Looking forward to Sunday, January 3, 2010
Our Calling and Mission in the Context of the Body of Christ and the Sabbath Principle
Ephesians 5:1-21 & Isaiah 58:1-14 NIV
19 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:19-20 NIV
14 . . . you will find your joy in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.” Isaiah 58:14 NIV
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How do we start out the New Year? Do we dare make some new resolves or renew some old ones? What is it that God wants for us as a church family? If you were to list the things you know that God wants from us as a congregation, do you wonder how we would stack up to His commands?
I confess that I do not simply want 2010 to be a repeat of 2009. I don't mean by that that 2009 was not a good year. That would be a total misread of what I am saying. 2009 was a good year. God was faithful. We were blessed. Lives were changed for God's glory. But, God wants us to keep growing in Him. He wants us to always be stepping forward on the path He has given us. That path is not to just redo last year. He has new ventures for us in 2010. He has new steps of faith to take.
The question I want us to face is, are we willing to go where God is leading us? Are we willing to obey what He has commanded us to do - even if it may mean stopping a present action that we are already invested in? I'm speaking both individually and corporately.
You see, God has invested His best treasure, Jesus Christ, in us. And because of His investment in us, we are transformed into displays of His glory. God’s incredible blessings are intended to make us as a congregation a display of God’s glory. God transforms us as individuals AND as a congregation to display to this community His glory and His power to transform lives.
This morning, I want us to attempt to answer this question: What if some of the things we personally have been doing are actually weakening our congregation as a whole, thus causing it to be significantly diminished in its display of God's glory in our community? And what if God were to say to each of us to repent and to give ourselves fully to His will for us as a congregation? Would we be willing to stop doing those things and give that energy and passion to seeing New Heights Church grow stronger and more effective in its witness for Christ in Kent and South King County?
God has placed on my heart a longing, a deep longing, that we fulfill our calling as a church family. During the past two years we have explored rather thoroughly what God’s Word says about the church. I preached through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians this past year and in 2008 I did what I thought was a pretty detailed teaching on the Sabbath principle from both Old and New Testament texts. Out of that study, I came to the firm conviction that God has a very high view of His church and He expects us to share that view in practice.
So, it seems to me very appropriate that on the first Sunday of the new year 2010, I lay before you a challenge to commit yourself to shaping your weekly schedule according to our calling and mission in the context of the body of Christ and the Sabbath principle.
God has already called us to commit our way to Him. Psalm 37:3-6 (NIV) says: 3 Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. 4 Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will do this: 6 He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
Now I understand quite well that commit is not a particularly comfortable word, especially when saying "yes" to God most often means saying "no" to things we have grown very attached to.
Committing our way to the Lord is quite different from asking God to commit Himself to our plans, or even to bless our plans. The promise He makes in Psalm 37 to give us the desires of our heart comes in response to our delighting in the Lord. That is a step of faith – to make a commitment to delight in the Lord. By stepping forward in faith, we will be given much to delight about in the Lord which will further strengthen our faith to keep trusting Him and keep committing our way to Him even more.
So, let me be very frank and up front. What I am asking of you today, if you commit to do it, will change our church for the better. It will change you for the better, as well. Here’s what I’m asking and what I will attempt to support with Scripture:
Would you make it your top Sunday morning priority to actively, wholeheartedly and faithfully participate in our worship, instruction and fellowship time that presently takes place on Sundays from 9:00 AM until Noon?
I’m asking that you commit 3 hours of the Lord’s Day to be together with the members of this local body of Christ. I’m asking that you participate wholeheartedly and faithfully in the three primary ministries we try to engage in on each Sunday morning: Congregational worship of Christ, Biblical instruction and Christian fellowship. I’m asking that you make these three hours on Sunday morning holy in your weekly calendar; that you do not schedule other events or activities within your control during these hours or that would cause your attention to be distracted from your full participation while here. I’m asking that you, as far as it is in your control, to set aside 3 hours every Sunday morning to be with your church family so that all of us can fulfill our calling and mission in the context of the Body of Christ and the Sabbath principle.
Just this past week I had the honor of being confined for 45 hours in one location with 28 other people from this congregation. I was privileged to participate in worship, instruction and fellowship with these brothers and sisters of mine in Christ. And because of it, I am far better equipped to now pray for these members of our church family. We were the body of Christ together during those hours and the Holy Spirit was at work. It was an illustration of what church could be like every Sunday if we reserved the time for it.
Probably the verse from our time together in the Word that struck me most powerfully was from Romans 12:5. . . . in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. Somehow, each one of us who belongs to Christ belongs to all the others who belong to Christ. I want us to demonstrate the truth of that verse here at New Heights.
I have chosen two texts to support this call to commitment: Ephesians 5 and Isaiah 58.
Ephesians 5:1-21 (NIV) 1 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Paul is speaking to those who are God’s dearly loved children. He is speaking to Christians. He is speaking to the church in Ephesus, to a congregation, to a group of believers. It is safe to say that he is also speaking to us for we, too, are God’s dearly loved children. We, too, are a Christian congregation.
Paul opens chapter 5 with a command to God’s dearly loved children. 1 Be imitators of God, . . . Paul uses the word mimētaí from which we get the English word mimic. It is derived from the noun miméomai which reminds me of the word mimeograph. A mimeograph in the old days of modern technology was a forerunner to our modern photo copy machine. It’s what we understand as duplicating an original. We take for granted today the quality of our duplication machines. Sometimes it is difficult to even determine which is the original after we have made copies of it.
This is the word that Paul uses in his command to us. 1 Be imitators of God, . . .
But, what are we to imitate about God?
1 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
So, how is Paul answering our question about what it is about God that we are to imitate?
What word or concept is repeated multiple times in verses 1 and 2? Yes. It is love. Paul is commanding us as a congregation to imitate God’s Father love toward His children, toward each other. Just as God loves us, so we are to love. Paul makes it plain when he says, live a life of love. And, he doesn’t leave any doubt in our minds what he wants that to mean. Paul uses two qualifiers of what living a life of imitating the Father’s love would look like.
a. First, he says, if we are going to imitate God we need to duplicate the love Christ is having for us.
b. Second, Paul narrows the meaning of that love even further by saying, if we are going to imitate God we need to duplicate the manner in which Christ gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and as a sacrifice to God.
Now, is Paul being clear? Do we have any doubt about what Paul is telling us, what he is commanding us? Our loving that is directed for others is to be the giving up of something of value and something for which we feel the loss. Paul is commanding us to 1. Love others sacrificially. (vv. 1-2) He says it is an imperative that we Christians are to live lives of sacrificial love for others.
What does that mean to us? Does it not mean that we will sacrifice for the benefit of others, for our brothers and sisters in Christ and possibly even sacrifice for the benefit of unbelievers? Does it not mean a giving up of something of value to ourselves so that someone else receives that value? Does it not mean experiencing a loss so that someone else experiences a gain?
Folks, this is our calling as Christians. We must not run from it, but rather, we must embrace it. But, Paul is also clear that we are not to try to manufacture this love. No. Instead, we are to do exactly as our heavenly Father has loved us as His dearly loved children. Therefore, we are not obeying this command from a deficit. Rather, we are obeying this command from overflow. We are dearly loved children. God is continually loving us sacrificially for our benefit.
So, is it not true, then, that as fast as we give away the love we have received from our loving Father, who loves us most deeply through His Son, Jesus Christ, that our Father replenishes us with more of His love?
So, can you think of any good reason why you would not obey this command that Paul gives to us to imitate God in the way He loves us? If our well of love will be replenished when we love sacrificially, what reasons could we possibly give for not loving sacrifically?
1 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Paul then speaks passionately about our passions when they get off track. He commands us to distance ourselves from sexual immorality, impurity, greed and empty words. In the center of his strong warning and urgent cautions, he inserts an activity that seems to serve as a road block to keep our passions from going down an evil path. Look for that road block to passions gone wild as I read verses 3-7.
3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. 4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. 5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. 7 Therefore do not be partners with them.
What could be the road block to keep us from heading downward toward sexual immorality, impurity and greed, obsenity, foolish talk and coarse joking and empty words? Could it be thanksgiving? Could it be having a character that is overflowing with gratitude towards God? Could it be that the path to cultivating pure personal character is a commitment to being thankful?
Thankfulness is a testimony to a heart that is pure. Thus, I suggest that the summary of verses 3-7 is the command to 2. Cultivate a pure character with a heart of gratitude. (vv. 3-7) Not only must our actions be loving, our character must be pure. And, the best road to a pure life is a thankful life.
Are you committed to being a thankful person for the purpose of cultivating a pure character?
In verses 8-14 I see Paul commanding us 3. Let Christ’s light shine on you and through you. (vv. 8-14)
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14 for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said:
“Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
Paul is saying, “Welcome Christ’s light into and onto your life until you become light in your world.” We can only be light if Christ’s light is shining through us. We can only have Christ’s light shining through us if we are committed to welcoming Christ’s light to continually shine on us.The way we keep Christ’s light shining on us is to obey the instruction to find out what pleases the Lord and do those things that please Him.