"Mission, Not Money"
November 18, 2012
Matthew 9:9-13

Introduction: This morning, I want to focus a on how God gives to us a mission.

The title of the sermon is “Mission, Not Money.” This title is important, because while you need money to carry out the Mission, without understanding your mission, you won’t use the money that you have wisely.

            On top of that, the focus should never be on money. A study was done in regards to people’s giving, and 4 things were found:

1.      If you ask for money, but people don’t care about what you are doing, they won’t give.

2.      If you ask for money for something people do care about, but don’t give them a clear sense that giving will make a real difference, then you won’t get very much.

3.      If you ask for money and people know that giving will make a major difference, then you will get even more money.

4.      If you engage people’s faith, understanding, involvement, and commitment to God for a mission that makes a difference, then people’s generosity increases greatly.

You see, what is important is not the money, but the Mission to which the money, time, energy and influence goes. When we know that we are involved in something that is important and life changing, and has eternal consequence, then our desire to give in every way is increased. So let’s take some time to understand God’s mission, which I think we’ve outlined well in our Mission statement.

I.                   Know Jesus Christ- (Luke 19:10; John 3:16; Matthew 9:2, 12)

a.      Why Jesus came- Our Mission statement (which you can

find on the back of the bulletin, begins: “The mission of this church is to bring people to know Jesus Christ….”/ This is the beginning of our mission statement, because this is the mission for which Jesus Himself came. Listen to these verses: Luke 19:9-10- “Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.’”

     John 3:16- “For God so loved the world, that He sent His one and only

     Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Matthew 9:12- “..It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.”

     The purpose, the mission for which Jesus came/   was to bring salvation to a lost world. God knew that we could not save ourselves, and so He made provision for our salvation; Jesus Christ. Without Jesus, people are lost, they are spiritually sick, they are separated from God. So God’s goal, and our goal too, is to introduce Jesus to those who do not know Him, or who have forgotten about Him!! If we forget this, then we will be a church that exists for no reason!

STORY: “Mister, can you spare a dime?”- There is a story of a man who for a year begged on the streets for a living. One day he touched a man on the shoulder and asked him: “Mister, can you spare a dime?” As soon as the man turned around he recognized him as his father. His father threw his arms around his son and said: “Oh my son, at last I’ve found you. You want a dime? Everything I have is yours.” This man, who was begging for ten cents, found his father who had been searching for him for 18 years! His life was never the same after this.

This is a wonderful illustration of how God desires for us to come to know Him through Jesus Christ. And how through Jesus we become heirs to all that God has; heirs to the abundant life that God has planned for us! Our life before knowing Jesus is like that of a beggar. After we find Jesus, we are as rich as can be. Don’t you want others to know Jesus as you do? Don’t be satisfied that you are saved; help others to become saved as well! This is our Mission!!

b.      Living it out as Jesus did- So we need to live this out. But

how? By seeking people as Jesus did; by loving people as Jesus did.  People can’t know about Jesus until they hear about Jesus. But even more, people won’t know about Jesus until they see Jesus in you. Jesus sought to love all people. Jesus sought to tell people God’s truth. Jesus sought to care for people in all of their needs.

            Story of the paralytic- In the book of Matthew, chapter 9, some men brought a paralyzed man to Jesus. Well, actually they didn’t just bring the man. The house where Jesus was teaching was full, so much so that they couldn’t get through the door. So these men climbed up onto the roof, cut a hole in the roof, and then lowered this paralyzed man, who was lying on a mat, down to Jesus. Now, obviously this man’s need was to be physically healed. But Jesus knew that even more important than being healed, was for him to be spiritually whole. And to become whole his sins needed to be forgiven. So Jesus says to the man in Matthew 9:2- “… ‘Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.’” But Jesus’ healing of the man didn’t excite  the man or the crowd. And so Jesus then said in verse 6- “So that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…Get up, take your mat, and go home.’”

                         Jesus wanted the man to have faith, and so in the end He healed him physically so that he would realize that his spiritual need was important as well./  We need to care for people’s physical needs so that they might be open to seeing Jesus. That is why we have our food pantry and our bread ministry; that is why the session has granted me a Pastor’s Discretionary fund, so that I could help people in their physical and financial struggles; that is why we should invite people to meals whenever we have them here at the church; that is why we have given people little jobs to do so that they could make a little extra money; that is why myself and other leaders have given counseling or rides to people in need. We seek to care for their physical needs so that they might see Jesus!!

II.                Grow in Faith- (Revelation 3:16; 1 Corinthians 3:5-6; 2 Peter 3:18; 2 Timothy 2:2)

So the Mission statement says: “The mission of this church is to bring people to know Jesus Christ, …” Then it goes on … “to help one another grow in faith….”

a.      Grow in faith- We all know that it is important to believe in Jesus.

The Bible is clear that without faith in Jesus, we will not be saved; we will not go to heaven. But it is important to understand that it doesn’t stop there. We are called to not only have faith, but to grow in that faith; to be alive in our faith; to let others see our faith.

            In fact, when people believe, but then don’t grow, God is not happy. We are told in Revelation 3:16- (And God is saying this to the Christians at the church in Laodicea who are not growing) “So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”

There are many verses in the Bible that challenge us to grow, but here are a couple: 1 Corinthians 3:5-6- “What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.”

2 Peter 3:18 says: “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…” God wants us to grow; grow in love, grow in grace, grow in our knowledge of God.

            In a Peanuts comic strip Lucy and Charlie Brown are talking, and Lucy says: “Sometimes I get discouraged.” Charlie Brown responds: “Well, Lucy, life does have its ups and downs you know…” Lucy quickly jumps in: “But why should it? Why can’t my life be all ups? If I want all “ups,” why can’t I have them? Why can’t I just move from one “up” to another “up”? Why can’t I just go from an “up” to an “upper-up”? I don’t want any “downs”! I just want “ups” and “ups” and “ups”!” At this point Charlie Brown is walking away and he says to himself: “I can’t stand it…” (“The Gospel According to Peanuts,” by Robert Short, p. 70-71.)   

Life is full of ups and downs, and the stronger we are in our faith, the more we are consistently growing in our faith, the more capable we will be of dealing with these ups and downs!

b.      Helping others grow- But like most things in life, it is easier to

grow when we allow others to help us grow. When we have others around us, we can learn from them, they can help keep us accountable, and we are usually more motivated.

            In another Peanuts comic strip, Lucy is trying to help Linus get unattached to his blanket, and so she hides it from him. He comes running in and shouts at Lucy: “You buried my blanket? You can’t do that! I’ll die without that blanket! I’ll be like a fish out of water! I’ll die! I’ll die! Tell me where you buried it! Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!” Well, Lucy doesn’t tell Linus, and a couple of weeks go by where Linus is in terrible agony, daily digging in his backyard trying to find it. Then one day Snoopy happens to be digging in the back yard and finds the blanket. As he is running by Linus, Linus sees the blanket, tackles him and says: “Oh Snoopy, you found the blanket. You found it! You found it!” And then in the last frame Snoopy says to himself: “Every now and then I feel that my existence is justified.”

(Gospel According To Peanuts, p. 91-92).

            Obviously, to help others grow, they have to want to grow. Without that desire, we can encourage others, but they will not grow. So as a church, we are to encourage each other to come to church, and provide opportunities for growth, but people must make the decision to participate and receive instruction. As the apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:2, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.”

Along with our Sunday Worship service, there are many groups that help us grow: Mariners, Presbyterian Women, Sunday Morning Adult Sunday School (which meets in the parlor at 8:30 a.m. on Sundays, our Wednesday night Bible study, the Session Bible study, the choir meetings, as well as one-on-one Christian friendships. We will also be starting a new session of Alpha in January. Alpha is a “getting back to the basics” study that is good for everyone because it helps us to get in touch with what God really wants us to know and live out in our lives!

            If you are serious about growing in your faith, and as a Christian you should be, I encourage you to be involved in one or more of these groups, and encourage others to be involved as well!

III.             Show Commitment- (John 3:16)

Our Mission statement ends with these words: “….to be committed and responsible members, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, to share God’s love beyond the church.”

a.      Be a responsible member- In even another Peanuts Comic

Strip…there is a boy from Charlie Brown’s school who comes up to him and says: “So you see, it’s the heat from the sun that keeps us warm.” “Not entirely,” Charlie

Brown responds. “What do you mean ‘not entirely?” the other boy asks. Then Charlie Brown holds out his hands and says: “MITTENS!” (“The Parables of Peanuts,” p. 260).

While God is the one who created the world, who created our world, and

keeps this world going, we are called by God to be committed to His creation. We are the mittens of this world, if you will, seeking to show that we have responsibility as well.

            So how do we show that we are responsible members of this church?

We do this by regularly attending church, being involved in more than just the Sunday service, and volunteering our time in some activity or program in the church. It is showing that we care about God by caring about the things of God; showing that we believe that we are called to help this church make a difference for the kingdom of God. We seek to bring those who know God, but don’t have a church to this church. We love one another and seek the unity of the church.

If we want this church and its ministry to be active and fruitful, we must all be responsible members giving our time and energy and resources.

b.      Sharing the good news- And we are called to share the

good news of God with others. Now, to share the good news, you need to understand first what the good news is: it is simply John 3:16. Let me say it again: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, so that whoever believes would not perish, but have everlasting life.” As you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, you receive God’s love and forgiveness. This is good news; you have been saved and can know that you will spend eternity in heaven with God!

I’ve heard this illustration many times, I’ve said it many times, and you’ve probably heard it before, but I’m going to say it here because it is a great illustration./ If you had the cure for cancer, you wouldn’t keep it to yourselves, but you would share it with the rest of the world!!/   Even more importantly, we know the cure from our being separated from God, from our being kept out of heaven; it is Jesus Christ. And in knowing this, we need to share it with others!/  Now, I know that many people get nervous when they think about talking about their faith. It makes people nervous because of they risk being rejected or getting into a discussion that might get beyond their understanding of the Christian faith.

When I talk about sharing your faith, you probably think of going door-to-door, and the threat of this kind of rejection. Or think about just talking about Jesus out of the blue. It is not this, but rather just being willing to talk about the difference Jesus has made in your life when you get the opportunity (and you will get the opportunity more than you might think).

There is a great book called “Becoming A Contagious Christian,” by Lee Strobel and Bill Hybels, and in this book they talk about sharing your faith by just being yourself; sharing your faith by sharing how you met Jesus and how Jesus changed you. The best way to share Jesus is to share your story!

Lastly, we are reminded in our Mission Statement that this all happens with the help of the Holy Spirit. It is not on our own power that we do these things, but by God’s power, guided by the Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit will give us opportunities. The Holy Spirit will give us wisdom in our conversations. The Holy Spirit will take our words and empower them to those who hear them!

Conclusion: Our mission is to love God, love others, grow in our faith, and tell others about Jesus. I hope this is a mission that you can really get excited about. It is a mission that God is excited about, because it is God’s mission for the world. And now that we understand it better, I hope that we would seek to support it in our church, and live it out in our lives. Don’t forget, the more people in the church that are involved in the living out of this Mission, the more that are involved with the shaping of the vision, the more powerful our impact will be in this community and for the kingdom of God.

This morning, after church, we will be having tea and scones in celebration of St. Andrews Sunday. There will also be the 2013 proposed budgets for you to look over. This year your pledges, your gifts, are needed more than ever. While it is more about mission than money, it takes money to carry out the mission. I have heard from so many people how important this church is to you. If that is the case, then I encourage you to make sure our mission is funded!! Let’s join together in this venture! Amen.