WES HUMBLE

Call: We’re Serving it Up In his book, Doing Church as a Team, Wayne Cordeiro tells the following story, “There’s an old story of a rabbi living in a Russian city a century ago. Disappointed by his lack of direction and life purpose he wandered out into the chilly evening. With hands thrust deep into his pockets, he aimlessly walked through the empty streets, questioning his faith in God, the scriptures and his calling to ministry. The only thing colder than the Russian winter air was the chill within his own soul. He was so enshrouded by his own despair that he mistakenly wandered into a Russian military compound that was off-limits to civilians.

The silence of the evening chill was shattered by the bark of a Russian soldier. “Who are you? And what are you doing here?” “Excuse me?” replied the rabbi. “I said, ‘Who are you and what are you doing here?!’” After a brief moment the rabbi, in a gracious tone so as not to provoke the soldier, said, “How much do you get paid every day?”

“What does that have to do with you?” the soldier retorted. With some delight, as though he had just made a discovery, the rabbi said, “I will pay you the equal sum if you will ask me those same two questions every day: Who are you? and What are you doing here?”

Allow me to be that Russian soldier for just a moment this morning. Who are you? What are you doing here?

Do you know why you were created? Do you understand today that God put you in this church for more than your own enjoyment?

The phenomenal success of Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose Driven Life, is alone enough to drive home the need that all of us have to find a purpose and make a difference. The only way we can truly be fulfilled as a human is to serve. When we don’t serve in some way it is called selfishness.

“Beware, lest you forget the Lord your God.” Deut. 8:11

The Israelites in the Old Testament were continually forgetting the fact that God called them to be His people. He called them to do His work. They were continually getting sidetracked or distracted by the cultures around them. If they stayed any one place too long they would begin to reflect the nature of that culture.

God has always been about calling and looking for a people who will stand alone supported by God and following hard after His ways and will.

There is a great problem today that develops in churches. Historically, this problem has crossed over denominational lines. We begin to act like an organization instead of an organism. We choose comfort and convenience over servanthood and sacrifice.

You cannot seriously read the New Testament and not embrace the idea that the church is to be a living, vibrant, organism. We are the living body of Christ. Churches that will focus on being alive to God and serving the community around them will flourish because they are serving. The power of God’s spirit working through His people will be nothing short of cultural transformation.

We are simply presenting to you today the reason we believe that Call is such an important word.

The first C in our vision statement is Celebration and we certainly believe that it is important. The second C is Community and if you were here last week you know we believe in building community through small groups and doing life together.

While both of these C-words are important, they are not enough. We were made to serve. It is a calling. God gives each one of us gifts and we have to deal with the fact that He wants to use those gifts.

Why we serve:

1. Because Christ taught that we should. We have a Mission

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

It is all through the Bible but especially in the New Testament, we are called to serve! We are called to a mission. We are called to be on mission. Do you think that doing something in ministry is just for the few the proud the Marines? If I understand anything about the Bible serving the needs of this world is critical.

In 1998, Mikhail Baryshnikov gave an unprecedented solo ballet performance. “An Evening of Music and Dance” featured “Heartbeat: mb,” an improvisation to his own heart song amplified through a wireless device affixed to his shirtless chest.”

Each of us must learn to sing by heart our personal song.

Can I just ask you to consider for a moment, What is my heart song? What am I doing that touches others?

We must carry out the mission that Christ has given all Christ followers to do. We are to be His witnesses.

2. Because we are here on earth for more than just ourselves. We each have a Ministry.

“It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” Ephesians 4:11-13

3. Because God has chosen to work in this world through people like you and I. We have a Model.

“Then he said, "Do you understand what I have done to you? You address me as "Teacher' and "Master,' and rightly so. That is what I am. So if I, the Master and Teacher, washed your feet, you must now wash each other's feet. I've laid down a pattern for you. What I've done, you do. I'm only pointing out the obvious. A servant is not ranked above his master; an employee doesn't give orders to the employer. If you understand what I'm telling you, act like it--and live a blessed life.” John 13:12-17

It is one of the most startling thoughts I have had lately. It has shaken me and gripped me because I have the responsibility to pass it on to you. Do you realize that God has placed His work in your hands? What happens for God in today’s world is only going to happen through people. People like you and me. We are the body of Christ. The Bible teaches that He is the head and we are the body. We are to function like a body. A healthy body with dexterity, fluidity, functionality and purpose.

McManus: “The life of the church is the heart of God. The heart of God is to serve a broken world. When Jesus wrapped a towel around His waist, He reminded us that only He could wash away our sin. The church cannot live when the heart of God is not beating with her. God heartbeat is to seek and to save that which is lost. The church exists to serve as the body of Christ, and it is through this commitment to serve that we forced to engage our culture.

The serving that we are called to requires direct contact. You cannot wash the feet of a dirty world if you refuse to touch it.”

It is through serving as a church that we find our strength. Without active serving we begin to atrophy. It is what happens to one’s arm when it is put in a cast. Lack of use promotes a deterioration of the muscle. Muscle strength is gone, dexterity is gone, you might say effectiveness is gone.

True Christ-followers have always been about serving and answering the call.

“We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

I have often said and I will continue to remind you that we are not the perfect church. Sometimes new people will come up to me or one of the staff and express their joy over finding this church. That is awesome but you need to know that we are just people with flaws and even failures occasionally. The good news is that when we work together and serve together we don’t have time to focus on the imperfections of others.

You were given a list of ways to serve when you came in today. Do you know that this list is only a partial list? Take a look at it with me. Every opportunity on here is about serving in the ministry of this church and almost of them are about serving within these walls.

I want to prepare you for the future as best as I can, this morning. What we do in here is important and serving in here is crucial and very needed. In fact the goal today is for us to have as many people serving as possible so that no one feels like they are being used. I mean that literally. What I want you to hear is we are about to make a major shift in emphasis in this church.

I have been searching and trying very hard to find God’s will in all of the momentum and excitement and I keep coming back to one word. It is not Growth, Numbers, Buildings, Land, Mortgages, or Marketing. Some of those things may very well be in our future, but our focus is going to be on the one word that I can’t get away from. The word is serve. We can do a lot of things with money, land, buildings and marketing but none of it is impressive or useful to God if we are not serving others.

I promise you that over the next few months we will begin to bring clarity to the ministry vision of this church. I have no desire to lead a church that leads people to be consumers. This church will be about service, service, service and more service.

In the book, An Unstoppable Force, Erwin McManus writes, “The New Testament word for “witness” is the same as for “martyr.” We have come to know martyrs as those who have died for the faith. They didn’t survive, but they died facing the right direction. Around the world, Christian families, tribes, and communities have been persecuted and brutally killed for their faith. They didn’t survive. Yet they left a witness. The purpose of the church cannot be to survive or even to thrive but to serve. And sometimes servants die in the serving.”

“There is always an enormous temptation in all of life to diddle around making itsy-bitsy friends and meals and journeys for itsy-bitsy years on end. It is so self-conscious, so apparently moral. . . I won’t have it. We are raising tomatoes when we should be raising Cain, or Lazarus.” Annie Dillard.

The bottom line to all of this today is that we are living in the middle of a city that desperately needs God. Everyone of us pass by people that are in need of the message and by God’s help the leadership team of this church is going to find ways to connect to this community in a loving, caring and authentic way.

Bruce Thielmann, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, told of a conversation with a member of his flock who said, “You preachers talk a lot about ‘do unto others,’ but when you get right down to it, it comes down to basin theology. Thielmann asked, “Basin theology? What’s that?”

The layman said, “ Remember what Pilate did when he had the chance to acquit Jesus? He called for a basin and washed his hands of the whole thing, But Jesus the night before His death, called for a basin and proceeded to wash the feet of his disciples. It all comes down to basin theology: which one will you use?”

Usually people respond to a cause. They will even ignore their differences to serve together. The most public example of that recently would be these two guys. Bitter enemies in the world of politics when the world had a crisis they joined hands and hearts and got busy.

There is no greater need than that the world we live in needs to hear the message. No, that’s the wrong way to say it. They need to see the message, lived out in our lives day after day.

2005/05/08

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