"Our Mission"
Sermon Transcript for January 6, 2002 By Rev. Mike BeckScripture Reading: Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 2:42-47
At the beginning of every year I think we need to revisit our priorities. If we don’t we run the risk of getting off track. The energy and the resources available to a church or to an individual are not unlimited. We hamper God’s work when we engage in things that are not primary to our calling. All too often the church has majored in minors. We fail to keep the main thing the main thing! So I’d like today and continuing next week looking at our core values, those principles that guide our decision. To look at our Mission Statement hammered out about three years ago by a goodly number of folks, which tells us what we are about here at Grace Church. It’s on the front of your bulletin each week. It’s up on the screen now. Read it with me. "The mission of Grace Church is to worship God, proclaim Christ as Savior, encourage growth in Christ as Lord, fellowship together, and care for those in need."
Let me spend just a few moments now looking at those five priorities in the light of God’s word.
Worship God: First of all, we are here to worship God. You’ve heard me say before, comparing to the analogy of a wheel, worship is the hub from which all of the other spokes of things we do are tied together. The person who would say, "Well, I enjoy coming to small groups but I don’t have time to come to worship"; they’re missing the heart of what holds everything else together. John 4:24, Jesus said, "God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth." In other words, worship is not about form, although form has its place. Worship is not about furniture, although furniture can be an enhancement to worship. Worship is not about technique.
I thought this week, what is worship about at its heart, and came up these three things: Worship is about 1) giving honor and praise to God for He is worthy of our praise; 2) worship is about experiencing God’s presence through the music, through the pattern of worship we are wanting you as you come to this place to experience God in a special way; 3) and then through the act of our praise, through the experience of God’s presence, thirdly then, worship is designed for us to have our lives transformed so that we go from this place different in some way than we were when we entered. We are here to worship God.
Proclaim Christ as Savior: The Bible teaches that persons are lost and separated from God because of our sin. We need a Savior. And Jesus clearly taught that that was the reason that He came to earth; to save us from our sin and restore us to a right relationship with a God who loves us. In Peter’s great sermon in Acts 4:12, he says, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." And Jesus, in His final words to His disciples that Dan read said, "You go now, preach this gospel, make disciples of all nations." The only account that we have of Jesus growing up was when he was about 12 years old and his family went to Jerusalem. And then when the family left, Jesus didn’t leave with them. He stayed there talking with religious leaders in the temple. And if you remember, when Mary and Joseph went back and caught up with him, Jesus said, "Don’t you know that I have to be about my Father’s business?"
And friends, so do we. The father’s business is for persons who are lost and separated from God to be brought back in to the fold. Christ’s last command must always be our first concern. John Wesley’s reminder to his young preachers that "their main task was to save souls" remains a valid challenge for us today. We must repeatedly stress that salvation is not found in our good works. It isn’t found in going through the motions of religion. It isn’t found in having the right knowledge. It isn’t found in going through the motions of church. It is found in a vital, personal growing relationship with Jesus Christ.
In Acts 2:47, the last words Dan read today, it says of the early church, "and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved". And the addition of the ALPHA ministry has really helped us to keep the main thing the main thing. In the Conference Journal that we received at the end of the year it lists all of the churches and all of the statistics. But there’s one column that I believe head and shoulders is far more important than any column of figures in that book. How many first time professions of faith in Christ in your church in the past year? We give praise to God this morning that there were 30 persons here at Grace Church who stood in this place to make their first time profession of faith in Christ. We are here to see people saved, born again, come in to a relationship with God.
Encourage Growth in Christ as Lord: When we accept Christ as our Savior, that’s not the end of the line that’s the beginning of a life long process of growing as a disciple where we come to know him not only as Savior but where we come to know him as Lord of our life. The word "disciple" means a follower, a learner. It ought to be happening when we are 18 and ought to continue to be happening when we are 80. In Acts 2:42 it says of the early church, "They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching."
Discipleship Training, a new group will begin on Wednesday night--a wonderful opportunity to develop some skills in the Christian faith; to become more disciplined in a devotional life. That group memorizes one simple verse of Scripture each week. II Peter 3:18 is the verse they memorize the first week. For we are told, "to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ." Peter wrote in I Peter 3:15, he said, "In your hearts, set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks for you to give the reason for the hope that’s in you." Can you do that this morning? If you are asked on the street to give an answer for the hope that is in you, our Christian education ministries, the groups like
Dan is teaching—The Contagious Christian, Discipleship Training, Sunday School Classes, ALPHA—the list goes on and on—are designed to help you do that. Are you growing in your understanding of Christ as Lord?
Fellowship Together: In April, Mickey and I are going to have the privilege of attending a conference in Phoenix at a church that I have wanted to visit for a long time. Ironically, it’s a Lutheran Congregation on a 180-acre campus at the edge of Phoenix. And I love their name. The name of the church is The Community Church of Joy! God’s people ought to have a good time when they get together. We are a family of faith. That’s why we encourage you to wear your nametags. I’m looking out this morning; I’m looking at those who don’t have them on. Now they are not so you can remember your name. But if we’re going to be a family we have to know other people’s names in the family. So it helps others put a name with a face. I haven’t been bold enough to do it yet but I’ll give you a little warning I might this year. I heard about a church that about once every two months their youth had what they called, "Gotchya" Sunday. They had a lot of stick on labels prepared with the words "Gotchya" on it. Anyone who didn’t have a nametag on that morning, they would put a sticker on them that said "Gotchya" and it cost them a quarter that went to the youth group ministry. So if you’ve lost your nametag, if we’ve overlooked you, we’ll be glad to make you another one. They don’t cost that much. But we’re a family.
In Acts 2:46 it says, "They continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and they ate together with glad and sincere hearts". My wife’s a part of the Friendship Circle. Some of the rest of you out there are too. I call them the "Goodtime Gals". Liz and Bev are in that group. When those gals get together they laugh, they eat, they do good ministry. Where in the world did we ever come up with the idea that when God’s people get together, supposedly the recipients of the Good News, that it’s suppose to be with a frown on our face and it’s suppose to be boring? We’re called to fellowship together. The Family Life Task Force helps us so much in that way. Their next event is the Valentine Dinner and Dance. Bring your sweetheart; it’s a great evening of fun together. We updated and put in the mail to you the Grace Group’s brochure. And I hope you are a part of one of those groups that helps us carry out this part of our mission statement.
Care for Those in Need: Church today is a little different than the church there in Acts. It says that they sold their possessions and goods. They had kind of a communal living; we don’t do that. But it says "that they gave to anyone as they had need". We’re still about that business. In Galatians 6:2 Paul says, "Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ." The Scriptures remind us again and again that as believers we are joined together in our faith in Jesus Christ, and our primary calling is to "love one another’. In fact Paul took it so far in I Corinthians 13 to say, "I don’t care how great your fervor, how great your knowledge, how great your zeal or your faith, if you don’t love one another you missed the boat." And we’ll talk more about this and others of these five challenges next week when we look at our core values.
But on this matter of caring for one another, let me simply ask for a quick show of hands on a few questions. How many of you this year have received a card from another church member, from the prayer teams or from the caring ministry team? Hold up your hand. How many of you this year have had food brought to your home at some time of need? How many of you have been visited in the hospital or in your home by either Reverend Dan or myself? How many of you have been visited by one of our ministers of pastoral care or by Julie Allen, our parish nurse? How many of you have had a visit from some one on the caring ministry team? Let me see your hands. And I won’t ask for a show of hands, but I know that there are a number of hands that would go up of persons who have been helped financially as they went through difficult times because we are called to care for one another.
And maybe you didn’t raise up your hands. Let me give you this insight. I read it once in a church newsletter. It says be thankful your pastor hasn’t called because if the pastor hasn’t called there hasn’t been a death, there hasn’t been a serious illness, there hasn’t been a relational breakdown. So don’t feel like you were left out if your hand didn’t go up. Just thank the Lord that you just had a really good, rather uneventful year. We are called to care for one another.
So this is what we are about at Grace Church. The mission of Grace Church is to worship God, proclaim Christ as Savior, encourage growth in Christ as Lord, fellowship together, and care for those in need. And as we carry out that mission, let me remind you we never do it alone. We don’t do it on our own strength. In fact, a good place to end today is to remind us of the words of Jesus there as He ascended into Heaven. He said to His disciple, He says still to us today, "And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age".
Let’s pray. "Oh Lord, help us to keep the main thing the main thing. Help us to be faithful to what you’ve called us to be as a church. Help us to remember that we are the body of Christ together but all of us have a place in ministry. And in all things remind us that you are with us. In Jesus’ precious name, Amen."
E-mail Comments to: Reverend Dan Sinkhorn