A possible ad: IN PRODUCTION, God’s new blockbuster. No special talents or background needed – just those who have “gained access by faith into grace”(Rom 5:2) need apply. Looking for great production values in disciples. On location in THE SOUTHEAST.
The Big Room
The story is told of a man who entered a big room where many well-dressed people mingled, talked and laughed quietly. Distracted by the fact that he knew most of the people, he paid little notice to a large collection of flowers in the corner. Somehow unnoticed, he was able to overhear a few conversational tidbits. To his astonishment, he realized everyone was talking about him. In confusion, he left the room and encountered a radiant-faced stranger, and asked him what was going on.
“That is your funeral,” the stranger said. “And you have been allowed to visit. Those people are talking about you. And what your life really meant to them.”
If only we could all wake up each day and live it with such a vision!
As the story shows, life is about the acquisitions we make – not of material things – but of relationships. Those relationships are dependent on our view of God and the purpose he has given us on this earth. His aims are clear: that “all men come to a knowledge of the truth.” (1 Tim 2). He wants a sweeping kingdom that envelops every people and background. Recently, the Greenville Church, on the back of end of an incredible finish to 2011, has had to ask: What drives us? How much more effective could we be in forming friends here on earth? Have we traded our worldly ties for the gospel to the extent of having “a hundred times” the friendships in this age (Mark 10:29-30), or just a “few times”? Do we want a church of a “few” or “hundreds”? As part of the Southeast, what will it take to be part of God’s new “blockbuster”?
A Wonderful Life
Heightened “campaign activity” is certainly a noble task, and meanwhile we might examine the nature of our desires. How much are we motivated by grace? The bible is silent on the life of peace and faith-sharing a sinful woman surely must have lived after crashing dinner (there’s no indication she was invited) at a Pharisee’s house where Jesus dined (Lk 7). There, out of extreme gratitude and under the exacting gaze of the Pharisee, she wet, wiped, and kissed Jesus’ feet to the extent he was able to say to her “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.” How her life and the others in her sphere must have changed that day – and how different her world might have been had she remained steeped in her sins!
The Pharisee, stone-cold in his assessment, sized up the woman as a lot worse off than himself. Jesus, wanting the Pharisee to see his own true reflection, told the story of two men who had different-sized debts that were both cancelled by their moneylender. He ended with the question,
“Which of them will love him more?”
After the Pharisee answered correctly, Jesus gave him a healthy dressing-down as to the real hubris and ingratitude entrenched in his heart. Each disciple in Greenville is being called to look at our debt and “love much”. On this response the fate of many lives rests! If we have been forgiven much, we will love much. If we think we are something and “pretty good off”, like the Pharisee, we won’t love much. God will move on to the rocks or whoever cries out. Surely the life of a bleeding woman in Luke 8 was also changed because she was desperate enough to find Jesus’ cloak and pull power out of him. Her life too, must have changed dramatically after Jesus said, “Your faith has healed you. Go in peace.” Therefore, we should examine our “desperation quotient”.
A good exercise is to creatively examine what our lives would have been like in the absence of forgiveness from Jesus. “It’s a Wonderful Life” – possibly the most popular movie ever - is the story of how George Bailey needed to revisit the different scenarios of his early life to understand how his life would have been different. Why do we relate so well to this story? Because all of us are really George Bailey, the “victim”. His eyes were focused on momentary difficulties that blocked out his gratitude for a life that had been blessed. He had become “blind” to his circumstances.
Like Bailey, we are all bludgeoned periodically by bedmates blindness and ingratitude. In Luke 17, Jesus encounters ten lepers and heals them, but is astonished to find that only one, a foreigner, comes back and gives thanks and praise. This one fell at Jesus’ feet (much like the sinful woman of Lk 7), and Jesus gave him further healing – the kind that really counts: “Your faith has made you well.” Here was a man who caught fire! As for the other nine, their lives probably stayed the same thereafter, for God cannot move in a cold and comfortable heart that forgets its former state.
The book of 1 Thessalonians begins on a very high note in addressing a group who had received the gospel “Not simply with words, but with power, with the Holy Spirit, and with deep conviction.”(1:4). The message “rang out” in that region and “everywhere.” Why? What was their motivation? The answer is in vs. 9: Paul notes that they had “turned from idols” to serve the living and true God. They understood the traps they had been rescued from, empowering the gospel to move in their lives. They were well into a major role in God’s “blockbuster” plan of outreach.
There are those of us with a hard history of “commission” sins that openly destroyed our lives: alcoholism, adulteries, perversions, fits of rage, and “the like”. Some of us might not have committed as many of these types of sins, yet still have plenty reason to appreciate Jesus. We spent a life at the feet – not of Jesus, but of idols - worshiping such things as our own accomplishments, girlfriends, boyfriends, spouses, sports, the daily headlines, hobbies, jobs, and money. Off such a concept - the “I” - the Apple company makes billions! Amnesiacs that we are, we forget about what we came out of, or worse – we are immersed in sin again. Then we wonder at the spiraling trickle of consequences, and why there are no followers, no momentum, no blessing from God.
Albert Einstein once said,
“Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but find that reality. It can be no other way.”
Our frequency is a passionate message that cannot be held back once we understand it and what is at stake. Bells are placed in prominent positions in towers and ring with a frequency that can be heard everywhere. The message is the same. When we match the frequency of the “lost condition” of the world, when we get caught up in offering the world’s only cure for sin, the reality is matched. This is the story of church growth, and it cannot be any other way! Now to some the message will be abrasive, but to some it will be like the “feet of those who bring good news.” Either way, causes are never advanced by half-heartedness. Only a passionate, deliberate and persistent approach will suffice for God’s aims. Lulls are bound to come, but those resonating with the message will push through.
God Tuned In
Though it is doubtful God watches television, it is likely he loves the faith-based reality show of our lives as disciples. If he sees no faith, he apparently “tunes out”, as is noted in Mark 6:5. If he tuned in to your reality show, “(Your name) Sounds the Message”, what would he think? Would he be bored and change the channel, or held in suspense and entertained? God is surely drawn to creative and courageous displays of faith. Jephthah, the illegitimate son who endured scorn from his half-brothers, by God’s hand went on to lead a great victory against the Ammonites (Judges 11). God wants the same great victories on our “set pieces” - the very communities we live in. He can unify all these victories into his grand production.
With what intensity do we approach the task set before us? Only when people have burned with passion for a cause have they accomplished great things. Milton Hershey, having faced years of severe trials, kept pushing through with more candy production in his humble Lancaster, Pa. store. One day a European importer by chance stumbled into his store and liked the flavor of Hershey’s candies. The importer ordered a large candy shipment, presenting Hershey with only one “slight” problem: he couldn’t fulfill the order because he lacked the equipment and financing to do it! Even his life-long benefactor Aunt Mattie was out of answers for him, but he wasn’t deterred. In desperation, he secured one more loan, and made and shipped the candy on the faith that the importer would send return payment-in-full overseas. Just in time before Hershey defaulted on the loan, the payment arrived, and the world of candy changed forever. Hershey had a paid a heavy price in many years of personal research, failures, bankruptcies, disappointments, and destitution, and could now offer an affordable, great-tasting candy bar to the masses.
The gospel had its “desperation moment” (the cross – defeat turned to victory), came at a great price, and is available to the masses. Greenville issues the call, not only for herself, but for all churches everywhere: God evidently wants to move again among the “states”(and the nations), and create his blockbuster. At Southeastern Church Ironworks, where brother sharpens brother, unity is being forged again. The spiritual landscape pulses with opportunities to reclaim lost souls. We believe God has a big production afoot and wishes to visit his miracles where faith is found. A grand quilt of souls is being assembled, faithful act by faithful act. Where disciples will turn away from idols and “serve the living and true God”, he will respond in kind, the message will ring out “everywhere”, and God will once again see his dreams realized.
Let us step to his beat.
Coming Up, Part II:
“Southeastern Treasure: Real People, Real Stories”