The Local Church - God's Missionary People

Here are some actual church signs out on marquees and in bulletins and any things like that.

Here are some actual church signs that have been posted.

One is the best vitamin for a Christian is B1.

Soul food served here, like that. Tithe if you love Jesus, anyone can honk.

Beat the Christmas rush, come to church this Sunday.

Don't wait for six strong men to bring you to church. Don't give up.

Moses was once a basket case.

The wages of sin is death. Repent before payday.

Never give the devil a ride. He always wants to drive. Satan subtracts and divides.

God adds and multiplies.

Forbidden fruit creates many jams. If you don't want to reap the fruit of sin,

stay out of the devil's orchard.

Prevent truth decay. Brush up on your Bible. life has many choices eternity has two what's yours,

and preach the gospel at all times use words if necessary it's hard to stumble

when you're down on your knees have you ever seen some of these have you seen

some of these God answers an email.

Anyway so there's many signs that have been out there on on billboards and church

marquees and things like that we we we want to look at what is it that,

makes a church what is the purpose of the local church if someone were to walk

up to you and ask what is the mission and purpose of the richland center free

methodist church what would you tell them make disciples of christ okay anything else,

There you go. On our website, it says, love God, love people, make disciples.

But here's some interesting things that I found in my studies for this.

18,000 church members were surveyed by Church Growth Center out of Corona,

Iowa, or excuse me, Indiana.

Four questions were asked, and those being surveyed were asked to pick the statement

that best describes the main purpose of the church.

Number one, teach the golden rule. Number two, be the moral backbone of the society.

Number three, make disciples. Number four, provide a place of fellowship and

show God's love with one another.

Now, they were surveyed and asked, which one do you think is the main purpose

of the church? Here's what the answers came out with.

4.1% chose teach the golden rule.

3.4% chose be the moral backbone of society.

35.5% said make disciples and 57% said provide a place of fellowship and show

God's love to one another. That's good.

But Jesus gave the primary purpose of the church in Matthew chapter 28,

Matthew 28:19–20

verses 19 to 20, which we call the Great Commission.

And it is this, Jesus said to them, came to them and said, all authority in

heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore, therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in

the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.

And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. And I'm really wondering who surely is.

But anyway, he's with surely to the end of the age.

I've also told people that in the King James, you know, God,

Jesus tells people that he's with you everywhere, except when you're in airplanes

and stuff like that, because he says, Lo, I am with you always.

Anyway, another dumb dad joke, but in a not so distant past,

every church was encouraged to develop a substantial mission statement for their

church, which would be sure to bring immediate growth to their attendance.

I mean, we went through this in the 90s and early 2000s, And everybody was developing

mission statements and core values and all this kind of stuff because we just

knew, like every business on earth that had a mission statement,

if we just had this really catchy

mission statement, it would make everything blossom in us, you know?

Many of those churches were led by pastors who were quite capable of being overly wordy.

Developing extensive mission statements that were printed in their publications

and posted on their websites, but did nothing to motivate their congregations,

which it was meant to do in the first place.

That's what a mission statement is supposed to do. It's supposed to be motivating

us to what is our mission and where are we going and what are we doing.

And oftentimes those mission statements were so wordy and so profound that nobody

ever knew them, nor did we explain what that meant. Well, here's one.

This is one mission statement that was reflecting the neighborhood around it.

It could have just as well been ours because of our community,

but this is what it said, planting spiritual seeds through evangelism,

cultivating spiritual growth, and harvesting dedicated workers and leaders for Jesus.

Now, what do you think, what kind of community do you think that's in?

It's a farm community, very small community, very small village and surrounded by farms.

And it was just, the pastor thought, this is such a classy, catchy thing.

Nobody in church do what that meant. Well, I mean, really, I mean,

it's a catchy statement, but they didn't use it. They didn't read it. They didn't follow it.

And nobody really did anything with it.

It's interesting when you think about that the purpose

of a mission statement is to identify the core reason

or reasons for an organization's existence

which in french french is raison d'etre which means reason to be reason to exist

and why do we exist and what do we do our mission statement here as we have

stated is simply this love god love people make disciples sounds great and it is great.

But what does that mean? How do we spell that out?

Kind of talked about it today. Love the Lord your God with all your heart,

mind, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. But what does that really mean?

It's a good mission statement. It speaks well of what we should be doing.

But I wonder if we really even comprehend exactly what that means,

or even if we are really focused on meeting our mission.

Do we really, as a congregation, as individuals, do we really love God with

all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength?

Do we really love our neighbors as ourselves?

The way some of us evidence the way we love our neighbors, maybe we don't love ourselves very well.

And then do we make disciples? The mission of the church of Jesus Christ and

the simplified mission statement for the Free Methodist denomination and the

real purpose we have for existence can be summed up in the following statement.

And that is this, know God and glorify him by making him known.

Sounds great and it is great. But again, what does that mean?

What does that really entail we say

in this church that god is on a mission to redeem a

lost world to himself and he chooses to use us his

chosen peoples to accomplish his mission now that's something that i've taught

you since coming here and we kind of remember that that it's easy to remember

after you'd say it so many times but again what does that really mean it's really

easy to think god is on a mission to redeem a lost world himself,

but then when the onus comes back on us to do something about it,

it becomes a little more difficult, doesn't it?

The local church consists of God's missionary people.

The Bible uses several descriptive pictures to describe the purpose of the church.

Matthew records that following the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem,

Jesus went into the temple to do some house cleaning.

It says this in Matthew chapter 21, verses 12 through 13.

Matthew 21:12–13

It says, Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there.

He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.

It is written, he said to them, my house will be called a house of prayer,

but you're making it a den of robbers.

Now I pause there to think of that he called God's house the house of prayer,

where's God's temple where's God's temple,

within us. And if God's temple is within us and we're in our own homes,

shouldn't this and our homes be houses of prayer?

Just a thought. My name is Tim. I'm your friend, at least until now.

Jesus made it clear that his house was not to be a place of crass commercialism,

a place for buying and selling of merchandise.

He cast out everyone who bought and sold in the temple area.

In fact, temple courtyard vendors were dishonest in their dealings,

and Jesus would not have crooked money changers taking advantage of people coming

to the temple for worship and offering their sacrifices.

These were people abusing the temple for their own personal gain.

In fact, I mean, I think I've shared this in one message before.

What they would do is they would have a temple coin that you had to do all of

your business in, in the temple. And so you would come with your Roman coins

or whatever they might be.

And at the door, you'd have to stop and exchange those for temple coins.

And so you might get 10 cents on a dollar.

Well, they didn't have dollars back then, but you might get 10 cents or 50 cents

on a dollar for your coin transferred into a temple coin.

And guess who makes the profit? The money changers.

Or you might bring an animal in for sacrifice.

It's a pure and blemished lamb to bring

in for sacrifice but somebody at the front gate says

oh no i see a speck of black on that one

that hair oh we'll have to take that wood from and you can buy this one who

is a pure and blemished one for us for x amount so they take that blemished

one out the outside bring it back in and replace the one that they just sold

to sell to the next one That was the way that they were doing business there.

And Jesus was saying, this is extremely crass.

My house is to be a house of prayer, not a den of robbers.

What picture comes to mind when you think of the church, when people outside

of here, when people outside of Christianity think of the church,

what do they think of? They think of a multimillion dollars.

Well, in our case, not necessarily multimillion, but usually they think of a

magnificent building costing multi-million dollars.

Some of the great Catholic cathedrals and some of the large Protestant cathedrals

in the East Coast and even in Europe are extremely ornate.

And they think you have spent all of your money on a building and not on people.

Or do they think of an organization out to take your money and make you poor?

All the church thinks about is bunny.

Tithe if you love Jesus. Anyone can honk.

Place to make business contacts or find clients for your business or a place

to gather for corporate worship and prayer? Which is it?

Is it a place to gather for corporate worship and prayer? Yes,

that's what it should be. But what do we make it?

Abraham Lincoln said this, if all the people who fell asleep in church on Sunday

morning were laid out end to end, they would be a lot more comfortable.

Kind of stands to reason in a way, doesn't it? So those that laugh, I know are still awake.

The rest of you, we might want to lay out end for end.

Anyway, more than anything else, the house of God is a place of worship and prayer.

We don't rent this sanctuary out for dances or parties.

People are welcome to come and gather here in the sanctuary to find peace with God.

We don't rent, we don't move the chairs and rent the sanctuary out for dances.

The second thing we see this is the local church also serves as a lighthouse.

Jesus said this, you are the light of the world.

A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.

Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good

deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

This scripture is the impetus by the song I don't know.

This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine. Remember that song?

Hide it under a bushel. No, I'm going to let it shine.

Like a lighthouse, the local church has a similar purpose to shine forth for Jesus.

But the statement that Jesus was making was not about the church as a building,

but about the church as a body of believers being lighthouses in their communities

wherever they are and wherever they were.

The first lighthouse served the old world of Alexandria in 285 BC.

The first American lighthouse was in Boston Harbor in 1716.

The story is told of a lighthouse keeper, it doesn't say where,

but a lighthouse keeper who worked on a rocky stretch of coastline and who received

a fresh new supply of oil once a month to keep the light burning.

Not being far from shore, he had frequent guests.

One night, a woman from the village begged him for some oil to keep her family warm.

Another time, a father asked for some to use in his lamp. Still another needed

some to lubricate a wheel.

Since all the requests seemed legitimate and necessary, the lighthouse keeper

tried to please everyone and granted them whatever they needed.

Toward the end of the month, he noticed that his supply of oil was very low,

and soon it was gone, and his lighthouse beacon light went out.

That night, several ships were wrecked, and lives were lost.

And when the authorities investigated, the man was very repentant.

He said, you know, they needed the oil.

They needed to stay warm. And his excuses were put aside with this one reply that said,

you were given the oil for one purpose, to keep the light burning.

We are given the oil of God's love for one purpose, to keep the light burning.

And now we don't necessarily give the oil away, but we do give the light away,

right? You are the light of the world, Jesus said.

God has given us the command to shine with the good news of Jesus.

As a local church, We are a mission outpost.

As individual followers of Jesus Christ and members of the body of Christ known

as the church, our task is to serve others, and you're the missionaries.

At the end of every service, we say, now, what do we say? Now go and serve a

world that desperately needs Jesus.

Our biggest place of worship and service is out there.

The focus of the church unlike many other organizations exists for others and

not primarily for the member of the membership of the church we're not a hospice

for the saints we're a hospital for the for the fallen.

Someone has said that just as fire exists for burning, the church exists for mission.

I remember hearing the story when I was in Mexico for a mission trip.

The pastor there was telling about a story of another church.

It wasn't his, but it was a church that had a beautiful building,

but there was a guy that lived next door that was not a Christian,

didn't follow Christ, didn't have anything to do with the church,

would never come in or anything like that.

And one night the church caught fire.

Neighbors came from all over with buckets and water and they were trying to

put this fire out and this neighbor was the first one over there in line with

his bucket trying to put the fire out in the church. After he got done, the fire was put out.

Somebody asked him, so you don't even come to church here.

Why did you come and help us? And he said, this is the first time I've ever

seen this church on fire.

In John 8, verse 10, Jesus said, I am the light of the world.

John 8:10

Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

Jesus is the light of the world, and we are his reflectors. Just as the sun

is the source of light on earth during the day, the moon reflects the light at night.

Jesus is our source the light, but we're the ones who reveal his light to a dark world around us.

So how are we doing?

Our lives are to reflect the mind and will of God, and the question remains, how are we doing at that?

In 1 Peter 2, verse 9, the apostle writes these words to us, to his people and to us.

1 Peter 2:9

He says, but you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,

God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called

you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

It's interesting because that's kind of the preface verse of what we say,

God is on a mission to redeem a lost world to himself and he chooses to use

us, his chosen people, to accomplish his mission.

Ephesians chapter five, verses eight and nine, Paul wrote these words to the

church at Ephesus, for you were once darkness.

He didn't say you were in darkness, He said, you were once darkness,

but now you are light in the Lord.

Live as children of light for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness,

righteousness, and truth.

So we're the lighthouse as well. And then we also find out not only is the church

a house of prayer and a lighthouse, but the church is especially the body of Christ.

1 Corinthians 12 verses 14 through 27 says this, even so the body is not made

1 Corinthians 12:14–27

up of one part, but of many.

Now, if the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I do not belong to the

body, it would not be for that reason, stop being part of the body.

And if the ear should say, because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,

it would not for that reason, stop being part of the body.

If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be?

If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?

But in fact, God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them,

just as he wanted them to be.

If they were all one part, where would the body be as it is?

There are many parts, but many body, or one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, I don't need you, and the head cannot say to

the foot, I don't need you.

On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.

And the parts that we think are less honorable, we treat with special honor. Think of your feet.

Who on earth really looks at their feet and say, boy, you're such a beautiful foot?

You're a great big toe.

But if you don't have that big toe on that big foot or even small foot,

it's pretty hard to balance, right?

Your foot is your foundation for your standing.

And then he goes on, and the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special

modesty while our presentable parts need no special treatment.

But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked

it so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should

have equal concern for each other.

If one part suffers every part suffers with it if one part is honored every

part rejoices with it now you are the body of christ in each one of you is a

part of it throughout the new testament the church is called the body of christ

and in the church the body of christ there is unity in purpose,

and mission we may not have

unity in in a lot of our beliefs but

if we have unity and purpose and mission of

our church and of our faith than we

are one we are unified by the passion of glorifying christ in the way we live

and serve and work together to build god's kingdom each member of the body is

linked by love and the church has a powerful influence for the lord as each

person does his or her own part.

A meeting of the American Psychological Association. Jack Lipton,

a psychologist at Union College, and R.

Scott Bullion, a graduate student at Columbia University, presented their findings

on how members of the various sections of 11 major symphony orchestras perceived each other.

The percussionists were viewed as insensitive, unintelligent,

and hard of hearing, yet fun-loving.

String players were seen as arrogant stuffy

and non-athletic the orchestra

members overwhelmingly chose chose loud as

the primary descriptive for the brass players woodwind

players seemed to be held in the highest esteem and

were described as quiet and meticulous though

a bit egotistical those are interesting findings

to say the least with such widely

diverse divergent personalities and perceptions

how on earth could any orchestra ever

come together to create such wonderful music and yet the answer is very simple

regardless of how those musicians viewed each other they subordinated their

feelings and biases to the leadership of the conductor under his guidance.

All differences were put aside and they

were each one individual part of a great orchestra and

they made beautiful music together the lord

jesus is our conductor jesus is the head of the church and when jesus established

the church he also established apostolic leadership when every member takes

direction from the head of the church then there's unity if and when every member

takes direction from the leader,

the head of the church, Jesus Christ.

And there could be no unity without truth, where there is unity,

competition, and control have no place in a church's life.

Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

As a local church, a body of Christ's missionaries, our purpose is to serve Christ,

to represent Christ well and to be examples of Christ in such a way that people

will see Jesus living in us and want to be a part of the kingdom of God.

I've often told you this before, that we are the only Jesus some people will ever see.

That going for you? Think. Am I being the best Jesus that people will see?

1 Corinthians 12, verse 12, and then 18 through 20 says this,

1 Corinthians 12:12

the body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts.

And though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.

God has arranged the parts of the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.

If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is,

there are many parts, but one body.

Can you imagine if your whole body was an ear?

That'd be pretty ugly, pretty hard to stand, pretty hard to move, pretty hard to speak.

Yeah, maybe some people are too much tongue speaking.

Anyway, that's what the pastor does to speak anyway

well each part may have a different function

than the others each one performs their function in total

agreement with the mission of the body as a whole if

the parts don't agree as to what is truth they could not exist as a complete

body if they did not work together at the control and the conducting of the

brain they could not exist jesus is our conductor Jesus is our brain.

He's the source. The primary question as the church is this,

what mission does Jesus, the head of God's church, have for the Richland Center

of Free Methodist Church?

Truly committed Christians are not interested in playing church.

They don't see church as a country club or a place for self-promotion and control

or a place where they can come and receive service from the pastor and the leaders.

The church is a place to serve the risen Lord and to be sent out into mission.

We get involved in the life of the church because we know we can make a greater

impact on the world for Jesus working together rather than working solo.

Saved to serve, not to be served. Jesus isn't looking so much for people who,

with outstanding abilities,

as he is looking for people with availability to serve him with what abilities

they have, what abilities Jesus has given them.

President John F. Kennedy was famous for one particular statement.

Well, he's famous for a lot of things, but one in particular,

trying to think if I can do this in his, ask not what you can do for your country.

That's not bad. That sounds like Forrest Gump. Okay.

Ask not what God and your, or ask not what your country can do for you,

but ask what you can do for your country.

The similar thing for us would be this.

Ask not what God and your church can do for you.

Ask what you can do for God. A man walked into the pastor's office and said,

I wanted to join the church, but don't ask me to do anything.

I don't want any part of any organization. I don't want to do any work.

I'd come to church when I feel like it, and that's it. The pastor replied, I see.

Well, you're at the wrong address.

Here, go to this address down the road. And he wrote down the address,

and he said, have exactly what you want.

The man left and went down the street until he came

to the address which the pastor gave him and was

shocked to find himself in front of the cemetery if you

don't want to do anything don't want to be part of an organization that's

where you can be an old hymn says this

he has no hands but our hands to do his work today he has no feet but our feet

to lead lead men in his way he has no voice but our voice to tell men how he

died He has no help but our help to lead them to his side.

Jesus said this, upon this church, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overcome it.

Another version reflects this as shall not withstand it.

Growing up on the Atlantic coast, a young man spent long hours working on intricate sandcastles.

Whole cities would be appear before

his hands one year f for several days

in a row he was accosted by bullies who smashed his creations finally he tried

an experiment he placed cinder blocks rocks and chunks of concrete in the base

of his castles then he built the sand kingdoms on top of the rocks when the

local bullies appeared their bare feet suddenly met their match.

People see the church in grave peril for a variety of dangers,

secularism, politics, heresies, or plain old sin.

They forget that the church of Christ is built upon a rock over which the gates

of hell shall not prevail.

I'm excited about the future of the church of Jesus Christ and our world.

Oftentimes we get downcast, but we are in

a day and age when the world is

looking for spirituality they're wanting

to find a reason for existence we know that there's been no other time in history

in which people have been hungrier for spiritual truth people know that they

have a spiritual void and they are searching for fulfillment in many ways they

want to know what their raison d'etre is their reason to exist,

people are searching for the truth and we have it in fact We don't just have

the truth, we belong to it.

I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life.

So let me close with this, and you can say it with me.

God is on a mission to redeem a lost world to himself, and he chooses to use

us, his chosen people, to accomplish his mission.

The local church is God's missionary people.

Would you sign up for the task? Let's stand and pray.

Heavenly father we thank you for this day and

sometimes lord these messages are difficult because

we're kind of like that man who was directed to

the cemetery we don't want to do anything we want

to come and absorb but father you have called us into the mission field you

have called us to be lighthouses you have called us to be reflectors of jesus

you have called us to be the jesus that some people may never see without us

and so father we pray that you would help us to be on mission with you. In Jesus' name, amen.