Broadway Christian Church · Columbia, Missouri

Morning Worship · November 19, 2006

Twenty-Fourth Sunday After Pentecost

Prayer of the Day

Oh God, as we worship you this hour, help us to make the doorway of this house wide enough to receive all who need human love and fellowship; narrow enough to shut out all envy and strife.  Let its door be rugged and strong to turn back the tempter’s power, but open and inviting to those who are your guests.  This we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Scripture

Mark 1:14-18

Now after John the Baptizer was arrested and put into prison, Jesus came to Galilee preaching, proclaiming the gospel, the good news from God, of God.  “The time has come,” said Jesus.  “The kingdom of God is near.  It’s at hand.  Repent and believe the good news!”

And as Jesus was walking along the shore, he saw Simon and Simon’s brother Andrew fishing, casting their nets into the sea, and Jesus said to them, “Come.  Follow me, and I will make you fishers.  I will teach you how to catch people.”

Immediately they dropped their nets, and they followed Jesus.

This is the Word of the Lord for us this day.

Message

What Does God Want This Church to Do?

Rick Frost

[Editor’s Note:  Earlier in worship, Rick mentioned that worship would conclude with the benediction being spoken in the new Christian Life Center, still under construction.  The children from Sunday School would be waiting for the congregation to join them there.  Therefore, every effort was being made to end worship in a timely fashion so everyone would be united in the new building at the right time.]

Well, so far we are on time.  This is the spot where we usually are in most services.  That means the ball is in my court.

I do want you to know, at the eight o’clock service, a wonderful thing happened.  I opened the bulletin, and it stated the name of the sermon, the Scripture, and so on.  It also read, “Rick Frost, Youth Minister.”  I don’t know who misprinted that, but I’m giving them a bonus tomorrow.

Somebody in the group said that was perfectly correct, because we are all the youth.  And so we are.  It’s all up here (pointing to his head).  Well… Maybe not always.

I want to talk about “Vision” today.  Vision is the ability to see, the ability to imagine, the ability to envision what is not yet.  It’s the ability to see what’s coming, to have some sense of what the future holds.

The question today:  Do you have a vision?  Do you have a dream?  Do you have a plan?  Do you have a hope for the future?

I thought about my own family, and I think they have a vision for their future.  I think Marcy wants to build a medical practice.  I think Ted would love to own his own business some day.  I think Molly would hope to find a venue where her creative energies would be welcomed, and valued, and developed.  Jan is returning to the university and is working on an advanced degree.  She wants to get better at being a contributor to the emotional and social needs of preschoolers and their families.  They have some dreams.  They have some hopes.  They have some plans.

Do you have plans?  Do you have a hope?  Do you have a dream about tomorrow for your family, for yourself?  In our text today, Jesus, according to Mark, came into the world with a vision.  It was a vision about the future.  It was a vision that involved hope.  It’s a huge vision.  It’s a big vision.  Indeed, if you read the gospel of Mark, you know it is God’s vision for God’s world.

In our text today, Jesus announced that vision.  He said, “The time has come, folks.  It’s here.  The kingdom of God is drawing near.  Repent, turn.  Turn away from what is destructive, what’s harmful, what’s evil, what’s not working, and turn toward what is good, what is right, what is just, what is loving, what is peaceful.  Turn toward God.  Turn toward God’s way, God’s truth, God’s light, what does work.”  That’s what he said.  As you know, “repent” means to change your heart, your mind, your belief.  It is not just thinking about something, but it is to act on it, to do the good news.

According to our text, then Jesus went away.  He called, recruited, and enlisted some very common, everyday folks.  You’ve heard many times; these were going to be the people to help him do just that.  These are people who are going to be his coworkers, who would be his friends.  He said to them simply, “Come.  Follow me, and I will teach you (you don’t have to teach yourselves) how to fish, how to catch, how to transform people.”

According to Mark, at once they left what they were doing, and they followed him.  As everyone in this room knows, because they did what Jesus asked, you and I are here today.  That’s why.  Look around you.  Just take a look.  Who is here?  Whom do you see?  What do you see?  Get up close.  Take a gander.  Whom do you see?  What do you see right here in front of your very noses? 

When I look at you… When I consider what I see, I see good.  I see good people.  Perfect?  No, thank God!  I can’t stand perfect people.  I just don’t want them around.  Jesus didn’t seem to need them either.  He came for people who needed some things.  I see good people.  I see good people doing good things.  I see a good community of faith trying, year after year, month after month, week after week, to be faithful.

You are people who are growing in Christ and doing some amazing things.  Just look around you.  Why are we doing it?  It’s because we have been asked to.  It’s just about that simple, because if we are not doing it for that reason, we shouldn’t be doing it.  You and I have been called.  We are commissioned.  We have been given a mission, and that mission comes to us in nothing less than the Spirit of the Living Christ.

Our mission, and it is written everywhere we can place it, is to enable people to encounter the Spirit of the Living God revealed to us in Christ Jesus, and to serve and celebrate that living God, that living Spirit in an ever-changing society.  And boy, it is changing.  Isn’t it?

Folks, we don’t care about religion here.  We aren’t into religious ceremonies.  We are not here trying to live good lives.  We’re not trying to be nice people.  That’s not why we are here.  You and I have been given a mission.  We’ve been given a mission, and that mission requires power that is not our own.  It requires spiritual power, and that power, that force is your personal encounter with the Spirit of the Living Christ.

Jesus said, “Those who abide in me and I in them, for them some good things happen.  They bear much fruit.  You can see it, because apart from me, you can do nothing” (John 15).

Folks, it doesn’t matter if you have been here since Charter Day 1958, or if you walked in and you are in our midst today for the very first time.  I have something to tell all of you.

Today is Vision Awareness Sunday.  It’s my opportunity – my privilege – to share that vision with you.  And I have precious short time to do it.

Some of you may not know it yet, but this church, which is your church, which is the Lord’s Church on Broadway, is beginning to focus on what I believe to be the most important challenge confronting this community, this country, and this world.  It may not be what you think it is.

I believe we are becoming a part of the greatest reformation, the greatest spiritual awakening in human history.  If you are a history buff at all, you know there have been periods in the history of humankind when spiritual “awakedness” has occurred.  You and I are right on the cusp of that phenomenon.  We, and millions like us, are encountering the Spirit of the Living God through Christ, and we are going to reach out to everyone in one way or another in refreshing new and effective ways.  We are going to help make disciples, followers, friends of Jesus.

It’s not going to be easy.  I can tell you it’s not going to be cheap.  It’s not going to happen overnight, but we are going to enable persons to encounter the Spirit of the Living God as it has been revealed to us in Christ, and we are going to help create persons who are boldly, unashamedly, humbly, unapologetically equipped, trained, devoted, motivated, committed, enthusiastic friends of Christ.

We won’t just be his friends, but we will be friends and followers of his way, which is different than the ways of this world.  There is the way of love, of healing, of serving, of saving.  It’s demanding.  It’s inclusive, and it’s peaceful.  Are you starting to get the picture yet?

Folks, the age of enlightenment is over.  The age of reason has passed.  We have lived for a century in the age of reason, and look where it got us.  We know its limitations now.  The secular has taken root.  Your children and your grandchildren are living in a culture and in a community where politics, medicine, law, business, labor, arts, education, science, economics, and everything else you can think of is trying, and is rather diligently trying, to live without God.  The results are becoming tragically clear.  The results are deadly.

What is interesting is we have all this hype going on above the surface, but the stuff going on underneath the surface is very disturbing. 

The great Christian theologian, Jürgen Moltmann, a German guy with an amazing mind, said these words, “If you lose God, you lose hope.  Ultimately, you lose hope.”

Once you lose God, you ultimately lose hope.  You and I know lots of folks who are losing hope about tomorrow.  And if you lose hope, folks, you lose God.  These two are incredibly intertwined together.  Hope and God. 

“Indeed,” Moltmann said, “hope, biblical hope, is positive.  It’s divine.  It is the power of life itself.  Hope does not empty out one’s life of delusions, but rather, hope fills your life with new powers.  People who hope have power.  Whoever lives in hope, those are the people who are going to carry the future with them.  Whoever believes in God, hopes for the future.”

Do you have hope for the future?

That’s why Dante wrote those words in The Divine Comedy.”  Do you remember the words that Dante put over the entrance to hell?  Do you remember the words?  “Let all hope go, whoever enters here.”  That’s what hell is.  People who have lost hope are already in hell.

Millions of us are learning that every tomorrow has two handles.  You can take hold of it with the handle of fear and anxiety, or you can take hold of it with the handle of faith and hope.  As a result, there is, reportedly, an incredible, deep, powerful stirring, not just in this community, but also in the whole world.  People are hopeful.  People are searching for hope – exciting, spiritual, religious life-giving hope.

I believe, without a doubt, that the stirring going on not just here, but every- where, is going to be the story of this world for the next 50 years.  People are going to find what they need spiritually.  You and I, under the guidance, and the authority, and the power of the Living Spirit are going to grow in Christ.  You are going to become deeper, stronger, more compassionate, committed friends of Jesus.  As you grow, you are going to be doing the good thing, the right thing, the just thing, the loving thing.  I believe the way that is going to happen is you are going to continue to create the cellular church.  Now, that is not the cell-phone church.  Remember that!  It’s the cellular church.

Do you know about the cellular church?  It’s an amazing thing.  Little church cells – ten, twelve, fourteen people – meeting in one another’s homes, or in apartments, or in their business setting, or even right here at 9:30 a.m. at Broadway about three months from now.  They are essentially people who are gong to do five things when they meet.

1.      They are going to make some new friends.  They are going to meet some people and get connected with people who share their Christian values and faith.

2.      They are going to share each other’s joys and their burdens, because those are real.

3.      They are going to take care of each other, because that is who really does take care of you and me.

4.      They are going to study the Scriptures.  They are going to learn about the Christian way of life, how you apply that life when you walk out of that room.

5.      They are going to pray with each other.  They are going to pray for each other.  They are going to pray for people who are not there in that group.  They are going to pray about the Church universal, not just in this location or this country, and they are going to pray about the needs and the future of this world.

Are you starting to get the picture?  That’s the church of tomorrow.  In fact, it’s the church of today.  Jan and I met with our church last Wednesday.  We were over at Carla and John’s house.  We’ve been doing it for nine years. 

Forty million Americans, folks… Countless Christians around this globe are involved in small, faith-based groups that matter.  This is the church of tomorrow.

Do you see the picture of tomorrow?  You are going to continue to grow in Christ as you do.  Your church, which is the Lord’s Church, is going to become a church that is going to grow.  The Church of Jesus Christ is going to grow in many, many ways, and it’s going to do it for a very simple reason.  It’s because Christian people are contagious people.  Christian people are magnetic people.  Others are going to be drawn to you, and they will want what you have, if they don’t have it already and you have the Spirit.

We have that Spirit to share with other people.  With that growth, resources will come.  With resources, influence is going to come.  The only reason the Bible says that any of us are to be blessed with resources and with influence is that we might be a blessing to other people.  Did you know that?  There is no other biblical reason for any of us to be blessed.  Are you getting the picture?

I think that blessing is going to be under the guidance of the Spirit, and I think it’s going to be basically the one that is outlined in Psalm 72 that says our blessing of other people is going to be assisting the widow and the orphan.  It’s going to be befriending the poor.  It’s going to be defending the defenseless.  It’s going to be speaking up for the immigrant.  It’s going to be visiting the imprisoned and sick.  It’s going to be about healing the hearts and the spirits of those who have been broken and beaten down and have not been developed yet.  Do you begin to see the picture?

As we grow spiritually, folks, those 2,000 verses in the Bible about the poor and the needy are going to start to come alive in new, and powerful, and refreshing ways, and new ministries are going to begin to develop.  Let me tell you about one, and then I must quit.

I think it is one of the most exciting possible adventures going on right now.  It’s happening underneath our noses.  There is a huge body of Christians that we call evangelicals.  They are massive and are multiplying and exploding.  They are having an epiphany, an awakening.  They are just beginning to see the reality of the gospel.  We have called it the social gospel for 50 years.  For those of us in the more mainline churches, we have known it for half a century.  Our evangelical brothers and sisters are awakening to it.  Isn’t that amazing.  They are beginning to grasp a vision of God’s care for the needy and the marginalized, and they are organizing.  They are mobilizing their people. 

The clearinghouse for that vision is Love, INC.  “Love in the Name of Christ.”  They are coming to Columbia.  They are going to have their first meeting here at Broadway.  Their goal is not to duplicate anything else that is going on in this community for others, but to create new ways for those of us in the Christian community, who have not been able or willing to work together to do so across the Christian spectrum.  The possibilities are incredible.

Some exciting things are happening tomorrow, and you and I are going to be a part of that.  We want to be a part of that.  If you don’t want to be a part of that, I’m afraid you will be left behind.

We built the Loft.  We have a wonderful youth ministry going on.  We have children and youth in this community who are under a tremendous amount of pressure.  Consequently they are often looking for the things they need in terms of affirmation, and self-esteem, and relationships in all the wrong places.  It’s happening right here in this community.  It’s a big problem.  We’ve got a youth ministry that’s saying, “Come here and look at it another way.”  It’s happening because of things that you are helping to make happen.

We are getting ready to do a whole new approach to Christian education that is going to absolutely revolutionize that whole effort.  We are building a part of a building out there around this program.  We believe, because the studies show that if we implement this program, we are going to increase Sunday School attendance for children by 80 per cent and 20 per cent for adults in our worship service.  You are helping to make that happen.

We are building a music program, a music building right out here because every reformation, renovation, or new movement in history has always been driven in part by great music.  We’ve asked these people to live in a closet for years.  Some of them are coming out!

There are lots of exciting things happening.  I want to thank you personally for the over $500,000 you have given over and above your normal giving this year for these signs of hope.  What I want you to see is that these are not buildings.  These are signs of hope – hope for our culture, our community today and tomorrow. 

I want to thank the children who have given over 500,000 pennies on their way to the 2.2-million penny pledge.  That’s about three tons of pennies.  They are working on it.  It’s incredible.  Thank you for being a part of that.

Let’s thank God for guiding us and directing us in that direction.  May the Lord guide us and bless us and lead us.

And we all say together… “Amen.”

Benediction

God of our hearts, your intentions for this church are so evident.  Each week, day by day, minutes turn into moments where we see you.  You are clearly working through our hands and hearts.  Thank you for the way you are building us up to be your welcoming people who do make a difference in our world.  Thank you for including us in your work.  Amen.