LOCAL & GLOBAL IMPACT

Gracious Father, we thank you for the work that you have done

through the Lord Jesus Christ coming into this world,

dying on the cross, rising again,

dealing with the sin that separates us from you

and that you, through the Lord Jesus, reconciled us to yourself.

We thank you for your work in sending your spirit into our hearts,

illuminating our darkness so that we could see the glory of Christ.

Father, we pray that your work of drawing people to yourself would be our work,

that we would be committed to that, it would be our focus,

that we'd have a razor-sharp focus on your mission to draw people to yourself.

Lord, we pray that you would continue to reform our heart, our structures,

our practices, everything we do, so that our agenda might be aligned with yours.

And we ask it for your glory. Amen.

Chris Jones used an illustration some time ago.

I thought it was a great one, so I decided to steal it and redo it.

It's one of those illustrations that I think you shouldn't just tell once.

It's called The Parable of the Lighthouse, The Lifehouse, Life-Saving Station.

Parable of the Life-Saving Station.

It goes,

Now the Life-Saving Station became a popular gathering plant.

happy that the building was so crude and so poorly equipped. They felt the more comfortable place

should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea. They replaced the emergency

stretchers with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged building. Now the life-saving station

became a popular gathering place for its members and they redecorated it beautifully and furnished

it sort of like a club. Less of the members were now interested in going to sea on life-saving

missions and so they hired lifeboats crews to do that work for them. The mission of life-saving

was still given lip service but most were too busy or lacked the necessary commitment to take part in

life-saving activities personally. At the next meeting there was a split in the club membership.

Most of the members wanted to stop the club's life-saving activities as being unpleasant and a

hindrance to the normal pattern of club life. Some members insisted that life-saving was their

primary purpose and pointed out that in fact they were still called a life-saving station

but they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save the life of all various kinds

of people who were shipwrecked on their shores they could begin their own life-saving station just down

the coast and so they did. As the years went by the new station experienced the same changes that

occurred with the old. They evolved into a club and yet another life-saving station was found

and if you visit the seacoast today you will find a number of exclusive clubs along the shore.

Shipwrecks are frequent in the waters but now most of the people don't get rescued.

It's not hard to lose sight of your original purpose. A multitude of little decisions, even good decisions,

for right reasons, if not put within a greater context of greater purpose,

you can lead you down to a different path than was originally intended.

And this parable is a parable of the church on mission. It's easy for a church to lose

its original purpose. It's easy for a church commissioned by the Lord Jesus to make disciples

of all nations to lose sight of its purpose. And this brings us to our core value here at St. Paul's.

Like all our core values, our core value of local and global impact, that is global impact and local

impact for the gospel, is to shape our behaviour, our attitude, our structures, our practices.

That is, it needs to be explicit that God's agenda is our agenda as a church. So we're going to take a few

moments just to see what God's agenda is, just very broadly, very briefly. So far in this commitment

series, in the first four sermons I used Isaiah for three of them and so now we're going to make it

four out of five. It's a great book. The book of Isaiah taken as a whole is majestic. It's sort of

like the Bible squashed into one book. It asks us to imagine right at the beginning of Isaiah,

the creation and then the recreation of the entire world. It begins in verse two, chapter one,

with heaven and earth called to bear witness. It says, hear, O heavens, listen, O earth. And it

finishes, the last verse of Isaiah finishes with a new heaven and a new earth. As the new heavens and

the new earth that I will make endure before me, declares the Lord, so will your name and descendants

endure. And so Isaiah takes us, if you like, from the beginning of history to the end of all things,

from creation to new creation, which in fact is what the whole Bible does from Genesis to the

Revelation. It takes you from creation to new creation. And so Isaiah does that in a smaller

period. Isaiah insists that God is doing something throughout all of time and eternity, throughout

history, for which even the ends of the earth wait. God has an all-encompassing purpose.

And it unravels for us page after page in Isaiah in the same way that it unravels for us page after

page in the Bible. And of course, in unraveling God's great plans and purposes, we get a picture

of the magnificence of God. And we saw that in the first of these sermons on Christ and the Bible

saturation in Isaiah chapter six, the glory of God in display. And we get another one here in verse two

of Isaiah 66. This is what the Lord says, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.

It's the only place in the Bible where the earth, the thing that we're sitting on right now, you know,

apart from your chairs, and is described as God's footstool. This building is built on God's footstool.

But the significance of this is the enormity of God's footstool. It gives you a picture of who God is,

the enormity of who God is. The earth, which is God's footstool, is six and a half thousand

kilometres straight through. It's 40,000 kilometres if you go around the outside. It weighs something like,

guesstimate here, 60 million trillion tonnes. That's a whole lot of zeros there, I think.

Has a surface area of 510 million square kilometres, a volume of around 10 trillion cubic kilometres.

It spins at 1,600 kilometres an hour, and God says, this is where I rest my feet.

It gives you a picture of the majesty of God. And again, what we're meant to get here from the

beginning of Isaiah is that we're small, he's big. Because my footstool that I'll go to tonight,

and I'll click up when I turn on the TV, is about this big. And you know, I can throw this thing.

It's not that big. God's footstool is this world in which we sit on. We're meant to get a picture

of the magnificence of the God that we have come to worship here tonight. He sits on a throne,

which we saw from Isaiah 6, is his right to rule, because it's the throne in the heavens,

it's his right to rule all the universe that he has created. And he touches the earth with his feet.

The doctrine of God is given further clarity in verse 2.

Has not my hand made all of these things? And so they came into being. His footstool was made by him.

The heavenly realms made by him. Everything made by him. And so what that means is,

because he is supreme over all things, it's his agenda, his purpose, that matters more than anything else.

And the last verse of Isaiah gives us his purpose.

As the new heavens and the new earth that I make endure before me, so will your name and descendants endure.

From one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me.

God's grand design is worship.

His grand design for his world is worship.

God's plan is for the world that he made, that is his footstool, would see his glory, would bow at his feet in humble submission.

Throughout all time, all of history and eternity to come, God's design is for people to worship him with humble and contrite hearts.

God says in the new heavens and the new earth, the redeemed of the entire human race will offer unending worship at the feet of their creator.

Isaiah.

And Isaiah, as you go through, we're not going to see this right now, but as you go through, Isaiah leaves us in no doubt that the key to this new world and this true worship

is God's perfect suffering servant king, who we know to be the Lord Jesus Christ.

The invincible purpose of God is that the gospel of the glory of Christ spread to all the peoples of the world so that they might come down and bow in worship of him.

Worship is his goal.

It's not a means to something else.

It is his goal.

It's made explicit for us that Jesus is the centre of it in the promise of Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

Who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.

This is talking about Jesus.

But he made himself nothing.

Taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on the cross.

Therefore God has exalted him to the highest place and has given him the name that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus is at the centre of God's purposes of worship.

And the final command of the crucified, risen, all authority of Saviour Christ is that his people deliver on his purpose.

While he was here, he bore witness to himself.

When he leaves, he said, your job is to bear witness to me.

He says this in Matthew 28,

Then Jesus came to us and all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

We just read that from Philippians 2.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit,

and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.

And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.

It was the very reason that God sent the Holy Spirit.

Acts chapter 1 verse 8,

Acts 1:8

But you receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you,

and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

The invincible purpose of God is that the gospel of the glory of Christ spread to all the peoples of the world

so they might see the glory of God in the face of Christ,

and that they might know he's never changing,

he's ever-present love,

and that that would motivate them to bow in humble contrition

and offer their lives as living sacrifices.

That's God's grand design for his world.

And if it's God's grand design for his world and for people,

then I would suggest that it's his design for your life,

and it's designed for St. Paul's Chatswood.

That we would fulfil what he has called us to fulfil.

What is slightly more difficult?

Because I think overall, as Christians, we'd sit here and we would go,

yep, no problem with that.

Mission's what we do.

We give money to mission.

That's why we're signing these cards next week and things like that.

Slightly more difficult is that more and more,

I am persuaded from the scriptures

that God's design for the completion of his global plan

and the consummation of all of his purposes

includes the suffering and the sacrifice of his people.

God's plan is that his purpose triumph through the suffering and sacrifice of his people.

Now, I don't just mean that suffering is the consequence of being obedient to God's mission.

I mean that suffering and sacrifice is one of his strategies for the success of his mission.

Jesus said to his disciples as he sent them out in Matthew 10,

I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.

And there ought to be no doubt in our minds what happens when sheep go in amongst wolves.

And in case there is, the Apostle Paul confirms the reality for us in Romans chapter 8

Romans 8 · chapter mention

when he says, as it is written,

for your sake we face death all day long.

We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

Suffering and sacrifice are not just a consequence of our obedience to the Lord's mission.

It is the central strategy of his mission.

Jesus calls us to join him on the Calvary Road.

He calls us to take up our cross, die to ourself and come and follow him.

We are not above our master.

And it's a very sobering word here.

God's plan is that his gospel spreading purposes triumph through the sacrifice and suffering of his people.

At the heart of true biblical mission, both for those who are on the front line of it

and those who are supporting it,

is the eagerness to live simply, to give lavishly and to joyfully sacrifice much

because he has loved us much

and he promises us much.

At the heart of true biblical mission is sacrifice and suffering,

not merely as a result of our proclamation of the gospel,

but as a means of the proclamation of the gospel.

So we know what God's purposes are.

We know how he achieves that purposes

through the suffering and sacrifice of his people.

What gets in the way?

And this is where I think there's some idiosyncrasies

and potentially even idolatries in the Western church

that results in a breakdown between us, God's people, pursuing his purposes.

Paul Borden is an American church ministry consultant.

Sydney Diocese has brought him out.

Our Anglican church has brought him out a number of times

to help us to grow cities,

to think about how to grow cities in this church.

Sorry, grow churches in this city.

And his primary focus is to help those churches,

whatever church he goes to and does a consultation with,

to see that they structure everything they do

to ensure that they are actively pursuing the Great Commission.

And he suggests that churches exist for the not yet Christian,

we ought to consistently,

not just be running a few mission programs,

but everything we do has to have an eye outward, outward, outward,

think it outwardly.

And he says when a church loses sight

of what it's meant to be doing, its purpose,

what it does is by default it looks inwardly,

thinks about itself,

spends time on its maintenance programs

and preservation of its history.

And so we slowly die,

which is what happens to, in America,

3,000 churches in America every year.

In the introduction to his book, Assaulting the Gates,

he writes, and I'm going to quote extensively from him

at various points here.

He says,

And he goes on to give perspective,

his perspective,

as to why the church has lost its focus on mission.

And he gives three reasons.

And I think these three reasons have got a lot of validity to them,

and we need to be constantly keeping an eye on them

to ensure that we are obediently seeking the Great Commission here in St. Paul's.

He says,

First of all,

if I was requested to find just one word that would describe our culture,

he talks about the church culture,

the word would be consumerism.

Consumerism results in a church filled with people

who are proud to be identified with Jesus Christ,

and yet who in their behaviours are far more concerned

with having their needs

and those of their family met

than reaching those who are spiritually lost and separated from God.

Time after time,

I and many others have taught

that the turnaround in the congregations of our region,

now what he's referring to there in his region,

he was in charge of 200 and something churches

on the west coast of America.

All of them, or the vast majority,

except a very small minority of them,

were actually in decline.

And his goal was to get those churches,

200 and something churches,

focused on mission,

thinking outwardly,

rather than just preservation,

and within 10 years,

70% of them were actually growing.

That's what he's talking about here.

Time after time,

I have, in many others,

have taught that the turnaround

in the congregations of our region

only happened

as we began to focus more on others

than on ourselves.

And every time I teach this truth,

I hear, but what about us?

What about our needs?

What are you doing to help the Christians?

I've come to learn that we American Christians

will reflexively make sure

that our needs are met.

Because after all,

at our very core,

we are all consumers.

I want to suggest

that consumerism,

having my needs met,

is the exact opposite

of what God's strategy is

to achieve his global agenda

in the sacrificing and suffering

of his people.

He says,

consumerism in our congregations

know no generational differences.

The only differences

are what the respective generations

demand congregations to be

or to do

in order to fulfil

their consumer requirements.

Often, older Christians

are more concerned

about their music

and the issues

of congregational structure

that allow them

to keep control

of what is happening.

The baby boomers

also want to maintain

the forms of worship,

the buildings,

and the ministries

that they created

in order to feel comfortable

in their settings.

The emerging generations

want their expectations

for size and groups

and media to be met

in order for them

to be happy.

In most congregations,

regardless of size,

age, or backgrounds,

it is all about me

and my needs.

And so if we say

that we value this value

of local and global impact,

it means laying aside

personal preferences

and in fact actually

becoming uncomfortable

for the sake of others

worshipping Jesus.

Secondly, he says

this consumer mindset

has created another phenomenon

which has its roots

in the fuzziness

of modern theology

while playing into the hands

of the consumer Christ followers.

That phenomenon

is the pacification

of the church.

The church,

as an institution

designed to meet

consumer needs,

will not tolerate dissension,

even if that dissension

is to point out

that the church

has lost its way

in relation to mission.

We have lost the idea

of being soldiers

for the cross,

an army marching

for the salvation of people,

and lightboat captains

rescuing the perishing.

Consumer Christians

desire a wonderful place

to worship each Sunday

that meets the needs

of myself and my family

without upsetting

the temporary camelot

that they call

their congregations.

In other words,

what he says is

that what is a core value

in so many churches

in the West

is surface peace.

Don't disrupt the peace.

Keep everything calm.

It's like this great cartoon

I saw many, many years ago.

It's a picture of the,

the cartoon is the Apostle Peter

on Lake Galilee

with the disciples

in the boat.

Jesus is walking

on the water towards them.

Peter got,

he's got one foot

on the side of the boat

and he's about to step out

because Jesus is calling him

to come

and the rest of the disciples

grabbed the boat

and said,

Peter, don't get out,

you'll rock the boat.

And, and,

and that's a value

is what Paul says.

The value is

don't rock the boat.

Peace.

Let's be calm,

comfortable,

coast along.

No one should be encouraging us

to give more

or do more

or anything.

Just,

just calm.

The third reason

for decline,

and these are all connected

in one way or another,

is what he calls

role clarifications.

He says,

pastors are called

to lead sheep

on a mission

to attack the forces

of evil.

God calls upon sheep

to attack roaring lions

and expects them

with his help

to win far more

than they lose.

Caregivers

are those people

God has called

and gifted

to employ mercy,

compassion,

tenderness,

and other attributes

to help those

who are hurting

and desperately

need the help

caregivers can provide.

The Church of Jesus Christ

is declining

in our

and similar nations

because we have

confused the role

of pastor

and caregiver.

Congregations

have allowed

the caregivers

to fulfil the role

of pastor

in most congregations.

We lift up

the stories

of how a faithful

caregiver

has helped

one person

because of

an unending

commitment

of time

and energy

as the epitome

of faithful service

while also

underappreciating

those who have

created effective

systems

to reach

many people

with the same

kind of help

during the same

amount of time.

The constant

message seems

to be that

the smaller

the congregation

the more spiritual

the pastor

must be.

Now there are

many reasons

for decline

in the effectiveness

of the mission

in the church

but he suggests

these are the

three major ones.

Many others

these are the

three major ones.

What is interesting

is that each one

of those things

the role of the pastor

peace in the church

meeting my needs

are all

unwritten

core values.

And so when you

have a stated

core value

coming up against

unwritten

core values

it will impact

the effectiveness

of the stated

core value.

So here's where

it gets a little

bit hard for me

personally.

St Paul's is a

church that has

a good and

honourable history

in its mission

support.

At one point

this church

led the

Sydney Anglican

Diocese in

its mission

in terms of

giving to

global mission.

That was a

while ago now

but it did

at one point.

It's had a

long history

of mission

support.

And yet

for some

reason

and I'll

tell you why

I found

this message

on local

and global

impact

the hardest

one to

prepare.

Not because

of me needing

to convince

that this

ought to be

a core value

but because

it has been

in one way

or another

in our history.

history.

The issue

is not

that we

don't agree

with it.

The issue

is that there

are other

unwritten

core values

such as the

three that I've

just mentioned

from Paul

Borden

that actually

undermine our

effectiveness

in local

mission.

By the time

I arrived

here about

five and a

half years

ago by

and large

St Paul's

agreed that

it needed to

be a church

of gospel

light in

a spiritually

dark world.

That was a

core value.

We are a

light on a

hill if you

like.

My perception

of things

were more

that we

operated like

a lighthouse

rather than

a lantern.

That is

core value

is global

mission was

the highest

value thing.

The people

that we raise

up as being

the height

of spirituality

are those

who leave

our shores

and go

elsewhere.

They're the

most important

Christians.

And so we

operate like a

lighthouse.

We illuminate

off in the

far distances

Europe,

Africa,

Asia.

And like a

lighthouse that's

got a strong

bream out there

in the distance

its own

foundation

is plunged

in darkness.

Its own base

is plunged

in darkness.

And my

perception was

that the

core value

of God's

global agenda

out there

was coming

into conflict

with the

unwritten

core values

of what we

expect the

church to

be like

here.

That is

we want to

support global

mission but

right here

you need to

meet my

needs.

now I

firmly believe

that the

effectiveness of

global mission

is reliant

upon the

health of

mission in

the local

church.

It's reliant

upon the

health of

the local

church.

A church

that is

unhealthy and

slowly dying

ultimately will

not be giving

money to

global mission.

Will not be

prayerfully

supporting global

mission.

That is what I'm

saying is caring

about God

winning people

to himself on

the other

side of the

world but

not actually

caring about

my neighbours

being drawn

into fellowship

in the local

church to

me appears

to be sort

of like lip

service.

And it's a

lip service

that I myself

have paid.

I give money

to mission,

I talk with

our link

missionaries,

I pray for

our link

missionaries

and yet

except for

today,

I don't

know the

names of

my neighbours

in View

Street.

That's

because I

think it's

harder getting

entangled in

the relationships

that are close

than it is in

the relationships

that are distant.

It's much

easier to

deal with

stuff at a

distance than

it is to be

close with

people.

And that

explains something

of the pendulum

swing that I've

been trying to

lead us through

in all its

messiness for

the past

five years.

My focus

has been and

it will

continue to

be to lead

us to be an

effective

life-saving

station in

Chatswood.

And part of

those things are

ensuring things

like we are

constantly thinking

outward and

that our

pastors are

viewed and

operate as

mission leaders

and not as

masseurs,

for instance.

Not that we

do that.

What tends to

happen though

when I believe

that we keep

our eye on

God's global

plan, God's

global agenda,

what he's doing,

when we get

such a vision of

the majesty of

God, what

happens is

mission.

What flows out

of that is

mission.

That is the

way to raise

the profile of

mission in the

local church is

to talk about

God, not to

talk about

mission agencies.

It's to give

people a picture

of the majesty

of God.

And so I

believe that's

what's been

happening bit

by bit, as

imperfect as it

is.

Our giving to

global mission

has increased

from $66,000 in

2008 to over

$100,000 last

year.

We have grown

by 10% a year

consistently for

the last five,

six years,

something like

that.

Now I know

that's not

enough.

I believe that

we ought to be

able to be

doing more.

But my aim is

for us to

continue to

keep going.

Maybe we

should be

shooting for

something like

$115,000 this

year.

Now I'm fully

aware that we've

got a long way

to go, but I

am encouraged.

What I'm

particularly

encouraged by

is things like

the establishment

of the

International

Chinese School.

That's about

mission in our

local area.

That's what that

is.

And this church

has put a

phenomenal amount

of money into

taking a risk to

do something

different for the

glory of God in

this place.

That's astounding

in my mind.

What is really

astounding is other

things like there's a

group of ladies from

St. Paul's from

different congregations

right now attempting

to do mission work

amongst sex workers

in our area.

Friends, I don't know

if you realise this,

but there are people

hurting in Chatswood.

There are women

within hundreds of

metres of this

building who are in

sex slavery right

now.

And there is a group

of women who are

just trying to work

out how do we

minister, how do we

bring the gospel to

bear on those people

in our local area.

I'm excited about

that.

I've heard someone,

one of our younger

people is interested

in working out how

to do some ministry

in the nursing home

just over the road

in View Street,

you know, just down

there.

I'm excited about

grassroots initiative

of people who've

got a vision of

God's global agenda

for people to

joyfully bow at the

feet of the Lord

Jesus and worship

him for all of

eternity.

I'm excited that

people are looking

to do that.

And I want to

encourage you to do

that.

Find something you

want to do and go

and do it that people

might worship Christ.

So next week on

Commitment Sunday,

I'm calling you

to joyfully

sacrifice and

suffer a little

bit more.

To joyfully die

a little bit more.

To joyfully suffer

a little bit more.

To joyfully sacrifice

a little bit more

by taking up your

cross, following

the Lord Jesus

and giving your

life and your

resources and your

time to God's

agenda to be

fulfilled in the

lives of people

that you know and

those that you

don't.

I want to

continue to

encourage us as a

church to joyfully

embrace the

sacrifice that is

needed to see

St. Paul's stay

razor sharp in its

focus on its

purpose as a

life-saving station

in Chatswood.

Amen.

Amen.

To joyfully

to joyfully