CRCF-7-12-09<\/p>\n
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What Does America Need from the Church? What happened next was the most poignant moment of all.\u00a0 The man squinted at Campolo and announced:\u00a0 ‘No . . . no, you don’t.\u00a0 There is no church like that.\u00a0 I would join a church like that<\/em>.’<\/p>\n “All across our world, millions of troubled people are trying to find a way to get through another night, another birthday, another season of life-and assuming the church of Jesus Christ could care less.\u00a0 They think we’re mad at them.\u00a0 They think we despise them.\u00a0 They think we think they’re no good, and we have a big black Book to prove it.\u00a0 What they don’t know is that the Book actually says, “Let your gentleness be evident to all.\u00a0 The Lord is near” (Phil. 4:5).\u00a0 (Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Church<\/span>, 73-75).<\/p>\n What Does America Need from the Church?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n I suppose that the answers to that question could be as many as the number of church people you wanted to ask.<\/p>\n Without question, beyond any debate-our nation is in crisis in a variety of ways today.\u00a0 Perhaps the first thing to come to even OUR minds here this morning-America is in an economic crisis, which is hitting home for many of us right now.\u00a0 Truly, the economic crisis is the only new crisis we face today.\u00a0 After all, we’ve been in a governmental crisis for, I believe, decades-with corrupt politics having devoured all parties, so that no matter who controlled the White House and Congress, we’ve not truly been able to tell much difference on the streets, nor have we been able to claim that our party (whichever one it is) is completely upstanding and effective.\u00a0 I believe, based on reading unbiased history that even since the founding of the nation, with the rare exceptions of times of national revival, we’ve been in a moral crisis.<\/p>\n So, what does America need from the Church<\/em><\/strong>?<\/p>\n Many churchgoers would say quickly and boldly that America needs the Church to be its moral compass-we need to stand up and speak out and take our nation back to God, to be politically engaged and work for legislative reform that results in Biblical standards becoming law and the 10 Commandments being displayed in our courthouses, to be working to “take back our schools for God and get prayer back in schools”.<\/p>\n I disagree.\u00a0 You say, “What?!!!\u00a0 Why, you’re a preacher-how can you disagree with that?”\u00a0 You know, it really doesn’t matter what any of us thinks, because the Church, the Body of Christ belongs to Jesus Himself.\u00a0 And what America needs from the Church is ultimately up to HIM!\u00a0 And I believe that God has clearly told us in His Word what our world needs from us (whether it’s America or Guatemala or North Korea).\u00a0 Over the next couple of weeks, we’re going to look at 3<\/span><\/em><\/strong> things that the Bible says America needs from the Church.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n America<\/em> needs for every local church to know . . .<\/em><\/p>\n Our IDENTITY<\/span><\/strong> (Part 1)<\/strong><\/p>\n \n From God’s perspective, who are we, His church, to be?<\/p>\n We are to be humble servants<\/span> to our world, showing<\/span> them Jesus’ love.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n John 13:1-17 9 Simon Peter exclaimed, “Then wash my hands and head as well, Lord, not just my feet!” 1.\u00a0 Jesus showed us that God’s love serves others<\/span>. (1)<\/strong><\/p>\n Ronnie McBrayer:\u00a0 “Nowhere else in all of ancient literature is there any example of a social or religious superior stooping to wash his follower’s feet. Nowhere else does a rabbi, teacher, guru, or holy man degrade himself like this . . . Here, on the last night of his life, Jesus gives his immediate disciples, and the church that followed, the supreme example of how to function in the world, of who we should be: We are slaves. We are servants. We are foot-washers. We don’t seize what is ours; we don’t cry about what belongs to us and what is yours, we don’t pine for the highest seat of honor at the world’s banquet table. Rather, we take up the towel and the basin to humbly wash dirty feet and serve others. If we are unwillingly to do this, then the church abandons its uniqueness and its identity in this world, and does nothing less than betray Christ himself.”<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n When we love someone with God’s love, we serve them.<\/em><\/p>\n As God explains to Mack in the book, The Shack<\/span>:\u00a0 “Relationships are never about power, and one way to avoid the will to power is to choose to limit oneself-to serve.” (The <\/span>Shack, 106-107)<\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n Galatians 5:13-14<\/p>\n “For you, dear friends, have been called to live in freedom-not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love.\u00a0 For the whole law can be summed up in this one command:\u00a0 ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’.”<\/p>\n Ronnie McBrayer:\u00a0 “We have got to get a handle on who we are as a people, and the inverse is true, who we are not, to move forward into whatever is next. This may seem obvious, but it is not: The very existence of the church is its most effective witness.<\/p>\n As such, the church must model and become the kind of unique and alternative society that loves its enemies, forgives relentlessly, walks the second mile joyfully, embraces the outcast, preaches deliverance to the captives, welcomes home the prodigal, refuses revenge, declines the world’s riches and power, and otherwise seeks to follow and imitate Christ, not just know about Him or act in ways disconnected from Him. This is our identity – who we are.<\/p>\n Church is not something we attend. It’s not something we go to. It’s not something we join or give to or support with our time and talents. Church is something we become. It is a way of life that takes us into the world to love and serve others<\/em> . . . Humility and the refusal of power, is nothing less than faithfulness to Christ and the basic means by which the church articulates the Gospel. The servant church is the only church that actually exists<\/em>.”<\/p>\n Jesus showed us that God’s love serves others!<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n 2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jesus showed us that God’s authority frees us to be servants to our world, not demand, or expect, anything from it.<\/span><\/strong> (3-5)<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Ronnie McBrayer:\u00a0 “Jesus explained clearly that the authority of a disciple is a paradox. All forms of coercion, status, respectability, and jockeying for power are rejected for service, vulnerability, liability, and submission to others.”<\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n God’s kingdom is not of this world-and it doesn’t operate by the world’s rules or definitions. <\/em><\/p>\n Again from The Shack<\/span>:\u00a0 “When you chose independence over relationship, you became a danger to each other.\u00a0 Others became objects to be manipulated or managed for your own happiness.\u00a0 Authority, as you usually think of it, is merely the excuse the strong use to make others conform to what they want<\/em>.” (ibid., 123)<\/p>\n In God’s kingdom, authority doesn’t mean power and position to be enjoyed.\u00a0 It means power to serve others like Jesus served us<\/em>!<\/p>\n Mark 10:43-45 In this nation that has had a strong Christian influence in the past, the church in America lives with a sense of entitlement that is just flat wrong and reflects the reality that we are misled as to what our identity is as the people of God, the church, in America.\u00a0 Here’s a great example:<\/p>\n The following was in the newspaper in Calhoun, GA the last\u00a0 week of May of this year and references a church in Rome:<\/p>\n “Church Needs Your Help. This is the story of a small church with a big heart that dared to dream…Our small church was located on Highway 411 across from the new Wal-Mart. The congregation seeing all the new progress in the area thought this might be the right time to sell our property and move into a larger facility…We were contacted by an out of town company that builds shopping centers…The price was set and everything was moving forward. It was time to start looking for our new church home. We found the property we wanted to purchase. It had all the room needed for the church to grow…We put up the old church property as collateral till the sale closed, signed the deal, and moved in. Then it happened. The bottom fell out of the economy…The company that was to buy the old church property backed out of the sale! [But] we needed the money from the sale of the old church to pay off the note on the new church. Needless to say, we are between a rock and a hard place…We have until July 5, 2009 to raise the money to pay off the note on the new property ($700,000) or we lose everything. If you watch TV or read the newspapers, the Christian community is under attack from all sides. If you are a Christian you know what I’m saying. We have to stand up for what we believe in if we want to protect the Christian way of life.\u00a0 If you believe in God and believe our church is worth saving, we need your help! If 35,000 people make a tax-deductible donation of $20, we can raise the $700,000 we need to pay off the bank note. Please make your tax-deductible donation to…” (And the information is provided).<\/p>\n Ronnie McBrayer:\u00a0 “This is exactly the thing that is and must die; the attitude that the world around us owes us something just because we are “church;” the attitude that just because the majority of our forbearers were Christian, we should get favored nation status<\/em>.”<\/p>\n Being part of God’s kingdom gives us authority to serve our world, to wash it’s feet<\/em>, like Jesus did-NOT to expect the world to serve us, or to demand our rights from a world\/nation\/government that doesn’t know Jesus Christ personally.<\/p>\n 3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jesus showed us that God’s love especially enables us to\u00a0 serve our enemies.<\/span><\/strong> (10-11)<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Jesus washed the feet of Judas, who would later betray him!<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n Ronnie McBrayer:\u00a0 “If there is not the danger – even the expectation – that we will be taken advantage of, that we will be marginalized, even nailed to a cross, then we have not yet humbled ourselves. Christians don’t run the world – and that’s a good thing. Because we don’t belong at the banquet table; our place is in the servant quarters washing feet, for that is where we find Jesus. And that is the only place we find credibility in this world that no longer cares what we have to say. We cannot make anyone listen to what we have to say – that is a privilege that must now be earned, even if it means crucifixion, for certainly that’s what it cost Jesus.”<\/p>\n Proverbs 25:21-22 (NLT) Joseph Tson (a Romanian pastor persecuted during the Communist era) tells the story of an awful Monday afternoon, “when in the midst of being interrogated by two officers, ‘a general came into the room.\u00a0 He signaled with his hand for them to leave.\u00a0 He began to curse me and hit me, slapping my face and hitting my head with his fist, finally knocking my head against the wall.\u00a0 I screamed-intentionally.\u00a0 I shouted so the other detainees in nearby rooms would hear me.\u00a0 What the general was doing was clearly illegal . . . On Thursday afternoon, the general returned.\u00a0 Again he motioned with his hand for the two to leave, I braced myself for a second round of beating.\u00a0 But the man sat down behind the desk and said, ‘Don’t worry.\u00a0 This time I am calm.\u00a0 I have come to talk to you.’\u00a0 Now the Lord has promised that when his people are questioned, the Holy Spirit within them will do the talking.\u00a0 I can testify to this truth.\u00a0 I myself was surprised as I said, ‘Mr. General, because you came to talk to me, I want first of all to apologize for what happened Monday.’\u00a0 He was very surprised.\u00a0 ‘Let me explain what I mean,’ I said.\u00a0 ‘On Tuesday . . . I had plenty of time to think.\u00a0 All of the sudden, it dawned on me that this is Holy Week.\u00a0 Well, sir, for a Christian, nothing is more beautiful than to suffer during the time his Saviour and Lord suffered.\u00a0 When you beat me, you did me a great honor.\u00a0 I am sorry for shouting at you.\u00a0 I should have thanked you for the most beautiful gift you could ever have given me.\u00a0 Since Tuesday I have been praying for you and your family.’\u00a0 I saw the man choking.\u00a0 He tried hard to swallow.\u00a0 Then, somehow, he said, ‘Well, I shouldn’t have done it.\u00a0 I am sorry-let’s talk.’\u00a0 We talked many days after that.\u00a0 Eventually he said, ‘Would you put on paper all you have said to me?\u00a0 I want the presidency of the country to read it.’\u00a0 From this I learned that no one-not even a Communist-is beyond the reach of Calvary love.\u00a0 These are savable people, redeemable people like anyone else.\u00a0 They desperately needed to see Christ in me<\/em>” (ibid., 103-105).<\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n Conclusion–<\/em><\/p>\n Philippians 2:5-8<\/p>\n “Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! <\/em>Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death-and the worst kind of death at that-a crucifixion.”<\/p>\n (The Message)<\/p>\n Ronnie McBrayer:\u00a0 “Taking a truly compassionate approach, where we see people as people – living, breathing, laughing, crying, fallen but priceless creations in the image of God – and not as statistics or votes or sales or dollars in the coffers or names on the roll or notches in our gun or people who will agree or oppose us – this will infuse the church with credibility and integrity so needed in the world today . . . Humility and the refusal of power, is nothing less than faithfulness to Christ and the basic means by which the church articulates the Gospel<\/em>.”<\/p>\n I close with this personal story from this past week.\u00a0 I received a call from Marty Youngblood from the Georgia Baptist Convention two weeks ago.\u00a0 He was calling to check on Robin’s health.\u00a0 We chatted a good while about Robin, our family and our church.\u00a0 He told me he wanted to come up and take us to lunch.\u00a0 So, this past Friday he did.\u00a0 Marty came with one intention-loving and serving me and Robin.\u00a0 And by the time he left to drive back to Buford, he’d done just that.\u00a0 (Marty also sought to serve our waitress by asking how he could pray for her when we thanked God for our food).\u00a0 By his listening and sharing, by his prayers for us, Marty Youngblood showed me the same servant-love that Jesus did.<\/p>\n What can I do practically to serve someone I know?\u00a0 What can YOU do to make them feel like you’ve bathed them in grace and, spiritually-speaking, washed their feet?<\/em><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n CRCF-7-12-09 What Does America Need from the Church? Introduction– Tony Campolo was invited to speak in Honolulu one time and had trouble adjusting to the five-hour time change from Philadelphia.\u00a0 “He wound up wide awake at three o’clock in the … Continue reading
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\n<\/strong>Introduction–<\/em> Tony Campolo was invited to speak in Honolulu one time and had trouble adjusting to the five-hour time change from Philadelphia.\u00a0 “He wound up wide awake at three o’clock in the morning drinking coffee in an all-night diner.\u00a0 Presently the door opened, and in came about eight women laughing and talking loudly.\u00a0 Campolo soon deduced that they were street walkers finished with their evening’s work and relaxing before going home to sleep.\u00a0 One, named Agnes, mentioned to her friend that the next day would be her thirty-ninth birthday.\u00a0 After the group left, Campolo got a bright idea.\u00a0 He said to the gruff proprietor behind the counter, ‘Did you hear that one woman say tomorrow was her birthday?\u00a0 Whaddya say we throw her a party?\u00a0 I’ll come back tomorrow night with some decorations, and let’s surprise her with a cake and everything!\u00a0 The man’s wife came out of the kitchen.\u00a0 Both of them said, ‘That is a wonderful idea.\u00a0 Let’s do it.’\u00a0 Twenty-four hours later the little diner was decorated with streamers and balloons.\u00a0 A festive sign was taped to the mirror.\u00a0 The couple had put the word out on the street, and a large assortment of night people were gathered.\u00a0 When the prostitutes came in for their usual coffee, the shout went up:\u00a0 ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AGNES!’\u00a0 The woman stood speechless as the singing began.\u00a0 Tears started to roll down her cheeks.\u00a0 Nobody had showed her genuine kindness in years.\u00a0 The owner brought out a birthday cake with candles.\u00a0 Agnes was in such shock that she had to be reminded to blow them out.\u00a0 She paused again.\u00a0 ‘Well, cut the cake, Agnes!’ the proprietor said.\u00a0 She finally found words.\u00a0 In a whisper she said, ‘Please . . . I just . . . I just want to keep the cake.\u00a0 I’ll take it to my apartment down the street . . . just for a couple of days.\u00a0 Please let me keep the cake.’\u00a0 No one knew how to respond, but no one could think of a reason to refuse her request.\u00a0 So out the door she fled, holding the cake as if it were the Holy Grail.\u00a0 An awkward silence filled the room.\u00a0 Campolo finally broke in with a bold suggestion:\u00a0 ‘I have another idea-why don’t we pray?’\u00a0 Without hesitation he began to voice a prayer for Agnes, that God would bless her on her birthday, that God would bring peace into her life and save her from all that troubled her . . . .\u00a0 At the amen, the diner owner said, ‘Hey-you didn’t tell me you were a preacher.\u00a0 What kind of a church do you preach at?’\u00a0 Campolo thought a moment, cocked his head sideways, and then answered with a grin, ‘I preach at the kind of church that throws birthday parties for whores at three-thirty in the morning!’<\/em><\/p>\n
\n1 Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end. 2 It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. 4 So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, 5 and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him. \u00a06 When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
\n7 Jesus replied, “You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.”
\n8 “No,” Peter protested, “you will never ever wash my feet!”
\nJesus replied, “Unless I wash you, you won’t belong to me.”<\/p>\n
\n10 Jesus replied, “A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet, to be entirely clean. And you disciples are clean, but not all of you.” 11 For Jesus knew who would betray him. That is what he meant when he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
\n12 After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, “Do you understand what I was doing? 13 You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am. 14 And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. 15 I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. 16 I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master. Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message. 17 Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them. (NLT)<\/p>\n
\n“Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be the slave of all.\u00a0 For even I, the Son of Man, came here not to be served but to serve others, and to give My life as a ransom for many<\/em>.” (NLT)<\/p>\n
\n“If your enemies are hungry, give them food to eat.\u00a0 If they are thirsty, give them water to drink.\u00a0 You will heap burning coals on their head, and the Lord will reward you for it.”<\/p>\n
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