How Now Must We Love? – Putting Legs On The Vision
Rom 12 August 28, 2005
Intro:
How now must we love?
For the past number of weeks we have been talking about our church vision – of Loving God through worship, like a festival. Of loving one another to fruitfulness, like a greenhouse. And of loving others into the Kingdom of God, like a spiritual hospital.
Most of you wouldn’t argue. And after a number of years with me preaching this message, you can all probably quote Matt 22 from memory: “36"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37Jesus replied: " ’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[b] 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’[c] 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." We would agree that the message of the Kingdom of God is a message of love.
But what does that mean? How do we do it? Where do we as a church not do it currently? How now must we love?? This morning I want to put some legs on the vision. Get specific. Be pretty blunt. I’m planning to cover a lot of ground this morning, so I need you to sit up, pay close attention, and listen with your heart. For every ministry that I talk about, I want you to ask yourself two personal questions: does this excite me? Has God given me a spiritual gift that I can use to see God’s Kingdom come in this ministry?
Romans chapter 12 covers all three areas of our church vision, in order even, and Paul gets pretty blunt. I’m going to use that as a template for our conversation this morning.
Loving God Through Worship: The Church As A Festival
Rom 12:1-2 talks about worship. “1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Here is our church philosophy of worship: worship is a lifestyle, not a once/week activity. I would go one step further even, and suggest that every single person on this planet lives a lifestyle of worship, and you can tell what they worship by how they spend their time and money and energy. Some people worship themselves, some money, some physical health or beauty, some worship personal power or family or TV or shopping or entertainment or sex or celebrities. In your life, what does how you spend your time and money and energy say about what you worship? We, however, are called out of that idolatry into a worship of the living God, “in view of God’s mercy” – in other words, being reminded of how incredibly much God has done for us – and into a worship that is “living”. That is a “sacrifice”. That is different from the world. That, my friends, is how we are to live each and every day. And “this is your spiritual act of worship”.
We sometimes forget that bigger picture, thinking that “worship” is what we do on Sunday in church. Here our language reveals more truth than we might imagine. We “go to a worship service” – that isn’t what Rom 12 talks about! We sing “worship songs” – that’s not there either! We meet in a “place of worship” – I don’t read about that in Rom 12! I’m not saying that those are not a valid part of worship, but my friends they must be a small part simply by the amount of time each week we do that! We each have 112 waking hours in a week, assuming 8hrs/sleep. Our “worship service” is supposed to be 75 minutes long. That is 1.3%. God doesn’t want our worship 1% of the time, He wants it 100%. That is what Paul means by “offer your bodies as living sacrifices” – it is our whole selves, our whole time, our whole love. Loving God through worship means living a lifestyle of worship.
How do we put legs on that vision? As a church we have two primary ministries devoted to helping us love God through worship. The first is what we do during that 1% of the time when we gather corporately to participate in an activity we call “worship” – here I am talking about our 9:30am Sunday worship service. How do we make it a “lifestyle”? We try to relate it to life. I spend an average of 8hrs each week preparing a message that I pray will motivate/teach/inspire you to live a Christian lifestyle, which is “your spiritual act of worship”. We pray for one another, deeply and meaningfully, and we choose songs and music which we believe will relate to our lives and culture and which will be consistent to what we listen to during the rest of the week. According to the NCD survey I mentioned earlier, this is an area we need to spend more time on, but that is why we currently do what we currently do.
Here is the vision God has for that 1% of our week: that we fix our eyes on Him alone. That we give Him our undivided attention, loyalty, fidelity, time, and that we choose to express our love for Him as we gather with people we love to be reminded again of who God is and what God has done. SO THAT we can continue to love Him the other 99% of our week.
Does that excite you? Do you have a gift God could use here? To put on a service requires a great deal of effort – from the essential “first impressions” of a greeter, to the warm welcome of an usher, to technical people like sound and visual, to coffee hosts, etc.. Do you have a gift God could use here?
The second major worship ministry we have at Laurier is what we call “2nd Hour”. This also happens on Sunday morning, during the “2nd hour” that we are together. Here the vision completely matches the philosophy: worship is a lifestyle, so how do we do that? How could we see all the various aspects of life as an act of worship? The 2nd Hour ministry is about moving outside the “boundaries” of thinking of worship as something we do for 1.3% of our week, and learning to see our entire lives as worship, “living sacrifices”. Worship is a lifestyle lived in obedient response to who God is – so preparing food (especially when the express purpose is to communicate love and care to others) becomes an act of worship. Read a man named “Brother Lawrence” for more on that. Beginning to really see the beauty that God has placed around us, such as happens when we paint a landscape or mold clay into pottery, opens us up to the very real presence of God all around. St. Francis of Assisi teaches us about that. Cleaning a bunch of broken, dangerous twigs to make our grounds more beautiful and more safe becomes an act of worship when the people involved recognize that their service is received by God as done unto Him. Now let me be clear – none of those activities in and of themselves is an act of worship – but when they are led by a person who understands how they could be an act of worship, and with an intention to lead people into a lifestyle of worship that transcends the boundaries of Sunday morning, it is a powerful thing.
Does that excite you? Do you have a gift God could use here?
Loving Each Other To Fruitfulness: The Church As A Greenhouse
Rom 12 continues in verse 3 with a shift. Paul is now talking about how we relate to one another. “3For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. 4Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his[b]faith. 7If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
9Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.”
There is a ton of great stuff in that passage – recognizing our interdependence, recognizing that we are each gifted yet are not to be proud, recognizing the incredibly high standard God sets for us – “hate evil, cling to good, be devoted to one another, put others ahead of self, never be lacking in enthusiasm, share…” Here at Laurier we sum that all up by saying: “Love each other to fruitfulness.” Paul used the words, “each member belongs to all the others”, and then went on to describe specific gifts and how to use them for the benefit of one another. To bear fruit for the Kingdom of God.
We have a lot of ministries that fall under this category. We have a Sunday school, with a vision of loving our kids and teaching them so that they have a strong foundation. We have a women’s ministry which exists to build loving relationships amongst and between the women of our church. We have youth ministries where we are incredibly active in building bonds of love between our teens, and with Godly leaders. We have a weekly prayer meeting, an email prayer chain, and many people organized into groups of three to pray and care for one another. All of those exist to enable us to love one another deeply, so that our lives can bear fruit. Do any of those excite you? Do you have a gift God could use here?
The largest ministry in this area is our family groups. Two years ago we cast a vision for us as a church to create places of belonging, places where we could let down the walls and allow people to see who we really are, places where we could begin to share our lives together. It has been a mighty move of God, which we continue to celebrate. We have heard about many ways that we have experienced the deep love and tangible care of people in our family groups. I want to just share one example that shows the depth of loving relationships – I know of two of our family groups whose relationships have grown so deep and significant that they have gone on holidays with one another this summer. This is probably the clearest place where we answer the question, “how now must we love”, in terms of loving one another – we love by being a part of one another’s lives, by journeying together through the struggles and the joys, by investing time with one another. And as those relationships go deep, we can encourage one another towards fruitfulness. Pastor Sue is working hard right now on getting these organized and launched again for September, and needs to hear from each of you about your experience in family groups and your desire to be a part of them in this coming year. Especially if you are not currently involved.
As great as family groups are, however, sometimes there are needs for love and care that for whatever reason fall outside of that place of care. So, with the Elders Board’s encouragement, I’m starting a “care team” whose main job will be to attempt to make sure that “no one falls through a crack”. We are going to meet the first Wednesday of every month, at 7:30 following our prayer time, to coordinate this ministry. I need people with gifts of administration, mercy, and encouragement, to join in. Does that excite you? Do you have a gift God could use here?
Loving Others Into The Kingdom: The Church As A Hospital
Paul ends chapter 12 with instruction about relating to people outside of “the body”. Verse 14 makes the shift – now we are talking about those who have not yet believed the message of Jesus. “14Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.[c] Do not be conceited.
17Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"[d]says the Lord. 20On the contrary:
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."[e] 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
One of the things I notice in this section is how involved Paul is commanding us to be. The message is the opposite of isolation from those who are outside of the Kingdom of God – it is a message of involvement, relationship, interaction. Look at the specifics: “when persecuted, bless” – not walk away, not avoid, not disassociate, but bless. Next is the command to be involved in life together, rejoicing and mourning in relationship with others. It is explicit in crossing socio-economic barriers in verse 16 – “be willing to associate with people of low position”. “Live at peace.” Verse 20 talks about sharing meals – this would not have been a handout to a food bank, this would have been having these people into your home. And verse 21 is the climax – overcome evil with good. Get out there, interact with people, love them, become involved in their life, and be good to people.
That, my friends, is what I mean when I talk about loving people into the Kingdom of God. That is our vision of evangelism.
So what ministries do we have as a church that put legs on this part of our vision? Hmmm. Good question. Our youth ministry is one, in our regular groups but also in our Youth Activity Center which we open up every lunch hour to students from the junior high across the road, with the goal of having a Christian there who gets involved, shares life, rejoicing and mourning with junior high students from our community. Our Mom’s morning out ministry is another, where a team of Christian moms from our church create a place to foster those relationships with other moms at a time of life that is difficult and draining. Our Summer Day Camp is a third, where we focus on building relationships of love with campers and their families so that their experience of church and Christians is one characterized by love above all. Throughout the year there are a couple of annual events that we target specifically at those outside of the church, such as our Christmas Eve service, and our spring tea.
Do any of those excite you? Do you have a gift God could use here?
There is one more, which might surprise you. Did any of you notice that in the “worship” section above I only spoke about our 9:30 service? The reason is because we started our second service, the 11:15 one, out of a vision for evangelism. Out of an understanding of who the people in our community are, and what vehicle might invite them into the Kingdom of God. The primary reason was not so that we could offer different service types for ourselves, fo me it was truly driven by a vision for evangelism. We created a more traditional service, because our immediate community has a high percentage of people who are over 55 years of age and so we expect that a more traditional service might appeal to them and draw them either into the Kingdom of God, or else back into the Kingdom of God. This might surprise some of you, because we sort of lost that vision a little as we got into the details. And so we never really got too far in making that service known, in inviting, in publicizing. It is vitally important to me, and it is an attempt on my part to use whatever gifts and skills I have to reach out to people outside of our church. But, in order to see this vision become a reality, I need some help. I can’t do much more with this then I currently am, and I need some people to join along to communicate, to invite, to serve in that service, to be a part of that service and build relationships with the people who come, to pick up seniors and drive them, to befriend them and visit with them, to start a relationship (which, by the way, I can almost guarantee you will benefit from more than you give to), to phone when they are not here and let them know they were missed.
Does that excite you? Do you have a gift God could use here?
Again, the vision in all of those is simply that they would foster relationships of love and involvement in one another’s lives, and that as we share life with others they would see something of who God is and would desire that relationship with Him that you and I have.
An Invitation To Engagement:
I warned you in the beginning that I might be blunt, so here I go… God has loved you, adopted you as His child, and given you the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now God demands our love in return, and instructs us to demonstrate our love in selfless service to others. Some of us have gone into a “receiving” mode instead of a “giving” mode. Some of us have not been “devoted to one another in brotherly love.” Some of us have been looking for people to meet our needs instead of “Honor(ing) one another above ourselves.” Some of us have lost our “zeal” and our “spiritual fervor”. Some of us have not remained “joyful in hope”, some of us have not been “patient in affliction”, some of us have not been “faithful in prayer.”
I want to invite you to change that. To recapture your understanding of who God is, and to live authentically in response to God by selflessly serving others.
When God gave you the gift of the Holy Spirit, He also placed within you a specific personality and gift and capacity and He expects you to use it to serve Him. When you don’t, your disobedience costs the Kingdom of God.
But when you do, eternities are changed. You discover what it means to be alive, to be full of joy, to be full of purpose and significance and belonging instead of loneliness and hopelessness and purposelessness.
I invite you to engage. To use your gift to serve Your King – not in all these areas, but maybe in one, or two, or three. And then to enjoy as God uses you to build His Kingdom.
