22 June, 2010

WHY SHOULD WE INVITE OTHERS TO CHURCH?

                 Mark 16:9-15
As humans, we tend to divide people into those we like and those we don’t like. But God’s attitude is quite different! Psalm 145:9 says, “The Lord is good to everyone! He showers compassion on ALL his creation!
There is a common story about a beach which was covered with stranded starfish, and one solitary boy who would bend over every so often and pick up one of the fish and toss it into the water, to give it a chance to live! A man came along and said why are you wasting your time with that one fish when there are countless thousands stranded here? What does one fish matter? The boy looked down at the one fish in his hand and said, “It matters to this one!”
Likewise, Jesus says in Luke 15:7, “There is rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents!” He calls on us to be “fishers of men” – that is to seek out the lost on a one-to-one basis! We are not called to be daunted by the millions out there who are lost, but rather to do our bit in reaching out to them one at a time!
I once attended a meeting at the Sydney Town Hall, where Anglicans across Sydney were invited to meet their new archbishop!  I have to admit that I was rather cynical about the whole deal, especially when the MC for the evening said, “If you’d like to ask the new archbishop a question, just grab a pen and paper and put your special question in this box for him!” I thought to myself, “What makes this man such an expert. I’m going to ask him the most difficult question I can, and let’s see how he deals with it! I put my question down on paper, and surprisingly, it was drawn out of the box and the archbishop addressed it! I had asked, “How can we Christians, who are relatively few in number, hope to reach the millions of people in Sydney with the Good News of Jesus?” the archbishop replied:  “Every person living in Sydney probably knows at least one Christian – whether it be the local shopkeeper, the lady at the bus stop, the quiet bloke at work, or a student at our school or college.” If every one of these Christians sets a godly example, it’s possible that those around us may one day ask us a question, which gives us a chance to testify to our faith!”
The question we need to ask ourselves is, “Do I set a godly example to those around me, or do I just mimic the behaviour of the crowd?” We also need to ask, “Do I care about those around me, or do I just live for myself – doing what I want when I want?” The answers to these questions measure us against the most important command of Jesus:  GO into all the world and preach the good news to all creation!” This is Jesus one law of love in action! The most loving thing we can do for others is to  share Jesus with them – both in words and in the way we live! What did Mary Magdalene and the two disciples on the road to Emmaus do, after they fully realised Jesus had risen from the dead?
The Apostle Paul took this command so seriously that in Acts 20:24 he said, “But life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned to me by the Lord Jesus – the work of telling others the Good News about God’s almighty kindness and love!”  If this is how a Christian must rate his/her life, how many of us would have to rate our lives as nothing? Can we truly say, “I brought such and such a person to Jesus,” or would we have to admit that we haven’t even tried! If we want to translate this opportunity into practice, we could ask, “How many people have I invited along to this church?” If your name is James, you have probably invited ten different people here since we started ten months ago! And many others here have brought people along! But if we are to remain a living church, we have to invite people all the time, because we’re already losing Annie to Queensland this week, we lost Ivan to Brazil recently and we shall lose Joseph and Christine back to Sweden later in the year! Every church loses people as they go to other states or countries, but every church that lives must grow! And every living church points people to Jesus! If I were to embarrass you by asking for a show of hands if you have invited someone along (and I won’t), could you raise your hand?
If we can’t bring ourselves to tell people about Jesus, we can SHOW them Jesus by the way we live!  Pastor Doug Nichols was in an Indian hospital, and no-one wanted to hear him talk about Jesus. But one day when he helped a very sick man who was fouling his bed, to get to the toilet, people started to take notice, and then they began to ask him questions about Jesus!
WHY REACH OUT?
1.       Each human soul is worth more than anything else in the world! Jesus actually says in Matthew 16:26, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his own soul?”
2.       Any soul who is lost is lost for eternity – separated from God forever! Do we wish this of our family and friends?
3.       Jesus died for every person ever born! Why should anyone miss out on what He offers?
4.       Heaven offers glories beyond our imagination. We would write, “Wish you were here!”
5.       Jesus promises that when the Gospel  reaches all nations and peoples, the end will come!
6.       As we reach out to others, we GROW in the faith – even if we don’t know the results.
(The story of the old man who reached out in George St Sydney)
If we KNOW the Gospel, we can GO, SHOW, GROW!
WHAT CAN WE DO?
We can bring others to learn about Jesus, and hopefully give their lives to Him! Are you willing to do your bit by inviting someone you know to join us for a future service? Are you willing to stop mimicking the world’s behaviour and start reflecting Jesus in your life? Are you willing to be part of an outreach team in Kings Cross? Can you do one, or two, or even all three of these things?

14 June, 2010

WHAT CAN JESUS OFFER OUR WORLD?

A very kind doctor used to keep an account book, and every so often would go through the accounts to check which bills hadn’t been paid.  Whenever he found an account where the patient could not pay the bill, the doctor would simply put a red line through it and write alongside, “Forgiven, umable to pay”. After his death, his wife went through the book and decided that she could benefit from all these outstanding debts. She therefore went to the local courthouse to sue the debtors for the money in the civil claims court – which is where I often work. But the magistrate looked at the doctor’s account book and said, “No court in the world will give you a verdict against those people, when your husband, with his own pen has written, “Forgiven, unable to pay”!
Likewise, Jesus, in His Book of Life, has acknowledged against each of our names, “Forgiven, unable to pay for our sins!” He knows that although we deserve to go to God’s prison (called Hell) to pay the debt for our sins, we can do nothing to offset the sins which stack up against us, except to claim His forgiveness which He paid for on the Cross! As we share communion today, we thank Him for His forgiveness, which frees us from the penalty we so richly deserve!
We live in a world which treats the symptoms rather than to seek a cure!
Examples:           1. Provide clean syringes for heroin users – but don’t offer the users a new lifestyle!
(The Principal of one of my former schools raided the ISCF meeting because we had a guest speaker talking about drugs – he was addressing how prayer meetings have provided rehabilitation! Some people see the Christian solution as more dangerous than the symptoms themselves!)
                                2. Youth centres and even schools provide condoms for teenagers – but don’t offer celibacy as an alternative lifestyle! It’s almost compulsory to experiment with sex these days! This is like offering a pyromaniac a fire-proof suit for protection – but not exposing the dangers of the practice!
                                3. Drunken riots at Bondi Beach are addressed by Waverley Council be roping off a special area for getting drunk – but no celebration of Jesus is offered at Christmas!
                                4. A careers adviser told a mother not to offer counselling to her daughter who is sexually active –just provide the pill – as “She’s going to do it anyway!” And another careers adviser offered a girl the chance to have an abortion instead of the chance to keep the baby!
                                5. If teenagers rebel – just give them more freedom! My elderly neighbour in Taree complained about the noise caused by my teenage tenant using a basketball hoop on his side of my house. He even offered to provide a hoop in the park on the other side, but the boy’s mother defended his actions by refusing to cooperate with the neighbour!
The world’s solution is to offer more fun, more pleasure, more freedom to disturb and destroy! But Jesus offers a new Way, new Truth and new Life!
A NEW WAY: (Hope)
The great evangelist John Wesley was once assailed by a robber who demanded “Your money or your life!” Wesley not only handed over the few coins he had in his possession, but he added, “Stop! I have something more to give you!” And he told the man, “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin! As the robber rode off, Wesley prayed that the words would sink into his heart! Many years later, as people came out of a church where Wesley was preaching, the former robber himself stepped forward to meet him. He was now a successful businessman and a follower of Jesus. He told Wesley, “I owe it all to you!”to which Wesley replied, “No my friend, not to me but to the precious blood of Christ, which cleanses us from all sin!” This is the way of Jesus! And the only way to receive eternal life!
A NEW TRUTH: (Purpose)
The real truth is very narrow! If your doctor was a very sincere man, and had lots of ideas but knew nothing about medicine, would you trust him to heal you? Jesus said in Matthew 9:12, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick! For I have not come to heal the righteous, but sinners!” Jesus, as our Creator, not only knows how to heal our bodies, but more importantly, He can heal our souls and spirits! If we are only willing to trust Jesus and no other religious leader, we are being narrow minded, because, Jesus said, “No-one comes to the Father except through ME!” When Jesus declared Himself to be truth, He wasn’t just claiming to speak the truth, or to  speak about the truth, because He proved Himself to be God, He actually is the truth, and everything we say and do is measured against Him!
A pastor was once asked to conduct the funeral of a gangster and the dead man’s brother gave the pastor a generous donation for the church if the pastor promised to say that the deceased was a saint! When the pastor got up to preach, he said, “This man is a liar, a cheat and a crook! When he saw the horrified look on the brother’s face, he added, “but compared with his brother, this man is a saint! Likewise, when we measure ourselves against Jesus, we see the truth of Romans 3:23, “All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God!”
At another funeral, the pastor said, in front of the open casket, “Here lies Joe, who would probably  have loved to give his life to Jesus, but now it’s too late! But it’s not too late for you who are here! Now is the day of salvation. You don’t have to suffer the fate of poor Joe! You can receive eternal life today!” On his way home, one man said to his wife, “I thought that message was in very poor taste!” His wife agreed, but added, “Yes, but it’s true! It’s not too late for us!”
A NEW LIFE: (Direction)
Another writer I studied in my first year at university was John Donne – a poet who lived a very licentious life, and wrote poems about the sexual relationships he had with many women in his younger life! But in due course Jesus gave him a new life, and eventually he became the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in London! He continued to write poetry, but changed his theme from sexual love to the love of God! (At uni we studied both sets of his poems!) And in one of his sermons he wrote this, “For I shall see the Son of God, the Sun of glory, and shine myself as that Sun shines! I shall rise from the grave, and never miss this city (London), for I shall see the city of God – the new Jerusalem!”
When i was going through one of the most difficult times in my life a number of years back, the pastor of my church gave me this verse from Psalm 27:13, “I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!” Jesus offers us new life – both in this world and the next! Will you take the opportunity to begin a new life with Jesus today?