COWBOY FOOTBALL
Well, God is still in control. I learned that this past Monday night. God still is a Cowboy fan, I’m convinced. Only God could take the bottom dwellers of the league, the Dallas Cowboys, and help them pull out a victory against the “Super Bowl bound, 100 million dollar,” Washington Redskins.
As I mentioned last week, I managed to get a ticket to the game at the last minute. A college friend and fellow Cowboy fan asked me to join him. We got there about 7 PM on Monday night. When we got there, we decided to save some money and park in what I call “peasant parking.” Well, it’ 20 bucks to park in peasant parking… By the way, the church next to the stadium was charging $50 to park in their lot. Maybe we should think about relocation! But as we are walking and walking to Redskin stadium, I’m reminding myself over and over that the stadium is no longer called Jack Kent Cook stadium. But as I looked up at Redskin stadium standing before me in all its glory, the first thing I notice is a big sign that says FedEx Field. My friend tells me that it’s another Dan Snyder concoction to get more money. As I stand there looking at this phenomenal stadium, and I notice something else. The entire stadium was bubble wrapped. It looked like someone had wrapped it as a Christmas present. The beautiful architecture of the stadium was covered in a big white sheet with – of course - advertising all over it. Obviously, this was another Dan Snyder brainstorm. So as I stand there with my $125 ticket in hand for the worst seat in the stadium, looking at FedEx field, gift wrapped in advertising that had to have cost a fortune, I realize, I’ve been had! I’m a part of a well-engineered scam to make someone very rich!
And as I’m taking all of this in, I have one of those epiphanal moments. I could just see some archeologist thousands of years from now uncovering the ruins of FedEx field. I can just see him standing there, scratching his head and wondering, “What could have been so important as to require all of this money, all of this hype, all of the advertising, all of these seats? Could it really be that people paid this much money just to watch a bunch of spoiled, oversized millionaires push a leather, air-filled ball down a field and across a line before being knocked down.”
My friend David gives me a strange look as I stand there in the midst of my philosophical musings, and says, “David, this is a religion to some people.”
So I’m thinking, if this is a religion to some people, then these people do religion pretty good. The leaders of this religion understand their mission – that is to win football games. Great leaders do whatever it takes to win football games. And the fans – the members of this religion - they are passionate about their religion. They support their religion with undying loyalty, by investing their time, their conversation, and their money in being a part of the mission to win football games. When I walked into Fed Ex Field Monday night, I saw a stadium full of people filled with passion about fulfilling the mission of winning football games.
THESIS
So I’m guessing that if I find this kind of passion about fulfilling a mission at a football game, then I’m bound to find even greater passion at church. After all the church has the greatest mission of all time. But is that what we find? I’m afraid that when I look to the Church of Jesus Christ, I see a church whose passion is lost. I see a Church who has forgotten her mission. Churches all around the nation get passionate about politics; they get passionate about theological purity; they get passionate about programs and musical tastes, but I see little passion about fulfilling that mission that God has called the church to, that is to make disciples of all people. To baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Spirit, and to teach them to obey all things God has commanded.
We have the greatest message of all time, that Jesus Christ saves souls. He saves us to an abundant life here on earth and to an eternal life of perfection in heaven. And though we have this great message, I see people looking everywhere but the church for answers. Why? Because the Church of Jesus Christ has lost her focus. Today more than ever before, the Church needs to find her passion again. The Church needs to rediscover her mission. But how can we as a church regain our focus? How can we develop a passion for fulfilling our mission?
I think those answers can be found in Nehemiah’s story. Nehemiah was a man who understood the importance of the mission. Nehemiah was someone willing to stand up and point the way. Nehemiah asks the people of Israel, and I believe he’s asking us today, “Are we willing to build new walls?”
You see, Nehemiah was a man on a mission. For nearly 100 years, the Israelite people had been exiled to a foreign land. The Babylonian Empire had taken Israel captive in 587 BC. It was the policy of the Babylonians that when they conquered a foreign land, they would take all the people of that nation and take them together to various prison camps within the empire.
After they removed all of the native people, the Babylonians would then occupy the land. But in 539 BC, the Persian King, Cyrus the Great led a successful overthrow of the Babylonian Empire. So now the Persians have control.
The Persians had a different policy. Rather than exiling the people away from their land, they determine that by allowing the Israelites not only to stay together, but to stay together in their own land, the Israelites could then become a prosperous people again, and therefore help develop a prosperous empire as well.
So, thanks to the Persians, the Israelites were set free from Babylonian bondage for the first time in a hundred years. They were now aloud to go back home. When the Israelites returned, they found the city of Jerusalem in ruins. And the most critical problem was that the walls that surrounded the city lay in ruins. It may not sound like a big deal to us. Besides, when have you seen an American city with walls around it? But in that culture, a city without walls was no city at all. Imagine the US and Mexico having no border. Within weeks, you wouldn’t be able to tell Mexico from Texas. Without walls, Jerusalem looked no different that the rest of the land.
This is a grave concern for Nehemiah. Nehemiah understands that the most important part of the Jewish religion is that the Israelites remain a pure people. For an Israelite to marry a foreigner was considered an unpardonable sin. To be anything less than a pure Jew was to destroy the purity of God’s people. A Jerusalem without walls was a threat to the identity of God’s people.
So Nehemiah decided late one night that he would survey the city of Jerusalem. He saw what was once a great city, and he saw the walls of the city in ruins. He began to dream again of a city with strong walls. Walls capable of holding out the enemy. Walls that could help Israel become God’s people again. So Nehemiah approached the people. Look at his response to the people in verse 17. “Then I said to them, "You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace."
Nehemiah was a man who understood his mission. He understood that rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem was more than a jobs program, or an economy booster. It was more than protection. Nehemiah understood that by building walls, he was shaping the very future of Judaism.
Question: do we as a church, this local body of believers known as Temple Baptist Church, do we understand the significance of our mission. Do we really understand the weight of what God has called us to do? Are we like Nehemiah? Are we passionately possessed by our mission as a church, and are we ready to build new walls? How do we compare to Dan Snyder and the Washington Redskins? Our passion doesn’t even begin to compare, does it?
The mission of Temple Baptist Church is to share the love of God by reaching, winning, and discipling all people to life in Christ. But if we are to be the church God has called us to, these have to become more than words?
A FEW GOOD MEN
Several weeks ago, for those of you who were at the Sunday School launch, you were privileged to see some Academy Award-level acting. We did a spoof on the movie a Few Good Men. In the original movie, a sergeant and a private stand on trial for killing a fellow marine. Their lawyer, played by Tom Cruise, attempts to demonstrate that the murder was actually the result of an order that the two marines had received from a higher-up. The order to help train the fellow marine ended up causing the death of that marine. When Tom Cruise begins to investigate, the prosecuting attorney quickly tries to strike a plea bargain, offering to reduce the sentence from 20 years down to six months.
Tom Cruise goes to tell his clients the good news, that in six months they would be home free. Harold, the marine sergeant, refuses the plea bargain and chooses instead to stand on trial. Tom Cruise is mortified. If the case went to trial, they would loose and likely spend a lifetime behind bars. In a powerful point in the movie, Tom Cruise looks Harold in the eye and asks him why he would be so stupid as to refuse a plea bargain of six months. Harold responds, “Unit, Core, God, Country.” Tom Cruise looks at him and says, “What?” He repeats, “Unit, Core, God, Country.” Harold explains that this is their code. The center of marine values is “Unit, Core, God, Country.” Harold had followed the code, and if following the code meant that he would spend the rest of his life in a military prison, then so be it.” So Tom Cruise tells him, “If you want to go to jail for the rest of your life, you go right ahead.”
I’m wondering if we aren’t sometimes like Tom Cruise in that movie. Instead of seeing our mission as a driving force behind all we do, we look at it as a nice slogan on a piece of paper. I find evidence of this when I see people putting their personal agendas ahead of our mission as a church. When we focus more on what the church can do for us rather than what we can do for the mission of the church, then our mission becomes irrelevant.
Like John F. Kennedy said to the nation, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” That simple concept changed the way Americans looked at their government. That simple phrase captured the heart and soul of our founding fathers who did more to serve than to be served.
I believe that if Temple Baptist Church is to be a church that fulfills the mission to share God’s love by reaching, winning, and discipling all people to life in Christ, then it will come as we are willing to lay aside our own self-interest in order to serve others. Fulfilling the mission means that we will experience personal inconveniences in the effort to reach lost people. It means changing the way we do things or creating new ministries or giving more time or money. It means welcoming people into our church that we might not feel comfortable with. It means cooperating with people older than us or younger than us or different than us. But to build walls that last, we must engage in personal sacrifice and risk.
Nehemiah risked his distinguished position as cupbearer in order to build lasting walls. The cupbearer tasted the king’s wine and food before the king would eat. For a person like Nehemiah who was both a Jew and a captive to serve a Gentile king was to reach quite a status. But he was willing to risk it all to approach the king with his building project.
FIRST BAPTIST, DALLAS
When I think of risk, I think of the story of Lucinda Williams who was a Missouri woman who moved to Dallas back in the mid-1800’s. When she moved to Dallas, she asked her landlady if there was a Baptist church in town. The landlady said there was no Baptist church in town and she hoped there never would be. That day, Williams decided that if she were going to live there, she would attend a Baptist church. She learned that on three other occasions, people had tried to start a Baptist church. All three times, they had failed. She continued to run into opposition. But she was determined to take a risk.
Finally, On July 20, 1868, she and her husband, seven other women, and two other men organized a Baptist church. During the first few years, it looked as if they wouldn’t survive. They had no building; they had no money, they had little support. But Lucinda continued. She formed the church’s Sunday School. She began a mission society through the church. Five years after they began, she convinced the women of the church to personally collect over $600. Now you can imagine how much $600 was worth 125 years ago. Because of her dedication to the mission; because of her willingness to risk, she was able to plant the seeds that began The First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. That church later would become the largest church in the world. She was willing to build walls that last. Walls that make a difference. Walls that change people’s lives.
I’m always in awe of people who risk in order to see the kingdom grow. I think of those in our congregation who have given so much to see our mission fulfilled here at Temple. It’ always impressive when I hear about people in this church who have given support to this church for thirty, forty, even fifty years. Because, you figure, if a person faithfully gives ten percent of their annual salary each year to the work of the Lord, then that means that every ten years, that person has worked one full year of their job and given every bit of that salary to the work of this church. Some of you in this room that have given three, four, five years of your working lives to the mission of this church. What an investment! I spoke to Dr. Martin earlier this week, the long time pastor of this church, and I promised that I would do everything within my power as pastor to lead our church to build upon the great work that was done here in the past.
That why my heartache for a church near my house that’s having to close its doors. Imagine the people in that church who invested years of their lives into that church who now have to stand by and watch it end. Sad to say, it’s a church that became more consumed with survival, about protecting what they had, than about fulfilling its mission. You see, survival is the enemy of passion. Focusing on survival is one way to destroy a mission. One sure fire way to destroy all that has been done before us is to become consumed with preserving what we have rather than find new walls to build.
The best gift that our church can give back to those of you who have given your life to this ministry is that we never become satisfied with merely surviving. It is the work of our church to dream new dreams, to build new walls, and to build new walls far outlast any of us in this room.
What form might new walls take at Temple? New walls will take the form of new ministries. New ministries like a licensed preschool, or creative ministry teams reaching out to the community. New walls will take shape through a greater quality of ministry. A better quality deacon ministry, a stronger benevolence ministry, a more intentional ministry to Senior Adults, and a stronger children’s and youth ministry. New walls will form as we become rooted and built up in Christ, where every member recognizes the weight of the gospel in their own lives. New walls will take shape as every member becomes a missionary where they live. New walls will form as we find creative ways to share the gospel boldly with others. New walls will be built as we commit to giving sacrificially to the work of the Lord. New walls might come in the form of exactly that – new walls. Building a mission here at Temple will require a greater stewardship of what God has given us, which might translate into renovation projects and new buildings.
Dan Snyder and Jerry Jones have built some impressive walls. They even attract a lot of money and a lot of passionate people. But when it’s all said and done, their walls won’t last. Then there’s Nehemiah, a man whose dream became his mission, and his mission became his passion. And in the end he built walls that last. His walls shaped the future of the Jews and the future of Christianity. We feel today have been affected by the work of Nehemiah. We are called to a similar mission. A mission where the stakes are high but the rewards are eternal. Walls built in the kingdom of God are walls that last forever. And you know that here at Temple, we have plenty of plenty of tools, plenty of bricks, plenty of mortar. Now, it’s time to get building.
