August 18, 2024 – Week 3 – Growth = Opportunity

OPENING ILLUSTRATION: Can I tell you a story? For thousands of years Christianity existed in fairly small churches for the most part.  Primarily due to the fact that to travel much of a distance you had to harness up a horse. There were a few larger churches in cities, but for the most part they were pretty small This was the case until relatively recently in history… As the church began to grow new models of how to do church began to take center stage.   One of the primary models that was front and center the last 20-30 years was something called “Attractional Church” This model used words like  “Seeker Sensitive” b The basic premise was this: Your church needs to be attractive to people in order to keep them in the seats. Not bad, right, basically, make church cool and people will come. And it worked, until it became not cool to be a Christian.   There are things that we believe that are no longer cool in our culture. Here’s what model produced: we created a whole generation of Christians that were focused on what they liked rather than on what Jesus liked… And not their fault, it is what the church trained us to be… But that’s not what Jesus was after Jesus was after disciples Listen to how Jesus described following Him Luke 9:57-62 57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” ILLUSTRATION: When I was in college, I wondered what it was like to be homeless - I know, I’m weird.  So, I went out for a walk and decided I would sleep outside that night in the city.  I never realized how freaky it was to sleep completely exposed with no protection, no one around you.  When you sleep you are completely vulnerable.  I ended up finding a bank and laying down in the light by their atm, but after about an hour I ended up going home… We don’t know what happened with this man who said he’d follow Jesus where ever he’d go, but what we do know  Jesus told him He was homeless - signaling, if you follow me you have to be willing to give up all your comforts Is this the Christianity you were sold?   I have friends who have moved to other countries to follow Jesus, one of them literally lives in what we would consider poverty to share the gospel with people. Others put their lives on the line for Jesus.   What level of uncomfortable are you willing to put up with to follow Jesus? ILLUSTRATION: I was challenged a couple months ago when I was leading a bible study with several men in Pakistan over zoom who had traveled from their homes to spend a weekend studying the scripture, only to go home to be persecuted.  There was no fancy speaker, or big worship band, the only thing that drew them was Jesus. What level of uncomfortable would it take to keep you from Jesus? 59 He said to another man, “Follow me.” But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Can I ask you a question? How does Jesus’ answer to this man strike you? does it strike you as harsh? Most of the time when I hear a preacher address this, they soften Jesus words - and maybe rightly so.   -but I think Jesus was intensely harsh - or hard. There’s a whole book on the hard sayings of Jesus It’s why either Jesus is God or He’s a lunatic, because no one should be allowed to speak like this. How would you respond to Jesus? b What gives Him the right to say things like this? b Do you give Him the right to say things like this in your life? ILLUSTRATION: I can remember when my kids were young I heard about some Christians who were brought out of their houses and parents were forced to watch as their children were executed in front of them.  I remember struggling with God over this, if I was ever forced to do that, would I give up my faith?  Then I realized, my kids are not mine, they are God’s and I am just stewarding them…  This passage reminds me of a time when lots of people left Jesus, He turned to His disciples and asked them if they were going to leave to?  this is what Simon Peter said: John 6:68-69 “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”  Who else would you go to? b The reason Christians, for thousands of years, have followed Jesus, even when it cost them everything, is because they were willing to give up what they had here and now for what is to come… 61 Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” 62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” ILLUSTRATION: I didn’t understand this till one of my friends in Western Kansas told me that when he was a kid, he and his other farm kid friends would all talk about whose dad could cut the straightest row.  My friends and I talked about whose dad was strongest, but for a farmer, straight rows matter.   Jesus is using farming language - he’s saying if you put your hand to the plow to work for God, you can’t be the kind of person who is always looking to go back to where you came from… See, Jesus’ call to discipleship was an all in kind of discipleship. b BEHIND THE CURTAIN: Can I tell you a secret, did you know our church has 5 full time staff and 3 part time staff, we manage the entire organization of 500 people a week coming into this place and ministering to close to a thousand people all together. Do you know what we spend most of our time talking about? -How we can avoid competing with sports - because we know people will choose sports over church -How to try and make it as easy as possible to volunteer because we know if it’s too hard we will end up with nothing -We struggle with how to find enough group leaders who are ready to lead others because we have lots of people wanting to be in groups, but very few people who are willing to lead a group -We spend inordinate amounts of time trying to decide if we are going to spend money here or there because our giving barely covers the expenses of running our church. These are the realities we deal with - you don’t see it because we are good at making it look like everything is taken care of… I have dreams for our church - I would love to see us do missions trips and serve the poor in our community, but frankly we are so overwhelmed just trying to keep what we currently do afloat, to plug the holes.   We have settled for being spiritual consumers rather than discipled contributors. b Jesus’ dream was not a room full of people being pampered but a Kingdom of missionaries proclaiming the message of the King. CLOSING ILLUSTRATION: Several times in my life I’ve been confronted with a message where I could either shrink back or move forward.  We’ve all been there, right, the coach that says “either you start showing up for practice or your off the team…”  There are clarifying moments in life for us that help us to see things more clearly.  We want to be a church who is all in for Jesus.  We want you to become a fully activated disciple for Jesus. I’m standing up here asking if you are in with us… When I first started at Harmony I found out that the church had been in such a dire situation that we had stopped giving to Missions.  I told our elders that we were going to give to missions 10% of everything that was given to the church and that I’d rather cut my salary than to cut missionaries.  I will never forget getting up in front of the church and saying, “will you stand with us in this” - meaning will you stand in solidarity.  But there was this older gentlemen who had a cane who when I said that shakily stood up.  and with that, one by one others stood until everyone was standing. I want to ask you today, will you stand with us?  let me be clear, I’m asking you to choose to be contributors in what God is doing at Harmony, not just spiritual consumers…   We need you!