The Big Plan
I read an article about a problem that many Churches are facing. How do we keep our young people in Church? It seems that once many 'Church kids' leave High School, they leave the faith as well.
The author of the article did some survey work with '20 something's' who had stayed in their Churches and were involved and he found some interesting commonalities. The vast majority of those who kept the faith had three important things in common. The first was that they understood the basics of the Gospel message and accepted Jesus, not just Christian platitudes. They weren't just 'good kids' but kids who learned to pray, to read the Bible and that Church attendance was vital to their spiritual growth.
The second thing was that they were discipled, not just entertained. Yes, the kids had a lot of fun being part of the Church, but they were taught sound Biblical teachings and also saw it modeled for them in the adults around them.
But the number one factor for these young people, the thing that made the most difference of whether or not they would stay in the Church - those who kept the faith after High School were those whose parents (or grandparents) intentionally, purposely, deliberately taught the Gospel to them. It was most frequently those kids from families where they didn't leave the kids' spiritual development solely up to a youth minister or youth workers. Those kids who stuck with Church were those whose parents dragged them to Church every Sunday; whose parents intentionally talked to them about Jesus.
Now it's not a magic formula. We know you can do everything seemingly right and our kids and grandkids can still reject Jesus. And you also see kids who had none of those things in their life who still come to the Lord and become devoted Christians. The point of the article was that we should provide the best opportunity we possibly can for our families to accept Jesus and stay in His Church. Their eternity hangs in the balance.
Don't underestimate your spiritual influence in your family and even extended family. In your personal lives - I want to encourage you to...
I. Preach the Word
The Apostle Paul wrote letters to Timothy, a young preacher, to encourage him in his life. I want us to read a passage from 2 Timothy 4:1-5 (NIV). Paul wrote...
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: (2) Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction. (3) For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine.
Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. (4) They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. (5) But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
One of Timothy's primary responsibilities was to preach the Word - not what was popular, comfortable, 'woke' or easy - but to preach God's Word. And the majority of us here aren't actually vocational preachers. Most here make their living working a secular job - so I can see some thinking, 'this doesn't really apply to me'. And in a sense that's accurate - but this isn't the only passage in the Bible. We are also called to...
A. Give an answer
Peter wrote to all believers in 1 Peter 3:15-16 (NIV)...
But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, (16) keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
The idea of 'preaching at someone' has become rather negative. We don't like people who are 'too preachy'. But this idea of preaching isn't about standing in judgment or condemning someone - it's about sharing the truth about Jesus, the Good News of Jesus.
Peter challenges us to lovingly share the reason for our hope. Every one of us is here for a reason. You are here for something. We're called to share that reason with others who need to be here, too. And we do need to be here. Online services have been invaluable to us this past year - and continue to be for some with various health issues - but Jesus intended His Church to meet together.
But if you're not sure how to 'preach' to someone this way - about your reason for being here. The best reason we have for being here...
B. Start with Jesus
In the first passage we read, Paul challenged Timothy to 'preach the Word'. Jesus IS God's Word! Jesus is God's Word in the flesh. Our 'preaching' has to start with Jesus! Otherwise it does become something condemning or judgmental or irrelevant. - If our message starts anywhere other than Jesus - that's not the Gospel message. We need to learn to be comfortable simply talking about our relationship with Jesus - our hope in Jesus.
Peter, arguably one of the greatest preachers ever - when challenged by the religious leaders of his day, focused everything on Jesus.
Acts 4:7-12 (NIV)
They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: "By what power or what name did you do this?" (8) Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people! (9) If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, (10) then know this, you and all the people of Israel:
It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. (11) He is 'the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.' (12) Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
There are a lot of very good things that we can do for God - and should do. We can give our time and money to feeding and clothing the poor. We can give money to the Church and time as a volunteer in many various ministry areas. There are tons of things that we can do around this building that are very helpful to the work we do here - I can even stand up here on a Sunday morning and talk - but if it's not centrally focused on Jesus, it's really a waste of time.
And if we can't ever learn to share Jesus as The reason for our hope - if we can't start with Jesus, especially in our homes - we're ignoring the heart of the Gospel message. Not everyone is called to be a fulltime preaching minister - but we are ALL called to preach Jesus - with our lifestyles and with our actual words.
II. God wants to use you
When you accept that God created you - you have to accept that He created you for a purpose. And ultimately God decides what that purpose is. Yes, we are given free will and He allows us to choose an awful lot of how we live out that purpose - but we have to acknowledge that God decides that purpose as it fits into His ultimate plan to bring all of His lost children back to Him. We are a part of that plan!
I want to jump back to the first passage we read - Paul's challenge to Timothy. Notice that Paul didn't say, Timothy - because you are so righteous and wise and qualified, I charge you...
2 Timothy 4:2-4 (NIV)
Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction.
(This call had nothing to do with Timothy's qualifications at all - but there was a great need for him to preach because...)
(3) For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. (4) They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
Why should we preach? "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine." That time is now! That time is with this new generation that knows very little of God's truth - and what they do know they distort or reject. The time is now! We are needed! We see a generation who celebrates the rejection of God's design and values. They condemn anyone who holds traditional Godly values and labels them as mean and hateful and bigoted and they reject God's Church. The time is now!
- But how can God use me, I'm...
A. Nothing special
And please don't take this the wrong way - but if you were thinking that - you're kinda right. In the scope of all of human history - you really are nothing special. And I'm not saying that to discourage you but to give you a bit of perspective. The Bible tells us that our life is 'but a mist' - here today, gone tomorrow. But here's the good news - God specializes in using people who are 'nothing special'. And in being used by God we gain immense significance!
Moses spent 40 years as a shepherd before being called by God. David was just a young boy. Peter was a just a fisherman.
God uses some ordinary people for big, exciting, high profile things - and others for more common, everyday, run of the mill things - but that doesn't mean that just because it's not high profile that it's not important.
Paul in a discussion on why God does what He does, Paul shared this...
Romans 9:20-21 (NIV)
But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?'" (21) Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?
God wants to use you! And even in those things that we think are mundane - God has a plan, and we need to be prepared, even in the 'boring things' of life, the hard things of life, to be ready to share God's message. You never know when God wants to use one of those common things, one of us 'nothing special people' for something important.
A while back I met a man named Bill Holley. He was a preacher at a small Church in Iowa and we ended up performing a funeral together. As we were getting to know each other, we talked about some of the guys we both know with whom he graduated college. Some have gone on to do some pretty big things. But he said, "I'm just some small town guy God put with a small congregation in Iowa - I'm nothing special." And he may be right - but for the family for whom he was performing the funeral service - as he ministered to them - he meant the world.
In one sense, we all are 'nothing special'. I'm not indispensible to the work of Deep River. This congregation was around over a hundred years before I got here and Lord willing it'll be around for another hundred after I'm gone. And I'm praying that God is using me for this season and will continue to use me...
But it's been my experience that it's usually not the paid preacher who really makes a Church feel like the Church. It's 'ordinary people', filled with God's Spirit, who love God's Church who make all the difference. As I think back to the Church I 'grew up in' in Dyer, the first Church I served in Mt. Pulaski, Illinois, the Church in Lowell and now Deep River - it's those humble, servant minded individuals, who mow the lawn, who teach a Sunday school class, who work in the nursery, who greet people, who water the flowers, who invite their friends, who clean the building, who call and visit their hurting friends, who serve at the table, who pray for those on the prayer list and pray for their Church, those who care about the people in God's Church, those who reach out to others to bring them into God's Church - they are the ones who are responding to God's call on their life.
On our own we may be nothing special, but when we allow ourselves to be used by God for His purposes - we become...
B. Amazingly special
God has given each of us a role to play in His plans. He wants to use us, in our families, among our friends and co-workers, to lead others to Jesus. The God of the universe created you and knows you and wants to use you for eternally significant things.
The Book of Job is considered to be the oldest book in the Bible. Chronologically, the Book of Genesis happens first - but it appears that Job may have actually been written down even before Genesis was recorded. And I found something interesting in one of the passages. As Job was lamenting about his many devastating troubles and his relationship with God, he says this in Job 9:33-35 (NIV)...
If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay his hand upon us both, (34) someone to remove God's rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more. (35) Then I would speak up without fear of him, but as it now stands with me, I cannot.
All the way back then, Job had this idea of someone who could mediate between man and God; who could be that bridge so that man could approach God's perfect holiness. That idea didn't originate with Job.
God had always planned for Jesus to come down and live with His amazingly special creation, to die on a cross and to defeat death just for the very purpose that Job described. Jesus is The Way to the Father. That's the message we have to preach, that's the message we have to lovingly share with our kids, our grandkids, our friends and family!
Jesus Christ died for you! He defeated death for you - so that you'd have a way to the Father!
So What?
This is important - The Church doesn't need to modernize our views to please current culture and attract young people - the Church needs men and woman who have fallen in love with Jesus!
If God can use me to share the Good News of Jesus Christ - He can use you. God has a big plan for His Church! And the purpose of the Church isn't just to keep existing from generation to generation - but if we don't do that we won't fulfill our mission of sharing the message of Jesus. Share Jesus with your children and grandchildren and friends - and do it soon - none of us knows how long we have!
Stop telling God the reasons why He can't use you and let Him. Those God uses to preach His Word are nothing special in and of themselves - but it's the message of hope that they carry that makes them so powerful. Please don't make excuses why you can't talk to your kids, or friends or family. It's not about your skills, education or ability - but about your willingness to speak the truth in love to those you know.
When you do that - God can, and will change people's lives! I've challenged you before and I'm doing it again - talk to someone this week about Jesus. Let God use you this week - and I hope to see you here next Sunday!