Coming Home to Community IV, The Purpose of Community

Take your notes out and let's look together please. I will begin by telling you I went all over the map in the first service. And I drove the overhead person crazy, Nancy, so be forewarned. If you don't have notes and you're going to be unable to follow along here, I encourage you to look over on your neighbors if you could, because it's important today that we read these scriptures together as we go. Some of you may have noticed that I didn't begin this year, 1997, with what has become sort of an annual State of the Church message. It usually coincided with the State of the Union. But Pastor Dave and I rather moved right into this topic of community, coming home to community we've called these messages. And it's been by design because we see very clearly as a church staff where God is taking us in this year. And I felt it important just to invest right out of the gate into the future rather than evaluate the present or the past. But just as a point of interest and sort of a context for the message today, I want to ask you, what is the State of the Union? What is the state of America today as you see it? What's going on in this beloved nation? There's, in my mind, almost an eerie, perhaps undefinable insecurity about it all. Kind of feel like we're living on some borrowed time, don't you? I mean, the economics of the country are good, and so everyone's sort of pretty content with keeping things going because, hey, money's coming in and we're paying the bills and it's not all that bad. But we kind of know in our hearts that it's not all that good either. If you can stomach it, the morning and evening news, a double dose each day, is a long litany of hurt and pain and loneliness and betrayal and mistrust, suffering and loss. And we ask ourselves, along with the pundits, what's ahead for America? Where's the nation going, as it said in Newsweek this week, beyond 2000? It seems our president gropes for metaphors that have some life to them. He looks for some kind of vision that we can rally around for our nation. But none seems to be out there. In many ways, it's like darkness is encroaching slowly on the land, gaining ground in our politics, in our public institutions, in education, in our moral and ethical fabric, in our race relations, and even in our family units. Everywhere but in the economics. And so, for some reason, as long as the economics are okay, everything's, well, you know. The truth is, everywhere I'm a little concerned. But I do see one bright spot, and that's the church. The living church, not the institution. The church of Jesus Christ, the living church. I see a little bit of hope continuing to rise. I see a standard continuing to be raised. I see light coming in the darkness. How many of you have ever flown from the west coast to the east coast, taking off sometime late in the afternoon, evening, and watched? You've kind of flown into the sunset. Have you done that? How many of you have done that? You've seen the sun set on your plane as you've been going across the nation. It's an eerie kind of thing. It happens rather quickly as you cross into that darkness. And then you can fly for vast distances and look down and see the ground, but see no lights. And as you're going over the Great Plains or whatever, and then all of a sudden a little ranch or homestead, and you see a single little light out there. And you'll know that if it wasn't for that little ranch down there, that whole thing would just be one dark, huge, 100-mile rain that you could see. And then maybe you see a village, and perhaps it turns into a city. And you see the church is like that. The church is still sending up the light, even though the darkness seems to be encroaching in upon the nation that we love. This somewhat mystical but nonetheless tangible image in my mind between the battle of light and darkness contesting for this nation is the defining cause of the day as far as I can tell. You know, in some ways I envy my parents. My mom and dad are here today. I'm always happy to have them with us. Just loves the fact that we're in the same church after all these years. And they tell me, not infrequently, about World War II and the Great Depression. They tell me from time to time of the way the nation pulled together, that people willingly sacrificed their comforts, that it was not unusual for people to wait in lines for staples, that from time to time ration books would be handed out for food and coffee and things that we'd just pile into our cupboards. But there weren't many automobiles on the roads those days because, well, first of all, all of the manufacturing production was set to put the military machine out where it needed to be and then the fuel that was used to keep it going. But you see, there weren't many automobiles and many machinery plants working, but there weren't many complaints either because people knew that there was a common enemy. And something happened in those years that galvanized the nation and out of it something great emerged. I envy that. We don't have that kind of cause today. My generation has had a few causes, not so grand in scale as those things, but nonetheless significant, where darkness and light have done battle, such as in the emergence of the Civil Rights Movement. The battle still rages there as it does for the lives of the unborn children that die 4,000 per day here in America through abortion. And we, of course, took a pretty bold stand against communism, if you recall, and stared it down. Nonetheless, we never really sacrificed. I don't look at my generation and say, well, it was really a tough grind, but we made it. I can remember one time sitting in a gasoline station line for 45 minutes in 1973 because of the oil embargo. Remember that? But I think it was probably contrived anyhow. It wasn't a big sacrifice. But what about the generation that's following us, the baby busters? Some of us have kids born in the period between 65 and 77. Many of them are here today, a lot of college students in this service and people in that generation. What cause has gotten you fired up, ladies and gentlemen? I read in Newsweek this past edition, John Meacham, a 27-year-old, writing about this issue, talking about his father and what his father had done in the Vietnam War. He said, the toughest combat decision I've ever faced was whether to watch the networks or CNN cover the Gulf War. He said, this is a fairly common story. People my age face a history gap. All the big causes seem to be settled. The country beat down the Depression, defeated Hitler, stared down the Soviets, and abolished Jim Crow long before we were on the scene. On one level, this is wonderful. We are the beneficiaries of relative peace and prosperity, which beats the heck out of war or economic want. But as the century winds down, there is a sentimental longing for big things to happen. For us, history is a virtual thing. The stuff of A&E biography episodes and downloaded speeches from the Richard Nixon Library website. Every other generation in the 20th century faced common enemies and had cohesive ambition. We don't. I want to submit to you that that's not exactly the case. There is a very powerful common enemy. And we ought to be united, all of us, in the fight against the spiritual darkness that's invading our land. And I want to say this very clearly. The only cause worth giving your life to, dear one, no matter if you're 14 today or 74, the only cause worthy of your life is the battle for the eternal hearts and souls of men and women and children. It's what really counts. It's the only thing I can find today that's worth sacrificing everything I have to attain. It's the only thing worth pouring my life into. And I want to suggest to you, if you're here today as a younger person and you're wondering, well, what's it really all about? The answer lies in the Church of Jesus Christ. And I would admit to you I'd be the first to say the Church has made a lot of mistakes, but it's still where the action is. Listen to Paul Bilheimer, one of my top five favorite books. People ask me, what are your favorite books? Write this one down. It's called Destined for the Throne. He says this, The Church, through her resurrection and ascension with Christ, is already legally on the throne. Through the use of her weapons of prayer and faith, she holds in this present throbbing moment the balance of power in world affairs. When Cheri Yift walks up here, she would be the first to tell you the reason why communism fell, friends. The reason wasn't by some grand political strategy of Ronald Reagan. It was because the Church preyed it down. And I believe that with all my heart. In spite of all of her lamentable weaknesses, appalling failures, and indefensible shortcomings, the Church is the mightiest force for civilization and enlightened social consciousness in the world today. I believe that. The Church. And the mystery of all this to me, this morning, friends, is you're sitting here in the Church, the Living Church, and so am I. We're part of what God is doing in the earth today. And have you ever asked yourself this one single question, Why are you here? I drove through a little village in India five and a half years ago. Got out of the village and looked down a street where men and women were standing in front of their little thatched huts with their men with their pant legs up and the women with their saris wrapped up high because the water was up to their knees. A cyclone or a hurricane had gone through the day before and had ravaged the land and they were standing there fully conscious that no Red Cross, no great rescue team, no helicopters were going to come down, no great outpouring of anything was going to come their way. They were doomed to start over again from nothing. Many of them lost not just their homes but their children and families. And I thought to myself, Why wasn't I born there? Why wasn't I born in Bosnia or Rwanda or India? But rather I'm here enjoying the lavish grace of God, the wonderful environment of love and friendship. Did I do anything to deserve it? Did I warrant it by some... Did God say, well, he's just going to be a good guy so I'm going to put him in a good... No, it was the mercy and the grace of God. And friend, I want to submit to you, you are where you are today because of the grace and the mercy and the goodness of God. And the only acceptable response to such grace is, Oh God, thank you for what you have done. I give my life back to you. Use me somehow to spread this to someone else. So I submit to you today, what's worth pouring your life into? What's worth giving yourself to? But the mission of stopping the darkness and raising the light. And that's really what I want to talk about today. That's the only cause that's worthy of our one and only lives. Okay, where are you on the outline? I'm lost. Well, look. Two primary reasons why the Church of Jesus Christ is losing its effectiveness in changing the culture. Here in America, this is true. Friends, we've gone from 44% church attendance 10 years ago and we're down about 37% now. It's sort of almost a joke today about the Super Bowl and I'm certainly going to be one of those who will watch it. But a whole lot more people are interested in that than they are in what's going on in the kingdom of God today. So the two things are ignorance and indifference. Ignorance about the purposes of God and indifference toward the plan of God. And I had lots of quotes and I went so, just out of whack last service, I'll just touch these couple of things without going into a lot of different things. But look what Bill Hall, author of The Disciple-Making Church says. The evangelical church has become weak, flabby, and too dependent on artificial means that can only simulate real spiritual power. We have proliferated self-indulgent consumer religion. The what-can-the-church-do-for-me syndrome is rampant. And I hate to say this, friends, but it is true. Many people church shop until they find the church that meets their needs according to what they feel they ought to have done for them. With very little thought given to what might I bring to advance the mission of the church that God is sending me to. So what can we do to restore? You can read the other quote on your own. What can we do to bring focus to God's purpose and restore the vision for His church? I want to talk about that this morning. What can we do? It's so important that we do something. Because if we don't, friends, can I say this? I sense that increasingly we will go the way of the irrelevant church of Europe in these days. And it's not that way around the world. You see, if you went to China, if you went to Indonesia, South America, Central America, the church is exploding. They're expecting 80 million converts to Christ in those nations in the next year. Here in America, we are not keeping up with the population growth. Why is that? Ignorance and indifference. Let me share with you, how do you correct that? Well, first of all, to break this shield of ignorance that covers so many of our eyes, we need to restore the passion of Christ for His church. And that comes simply from the right theology of what the church is about. Let me share this with you. See, what you understand about the church will determine your passion toward the church. And in order for you to have passion, you have to see it clearly. The problem is our theology has been deficient. I'm amazed in my library, and I've got several thousand books in my library. I have very few good books on what the church is about. Very few. One of them is called The Body by Chuck Colson. I recommend that one to you. But we don't know what the church is about. We don't know what God intended. And this has created an imbalance where we are passionate for souls, but we don't care that much about the church. And this is an interesting sort of contradiction that I face from time to time. I'll run into people. Bill gave an exciting report, and he said, we've had more people come to Christ this last year than any year of our history. And we applauded, and we said, praise God. And people say, that's great. That's what the church is about. But for some reason, we think that ends the process. And I'm here to tell you that that begins the process and the life of the transformation of a believer. We have to have passion for the process of seeing people enfolded into the body of Christ. We need to put the church in its place where God puts it. We need to put the church as the functioning demonstration of who Christ is to be. Look at the scripture, Ephesians 1.22. God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body. Who is the head? Let's try it again. Who is the head? Christ. And who is the body? We are the church. Can a head without a body make sense in the world today? No. Can a body without a head do anything? No. We, the body, need to be connected to the head, and we need to move together. The book of Ephesians, by the way, raises the issue of the nature of the church, just like Romans raises the issue of the justification of man by grace through faith. And so what we need to see is this. The church is central to God's plan. Look what John Stott writes. John Stott in Anglican says this. Today more than ever, right into Roman numeral one, we need to catch a biblical vision of the church. How dare we push to the circumference what God has placed at the center? Isn't that powerful? How dare we push off to the edge, to the circumference, what God has placed at the center? And so you see, we should have the same passion about the church being built up as we do about a soul coming to Christ. Are you with me on this? We should feel as strongly about someone getting enfolded in the life of the growing church as we do about someone kneeling down and praying a prayer, because I want to submit to you they are inseparable in the mind of God. God is not raising up this legion of dismembered believers, but rather he wants the church to grow as his living body here in the earth. It's what he has been doing throughout the generations. We are to become the household of God, let her be. We must see ourselves as God's house. Let me take you back to the Old Testament. I remember when God went to Moses, he said, now I want you to make for me a tabernacle. What is a tabernacle? Well, it's word in Hebrew means dwelling place. And it was this really elaborate tent that God had them design and build. And if you've ever seen photographs of it, it's this sort of rectangular looking thing. And the glory of God, 2 Chronicles says, came down and rested on this tent. And when the presence of God went into that place, the people of God were in awe. They feared to even go near it. In fact, the high priest had the mission to go into it once a year, and he was afraid to go in, so they tied a rope around his ankle. Because if he went in and he somehow didn't make it, they pulled him out because no one wanted to go in and get him. I mean, God's presence was that awesome. And then they built the Temple of Solomon, and you all know how glorious that was. So glorious that when it was dedicated, they couldn't even minister, they just fell down in the presence of the Lord. Now, in the New Testament, God says, I don't dwell in buildings like this. I don't care how elaborate you make them. I dwell in my living church. I dwell in my people. And you see, friends, when we come together, there should be about us, whether it's in a group of six or 600 or 6,000, there should be about us something supernatural. The presence of God should be manifested because he has said, I am living in this human temple. And we are the stones, we're the living stones. You're the bricks that God's put into place. That's no commentary on your shape, okay? We're God's temple fitted together. And that's why I want to say today to some of our visitors, and I know we have some today in this service, if you've come in here and this is a little different, and you say, well, this is kind of strange for me, my answer to you is, I'm glad that's so. There better be something different about the real church. Now, we're sensitive to what you're feeling and the understanding that needs to come along. I've written about it in your North Way Notes, but I have a strong feeling, a strong conviction, friends, that every time we gather, something should be happening that people say, wow, God must be there. And how many believe that when that does happen, people are going to want to be there? My own conviction is people aren't so much afraid as they just don't understand. And once their understanding comes along, they're looking for the real thing. And one thing I want to promise you about everything we do at this church, it's authentic. Nothing is done for effect. Nothing is done to put up some kind of image. We are who we are by the grace of God. And we want to be all that God has designed us to be as his church. I don't know about you, but my own struggle from time to time is, how can I make more room for God? Remember Charles Spurgeon? I told you he was one of the folks that led the revival in the 18th century over in England. At age 26, he was speaking to 6,000 people twice a day on Sunday morning. Here's what he said. He said, I know there are some who will say, well, I have given myself to the Lord, but I don't intend to give myself to any church. Now, why not, Spurgeon writes. Well, because I can be a Christian without it. How many of you have heard people say that? I can be a Christian, but I don't have to go to church. I hear that all the time. Spurgeon says, are you quite clear about that? You can be as good a Christian by disobedience to your Lord's commands as by being obedient? He said, this is a brick. What is it made for? To help build a house. It is of no use for that brick to tell you that it's just as good a brick while it's laying on the ground as it would be as part of the wall of the house. It's just a good for nothing brick. I think Spurgeon would have some understanding here in our company, don't you? And so my question is, are we passionate for what God is passionate about? And that is the building of his church. Friends, I could go on about this because you can tell from my conviction level today, I feel strongly about him. I feel very deeply about him. And I sense that what God wants us to do as a group of people is to begin to get excited about what he's doing through us together. Let me go on and just touch this second point and then we'll conclude today. I'm going to come back and finish the message in a couple of weeks. If you understand his passion for the church, then number two, what's his methodology? Let's renew the plan that God established for the building of his church. Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overcome it. And so we must learn from this to embrace a clear plan to participate in the life of a local church. In other words, it doesn't mean enough for you just to say, well, I want to do something, but I don't know what to do. How many of you have been under conviction to do something in the new year about your own physical condition? Aha. Didn't ask you to put your hands up, but I see you're very liberal about that. Now, it's January 26th. How many of you, don't put your hands up now, have already failed in your plan? We're three weeks into the new year and you've already realized, man, I really didn't have a plan or I had a very flimsy plan and I failed already. And now you're already, oh, what's the use? Okay, that's what happens to us, isn't it? Friends, we need a very clear plan. Otherwise, all the motivation in the world is useless. And here's what I want to share with you. This plan has to be something that you can transmit on to somebody else. And you want to know what keeps me up at night? You want to know what I really think about when I wake up and the night watches? You know, it's not, you know, did I leave the cat out last night? No, well, first thing in the morning, out the cat goes. No, I wake up at night, I think about this. I think, where are the 300 or 400 people that made decisions for Christ in the last six months in our church? Do you think about that? Some with tears. Some with broken hearts. Some casually, but many with conviction. But they didn't know the plan. Look what Charles Coulson writes in the book, The Body, he says this. When someone is converted and thereby comes into the church universal, the first step of discipleship is membership in the church particular. It is the duty, would you circle the word duty? It is the duty of those who are involved with new converts, and that should be all of us, to guide them, not just into a Bible study or fellowship group, but into a local church where the word is taught and the sacraments administered. I wake up thinking, where are those people, oh God? Because I know this, if we just continue to let them be birthed and then just wander off, God will stop the birthing. And so there must be a plan. Here is the essence of our simple plan. Nancy, please let her be. Participation in the life of our church involves basically three things. Number one, Sunday morning celebration, what you do every Sunday. Thank you today for not looking at a snowflake and running and hiding back under your covers this morning. You should be here no matter what it takes. You should make the effort to be here to celebrate with us. Second, a community group or a cell group involvement, which I'm going to talk about this morning. And then for some, if you're able, a ministry team, such as what's going on in the kids' ministry today or what's happening with our students or what's happening with our ushers and those who serve us. That defines involvement at Northwest. It's a healing team, whatever it is. One and two, for me, are non-negotiable. Number three is a matter of growing and the functionality of understanding your giftedness. And that's pretty plain and it's pretty clear. These are the specific means to apply the passion that you have for the church. These are the places where you can work out what you're called to do. And I want to say this lovingly, and I want every one of you to hear me very carefully. If all you're doing now is coming on Sunday morning and checking in and smiling and greeting your neighbor and saying, praise the Lord, wasn't the worship great and I sure enjoyed the message, Pastor Jack, and then you're walking out the door till next Sunday, I want you to know, and I say this in all love, it's not acceptable. Not only are you short-circuiting God's purpose for you, but you are also holding back God's purposes for us. And worst of all, you're contributing to the cause. And I want to implore you this morning, get connected. Overcome whatever urge makes you want to run out the door as soon as the service is over and start to talk to those people next to you. They really aren't all that bad. Take a look at them and say, you know what, I guess I have to talk to you afterwards. I'm going to talk to you. And in fact, you may even discover that they're pretty neat people, even if they're a different skin color, a different nationality, a different economic background or educational background. You know, friends, North Way started years ago, 16 years ago this month, as four small groups meeting at home. All we were, 40 people. And we met about three months that way, and then finally said, well, this is too good just for the 40 of us. God opened it up, and so we did. And we had 125 at our first meeting, 150. And then it dropped off some. I heard the preaching, and I think I led worship with vain the pain and the good part. It was a sorry morning. But then God began to build around those small groups. And home groups, you see, have always been a part of our life. But home groups, and what I want to talk about for these closing moments about letter C there, our understanding of community or subgroup is a different thing. We went along the pathway of building home groups to a place in 1987, 88, we had, listen to this now, 75% of the church was involved in a small group at some point. That was fantastic. Everybody was there. I mean, it was really happening. But the groups lacked one important dynamic, and that is they were not equipped to multiply themselves. They didn't have a missional ingredient. They weren't equipping the people to go out. And so therefore, some of the groups started to get a little ingrown, and they stopped reaching out, and they didn't know how, and leaders weren't developed, and friends, over the next seven or eight years, we went from 75% participation to 35%. And so now we have all these people, as Bill Callahan mentioned, who called this their church home, but only about a third of us are in a small group at some time on a regular basis. That's not acceptable. That's not going to cause you to grow in your love for Christ. It's not going to equip you to minister. It's not going to provide for you the care that you need when you run into an emergency, when that phone call comes to your house about something that happened to your family member. It's not going to work for you. You've got to have that network of love, that support, that place to work out your gift to the mission. And that's what this cell is all about. Eighteen months ago, I had back surgery, as most of you know, and it was a tough time with recovery, just because I was used to being so active. And I had to lay around and think and make people miserable. And I did that pretty effectively for a few weeks. And in the course of that time, about the second or third week, about the second week in August, about a month after the surgery, I was praying about, well, what is it with our church? Why aren't we really moving where we need to be? And here's what the Lord spoke to me. And I don't say this often in the pulpit, because I think it's a very subjective and personal thing when the Lord speaks. But he said to me, you're not using the number one resource that I've given to you. And I said, well, Lord, I'm preaching the best. And I said, that's not it. Lord, I'm praying as much as I can. I'm not very faithful at it. He said, that's not it either. Lord, what is it? He said, you're not using the Holy Spirit's power in all of my people. You're not tapping the resource of my spirit in my body. And I said, well, Lord, how am I to do that? What is that about? And the Lord began to show me how he designed, in the book of Acts, how the church was to meet, not only all together, but house to house, in groups of committed disciples. Jesus said, that's why I brought the 12 around me, because I wanted to have them discover how they were equipped to live out the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Now, here's the interesting part of the story, I forgot to tell in the first service. I was weighing all this out, and on a Sunday morning, August the 12th, Joseph Garlington preached here. You've got to have been here for that. On his way home, Joseph stopped at our house and had some lunch, and we were talking about the service and so on, we spent about an hour together. He said, well, I've got to get going, so I won't be seeing you next weekend because I've got no more fellowship time. And I'd been thinking about this cell thing now for three days, how to go about it, where to go to do something about it. Joseph got up to me and said, because next weekend, we're having a group come up from the church down in Louisiana that's moving forward in the cell ministry, and we believe that's what God wants us to do as government members. I said, what word did Joseph say about what God was saying to me? And I began to see God connecting the dots, and the French tell me that's an exciting thing, when God connects the dots. And you go, holy man. And so then we spent another hour, four more bowls of soup, talking about what's going on in cell ministry and where we're going to go. And you may know, if you know anything about government, I know a lot about their movement, because they've discovered we can have thousands of people pouring in here on a Sunday morning, but if we're not connected, we're not going to be moving forward. What does that mean for you? Well, simply this. Are you connected? Well, I don't really know if I want to be. Let me just end at the same place in this service where I did last service. Let me just go right down this list, real quick, bang, bang, number seven, the seven things, letter D. If you get into a cell group, you're going to find authentic personal relationships, real friends, people that you can share your life with, and have fun with. How many of you are going to be watching the Super Bowl tonight with someone in your cell group? Let me see your hands. Look at that. It's okay to have fun doing, you know, ordinary, everyday things together, along with the spiritual and purposeful things. Number two, effective communication. If you're in a cell group, you will know what's going on in the front lines of the church. In my cell group on Friday night, our cell group leader led us in prayer for the five most important priorities in this month, and it was an exciting time learning what's going on today. You will be discipled and transformed by people pouring into your life, number three. Number four, leadership will develop. One of the great tragedies is I'm looking at hundreds of potential leaders who are not being actualized. Just kind of sitting there, being a good student, but not using your gift. This gives us a forum to change that. Number five, growth in ministry. We will begin to systematically reach out through the cells, and we're going to equip you to do that in a way that's natural and powerful. Number six, clear-cut processes of growth. You will know how you can make an impact on others as you plug into a cell. You won't just say, I'm frustrated, I don't know what to do. You'll have a vehicle. And number seven, you will partake in the grace of others. Just leave all those up, please. You will share in the grace. You will be in the presence of God as others open their hearts. That's what cell ministry is about. Do you know for the last 18 months I've been working with the elders and the pastors and some of our key leaders, just 18 months before we brought a message on this, 18 months we've been laying the groundwork. Now we're ready to launch. And I want to end the mes