Committed to the Mission

Pastor Burcham’s Sermon
Sunday, January 15, 2012

[Video] “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.’ And He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.’ Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

Bringing Jesus Christ to people for the first time is the mission statement of this church, and I believe it echoes the mission that Jesus Himself gave to the church. The mission really is twofold in nature, brining Jesus Christ to people for the first time or, as Jesus put it, make disciples of all people, but also for a lifetime, as Jesus said, “teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.”

It’s twofold because we know that God’s desire and will is that all people would come to the saving news of Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. But it doesn’t end there, for it’s a lifelong journey for us that once God’s spirit has captured our hearts and brought us to faith, we’re on a lifelong journey of growing and maturing in that faith, becoming ever stronger in our relationship with our Savior. It is that mission of bringing Christ to people for the first time and for a lifetime that needs to be the lifeblood of this congregation. It needs to be at the heart and soul of everything we do. In fact, everything must be secondary to living out that mission of brining Christ to people for the first time and for a lifetime. In other words, I believe we need to be committed, sold out to bringing the saving news of Jesus to people for the first time and a lifetime.

But be clear, we’re committed to the mission, not the method. Committed to the mission that God has put us on but not the method. You see, there are many methods but there is only one mission. There are many methods, but there is only one message. If you look at the ministry of Jesus, Jesus had one mission and that was to save the world. He had one message, that repentance and forgiveness of sins would be preached in His name, but He had many methods by which He delivered that message.

For instance, take a look at Matthew 4. Chapter 4:23, “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues.” One of the methods that Jesus employed is He went from town to town, village to village, and He would go into the religious centers of the synagogue and there He would preach the message. If He was in Jerusalem, He would hang out in the temple courts. There, He would preach the message. Sometimes, it would be straight preaching. Sometimes, it says, He only taught people in parables. He would use the method of stories to capture the hearts and get across the true message.

But it doesn’t stop there. Verse 24 says, “And preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people.” Jesus knew that He needed to meet the physical needs of people so it would open up the pathway to their spiritual needs. So He would heal the sickness and disease. The lame would walk, the blind would see, the hungry would be fed so He could stay true to His mission and He could deliver the message.

Jesus was even willing to break down the social norm of the day. So it says in Chapter 9, “When Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners gathered with Him,” a social faux pas there. Jesus didn’t associate with tax collectors. He certainly didn’t sit down for dinner with so-called sinners, but nothing would stop Jesus in His mission. Nothing would stop Him from delivering the message so that all people everywhere could be saved. He was committed to the mission, not the message. He would use whatever method was necessary and effective.

If you look at the early church, the same is true there. If you look at Paul and his ministry and the various methods that Paul would use to deliver the message, he also would travel around from town to town and some of the towns that he would go to, he’d start up a home church. Some of the towns he’d go to, he would go to the synagogue and that’s where he would preach. Some of the towns he would go to, he would find the most pagan religious place available and there, plant himself and preach the message. Sometimes, he’d write letters. Other times, he would equip young men to the ministry and he would dispatch them out, all staying true to the mission so he could deliver the message.

He summarized that in his letter to the Church at Corinth, “Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews, I became like a Jew to win the Jews. To the weak, I became weak to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means, I might save some. I do this all for the sake of the gospel.” That’s his philosophy right there. “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means, I might save some.” And why? For the sake of the mission, to deliver the message. It’s the mission, not the method.

We here at Gloria Dei, we’re true to the mission and we’ll employ whatever method is effective to delivering the message. Some of us get up at the crack of dawn and come to a 7:45 service. Others would rather come on Saturday night. Some worship via the organ, others it’s guitar. Sometimes, it’s drums. Sometimes, it’s brass. Sometimes, it’s everything in between. It’s the mission, not the method.

We gather together in small groups and large groups. We have Faith Alive and we have Grace Place. We have Care groups and we have a preschool. We’ll meet the needs of people to open up the door and the pathway so the message can get through, so we can stay true to our mission. And we need to be on a relentless pursuit of staying true and committed to the mission and, as a congregation, we have. We have sought out God’s will to discern His will.

How is it that His ministry here among us, that we can stay true to that mission? It was just several years ago that we thought it was calling upon us to pack up and relocate to another site, a larger campus. That’s how we would stay true to the mission. God closed doors all the ways on that. So here of late, we thought, “Well, maybe it’s multi-site ministry. It’s one congregation meeting in multiple locations.” But understand, all of that’s secondary because it is just a method and you need to know from me that I don’t care what the method is.

It doesn’t matter how we do it, wherever God leads us is good by me, as long as we stay true to the mission, as long as we’re delivering the message. If we’re bringing the good news of Jesus to people for the first time and for a lifetime, it’s bringing the news of Jesus.

According to the last census, 200,000 people in Polk County claim no church home. And according to my calculations, there are hundreds who claim Gloria Dei as their membership and yet we don’t see them, people who need to hear the gospel, people who have never heard the gospel, have rejected the gospel or have fallen away from God’s Word. Every man, woman and child is someone who Jesus died for, someone who Jesus laid down His life and spilt His blood so the debt of their sin could be forgiven, people who need to know when they feel lost, there is hope, when they feel shame and regret, there is forgiveness, when they’re hurting, there’s healing. And it’s the saving message of Jesus that is our mission to bring to them. And not only for the first time but for a lifetime.

It’s our mission to equip our children and our young people, to face the world which is becoming increasingly anti-Christian, to face a world that is distorting the truth itself, wanting to redefine life, wanting to redefine marriage, wanting to redefine truth itself, to equip our children and our young people to face that world with confidence, firmly standing on the Word of God and the truth that it contains, to equip parents and grandparents, young and old, and everyone in between, to feed them with God’s Word and sacrament so they can be strong in their faith and they can grow in their relationship with Christ. It’s bringing Jesus to people for the first time and a lifetime. It is using every method possible as long as it is effectively carrying out the mission, because that’s what we need to be committed to, committed to the mission but not the mundane.

Committed to the mission, not the mundane. In other words, we cannot be satisfied with the status quo. As long as there are people out there who have not heard the good news of Jesus, we can’t stop. As long as people continue to gather here, to be fed by His Word and the sacraments, we cannot stop. There must be a relentless pursuit of that mission of delivering the message. The worst possible thing we could do, the most God-displeasing and dishonoring thing we could do is to do nothing, is to be satisfied with where things are at, to make ourselves just a little bit more comfortable, to say that we’ve done enough, we’ve grown enough and leave the work to someone else.

We need to be committed to the mission, as long as there are those who have not heard the news, as long as there are those who still need to grow in the news. We need to be committed to the mission as a congregation and, as a congregation, we will continue to discern God’s will. How can we effectively share the news of Christ? Where is He leading us? What direction is He taking us? Does He have something completely different in mind? Is He just putting a little setback on us? Where is it? There must be a relentless pursuit down the path of discerning God’s will. The devil would like nothing more than for us to give up. I haven’t given up. I pray that you haven’t given up. The work is too important. We need to be committed to the mission as a congregation and as individuals.

Committed to the mission as individuals is when it gets personal, but that’s when it gets rewarding. I wonder how many of you who are sitting here this morning can look around, at either this service or one of the other services, and see somebody sitting there that you first invited to church. And now they’re sitting in the same sanctuary with you. And one day, they’ll be sitting in eternity with you. Now how cool is that?

I wonder how many of you, when you leave this service and you gather in the narthex or if you go down the hallway, as you pass by a young person, you remember them in Sunday School or Faith Alive or Grace Place and yet now as a teen, they’re still committed to hearing the message. And not to be insulting, but I wonder how many of you see the second and third generation of them because you have seen that young person’s parents in Sunday School or in Midweek and you had the privilege of sharing the message with them and now it’s been passed down to the next generation. Tell me how cool is that?!

Some of you have looked into the eyes of the poorest on the planet, those in Honduras, Dominion Republic and Mexico, and you share the love of Jesus with them. I’m not sure that it gets any better than that. Every one of you can open up the Weekly Word and you can read just some of the thank-yous of the lives that were touched by the generosity of the congregation throughout the Christmas season as gifts were given in Jesus’ name. Families were touched and the entire season was made different because of you. Now how cool is that?

That’s what I mean, living out the mission, by sharing the love of Jesus with people for the first time and a lifetime. It’s the small things we can do that make a difference. It’s the small things you can do every day, every week that can make a big difference of living out the mission. I’m certain that every single one of us knows one of those 200,000 who claims no church home. I’m confident that many of you know the hundreds who don’t gather here on a weekend that yet, we used to see them and now we see them irregularly or we don’t see them at all. What would it take to pick up the phone, to send an e-mail, to start a conversation, to give them an invitation? And how much would that mean to them?

It’s the little things we could do. Now I have to admit that you guys are better than the other services, so you should take credit for that but there is still some pretty prime real estate up front. You’re better than 9:00 so you can take that with you. I bring that up because study after study has shown that people who visit a congregation for the first time or the first couple of times, they will arrive on time or a little bit late because they don’t want to be noticed. They want to slip in the back, they want to check things out and they want to be the first to leave. So I wonder how much would it take to just sit up front? How much would it take to just be a little bit early, to give them that opportunity to pave the way for the message to go through. It’s the little things.

It’s praying for the harvest, praying for our neighbors and our friends and our family members. It’s the mission that Jesus has given us and that’s what’s important. It’s not the method. The method is only a means, is only a vehicle for us to fulfill what God is calling us to do. Understand me correctly, it makes no difference what that method is as long as we don’t give up, as long as we don’t settle for the mundane but we stay true to what Jesus is calling us to do. And the way that we put it here is we want to bring the saving news of Jesus Christ to people for the first time and for a lifetime. Amen.