Bringing It Home

Pastor Phillips' Sermon

Sunday, August 28, 2005

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 bringing us here today to hear your word, to draw near to you, to pray to you, to sing your praises. Bless us now as we meditate on your word, to feel as if you are speaking to us as individuals. Guide us, direct us, and shape us in Jesus' name. Amen.

We, all summer long, have been experiencing a lot of different activities surrounding the mission teams we've been sending out. You've witnessed as they were commissioned. You've seen the prayer cards handed out as we pray to support the people who are going to these different places, different states, different countries in Jesus' name.

And so I thought it would be a great opportunity here, at the end of the summer, four teams having been sent, one to go, it would be interesting if we could bring that home and apply that whole ministry and mission emphasis to what we are doing here at Gloria Dei.

So I thought I'd start out by giving you a quiz. You guys ready for a quiz? Okay, the first question please. What is our Mission Statement here at Gloria Dei? How many of you know our Mission Statement? Okay, I see a lot of hands. That's pretty good. You can supply the answer now, and I'll read it. “Gloria Dei, a Christ-centered Lutheran Church , as an effective and innovative mission center, brings Jesus Christ to people for the first time and a lifetime.” What a great statement to summarize what we are all about here at this church. It's not just the mission teams we're sending out that are focused on this Mission Statement. It's every aspect of our ministry, whether it's the music ministry or the Sunday School or the adult bible classes or your worship experience. Everything is focused on fulfilling that Mission Statement.

Second question. What mission teams have we sent? How many of you can name the places we've sent teams to? Okay, not quite as many hands there. Well, let's see what the answer is. We've sent four. We're about to send one. We've sent a team to Viet Nam , Kentucky , Mexico , Honduras , and we're about to send a group to China . These are wonderful, exciting opportunities for people to demonstrate their faith and to act in accordance with God's Word and proclaim that beautiful message of salvation.

We are a congregation filled with missionaries. In the Great Commission that Jesus gave His disciples, He said, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Now He didn't speak simply to the ones who were gifted in public speaking or to the ones who had been to seminary. He spoke to all of them that way. And we, as the descendants of the disciples, the spiritual heirs of the disciples, have that commission to us as well. Go and make disciples of all nations.

St. Paul writes in Chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians that we have a certain role to play here. And he does an excellent job of connecting the work of Christ on our behalf to the work of His followers. In speaking of his own ministry, Paul writes, “For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all.” All are compelled by the love of Christ. But that fact, that state of being, that driving force in his life, came from the fact that he was convinced Jesus had died for his sins when He died on the cross. Paul's life was radically changed when he was brought to Christ. Paul was converted first. Then his compassionate response was to be compelled by the love of Christ.

Let's break down those two points. First, let's talk about conversion. In Paul's case, he was a Jew and not just any Jew, he was a Pharisee. A Pharisee was a very strict and devout sect among the Jewish people. He was taught by the scholar of his day, Gamaliel. Paul was very zealous to teach the Jewish faith, and he was zealous to fight against any enemy who would oppose the Jewish faith. He was active in arresting and persecuting believers in Christ. And he was a witness when Stephen was stoned, the first Christian martyr.

Paul was, in many respects, one of the greatest enemies of the early Christians until that wonderful and glorious day on the road to Damascus . You might remember the story. It went like this. Saul (he was Saul at that time) was on his way to Damascus . He had letters of endorsement, letters giving him authority to go to Damascus and persecute those who believed in Christ. So he's on his way and he's approaching the City of Damascus and it's about noon time. It's a beautiful, sunny day. And, all of a sudden, a light brighter than the sun blinded him and he fell face down on the road. And he heard a voice call out to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” And Saul said, “Who are you?” The voice answered, “I am Jesus who you are persecuting.” From that moment on, Jesus took hold of his life, took hold of his heart, and changed him from the enemy of the gospel to one of the greatest missionaries that ever lived. First, he was converted. Then he was compelled by the love of Jesus to go out and do wonderful things in Jesus' name.

Paul came to know and believe in Jesus, and he was convinced Jesus was his savior who died on the cross for his sins. As a result, the love that compelled Jesus to die on the cross was now at work in Paul. It compelled him to make sacrifices to help other people come to Jesus. It compelled him to leave everything, to give up everything so he could go and spread the gospel to the world. It compelled him to endure many things and, through it all, he never gave up on proclaiming that wonderful message of salvation.

In 2 Corinthians 11:24-28, Paul tells what he gladly endured because he was compelled by the love of Christ. “Five times I received from the Jews 40 lashes minus one. Once was enough to kill a person. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea. I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers and danger from bandits and danger from my own countrymen and danger from gentiles and danger in the city and danger in the country and danger at sea and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep. I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food. I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.” What a history Paul had of suffering in Jesus' name.

And one picture stands out in my mind when I think of Paul and his enduring things for the sake of the gospel. It was when he was in a town and he had angered the Jews because he was teaching that you don't have to obey all those rules and regulations to go to heaven. You simply have to trust in Jesus who died for you and rose from the dead. And the people became angry at him, and they took stones and they threw stones at him until they thought he was dead. And then they dragged his body out of their city and left him. And his followers gathered around him, and he stood up. Miraculously, he had survived that. He stood up. And you'd think he'd go on his way and leave that city behind but he turned around and went back in because the love of Christ compelled him. He would do anything for Jesus.

The same is true for all who are convinced Jesus is their savior. We are compelled by the love of Jesus. We share the compassion Jesus had on the multitude. Do you remember when He saw the multitude and He said, “They're like sheep without a shepherd. They're harassed and helpless.” And then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into the harvest field.” Well, remember the time when Jesus was hanging on the cross and He looked down with pity on those who put Him there and were now mocking them? He said, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.” Because we are convinced Jesus died for us, we, too, are compelled by Christ's love. An overriding characteristic in the life of a believer is they no longer live for themselves alone. In this world, where the focus is so much on selfishness, Christians stand out. They are convinced Jesus is their savior. They are compelled by His love, and they have taken their focus off of themselves and now they fix their eyes on Jesus. Their direction comes from Him as He guides them in their service to Him.

We stand out when we trade our vacation time to participate in the ministries of our church. We stand out when we are no longer living for ourselves and we give up our talents and time to be part of a mission team. We stand out because we are convinced Jesus has died for us. We observed a remarkable example of this, no longer living for ourselves, last winter when our teams participated in something called “The 30-Hour Famine.” Some of you might remember that. The 30-Hour Famine. It was all about feeding the hungry. And so the kids learned, before the famine, all about those who were starving in the world around us. They learned what it was like for them in their daily lives, how they survived. And then these kids raised money to feed those people throughout the world, and they dedicated themselves to a 30-hour fast. Can you imagine teenagers going 30 hours without eating? It's amazing if they walk by the refrigerator without opening it. These kids went 30 hours. They did a wonderful job. During that 30 hours, they did bible studies and community service projects and did all kinds of things and learned more about the starving children around the world. We received word recently that our group, our teams, were one of the very best groups in the nation. That's a great compliment to the ministry of Jesus in this place.

As we continue ministry in this place, examples of living for others, no longer living for ourselves, continue. We have many people in our congregation who, compelled by Christ's love, give their time and their talents to our various ministries, to maintaining our grounds, to collecting items for the needy, to support our missionaries, and to faithfully return a portion of their income to the Lord to fund the ministries of this church. In spite of this wonderful outpouring of love, there are still needs for ministry. It's just like Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”

God has an opportunity for you in ministry in this church. There is still a chance for you to join in.

Finally, Paul describes our role in society this way. “All of this is from God,” he says, “who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them and He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are, therefore, Christ's ambassadors as though God were making His appeal through us.” We are ambassadors, not the guys who go to seminary, not the ones who do that or this. We are the ambassadors of Christ. Every one of us is an ambassador for Christ. Now when you hear that word, ambassador, what comes to mind? Usually some great and honorable person who's been appointed by the president to fulfill some wonderful duty in another country. For instance, the ambassador from the U.S. to Great Britain has a specific role to play and that is twofold. First, it is a role of representation. This ambassador represents our country and our government to the government and people of Great Britain . The ambassador's conduct should speak in such a way that it speaks well of our country. His behavior reflects on us. Second, the ambassador's role is one of communication. He communicates the policies, sentiments, and supports of our government and country to the government and people of Great Britain.

As Christ's ambassadors, we represent Christ and Christianity to the world around us. As Christ's ambassadors, we communicate the message of reconciliation to the world we live in. This is a sobering fact, that each of us is an ambassador. And it begs the question, “What impression have we made on the world around us?” Are we conducting ourselves in a way that speaks well of Christ? Is the beautiful message of reconciliation being communicated through our lips? We need to take this very seriously because this role as an ambassador for Christ has eternal ramifications.

My nephew, Joshua, has recently joined the Air Force and he's going through basic training. So every once in awhile, we'll get some message that sounds like he's getting pretty rough treatment there. And my dad, who was a marine, kind of laughs and says, “Oh, he'll survive.” But one of the things I got out of that experience is that he cannot refer to himself as a soldier in the Air Force until he has completed basic training. They do not give that honor and that uniform to anyone until they deserve it.

Just imagine if we had the same sense of dedication and conviction about our role as ambassadors for Christ. Wouldn't it be appropriate? Wouldn't it be appropriate if we took that as a great honor and were extremely dedicated to reflecting Jesus in a positive way and Christianity in our society in a way that makes people want to be Christians? It's worth it. It's appropriate. And there is no greater honor than being an ambassador for Christ.

Since April, we've sent four mission teams out throughout the world and a fifth team is about to go. They're just preparing. They're completing their preparations, and they're going to go in a couple of weeks. We'll be praying for them, commissioning them, and they're going to go out. What we'd like to do now is give you a sample of what we've experienced on these mission trips. The voice you hear will be the voice of the Honduran pastor thanking you for sending us. (Video)

I know the words were a little difficult to catch but, basically, he was just overflowing with thanks and gratitude for all the work God had done through us in that place and for partnering with him and reaching out to the community around his church.

God has given us this great role to play as ambassadors for Christ. And now we are faced with another question. What will we do now in the future? How will we respond to the great love of God to participate in this ministry? Our church is focused on bringing people to Christ. These mission teams are just one part of that whole picture. Now the question is what's next? What are we going to do as ambassadors for Christ? And to be more specific, what will you do in response to God's great love for you? Amen? Amen.

Copyright 2005 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church