Celebrations

Zephaniah 3: 14-20

Philippians 4: 4-7

Luke 15: 1-7

Celebrations

A professor, before handing out the final exam, stood before his class of organic biology students. He said to the students, "First, I want to say that it’s been a pleasure teaching you this semester. I know you all have worked extremely hard and many of you are off to medical school at the end of the summer. I know you are excited that the semester is over. So that no one gets their GPA messed up because you might have been celebrating a bit too much this week, anyone who would like to opt out of the final exam will receive a "B" for the class."

Many of the students clapped their hands and cheered and took the professor up on his offer. Those who took his offer, he dismissed from class. He looked at the handful that was left and said, "Anyone else? This is your last chance." A couple of more took him up on his offer. They were dismissed from class. He looked at the few that were left and said, "I’m glad to see that you believe in yourself. You all have "A’s."

All too often we settle for "B’s" when we could have "A’s." We often settle for the good rather than the best. As a Church or as a Christian, we should settle for nothing less than the best. God wants us to enjoy and experience the best. Now, if we are to have the best, there is a simple requirement. To have the best, we must give our best.

Today we celebrate all the things we have done as a church, because they are good things.  They bring us together as a congregation, they give us purpose, and they are done with the intent of serving God.  We should never diminish the things we have done. But we must step back and ask, how many people have we helped come to Christ, and how many professions of faith can we count? I agree, we may be planting seeds, and we may never know with certainty how many we have reached and helped to know Christ, but we still need to ask the question because, I believe, if what we are doing is truly fruitful for God, we will be able to see tangible effects.

On Christ The King Sunday we embarked on a year of prayer, each of us praying every day for four people to bring them into the Kingdom of God. You are praying to love them into God’s Kingdom.  I hope you are faithful in those prayers because if you are we will celebrate some significant things during this year. What have been your experiences so far with the prayers you have been making?

It is interesting to know that eighty percent of those who do not go to church do pray at times.  It is also interesting to know that eighty percent of the people in the United States are more shy than outgoing. This means that the people you are praying for also pray at least once in awhile.  It is also known that most of them feel lost at times, which is one reason they do pray. But, because most of them are also more shy than outgoing, very few, if any of them are ever going to truly know Christ unless they develop a relationship with someone who already does. 

If you look at your prayer card each time you pray for your four people, you will understand that you are praying for them to develop that relationship, perhaps with you.  This is a form of evangelism.

There were several methods of evangelism used in the life of the early church. The book of Acts contains about thirty five years of the history of the early church. There is preaching evangelism, teaching evangelism, house to house evangelism, literary evangelism and personal evangelism. We must never minimize the importance of one-on-one evangelism. By far, the most effective and lasting evangelism is person to person. We all can't preach to stadiums filled with people, but every one of us can witness to those whom God places in our path. We do that much more with our actions than we ever can with our words.  

In one of his books, Pastor Adam Hamilton offers a set of questions that every Christian should answer. By far the most important one is this:  Why do people need Christ?

                         

For some of you this is a faith struggle. Do you believe what Christ has taught? Before you can develop a relationship with someone else that will draw them to want to know Christ in their lives you have to understand yourself, and your faith. Ask yourself these questions.

Who is Jesus Christ to you? What happens when a person allows Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit into his or her life?  What difference has Christ really made in your life?  How do you exercise your faith in God, how do you live it and is it the way God wants you to live it? How would your life be different if you were not exercising your personal faith in Jesus Christ? Why do you need what Jesus offers?

Once you are certain of your answers to these questions you may find that as your relationship with another person develops they will one day start a discussion with you because they are curious about your faith, which now becomes visible not oral. You will find they have been thinking about their own relationship with, or beliefs about, God, and because they now know you care about them for their sake, they will want to talk with you.  We call that prevenient grace, and each of us is called upon to be an instrument of God’s grace for others. We cannot be such an instrument until we are certain of our own beliefs and living our faith in actions.

Another interesting thing to remember is, no one changes their behavior without a reason. For people who have no church relationship, the most likely reason they will finally come to church is because some significant life event has occurred recently;  loss of a job, new job, marriage, divorce, birth of a baby, loss of a family member or close friend, a move to new location. And, on average, in the United States every person has a significant life event at least once every 18 months.

If you have developed a relationship of trust and friendship with a person, at the time of that significant life event they may come to you. Or at least at that moment, they are more likely to accept an invitation from you to come to a church activity. Not yet to worship perhaps, but to church activities where they will become more comfortable and trusting, and then eventually to worship. Despite their shyness that we talked about, and their lack of knowledge about church that makes them fearful of coming, their trust in you because you have prayed for them, and cared about them for their sake will lead them to accept an invitation to come.

But, it isn’t enough just to inform them. For the eighty percent who are shy, it has to be a true invitation, and it isn’t an invitation unless you say, “Come with me”.  Invitations have to be specific, relational, and personal: “Come to the soup supper with me.”

The only way a church can ever grow in a sustainable way is through developing personal relationships. God has given spiritual gifts to each believer. The gifts are not for personal gain, but to serve and help others. But regardless of our other gifts, each of us, as part of the body of Christ, has the ability to make a new friend, develop a new relationship of trust and caring. Then let God do the rest.

If you pray faithfully for those you have listed, this year we will be celebrating, just as in the parable Jesus told us this morning  We won’t just be celebrating events, but new relationships that bring new found faith, for you and for those for whom you have prayed. You, and they, will be blessed.

Amen