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Bring

September 26, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Stuff My Church Does – Bring *
Sycamore Creek & Potterville UMC
September 2016
Tom Arthur

Peace friends!

What’s your experience coming to church?  Are you like me?  I grew up doing church.  My mom brought me every week.  But when I got to be a teenager someone invited me to youth group.  It was maybe the first time I had gone to church without my mom.  This whole faith thing started to get real.  I came the first time because someone invited me.  I came back the second time because there were cute girls at youth group!  (Admit it: how many of you guys stayed in church because of a cute girl?)  Well, I’m exaggerating a little bit, but not by much.  I not only found cute girls at church, but I also stayed because I found something deeper in the people around me.  These other teenagers who were all in for Jesus seemed to have found something I was looking for.  Found people find people.

Today we’re continuing in the series Stuff My Church Does.  We’ve been looking at the why behind the stuff we do.  We began with discipleship, looked at music the second week and prayer the third week.  Today we’re looking at why we bring people to church.

Here’s the whole point of today.  If you get nothing else out of this message take this away:

The Point: People bring people to Jesus.

The person we are today has more to do with the “who’s” than the “what’s” of our life.  This is true about the church too.  We connect and stay because of someone.  We are involved because of someone.  The church can have all kinds of great ministries, events, etc. but none of them bring people to Jesus.  People bring people to Jesus.  The Church is the only organization whose purpose is for those who aren’t here yet.

How did you end up coming to Sycamore Creek (or any church or organization you’re a part of)?

The current American church is having an identity crisis.  Lifeway Research, an arm of the Baptist church, found that only 2% of people who regularly attend church will invite someone outside the church in a year (98% don’t invite someone to church)!  So that’s the Baptists.  How bout we Methodists?  I recently read that a United Methodist invites someone once every 38 years (Get Their Name)!  Consider those statistics in light of other research that shows that 7 of 10 unchurched people have never once been invited to get involved in church in their entire life and 51% of people would be likely to come if someone invited them.  Maybe we should say, “’Bring’ is the stuff the church doesn’t do!”  We’ve hidden our light under a bowl.

Today I’d like to re-inspire us to bring people to church by looking at one of Jesus’ early friends, Andrew.  Andrew is always bringing someone to Jesus.  He brings Simon.  He brings a boy with fish.  He brings curious Greeks during Passover.  How and why was Andrew always bringing someone to Jesus?  I think there are two reasons Andrew was such a bringer.

  1. Andrew Maintained a Sense of Awe and Wonder

Andrew is the disciple always elbowing the other disciples whispering, “It’s Jesus!  Check this out!”  Let’s look at one story where this happens.  John is one of Jesus’ three closest friends and he tells the story of Jesus miraculously feeding thousands of people.

After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias.[a] A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples.
~John 6:1-3 NRSV

Notice that Jesus is focusing here not so much on the crowd as he is on his inner circle of disciples.  And yet the needs of the crowd are going to have an impact on and become a teaching point for the disciples.

Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages[b] would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.”
~John 6:4-7 NRSV

John tells us that a crowd of pilgrims are there for the Passover.  This means that they’ve traveled far away from home for the Passover.  The Passover is the time when the Jews celebrated their deliverance from slavery in Egypt.  And now that they’ve traveled this far they’re all hungry.  Most of the disciples are very pragmatic about the situation.  But Andrew has a slightly different response.  He brings someone to Jesus.

One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?”  Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they[c] sat down, about five thousand in all.
~John 6:8-10 NRSV

When John reports that there are “five thousand in all” he doesn’t really mean that the way we would today.  What he means is that there were five thousand men.  That means there were more than twice that amount when you include women and children.  And Andrew is suggesting that a boy with five loaves and two fish might somehow be part of the solution even if it all seems impossible!  I’m guessing the disciples were thinking Andrew must be some kind of idiot!  But what kind of idiot?  The kind of idiot who has a big vision of Jesus.  It’s Andrew’s awe and wonder and passion that keeps driving him.

Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.  So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets.
~John 6:11-13 NRSV

Jesus recognizes the opportunity to teach the disciples about who he is through this boy that Andrew has brought him.  He does the miraculous and feeds them all with a lot left over!  It all begins with Andrew bringing the boy to Jesus.  And Andrew brings the boy to Jesus because he’s passionate about Jesus.

We talk about what we’re passionate about.  Our heart and mouth are closely related.  Jesus teaches that “it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45).  Whatever has a hold of your heart comes out of your mouth.  If you’re passionate about Green and White then you talk about the Spartans.  If you’re passionate about Blue and Gold then you talk about the Wolverines.  But if you want to mix the two together then you talk about Blue and White!  Go Blue Devils!

One of the things I’ve been really passionate about over the last couple of years is balance bikes.  A balance bike is a bike that kids learn to balance on.  It doesn’t have pedals.  So they learn at their own pace slowly learning to glide more and more.  Both of my boys have used one to learn without having the painful experience of all that falling down stuff.  I started a community balance bike group, and I’m always telling people with little kids about balance bikes.  I’m passionate about it so I talk about it.  Could it be that our reluctance about bringing people to Jesus is because something else has laid hold of our hearts and our passion and has captivated us?

For many of us there is a lot of time and distance between when we first met Jesus and today.  Familiarity breeds contempt (the more familiar you are the less passionate you are about it).  Somewhere along the way we’ve forgotten how good the news is.  We lost our first love.  We lost our awe and wonder about Jesus.  What was Andrew’s secret for maintaining awe and wonder?  I think it may have been in the way that Jesus initially called Andrew to follow him.

As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him.
~Mark 1:16-18 NRSV

Have you ever wondered why the disciples were so quick to follow Jesus?  Was Jesus some kind of a Jedi?  “At first it seems a little fishy.”  (Ugh…I know.)  Why were they so easily persuaded?  Well, first of all, this was likely not their first encounter with Jesus (read John 1).  But more so, in first century Israel culture everyone wanted to be a Rabbi, not a rock star, sports star or reality TV celebrity.  Every six-year-old boy started off on the path to become a rabbi.  There were three stages of training (for more on this check out this article by Ray Vander Laan).  At some point if you didn’t have the right stuff, you’d be sent home to learn your family trade.  If you had what it takes, you might ask to follow a rabbi.  But some extraordinary rabbis would choose their own students.  “Come follow me.”

Andrew is fishing, which means he’s taking up the family trade.  He wasn’t good enough during the three stages of training to be a rabbi.  He didn’t have what it takes.  So he’s gone back to the family business of fishing.  And along comes this rabbi, an extraordinary one at that, and he picks Andrew!  Andrew lived in close proximity to the grace offered by Jesus.  Jesus picked Andrew when others wouldn’t.  Jesus picks us when no one else would.

Most of us are stuck in an old Janet Jackson song: What have you done for me lately?  But maybe we should be grateful for what Jesus has already done for us.  If God didn’t ever do another good thing for you, what he has already done for us in Christ is infinitely more than we deserve.  If we’re going to maintain a sense of awe and wonder we’ll have to be in the habit of continually reminding ourselves what Jesus has done for us.

How did Jesus rescue you?  Many of us don’t have a big rescue story.  Andrew didn’t really either.  He was rescued from the family business of fishing.  But Jesus brought reality to the deepest longing and desires of Andrew’s heart, not because he had a really messed up life.  Perhaps Andrew felt disappointed about doing what his family had done for centuries, and Jesus introduces Andrew to a purpose and cause bigger than himself.

Here’s a good question to cultivate some awe and wonder: What mess would I be living in if Jesus hadn’t rescued me?  Or who would I be if Jesus hadn’t called me?  What kind of spouse?  Father?  Mother?  Friend?  Worker?  Son?  Daughter?  Jesus not only rescues us, but he brings reality to the deepest longing in our hearts.  This is good news!  We can’t help but share it with others.  We need to be in the habit of reminding ourselves just how GOOD this GOOD news is.  This is the secret to how Andrew maintained a sense of awe and wonder.

  1. Andrew Chose Compassion over Convenience

Andrew’s awe and wonder also showed itself in his profound awareness of other people’s needs.  After initially encountering Jesus, Andrew wants to go immediately to find Simon.  He wants to share this compassion with others around him.  In the story we read above the disciples want convenience, but Andrew wanted to try something new.  Our compassion creates encounters for others with Jesus.

A couple of months ago we did a very popular series called The Art of Neighboring.  We handed out fridge magnets and challenged you to get to know the names of your eight closest neighbors.  We asked, “What if Jesus meant for us to love our actual neighbors.”  How’s that going?  Knowing your neighbors’ names is one simple step of showing compassion.  We hosted a neighborhood BBQ at our house and had about twenty neighbors over.  We got to know their names and even more about them. We had a lot going on this summer: launching a Church in a Pub, exploring adopting Potterville UMC, vacations, and more.  But we made time to show our neighbors a little compassion even though it wasn’t necessarily very convenient.  What is your home?  Is it a fortress away from the world or is it a hospital for the world?  Is it where you keep all your appliances of convenience or is it where you show your neighbors compassion?

Choosing compassion over convenience means showing compassion to the person you work with who drives you nuts, the family member everyone has given up on, or the strangers you work out next to at the gym.

Andrew didn’t wait for someone else to do something, He went and brought people to Jesus.

Imagine if he hadn’t brought Simon or the boy with five loaves and two fish to Jesus?  What if the person who brought you to Jesus hadn’t done so?

As we live into owning a building it will be tempting for us to forget that the Church is not a building.  It’s a community of people.  When people ask, “Why won’t the church do this or that?” I think, “Good question: you are the church.  Why don’t you do that?!”  We’ve got a cool-slowly-being-remodeled building and a cool sign out front, but buildings and signs don’t bring people to Jesus.  People showing compassion bring people to Jesus.

This fall God is beginning something new at Sycamore Creek.  We’re doing a church-wide campaign called Simplify.  We’re trying to show some compassion to the overworked, overscheduled, and exhausted people in our culture.  Here’s a basic question: How will they get here?  How will they know about this good news?  The answer is: You’re the invitation.  Will you commit to Invest & Invite three people to Sycamore Creek this fall?  It’s stuff my church does: bring people to meet Jesus.

Next Steps

  1. Journal about what God is doing for you
  2. Daily pray for five minutes about this fall (Church in a Pub, Potterville, Simplify)
  3. Sign up for a small group through GroupLINK
  4. Invest & Invite three people

* This sermon is based on a sermon first preached by Nick Cuningham

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The Cue to Who*

March 25, 2015 by Leave a Comment

come&see

Come and See: The Cue to Who*
Sycamore Creek Church
March 22/23, 2015
Tom Arthur

Peace friends!

Today we continue in this series Come and See.  We’ve learned so far that Jesus is someone who has to be experienced, not something to be explained.  And when our lives show Jesus, people are more open to what we tell them.  Most of us began following Jesus and joining a faith community because we were invited by someone.  All of Jesus’ followers came through a simple invitation: come and see.  The goal was not to explain something, but to experience someone. Jesus needs to be experienced, not explained.

There are two metaphors for how Jesus wants us to interact in the world: Salt and Light.  Salt protects and light directs.  Our actions are to protect and direct.  People will then see your good works and glorify God.  People are more compelled by what we do, not what we believe.  A living example is better than a lengthy explanation.  Our witness to other people hinges on what they witness us doing.

So today we’re going to dive into who you should invite to come and see.  Sometimes it’s hard for us to invite.  We feel awkward.  Our culture says that faith is private, not to be put on public display.  As a pastor, I tend to have the opposite problem at times.  People find out I’m a pastor and they feel guilty. They expect me to invite them.  They think I’m all about the money.  Or they dive into a free counseling session (and I’m not even a very good counselor!).  So while I have a unique set of obstacles that is a little different than your set of obstacles, we all struggle in some way with inviting.  So today we’re going to look at the Who, When, and Why of inviting as Jesus models it for us with a Samaritan woman.

 

One day after baptizing some people in Judea (southern Israel), Jesus decides it’s time to go to Galilee (northern Israel).  In between Judea and Galilee is Samaria.  Usually Jews walked way out of the distance to not go through Samaria.  For a modern example, think about a modern Israeli walking around Palestine so that they don’t have to go through Palestine.  They come to Jacob’s Well and Jesus’ disciples head into town to buy some food while Jesus takes a break from the long trek. Here’s where we pick up the story:

Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water…
~John 4:6-7 NLT

Notice that it’s noontime.  That’s an unusual time to be drawing water from the well.  Usually you draw water when it’s cool in the morning or evening.  But at noon it would be hot.  Why would this woman be drawing water at the hottest time of the day?  Maybe she’s trying to get away from everyone?  Maybe she’s ashamed to be there when others are there.  Maybe she’s just introverted and doesn’t want to talk to many people.  I know the feeling.  I’m introverted and would rather just go about my business and not talk to any strangers.  So this interaction with someone is not a planned moment.  Jesus is tired.  This woman is likely trying to avoid people and gossip.  Yet Jesus notices something and enters into the conversation.  Where will it go?

Lately I know something of what this feels like.  I’ve been trying to pull myself out of my introversion a bit by carrying two pennies in my right pocket.  These two pennies represent two conversations I try to have each day with someone I don’t know.  They remind me to enter into unplanned conversations.  I’m always a bit ambivalent about entering into these conversations.  Where will they lead?  Sometimes they’re short and polite.  But one time I ended up in an unplanned marital counseling session.  Not what I had planned for the day!

Back to Jesus and the woman, there is no reason to have any interaction.  Jesus didn’t have to do anything.  Jewish men are not expected to interact with a Samaritan woman.  So he could have just remained quiet, but he didn’t:

Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.”
~John 4:7 NLT

That’s it.  That’s how he got into the conversation.  Then what happened?

The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans. She said to Jesus, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?”
~John 4:9 NLT

The woman is surprised because Jewish men weren’t supposed to interact with Samaritan women.  It made them ceremonially unclean.  She was shocked.  What’s this all about, she asks.  They have a conversation about water and how Jesus is Living Water.  Then Jesus says:

“Go and get your husband,” Jesus told her.
~John 4:16 NLT

Now if you know the rest of the story, you’re thinking to yourself, “Don’t bring up the part about the husband.”  This conversation is quickly going into stormy waters.  This is the moment when you kick your kids under the table which means, “Shut up.  Don’t talk any more about THAT!”  I somehow stumble into these kinds of conversations all the time.  Over Christmas we went up north to Boyne City.  We gave Micah a special gift: a ride in a Snow Cat Groomer at Boyne Mountain.  He loved it!  We rode up and down the mountain in this amazing machine grooming the ski hills with our driver named Steve.  Micah was kind of entranced by the whole thing and was pretty quiet.  So I struck up a conversation with Steve.  I asked him if he had any kids.  He had two.  He went on to tell me about the younger one.  Then I asked, “What about the older one?”  This is when I needed my wife to kick me under the table and say, “Don’t ask about the older ONE!”  Turns out his older son moved with his mom to North Carolina when she left Steve to marry another man.  Doh!  How did I end up in this place, this place where Jesus is about to end up bringing up the Samaritan woman’s husband.  She says:

“I don’t have a husband,” the woman replied.
Jesus said, “You’re right! You don’t have a husband—for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now. You certainly spoke the truth!”
~John 4:17-18

Ok, Jesus.  Don’t you know that you just don’t go there?  Come on!  I wouldn’t suggest taking this exact approach unless you’re the Son of God.  But there is a principle that we can learn from here: Jesus saw a cue and he engaged her.  It was the perfect opportunity to not say anything.  But Jesus decided to engage in the topic that was off the table.  Jesus seemed to have cues about who he was going to engage, and there are cues for who we engage in our world and invite to experience Jesus at church.  So who do we invite?  We know the “WHOs” by paying attention to the “CUEs.”  I want to talk about three cues to invite.

#1 – Not Going Well
When you see that something is not going well in someone’s life, that might be a cue to invest and invite.  Someone’s marriage is falling apart.  Their spouse had an affair.  They had an affair.  Their family is in conflict.  A teenager is in trouble.  A family member is estranged.  Things aren’t going well in their career or job.  Their boss is a jerk and they’re about to quit.  These are all cues that something isn’t going well and it might be the time to invite them to church.

An objection may be raised: What does church have to do with my boss being a jerk?  My boss needs church, not me.  Here’s the answer: “I don’t know, but I’ve been in a spot before when things weren’t going well, and I’m just telling you, my faith in Jesus has helped me. And I don’t know exactly what it has to do with your situation, but you should come and see. I can’t explain it to you.  I don’t have all the answers.”

This is not about you being the savior of the world.  You just know the savior of the world.  Your invitation in a season of things not going well, might be the thing that God uses to bring them into a relationship with Jesus.  What if the situation doesn’t turn around? There may be a moment later when the realization hits that this was the thing that brought them to God.  The first cue to who is that things are not going well.

#2 – Not prepared for
The second cue to who to invest and invite is that you see that something is happening they’re not prepared for.  They got engaged, but don’t know how to be a spouse.  They’re not prepared for kids, but they’ve got one.  I know this well myself.  Sarah and I were married for thirteen years before we had kids.  Being married for thirteen years doesn’t give you much practice for being prepared to have a child.  I experienced a male form of postpartum depression after my first son was born.  So not only was I not prepared but it was not going well either!  Or maybe a parent is not prepared for their kid going to school.  Or a kid is not quite prepared for going off to college.  Or parents aren’t prepared for an empty nest.  Or you’re not prepared for caring for your aging parents.

An objection may be raised: What does the church have to do with my situation?  Here’s the answer: “I don’t know.  I don’t have all the answers.  But when I wasn’t prepared for something in the past, I found my faith in Jesus helped me.”

So if you’re a guest here today you may be thinking: which one am I?  What project am I for the person who invited me?  Well, you’re not necessarily a project.  Because there’s the third cue.

#3 – Not in church
If you’re not connected to a church then know that we created this faith community with you in mind.  We wanted Sycamore Creek to be a church, a faith community for people who were not church people.  We even adapt.  Sunday morning doesn’t work?  No problem.  Get your Sunday on Monday.  We work really hard to create a “come and see” culture here at SCC.

Maybe you’re thinking, “I can’t imagine wasting my time every Sunday morning.  It’s one of my two days off.”  Coming to a worship service competes with every other enjoyable use of time on the weekend: golf, swimming at the pool, shopping, doing projects around the house, sports.  Some of us were in the same place.  We couldn’t imagine giving up time every week.  But we came because someone invited us to come and see, and we experienced someone.  Now we can’t imagine not being here.

You invite someone because you value someone and you want to share what you value.  Watch for the cues: something is not going well, something happens they’re not prepared for, or someone is not in church.  These are cues to who to invest and invite.  But what about when?

When?
So when is the right time to invite someone?  There are some big invite days like Easter or any of the big days we do around SCC but, the best time to invite someone to church is next Sunday or Monday.  I know that we all want it to be a perfect day: beginning a new great series, the perfect topic (not money!), not a guest speaker, and with all your favorite music.  But don’t forget that God uses the small things: a smile, a kind word (to your child), a lyric in a song, the casual dress, they felt at home, they just enjoyed sitting and listening while their kids were taken care of in Kids Creek.  So when is the best time to invite?  This week.

So what might happen?  Let’s go back to Jesus and see what happens with the Samaritan woman:

Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked to find him talking to a woman, but none of them had the nerve to ask, “What do you want with her?” or “Why are you talking to her?”
~John 4:27

Jesus is working off a different cue sheet than his disciples.  They still have so much to learn.  Because here’s what happens:

The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone…
~John 4:28

So how do you think she told that story?

“I was at the water hole and I met a guy…”

“Yeah, we’ve heard that one before!”

“Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could he possibly be the Messiah?”
~John 4:29

Come and see.  Come and see this person.  I can’t explain it all.  You’ve just got to experience him yourself.  And so…

Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had said, “He told me everything I ever did!
~John 4:39

She just shared her experience.  No big long explanation.  People can debate your explanation.  But nobody can debate your experience.

When they came out to see him, they begged him to stay in their village. So he stayed for two days, long enough for many more to hear his message and believe. Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.”
~John 4:40-42

An experience of Jesus changes everything, not an explanation.  What changed them was not her experience, but their experience.  They experienced Jesus for themselves.  And the experience changed what they believed.  That’s the order of things most often.  So next week: why the local church is the best place to experience Jesus.

As we’ve been talking, someone came to mind for you.  Who is that?  Someone you know that things are not going well.  Someone you know that things are happening they’re not prepared for.  Someone you know who is not connected to a church.  Take some time, write down those names.  Pray for them.  Pray that God would open doors for you.  Invest time in them.  Then watch for God to open the door to invite them to church.

God, thank you for the example of your Son Jesus who showed us how to pay attention to the cues in the people’s lives around us.  Give us the courage of his Spirit to invest and invite when we see those cues.  In his name we ask these things.  Amen.

 

*This sermon is based on a sermon first preached by Joel Thomas.

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Experience Required *

March 4, 2015 by Leave a Comment

come&see

Come and See – Experience Required *
Sycamore Creek Church
March 1/2, 2015
Tom Arthur

Peace friends!

Have you ever experienced something new and had to tell people about it?  There are a lot of new things going on here at Sycamore Creek Church, and I know a lot of you are telling all kinds of people about it.  It’s an exciting time at Sycamore Creek Church.  And how did all this get started?  Let’s go back even behind that question and ask the question: How did The Church get started?  Why do people all over the world gather together every week to worship God?  From the earliest days of the church until today, people become followers of Jesus in the exact same way: through an invitation.

Most of us got here because someone invited us.  Is anyone harboring bitterness toward the person who invited you?  OK, don’t answer that.  But while a few of you have been attracted to our church as new things are happening and you got a flyer or saw the new sign outside, or wondered what was going on in this building, or heard about the amazingly awesome pastor and his amazingly awesome preaching, most of you first came simply because someone invited you.  That’s not to say that buildings and marketing and staff are unimportant.  But they are secondary.  Relationships are key.

The secret to the church growing is simple: someone who is following Jesus invests time in someone else and invites them.  The goal of the church has never been to become big, although that may happen when the goal of the church is accomplished.  The goal of the church is to share our experience with Jesus with someone else.  In fact, maybe “experience” isn’t even quite strong enough.  We share our encounter with Jesus, and we invite others to have that same experience and encounter.  Jesus’ followers became followers because of an invitation.

Today we’re going to go all the way back to the beginning of the story of the church and the first invitation.  The story of invitation begins before Jesus with John, Jesus’ cousin, who is often called “John the Baptist.”  John was a weirdo.  He was preaching out in the desert dressed in uncomfortable clothes and eating unappetizing food.  But he had a message that the people of his day wanted to hear: The messiah is coming.  John seemed to be the first real prophet to come along in a long time.  And he’s attracting quite a following.  Then Jesus shows up:

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
~John 1:29 NLT

John recognizes and announces that Jesus is who he has been preaching about, and something happens in that moment:

The following day John was again standing with two of his disciples. As Jesus walked by, John looked at him and declared, “Look! There is the Lamb of God!” When John’s two disciples heard this, they followed Jesus.
~John 1:35-37 NLT

John starts out with two disciples and Jesus has zero.  But then when John announces again who Jesus is, those two disciples begin to follow Jesus.  John 2 : Jesus 0.  John 0 : Jesus 2.  These are Jesus’ first two followers.

Jesus looked around and saw them following. “What do you want?” he asked them.
They replied, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
“Come and see,” he said.
~John 1:38-39a NLT

“Come and See.”  The first followers of Jesus were responding to an invitation to “come and see.”  So they did.

It was about four o’clock in the afternoon when they went with him to the place where he was staying, and they remained with him the rest of the day.
~John 1:39b NLT

So they spend the day with Jesus.  Do you think if they had a bad experience we would have heard about it?  Their experience that day with Jesus was good, really good.  And they passed that experience on.  It was written down and now we’re reading about it 2000 years later because it didn’t just stop with those first two disciples.

Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of these men who heard what John said and then followed Jesus. Andrew went to find his brother, Simon, and told him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means “Christ”).  Then Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus.
~John 1:40-42a NLT

Andrew, one of Jesus’ first two followers, goes first thing to his brother, Simon, and tells him about their experience.  First thing.  He calls him on his cell phone (OK, maybe not) and says, “You’re never going to believe who I saw.”  Have you ever done that?  Call someone immediately after you had an experience and tell them, “You’re never going to believe this.  I don’t have time to talk about it.  You’ve just got to come and see.”  Then Simon comes to experience and encounter Jesus himself.

First Jesus invites two of John’s followers to “come and see” and then one of those followers invites his brother to “come and see.”  But it doesn’t stop there.  Jesus keeps inviting.

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Come, follow me.” Philip was from Bethsaida, Andrew and Peter’s hometown.
~John 1:43-44 NLT

Here’s another invitation.  This one from Jesus to Philip.  There’s an interesting point here about who Philip was.  He was from the same town that two of Jesus’ other three followers were from.  This probably means that Philip saw people he knew and trusted.  He had an affinity with those who were already following Jesus.  Invitation always flows easiest when it is along lines of affinity.  People who are like you are more likely to trust your invitation.  That’s not to say that you shouldn’t invite people who are different than you, but that Jesus begins with the low hanging fruit.  It gets tougher from there.

Jesus is currently in Bethany and decides to go to Galilee.  Galilee is about 60-70 miles from where they’re at.  This means  that they would be walking about the same distance it would be for us to walk from Lansing to Grand Rapids or Ann Arbor.  It would take them about 20-25 hours to cover this distance.  They were about to spend some really significant time together.  Philip is on board because he trusts Andrew and Simon who are from his own home town. But Philip reaches out to someone who is at first a bit skeptical.

Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him, “We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”
“Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”
~John 1:45-46a NLT

Nathanael isn’t quite as open as the other four have been thus far.  He’s skeptical about Nazareth and anyone born there.  It would be like me coming up to you and saying, “Hey do you want to walk to Ann Arbor with this guy I just met from Dansville.”  It would be a little different if I said he was from LA, Hollywood, New York, or Miami.  Maybe he’d have some interesting stories to tell.  But Dansville?  I drove through there once when I was lost.  But Philip is thinking, “I had this great experience with Jesus this one day, but I can’t really explain it.  I don’t have time or words.”  So…

“Come and see for yourself,” Philip replied.
~John 1:46b NLT

Phillip basically says, “Don’t take my word for it, just come and see, check it out for yourself.”  So let’s see where we’re at.  The first followers of Jesus began when Andrew invited Peter.  Philip invited Nathanael.  And Jesus invited them all.

There’s a really simple strategy ingrained in the culture of the church from the very beginning: come and see.  This strategy results in at first a few individuals, then a few dozen, then a few hundred, to several thousands, millions, and even billions.  The early followers of Jesus didn’t try to explain.  They just said, “Come and see.”  They invited saying, “I think I’ve found what I’m looking for.  I’ve found grace, mercy, acceptance, hope, new life, and a fresh start.”

There’s a big churchy word for what’s going on here.  It’s called “evangelism.”  Ouch.  It’s the word we love to hate.  But evangelism simply means “spreading the good news.”  Over time we’ve complicated things.  Most of us have a negative connotation with this word because we’ve had a bad experience with an evangelist.  When we think of evangelism we think of somebody like Billy Sunday, a White Sox player turned preacher:

 

 

Or we think of a bad experience being an evangelist like this awkward invite:

 

 

But evangelism isn’t any of those things.  It’s just sharing the experience you’ve had with those around you.  “I can’t explain it, you’ve just got to experience it.”  Think about it this way.  There’s all kinds of things around us that you already do this with.  Have you been to the Hawk Island Tubing Park?  Our Dad Kid Night Out group has gone twice now.  I can’t explain how much fun it is to ride down an icy hill bumping back and forth between ice walls.  You’ve just got to try it out, especially with your kids.  Or have you tried the chocolate cheese at the MSU Dairy Store?  I know.  It sounds weird, right?  Chocolate and cheese?  Chocolate cheese?  You’ve just got to go check it out and try some for yourself.  It’s better than you can imagine.  Speaking of cheese, have you bought cheese at Hills Cheese at the Lansing City Market?  I know it sounds kind of old fashioned to go buy cheese from a cheese store.  But you get to try any cheese they’ve got before you buy it.  You’ve just got to go try it out.  Or have you ever been to the Dickens Pub? It’s in the basement of The English Inn.  It’s Sarah and my favorite pub in the entire Lansing region.  There’s maybe twelve seats in the whole place.  There’s just something about it.  I can’t explain it.  You’ve just got to come and see it some time.

It’s that simple.  You have a new experience that others haven’t had.  You start with “listen to me…come and see.”  Or let me give you one more.  Have you been to Tom and Chee downtown?  I tried this grilled cheese donut.  Yeah.  Grilled cheese donut.  It has mascarpone and lemon all grilled inside a donut.  Sounds weird right?  Forget it.  I can’t explain it.  You’ve just got to experience it for yourself.   Just come and see.

The goal of the first followers of Jesus was not to explain something.  The goal was to experience someone.  Jesus needs to be experienced & encountered, not explained.

I know what you’re thinking, “But you’re talking about coming to church, not experiencing Jesus.”  Jesus thought of this.  He was very intentional about creating a community of followers.  It was never just about one person and Jesus. It was always about one person and Jesus in a community of people.  Jesus instructed people to invite others.  Paul, the first missionary of the church and the author of many of the books of the Bible, understood this community as “the body of Christ.”  This community is the body of Christ that when it is at its best allows you to experience and encounter Jesus in a way that you never could just on your own.  I can’t fully explain it, but when you experience it, it’s something amazing.  The church at its best is a community where people can come and experience Jesus in a healthy way.

Lisa Pender, a partner in our church has a daughter named Colleen.  Lisa and Colleen are some of the biggest inviters in our church.  And it’s not because Lisa has all her questions answered and this life completely figured out.  It’s because Lisa listens to sermons at work and that starts conversations.  It’s because when her daughter invites a friend and that friend comes, they put the name tags on the inside roof of her car and that starts conversations.  She’s simply seeking to follow Jesus and in the process inviting others to seek with her where she’s found some of what she’s looking for.

So the goal of Sycamore Creek isn’t to be big.  The goal is to help others experience what we experience, Jesus.  But when we do that, it’s likely that we will get bigger and bigger.  Because how many people in our area don’t belong to a church?  Lots and lots and lots.  You have the opportunity to do for someone else what someone did for you: invite them to come and see.

If you’re here for the first time, you may skeptical, but if you’ll keep coming, over time you’ll see as you experience Jesus.  Jesus is someone hard to explain, you just have to come and see.

* Based on a sermon originally by Joel Thomas

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Walking with Bilbo – An Invitation to Adventure

January 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Walking with Bilbo

 

 

 

 

Walking with Bilbo – An Invitation to Adventure
Sycamore Creek Church
Tom & Sarah Arthur
January 6 and 7, 2013

Peace Friends!  And happy new year!

Today we begin a new series called Walking with Bilbo, based on the book by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit.  How many of you have:

  • Seen The Hobbit movie?
  • Read the book?
  • Seen The Lord of the Rings movies?
  • Actually read that trilogy too?

Some of you may be wondering why we as a church are spending four whole weeks on what is essentially a work of children’s fiction, and a fantasy story, at that. You may even be dreading these four weeks, if you’re not a fiction or fantasy lover. Well, it’s my prayer that God will use this series anyway, that you’ll find something to take away from this message. And I think as we unpack it all in the coming weeks, you will.

Let me begin by telling our story of what role this book has played in Sarah’s and my life, and then we can explore some of the spiritual themes in the book as a way to see how God is at work in the world, even the world of fiction.

Why The Hobbit?
Now, it came as something of a surprise to us, when the first Lord of the Rings (LOTR) movies came out ten years ago, that most people were completely unaware that Tolkien was a Christian.  Sarah had studied LOTR and The Hobbit as an English major at Wheaton College where she learned about Tolkien’s faith.  He wrote, “I am a Christian (which can be deduced from my stories), and in fact a Roman Catholic.” And he wasn’t just a Christian in name only. He really believed and lived this stuff—so much so, he was instrumental in the conversion of his friend C.S. Lewis (later author of The Chronicles of Narnia) from atheism to Christianity.  Tolkien wrote occasionally about the spiritual themes in his work.  He said, “In ‘The Lord of the Rings’ the conflict is not basically about ‘freedom,’ though that is naturally involved. It is about God, and His sole right to divine honour.”

It is important to understand that The Hobbit is not a Christian allegory like Pilgrim’s Progress where there is a one to one correlation between things in the story and the Christian life, but The Hobbit does share themes with the Christian journey. Did Tolkien intend for it to be a religious story? No, but when you are a Christian, the flavor of your faith comes through in everything you create. He created his stories as an act of joy, a labor of love, an act of worship, to the glory of God.

So Sarah wrote Walking with Frodo, named after the main character in The Lord of the Rings, and later Walking with Bilbo, named after the main character in The Hobbit, to explore spiritual themes in Tolkien’s works.  These books were originally aimed at a youth audience but people of all ages have appreciated them.

The Theme of Adventure
One of the spiritual themes in The Hobbit is the theme of adventure.  To get you into that theme, especially if you’re not familiar with the story, the trailer for the movie does a pretty good job of summarizing the theme of adventure.

Gandalf said to Bilbo, “I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it’s very difficult to find anyone.”

Hobbits are small human-like creatures—3 foot, 6 inches—who live in an imaginary world called the Shire, which is rather like rural parts of England. Most of them like good food, comfy homes, a good book, a pot of tea, and prefer peace and quiet.

Bilbo is the model hobbit, but with an interesting family history. He is part Baggins, which prefers to stay home and safe; but he is also part Took, which has a history of going on mysterious adventures.

Gandalf’s job is to appeal to the “Took” side of Bilbo. Gandalf has chosen and selected Bilbo to join an adventure with a group of dwarves who want to reclaim their mountain kingdom and their gold from an evil dragon. But Gandalf can’t MAKE Bilbo go on this journey. Gandalf can only extend the invitation. Now it’s up to Bilbo to accept it.

Like Gandalf, God has been in the adventure business for a long time, choosing and selecting unlikely people to participate in the great and small stories of human history.  All throughout the Old Testament, God is calling people.  Then Jesus came on the scene and called twelve disciples:

Luke 5:27-32
Later, as Jesus left the town, he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Levi got up, left everything, and followed him.

Later, Levi held a banquet in his home with Jesus as the guest of honor. Many of Levi’s fellow tax collectors and other guests also ate with them. But the Pharisees and their teachers of religious law complained bitterly to Jesus’ disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with such scum?”

Jesus answered them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.”

Difficult to Find
But “it’s very difficult to find anyone” who is willing to accept Jesus’ invitation to adventure–why is that?  Here are four possible reasons.

First, we don’t feel qualified.  But Jesus doesn’t call those who are supposedly qualified, the ones who are the obvious choice, who have their spiritual act together (back to Luke 5:29-32). He calls the ones you least expect, the ones whom the rest of the world has overlooked, whose qualifications and abilities are questionable at best. Tolkien “chose” hobbits, the small and unexpected, to be the bearers of such huge tasks and adventures.  He called this “ennoblement.” Bilbo doesn’t feel qualified to join the dwarves’ expedition. But Gandalf sees something in him that he doesn’t yet see in himself. The journey will ennoble him, offer him the opportunity to be part of a larger, more significant story. And that is enough.

Second, we’d rather play it safe. Bilbo would rather stay home where he is comfortable and well-fed and nothing dangerous ever happens. As he says, “We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!” And once he embarks on the adventure, he realizes that he actually underestimated how hard things would really get. If he had known, he would have stayed home. Following Jesus is not safe or easy. It’s not for the faint of heart. Jesus asks us to give up things we’re not willing to give up (habits, sins, attitudes). He also asks us to take on Christian behaviors that sound odd or annoying or downright boring. But the Christian life is anything but boring. G.K. Chesterton has said, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried” (Chapter 5, What’s Wrong With The World, 1910).

Third, we like our life the way it is and we don’t want God messing in our business. Tolkien’s friend C. S. Lewis, for a long time before his conversion, thought of God as the “Transcendental Interferer.” God is this powerful being who interferes with your life and makes you do things you don’t want to do. But once Lewis became a Christian, he realized that in Jesus there is freedom: freedom from sin, from fear, from pride, from other things and people having power over you.

Fourth, we’re afraid to take Jesus at his word when he says difficult things like “love your enemies” and “give up everything.”  Shane Claiborne, author of The Irresistible Revolution, is an interesting and unique example of a new kind of Christian who is really seeking to simply follow Jesus even when it is difficult. Claiborne is a Christian and an activist who helped start The Simple Way community in the ghettos of Philadelphia, where he lives and ministers with the poor. He wrote in an article entitled “Jesus wrecked my life:

I know there are people out there who say, “My life was such a mess. I was drinking, partying, sleeping around; and then I met Jesus, and my whole life came together.” God bless those people. But for me, I had it together. I used to be cool (I was prom king, for heaven’s sake). Then I met Jesus, and He wrecked my life.

The more I read the gospel, the more it messed me up, turning everything I believed in, valued and hoped for upside down. I am still recovering from my conversion.

I ended up at Eastern University outside Philadelphia, studying youth ministry and sociology. I had heard one of my college professors say, “Being a Christian is about choosing Jesus and deciding to do something incredibly daring with your life.”

I decided to take Jesus up on the offer. The adventure has taken me from the streets of Calcutta, where I worked with Mother Teresa, to the war zone of Iraq, where I lived through the bombing of Baghdad. Following the footsteps of Jesus, I can’t remember what it feels like to be bored.

http://www.youthworker.com/youth-ministry-resources-ideas/youth-ministry/11552643/

To get a deeper feel for how Claiborne follows Jesus, watch at least the first three minutes of this video:

 

Responding to the Invitation
Here’s the point of this message: Jesus is calling you to adventure.  For some of us, it may be simply to surrender your life—your habits, choices, attitudes, actions—completely to Jesus, to claim Christ as Lord of your life.  For some of us, like Shane Claiborne, Jesus might be calling you to live a radically different life than the rest of society, in order to take care of the poor or the sick or to meet some other need. You may be called to mission work or inner city ministry or living simply so you have more to give away. For some of us, as Shane said, the call may be simply to love one person well: to take care of an aging relative or to love a difficult coworker or to forgive someone who you never thought you could forgive. Like Mother Teresa, we are called to do “small things with great love”: it’s that simple and that challenging and adventurous.

The question is, will you respond? There is a now famous image of Gandalf standing at the door at Bilbo’s house at Bag End that has been used to promote the movie in theaters. It is a key moment in the story because there would have been no story to tell if Bilbo had not answered the door.

In the book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible, Jesus says, “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends” (3:10).  There is a famous painting by William Holman Hunt of Jesus at the door titled, “The Light of the World.” The door has no handle, weeds have grown up around it, it has not been opened in a long time and can only be opened from the inside. The viewer is sort of holding one’s breath to see if anyone’s inside, and if that person will respond.

Jesus does not force his way in, but he is waiting at the door of your life, extending an invitation. Not to a boring life. Not to a life in which you’re simply a nicer person than you were before. But to a life of adventure, following God’s call into places and interacting with people and doing things you never dreamed you’d be doing. Like Gandalf, Jesus can’t guarantee that you’ll be safe. He can’t guarantee your reputation. But you’ll have a pile of stories to tell when it’s all over. And in the end you’ll be welcomed into the strong circle of adventurers led by Jesus himself, honored and celebrated for a life well lived.

As Sarah writes in Walking with Bilbo, “Faith is an adventure, not just a one-time choice. Once we hear the knock on the door and step onto the road, there’s no turning back. Life will never be the same again. Are you ready for the adventure?”

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Ancient Hippies – Jonah

November 29, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Ancient Hippies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Ancient Hippies – Jonah
Sycamore Creek Church
November 18 and 19, 2012
Tom Arthur
Jonah

Note: The basic idea of this sermon came from David “Welshy” Wilson who preached an excellent sermon on Jonah at the Wesley Fellowship at Michigan State University.

Peace friends!

Hippies are kinda weird.  They’re sometimes offensive.  At their best, they speak truth to power.  That’s the 1970s variety.  The ancient variety is called a prophet.  The prophets were ancient hippies.  The prophets in the Bible were kinda weird.  Sometimes they were offensive.  And they always spoke truth to power.  But sometimes the prophet needed truth spoken to him.  Today we explore an ancient hippie: Jonah.

One of the great things about the book of Jonah is that it is short and compelling and an entertaining read.  It has four chapters.  Pick it up this afternoon or this week and read it all in one sitting.  It’s not long at all.  Today we’ll have the chance to range over the entire book.  So let’s dive right in.

Jonah 1:1-3 NLT
The LORD gave this message to Jonah, son of Amittai:  “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh! Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.” But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction in order to get away from the LORD.

Most of us are pretty familiar with this part of the story.  God calls Jonah to go speak truth to power inNinevehand Jonah runs from his mission.  He went in “the opposite direction”!  What mission are you running from?

Sometimes even though I’m a pastor I run from the mission of sharing God’s love with others in explicit ways.  I’m a pastor but I’m timid to bring up spiritual things in conversation with people I don’t know well, or people that I think might not like me if I bring them up.  The other day I was talking with someone I had recently met and she brought up her spiritual story.  I’m such a bozo that I changed the topic!  What was I doing?!

Other times I’m timid to bring up questions of eternal significance with people who haven’t explicitly signaled to me that they want to talk about these kinds of things.  Maybe this is because of my experience “Mall Witnessing” as a teenager.  Do you know this behavior?  You go with your youth group to the mall and you try to lead people to Jesus who are complete strangers.  I was about as successful at mall witnessing as I was at picking up girls at the Mall!  Which is to say zero percent successful.  And all either ever did was make me feel really uncomfortable.

Or maybe I think I’m afraid of coming across like the guy who shot me with theological questions and Bible verses one day before our Monday night worship at Grumpy’s.  He came up to me and within thirty seconds said:

  • Do you believe in being born again?  It’s in the Bible.
  • What about regeneration?  Being made a new creature?  It’s in the Bible.
  • Do you believe in hell?  Do you preach about it?  It’s in the Bible.
  • Do you preach the Bible?
  • Do you believe that the body of Christ can be split?  The Bible says…

I don’t think he really cared about what I thought, he only wanted to quote the Bible at me.  He didn’t even really seem to care that I was working on setting up for a worship service!  I felt like hiding under a table.  Really.  I just wanted him to go away.  And I’m the pastor!

So if you’re a guest here today, I want you to know, that we’re not like this.  We’re curious about God.  Questions are welcome.  You don’t have to have it all figured out to belong here.  You’re free to even disagree with me!

I know I’m not alone when it comes to running from this mission of sharing God’s love with others in spiritual conversation with others.  I asked my friends on Facebook what keeps them from inviting people to church.  Here’s what I heard back from them.  They fear:

  • Forcing a conversation
  • Being pushy and preachy
  • Not wanting to look judgmental
  • Scared that their own faults will make them look hypocritical
  • Guilt by association – The church hurts people
  • Being asked a question they can’t answer
  • Being “out argued”

So sometimes we run from the mission before us, just like Jonah.  We run for a variety of reasons.  Let’s get back to Jonah and see what happens.  The big question in the book of Jonah is: What exactly is the mission in the book of Jonah?

As we keep reading we find that Jonah hops on a boat and goes the opposite direction that God wants him to go.  A big storm picks up and Jonah realizes he’s the reason for it.  He tells the sailors to throw him into the sea to stop the storm…

Jonah 1:15-17 NLT
Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once!  The sailors were awestruck by the LORD’s great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him.  Now the LORD had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.

Growing up you’re told that the story of Jonah is about trusting God to provide in a time of trial, God sent a whale to save Jonah.  But that’s not what the story is about!  The mission ultimately isn’t about the whale.  Although God “appointed” or assigned a mission to the great fish.  The whale follows God’s mission when Jonah wouldn’t!  As we keep reading we find that the whale spits Jonah up on dry ground.

Jonah 3:1-4 NLT
Then the LORD spoke to Jonah a second time:  “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message of judgment I have given you.”  This time Jonah obeyed the LORD’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all.  On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!”

Jonah finally obeys God’s command to go and speak truth to power inNineveh.  His heart isn’t in it, but he goes anyway.  How many times do we go through the motions out of obedience (for fear we’ll get swallowed by a whale!), but our hearts are far from God’s heart?  So what happens when we obey without our heart in it?  Let’s keep reading…

Jonah 3:5 NLT
The people of Nineveh believed God’s message, and from the greatest to the least, they decided to go without food and wear sackcloth to show their sorrow.

We find that obedience is important.  God will work in spite of our hypocrisy, our going through the motions on the outside, but not caring on the inside.  That’s pretty amazing.  God works in spite of us!  Thank you God.  And when you read the rest of chapter three, you see that even the animals repent.  The king orders everyone to wear sackcloth including the animals!  (I’ve always wondered if the cats submitted to this?).

So this is the mission of Jonah, right?  This is what we’re supposed to get out of this book, right?  Jonah was given a mission to speak truth to power.  At first he disobeyed but then he obeyed. Ninevehrepented and God did not destroy them.  That’s the moral of the story.  Right?  Well, actually no.  The mission of Jonah isn’t ultimately aboutNineveh.  In fact, most of us don’t even know what happens in the fourth and last chapter of Jonah.  So let’s keep reading…

Jonah 4:1-4 NLT
This change of plans upset Jonah, and he became very angry.  So he complained to the LORD about it: “Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, LORD? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you were a gracious and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. I knew how easily you could cancel your plans for destroying these people.  Just kill me now, LORD! I’d rather be dead than alive because nothing I predicted is going to happen.”  The LORD replied, “Is it right for you to be angry about this?”

Here we find what the real mission is for Jonah.  It’s not about Nineveh.  The mission, the truth that needs to be spoken is more about Jonah himself!  The mission is to change Jonah, for Jonah to care about people he didn’t care about before, people who were literally his enemies. Nineveh was their capital of the Assyrian Empire which sacked Israel and took them off into exile.  Jonah understandably does not like them and only wants God to wipe them off the face of the earth.  But God cares for the Assyrians and wants to make a point to Jonah.  God’s heart is one of compassion and mercy to all, even our enemies.  That’s the truth that needs to be spoken to Jonah.  It’s the true mission of the book of Jonah.  Jonah needs to be saved as much as Nineveh!

The Problem and the Point
Here’s the problem both with Jonah and us: Our hearts don’t beat with God’s heart. We don’t care about the same things God cares about, people far from God.

Here’s the main point of the book of Jonah: The mission is to sync our hearts with God’s heart, to care about the same things that God cares about, which is to share God’s compassion with all.

Lately I’ve gotten a little…OK a LOT…hooked on The Voice.  I haven’t watched it before, but I have kept up with it this year.  Something happens each time someone leaves the competition: there’s often a disconnect between the mentors/judges and those watching the show.  Their hearts aren’t always synced.  The audience likes one person and the judges/mentors like someone else.  The mission of Jonah is to sync all those hearts together, to get them beating in unison.

The end of the book of Jonah is somewhat startling.  A plant grows up to provide Jonah some shade.  But the sun kills the plant.  Jonah is pretty upset that this plant died.  And we continue reading…

Jonah 4:8-11
And as the sun grew hot, God sent a scorching east wind to blow on Jonah. The sun beat down on his head until he grew faint and wished to die. “Death is certainly better than this!” he exclaimed.  Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?” “Yes,” Jonah retorted, “even angry enough to die!”  Then the LORD said, “You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. And a plant is only, at best, short lived.  But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness,not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?”

That’s the abrupt end of the story.  What happened?  I don’t know.  Jonah’s heart at this point is such that he cares about his own comfort, while God’s heart is such that he cares about whether God’s comfort has come into the heart of all people.  The book of Jonah is written as if the end of the story is now up to you!  Will you obey even if your heart isn’t in it, but go even deeper by seeking a heart change, by seeking to sync your heart with God’s heart?  God’s heart is this: that all people would know the compassion and comfort of God.

So when was the last time you had a conversation about the compassion of God with someone who didn’t know the comfort of God?  When was the last time you invited someone to come to join our church in worship?

This month is our twelfth anniversary as a church.  We are twelve years old.  We’re only a pre-teen.  Pretty soon we’re going to get rebellious!  To celebrate our twelfth birthday, we recently interviewed Barb Flory, the “rebel grandma” who was the founding pastor of Sycamore Creek Church.  We asked her what excited her about SCC these days.  Here’s what she said:

Did you hear that?  Barb is excited that we’re stepping out of our comfort zone to creatively reach new people for Christ.  Yes!  Yes!  Yes!

Now here’s the deal as I’ve begun to experience it.  When you start something new like our Monday night Church in a Diner at Grumpy’s Diner, it’s super easy to invite people to it.  It’s also super important.  Because it’s obvious that if you don’t invite people, it won’t live to see another day.  Something I’ve noticed about our Sunday morning venue is that twelve years into it, we’ve become a little more concerned about our own comfort and a little less concerned about whether we’re sharing the comfort of God with others.  We can kinda coast on Sunday mornings.  But if we coast too long, we’ll end up slowing down and dying.

So I’d like to give you some practical tips this morning on how to invite people to experience the compassion and comfort of God by joining us for worship some Sunday or Monday.  I asked several different people how they invite people.  Here’s the responses I got:

Amberlee

Amberlee focuses on the feel of the venue.  It’s relaxed and casual.  The teaching is practical.

Mark

I love how Mark makes it seem so simple, like sharing about your favorite restaurant.

Gretchen

Gretchen has an idea that I’ve used myself.  When someone asks you how you’re doing, don’t just say, “Fine.”  Tell them you’re excited about something going on at your church.

Bill

Bill is the owner of Grumpy’s, and he’s always inviting people to join us.  He can’t attend a church on Sunday morning so this has become his church.  He simply shares with people what he gets out of it.

It doesn’t quite work the same way for me that it works for all of you.  A conversation with me always brings up church because people ask me what I do.  Then when I tell them I am a pastor, they ask about the church and location.  But I could stop there.  On my good days, I take the conversation at least one step further by asking, “Do you have a church family?”  I find that question is a non-judgmental way to ask about church.  If you ask if they attend church, then it kinda puts them on the defensive if they don’t.  But if you ask if they have a church family, then you’re asking about their community.  I had a conversation like this the other night with a dad I met at the pajama reading time at the Holt Library.  We both had sons in their pajamas “listening” to the librarian read bedtime stories.  He asked what I did, and we got into the conversation.  I asked him if he had a church family and he said he didn’t because he thought that religion causes a lot of damage around the world.  I told him I couldn’t agree more.  He told me that he still didn’t have his religious views figured out and I told him we were a community that is curious, you can bring your questions with you.  I said, “I’m a pastor, and I’ve still got questions!”  The conversation didn’t go much further than that, but I did invite him to our daddy kid night out.  I look forward to seeing him again at another pajama story time and continuing the conversation.

Now I wasn’t always comfortable in that conversation.  In fact, when he brought up the whole religion-does-a-lot-of-damage thing, I was working really hard not to get defensive.  But what I knew deep down was that God loves this guy.  And he’s got some kind of pain in his life that needs God’s comfort.  I don’t know what it is, but maybe someday I’ll get to know him better and will learn what that is.  But the mission in that moment was for my heart to sync with God’s heart for this other young dad whether I was comfortable with it or not.

Friends, look for God in the midst of your discomfort.  What is your discomfort telling you about what God cares about, where God’s heart is at?  It may be the exact opposite of where your heart is at.

Imagine this: we could double in size next week if everyone invited one person!  We could reach out to twice the number of people and share with them the love and comfort of God if each one of us brought a friend, family, neighbor, or co-worker with us next week.

It’s the Christmas season.  That’s the perfect season to invite people.  If someone is going to be open to coming to church, this is the time when they’re open.  We’re shooting a commercial today to help till the ground for you ahead of time, so that when you invite them, they’ll have already heard about us.  Our Christmas series is simply called Carols.  Each week we’re going to look at a Christmas Carol in a new way.  They’re songs you’ve heard over and over, but you’ll walk away each week hearing it in a whole new way.  Who can you invite to this series?  Take a moment and write down three names.

Here’s how I’ve seen invitation happen lately: Bill invited Carl and he came.  I invited Molly and she brought ten people with her!  Daniel invited Julie and Julie invited her whole family: 4 “kids” and 3 or 4 grand kids! Josh walked by and saw the Grumpy’s sign and invited his roommate, Tom.  His roommate invited a friend.  That guy invited a friend too!  Each of these people’s heart was synced with God’s heart to share the comfort and compassion of God with others.  Is your heart in the mission?

Prayer
Here are two prayers from a prayer guide I’ve been using lately:

Lord, you have such compassion on all you have made.  Thank you for loving this fallen world so much that you gave your only son to redeem it.  Help those who are lost to realize that you don’t want anyone to perish, but instead desire for everyone to come to repentance (Psalm 145:9, John 3:16, 2 Peter 3:9).

Lord, help me be more sensitive to those who are lost and outside the family of God.  Give me your heart of compassion for them because they are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 9:36).

Amen!

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