"Love in Grace Church"Sermon Transcript for May 21, 2000
By Steve Wakefield, Minister of Youth
Scripture Reading: John 15: 9-17
I feel blessed to be here this morning. And I sometimes wonder how we could possibly get our services even more rich than they are right now. I listened to the Ladies Ensemble this morning which was beautiful. I listened to Ron Macy’s witness this morning; it was really good. Paul Taube’s prayer; Michelle’s beautiful song here this morning. I thank God for the direction this church is going and the service just becomes richer and richer in all things blessing all us here with the leadership and the effort that is being put into the construction of our services to glorify God.
This morning’s message that I bring to you is entitled, "Love in Grace Church". And last week Reverend Mike asked me to do a message on my vision for Grace Church and I accepted. One of the things though that I felt for a couple of months was that I hoped that there was an opportunity for me to talk about something that I had been called to talk about which is love. And I wondered how the two were going to match up. And after reflecting this week and spending time reading the scriptures examining my passion for Grace Church, I saw that love and my vision for Grace Church are really one and the same. I think you’ll see that as the message comes to you this morning.
And after looking at the scriptures I think I saw it from God’s perspective too. Clearly from God’s perspective. And to show you where I came from in scriptures, I’d like to read a passage for you this morning that comes from the Book of John, Chapter 15, Versus 9-17. "I love you just as the Father loves me; remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My commandment is this: love one another, just as I love you. The greatest love a person can have for his friends is to give his life for them. And you are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because I have told you everything I heard from my Father. You did not choose me; I chose you and appointed you to go and bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures. And so the Father will give you whatever you ask of him in my name. This, then, is what I command you: love one another."
I found this to be a very powerful passage for me. It is a powerful passage because it talks about love and, I believe, what we are to be about. I would like to highlight some of the phrases for you. Christ says, "I love you just as the Father loves me; remain my love." It’s a great line. A great part of scripture. God initiates the love. One of the people who helped me understand this, to bring that perspective to me, was John Elliott...John Elliott’s Sunday School class. John, in that particular course, talks about love being initiated by God. Love that we do nothing to deserve but is always there for us. And I look to my relationship in this world with my family. And for me this unconditional love is like a parent/child relationship. Parents initiate unconditional love with their newborn children. The child doesn’t do something to deserve it. But, as we mature as children, we begin to understand our parents have expectations. Love becomes relational. We have a choice whether to remain in a loving relationship. Christ says, "Remain in my love".
How do you remain in Christ’s love? Christ says, "If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love. Obey my commands." To maintain that intimate relationship, we must be in tune to Christ’s desires. What command is found in this passage? Christ said, "My command is this, love one another just as I love you." And this command is again repeated at the end of the passage. "Love one another just as I love you." Again Christ reinforces that relationship. That relationship is initiated with Him. Christ says, "You did not choose me, I chose you and appointed you to go and bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures." A powerful passage for me. "I love you just as God loves me, remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love. My command is this, love one another just as I have loved you." Finally, "You did not choose me, I chose you and appointed you to go and bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures."
God has chosen us to bear much fruit here at Grace Church. God wants each of us to bring friends, neighbors, relatives, co-workers, the unchurched to know. My vision for Grace is that evangelism becomes increasingly important to each one of us. Reverend Mike has accomplished a lot of groundwork when it comes to evangelism. He’s preparing the church to move forward. I am blessed to be working for a pastor who has leadership abilities like Reverend Mike. If you look around us, the facilities have been remodeled; the sanctuary has a new brightness to it; the church has a freshness to it. Worship opportunities have been expanded. We have an 8:30 a.m. service that is a more casual service. We have the 9:30 a.m. service which is more traditional. We have a 11:00 a.m. service which is a contemporary service. And this fall we hope to start a mid-week service on Wednesday evening to round out worship opportunities to fit those busy schedules and preferences of those who want to come and worship God. A new Associate Pastor will, hopefully, be starting mid-June. The Associate Pastor whose gift, I believe, is evangelism will help this church grow to be more evangelistic.
And one of the things that I have always been very pleased about at Grace that continues to grow under Mike’s leadership is our focus on prayer, our prayer lives, Christian education, and becoming disciples. We are preparing for growth.
Although God commands us to "go and bear much fruit", many Christians fear the word evangelism. Mention the word "evangelism" and many Christians say things like, "I don’t do evangelism. I can’t do evangelism. I don’t know how. I don’t know anyone to invite to church." And one of the more interesting ones, "Everyone I already know is a Christian." Well, if everyone we already know is a Christian, we’re probably not doing what God wants us to do which is to go out in to the mission field. I know these statements because I used to say some of them.
In response to a fear for evangelism, there are many, many opportunities to be working in evangelism. Some very simple things that can do great things at Grace Church. Simple as wearing name tags. When new people come to church they meet people. People are introduced to them. There’s a fear when they come back that gosh all those people that I was introduced to, I’ve got to remember all those names. It’s a lot easier when you see name tags and you don’t have to remember all those individuals that you were introduced to.
You can look down the attendance pad in your pew. Take the attendance pad; look at the names in there. Identify the visitors. Take time in your own pew to shake the hand of a newcomer to church and say, "We’re glad to see you." See somebody with a nametag on? Walk up to them and take a couple of seconds to say, "We’re glad to see you here." Introduce yourselves. Welcome them. Let them know this is a church of love and friendliness.
One thing we can do is to offer to give newcomers tours. If you run in to a newcomer you might say, "Would you like to see our church? We’re proud of our church. We have many opportunities here for people to grow with Christ in this church." Visit guests within 24-hours of coming to church on Sunday. Let them know we care enough to go out and greet them in the community, in their homes, within 24-hours of them coming to church.
And, finally, pray daily, individually, that we will be observant. That we will be observant enough to see those who do not know the Lord so that we may in some way touch their lives personally to help them come to know what we know.
I’m excited about the growth of opportunities here at Grace. I believe it is possible to double or triple our membership in the next five years. That’s my vision for Grace Church--dynamic growth. I’m talking about quality growth. People a lot of times here numbers kicked around and they begin to think, "Well, they’re just playing the numbers game." I’m not talking about that kind of growth. I’m talking about growth that’s substantial. Growth that is meaningful for those who come to church. Growth that’s an indication that we are doing God’s work. If we truly love one another, including those who need it most, Grace Church will continue to grow. I believe that if we follow Christ’s command, he will live in us. One of the interesting things was, I came in Friday to pick up the bulletin to see the order of service, I looked at the front and the front talked about Christ lives in us. Also I noticed on there that there were pictures of children reminding us that we need to be like children to have Christ live in us. We need to be obedient.
I would be remiss as the new Youth Pastor if I wouldn’t take just a few minutes to talk about my vision for the youth program. What do I want for our youth in terms of their relationship with the church and Christ? I have a real simple vision for the youth. I’m a person who believes that if you keep it simple, it’s pretty hard to mess it up. And although the vision is simple, how you accomplish the vision with youth isn’t quite as simple. That’s why it’s even more important to keep the vision simple so that you can remain true to what you need to do. And my vision is that they will know that God sees them first. But as they grow older, they have a growing responsibility to be obedient to the Lord. I also want them to know that they need to know the Gospel. One of the things in my youth group activities, when I was a youth, we spent a lot of time having a lot of fun, but we didn’t spend a lot of time learning much about the Gospels. And I believe that the youth need to come out of the youth program fully understanding the four Gospels.
Another thing that I believe has to be a part of our vision for the youth group at the church is that they know how to pray and that they are comfortable in prayer. Knowing how to pray and being comfortable in prayer didn’t come to me until I was well in my thirties. I have a vision that they need to have that aptitude much sooner than that.
And I want them to know that God wants them to go and bear fruit. I routinely ask my own children, "Which of your friends doesn’t go to church?" You know that so and so goes to the Catholic church and so and so goes to the Baptist church. And I say, "Well, that’s great, but are there any of your friends that you know that don’t go to church on Sunday? If there are, why don’t you invite them to come to church." Even the youth have a responsibility when it comes to evangelism to reach out into the community and to share what we have here with them helping bring those unchurched children to church. Youth can be great evangelists. And in a word, that we are all God’s children. Talking about the youth, but we are all God’s children. And we all can learn from that same vision for the youth and follow that same plan.
And so in conclusion I offer a vision for Grace Church. Let’s get the walls of Grace Church transparent. Transparent because of the great love that exists in this church. Let us embrace evangelism because it is Christ’s instruction to us. Let us gather as God’s children in relationship with Him for the purpose of rescuing the lost, comforting the burdened, and sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. Amen.
E-mail Comments to: Reverend Dan Sinkhorn