Sunday Morning February 17, 2002 Bel Aire Baptist Church
Series: Who Is Jesus Christ? [#2]
TARGET GROUP
1 Timothy 1:15-17
Introduction:
1. Last week we learned that Jesus did not come to this earth to make us better. Jesus came to resurrect us from the dead.
2. Jesus said He came to seek and save that which was lost.
3. As I shared with you, God has burdened me about our worship. God has also burdened me about our target group.
4. What is a target group? That is simply the group of people our church is trying to reach here at Bel Aire Baptist Church.
5. Our church is surveyed a couple of times each year and in everyone of these surveys, I am asked what our target group is from a list of choices. The choices go something like this:
Ø Ages: Youth/ 20-40yrs./ 40-60yrs./ Senior Adults
Ø Race: White/ Black/ Hispanic/ Other
Ø Gender: Male/ Female
Ø Marital Status: Single/ Married/ Single-again/ Widowed
Ø Family Annual Income: 0-$10,000/ $10,000-$20,000/ $20,000-$50,000/ $50,000 +
6. Talk about a lot of choices. I recently took a survey over the telephone that asked these five questions about our church’s target. After answering the questions, I asked the person on the phone what the typical responses were from other Southern Baptist Churches. She laughed and said, “Take a guess.” Here’s what I said, “20-40 year old white man that is married with an annual income of $50,000 +.” She again laughed and said, “That was easy wasn’t it?”
7. Church, why is this? It’s easy. Our church does want to grow right? How better to grow than with people that have money, big families, and lots of energy to do things. This is how it is, right? You may shake your head no or be thinking no, but it must be true because that is what we do.
8. Since Jesus is the Savior of the world, then would you agree with me that we should follow in His footsteps?
9. When I go hunting and I am walking out across grass and weeds up to my waist and my boys are with me, I always tell them to walk in my footsteps. Why? If there is a snake hidden in that grass or a hole that can’t be seen I want to be the one that finds it. I do that because I want to protect my boys from getting hurt. If someone is going to get hurt, then I want it to be me not my kids. Jesus is like that with us. Jesus left footprints for us to follow. I know these are not actual footprints, but we can follow Jesus’ ministry through the Scripture. This morning we are going to follow Jesus to three places and identify what His target group was and then we will be able to recognize what our target group should be.
Footprints To The Tax Collector’s Home
Matthew And Friends
1. In Matthew 9:10-13 we find a set of Jesus’ footprints leading into the home of one of the newly called disciples. This disciple, Matthew, was a tax collector and he had invited Jesus and his friends over to his home for dinner.
2. You can find out a lot about a person by the kinds of people he socializes with.
3. Here we find Jesus and His disciples eating and fellowshipping with tax collectors and sinners. No big deal right? That’s not how the religious leaders felt. To them it was a huge offense.
Tax Collectors
1. During this time in history, the government would fix an amount due from each province or area and sell the right to collect the tax. The highest bidder then hired tax collectors from the local population. The way these tax collectors made money was to collect more than was due to the government and pocket the rest. These “crooks” were obviously hated by their fellow citizens.
2. This would make these tax collectors thieves and liars.
3. So we find in this passage that Jesus is associating with thieves, liars, and other sinners that we are not given specifics about.
Sinners
1. The one thing I can tell you about these sinners is that they were obviously not religious people because it was the religious leaders who were upset about this situation.
2. So Jesus is “hanging out” with the non-religious, thieves, and liars.
Footprints To Follow
1. Look at verses 11-13.
2. Jesus tells the religious leaders that they obviously feel like they do not need any spiritual guidance and so they don’t need His help, but those terrible sinners and tax collectors need Him.
3. Verse 13 tells us that Jesus isn’t concerned about our religious rituals. Jesus’ motives were to help those that needed help not those that thought they already had it all figured out.
4. It is extremely important that we recognize the fact that Jesus is concerned about the lost, not the religious. If we are making our target group the religious and those who are attending some other church that could help us in some way then we are wrong. If our church is designed for the saved then we are confused. Jesus was associating with those who needed a Savior. How about us?
5. Are we here to serve the needs of the lost so that we can lead them to Jesus or are we here to be comfortable?
6. What did Jesus do?
Footprints To The Well
Samaritan Woman
1. In John 4 we follow the footprints of Jesus to Jacob’s well in Sychar. There we find Jesus speaking to a woman who was a Samaritan. What’s the problem with this?
2. For one, Jewish people hated the Samaritans. They were considered half-breeds. This was discrimination at its best.
3. It was also a “bad thing” for a woman to talk to a rabbi in public. Not even the rabbi’s wife could speak to him in public.
4. So here we see our Savior breaking the traditions of culture and religion.
5. Who is Jesus’ target? A Samaritan woman. Not only was Jesus talking to a Samaritan woman, but this woman had been married five times and was currently living with a man that she was not married to.
Footprints To Follow
1. Jesus did not stop there. Instead of eating Jesus ministered to the Samaritans. Do you see any convenience on the part of Jesus here?
2. If our ministry is one to just certain types of people or certain colors of people, or certain genders we are in trouble. Ministry is not meant to be convenient. We may have to do things in order to minister to the lost that are completely inconvenient. I find that when we are concerned for the lost our time schedule doesn’t mean a whole lot.
3. Read with me in verses 39-42. See, through the witness of one person who Jesus changed came many converts.
4. We must stop worrying about our convenience and tell those that are before us about Jesus. Not only will Jesus honor that, but through the witness of that one might come many more believers.
5. Are we here out of comfort or convenience? What about Jesus?
6. Let’s continue our journey.
Footprints To The Cross
Jesus Christ
1. In Luke 23:26 we again find the footprints of Jesus, but this time there is blood along side of these footprints. As you follow these footprints up the hill of Golgotha you find that they end at the cross. On this hill that day stood three crosses. The cross in the middle is where Jesus hung. Jesus could have had angels taken Him off the cross. Jesus could have killed everyone there and got off the cross. But instead of quitting or changing His mind we see Jesus say in verse 34, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
2. At a time that Jesus was being killed for no reason, He asked God to forgive them. How crazy is that? Would any of us in here do that? You may say that you would, but I’m not so sure.
3. Jesus loved those people so much that He did not care what they were doing to Him, but cared for their souls. If we are going to follow in the steps of Jesus, we are to be concerned about souls and not social status.
4. There was nothing more important to Jesus than the salvation of the lost. That is why He came to this earth.
Footprints To Follow
How important is the salvation of the lost to us?
What is the target group of our church?
Conclusion:
1. God ask His children to be His hands, His feet, His tongue, etc… to a lost and dying world. Statements such as “that type of person doesn’t fit in here” or “all we ever do is cater to ________________” are not statements that God wants to hear.
2. Yes, we should cater to the lost and it doesn’t matter what color they are, how much money they make, whether they are married or single, how many kids they do or don’t have, what kind of talents they can offer our church, how old they are, whether they have a drinking or drug problem, a prison record, a terrible past, or anything else you can think of.
3. Christians, we must stop trying to shape our church like we want and allow God to shape it in how He sees fit. Christians, we must stop worrying about our comfort and our convenience and start being concerned about the souls of the dying.
4. If you are here this morning and you are dead in your sins and have no hope, I want to tell you that Jesus can make you alive. I also want to tell you that Jesus died for you. No matter how bad you think you are, Jesus died for you.
5. In a moment after the prayer, Mark is going to sing a song that says, “Come Just As You Are” and that is how God wants you to come this morning. You cannot change yourself but Jesus can make you alive.
