APRIL 24 MISSION DEFINED-- S.P.U.D.
Matthew 25:31-40
How many of you remember playing with Mr. Potato Head?
My brother and I had one on the farm.
We nicknamed him SPUD.
Spud was a real friend to us:
We could make him into whatever face we wanted.
We could make SPUD smile.
We could make SPUD frown.
If we were mad at our brother or sister we
Could make SPUD look with evil intent.
We could even make SPUD look like a cross dresser.
But SPUD THE POTATO head was a friend to us.
He became whatever it was we needed.
Similar to counselors today use puppets in helping children.
Did you know that Mr. Potato Head was the first toy to be advertised on television.
Well today I want to talk about Missions—giving to others
And PARTICULARLY ABOUT A POTATO MISSION.
You learned today that our fourth Sunday offering goes
to an Advance Special of the United Methodist church
The society Of SAINT ANDREW.
All our loose cash offering and designated checks today will go toward this mission.
Saint Andrews fights hunger in the United States through three program’s
Potato project
Gleaning Network
Harvest of hope.
This mission group salvages fresh produce that would otherwise go to waste.
And is delivered to the needy through a network of volunteers
which includes youth from North and south Dakota.
Last fall in Mitchell, nearly 300 high school students unloaded and sorted 11 tons of potatoes salvaged from fields in the Red River Valley in North Dakota.
What do we know about potatoes?
The Potato has had a bad rap in the past.
Potatoes came out of the Andes Mountains of South America.
They were noticed because of their ability to grow in tough climates,
Up to 15,000 feet, and in poor soil condition.
It wasn’t until 1537 that Western man come in contact with the potato
when the Conquistadors tramped through Peru.
And in 1570 that it made its way across the Atlantic to make its start in Europe.
And in 1719 made their first appearance in North America
in Londonderry, New Hampshire with the Irish.
The early potatoes were considered food for the poor and underclasses.
They were used primarily to feed hospital inmates.
Part of its bad reputation was that the potato is a member of the nightshade family
and its leaves are poisonous.
When left in the sun a potato will turn green with Solanine
which causes a bitter taste and can cause illness in humans.
Antoine Augustine Parmentier a chemist and pharmacist,
overcame the potatoes bad rap for the French
when he acquired a miserable and unproductive spot of ground outside of Paris.
There, he planted 50 acres of potatoes.
During the day, he set a guard over it.
This drew considerable attention in the neighborhood.
In the evening the guard was relaxed and the locals came to see
what all the fuss was about.
Believing this plant must be valuable, many peasants
"stole" some of the potatoes from the plot,
and soon were growing the root in their own garden plots.
Curiosity overcame their resistance and today the potato is a
Major food stuff of the world. Coming in brown, yellow, pink, red, and purple or "blue".
And containing a fistful of nine healthy vitamins:
so common, plentiful that the potato is taken for granted in our Western world.
(((Vitamin C 45%Thiamin 10%Niacin 8%Vitamin B6 14%Folacin 14%Panthothenic Acid %Phosphorous 6%Magnesium 12%Iron 9% )))
The potato is truly a servant of God to mankind.
Especially when used to feed the poor.
So let me help you remember our Christian mission
With the word SPUD
S—IS FOR SERVICE
SERVICE:
In his book, The Jesus Style,
Gayle D. Erwin described servanthood this way:
"A servant’s job is to do all he can to make life better for others –
to free them to be everything they can be.
A servant’s first interest is not in himself but others …
Servanthood is a loving choice we make to minister to others."
God has called us to service.
We are not to be in this world for ourselves.
But to serve others.
Jesus admonished Peter three times.
Feed my Lambs
Take care of my sheep
Feed my sheep. John 21:15-17
Proverbs 29:7 The righteous care about justice for the poor,
but the wicked have no such concern.
A good example of this is our Salvation Army Food Pantry offering.
1. You have given over 110 pounds of canned items just this month
Not including the Superbowl giving
Along with your offering of over $200 a month to help feed the poor in Aberdeen.
2. The YWAM mission team that was here.
moved over 1000 lbs of household items,
Clean a house from top to bottom and removed
Another ton of materials from our own church basement.
As an example of youth ministry.
3. Robbie Gellhaus asked our UMWomen to bake over 60 banana breads
delivered to Lincoln School for a nutritional break during test week.
4. This past year we gave 100 shoeboxes to Samaritan Purse to children around the world and 66 Angel tree gifts to children in our area whose parents are in prison.
5. Our Baby Shower of Love gave over 150 baby items of clothing, diapers, shampoo, toys to the Women’s Shelter and Birthright.
6. Over 140 blankets were purchased for victims of Southeast Asia Tsunami
and the UMC has given over 15 million to the Tsunami relief through UMCOR.
7. Over $1000 to Gideons for Bible outreach in hospitals, hotel, prisons and schools.
8. Over $1000 went to the Aberdeen Boys and Girls club.
9. A flock of chicks was given by fourth grade Sunday school class for Heifer Project International. These chicken by the age of 6 months can lay 200 eggs a year.
This summer our VBS will be helping SPURS.
10. Each of our soldiers families received Target gift cards and phones cards.
11. We supported a Refugee from Liberia,.
11. This month were giving to potatoes for the poor. and assisting a local person with clothing and household items who was just released from Prison
Matthew 10:42 Jesus said: If anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.
25:40 I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.
If God has blessed you with resources and
Put you in a church that has a mission need
Then you know what your place is.
It seems like we can travel, buy new houses and furniture.
Carpets and lamps even automobiles and guns and boats.
But we can’t give to the church in its mission outreach
Or our capital fund campaign for future missions.
Were like commuters who ride in another person’s car,
But don’t want to help with the gas.
Not only are you doing mission today,
But your example prepares your children to do it tomorrow.
CS Lewis put it this way,
“The rule for all of us is fairly simple: do not waste time bothering whether you love your neighbor; act as if you did.
At the heart of service is our willingness to go out of our way to meet a need in someone’s life and to accomplish something that needs to be done.
1. S IS FOR SERVICE
2. P IS FOR PURPOSE
Mission defined is --A specific task with which a person or a group is charged.
P stands for Purpose
Service without a purpose is wasted effort.
Mark 9:37 whoever welcome one of these little children in my name welcome me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.
We can give a cup of water
We can clothe the naked.
We can even have our bodies burned in protest of something we think importent.
But without a purpose connected to the kingdom of God.
It’s wasted effort.
A noisy gong or clanging cymbal
Potatoes given in the love of Christ.
Become tools where we share the kingdom of God.
We don’t just feed a person physically.
Jesus said the poor you have with you always.
But to give to have opportunity to share a relationship with Jesus.
We give clothes, money, jobs and a hands up in Jesus name.
To help others come to know Jesus as we know him!
Paul said this in Romans 1:16:
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
John 10:10 - The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
OUR MISSIONS HAVE PURPOSE.
WE ARE SPUD BASED.
SERVICE
PURPOSE
U—IS FOR UNITY
Another definition for Mission was:
Mission-- A body of persons sent to perform a service or carry on an activity.
One person can give 5 pounds of potatoes OR
Can pick a bushel.
But a united effort can clean a field, even feed a nation.
One acre of potatoes can feed a family of 10 people.
When we join together we become a great force for the kingdom of God.
The church united will never fail.
But when were caught alone.
Like Peter in the courtyard.
And the world crowds around us.
Fear abounds, faith fails and all it takes is a little waitress, or cleaning lady.
To take us down.
It was at a family reunion that a lot of pictures were taken.When the lady took them to the photo place she asked if they could be touched up.
“Wrinkles and such?” “Yes” he said:
Well she said: “Could you take about 30 pounds off of me?” “Yes” he said: And she said: “Could you put them on my sister?”
That is not what we call a united family.
WE NEED ALL OF US UNITED IN MISSION.
D IS FOR --DEPLOYMENT
We all know what the meaning of this word is:
In a few months the 450th artillery branch of our Army Reserve will be deployed.
That means they will report for duty.
But more than that they will actually move out.
And move into the world of danger where our troops are needed.
To maintain and assure that the Iraq people have a chance at freedom and democracy.
Do we like war?
No?
Can we sit by and watch the world persecute and destroy people?
No.
We are called to lay down our lives for others.
To do it in the name of Christ.
We must deploy.
And we must deploy for missions:
A one-legged school teacher by the name of George Scott
came to J. Hudson Taylor to offer himself for service in China.
Taylor ask him: "With only one leg, why do you think you can go as a missionary?"
George Scott replied: "Because, I do not see those with two legs going,"
And he was accepted for mission to China.
On the farm our family would gather for supper and Dad would talk with us
About bailing hay.
But in morning dad would deploy us.
We talked about cleaning the cow barn or the chicken house.
But in the morning Dad deployed us to do it.
It didn’t matter the smell.
It didn’t matter the heat
It didn’t matter the dirt.
We did it we were deployed.
We Christian must step up where we’re needed.
IT takes more than talking about tithing.
IT takes more than talking about mission.
Its takes us willing to deploy with action.
1 Thessalonians 2:8 says that we loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God, but OUR LIVES AS WELL!"
Unless we deliver the potatoes
They won’t do anyone any good.
We must go all the way through.
In 1921, Lewis Lawes became the warden at Sing Sing Prison.
No prison was tougher than Sing Sing during that time.
But when Warden Lawes retired some 20 years later,
that prison had become a humanitarian institution.
Those who studied the system said credit for the change belonged to Lawes.
But when he was asked about the transformation, here’s what he said:
“I owe it all to my wonderful wife, Catherine, who is buried outside the prison walls.”
Catherine Lawes was a young mother with three small children
when her husband became the warden.
Everybody warned her from the beginning that she should never
set foot inside the prison walls, but that didn’t stop Catherine!
When the first prison basketball game was held, she went….
walking into the gym with her three beautiful kids
and she sat in the stands with the inmates.
Her attitude was: “My husband and I are going to take care of these men and I believe they will take care of me! I don’t have to worry!”
She insisted on getting acquainted with them and their records.
She discovered one convicted murderer was blind
so she paid him a visit. Holding his hand in hers she said,
“Do you read Braille?”
“What’s Braille?” he asked. Then she taught him how to read.
Years later he would weep in love for her.
Later, Catherine found a deaf-mute in prison.
She went to school to learn how to use sign language.
Many said that Catherine Lawes was the body of Jesus
that came alive again in Sing Sing from 1921 to 1937.
Then, she was killed in a car accident.
The next morning Lewis Lawes didn’t come to work,
so the acting warden took his place.
It seemed almost instantly that the prison knew something was wrong.
The following day, her body was resting in a casket in her home,
three-quarters of a mile from the prison.
As the acting warden took his early morning walk,
he was shocked to see a large crowd of the toughest,
hardest looking criminals gathered like a herd of animals at the main gate.
He came closer and noted tears of grief and sadness.
He knew how much they loved Catherine.
He turned and faced the men,
“All right, men, you can go. Just be sure and check in tonight!”
The he opened the gate and a parade of criminals walked,
without a guard, the three-quarters of a mile to stand in line
to pay their final respects to Catherine Lawes.
And every one of them checked back in. Every one!
WHAT KIND OF SPUD ARE YOU TODAY?
With a smile upside down and heart that empty?
No joy, no plan in life.
Or maybe a devious heart that’s cold,
And biting
Or just Clowning around to avoid that which is serious.
Christ wants us to have a face with a smile.
A heart full of Joy
And Hands full of service for children of God.
Let’s be in mission with
SERVICE-PURPOSE-UNITY AND
DEPLOYMENT.
