Witnesses, Ambassadors and Friends

What?

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Our Vision

At our recent Congregational Meeting, we agreed on the following statement of vision:

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At Narellan CCC, we aim to be a healthy, functioning and safe community of faith with members known for integrity.

A vision statement is an important tool for churches, it reminds us of our purpose. If we have no purpose, what are we even doing?

Even more, a vision statement reminds us of God’s eternal purpose —to call a people to himself— and our part within that Purpose, as partners with him.

A vision statement is not a goal we achieve but a state we aim to achieve. It expresses what we want to be and what we want to be like.

If we are not all of one mind on our vision, we will never come close. Some say, “There will always be whingers!”, but that need not be the case if we are united in our aim and contributing to the process. If you see something you don’t like, do something about it!

In the methodology of Simon Sinek, a vision statement begins to answer the question, “Why?” Sinek asserts,

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People don’t buy what you do but why you do it and what you do simply serves as the proof of what you believe.[Simon Sinek, “Start With Why: How great leaders inspire action”, TEDx, 29-Sept-2009, https://ytube.io/3Hyw (accessed 21-May-2021).]

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Our Mission

A mission statement is the next tool in our belt. It further answers the question, “Why?”, and provides a glimpse of “What?” Why do we want to be the kind of community of faith our vision statement describes? The answer is,

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Being witnesses, ambassadors and friends of Jesus, as we go in and to the world, we encourage and equip others to love God, love one another, and love our neighbours, making disciples who make disciples.

We want to be the kind of community described in our vision statement because we are called to be witnesses, ambassadors, and friends of Jesus, as we go in and to the world. What will we do? We will encourage and equip others to love God, love one another, and love our neighbours, making disciples who make disciples.

Today we will continue this sermon series explaining our Vision and Mission statements by considering together the first clause of our mission statement,

At Narellan CCC, we are witnesses, ambassadors, and friends of Jesus.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

To explain those three descriptors, I need to start by dealing with ‘the elephant in the room’. To ease us into that, let me begin by telling you about “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, the 2013 film directed and starring Ben Stiller.

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Walter is a quiet, unassuming, nerdy-sort of man working at Life magazine. He works in a dark, dungeon-sort of office cataloguing the magazine’s photographs. Walter daydreams of adventures. When he develops a crush on a coworker, he musters up the courage to create an online dating site profile to try and attract her attention but his account lacks enough information to do so.

Walter does not ‘have a life’.

As the magazine begins to make the transition to an online-only format, a legendary photographer claims to have the ultimate photo for the final edition. He sends it to Walter who fears he lost the photo. As his job hangs in the balance, Walter takes the courageous step to find the photographer so as to get another copy of the photo.

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Walter’s decision takes him first to Greenland, where Walter mistakenly jumps out of a helicopter into the ocean.

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Walter’s next stop is Iceland, where he longboards down a hill to avoid a volcano.

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Walter then learns the photographer is in the Himalayan mountains. So he treks into the mountains, only to learn he had the photo’s negative in his wallet the whole time.

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Where Walter dreams of being in a grand adventure, Christians often pray the opposite: “Please God, do not call on me.”

On this Day of Pentecost, we have read together the biblical story of God pouring out his promised Holy Spirit upon the Church. But we know the Church is not a building, correct? The Church is the people of God gathered together. That means the friends of Jesus are witnesses and ambassadors. We are all called of God. If we avoid or deny that calling, then we are no friends of his… period.

Why?

Our Elders and Ministry Team, our Ministry Intern and myself, are all consciously aiming to set an example of faith and life, ministry and mission for our church. Yet it is up to all of us to own the vision and mission and to understand our role as witnesses, ambassadors, and friends of Jesus.

So What?

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I came to faith during a time when evangelism seminars and strategies were all the rage. "Every one has a gimmick” and every one had a different Bible tract that was THE KEY to converting the lost.

I too became jaded by it all, yet my passion for the lost never wavered. I do empathise with those who came to the decision, “This is all too hard; let someone else do it.”

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Not All Are Evangelists

So if you are among those avoiding or denying the call to God’s grand adventure, let me help by clarifying two misconceptions:

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Not everyone is called to be an evangelist! The problem with the evangelism seminars and strategies was they left the impression if you were not the next Billy Graham, then you are missing the mark. But there was only one Billy Graham and not everyone is called to be like him or like Billy Sunday or D.L. Moody or Charles Finney or John Wesley or the apostle Paul.

It is okay to not feel called to be an evangelist. Even the apostle Paul noted,

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Ephesians 4:11 CSB

And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,

Some are evangelists, they are a gift to the Church, they are called to proclaim the good news about Jesus the Christ in a very direct way. They are spokespeople for the Church in the world.

I believe I am such a person but that may not be you. And that is okay.

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Not everyone has the gift of evangelism. Similarly, not everyone has a gift for evangelism.

Some people just do not feel comfortable or confident in sharing the good news about Jesus. They ‘break into a cold sweat’ just thinking about what to say and how to say it.

I believe I have such a gift because people just seem to be drawn to talking to me about faith and spirituality, and I feel completely comfortable and confident in talking about such. That may not be your experience and that is okay too.

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Only some are evangelists in the Church and not all have a gift for evangelism, so you can breathe easy now.

However, that does not mean we do not all have a part to play, a job to do. When God poured out his Spirit on the Church he was providing the energy and enthusiasm for all his people to participate in the grand adventure of his eternal Purpose.

I believe there are three key metaphors for describing the call upon every son and daughter of God:

Witnesses

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Acts 1:8 CSB

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

A witness is someone who has seen, touched, tasted, heard, experienced something and has lived to tell the tale. Indeed they feel compelled to tell the tale.

Others may be sick of hearing you tell the tale —like you all with my stories of my ultra-marathon running— but they cannot deny your energy and enthusiasm.

When we share the energy and enthusiasm of the experience we witnessed, and do so with gentleness and respect (1Pe 3:15-16), people may not agree, they may even be annoyed, but they deny your story is compelling.

Because of Pentecost, we ARE witnesses to what God has done in the Church and what he is doing in our very own community of faith.

Ambassadors

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2 Corinthians 5:20 CSB

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.”

An ambassador is a citizen of another country who encourages and equips others to live and do business with that country. If you find my running stories annoying, wait until I tell you how beautiful Canada is 😀

When we share the energy and enthusiasm of living in the kingdom of God we are encouraging and equipping others to become citizens too. We describe how the Kingdom values and obedience to God just makes sense of this world and the human condition, of how faith in Jesus brings hope and peace into our lives, and how it teaches us love is the better way.

Because of Pentecost, we ARE ambassadors for the Kingdom and the free, full and forever life Jesus promised.

Friends

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My family recently discovered we have distant relations in Western Australia. As a result, I am a cousin-in-law with the Australian actress Melissa George.

Melissa George

I cannot deny how chuffed that makes me feel, almost like I’m a little more Aussie now. I still can’t say, “G’day!”, properly; I still don’t like the taste of Vegemite; I still can’t surf; but, I can walk into a pub and drop, “Melissa George is my cousin”, and people will start buying me rounds. How good is that? 😁

We feel intuitively that our associations make us better. In the case of friendship with Jesus, that is most definitely true.

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John 15:15 CSB

I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father.

Yes, God the Father has called us to a “job”, but Jesus the Son wants us to know ourselves more as his friends. And friends do things for each other, they help and support, they encourage and challenge. They are certainly not shy in talking of their friendship.

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Mark 8:38 CSB

For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

We should not be surprised that if we avoid or deny our friendship with Jesus, then we are no friends of his.

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Our friendship with Jesus fills us with energy and enthusiasm to not only talk of that friendship —”Oh the places we go, the things we’ve seen, the fun we have!”— but to encourage others to likewise become friends with Jesus.

Now What?

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Philippians 1:27–28a CSB

Just one thing: As citizens of heaven, live your life worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or am absent, I will hear about you that you are standing firm in one spirit, in one accord, contending together for the faith of the gospel, not being frightened in any way by your opponents. This is a sign of destruction for them, but of your salvation—and this is from God.

At the end of this sermon series, I am going to run a Sunday afternoon workshop to teach you how easy it is to be a witness, ambassador, and friend of Jesus in your daily life, to share the energy and enthusiasm that has filled you, just as it did the Church at Pentecost.

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Live your life and your faith community out loud. Do not think you can live a secret Christian life. It is neither possible nor is it authentic.

Live your life and your faith community with integrity. “People don’t buy what you do but why you do it and what you do simply serves as the proof of what you believe.” (Simon Sinek)