Sermon Tone Analysis

ATTENTION

DOVE VIDEO

I wish that beauty was the only perception we distorted.

Quite honestly, our culture twists our view of many qualities and institutions.

None more than the church.

We used to have an idea of what we could expect when we showed up on a Sunday morning.

While it might not have been very exciting to some, it was pretty predictable.

Not anymore.

Practices, expectations, and perceptions have all changed, and those changes aren’t all good.

The desire to make our faith relevant to our culture has had the unexpected consequence of causing that culture to expect accommodation.

Even believers, as we said last week, have begun to treat church like a mall where they pick and choose between churches based on what strikes their fancy, or meets their felt needs.

They have begun to see it as a sort of a country club where they can come to relax with people who are just like them and with whom they feel comfortable.

This perception has led to a weakened resolve, a lowered commitment, and an ineffective witness.

Most of all, this perception is plainly unbiblical.

The Bible is clear: When it comes to connection, the church is not a mall, it’s a body.

We don’t trade in its programs like consumers seeking what works to our advantage.

No! We are a body, inextricably woven together.

We are to connect, not consume.

And when it comes to growth, the church is not a country club, it’s a gym.

Our job is not to rest, but to pursue growth with intentional effort and focus.

The leadership of this church intentionally pursues an approach to ministry that both connects and brings growth to the willing believer.

Just like we said last week, We seek to connect seekers to this body by bringing them into a relationship with Christ and helping them to discover their place in His body.

Once connected we encourage each one to become involved in the process of discipleship through our directions training and through other Bible study opportunities such as Sunday School and Life University.

Connecting and Growing are the first two steps on the Journey that is our vision for Peace Church.

Being a part of this fellowship should be anything but a restful experience.

We are on a journey here that has a very specfic destination.

This week we’ll take a look at the last two steps on that journey.

NEED

And just in case there might be some of you out there this morning who are saying, “That’s great, Rusty, but I really don’t want to hear it.

I’m overcommitted as it is.

I have no more time to “connect” or “grow.”

Go ahead and preach, but I’m just not that interested.”

Well, you might not be interested, but you really should be.

You see, the two steps on this journey that I want to talk to you about today could really change you.

Maybe you’ve been waiting on the Lord to show you just what He wants you to do, but you’ve gotten no insight.

Maybe you’d like to have a “calling” to ministry, but nothing’s ever happened.

I want you to listen.

I think that the third step on this journey is the primary way Christ goes about showing us exactly what he wants us to do.

The same really goes for the last step, too.

Maybe you’ve been living this kind of dull, dried up Christianity that is more boring than anything else.

You thought that Christianity was supposed to be challenging, but so far all its done is put you to sleep.

Well, I want you to listen today.

God wants to take you on a grand adventure like none you’ve ever experienced.

It happens in the fourth step of the journey.

So what are steps three and four?

Well, step three is this: In order for a believer to mature in Christ, he must

DIV 1: SERVE

EXPLANATION.

I went to the Customer “no-service” counter at a local store some time ago to return an item I had purchased.

I was the only one in line and the lady behind the desk had nothing else I could see that she was doing.

Nothing, that is, besides talking on her cell phone.

I walked to the counter and waited.

From what she was saying, this didn’t seem to be a business call, but a personal one.

That didn’t matter.

I still had to wait.

She kept talking like I wasn’t even standing there.

Here I was . . . the customer; there she was . . . the salesperson, but that still didn’t matter.

I had to wait because it was obvious, she really didn’t care.

Now what was this young lady’s problem?

(Well some of you smart alecs might say it was an impatient pastor.

OK if you do, you’re probably right).

I’ll tell you what, in my humble opinion, her problem was: She had the mistaken impression that the service desk at Target was her own personal lounge.

Now before you nod in agreement, may I tell you that scene gets repeated in church all the time!

Over and over again, I run into church members who see church as a lounge.

They expect to show up (if they have nothing better or more exciting to do) lean back in their padded pew, sip their starbucks and critique the entertainment.

You know, they’re like the judges of gymnastics at the Olympics: “Well, that choir special gets a 6.5.

The intro was good, but they didn’t stick the ending.

O well, the degree of difficulty was high so let’s go ahead and give them a 7. Hey, that sermon was a 2.5, preacher: The point was fuzzy and the stories were old.”

They see the church as their little lounge and the result is we have lots of people who cry out to have their needs met, but very few who are serving.

And that, Peace Church Family, is absolutely unbiblical.

Need proof?

Well let me first show it to you by principle and then show you by example.

The principle you can find in Ephesians 4:11: There the Bible says: And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints (so that they can know how to critique the choir?)

No! for the equipping of the saints (so that they can better pick the pastor’s message apart?) No! for the equipping of the saints for the (what?

That’s right, say it together with me for the) WORK of ministry . . .

And just why must we work so hard.

The apostle goes on to say:

for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

In other words, the way we all grow is for all of us to SERVE!

The church is not a lounge, it’s a work place.

That’s the principle, here’s the example:

I take you back to the life of the Apostle Paul.

Just like I said last week, we tend to think that he became an instant Apostle.

That was not true.

He had to connect and he had to grow, but did you know that he also served?

That’s right!

Before he ever boarded a ship to become a missionary, he did the menial things he was assigned.

Let me show you a few of them:

Acts 9:28 says this about Paul:

So he was with them at Jerusalem, coming in and going out. 29 And he spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Hellenists, but they attempted to kill him.

30 When the brethren found out, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him out to Tarsus.

When it says in v 28 that he was “coming in and going out” and in v 29 that he was speaking boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, that implies a daily ministry in which Paul was engaged.

He was doing the work.

And his work wasn’t just preaching.

In Acts 11:27 he is shown doing the duties he was assigned by the church body.

There it says:

And in these days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch.

28 Then one of them, named Agabus, stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar.

29 Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea.

30 This they also did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.