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Location:
6425 Jefferson Rd. For
directions, click here.
Joseph
Slife, Lay Leader March
17, 2002 Anybody
here who has a personal mission
statement? I mean, you've
actually thought it through and
written a short statement of what
the focus of your life really
is? A
mission statement describes the
overall purpose of an
organization or an individual --
and most of us have never really
stopped long enough to think
about what that purpose is and
put it in words. Several
years ago, we began trying to
develop a mission statement for
Gateway Church. We held meetings
and discussed lots of good ideas,
but the exact wording was
elusive. Now,
that didn't mean that we didn't
know what the mission was,
because Jesus has assigned the
mission for the church and it's
in Matthew 28:19 -- "Make
disciples of all nations." That's
the mission of the Church --
that's our purpose. But
that's a large statement and it's
difficult to get our minds around
-- I mean, "all nations" covers a
lot of territory. What about us
here, locally, Gateway
Church? Well,
we began trying to articulate our
mission within the larger
mission, something we could latch
on to that would give us our own
sense of mission and purpose in
the place that God has called us
to be. And, frankly, we struggled
to come up with something,
because a mission statement
should be succinct, so that
everybody in the organization or
in the church can know what it is
and tell you what it
is. Our
first attempt at this was way too
long: Now,
every word of that is true, but
it's too long. Next, we came up
with: Again,
absolutely true -- but again, too
long and a little too mechanical
sounding, sort of like we're
turning out cookie-cutter
Christians. But
I believe the Lord has now given
us our mission statement. You may
have seen this on our Web site or
in our ad in the newspaper
already. It's four words long --
and it captures, I believe, the
essence of who we are, where we
see ourselves in God's plan, and
what our function is day by
day. And
this is what I want to talk with
you about today, because not only
is this our mission as a
church,
it also is your mission and mine
as individuals. After
all, what is the church? Its not
a building, it's not a charter,
it's not a set of by-laws and
theological statements -- it is
people who have responded to
God's call in Jesus Christ and
who have banded themselves
together for ministry and prayer
and teaching and
accountability. The
mission of the church cannot
exist apart from the mission of
the individual people who make up
the church. If our mission is
"Helping People Experience God,"
you have a role to play in that
-- daily. I
want this to become so much a
part of your consciousness that
when you roll out of bed in the
morning, or when you're shaving,
or when you're driving to work,
or when you're sitting down to
homeschool your children, this
thought crosses your mind: "My
mission in life is to help people
experience God." When
a driver cuts you off in traffic,
or the cable guy finally shows up
after you've waiting for him for
two hours, or your boss treats
you unfairly, I want you to be
thinking: "My mission in life is
to help people experience
God." When
your children are exasperating,
or your husband comes home
grumpy, or a brother or sister in
the church is driving you batty,
I want you to be thinking: "My
mission in life is to help people
experience God." Now,
what does that mean: "Helping
People Experience
God"? Well,
it can mean lots of things, but
let's start our thinking about
this by going to Paul's letter to
the Church at Ephesus. Ephesians,
chapter 4, beginning at verse
17. The
editors of many modern
translations of the Bible put in
subheadings that summarize what
you're about to read -- and the
subheading for this passage in
the new English
Standard
Version
is "The New Life." I'll
read the first part of this and
give you a little bit of
background -- and then I want you
to read with me when we get to a
certain point. Starting
in verse 17 Paul
writes: Now,
Paul, as a Jew, is not making
some sort of prejudicial
religious slam against Gentiles
in general. Some of his best
friends were Gentiles. He's
using the term here to describe
people who don't know God, who
aren't in a loving, saving
relationship with the Lord. He
says of these people: In
other words, they have given
themselves over so fully to sin
that they are past being able to
feel the tender touch of God.
Continuing: OK.
That's what we call a negative
example. Paul is saying, "You who
have come to Christ, you who have
put your faith in Him, you can't
continue to live like unsaved
people. There must be a change in
your outlook and your
behavior. Notice
this carefully. The old self,
Paul says, involves ignorance,
futility of thinking, sensuality,
greed, impurity, corruption. But
the new self is created "after
the likeness of God." Back
in December our Gateway verse of
the month was Colossians 1:15:
"[Christ] is the visible
expression of the invisible
God." And
what does Paul say here in
Ephesians 4:24 -- Your "new self
[is] created after the
likeness of God." In other words,
not only was Christ the visible
expression of the invisible God,
as a follower of Christ you too
are called and equipped and
empowered -- as Christ lives in
you by the Holy Spirit -- to be a
visible of expression of the
invisible God. Now,
what are the implications of
this? Read them with me, starting
in verse 25: There's
more, but we'll stop there for a
moment. Notice that verse 25
begins with the word "Therefore."
This is a word you'll find
frequently in the Bible -- and
it's because the Bible is not
simply to be studied, it is to be
obeyed. Paul
says, "Now that you know this
about the old self and the new,
here is how that fact should
change your life. Now, that I
have spoken the truth to you,
here is how you can obey that
truth." Let
me ask you a question. You don't
have to answer out loud, but
think about this: When is the
last time something you read in
the Bible changed your behavior?
When is the last time you read
the Bible and then prayed to God,
"Lord, change this about me"? Or
"Lord, help me to live this
way"? You
see, that's what the therefore is
there for -- to get you to
confront yourself, to get you to
examine your own life against the
life that God has made it
possible for you to live by
putting His Spirit in
you. Let's
read on, verse 30: And
here's the clincher in Ephesians
5:1 and 2: How
do we help people experience God?
By being imitators of
God. A
few weeks ago, I was at a
presentation on the subject of
living out biblical truth in the
context of marriage. And the
woman who was teaching part of
the program said of her husband
-- get this now -- she said:
"Living with Howard is like
living with the Lord." Whew!
Why did she say that? Because
Howard has internalized Ephesians
5:1 -- "Be imitators of God." And
also Ephesians 5:25, just a few
verses past where we are --
"Husbands, love your wives, as
Christ loved the church, and gave
Himself up for her." Daily,
Howard helps his wife experience
God. You see, "helping people
experience God" isn't just about
reaching out to those who don't
know Christ -- although that's an
important part of it. Helping
people experience God starts in
your own household, with your
wife, your husband, your
children, your
parents. Anybody
see this story a week or so ago
in USA Today, headlined
"Charting
the Unchurched in
America"?
Second paragraph: "In
2001, more than 29.4 million
Americans said they had no
religion -- more than double the
number in 1990, and more than
Methodists, Lutherans, and
Episcopalians all added
up." Now,
most of these "no religion" folks
are out West -- Colorado,
Washington State, Oregon, Nevada,
California. But even here in
Georgia,
in the middle of the so-called
Bible Belt, 12 percent of the
people say they have "no
religion." 11 percent of
Georgians, by the way, say
they're Methodist. Why
do these 12 percent of Georgians
profess no religion? Because they
think religion is irrelevant.
"Why waste my time going to
church or doing "church stuff"
when I'm busy
already?" You
see, to them there's nothing
special about church. It's
essentially no different than the
Elks Club or the Junior League or
the Chamber of Commerce. It's
just another thing that takes up
time -- and at least if you join
the Elks Club you can use the
swimming pool. The
reason they think about church in
terms of irrelevancy is likely
because have never experienced
God through the church. If
they've experienced God, they've
experienced him through the
wonder of nature, not through the
ministry of some other human
being who is a visible expression
of the invisible God. Several
months ago, Pastor Jerry asked us
to write down on 3-by-5 cards
ideas for helping people
experience God in an evangelistic
way. Ideas for breaking through
people's standard points of
reference with a demonstration of
God's grace. So
far, we've not acted on any of
these -- but I trust that we
will, under the guidance of our
new Lay Leadership Team on
Evangelism, once we get that in
place, which will be
soon. Here
are a few of those ideas:
All
of these things have to do with
helping people experience God.
And they are the types of things
I hope we'll be doing as a
church. But
let me focus on you individually
right now. What are you doing to
be a conduit for God's grace, and
peace, and truth in all your
personal relationships? Are you
being an imitator of God at home?
In your neighborhood? In the
church? In the
workplace? Are
you being an imitator of God with
your wife? Your husband? Your
children? Your
parents? Are
you doing an honest day's work
for your employer? Are you
putting away falsehood? Are you
refusing to allow corrupting talk
come out of your mouth? Are you
getting rid of your anger before
the sun goes down? Are
you walking in love and
righteousness and
holiness? Have
you taken off the old self and
put on the new? The
studies we're doing now on
Wednesday night are about this
very thing -- getting rid of the
stuff in our lives that has us
bound and that works against our
holiness, so that God can use us
fully and completely as conduits
of His character, His mercy, his
grace to the people we live with,
work with, worship with, and
otherwise come in contact
with. If
you didn't have a personal
mission statement before you got
here this morning, you do now.
Our mission, as Gateway Church --
collectively and individually --
is "helping people experience
God." This is our role in the
mission Jesus has assigned the
whole church of making disciples
of all nations. Use
that in your Bible, or in the
books you read. And every time
you see it, remember that this is
our mission -- this is your
mission. You
and I are to be -- by the power
of the Holy Spirit -- imitators
of God Himself -- in our homes,
in the workplace, in the church,
in the world. Like
Jesus Christ, we're to be visible
expressions -- in human flesh --
of the invisible God, the One who
created us and has called
us. Well,
as you know, this is St.
Patrick's Day. Patrick
wasn't Irish, by the way. He was
from England, and went to Ireland
as a missionary in the 5th
century. Patrick,
I believe, understood this idea
of being an imitator of God, of
representing God to the people he
encountered. Let
me close with a prayer of St.
Patrick, an early morning prayer
that asks God to take an ordinary
human being, day by day, and
through that human being show
Himself to the world: I
call upon the Father's
might, The
will of God to be my
guide, The
eye of God to be my
sight. The
Word of God to be my
speech, The
hand of God to be my
stay, The
shield of God to be my
strength The
path of God to be my
way.
Gateway
Church gathers
for worship
Sundays
at 10:30 a.m.
(Hwy. 129) in Athens,
Georgia.
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A
GATEWAY SERMON
Helping
people experience God
Gateway
Church,
Athens GA
"Our
mission is to be a
Christ-centered,
prayer-driven, Spirit-filled
family of faith proclaiming
Jesus as the Gateway to new
and abundant life through
vital worship, biblical
teaching, faithful
discipleship, and fruitful
ministry."
"Our
mission is to produce more
Christians and build better
Christians by faithfully
proclaiming Jesus as the
Gateway to new and abundant
life."
And
the statement is simply this:
"Helping People Experience God."
We all can remember that can't
we? "Helping People Experience
God."
'My mission in life
is...'
Visible expressions of the
invisible God"Now
this I say and testify in the
Lord, that you must no longer
walk as the Gentiles do, in
the futility of their
minds."
"They
are darkened in their
understanding, alienated from
the life of God because of the
ignorance that is in them, due
to their hardness of
heart."
"They
have become callous and have
given themselves up to
sensuality, greedy to practice
every kind of
impurity."
"But
that is not the way you
learned Christ! -- assuming
that you have heard about him
and were taught in him, as the
truth is in Jesus, to put off
your old self, which belongs
to your former manner of life
and is corrupt through
deceitful desires, and to be
renewed in the spirit of your
minds, and to put on the new
self, created after the
likeness of God in true
righteousness and
holiness."
Changed
behavior"Therefore,
having put away falsehood, let
each one of you speak the
truth with his neighbor, for
we are members one of another.
Be angry and do not sin; do
not let the sun go down on
your anger, and give no
opportunity to the devil. Let
the thief no longer steal, but
rather let him labor, doing
honest work with his own
hands, so that he may have
something to share with anyone
in need. Let no corrupting
talk come out of your mouths,
but only such as is good for
building up, as fits the
occasion, that it may give
grace to those who
hear."
"And
do not grieve the Holy Spirit
of God, by whom you were
sealed for the day of
redemption. Let all bitterness
and wrath and anger and clamor
and slander be put away from
you, along with all malice. Be
kind to one another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one
another, as God in Christ
forgave you."
"Therefore"
-- there's that word again --
"be imitators of God, as
beloved children. And walk in
love, as Christ loved us and
gave himself up for us, a
fragrant offering and
sacrifice to God."
What it looks
like
No experience of
God
Getting
personal
Embracing the
mission
I
have something for you. This is a
bookmark. It is to go in your
Bible. It says on it: "Gateway
Church: Helping People Experience
God."
I sing as I arise today.
Joseph Slife served as
Gateway's lay leader from
1997-2005.
An
audio tape of this sermon is
available
free of charge (U.S. requests
only).
Request
a tape by calling
or writing the Gateway Church
office.
Please specify tape number
020317: Helping People
Experience God.
©
2002 Joseph M.
Slife