Quiet Power of Love, We Can Do It

This is North Way tape number 543. This message was delivered by Pastor Jay Passavant of North Way Christian Community on Sunday, September 14th, 1986. Reconciliation. Say that word, would you? To be reconciled literally means that enemies become friends. The old Greek word meant to exchange. To exchange animosity for love. To be reconciled is what our lives are all about. What enemies am I talking about? I'm talking about the enemies that walked into a place of worship and with guns and hand grenades destroyed the lives of 22 people who'd come to get away from the violence and the pressure of life. And all of us were shocked as those worshippers died in that synagogue in Istanbul. What kind of enemies am I talking about today? I'm talking about the street gangs that roam in Los Angeles and New York City and Chicago and different parts of our own great city looking for somebody to plunder, to rob. Reconciliation. I'm talking about a husband and a wife who for 17 years have seen bitterness and hatred growing between them. Increasing distance. Less and less affection. And soon frigidity. And a total lack of interest in the other person. Enemies becoming friends. I'm talking about young people who are so ridiculed and mocked and belittled at school that they begin to believe that what these people around them are saying is true and that they are worth nothing. And they are losers. And so one day, because of their enemies, they become their own enemy and seek to take their own lives. All through the world we see enemies, man to man. But the reconciliation that I'm going to talk about today is also, it is that, but it is also the reconciliation of man to God. Who are we, the enemies of God? Beloved, we are enemies for two reasons. We are enemies, number one, because we have chosen to rebel against God and live life on our own terms according to our own plan. How many people I know today, I could name them and you can too, who don't want anything to do with God. Real happy just living life on their terms. Not thinking for a moment that one day they'll give an account of their lives. But do you know, beloved, there's another side of that which makes us an enemy to God? It's the fact that God is not just a puppet of man in his rebellion, but God is the sovereign Lord of all the universe and He has said that sin will never exist in His presence and the wrath of God, the Bible says, is poured out over the sin of man. You can read about it in Ephesians chapter 2. But the sin of man has put him in a position to be an enemy of God. God loves man but He hates sin and in His justice He cannot overlook sin. And so He must judge it and the wrath of God will fall on sin. This is the nature of our mission today. Reconciliation. Man to man and man to God. How great is the task? How much violence do you read about? How much do you hear on the radio and watch on the TV? How much enemies, how much are people bound up as enemies one to another? How much do you hear of enemies? Do you know in the world today, beloved, the numbers of people that are separated from God are staggering? I just put an overhead here, a bar graph. I'd like you to just go down those one at a time, Steve, please. This is what the condition of the world is today. Number one, we estimate there are about 280 million what we would call believers in Jesus, born-again people in the world today. People who have been reconciled through Christ to God. We then estimate that there are about 875 million people who have a church in their basic geographical area. In other words, all the churches in the world today, evangelical churches now, there's about 875 million people that could be reached by those churches. Most of them are right here in this country, of course. Number three, there are about 2.5 billion people in the world who do not have a gospel witness available to them. 2.5 billion people who need cross-cultural missionaries to come and tell them what this reconciliation is about. Now, that is just a staggering number. It doesn't seem all that staggering because we talk about our national debt every year being, how much is it? 200 billion? But in terms of the people of the world, this is more than half of all the peoples in the world. Now, someone has, in the last 10 years, developed an understanding that might help you today, because it's helped me. That 2.5 billion people is about 24, I'm sorry, the peoples of the earth, there's about 24,000 people groups. These are people who have the same basic culture and the same basic language. In India, for example, there are 3,000 or 4,000 people groups in one nation. Some nations are all the same people group, but that's rare. And we estimate that 17,000 of those people groups are still unreached. They have no church in their land. That's two-thirds of the peoples of the world have no church in their people. No one in their own language and their own culture to say, this is who Jesus is. This is what it means to be reconciled to God. Beloved, that's the size, that's the scope of the need that we face. There are about 2.5 million churches like ours in the world today. 2.5 million to take this message of reconciliation. And today, I want to share with you what I believe is a word from God for our church as to how we can make a difference. How many of you want to make a difference in that chart? I want to share with you what I believe God's put in my heart for us. He's shown me how we can make a difference to reach the lost peoples of the world. Now, two weeks ago, I stood up here and I told you that in response to our time of prayer and fasting, that God was pouring out His power to love. Remember that? How many of you were here? I shared that that was a word from God, that He was saying, I've heard your cry. I've seen you at prayer. I've heard the heartbeat of your spirit and I'm pouring out my power to love. And I talked about that love toward God and what it meant. And then last week, I talked about love to one another, about feeding my sheep. Remember that? Taking care of my lambs, Jesus said, feeding my sheep. Beloved, I'm seeing God do something here. He is making us into a family. God is making us into a family. Something's happening in our church that's uniting people. There's something about a church where people come because they feel part of it. They belong. When Kathy Fajczak, in the morning, sees her mother, Barry, the closest living relative in her life, and in the afternoon is together with the people of God, that's because they're family to her. When Bill Kupitz calls me Thursday morning and said, my dad just passed away and I wanted you to be the first to know because you're my family. When I see a group of people like I saw yesterday, from Carl and Bonnie all the way down, giving of themselves, working together, serving, cooking, cleaning, directing, singing so beautifully, ministry, I see a family. I don't see an organization doing that. I see a family. When I hear men of God, seasoned men of God, walking in Christ 20 and 30 years, come in and meet with our leadership, our elders and pastors, and I hear them say, there's something that God is putting in your people. There's something that you folks have that I've wanted all my life in ministry. And I say, all praise to God. He's making us into a family. He's making us into a people. Well, beloved, I'm the, of all the ones here, I know the needs. I know how far short we fall. I know those of you who are here today bitter because you felt your need wasn't met. And all I can ask is that you forgive us because we're not, we haven't arrived yet. We haven't made it all the way. But I can say this, we're seeking to be a family. And God is pouring out his spirit of love. And he's saying to us, I am making you. And it's love that's now going to be poured out. A love that's going to expand beyond us. And I've asked a couple of people today who've been out there in the world that I'm talking about, the 2.5 billion, taking this gospel, sharing the word. And I've asked them just to share with you in a very brief time. I had to apologize to them, it was so short. But something that they've discovered of God's love in them for a people they never knew before. I want you to hear what God has done in their hearts. I want to ask, first of all, Bob and Pat, God's shock. We were just recently in Guatemala, never been there before. God put love in their hearts. This is what happened to them. No, we'd never been in Guatemala before. In fact, I'd never been on an airplane before. So it was far away. As we sang this morning, I was reminded so clearly that those people in Guatemala in that congregation have always been my brothers and sisters. But now I know that in such a real and special way. We visited two churches while we were there and one was very like North Way. We sang many of the songs that we sing here. The other church, where we spent most of our time and worshiped with those people for two weeks, was also very like North Way in its music program. It was very hard for me this morning to sing I Worship You because that was the first song that we sang at the Church of Nueva Esperanza that I recognized. I was back there this morning as I sang that. I could see Pastor Carlos with his squeeze box and Pastor Victor Ulio singing. That's their music ministry, the two of them. But the music is glorious and they're beautiful in the Lord and the Holy Spirit was there in a real and powerful way and those folks live in my heart. That's the first thing that God did in me to confirm to me something that I knew in an academic way. Our brothers and sisters are everywhere. One of the other songs we sang this morning, He Shall Reign in Righteousness Forever for All the Earth. That's the first time I'd ever stood in a different place in the earth and heard people sing in a different language that same song and I knew the truth of it. But the other thing that I brought home that bonded me to those people was a difference. That was a likeness. The other thing was a difference and that was the poverty. The poverty was so real it's hard for me to tell you about it. The church at Nueva Esperanza would fit into less than half from the door back over there. Two light bulbs, the hardest benches in the entire world, no carpeting, but the Spirit of the Lord. But the thing that struck me about the poverty was one little boy whose name was Felipe. Felipe came to my attention probably because I have a son named Phillip. In five minutes in the Limonada area where we were you have a hundred children. I mean you just arrive and stand there and you have a hundred children. But Felipe was a little quieter and he stood back a little bit. I tried to ask as many children as I could their name because that's all I could say in Spanish was what's your name? But when it came to Felipe he drew me aside a little bit. He wanted to show me something very special. As I was thinking about this this morning I realized that in the Limonada I saw two boys with marbles and I think that was the extent of the toys. Guatemala has a beautiful climate, always like summer, but there are no swimming pools, there are no swing sets, there are no sandboxes, there are no bicycles. There's just no room for that. Like I can't describe the conditions until you take to them. But one thing that the children did have was little paperback books which were divided into animals and insects and reptiles and birds. And they went to the little corner store and they bought stickers that would fit in this book to show the picture of the thing that was described. But Felipe didn't have a book. He didn't even have a book. He pulled out a little wallet. You know these nylon wallets that people have now and you kind of unroll them. This one said New York on the front. I mean, where are you supposed to go? But inside he had two stickers. And one was the prized Cacel bird. The Cacel is like the American Eagle and this is what all the children want to get. Felipe had two stickers and he had this wallet. That's all that he had. And the other thing that impressed me about him was that the soles of his shoes and the tops of his shoes were never again going to meet. And as I came home I kept thinking, surely in the great United States I can find a pair of shoes for Felipe and maybe even enough to buy him a sticker book. But poverty came home to me like that in a very real way. My son has grown. He has a college education. He's even having his teeth straightened. But now I have to find a pair of shoes for another Felipe. Amen. Praise the Lord. Real people. God pours his love into our hearts for these people. His love. And God calls us to do this for all the world. Another person that's here today is Charlotte Rowe. I don't see Charlotte but I know she's here. Here she is. Come over, Charlotte. Why don't you stand right up here on the step. Charlotte just came back from a period of about three weeks in China. Never been there before, right? God did some wonderful things in her heart. Go ahead, Charlotte. I just praise the Lord for the trip because it showed me such a love for Chinese people that don't know God as well as specifically those people that know Jesus Christ over there. The Chinese Christians that are willing to give everything up that they have to serve the Lord and to spread the message. And there are two specific examples I'd like to talk about. The first one was when we were on the train coming back from China to Hong Kong after we had delivered Bibles safely to Canton at the border. We were handing out tracts to the Chinese people. And naturally the language over there is such a barrier because right where we were they spoke five dialects of Chinese or Mandarin. So you can imagine how could we ever communicate. But God could break all the walls of communication. And He showed us a new way of communicating of course through visual ways. And so we handed out tracts that were in Chinese. And we would hand them to people and there was this one man who was sitting right next to me on the train and he began to read the Chinese tract and I thought Lord of all the people I could give a tract to this man can't read because he was going so slowly. He was reading and just turning the pages ever so slowly. And then as I found out later he was reading and just treasuring every word off of that tract and just turning the pages so slowly. He had read it three times and then he gave it back to me because of the fear of being caught with any kind of paper on him that was Christian related. And that was one thing that just burned in my heart and showed me Lord God what do I have to fear? These people have a lot to fear and yet they are willing to give up their fear and say I trust in you Lord and I'll accept you. But another example that was so specific to me was for the Chinese Christians. And what we would do sometimes was deliver the Bibles into China from Hong Kong and once they were delivered we could either store the bags or meet Chinese contacts, Chinese Christians. Now these people were willing to get caught and go to jail and take any kind of risk that was necessary to get God's word to the churches in China. And so when we met these people to give them the Bibles we prayed with them to wish them off safely that God would take care of them as they left with the Bibles and we were praying and in China you must pray with your eyes open looking like you're in normal conversation so that there's no suspicion caused. We do that in restaurants all the time. Right. Here we are praying with our eyes open looking around and I just happened to look at one of the Chinese gals that was with us. There were two Chinese contacts that were college age and here she was with her head bent her eyes closed and her hands folded just praising the Lord saying God doesn't matter it's all right naturally using discernment but that just burned in me saying Father what am I afraid of here in my country do I have a fear of saying Jesus Christ that somebody's going to say she's weird she talks about the Lord what is it and I said Lord give me such a spirit of boldness because I have such freedom here and so he caused such a love for those people in me and I thank you. Why is God making us a family church? This is what the Lord showed me he said I'm pouring out my power to love to make us a family I'm pouring out my power to see miracles happen because I want to see this body of believers touch the world you see God made it clear to me that he's giving New Testament love and New Testament power so that we can fulfill a New Testament mission what is the New Testament mission? It's to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit now beloved where we miss it is the next thing I'm gonna say usually right now you all say well this is a missionary talk and he's gonna have an invitation and three people will go up and they'll all be under 25 except Bob and Pat messed that up but they're just under 30 but here's what the Lord is showing me and I just yearn for you to receive this with the same impact that God gave it to me you see beloved what God wants to do is he wants you to see that you can be part of his reaching the world through this church by your being the part of this church that God wants you to be you see God wants to restore a New Testament church in all truth and all power and all spirit and as we find our place in the church as we become what God wants us to be then he raises up people into the missions into the ministries that he has for them the worst thing we can try to do is to squeeze ourself into a mold that God didn't create us for but the only thing that keeps God from releasing ministry in all directions all around the world through us is because we haven't yet come to be convinced that by finding our place in the living body in the family that we can become what God wants us to be you see brother I just know that God wants to do something to break in on us that we can all share in the power of God around the world I don't want to hear it anymore I mean I grieve in my spirit when I hear that there's twenty times as many representatives than Amway and Avon and there are missionaries in the world today did you know that? there's two million people who sell Amway and Avon and 95,000 missionaries around the world I mean it breaks my heart that more people in China know the name Coca-Cola than Jesus Christ does that do anything to you that people in remote parts of the world know Mickey Mouse but they don't know Jesus Christ they don't know this reconciler and we can make a difference each one of us if we'll begin to find where we fit and ask God to lift us into what he wants us to be and become discovering our gifts releasing our ministries becoming equipped becoming fully alive so that we can be a church that's functioning the way God wants us to function this is why we do all these things it's not so we can be busy trust us beloved it's because God wants to raise up a church that's fitting together and using its gifts and moving out under the unction of God then he can send out the choice instruments and the ones that he's prepared if he wants to send one full time then we can send them you see God wants it to be each part fitting together and that the one who is giving of their resource and giving of their time so that another might go is just as much a part of it as the one who's going you see brothers and sisters I went with Charlotte Rowe to China in my spirit one brother was saying to me after the first service he said I went with Elisa Casper to China because God allowed me to give a substantial portion of her support you see I was there last night at the pig roast with all of you that were there though I didn't minister I was sharing in it you see I didn't just see Carl running the whole thing I saw the family working I didn't just see Tom speaking I saw the family communicating I didn't just see the music ministry singing I saw us all participate this is the wisdom of God to reconcile I want you to look with me this is what God showed me in the word that's going to settle into your spirit turn to 2nd Corinthians 5 this is what God wants us to see that we could never do by ourselves but we can do in him I have to do it quickly 2nd Corinthians 5 this is where the Bible talks about the ministry of reconciliation now Paul says here let me just give a little background people doubted him everywhere he was being ridiculed being mocked and he said well you're not only insane but now you're asking us to support you in your insanity they said you're out of your mind we're not going to help you but then look at this Paul says in verse 13 if we're out of our mind it's for the sake of God and if we're in our right mind it's for you for Christ's love compels us what is the motivation I want to ask you today that would cause you to find your place in the body of Christ so that the mission might go around the world what is it it's the love of Christ constraining us the word to be constrained or compelled is the word that describes two walls pressing together two walls pressing together remember in star wars when they fell in that garbage pit and the two walls started coming together squat the love of Christ is like those two movable walls compelling us to go forth and be what God has called us to be it constrains us we can't do anything else is what that means that's God working in us the love of Christ it causes us to do things that aren't really necessarily logical in the world's eyes two brothers were in a foxhole one story goes that became under heavy attack of the enemy and incoming shells were falling in and they realized that they were in trouble and said we're going to have to back off about another 80 yards to where the squad was that they had come out to be the point guard with one brother said well I'll stay here and I'll try to ward off some sniper fire you head on back in and I'll drop back one brother headed on back in and just as he was about to make the crossing into where the squad area was a shell came down just outside the foxhole and heard his brother scream in anguish and he turned to his sergeant the squad leader and said I've got to go back out there to my brother I've got to see what happened to him the squad leader said if you go out there you won't come back alive you can't do it he said I've got to do it it's my brother I've got to do it and so he pushed the sergeant's hand off his shoulder he ran back out to the foxhole he got inside and the brother was badly hurt bleeding he lifted up his head under one hand and supported his back with the other and the wounded brother looked up in the eyes of his brother and said I knew you'd come I knew you'd come and then he died you see the love of brothers constrains us we've got to do what God has called us to do we've got to do we have to know we can depend on one another to be all that God wants us to be you see we need that security to depend on each one fitting together you say well Jay I can see that here but this was Paul he's a great apostle he had revelations of Jesus I hardly know anything about stuff like that it always seems like you use Jesus and Paul as your examples Jay and that's not fair why don't you use somebody else I can even shoot at Pat Robertson maybe but not Jesus and Paul all the time look at this this is what God showed me this is obvious perhaps to you but it was a revelation to my heart all through this chapter look at verse 11 and following look at what Paul says since then we know what it is to fear the Lord we try to persuade men what we are is plain to God and I hope it's also plain to your conscience and all through there what does he use what pronoun we and us the first person plural pronoun we us not just me not just my ministry not just I'm sent not just I'm to go out we are to go out we are to take this ministry we are to support each other we are to be linked together hand in hand and arm in arm in this gospel and I began to see wait a minute you mean Paul that you are just leave the charge out there and everybody is just trying to pick up the piece no we're doing it God's given us this mission and we're doing it together let me share with you you might want to write these down since I don't have an outline for you the three M's of reconciliation the first thing is it's a ministry of reconciliation verse 18 all this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation now beloved when you hear that there are a lot of groups today in peace activists and those kind of things that call themselves reconciliation ministry or something like that there happens to be a good one by that name all they stand for is trying to get people to talk about ways to disarm everybody that's all right fine let's all throw our arms out but let's all do it if we're going to do it but I want you to know that the ministry of reconciliation that's talked about here is the word diakonos which means service the word from which we get deacons they are ministers their service their acts of kindness you see start thinking about it Paul says we have a ministry of reconciliation what does that mean that means that you sir you ma'am you sir you each one have a part you have a ministry that you contribute some of you might teach some of you might administrate some of you might have a gift of hospitality the gift of helps some of you might be able to come alongside and care for the children some of you might have the gift of organization and the things that we saw demonstrated yesterday the gift of evangelism as we saw demonstrated some have the gift of giving some have the gift of supporting some have the another oh but beloved when they all start working together it's a ministry we have the ministry you see and so that when one is raised up in a ministry we're part of it you see I'm with Gary when he goes into prison because I'm supporting him I'm part of him I'm woven in I'm doing my part I'm with Sam when he's out there with the kids trying to love them bring them to Jesus you are too to the degree to which you enter in and participate in the ministry of reconciliation it's what God wants the church to see and then we were given number two a message verse 19 of reconciliation Christ I'm sorry that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ not counting men sins against them and he has committed to us the message we have a ministry and a message what is our message? well that God has sent Jesus so that we wouldn't die in our sins now beloved I have to tell you that's not the message the world hears do you know that? the message the world is hearing is be religious and in the end it will all work out and I have to tell you we as believers need to entreat God to be merciful to us because we are not sending the right message that's why when Jimmy Swagger gets on TV and he says God told me that if I don't do it no one else will sometimes I think there's arrogance in that sometimes I think in a way the gospel has got to come the message has got to be clear and we need to ask God to give us the message in our lips we can share in it together as God prepares us to go out and to just be with the people that are around us and beloved I have to say this message isn't for us we are reconciled now last night I had such a sense that I've had so many times it was like a swimming coach talking to a bunch of expert swimmers how to put on a life jacket while they were still in the boat while outside scores and hundreds of people were drowning in the sea of their sin they didn't even know it now I'm not saying that in one minute but put any condemnation on anybody but it's so typical of what happens we all flock to hear the speakers we all go to Billy Graham we all have but the people are all out there we need to go to them with this message we need to tell them that God was in Christ reconciling himself how do I do it you do it by finding your place in the church putting your part in the body and then God raises up his messengers God sends his messengers God brings them in and you know what you are a message I think it's terrific that we can say to people come and see what God is doing in our church because we are a living message to people we can say here's evidence that God's at work this is the message of God reconciling us together the third thing that we have we've been given a method of this reconciliation and we read it right there in verse 20 Paul says that we are ambassadors of Christ ambassadors of Christ you hear a lot about ambassadors in the news don't you the deal we're trying to work out with the Soviets where they take our journalists and we take their spy and take them to our embassies I don't know if that was all worked out or not but you hear a lot about embassies and a lot about ambassadors what is an ambassador well an ambassador is a person with full authority representing a foreign power beloved we have been given full authority to represent the king of kings and lord of lords and station ourselves right in the middle of a foreign power that's where we are the bible says that we are citizens of a different land we're aliens and strangers I'm looking at a group of aliens and strangers to this principality of the world god has placed us here I love it when I get around people who represent companies and so on I was on a plane not long ago when I was going out to California sat next to a guy whose buddy said GM button here GM watch band said GM briefcase said GM his headband said GM I sat down and said who do you work for I represent king Jesus I represent a different power and I rejoice that god has called us all he said what do you mean I'd like to show you my embassy come here and see my staff of 900 see what they're in and doing to bring the kingdom of god into this foreign land in which we live beloved we pray this into reality this is what our prayer meetings are all about isn't it we pray ourselves right in to the exercise of authority and that's what we're seeing many of you are here today you don't know it but you're here because you've been prayed for and god's stirring in your heart we're not doing anything we're just saying god release your power see we represent a foreign authority god almighty and we're bringing his power to bear right where we are speaking it so what am I saying in all this well church I've told you that god is pouring out his power to love but what I didn't see when I started these teachings was that the purpose of it is not just that we get closer the purpose is that you and you and you and you and all of you fulfill the mission that's before us that we come together as a whole body and take this ministry and this message and this method of reconciliation enemies to become friends all around the world beloved we can do it you say well that's awful presumptuous what do you mean we can do it there's other churches all I know is that god has spoken to my heart that he wants to raise up a church right here that's going to fulfill that mission I want to be part of it I want it with all my heart and in that partnership we're going to see god do miraculous things I want to conclude with a letter that I got just bow your head for a moment and listen to this David Hunter our dear brother who's in Turkey if you're visiting with us David is a full time missionary in the nation of Turkey in the town of Bursa he and his wife Betsy have been there for about four months now three months and here's what he wrote and said dear god listen to this please many greetings with much love Jay let me especially express my love for you brother god bless you and keep you close to him if it ever gets hard and tiring Jay just remember there are lots of us together in this good fight of faith in one accord and in spirit if physically apart and when it gets hard and tiring it's a good time I think to remember someone else for if we think we're going it alone and keep thinking that way we'll probably convince ourselves I've been thinking that over here that Betsy and I are going it alone it's what the enemy wants us to think and then the spirit said think of Jay think of this brother and that sister and this person pray for them remember your oneness the spirit said remember your partnership remember the whole host to whom you belong to the degree that you feel it's hard and a struggle remember others that much in their