What are we as a church preoccupied with?
Is our time taken up by entertainment for ourselves or are we here with the mission of saving souls?
Has Origin become the mission? Has the organization of Origin become the mission of Origin?
In one of my churches a while back we had to do mayor work to the church. So, we decided to come together on Sundays do the work, so some of the ladies decided to do lunch for us, so they organized it. It was a great lunch; they would come in early and cook and the men would bring the ice and set the tables. We needed a table to set the food on then a team to serve, then a cleanup team, then organize it so that the it wasn’t the same people all the time, people didn’t want to eat the same food, had have dessert. Didn’t take long when we needed a budget for the Sunday lunch, people started dropping by just for lunch. Then a calendar. Then issues with certain groups brought in better food than others, then people who couldn’t be together in the kitchen because they had different way of doing it.
It came to the point that I had cancel lunch so that we could actually get the work on the church done. I had just work from 8:00-12:00 then go home.
None of our activities are useful unless they are with the purpose of saving those who don’t know Jesus.
Matthew 4:18-20
18 And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19 Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 They immediately left their nets and followed Him.
In this verse we see who calls us, the reason for His calling and the purpose to His calling.
In other words, obedient disciples who become disciple makers who become obedient disciples who become disciple makers.
Ministering to disciples
Luke 4:18-19
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; 19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
As I look at these verses, I don’t see physical needs I see psychological needs. I see people that sin has taken a toll on them and they are:
Poor in Spirit
Brokenhearted
People who feel captive
People that are blind
So, the ministry of the church isn’t just about growing in numbers, it must also provide ways of repairing the broken so that they become more effective disciples.
Discipleship doesn’t fix everything. We must know that we are broken people trying to do Holy work.
Story of Lazarus
Ministering to the lost
It is interesting that in New Testament Jesus ministered to His disciples, the sinners and the religious.
We can wee that his ministry was balanced.
Matthew 18:11
11 For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.
In the same way our church should have the purpose of saving, restoring and discipleling.
Saving through the sacrifice of Jesus, restoring through the presence of the Holy Spirit discipleling through the work of the believers.
Matthew 28:18-20
18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
Conclusion:
So, what am I saying here today? Our church here is about Saving, restoring and discipleling So far, we have a place to do it We have a worship service that helps in these areas in a general way. We have moments of fellowship but we’re not intentionally restoring or intentionally discipleling and we need to change that. All of our ministries need to have those three things in mind.
