INTRODUCTION
A man walks into a restaurant and takes a seat. A waiter approaches him and asks, “What would you like sir?” The customer replies, “I would like a rotting egg, a bowl of extra greasy chips and a burnt sausage?” In shock the waiter responds, “But sir I could never give such awful food.” To which the customer states, “Why not, you did yesterday.” Do you ever wonder what ever happened to customer service? You go into a store to shop, but you don’t see what you need, so you ask an employee if the item can be ordered? and they say, “I’m sorry but we have no control over our inventory, the main office decides what we are to stock.” So you are forced to buy not what you wanted but what the store had in stock. Then when the item doesn’t work you call the service number but instead of getting an operator you must instead listen through a long list of directions and number pushing. And still your questions go unanswered. What ever happened to customer service? There used to be a day when you drove into a gas station and an energetic young man would walk up to your car and while cleaning your windows free of charge would ask, “Fill Her Up?” So has the day of customer service, the day when the customer came first, passed us by? Not on your life says the prophet Joel. Speaking on behalf of the creator of Heaven and Earth the prophet Joel declares, “Be glad, O people of Zion, rejoice in the LORD your God, for he has given you the autumn rains in righteousness. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains.” Joel wishes to remind us that when it comes to the Lord our God, customer service has never been better. God continues to provide blessings upon blessings, day in and day out. Our country is going through a difficult time. A time filled with fear and doubt. We wonder if it’s safe to go to work, to open our mail, to trust our neighbors. But even in the midst of all this trauma and terror we all still get up each morning expecting the sun to rise, the seasons to change, and the earth to orbit the sun.
In ages past God signed a contract with His people, the Bible calls it a covenant. A contract that bound a people to one God and the one and only God to those He had chosen to be His people. The covenant stated that if we would worship God and only God and obey His commandments then God would look after us and provide for us all that we needed for life and liberty. At first we said “Yes” but later we changed our minds. And so today we all live in a world that has chosen to turned away from God’s way, to go instead our own way. And yet God has continued from the first day of creation to keep His part of the covenant to provide us with His gift of life. Though we have all denied Him He still acknowledges us as his children. Though we have all turned our backs on Him He continues to seek us out. Though this human customer is always in the wrong, God has not stopped providing us the best divine service on this earth. During the Passover Meal every year faithful Jews sing a song called Dayenu which means “It would have been enough” When I say Dayenu, you repeat the line “It would have been enough” Rejoice, and give thanks to the Almighty for the great things done for us. Had God brought us out from Egypt and not executed judgment on them. Dayenu, It would have been enough! Had God executed judgment on them and not parted the Red Sea for us. Dayenu, It would have been enough! Had God parted the Red Sea for us and not brought us through dry shod. Dayenu, It would have been enough! For fifteen lines the song recalls how God had lead the Jewish people from being slaves in Egypt to become the people of God. Once they were not God’s people but now they were because God had fulfilled the promise he had made to Abraham. But what God had promised was but the beginning of what God had in mind for those who would be His people. For through the prophet Joel God also promised that in some future time
‘I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
So on the night Jesus gathered with his disciples to celebrate the Passover meal Jesus took the cup and after giving thanks said, “This cup is my renewed covenant my blood shed for the forgiveness of your sins whenever you drink of it do it in remembrance of me.” If God had only come in human form as a baby born in a manger. Dayenu, It would have been enough! If Christ had only died upon the cross paying the price for our sin. Dayenu, It would have been enough! If God had only sent His Spirit to fill us with divine power. Dayenu, It would have been enough! If God had only formed us as the body of Christ, His church. Dayenu, It would have been enough! But when it comes to God, He hasn’t even come close to giving us all that He has for us. Companies today like to banish their “Mission Statements” in the attempt to convince their customers that they have their best interest at heart. The best mission statement ever given was by a carpenter from Galilee who said, “I have come to give them life, and life abundantly.” This was not a new
promise but a very old one. For this carpenter was the Son of God, and he had been sent
by his heavenly Father to renew a very ancient covenant. We have all received life, we
experience it each and every day as the sun rises and the rain falls, as the seasons turn and the earth is renewed. Life, a free gift from God, given each and every day. Life you have, but are you experiencing abundant life? That which we call the Spirit Filled Life. A life
that Jesus described when he said,
give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall they give into your bosom. For with what measure you give out
it shall be measured to you again
How many of us make the mistake of thinking that when we talk about God and the church that we are talking about budgets and committees and fund-raisers. But Christ came into this world to talk to us about forgiveness and redemption and divine power. Church is not about what we do by the power of our own hands, but is about what God can do through us by the power of His Divine Spirit. God longs to fill all of us with His divine Spirit of power. An endless power source stored in an earthen vessel, pressed down, shaken together, running over. But there is a catch here, for us to receive this gift we must be willing to give it away, for Jesus says, “with what measure you give out it shall be measured to you again.” How often has God seen us spiritually empty and come by to say, “fill her up?” And we have said, “No thank you. I have all that I need” And so we run around trying to do by the flesh what only can be done by the Spirit. And so God waits for us to ask from Him what He longs to give us, the power of His divine presence. So let me ask you, Do you want to see this church grow? Would you like to see enough income to cover all our church needs? Do you long to see our church give more towards missions? Then above all else this is what we must do, together we must drawn nigh unto God and ask Him to fill us up with His divine Spirit by which we are transformed from the inside out and from an inward focused to one that is outward. For it’s when we are willing to give away what God has already given us that we find that God’s giving has no end. A church in Texas began learned this truth through its involvement with relief efforts in Honduras after Hurricane Mitch. Thanks to the church’s new mission orientation, the attendance at worship quadrupled from 500 to 2000. At a middle-sized church in the mid-Atlantic region, transformation occurred when a congregation whose members were of European descent began to welcome all who lived in the church’s community. Through a series of church gatherings that celebrated the different cultures in the area, the church learned not only to embrace ethnic diversity but to celebrate it in Bible studies, worship, and youth fellowship. Worship attendance grew by 60 percent. If it happened there, it can happen here. All God asks is “Can I fill you up?”