the way they were supposed to be.

Jesus says that “they were like sheep without a shepherd.” There was no one helping them find the spiritual nourishment that they needed. There was no one to lead them in the right direction when they got lost. They were spiritually on their own.

Kirkersville hopes to not leave you in that situation. We desire to help you find ways for you to connect with God. We want to help you nurture your faith. We want you to trust God to lead you down the path that he desires for you to take.

The Jewish people trusted the Pharisees. The religious leaders of the time to lead and direct them on spiritual matters. The problem was that the Pharisees were actually leading them astray. They were leading them on a path away from God instead of towards God.

The focus of the Pharisees was on rule following and not on compassion. They made their faith about the individual and not about community. Jesus during his time on earth showed the disciples what God desired. God desired a relationship with all people. He desired us to help out the outcast and take care of the poor. Jesus attempted to show the Jewish people a different way.

When I speak about the Jewish leaders leading the Jewish people astray. I say this because I don’t want you to take what I say as the Gospel. It is important that you make sure that I am not leading you astray.

You are able to do this when you question what I tell you. I try my best to lead you down the path that God wants us to go but that does not mean there won’t be times that I will misspeak. For example, when I said that Mark was one of the disciples. It wasn’t on purpose but it was important that it was corrected.

You may also need to challenge me on something that I have said. If you hear something, feel free to challenge me on it. Let me know why you believe I may have misspoke. Just as I spoke of earlier. I am human. It is possible that I have made a mistake.

It also is possible that you believe slightly different than what I do and that is also OK. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism believed that there were very few parts of Christian theology that were essential, meaning that we had to all believe the same thing.

They would be God was the creator. Jesus was human but also the son of God. Jesus died so my sins could be forgiven. There may have been a few others but a majority of what we call Theology are decisions that we make on what we believe and how we choose to believe it. It is important that you develop a belief system that allows for you to be closest to God.

This is what developing our faith is about. It is about us figuring out what we believe and why we believe it. It is about us becoming closer to God. We call this sanctifying grace. It is God trying to lead us into being holier because the holier we are the closer we are able to be to him.

The only way that we can figure out our own belief system is to get to know God better. The only way that we get to know God better is by spending time with God. The disciples had the opportunity to walk with Jesus for what is believed to be around three years. They were able to spend almost every waking moment during that time learning about what they should believe from Jesus.

Paul, who because the apostle to the Gentiles, did not have this advantage. He didn’t believe in Jesus until after Jesus’ death, resurrection and then assentation into Heaven. Since he wasn’t able to walk with Jesus he instead went away and spent time with God to learn about Jesus.

Paul speaks of what he did after he became a Christian in Galatians chapter one. He says “when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone; 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.

18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days.”

We often miss this about Paul and his ministry. He didn’t become a Christian and then tell everybody what he knew about Jesus. He went away. He listened to God for three years before he began his ministry to the Gentiles.

Even Jesus didn’t begin his ministry without some preparation. Scripture tells us that he was baptized and then he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness and he spent forty days praying and fasting preparing himself for the ministry.

Forming believers is the beginning of that process for us here at Kirkersville but just like it didn’t for Paul or the disciples it doesn’t stop there. We should choose to develop an even stronger faith. We should decide that we want to become closer to Jesus every day.

What are some ways that we want to help you do that at Kirkersville? The first is what we are doing today, worship. You may not realize it but when we are at a church service we are in a conversation with God. When we focus on the parts of a service we can recognize this conversation.

In our service today we began with a hymn. This hymn is us praising God and thanking him for coming in our midst. We are telling him how much that we appreciate him being with us today.

The hymn is followed by our first scripture reading. This is God responding back to us. He is saying to us “I am glad to be here, let me give you a glimpse about what we are going to be talking about today.”

We respond back to his word by going to him in prayer. We are telling him that we believe in him and that we want to thank him for what he has done for us and ask for him to continue to help us in other ways.

God responds back to us through the children’s sermon and the message. He passes on his wisdom to us through helping us better understand his word and how it should affect our lives both individually and as the church.

The service ends with our response through our closing hymn. It is us thanking him for helping us become closer to him today. This is why worship is important, it is us getting the opportunity to talk to God and for God to be able to respond back to us.

Another opportunity we provide at Kirkersville is our “Jesus Time” online program. This was started at the beginning of Advent. It is designed to speak to those that may not yet have a relationship with God or at some point decided to walk away. It is focused towards the “form” part of our mission statement but can still offer insights to all people.

We also have Bible studies and Sunday School. The Bible studies are available on Wednesday afternoons at 2 and Thursday evenings at 7 and last around 1 hour. This gives the opportunity for a more in-depth study of scripture together with those of our Christian community. Sunday school begins at 9 on Sunday mornings. Both of these are right now online only through Zoom. The link is available on the church’s private Facebook page or you can contact the pastor.

Another growth possibility is our devotionals that are offered every weekday. These are short, around a ten-minute look at scripture. They can be challenging at times. Other times enlightening, and also at times just satisfying to the soul. They become available every weekday morning at 9 on our public Facebook page.

These are all options but you can also have your own devotional or time with God. There are apps and websites that offer devotionals or Scripture reading plans The best app that I have found is called YouVersion. It offers you many opportunities to get closer to God.

My challenge to you is that unless you are already doing all of these ways to connect with God is to pick a new one to try. Discover for yourself another way for you to develop a closer relationship with God.

The last point today is that as we develop a closer relationship with God, we can find ourselves with opportunities to help those that are forming their own belief in God. The church is doing what the church is supposed to do when we are helping each other become who God wants us to be.

Our main scripture today begins by listing various ways that we can serve the church. This list is not exhaustive, meaning there are other ways that you individually can help others learn about Jesus and develop their own understanding of what it means to go from believing to becoming a follower of Jesus.