Press On Toward the Goal

PASTOR PHILLIPS'S SERMON

Sunday, November14, 2004

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Please pray with me. Heavenly Father, we thank you for giving us this opportunity to worship you today. Bless us as we draw near to you. Fill us with your Holy Spirit as, on the road, you opened the minds of the disciples, Lord, open ours to your Word today. Let our minds and our hearts be open to what you would like to communicate to us. Bless us with your Holy Spirit to understand these things. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Up on the screen, you see a variety of watches. Throughout the 40 days, you received parts in a package like this. And if you have all the parts, you have a clock. Maybe you missed a week, and you're missing a piece. But there are still some pieces back there, and you can go back and get those. But, technically, all the pieces have been given out. All the pieces are present if you've collected them faithfully, week after week, and you have the potential to build a clock. Somebody called our church and said, “Could you give us directions how to put it together?” I know that those who were organizing this whole plan to build the clock thought ahead on that schedule, and they had already given you a little sheet, step by step, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, how to put that together. Even I could do it. It wasn't hard. All the pieces were there. Simple instructions. No problem.

But what if we didn't put it together? What if we just kind of left it in the bag and admired it? Or just said, “Oh, yeah, that's a bunch of stuff I got at church.” And put it aside or maybe even threw it away. Wouldn't that be tragic? Think of all the planning that went into that, coming up with the idea to do pieces of a clock and, week by week, give them out so they would highlight the different points, the different purposes that we were learning about throughout the 40 Days of Purpose . Think if we had just thrown away all that because we didn't have time to put it together or lost interest.

God has equipped each of us, you and me, to serve Him. He's given us all kinds of experiences and abilities and talents and time to serve with. The clock is complete. The parts are present. They all have a specific function. Now let's put it together and see what it does.

In our text, the disciples have had a mountaintop experience. Luke 24 talks about how Jesus appeared to the disciples and he opened their mind so they could understand the scriptures and they had gone through the valley when they watched their Lord and Master nailed to the cross. They saw that. They witnessed that. And, with that event, their hopes were shattered. But on the third day, He rose from the dead. And with that, their hearts were filled with joy. They saw Jesus risen from the dead, conquering sin and death for us, now alive and well. And now they are back on top of the mountain. “Here we are.”

It reminds me of another mountaintop experience when Jesus took Peter, James, and John and they ascended to the top of a mountain and Jesus was transfigured before them. His face became as white as light, and His clothes gleaned like lightening. Peter was watching and he said, “It's good to be here. I'll build three tents, one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah, and we'll just stay up here on top of the mountain.” That's just not possible. It wasn't the plan for Jesus, was it? His plan was to lay down His life for you and me, to sacrifice Himself for the sins of the world. Remember what John called Him? The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That was His whole purpose in coming. He couldn't stay up on the mountain and enjoy a conversation with Moses and Elijah and Peter or James and John. He had work to be doing. He had things to get accomplished. There was a purpose in His life, to be a Savior.

So we've gone through this mountaintop experience of 40 Days of Purpose . We've gone through hearing inspiring messages, reading a book that really challenges you. When you read that, especially the first line, “It's not about you.” that feels like a 2 x 4, doesn't it? It's not about me? I can't believe it. Everything's about me. I do what I want. My goal in life is to make me happy. That book changes our thoughts, doesn't it? It helped us to see a more godly perspective on life, that God has purposes for us to worship and to pray together and to serve Him and to reach the lost and all these different wonderful purposes.

In general, God gives us all the same purpose. In Luke 24, he talks about being witnesses. Now you know if you see an accident occur, you are a witness to that accident. And it might be that, because you're a witness, somebody's going to ask for you to say what you saw. Well, we are all witnesses of Jesus Christ. We weren't there when He was nailed to the cross, but we read about it. We've been taught about it. We believe in it. We've seen His blessing throughout our lives. We've watched how He blesses babies and baptism and brings them into His family. We've watched how He provides for all our needs and gives us the things that we really, really need the most. We've watched how He comforts us through godly friends that surround us. We've called out to Him in prayer, and we've seen His wonderful blessings in response. We are witnesses. We've seen it.

Witnesses do two things in response to knowing Christ. First is that they reflect the love of God, that agape love, that unconditional love. God loves us no matter what. There are no qualifications or conditions on it. God loves us, period. So we begin to be His witnesses when we reflect that, when we love other people unconditionally, when we reach out to help, when we show love and compassion, when we work hard at our jobs and are different from other people because of our values in our love. Not our love, God's love that's in us. We really don't want people to see us. We want them to see Jesus in us. We're simply reflecting Him. That's one way of being a witness.

The second, and even more specific way, is telling what we know, telling what we've seen, how God has helped us through, how God sent His Son because we're all sinners destined for punishment, eternal punishment. But God loves us. Scriptures say that He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, and the wicked is anyone who has sinned. It's not some horrible, awful person. It's anyone who sinned. We don't have to look far to find that person. We can watch it on television. We can read about it in the paper. We can see him in the mirror, right? Because we sin. But God doesn't want us to be punished eternally, so He sent His Son, Jesus, as a sacrifice for our sins. He took our place. We deserved the punishment. Jesus took it.

Some of you are so familiar with that message. Maybe you're tuning me out a little bit. But that's all it is. That's the message. That's what it is to share your faith. That's what it is to be an evangelist in a sense. Just tell the simple message that we're all sinners and God sent His Son to save us from our sin. By what Jesus did on the cross, we will live forever in heaven reflecting His love, telling those wonderful words of the gospel.

Have you ever seen a lake or a pool and you throw in a rock and it makes ripples and the ripples go out in concentric circles out, out, out, out? That's what God is calling us to be, the person who makes a difference in the lives of others, a person who, by virtue of their connection with God, has an impact on the people around them and that impact goes out and out and out and out. You reach out to your neighbor and help them. The next day, they reach out to someone else. And the next day they reach out to someone else. Or another for instance, in my genealogical history and yours probably too, we've had pastors and missionaries and stuff like that in our family tree for a long time. And when my ancestors came to this country, they didn't leave God over in Europe . They came here and formed churches here and supported missions here because that's what God had given them, a legacy of blessing from generation to generation of people humble and trusting in God for their salvation.

I believe that, in this life, as God has called us to eternal life, as God has called us into a relationship with Himself, I don't think He wants any of us to be spectators to simply watch and say, “Oh, that's interesting.” I believe God has called us all to be people who make a difference in the lives of others, to get involved, to roll up our sleeves, to get our hands dirty, to jump in and be part of what's going on. A couple of weeks ago on Saturday, we had a wonderful turnout of people who were helping to make the grounds beautiful, raking leaves and picking up things and planting trees and bushes. You saw it. You can walk out there today and see it. They got the mulch all spread out. They planted all those bushes. I can't wait to see them next spring and how they're going to come out and grow, beautify the grounds. It was fun. It was exciting to see all the people come. It was fun to work shoulder to shoulder with them and see what joy it is to work with your brothers and sisters in Christ on a project on a mission.

God calls us to get involved, to sign up, to be part of what's going on, to contribute what we have to make things better. You don't know but you might be the unique puzzle piece that makes everything go once you get involved. So going from this general idea of being witnesses, let's be specific now and ask God. We've learned all about five purposes for our life, but let's ask Him for specifics and say, “God, show me how you want me to serve. God, you've given me all things. You've given me your Son. Show me how you want me to respond specifically.” Say that prayer to God with sincerity in your heart. Seek Him, and He will open the door for you to get involved.

Sometimes we look at it like, “Well, if I do that, I have to give up this.” I'll just say it as plain as this. You cannot out-give God. If you give Him one, He'll give you a hundred. He just blesses you so much. You think you're giving a big sacrifice like when we go on a mission trip, “Well, I'm taking a week of vacation. I'm using this money I could have spent on myself, and I'm going on a mission. What a big sacrifice I'm making.” But you know what? You get blessed so much in that one week of time you feel like you were given a whole lot more than you gave. It's amazing. And that's the way all ministry is with God. You give a little bit, but God gives it back so much you can't even count it all, you can't even measure it all. That's the way His blessings are, so start and ask God for specifics. Pray, “God, show me what you want me to do, how you want me to help.”

The second thing I want you to do is think about that Shape form. We passed those out October17. I know the date. That's my baby. One of the things I'm called to do here is to get people involved in ministry, to generate more and more participation in our congregation's mission and so this is one effort in that direction. We passed out 800 of those forms. We have not received 800 back. I think I know where some of those forms are. Those forms are really helpful, both for us as we fill them out, learning about our spiritual gifts and things like that, but also they're helpful for our congregation because we become networked. We become knowledgeable of the gifts that each person possesses. And maybe you have some fear like, “Well, if they know I can do that, I'm going to get calls all the time.” Well, I don't think so. Because we don't want anybody feeling guilty or compelled or forced into doing ministry. We want people to respond with joy in their hearts, and that's what people have been doing. At the Ministry Fair and at the Mission Fair, we had all kinds of people signing up for different things. At the Ministry Fair, we had a lot of people sign up to be ushers and greeters and other things like that, to sign up to help with the youth, to sign up to help with Sunday School, to sign up to be part of the Prayer Chain. This is fantastic. I can't tell you how gratifying it is as a pastor or as a leader in the Christian Church to see people volunteer. It's just an amazing thing. It's exciting. It makes you feel like you're not the only one working hard. Sometimes, as a Christian leader, you feel like you're just pulling this big ol' plow and it's just killing you. And you just think, “Boy, wouldn't it be great if somebody would come along side and help me pull this?” That's what we're talking about. Using your gifts. Not somebody else's gifts. We're not going to make you stand up and preach or anything like that. Use the gifts you have, the things you're good at, the things you enjoy doing in service to the kingdom of God .

So fill out those Shape forms. I'll briefly touch on them again. The first letter in Shape is your spiritual gifts. These are the things that God has spiritually given you, unique qualities that allow you to serve in a wonderful way. Then there's the leanings or listenings to your heart, the things you have a passion about. “I just love working with little children.” “Oh, I love to cook,” or “I love to do things with crafts,” or “I love to sing in worship.” The things of your heart.

Then there are the abilities you have, skills and talents, things maybe as a result of your education or the work you do or just something you've done all your life for a hobby. Now you can use it in service to God.

Personality Profiles. I am convinced that God matches us with our spouses, and He kind of laughs when He does it because He knows our differences. “Oh, we both love each other. We have the same moral values and everything, but we are complementary in our gifts, complementary in our personalities, not the same. There are things in life we look at differently.” And for my wife, I know there are areas where I'm weak that God gave me in her strength to complement. And there are areas where she is weak and I am strong, so we work together. God designed it that way. That's very basic. God did that for our church, too. There's a reason He put you in this congregation. There's a reason He called you together with this body of believers. There's a reason He gave you the resources you have and the time you have, the inclinations of your heart. It's all part of His purpose and His Plan.

I read the title of a book. It's called, “Everybody is Normal Until You Get to Know Them.” And you may have learned something about that in your 40 Days small groups. God made us each unique and different. You might find yourself saying, “You know, you're just like your father or you're just like your mother.” But in reality, we're even more complex than that. We're a wonderful, God-seasoned mix with His design and purpose. He has created us for His purpose and His pleasure. Each one of us is an integral part of this congregation. Nobody has a role that's more important than the other, and we are all called to jump in and get involved.

Earlier in the week, we said goodbye to a good friend, Gary Wergin, and you should have heard the testimonies, the people who spoke on his behalf. Beautiful words of how he had impacted the lives of people around him. They said the kinds of things you want said at your funeral. This man made a difference in our lives. This man made a difference at his work. He's the kind of person you want to be, somebody people remember for all the good and great things they were involved with. I can't imagine anything more discouraging than to think your life was insignificant, it didn't matter. That's certainly not the way God feels. God feels that each of us, each one of us is so precious and so important that we are worth dying for. That's how God feels. And He has a plan for each of us to participate in His ministry. Make a difference. Don't be a spectator. Ask God what He wants you to do. Fill out those forms so we can invite you into the ministry you're designed for. Seek God's answer to your prayer in His Word and listen for His voice even coming through others. Open up the Weekly Word . You'll find opportunities to serve. You'll find somebody saying, “We need more Sunday School teachers. We need more help with this. We need more of that.” God's going to connect you with the right spot and the right place and the right time, and it will be wonderful.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I can't wait to see what you do through us. Two thousand members in this congregation, we want to do great things and big things for you. We want to make a difference in the world around us, like you called the disciples to be witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth, that's the same message you give us. Witnesses participating in your ministry, reflecting your love, telling the message of salvation that sets souls free for eternity in heaven. Bless us with your Holy Spirit. Inspire us. Inspire us to see things from an eternal perspective that what we give now will reap eternal blessings in the lives of others. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Copyright 2004 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church