What is the Purpose of the Church?
Ephesians 4:11-16
May 22, 2011
Imagine if you will a rich investor who knew a good thing when he saw it. He was always on the cutting edge of new products and he knew that he just had to be on the leading edge with this new widget. So he went and bought some land on the outskirts of a community and built a brand new factory. He stocked it with all of the latest and best equipment for the production of this new widget, hired personal and ordered supplies.
A few months after the plant was completed he called the plant manager and asked how things were going. He was told that all the equipment was up and running just fine. The personal were getting settled in and learning how to operate all the new equipment.
One day this investor decides to drop in and takes a look at how his investment is paying off. As he drives up to the plant he sees the parking lot full of cars and can hear the hum of the equipment running. As he walks into the plant he sees people scurrying to a fro. He is very impressed by what he sees.
He calls for the plant manager to get an update on the operations of the plant and the conversation goes something like this;
“How many of the new widgets have we produced to date?” he asks. The plant manager replied, “none.’”
“None,” says the investor. “Just how long has this operation been running?” “Two years.” says the manager.
“Two years? And still no widgets?”
“That right,” says the manager, “no widgets, but we are really busy. In fact we are so busy that we are all really tired. We have all been so active at our jobs that we have not had time to produce any widgets.”
What would an investor in this situation do?
Have a coronary?
Become angry?
Fire somebody?
Try to get to the bottom of the situation?
Let’s take the same scenario and substitute two words, let’s use the word church in place of factory and disciples in place of widgets. How well does the picture look now? Does it sound familiar? What’s right or what’s wrong with what is happening? Maybe the better question is how do we change or correct the situation?
In order to know where you are going you first have to know where you are coming from and the starting point is known as your _______Mission statement______.
Does the church have a mission statement? Yes, and it was given by none other than Jesus Christ himself.
Matthew 28:18 - 20
18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
Here is the starting point. Fine you may be saying, I have heard it a hundred times before, but it still does not tell me a whole lot.
I really think it does if we review one simple but oh so challenging aspect in this statement.
“Teaching them to observe all things”
If the church in America today is stumbling in any one area today, I personally think that this is it. The church has turned into a busyness of activities. It is sort of the “Field of dreams” thought process; If we build bigger and better programs they will come. And come they do, but what is the result of the activity.
In recent dealings I have been involved in, I have been told that they were going to these programs without any real understanding of why they were there except for they were told they had to go. While there they would simply go along with the general activities and in the end have really understood nothing, but were told you are now good to go as you are a Christian.
If this is the result of church growth is there any reason to see why the Church that Jesus Christ started is not growing? We just completed a series on the parables that Jesus told in Matthew 13 and part of what He taught was how quickly the false church would grow.
BACK TO BASICS
I challenge you to open your eyes to what is happening around you today and see if it is not true. Who do you see more in the public eye when it comes to spreading their message; Jehovah Witness or true Christians’? What about Muslims or true Christians’? Is it any wonder the Church that Jesus Christ started is faltering in America.
What are they doing that is failing in Jesus’ church? ___Teaching__Commitment_____.
Commitment not on just the new ones coming into the church, but commitment from the Old growth.
There is an old adage that goes something like this; People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.
Paul in his letter to the Philippians puts it like this;
Philippians 4:9
9 Practice what you’ve learned and received from me, what you heard and saw me do. Then the God who gives this peace will be with you.
Jesus Christ put it this way.
Matthew 4:19
19 Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Why is this failure to commit becoming so rampant? I think it is because we have all spread ourselves too thin because of our other commitments, all the other programs that life has to offer. So in our busy world, something has to give and what we deem less important takes second place or even not at all.
So in order for the new Christian to grow, I want to spend a few minutes and focus on the Old growth Christian.
What are you willing to give up?
1 Corinthians 9:19 - 23
19 Although I’m free from all people, I have made myself a slave for all people to win more of them. 20 I became Jewish for Jewish people. I became subject to Moses’ Teachings for those who are subject to those laws. I did this to win them even though I’m not subject to Moses’ Teachings. 21 I became like a person who does not have Moses’ Teachings for those who don’t have those teachings. I did this to win them even though I have God’s teachings. I’m really subject to Christ’s teachings. 22 I became like a person weak in faith to win those who are weak in faith. I have become everything to everyone in order to save at least some of them. 23 I do all this for the sake of the Good News in order to share what it offers.
As I read these words and think about the words that Jesus said to the rich young ruler where despite doing everything to keep the law, it wasn’t’ enough. The reason it wasn’t enough is because (he / we) (did / do) not interact with those less fortunate than us.
It is so easy to become comfortable in our Christian walk that we can forget where we have come from and by doing so, thinking that all we have to do is to get people in the door and let Christ do the rest.
I challenge you to take a look around you at the people that you know and call Christians, just how much they are struggling because they do not know what to do next. It is my prayer that we can overcome these obstacles to increase the understanding of what Christ has offered to us and to be able to impart that into others’ lives.
So where do we Start?
Well like any good book, it’s best to start at the beginning, How did you come to Christ?
Three things it must include!
A. ____BEFORE______ I trusted Christ
B. ____HOW_________ I trusted Christ
C. ____SINCE________ I've trusted Christ
As you write out your testimony keep these four things part of it.
You simply want to tell what Christ has done for you. This is the time to use such pronouns such as “I”, “Me”, “My”, and “Mine”.
Here for those of you that want to talk keep it short and if you’re not a talker here is our time to improve your speaking time. You want to keep it to a three to four minute time frame. Your whole purpose is to simply give facts/
I can remember a time as I was growing up with a desire to teach. I did not know what I wanted to teach, but just the desire to teach. I can even remember saying that I would be willing to do it for nothing. I wanted to be able to impart something into somebody’s life that would be important.
As I was going to school, a speech class was required for everybody in school at the time and believe me when I say that I dreaded speech class. For most of my first year I did everything I could to delay giving my speech. If there was thirty kids in the class I tried to figure out how do be number thirty-one. It finally dawned on me that I was going to have to give these speech’s anyway, so let’s get them over and done with. Mind you, I was never willing to be the first out of the gate but put me near the front and I was good to go.
Several years had past, when I had finally come to accept Christ as my Lord and Savior, when the pastor at the time asked me if I would like to become part of the ministry team. I told him, “No, I had more important things in my life to do.” At the time we were building the current house we live in.
But this did not stop God from intervening. Over the next couple of years as the house became completed, I was given the opportunity to start teaching some of the Sunday school lessons which then led to some Wednesday night Bible Studies.
But six years ago today things changed dramatically, I along with Rich Pierce were ordained by this congregation to teach the word of God.
The apostle John wrote in 1 John 1:3
3 This is the life we have seen and heard. We are reporting about it to you also so that you, too, can have a relationship with us. Our relationship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
Dwight L. Moody wrote;
The Word of God was not given to increase our knowledge but to guide our steps.
It is my prayer that as we walk down the path of our Christian walk that we not just meet people, but invite them to come along, not to just another program but to a new and better life. Share with them, give them the opportunity, for without the sharing we all lose out.
It is time to stop saying, “I can’t” and let God do.