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Why Church
Geneseo UMC
Pastor Craig Ferguson
Luke 19:10
“
For the Son of Man came
to seek out and to save the lost."
I heard many of you were blessed by my absence
last week. Those of you
who were able to be here witnessed a fabulous message through the
art of Randy Davis. Well,
sorry to say, I didn’t bring my easel, nor would you want me to.
But I am going to share a message with you that
touches on what Jody and I learned this last week in Orlando at the
school for Congregational development.
Oh, and about that. I
appreciate that so many of you have asked if we had a good time on
our trip. The answer is
yes, we learned a lot, and received a measure of God’s vision for
our lives. However, for
those that were tempted to think it was a vacation. Yes we did see a
couple sites, but I added up all the hours we spent in conference
sessions, group discussion, and vision setting, and I determined it
was the equivalent of 3 weeks’ worth of seminary crammed into 6
days, and then after repacking I went back to Des Moines for 2 more
days of leadership summit piped in from Willow Creek.
Oh yea, then I had to write a sermon, and I still have not
seen my children yet. I
was/am exhausted, and glad to be home.
What I am going to attempt to share with you today
from out of my cloudy mind is a piece of something that congealed in
my mind this past week. It
is not anything that I didn’t know before, and not anything new to
you, but it came into a clarity as an arrow hits it’s mark this
week. Lets see if I can
do it justice and explicate experience.
Do you ever wonder about your purpose?
That age old question, “What did God create me for?”
Or, “Why am I here?”
I think that is a poignant question today.
I think whole groups of people have encountered that
demoralizing thought and pandered their life away in folly and for
some, in light of that question, they even expend their life in
romanticized and pristine, cultural, familial, or economic
achievement.
Let me say that again, (Charlie Brown Teacher
Voice)
Yea, that is how I heard things at the conferences
after the eight day in a row.
Let’s take an outside look at this question for
a moment. What is the
purpose of things. I
mean some things it is easy to express what their purpose is; take
for example a chair or a church pew.
I mean that is a no brainer, we know from the get go their
purpose is for someone to sit upon them.
How about a refrigerator?
Again, its purpose is clear, it is meant to keep things cool.
Well, unless you don’t have any electricity to plug it
into, then that refrigerator’s purpose would have to be for hide
and go seek, right. (I
only did that once when I was a kid, and it was not a good choice
because it the other kids knew it had one of those locking handles
on the outside) Let’s just say, I learned at a very young age, not
to use something if it was not for its purpose.
Let’s look over here, the piano, or clavinova
both have a specific purpose. I
suppose I could use them as a step ladder, but that might be as good
a choice as using a refrigerator as a hiding place.
How about a car?
I think we can all agree that a car is meant to get you from
one place to another and nowadays drain your pocketbook.
However, being from Spirit Lake, I knew that a few people
umm, thought that car could take them places it was never meant to
go, and in seasons they were not meant to go there.
Does everyone know the purpose of ice.
(Yea, I thought it was to keep my lemonade chilled too, but
some people think it is for you to drive your car on.
Let’s just say that there have been more than a few cars
that ended up on the bottom of a lake.
A light bulb has a purpose, a single purpose.
A school, although it is a complex assembly of teachers,
administrators, aides, students, books, walls, desks…, it has the
single purpose of educating children; teaching them to read, write,
do math, and succeed in this life.
But
there are other things in life that are excruciatingly difficult to
determine a purpose for. Like,
why did God create the mosquito?
I mean, I am intelligent enough to know that some biologist,
or science teacher may approach me after the service and try to
explain the complexities of the closed ecosystem that we call earth.
But I still don’t get it.
I mean, there are some places on this plant the get along
just fine without such an annoying little pest.
What is it’s purpose?
What about a rock, this rock, what is it’s
purpose? What about
people; what about you; what about me; what is our purpose?
Is our purpose to be a farmer, a teacher, a preacher, a
salesperson, a financial consultant, a parent, a spouse… what is
it?
Or even more confounding, let me just ask, why
church?
Simply put, there are some things that are just
plain easy know what they are for.
And there are some things that defy any definition of
purpose.
Jesus
however, had a specific purpose.
He points to it many times in his life when he says things
like, “to do the will of the father.”
Or “I have come that you may have life, and life
abundantly.” But I
think the clearest statement that Jesus makes in regard to his
purpose was the statement that Jesus made after he had encountered
and changed the life of Zacchaeus, the rotten tax collector.
If you are taking time to read a little further in
Luke 19 you will find out that this takes place just before Palm
Sunday, Holy Week, and the Crucifixion.
After Zacchaeus professes his faith, he repents, and promises
to get right with all the people that he cheated money out of, Jesus
says, “Today salvation has come to this house.”
Then he goes on to express his purpose, “For the Son of Man
came to seek out and to save the lost.”
God’s purpose for being incarnated into human
form was to seek and to save those who had gotten lost from his
presence. God in Christ
became flesh, limited by time and space for the first time, he cast
off his omnipotent reality to become the shepherd of lost sheep; to
walk out into the fields of this world to tend the lame, feed the
hungry, to protect the wounded, and to save the lost.
Jesus makes no apologies, and allows no confusion
about his purpose. Sure
some thought he came to be an earthly king or a military ruler.
Some thought he should be a priest or a prophet.
It was only Peter who identified Jesus as the “The Messiah
of God.” In chapter 9 by the way.
Despite the fact that everyone around him tried to
get him to do their will, to become their prophet, military leader,
or king, Jesus stayed the course and was faithful to his God given
purpose, let’s say it together, “to seek and save the lost.”
Even when Jesus was getting ready to be crucified,
everyone knew that he could have been rescued from that cross with
one word. And in fact, I
have had many people ask me, couldn’t Jesus have done more good in
the world if he had not been crucified?
Couldn’t he have healed that many more, fed another 5,000,
given sight and raised the dead, and just kept on repeating all the
good stuff?
My answer of course would have to be yes, but then
I would have to say, NO! You
see he saved the lost one at a time while he was in the flesh, but
when he died, he saved all of the lost with one fell swoop.
His death redeemed all of humanity in the same way that he
healed them in his life one by one.
Scripture tells us it is by faith that all of his earthly
miracles happened, and it is by faith in his death and resurrection
that every single person is saved.
Ok, that is an easy one that everyone knows,
let’s get back to those difficult questions, What is the purpose
of the rock? (I am not
even going to attempt that mosquito, God has some serious explaining
to do when I get to heaven, that is all know)
Scripture tells us that the rocks, the hills, and
the trees will shout and proclaim the glory of God.
If we keep our mouths shut, if we don’t proclaim the glory
of God, the rocks are going to do it for us.
This rock’s purpose it to glorify God.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be
embarrassed when I get to heaven and find out that this rock did a
better job than I did. Did
you ever think about that. The
rock’s purpose is to proclaim the glory of God.
A rock can do many other things, if big enough, it
can become the head of a president.
Although now days, it would have to be a real big rock to be
one of those heads… With the right materials, it might become a
wall, or a monument, or a grave marker, or a foundation.
If it was ground down to sand, it might be used in a kids
sand box, or used to create cement for any number of things.
A rock today has great potential and many options.
But it’s ultimate purpose is to praise God, to bring glory
to his name.
Something that is similar in all the things that
we can easily assign a purpose to is the fact that they have been
assembled, many pieces brought together, for a very specific
purpose. A chair,
although many different pieces of wood and cloth, is made to sit in.
I found out that those old refrigerators were not made to
play in because of those locking handles, but they were meant to
keep all that cold air in. A
piano, a car, a light bulb, a school… well you get the point.
They are many different elements brought together for a
single purpose.
Now each of us are very different.
I am sure that there might even be enough difference to cause
a dissonance when we stand next to each other, kind of like the
piano. There are just
some keys that don’t play well together, but when played in a
piece written by a master, it is amazing how all the notes begin to
sing and play a melody that brings life.
This is the purpose of the Church!
We come together pieces of this and that, teachers, farmers,
financial experts, salespeople, you name it, but when we come
together, we create the church.
And let me tell you, the church has been doing something
amazing over the past 2,000 years.
It has been duplicating, multiplying, growing and extending
itself.
That is what God has desired for us from the
beginning of creation. In
Genesis 1, after he created humanity he said, “be fruitful and
multiply.” After the
flood, God told Noah and his family, “be fruitful and multiply.”
After God wrestled with Jacob, who later became the nation of
Israel, he told him, “be fruitful and multiply.
Of course in the New Testament Jesus modeled this
for us when he called the 12 his disciples, then told them to “go
and make [more] disciples.” And
Paul when talking to the early Churches encourages them to support
each other financially, and through prayers.
When talking directly to one church he says, “as each part (that is you and I) is working
properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in
love.” Ephesians
4:16 The body that he is talking
about is the church, not just one building and one group of people,
but the Church of Christ around the world.
In the height of early Methodism, did you know
that one church was started every single day for 50 years in a row.
They took very seriously Jesus words to “go and make
disciples.” They
understood that we are called to be the hands and feet of Christ;
they understood that the purpose of the Church is the purpose of
Christ, “to seek and save the lost.”
The primary purpose of the school for
congregational development that Jody and I went to, it is to train
pastors how to start a church, or to build and multiply churches and
help us discern if God is calling us to that.
They taught us about a parachute method, which means they
drop a pastor in the middle of a community and say go!
Those don’t have a real high success rate.
Then they taught us about a method called the
Mother daughter method of birthing a new church into existence.
Personally I think it is more Biblical if we look back at how
so many churches were connected and supported each other and sent
people when there was a need. Basically
this method involves a healthy church training up leaders who then
invest themselves into new people and a new church.
I might mention that fits
Geneseo’s mission statement pretty well.
Look at the back of your bulletin, the summary of our mission
statement is to Reach out, Receive, Relate,
Nurture, and Send out Faithful Disciples.
Our mission statement has it right.
What I learned this week, is that healthy churches
have the potential to multiply themselves, to double their numbers,
or to start a whole new congregation.
In fact, it is a requirement of any people who would call
themselves a Church, if they realize that their purpose is
Christ’s purpose, “to seek and save the lost”
So what is our purpose? Let’s say it together,
“to seek and save the lost.”
And why Church? “to seek and save the lost.”
Brothers and sisters, we meet here to worship God
because we believe in God, but outside those doors are people who
don’t know God. Brothers
and sisters if we are going to be the church, we have got to start
doing a better job than the rocks.
We have got to start glorifying God outside these walls, we
have got to seek and save the lost.
I want to challenge you, if you have not
participated in a small group to talk about passionate spirituality,
take advantage of it when you are invited.
And because we are so rapidly creeping up on September, the
Sunday school programs will be starting again; make sure to engage
in that time of learning and spiritual growth.
After all, we are the church, we have a job to do,
“to seek and save the lost.” Amen.
Communion…
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