Part One — Here for the Gospel
Let’s pray...To start off tonight, everyone pick up a flier, it states our mission as this:
"Our goal is to present God’s message of salvation, the importance of a church family, and the proper expression of God’s love into the world."
If you are wondering what was in my heart when I felt the leading to start a church in this area, this mission statement in the context of this area is what it amounted to. You’ve all heard the story, but let me remind you.
I was working down at the end of Walnut, taking pictures for the paper after another murder. This one was another beating death, and this time two people died and another was seriously injured.
The last murder was alcohol related, and this one was over drugs.
And this is no secret; this has historically been an area with high rates of domestic violence, neglect, addiction, and random crime.
Now, since the murders, some of the complaints have gone down, largely due to a neighborhood watch program, but still there is great need.
But, back to the day of the murder. I am covering the scene, there is a dead woman lying face down in the back yard of a house, there are cops everywhere and there are kids watching it all go down.
The neighbors are out side checking to see what’s happening and with all the chaos, all the confusion and all the disorder. The kids are just riding around looking at this scene as if it is simply normal life.
Just one more day with police tape, just one more day of watching detectives canvassing the area. Just one more day of the neighbors whispering the many names of men that could have done this violent crime, none of the names would be a surprise.
And before this, I knew I was being called into ministry, but I didn’t know where. And on that morning, I knew, this is where light needs to shine. This is where God’s glory must be proclaimed, this is where people need to hear that there is a better option for them in this life and that option carries with it a tremendous promise of restoration in this age and the next.
This is where I was called to start a church. And then very soon after sharing my heart about this, Andy came aboard and said he felt led to be a part of what was going to happen. And thank God for that. I simply don’t have the giftings that he does for the minutia of administrative work. He makes a wonderful right hand man, a wonderful Executive pastor.
And that is because, more than his talents at governmental paperwork, and accounting and the like, he has a heart that comes humbly to the cross and seeks to know God more through His word.
Then Ryan came along, again, this is a wonderful example of a person using their talents to honor God and lift up praise and recognition to the Lord.
And, of course, my wife has played a pivotal role as she manages the home front as I juggle family, school, church and a full time job.
And God has blessed this church, even this early on, with these committed followers of Christ who honestly are the ones who encourage me week in and week out month after month to continue.
Here’s what I mean; the first question that people ask when we get to talking about the Church in the Grass is, how many people do you have?
It is universal, if it’s someone at my day job, if it’s a pastor from another church, if it’s my mom, and if it is someone down here on Walnut or East street.
How many people?
And in that — in the fact that we ALL think about the numbers to one degree or another — it is easy for me to start comparing numbers and then find our value in that.
It isn’t much different than when a young girl sees a digitally altered photograph of a model and then looks at herself in light of those photos and begins to doubt her worth.
Of course we know that it is wrong to compare, but we all do it in one area or another. For you it may be when you look at other people who are more successful in the same career, for you it may be comparing your relationship to that of another couple, for you it may be comparing your child to one of his or her classmates. For you it may be comparing yourself to the way your parent did things, or the life your brother or sister is living.
And sometimes you are on the other side, right, sometimes you compare because it makes you feel better about yourself, you compare yourself to someone who has less, education, or money, or love.
In either case — whether to boost your mood, or to cause you to wallow in self-pity, comparisons are seldom helpful.
I bring up the size of the church, because — just to be transparent — this is an area I have to take to God over and over and over again. And each time I am brought back to Scriptures and I see the life of Noah, the life of Abraham and Sarah, the life of Joseph, the life of the disciples.
All these people were called by God to fulfill a mission. That in and of itself — a call from God to do anything — is a blessing. But for many of them, it never turned out they way they may have expected, and it always took longer than they thought it would or SHOULD.
And here’s where I, and I see this in a lot of other guys at our stage of church development, we see the churches that explode from the get go and we see that explosive growth as normal, and then we wonder, why not our church?
It’s like the high school athletes who think they are going to be the next Lebron, or the next Manning, or the next Jeter, or the next Woods.
We set these unrealistic goals and we come in danger of losing sight of what we are called to do. For that kid in school his mission is to pass his classes, and to make that enough of a priority in order that it helps his future, realistic aspirations.
For a church, our church or any church, our mission is, well, our Mission. It’s that mission statement that we read from the flier.
We are here to do what God has called us to do, in the way that He leads us to do it and to leave the results up to Him and not to compare ourselves with another church in another setting with another group of people with another calling on their hearts.
Does that mean that we don’t want to grow? Of course it doesn’t mean that. If we’re not growing, that means more people are not hearing the Gospel and that’s contrary to our goal.
What it does mean is that above all else, we come out here, we do everything that we do, in a desire to honor God with our worship and to be obedient to His call in our lives as a church body, as the Church in the Grass by carrying out our mission.
That way, we will be concerned as a group to bring newcomers into the fold, but we will not be discouraged or perplexed or frustrated when we have weeks with small numbers.
In other words we find our delight in God and in doing what He has told us and not in what WE think the results should be for our efforts.
If we lose sight of that, our efforts begin to be guided toward fulfilling our expectations instead of focused toward worshiping Jesus. And that can very quickly move us into idolatry. In case you’re wondering, that’s still a sin.
So what’s the answer? The same as it would be for the high school kid who wants to be the next superstar, we keep our eyes and hearts and minds on the mission at hand. And, if God graces us with something spectacular, we embrace it, but we never forget that ANYTHING He calls us to is a precious gift in and of itself, so we hold it close and pour our life into His calling.
In other words, we stay on mission. So with that in mind, we are going to pour into the mission. This is going to be a refresher course for us as to why we are here. It will, I pray, be an encouragement in our perseverance. And most of all it will refocus our hearts and re-aim our hands and feet to carry out the mission God has for us.
Let’s just look at the first part:
Our goal is to present God’s message of salvation...
Every week we get every message back to Jesus. Back to our desperate need for Him, back to His grace, mercy and love shown on the cross, back to the resurrection and the promise of His return.
We over and over and over again steer the conversation back to the command of Jesus for us to repent of sin, and to be obedient to His word, all because of His grace and because of our salvation — NOT — in order to earn our salvation.
So when we say, “Our goal is to present God’s message of salvation,” we are saying that our mission is to bring the Gospel.
The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Romans, saw the beauty of this. He said that he was called to be an apostle and was actually set apart or set aside for the Gospel, not for anything else.
He knew the Gospel was God’s story. The story of creation and the fall. The story of how sin fractured everything that God had created. The story of how sin was passed down from Adam to all of us and how, as we talked about last week, that sin held us all captive, enslaved to our corrupted nature.
Paul knew that the Gospel was the story of God’s hatred of sin and His wrath toward that which collided with His perfect design.
And Paul understood that the reason the Gospel was called the Gospel, or in Greek the yoo-ang-ghel'-ee-on, which actually means the Good News — The reason it was called the Good News and the reason Paul talked about it so much and so joyfully was that it is not only the story of Man’s death in the spirit because of the sin, it is also the story of the promise of restoration and redemption that God finally kept by sending his son, Jesus Christ, to live the perfect life.
Jesus — True to God’s will.
He was tempted, but never sinned.
He was all powerful – with all the power of the universe at His control, yet humble enough to take the form of a man who would eventually allow Himself to die on the cross to pay the debt of original sin and the sins of the world.
And through that death – Jesus saved me and you and saved ALL who would believe. He saved all who confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe with our hearts that God raised Him from the dead.
But that’s not the end of it! It gets better! (Sorry if I sound like I’m on an infomercial).
Paul understood, and we carry the same message, that the promise is only partially realized at this time, we have been justified by our faith in Christ, but there’s more, He is allowing us to co-labor with the Holy Spirit to draw more into the Kingdom until the day in which God has already determined to Come Back.
And on that day we will see our Lord, Jesus Christ, no longer the suffering servant, but the mighty and glorious and amazing King, who will once and for all make ALL THINGS RIGHT.
The Gospel is also the story of the new heavens and the new Earth where most importantly, we will once again see or God face to face in all of His Glory.
That was Paul’s message, and that’s what we see over and over in the Bible. And that’s what we are to bring to the world.
We are not ashamed of the Gospel, it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.
What else is there? Do we want to talk about relationships, yes, about finances and debt, yes! What about raising our children? Yes, what about missions and helping the poor? Absolutely!
But, when we read through the New Testament, every issue was seen and written about in light of the Gospel.
Why should we be good workers? Why should we love our wives passionately and sacrificially? Why should be hate sin? Why should we steward our money well? Why should we take good care of the earth, why should we encourage marriage? Why should we encourage the rights of the unborn babies to live? Why should we do anything? How should we look at everything?
We look at everything, we do everything here at the Church in the Grass to point people toward the Gospel, toward their need for a savior and to the one true savior, Jesus Christ.
We operate in every function, whether it is setting up chairs, passing out bibles, leading praise and worship or preaching, all through the lenses of the Gospel, and with every intention of bringing others into a saving relationship with our Father.
It is all about Him, It’s all about Jesus.
We remember Ephesians 2: 8-9
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
All the glory goes to God.
All the glory goes to God.
And, John 3:16
Our goal to share the gospel is not to force people to believe what we believe, it isn’t to have things our way and to be comfortable, it’s not – as we talked about last week to make the people around us morally more upright; though that is a byproduct of a regenerated, saved person.
No, the ultimate goal is to move more people out of the line leading to destruction and into the path leading to ETERNAL LIFE, basking in God’s love.
That’s why we as a church are here. Before anything else the Church in the Grass is here to present God’s message of salvation...
And here’s the thing, some churches don’t get back to the cross each week, some pastors don’t keep pounding the drum of creation, the fall, restoration and the eventual conclusion with the return of Jesus.
Some other churches do not do that. I am not in control of that. I am responsible for this church and those who sit under my teaching, and I never want to take God’s story for granted to where I don’t continue to preach it to you and to myself, because WE FORGET.
Let me show you what I mean. We’re almost done, but turn with me to Judges 2:6-11 {Unpack the history leading up to this passage – wilderness with Moses, new generation takes control of the Promised Land…}
We are not unlike the Israelites. We are quick to forget, we are quick to turn away from God when we forget about all of the great things that He has done for us.
And how do we forget? We forget by not telling our same stories over and over again.
One more passage and then we’ll be done. Please turn in your bibles to Luke 24:27.
Our job, the first of three parts to our mission statement, is to present God’s message of salvation. We do that by showing Jesus in every passage that we teach on, and we follow that lead from Jesus himself.
In His walk with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, how does our resurrected Lord teach them
That’s what He did, and that’s what we will do.
Next week we are going to continue talking about our mission. In light of the Gospel, in light of the instructions found in the new Testament we will talk about the importance of a church family.
And one more thing before we leave. If you are new here tonight, I know we might have put out some information that might be new or unfamiliar to you. If you have any questions or if you need someone to pray for you, please come up after I pray and dismiss the group and we’ll meet with you.
Let’s pray...
