Sunday, March 6, 2011

Work to be done

So, it looks like I will be preaching/speaking/teaching at my church on Sunday night, April 3rd.  I have preached a few times in the past, but it has been YEARS.  I am a little nervous.  I am still kind of "the new guy" at church, having only been there since October.  I am also one of the younger peeps in the congregation (as evidenced by my use of the word "peeps").  Like it or not, right or wrong, people will come to conclusions and opinions about me based on what takes place that night.

The cool thing, though, is that it doesn't matter.  It's not about me.  It's about God.

The cool thing is that I am 136% positive that this is fully God ordained and directed.  I have had a message on my heart for awhile now, and was planning on asking Tracy if I could "help him out" sometime by preaching so he wouldn't have to.  Before I got that chance, however, he asked me.  I call that confirmation.  I know this message on my heart is from God.  It burns within me.  And I cannot wait to share it with the folks at Victory Assembly. 

Once it is complete, I will post my sermon notes here on this blog.  For now, however, I'll give you the basics.  My working title (definitely not final) is "The Army of God vs. The Love of Christ."  An interesting tagline I am thinking about utilizing is "Dear Jesus, please save us from your followers."  The basic message will be this:  It is ok for Christians to be politically active and vote as they feel led.  It is ok for Christians to believe that some things are Biblically right and some are Biblically wrong.  It is ok to have a voice.  But, are we known for love?  I have come across staggering statistics about how the world (especially younger people, in their 20's and 30's) views Christianity today.  It's astonishing, disappointing and saddening.  The opinions that people have are based on what they see and hear from "Christians," and often it isn't reflective of Christ.  In fact, a statement from one of the studies I looked at said that "Christianity in today's society no longer looks like Jesus."  This is a HUGE problem. 

Do we, as Christians - as followers of Christ - more resemble Christ, or the Pharisees?  We will look in Matthew and John and see how Jesus interacted with tax collectors and adulterers.  We will then explore other books in Scripture to see what this all means for us and how we should proceed. 

The end goal is this:  How do we show CHRIST to the world?  I am not interested in showing a particular political party.  I am not interested in showing "right-wing conservatism or left-wing liberalism" to the world.  All that stuff doesn't matter in the scope of eternity.  Legislation does not change hearts.  I want one thing only - to show Jesus to the world.  This is what we should all want.  That is all that really matters.