"Compelled or Complacent?"
2Cor.5:11-21 Sept.19/04 LWCF 3rd Anniversary
Thankful for Achievements
Today on our anniversary, we praise God for what has been achieved1 through our congregation over the past 3 years. When this adventure of LWCF began, we weren't too sure just what was going to be achieved; only that something new had to happen, and by God's grace, here we are today! True, we're not a mega-church like Willow Creek or Saddleback or even our own Centre Street EMC in Calgary; but achievements need to be evaluated in context. Like the little boy who was struggling with arithmetic at the chalkboard; he turned and said to his teacher, "I'm not an underachiever -- you're an overexpecter!"
We had no clue 3 years ago what to expect of all this; but sensed strongly God was leading in ways that reflected His righteousness and purity. By the Lord's grace, the pictures in the slideshow and history album, and our worship together here today, reflect a healthy, vibrant church. We celebrate the advances that have been made even in our most recent year. Thank God -- for a sizable and increasing membership. For a diverse, musically rich Praise Band. For a variety of helpers for Sunday morning set-up and refreshments. For a functioning church administrative organization, complete with elders, council, and various ministry departments. For a consistent Sunday School and dedicated teachers. For regular small groups, prayer groups, Bible studies, men's and women's ministries. For a very "at home" working arrangement with the school. For a proportionally high degree of ACTIVE members - people are pitching in, however they can. For a basic form of Web Ministry reaching out through the internet. For people driving from miles around - Clinton, Wingham, Stratford - something the initiators would never have dreamed of at the outset. There is so much to praise God for, to celebrate, and what better occasion to do that than an anniversary?
Warning to the Complacent
But there is a danger that we might make a subtle shift from praising God for these achievements, to congratulating ourselves, patting ourselves on the back, and growing complacent. In 2Cor.5:12 Paul points out the trouble of "trying to commend ourselves", or becoming like those "who take pride in what is seen". Some of the harshest words in the New Testament were spoken by our risen Lord Jesus to churches which had grown complacent. The exiled apostle John was instructed to write letters in the book of Revelation to a circuit of 7 churches in Asia Minor. Jesus rebukes two of those churches for slacking off. To the church at Ephesus He said, “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first." (Rev.2:4f)
Is that true of us? Have we forsaken our first love? Has that initial zeal or dedication or sense of willingness to sacrifice faded? Religion becomes but empty ritual when that "first love" affection and passion is allowed to wither.
To the church at Laodicea, Jesus said: “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot.I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm— neither hot nor cold— I am about to spit you out of my mouth...Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline.So be earnest, and repent.” (Rev.3:15f,19) Complacency makes a church lukewarm, like a cup of coffee that's been let sit for an hour. Ugh! You want to stick in the microwave and zap it! So the Lord I'm sure would like to "zap" some energy into some churches -- those with nominal members, or people who only come for the sake of appearance. Are our deeds hot? Or do they make God look around for a little bowl like they have beside a dentist's chair?
A complacent church is made up of complacent people - those who are satisfied with the level of apparent religiosity they have achieved. Just enough to put you in the "churchified" category but not enough to be any real asset to the Kingdom or threat to the Enemy. The complacent church or churchgoer says [as Wilbur Rees wrote], "I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine.I don't want enough of Him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant.I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack.
"I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.No, no, not the flesh and blood one...He will keep me from my appointment with the hair dresser and make me late for the cocktail party.He will soil my linen and break my strand of matched pearls.I can't put up with pundits from Persia or sweaty shepherds trampling over my nylon carpet with their muddy feet.My name isn't Mary, you know! I want no living, breathing Christ -- but one I can keep in its crib with a rubber band.That plastic one will do just fine."
Compelled to Tell
Are we complacent - or are we compelled? The complacent church sits on its laurels and is content to just keep doing the same thing over and over in a religious rut. The COMPELLED church is pushed ahead by God's motivation inside us through at least three factors Paul talks about in 2Cor.5. Let's start at v15 and work back. It says, “And He [Jesus] died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” Read that first part again: "He died for all THAT..." A small but important preposition of purpose there, translated "that, in order that, so that." Jesus died so that we believers should not live for ourselves but for Him who died for us.
Christianity is an historical religion, anchored in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. That's the event in time-space that's our reason for being here today. The Bible teaches that Jesus died for me, on my account, to set me free from bondage to sin and death. He took my place in punishment, as a substitute. It was because of my sin that He died. My guilt is what's responsible for His death. So, in a way, I killed Him. I was not there hammering the nails in or tearing His torso open with a whip, but I am the reason He subjected Himself to it.
It must be a terrible thing to kill a person and then have to live with that memory. It would change your whole life. I'd imagine you'd wake up every morning and the thought would be there, "I'm a murderer.Will they find me today?" Leo Tolstoy's book Crime and Punishment revolves around a man who is haunted by his act of manslaughter, and driven by that awareness to eventually turn himself in. The criminal investigator who suspects him but can't prove it nevertheless is confident that he will turn himself in because otherwise he can't live with himself. The killing colours your whole existence.
"He died for all THAT those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again." He died (on my account) SO I live for Him from now on, not for selfish goals. Paul's fundamental awareness was that "I have been crucified with Christ" - so life is to be lived now entirely for Him, "by faith in the Son of God." (Gal.2:20) We are compelled by Jesus' death.
Now look at v14: "Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died." He didn't just die for me; He did it because He LOVED me. He didn't just become my substitute with resignation or begrudgingly or because He was told to. Agape love was the pure, passionate motivation that led Jesus irresistibly to the cross. Now that love COMPELS us - grabs us, holds us, presses us ahead. The Greek verb has the idea of being held fast as a guard holds and directs a prisoner, or a herdsman uses a cattle squeeze.
In July Yvonne and I were able to go visit our daughter Emily and her husband Trenton and in-laws, who have a cow-calf operation in northern Alberta. Trenton's dad Harv had a cow that needed an antibiotic injection for a lame foot. So we separated this cow from the rest, chased her into a pen, then Harv shooed her up toward the metal cattle squeeze. I was on "fence post duty" (no, that doesn't mean I was sitting on one!). When she was all the way in with her head sticking through the gap between the bars, Trenton quickly closed it, Harv kept the pressure up on her tail, and my job was to quickly shove the wooden fence post in from the side behind her rump and ahead of two bars so she couldn't back up. When it all came together, she was completely confined and couldn't escape getting the needed medicine. In the same way, Paul says, Christ's love compels us - squeezes us, grips us, holds us fast, presses us on to live for Him and tell others.
One other thing compels us. Look at ch.5 v11. "Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men." SINCE is another prepositional clue: read it - because we know what it is to fear God, therefore we persuade others. Knowing the fear of God is the motivating factor. Look back at v10 just before and you'll see the context is the inevitability of death and that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” Knowing about that final judgment induces a proper fear of the Lord: a continual awareness that we are accountable to God.
Daniel Webster must have known a thing or two, having developed a dictionary among other things. Once Webster was asked, "What is the greatest thought that can occupy a man's mind?" Daniel Webster answered, "His accountability to God." That's the greatest thing we can be aware of, in that brilliant man's opinion: that we must answer to God for all we do.
So there are three compelling factors that stir Christians to keep active for the Lord: Jesus' death for you and me; His great love which motivated that dying; and fearing the Lord, based on the plain fact that we will some day be judged by Him. These three things compel us beyond complacency. Compel us to do what? V1, "We try to persuade men." V19, to share with others "the message of reconciliation". V20, to be Christ's ambassadors, allowing God to make His appeal through us, imploring others on Christ's behalf to be reconciled, reconnected, to God. We're in the "cattle squeeze" (so to speak) to communicate - making a happier sound than the plaintive beller of a beast about to get a needle. This is GOOD news God wants us to share - how people who've rebelled and erected a wall of sin shutting themselves off from their Maker can be brought back together with Him, made right, how a perfectly just and holy God and broken humans can "make up" because of Christ's giving of Himself.
Reconciliation is the main theme in vv18-20: Paul uses the word five times in the space of just three verses. If you've ever had a "falling out" with a family member, or witnessed the grief and tension when that happens between others, you may also know what a blessing and joy it is when the quarreling parties are reunited. It's like everybody can breathe easier again. There's welcome peace and relief. So the church's main mission is to announce to others as Christ's messengers the meaning and opportunity His death and rising represent for guilt-struck sinners. A new creation, a fresh start, comes to those who are "in Christ"; we become God's righteousness, completely acceptable to Him, friends with the Almighty. Wow! (5:17,21).
The Old has Gone, the New has Come
So where may the path lead for us as a church, if we're not to become complacent? What shapes and ministries will help us get the word out, make God's re-connecting more accessible to people? I'm not a prophet, but here are some possible hints of directions that may help us flourish as Christ's body in our communities.
There are some good church growth evaluation tools that should help us not "take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart", to use Paul's words. Over the next couple of months our leadership will be using the Natural Church Development program. We'll be asking 30 people who are very involved in our congregation to read a booklet and complete a survey. This survey will be compared with data from churches around the world to gauge where we score in eight "quality characteristics" - inspiring worship, holistic small groups, loving relationships, and so forth. This will help identify our strengths and weaknesses as a congregation, so with the Lord's help we can work on our most limiting areas. Also with the Elders and Personnel Team I'll be undergoing an evaluation as a pastor, to help me keep growing, too.
We need more compassion rather than Pharisaic legalism. Our congregation was born in response to declining standards of sexual morality and some churches' reluctance to uphold wholesome teaching in that area. So one of our values from the start to which we've aspired has been the phrase "Bible-believing". Yet we need to guard against an attitude that looks down on other sinners as if they're any worse than we were. "Christ's love compels us" - that calls for compassion rather than being overly judgmental.
We need to be community-based rather than insular. When we're trying to cultivate a Christian worldview for ourselves and our families, there's a danger of developing a "fortress mentality", retreating from the world, withdrawing, to the point of being cliquish and focused on "just us". According to another of our values, we want to be "fellowship-friendly" - but that doesn't mean just having the same faces show up at potlucks and fun nights all the time. You can't get the message out if you're not making contact with new people. So our small groups, our day jobs, and para-church ministries like the YFC Drop-In become outposts by which we get beyond the "holy huddle". Sometimes I wonder if we would be more visible to the community if we had some sort of building, whether for worship or for ministry space. I think we've realized and experienced that Jesus' church is not a building, but it's people. Yet to catch the attention of outsiders we may need some type of footprint for ministry activities in the community, that reminds folks God is reclaiming earth and people for Kingdom-space 24/7.
We need to be cross-generational not kid-unfriendly. Paul said in v16, "From now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view." Let's not overlook the importance of ministry to children: it's in those formative years that people tend to be most receptive to hearing about the Lord and putting trust in Him. LWCF's initial "bulge" of teens has moved on to post-secondary endeavours, and our Sunday School numbers are small. How can we attract more young families? Would we really want the work of a bus ministry or more midweek programs? Our heart has to be in it first. What needs shoring up in what we're already attempting in this area of work with youth? Our values say we want to be "growth-geared" - even if that means a few hours a month involved with teens, or a little more background noise from youngsters in the service.
Last, we need to be discipling not dissipated. We are Christ's ambassadors, not a service club; our vision statement is to be "Making disciples for Jesus, in our homes, our community, and our world". Yet we are also yearning to do meaningful community outreach. The Bible tells us to "persist" and "continue" in doing good, "don't cease" to do good (Gal.6:9; Rom.2:7; 1Pet.4:19). A skateboard park is one possibility in co-operation with other community groups. But how can we maintain a discipling component to this? Would it mean some volunteer time from us, or hiring a YFC or Young Life worker to be there alongside the bikers and skateboarders? Make the message embodied and available. Implore, persuade, appeal using every means. The goal is reconciliation with God, not just getting them off the street in an alternative to decrease vandalism. That entails gaining the trust of youth and earning an audience so they can be "transformed by the renewing of [their] mind" rather than "conformed to the world's pattern" (Rom.12:2).
Love's Leading
To recap: just looking back at what has been achieved so far with God's help in our short history as a congregation runs the risk of making us complacent. But looking up to our suffering, risen Saviour compels us to press on, taking the message of reconciliation with God to all who are wandering and confused without Him. Jesus' love, that drove Him to die for our sins, is the same love that in our hearts moves us to care for the lost.
Bill Hybels has written a paraphrase of 1Cor.13 that reminds us how essential love is to this whole Kingdom project. Although it's written from the perspective of a leader, I think each of you will be able to transpose it into terms that apply to you personally. Here it is. (from Courageous Leadership)
"If I cast vision with the tongues of men and angels, but lead without the love of God at my core, I am a ringing cell phone or worse, a clamoring vacuous corporate type. If I have the gift of leadership and can provide direction, build teams, and set goals, but fail to exhibit Christ-like kindness or give Christ the credit for my accomplishments, In the eyes of God, all my achievements count for precisely nothing. If I give my salary to the poor, my reserved parking space in the church lot to a summer intern, or my deacons' bodies to be burned, but neglect to relate and work in a manner worthy of the one whose name I bear, In the final analysis, it all counts for precisely nothing.
"A close, humble walk with Christ never fails. It strengthens the heart, redirects the will, restrains the ego, and purifies the motives. It never fails.
"When I was a young leader, independent and too busy to pray, I blew stuff up and wounded every third person I led. But now that I am mature and have left my childish ways...I do that somewhat less!
"And now these three remain: the faith to follow God boldly, the hope to press on even when my heart is breaking, and the love to enrich the hearts of all those I lead. But the greatest of these is love -- the love that only comes from a quiet, close, daily walk with Christ." Let's pray.