Committed to Christ – Worship Attendance

Committed to Christ – Worship Attendance
Sycamore Creek Church
March 23/24, 2014
Tom Arthur
Matthew 13:3-9 

Peace friends!  Today we continue in our series asking the question: How committed are you?  How committed are you when it comes to your worship attendance?  We took an anonymous survey in February asking that question.  Here are the results:

Do you worship with the church?

1 – I attend worship about three to six times a year.
4 – I attend worship about once a month.
3 – I attend worship about twice a month.
13 – I attend worship about three times a month.
27 – I attend worship about four times a month.
24 – I almost never miss church, even when out of town.

We’re thankful for everyone who answered this survey honestly.  Today I’d like to explore this commitment through a story that Jesus told about a farmer.  Here’s the story:

Matthew 13:3-9 NLT
“Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds. As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn’t have deep roots, they died. Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted! Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”

In this story called a parable, we learn about different kinds of soil.  Of course the best soil is fertile soil, and fertile soil is soil that has been cultivated.  Those who have worked with soil know that cultivation takes time and energy and effort and regular attention.  I helped create a community garden in my neighborhood a couple of years ago and learned a lot about soil.  We made raised beds and created our own soil out of peat moss, vermiculite, and five different kinds of compost.  We had a lot of work to keep the weeds out and the nutrients and moisture in.  We were seeking to create soil that was “friable.”  That doesn’t mean you can fry it in the frying pan, but rather that it is easy to work with.  Our soil was almost like potting soil.  You could just dig your hands into it and transplant plants from one section of the garden to another.  It was good fertile soil and it took lots of time and energy to cultivate that soil.

The Point
The question this parable asks us today is: How fertile is the soil of your heart?  The point of today’s message is this: Worship is where the soil of your heart is made fertile.  In this story we encounter four different kinds of soil.  I’d like to look at each kind of soil as it relates to our worship attendance.

Footpath
The first kind of soil we encounter is a footpath.  This kind of soil is hard packed and nothing can grow on it.  The footpath is the state of our heart when we never attend worship.  The seeds of God’s grace have a very hard time finding any crack to get down into and grow.  The birds in the story equal every distraction in our culture that pulls your attention away from God.  Movies, media, celebrities, TV, radio, gossip, money, job, friends and every other thing pulls our hearts away from God.  The solution to the footpath is a rototiller.  Something massive has to happen to shake things up so that God can get the attention of this person.   These usually fall under one of three categories: trouble, transition, or tension.  I’m not suggesting that God makes the three things happen, but when they do happen our attention often turns toward God.  We notice our own limits and our humanity and we reach out to God.  The footpath of our heart takes a step toward being more fertile soil.

Shallow Soil
The second kind of soil we encounter in Jesus’ story is shallow soil.  Shallow soil is the state of our heart when we attend worship only a couple of times.  The hot sun equals the suffering in our lives that pulls us away from God.  There are no deep roots so when suffering comes—we lose our job or our marriage struggles or a child gets in trouble or we don’t have enough money to pay all our bills—the suffering pulls us away from God because our faith does not have deep roots.  I was speaking with someone recently who many years ago lost her husband to illness in the matter of a couple of weeks.  I asked her where God was at in the midst of this suffering.  She said she always felt God was present.  I asked her why this suffering didn’t pull her away from God.  She said it was because she continued to attend worship and was very active in her church.  I don’t know every person who regularly attends worship will never feel God’s absence in the face of suffering, but I think we are less likely to be pulled away from God by suffering when we are regularly attending worship.  The solution to shallow soil is more worship.  We need a dump truck of God on our hearts.  The soil of our hearts deepens and God’s grace finds soil that is able to plant deep roots.

Thorns
The third kind of soil we encounter in Jesus’ story is thorny soil.  Now we’re in a thorny situation!  Thorny soil is like the person who attends worship only occasionally when it’s convenient.  The thorns of this life choke out the tender shoots of God’s grace beginning to grow in our lives.  I know from experience that sometimes the plants that come up in the spring never get to the point where they bear any kind of fruit.  They never reach their full potential.  The solution to this kind of soil is that we need to pay more attention to the quality of the soil.  I’ve learned that a yard that has a lot of dandelions in it is probably calcium deficient.  Last year I put 300 pounds of calcium pellets on my yard to improve the quality for the grass and decrease the chance that dandelions would thrive.  I’m paying attention the quality of the soil of my yard.  Paying attention to the quality of the soil of your heart is what worship is all about.  We encounter God and respond with everything we’ve got.  We encounter God’s glory and respond with a heart full of praise.  We encounter God’s holiness and we respond with a heart that confesses.  We encounter God’s mercy and we respond with a heart that is thankful.  We encounter God’s love and we respond with a heart that is ready to join in God’s mission to this world.  Regular worship improves the quality of the soil of our heart so that the seeds of God’s grace can find a place to grow in our lives.

Fertile Soil
The last kind of soil we encounter in Jesus’ story is fertile soil.  Fertile soil in our hearts is created by regular and consistent worship attendance.  The results are that the seeds of God’s grace find a place to grow and produce a crop.  We are converted and our lives bear fruit.  We are sold out for God and become world changers!  We join fully in the adventure of God’s mission to save this world.  We seek to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.  This can only happen most fully when we regularly put ourselves in the presence of God and God changes us.  I grew up in the church attending worship in one church almost all of the time.  When I was in college I took the first two years to attend different churches every week.  It was a good experience, and I was exposed to a broad range of God’s work in the world, but it was a shallow experience.  It wasn’t until I settled in one church and made a commitment to worship regularly with that one church that God really began to work some deep change in my life.   Cultivation of our hearts happens in large part by putting ourselves in the place where God has said he will show up.  You can’t produce spiritual passion all on your own.  You can’t just white knuckle your way into self-transformation.  All you can do is what you can do, and what you can do is get yourself to worship.  Then you wait for God to do what God does: transformation.

Multiplication
The end result of a heart that is full of fertile soil is multiplication.  Jesus said that the final kind of soil produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted.  Seeds produce plants.  Plants produce fruit.  Fruit produces seeds.  Seeds.  Plants.  Fruit.  Seeds.  Plants.  Fruit.  Multiplication!

This Easter our church is seeking to plant more seeds in more hearts than we have ever planted before.  We’re seeking to touch more people than we have ever touched.   Last year we had 297 people who attended worship in our two venues on Easter weekend.  This year we’re seeking to touch 350 people.  We’re doing that by being 1 church celebration Easter on 2 days in 3 locations with 4 services.  1 – 2 – 3 – 4.  To reach that many people we’re multiplying the options for people to worship, and we’re casting thousands of seeds into our community by way of post cards, invite cards, and flyers.  Will you commit this Easter to mailing three post cards and handing out three invite cards to friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers?  Will you hang up two or three flyers in areas where you hang out in our community?  I’m looking for 25 people who are willing to take 100 post cards and deliver them to your neighbors.  Stick them in the newspaper section of the mailboxes in your neighborhood or slide them in between the door and the seal of each house.  Will all of the seeds find fertile soil?  No.  Will 350 seeds find fertile soil?  That’s what we’re praying for.  Regular worship attendance cultivates the soil of your heart so that the seeds of God’s grace produce plants that produce fruit that multiplies God’s grace.

You’ve heard me talk about worship.  I’d like you to hear from someone whose commitment to attend worship rarely wavers.  He’s often in the background of worship, literally, but God is powerfully at work in and through him.  Meet Thomas Oates.

I don’t know what level your commitment has been, but I know what level my commitment has been.  Today we are all invited to take one step in a new commitment.

_ Today, I am not ready to make a commitment.
_ I will attend worship three to six times a year.
_ I will attend worship once a month.
_ I will attend worship twice a month.
_ I will attend worship three times a month.
_ I will attend worship four times a month.
_ As my health permits, I will never miss worship.
_ Worship will be a priority in my life, growing to include the following:

I will be passionate about worship as a true priority of my life. Bad weather, sports, or holidays will not keep me from attending worship. I will prepare the day before, so that I can arrive at worship without last-minute rushing. I will warmly greet those who sit around me. I will surround my friends and family with worship. Through worship I will seek to find strength, power, and direction to face the week.