Preparation

Pastor Burcham’s Sermon
Sunday, June 5, 2011

I have heard of “Save the Whale.” I’ve even seen a few signs around town that say “Save the Barns.” But until recently, I have never heard of “Save the Worms.” Now I don’t know if it’s going to catch on and I don’t even know if it’s really being promoted. All I really know is that it’s the work of one person who told me of her worm-saving adventure.

As you probably know and probably have seen, after it rains, earth worms will come out of the ground and they will inch their way onto the cement. And as you’ve also probably seen, if they don’t make it back to the ground and the sun comes out, well, you know what happens to the earth worms. Worms, it seems, breathe through their skin. But in order for them to breathe, they have to stay moist. That’s why, when it rains, they can come up out of the ground and inch their way onto the cement and get to another destination. But if the sun comes out before they reach that destination, they are doomed because once the light hits the worm, it’s paralyzed and then, it dehydrates and then suffocates, a fact that my worm-saving friend knows all too well.

And that’s why if it rains at night, she allows extra time in the morning so she can go out on her driveway and she can flick the little fellas back into the ground. Evidently, she has a love for them; she just doesn’t want to pick them up, thus the flicking technique has been developed. Now I don’t know how big a movement this is and some have questioned me after last night whether this is a true story. It is a true story. There is an actual person who is on the worm-saving adventure. Now it’s not a real big movement right now. In fact, it has just one person as a member of the movement which then begs the question, “How in the world can she even think of making an impact on the population of worms in the world?” There has to be thousands if not millions of earth worms that crawl out onto the cement and are doomed if they stay out in the sunshine. So how could she ever think of making a difference? That question has never crossed her mind. All she says is, “Well, you can’t leave them there to die.”

There are 200,000 people in Polk County alone who have no connection to any church of any denomination or any belief. That says nothing of the millions of people around the globe that have never heard the name of Jesus, people who could be paralyzed from the pain that we sometimes feel in this life, people who could die without knowing the lifesaving message of Jesus Christ.

Now one could ask the question, “How could we ever attempt of having an impact on the millions of people around the world?” Or can we even imagine or fathom the 200,000 friends and neighbors and coworkers are around us? How can we even dream of making a difference? But maybe that question should never cross our minds. Instead, maybe we should just say to ourselves, “We can’t just leave them there to die.”

I believe that had to be the attitude of the early church. Jesus had given His followers an enormous task. He says, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Acts 1, He says, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth.” One hundred and twenty men and women gathered together in Jerusalem and this is their task: To be witnesses to the ends of the earth because Jesus is ascending into heaven. He promises them the gift of His spirit and the gift of power. Now how could they ever dream of making an impact on their world? How can they even fathom making a difference? I would submit that they never asked that question. They just simply thought to themselves, “We just can’t watch them die.” Can we do anything less?

The charge that Jesus gave His first followers is the charge that He’s given to us. We are His witnesses of what He has done, and the promises He gave to the early church are the promises that He gives to us. We see in the early church that after Jesus gave that promise, they were waiting in Jerusalem for the fulfillment of them. They were preparing themselves for what was coming.

As I read through that first chapter of Acts, I think there are two very important things they did in preparation and I submit that we should do the same. The first one is this: They believed the promises of God. They reminded themselves and they believed in the promises of God. In fact, they had a certainty about them, a conviction that Jesus would deliver the goods, that He would send His spirit, that He would empower them. Otherwise, how do you explain the fact that once Jesus left, they didn’t disperse, just go off on their own ways? Their leader is gone. At the very least, why didn’t chaos among the ranks of believers sort of break out because now they’re leaderless but instead, no, they come back into Jerusalem and they start getting ready. They start preparing themselves for that because they had the sheer confidence in the promises of Jesus. They have walked with Him for three years and sat at His feet listening to His teachings. They had witnessed His miracles. They had seen Him die. More importantly, they saw Him come back to life and now they’d spent many days with Him learning, once again. They had the confidence in the promises of God.

You and I can have the same confidence. We have sat at the feet of Jesus as we have read the scriptures. We know His word to be true in our own lives. We know that the promises of God are always fulfilled. Name me one promise that God has made to you that He has not come through on. Maybe He’s made you wait longer than you wanted. Maybe you had to go through a rough time in life, but God always delivers the goods.

If you look closely enough, can you not see miracles in your own life? I can see them in my life, God, active God doing things. We have watched His death. You know the power of His resurrection. You know the freedom of forgiveness and His love. We have the certainty of eternity. We have the confidence that God will keep His promises, and He promised to give His believers power and His spirit.

In other words, He would equip them for the job at hand. He didn’t ascend into heaven and say, “Now go out and be my witnesses.” He says, “Wait in Jerusalem until you have been equipped with what you need to do the job that I’ve asked you to do.” Most times, when I start talking about witnessing or if I even use the word evangelism, I watch people physically stiffen up. I believe that’s because what goes through their mind is, “I can’t be on some street corner waving a flexible bible at somebody and preaching at them.” Or you imagine yourself in some uncomfortable conversation where you stumble over your words and you make a fool of yourself. And you say, “I can’t do that.” God doesn’t ask you to. God does not ask you to do anything that He has not equipped you to do and empowered you to do.

Let me go back to my worm-saving friend. In talking to her, she says, “I have a real love for animals. I wish that I could take care of more. I wish that I could nurture some of them back to health if they’re injured, but I can’t. I don’t have that skill. I don’t have those gifts. I don’t have that knowledge, so I do what I can.” She does what she’s equipped to do. And I submit to you that’s what God is asking you to do.

If you think witnessing means you have to be some great preacher, that you have to be a Billy Graham, if you think that witnessing means you have to have a whimsical way in which you present the gospel, that’s not what God is asking you to do. God does say that some people have the gift of evangelism because there are some people, you know them, I know them, who talking about their faith comes so naturally and so whimsical, it’s just so persuasive in the way they do it because God has given them that gift. Not all of us have that gift, but all of us are witnesses. All of us can tell what we know from our lives, the impact that God has had, the freedom that we know through the blood of Jesus.

And God gives us the promise that when doors are opened up and conversation moves spiritual, He says that His spirit will give you the words, that His spirit will empower you and give you the courage and give you the right way and His spirit will be active in capturing hearts. Believe in the promises of God, and He has promised you power and His spirit.

The second thing that the early church did is they committed themselves to prayer and to action. It says that when Jesus left, the disciples came back to that upper room and they were constantly in prayer. They were constantly seeking God out, asking for God’s wisdom, asking for God’s direction. “Where are you leading us?” They were asking for an awareness about them of what is it that God was going to ask them to do.

Can we do anything less than to seek God out in prayer? “God, how can we be the best possible witness for you? How can we have the maximum impact for your kingdom? How will you use us? How are you leading us? How are you guiding us?” Pray to God that He would give us an awareness, an awareness of the people around us.

A few months ago, when I found out that there were 200,000 people in Polk County alone that had no affiliation with a church, it grabbed a hold of me. You’ve probably heard me say it more than once. That’s because it’s weighing heavy on my heart. That’s almost a quarter million people! And they’re within driving distance. That’s a new awareness. How can we see our friends and our neighbors the same ever again? Pray to God for that awareness. Pray to God for those opportunities to reach out to them.

And then take action. The early church took action. They didn’t just sit around waiting. It says, no, they got busy preparing so they would be ready to spring to action when the spirit came to them. Peter stood up, showed leadership, got the people together. They elected Matthias to take the place of Judas. They were anticipating and expecting that God was going to move among them and they were going to be ready so they could make the maximum impact.

Again, can we do anything less, both as individuals and as a congregation, to prepare ourselves through prayer, to prepare ourselves and get ready to make the maximum impact? Candidly, that’s what the family meeting is about this weekend. How can we, as the family of believers, how can we, as Gloria Dei, be His witnesses to our community? How can we impact our culture? How can we be the most effective in reaching out to the 200,000 people? How will God use us? I’m praying that He will lead us and guide us and take us down the right road so we can accomplish the past that is given to us.

Because there are 200,000 of them, not to mention millions around the globe, people who at any moment who’d be paralyzed by the pain of this life, people who could die without knowing the lifesaving message of Jesus Christ.

And, my friends, we can’t just let them die. Amen.