A Missionary People

As we come to the end of our series looking at the church under construction it seems right that we remind ourselves of the primary purpose of the church. It was CS Lewis who once said that “the church exists for no other purpose but to draw men to Christ”. Tim Chester wrote: The gospel is good news: a message to proclaim, a truth to be taught, and a story to be told.
This understanding shapes us into a missionary people who follow a missionary God. We are made for a mission as Rick Warren would say.

That our God is a missionary God cannot be ignored. The church was born in mission and grows only through mission. Mission is an expression of God’s own heart for those he misses most, those who are far from him but never out of his reach. It was the Holy Spirit who called for Paul and Barnabas to be set apart for a special missionary task, but it also the Holy Spirit who empowers the church to continue in its mission.

A Missionary People

If we trace the life of the early church we see:

Spirit Inspired Movement

We need boundaries, we need frameworks, but we ought never to forget that we are a movement. Hinted at in the “go” language used by Jesus and expressed as the early church fulfils the words of Acts 1:8

Intentional Engagement

Paul engaged the culture in a dialogue.

Incarnational Influence

A third aspect of the missionary movement is that it is lived out among the people we are trying to reach.

How do we live as a missionary people?

Proximity

First of all we have to be near enough to touch lives and understand them.

Presence

Somehow we have to find ways to be both near the people we are reaching and among the people we are reaching.

Partnership

Partnership with God.

To become fully involved partners with God we need to:

Pray

The three-open prayer: open doors, open my mouth, open hearts

Prepare

Peter writes: Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have

Play your part

Share the story, live the story.

Find out what you do best and do it in a way that makes a difference.

Changing styles

You may have noticed in the last post that I've presented the main bullet points with a brief introduction and conclusion without a lot of text in between. I thought this might be a more helpful way of sharing the outline in order to generate questions and personal exploration.

Previously I've left in much of my notes but of course the notes don't really tell you the whole story of what was said. This way I hope you can focus on the main ideas without the intrusion of my explanations!

This is a rather late change given that I'll be leaving Bedford in September and I'm not preaching in August. That means that next week, assuming I post my outline for the last in this current series, will be last post on this blog.

I'm not sure whether I'll continue to post sermon notes when we move or not, but if I do I'll put a link on this blog to the new one for anyone who might be interested in what I'm doing.

It may also be that someone at Cotton End chooses to take over putting notes and stories (I never really got around to doing the later) about what God is doing in rural Bedfordshire somewhere on the internet. Given that this blog comes under my personal blogger profile, it's likely that it will fall into a deep sleep before quietly shuffling off the radar. Or maybe it will get rebranded and relaucnhed later in the year. Who knows!

A Serving People

Most of us would probably agree that we are called to serve in some way or another. Quite what it means and how we implement a lifestyle of serving, we’re not so sure. But something in us nags away at our selfish tendencies.

Ecclesiastes serves as a reminder about the ultimately unfulfilling nature of a life lived for self. Having tried accumulating great wealth he turned to power. When power and wealth failed to satisfy he tried pleasure, fame and celebrity. But they all left him with that empty feeling that caused him to declare that is was all “like chasing the wind”. Ultimately pointless and totally unfulfilling.

We were not created to chase the wind, pursue pleasure or accumulate wealth. We were created for a purpose, to join God in his great mission to bless the world, to reclaim, redeem and fix this broken world.

Mark 10:32-45

Based upon his own example he calls those who follow him to become like him in serving others rather than promoting self.

Why we don’t serve

#1 We get distracted

#2 We get demotivated

#3 We delegate to others

#4 We’re denied opportunities

Why we do serve

#1 It’s an expression of God’s mission

#2 It’s an expression of true freedom

#3 It’s about following Christ’s example

How we serve

#1 We serve Christ by serving others

#2 We serve wholeheartedly

#3 We serve in accordance with our gifts

Conclusion

Jim Wallis said: Find out what you do best and then do it in a way that makes a difference.

Service serves the purposes of God. It is a missionary endeavour.

If we are to follow Paul’s injunction in Romans 12 to overcome evil with good, then to do will surely involve acts of service.

A Worshipping People

What exactly is worship? What makes becoming a living sacrifice, to quote Paul from Romans 12, an act of reasonable or logical worship?

In truth we might have to concede that the modern-day church has reduced worship to the bit of the service that involves singing. And yet we all probably recognise that worship ought to be much more than that. If we return to Romans 12 for a moment we discover that this reasonable or logical worship is a whole-life response to the mercies of God that we have experienced. Earlier in the letter Paul tells his readers that the natural outcome of the lifestyle choices everyone makes is that they rebel against God and therefore deserve to be judged and sentenced accordingly.

But heaven has a wonderful “however” clause. Rather than judging us as our actions deserve, God offers us the opportunity of forgiveness, the opportunity of a new beginning. Instead of dying because of our sin, we are invited to live because of Christ’s sacrifice. This is mercy. We do not get what we deserve. And because of that Paul says, “Present yourselves as living sacrifices as an act of worship.”

Worship then becomes an ongoing response to God in every circumstance of life.

In the Old Testament worship would be the sign of God’s successful deliverance of the people from slavery in Egypt. As individual characters we meet Jacob who worships God as his final days approach. Job worships God in response to personal disaster. David worships God as he comes to terms with the loss of a son and in celebration of victories.

In the highs and lows of life, worship is always a valid response.

Worship as a whole-life response

Six key elements

Adoration

Andrew Bonar described adoration as “silent wonder”. His point was simply this, that when we truly encounter God at the deepest level we find ourselves lost for words and able only to look at him in silent wonder. Adoration may begin for many as an act of naming God’s great attributes, but it ends up in this place of sheer amazement of who he is and what he has done for us.

Bill Hybels, in his book “Too busy not to pray” describes adoration as entering holy space. In so doing we set the tone for any prayer that follows. Adoration reminds us about God’s identity and inclination. As we adore God, we reinforce our understanding of who he is and what his mission is.

In Acts 4, adoration comes when the community acknowledge the sovereignty of God and his complete awareness of the situation. He is not thrown by anything that has happened.

Confession

Put simply, confession is about naming our faults. Telling God the truth about ourselves. You could be forgiven for thinking in this age of self-promotion that as we confess our faults we would undermine our confidence. Our self-confidence yes, but our confidence in God ought to increase. Confessing our faults is an act of self-exposure that forces us to rely no longer on our own abilities but to trust more fully in God’s great mercy.

John tells us in his first letter that “if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and the cleanse us from all unrigtheousness.” In other words, if we are honest with God about our failures he will be true to his promise and his character and deal with it in mercy and grace.

Intercession

Recent trends in understanding prayer have been in danger of limiting intercessory prayer to those for whom it is considered their gift or their ministry. But intercession is or should be a part of all our lives. Paul tells Timothy about the importance of intercession when he urges that intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone along with prayers and requests. (1Tim.2:1)

When we intercede for someone we pray the prayers they cannot pray or will not pray. We seek God’s mercy on their behalf. Whether it’s international, national or personal, intercession is a vital part of our worship together and individually.

Petition

If we believe that God wants to give, that he’s the kind of Father Jesus describes who does not give snakes and stones when we ask for bread and food, then petition, the process of asking, will be a part of our worship too. Not the kind of asking that wants more stuff for oneself, but the kind of asking that looks to see God honoured and at work in the life settings of oneself and those around you.

If you struggle with how to ask or what to ask for, then simply be honest with God. When I’m not sure I often start my prayer with, “Lord, I’m not sure what to ask for in this situation but here’s what is on my heart. This is my request, if it’s the wrong thing then show me.”

In Acts 4 it’s interesting that the petition made is not for protection but for boldness. To paraphrase Reggie McNeal, they ask God to show up and show off.

Thanksgiving

Paul says in 1Thess.5:18 that we should Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Sometimes we think that feeling grateful is thanksgiving enough. It isn’t. Thanksgiving is an intentional act. We seek out the person to whom we feel grateful and say, “Thank you”. It’s a simple act but an important one. When Jesus healed 10 men of leprosy, a terrible disease that left people living as social outcasts, only one came back and said thank you. All of them were undoubtedly grateful, even profoundly grateful, but only one came back and said thank you. And it moved Jesus.

Thanksgiving is important.

Expectation

The last element is expectation. What are your expectation when you worship? Do you expect God to show up? Do you expect him to answer prayers?

In Acts 4 we see great expectations being expressed in the prayers and worship of the gathered community. The ask and expect God to act, not on their behalf but because that is the kind of God they understand him to be. One who is interested in and involved in the lives of ordinary people who follow him and who do not. Their expectation of God is that out of this situation mission will flow. That’s why they ask for boldness not protection, because they know that there is yet more to be done for the sake of the kingdom of God.

Conclusion

It seems that the more we look at the church under construction the more we see the intimate connection between the life of the church and the mission of God. Whether it’s Pentecost, pastoral care or worship, all of them seem to have a place in the missionary purposes of God.
So let’s commit ourselves to honest, living-sacrifice worship of our God and rejoice at what comes as a result because I believe that God honours this kind of worship in ways we are yet even to imagine.

You know my question, the one about why, when crises come do Christians stop praying and non-Christians start praying? Well perhaps the reason we stop is not a lack of faith or a failure of spirituality but a failure of perspective. Perhaps the reason we stop is because we don’t spend enough time in regular worship that involves adoration and confession, intercession and petition, thanksgiving and expectation.