What Jesus Says to a Complacent Church

Isaiah 55:1-13

The whole idea of abundance is that there is more than enough - more than enough for us, more than enough to share. Living with an attitude of scarcity, or keeping ’secret’ that which Jesus so generously offers, is not the attitude of a faithful follow of Christ.

So, we drift along through life, really not thinking all that much about it. 

One foot in front of the other, the next day, the next … and the next. Pretty soon a year’s gone by and pretty soon … a decade’s gone by. Plod, plod, plod. 

So in the middle of your plod, plod, plod, can I ask you … how serious are you about your faith? How serious are you about impacting this world with the love of Christ? How serious are you about making sure that your life weighs in, for Jesus? 

The reason I ask, is that it’s a question that Jesus is asking. My fear is that a lot of people who call themselves Christians will get a rude shock on the day that they stand before the Lord. 

Jesus: Not everyone who calls me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who … 

Who what? 

Well that’s what we’re going to be chatting about in this message. 

The question that each one of us needs to answer is this: are you serious?

It’s one of the most freedom giving truths we find in Scripture … mercy forgives. 

There are, two sides to this truth. Jesus talked about it in Matthew 6:12 - “Forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.” One side of this freedom is when we personally experience God’s forgiveness. The other, when we forgive others. 

God’s wants to forgive us and God’s forgiveness is free, immediate and complete. 

We, of course, don’t always find forgiving easy. While our forgiveness of others doesn’t mean we “forget” what’s done or said that hurt us, nor that we always trust others again, it is to be unconditional. Paul, writing to the Ephesians says - “Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32). Often the only path to giving that kind of forgiveness is releasing it to God.

It’s one of the “be ... attitudes” – “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (Matthew 5:7). Mercy it seems isn’t a one-way street. It’s not just that God is merciful to us. We’re to be merciful to others. 

One definition of mercy is – “love in action”. 

It’s illustrated in Jesus’ healing the leper who came to Him and said – “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Mark tells us that Jesus was “filled with compassion … reached out His hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ He said, ‘be clean’” (Mark 1:40-45). 

Here, mercy is more than talk, emotions, feelings, pity … mercy is compassionate. 

We’re called into mercy by entering into people’s pain and helping to lift them out of it. 

May you be blessed as you live a merciful life.

Led To The Lost song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBPn1GzXR4s

Paul, writing to Titus, reminds us that … “Jesus saved us, not because of the good things we did, but because of His mercy. He washed away our sins and gave us a new life through the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). And one of the ways Jesus describes his task is … “I have come to seek, and to save those who are lost” (Luke 19:10). We could describe God’s mercy, which we experience in Jesus, as a mercy which takes the initiative, which takes the first step, and which “saves”.

Luke 15 tells the stories of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. Each of them tells us how incredibly valuable we are to God and of God’s deep desire to rescue us from ourselves, to recover our potential and to reconnect with us.

We celebrate “communion”, our reconnected relationship with God, by remembering Jesus life, death and resurrection for us – a sure sign of God’s mercy.

Paul writing to the church in Rome says - "Give yourselves completely to God - every part of you - because you've been brought, from death to life, and now you want to be used by God for good, and for his righteous purposes." (Romans 6:13)  
 
How incredible is that!  God uses flawed people just like us.
 
God’s mercy is at work in us.  Despite our feeling unqualified (by our perceptions of our gift, talents and abilities) or disqualified (by our past mistakes and sins) God wants to use us for purposes greater than ourselves.  We can simply be real and let God use our struggles to help others.

Isaiah 1:16-17 NIV
Wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds out of my sight;
stop doing wrong.
Learn to do right; seek justice.
Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
plead the case of the widow.

Most of us in church are aware of the need to avoid sin & to live lives which are pleasing in God’s sight by confessing and repenting of our sins. ie. sins of “commission”.
Generally we are not so aware that we shall also be judged by God for the things He requires of us that we have left undone. ie. sins of “omission”.
Chief among these sins of “omission” is His requirement throughout scripture that we minister to the orphans, widows, the poor and the oppressed.
How are you, how am I, how is our church being responsible before God for these ministries?
This morning we will look at scriptures in both the Old and New Testament which enjoin us to carry out this ministry & at our possible response.

Romans 12:9-21 

We all wear masks for so many different things in life. We can often be afraid to really let people know where we are at, so we just default to the "I’m all good" when really we could be dying on the inside.  

Paul challenges us to take off those masks and not pretend. He challenges us to a genuine love that is much deeper than the masks we can often hide behind.

Today is Pentecost Sunday.  Pentecost is the Greek word for “fiftieth day”.  It’s the fiftieth day after Easter when we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church. 
 
It’s the Spirit who keeps a church alive and vibrant?  When the Spirit of God gives purpose to a church then it continues to thrive, lives are changed, people are put back together and situations get resolved. All kinds of miracles happen. 
 
And everything we need to fulfil God’s purpose, everything we need to be a church that goes the distance was put in the DNAof the original church.  A church that goes the distance –
prays for God’s power, uses people’s everyday language, uses every member’s talents and is devoted to God’s word; its members love one another deeply, they worship with joy, they’re willing to sacrifice and bring people to Jesus.

Six hundred years ago, in The Imitation of Christ, Thomas a Kempis said - “Be not surprised that you cannot make others act as you wish them to act because you can’t make yourself act as you wish yourself to act.”

We’ve all, at some point, struggled to make changes in our lives.  One of the most powerful choices we can make is to show gratitude and to be thankful. Giving thanks has the power to help us see things from God’s perspective.  And that can change everything.

The Bible reminds us that we can give thanks in the words we say, the songs that we sing, the gifts that we give and the prayers that we pray.  Philippians 4:6 reminds us - “Don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything; tell God your needs, and don’t forget to thank him for his answers.”