Series: The Power of a Committed Life
#2 "Fruits of Being Fully Engaged In My Church"
Jan 17, 2010
The key verse for our series this month is 2 Chronicles 16:9, “The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.” There is strength and power in a fully engaged, a fully committed life to Jesus Christ. What does a fully committed life look like? How do we really know that we are fully engaged? What are the benchmarks to help us ascertain if we are fully engaged or not?
The Gallup polling organization has asked that same question to thousands of Americans. Here is what they found. Out of an engaged life come 5 fruits: 1. Spiritual commitment, 2. Experiencing contentment, 3.serving, 4. Inviting, and 5. Giving. Our goal at SUMC is to encourage, implore, and prod you to become more fully engaged in your walk with Jesus. Here are 5 action steps that will lead us to the fruit of the committed life.
I. I take responsibility for my spiritual growth. You and I do play a part in our salvation. I often get the impression that people (and Christians) think all they have to do is pray and God will do it all! We live in a time when many people don’t want to take responsibility for anything let alone their eternal salvation. As you know there is a correlation between physical life and spiritual life and the process of growing up to maturity. When they are born, babies are totally dependent upon others for their care, but as they develop they slowly become more and more independent. They no longer need dad and mom to bath and dress them, feed them, and watch over them. There comes a time when parents take their hands off and are no longer responsible for their kids. The responsibility is now transferred to the kids themselves. Have you ever seen a 35-year-old sitting in a high chair with mom feeding him baby food? A disgusting thought isn’t it?
In the same way, spiritual newborns need a lot of care and need people to come along side of them and help them grow. As they grow spiritually they become more independent and mature to the point when they can “stand on their own 2 feet” spiritually speaking. It seems to me that there are far too many spiritual 35 year olds sitting in the Christian high chair saying, “Feed me, feed me.” Actually it is not a high chair, but really the “I” chair!
Look at James 4:8 again, “Come close to God and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and this world.” How do you start? Drawing closer to God will negate the divided, double-minded heart and help you to live a life focused on God’s Kingdom, thereby experiencing the power of a fully engaged life. You are as engaged to Jesus, as close to God as you choose to be. Taking responsibility for your relationship with Christ is the first step to becoming more fully engaged as a Christian.
II. The second action item is this: I practice contentment in all areas of my life. This is another way of saying that you are satisfied with your life right how. Are you? Being discontent will keep you from drawing close to God and being more fully engaged. How content are you? On a scale of 1 to 10 how content are you with your walk with Jesus, in your marriage/family, with your job, your friends, where you live?
Discontentment comes when we can’t enjoy the now because we are stuck in the past, when we wistfully pine away for the way it used to be. Some years ago I attended a meeting at Asbury Seminary. The president was speaking to us and said, “Who wants to go back to the 50s?” I raised my hand and said, “I do.” Not exactly like it was of course by taking away what was bad back then. But I find myself becoming frustrated with the way our culture is headed. I get tired of hearing the “F” bomb, glorifying perverted sexuality, the corruption of government, the loss of Christian righteousness, the worry of your identity being stolen, the loss of respect for one another and for life itself, and the loss of overall high moral standards. Sometimes I find my self discontented with the now and desperately wish it were different. Maybe you are not contented because you are living in the past…the way it used to me before the divorce, before your friend/spouse/parent/child died, before you lost your job, before whatever. Living in the past is often related to anger that definitely affects our contentment level. Are you living in the past?
Ironically for others the source of their discontentment is living in the future. They are always thinking ahead, of the next step, of the next phase of life. They can’t be content about the now because whatever is coming will be better! That next job, that next promotion, when I get my degree, when I can get my hands on that inheritance, when I retire, as soon as I hit the lottery—It is all about being content tomorrow, but never now!
This is why people often don’t commit themselves to a church because they will be moving on in a year or two. Back in the 70s my brother was transferred to the DuPont plant in Wilmington for only a year and then on to the new plant in Mississippi. So they didn’t find a church and hardly even attended worship. That one-year stay stretched into about 6 years. So focused on the future they blew their present.
If you are living in the past or the future you will not know God’s contentment. The Apostle Paul learned this, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation.” (Phil. 4:12) Have you learned the practice of being content? The past is just that—past and is gone. The future hasn’t even come yet and you leave that in God’s hands. Taking responsibility for your spiritual growth and your contentment is a today thing. That is a fruit of a more engaged life.
III. I serve the Lord in some way through SUMC. An engaged life is a serving life. When you are involved in something, you are engaged. There is a direct and close connection between being engaged with Jesus and being engaged with the church, the body of Christ. If you want to be more involved with your walk with Christ, start by serving somewhere at SUMC. Jesus said, “Anyone who want to be my disciple must follow me, because my servants must be where I am. And my Father will honor anyone who serves me.” (John 12:27) Notice the word Jesus used to describe His followers—servants. This is so important that Kathy Harkisheimer’s primary focus on staff is to help people find their SHAPE to be in servant ministry somewhere at SUMC, or maybe in some ministry somewhere. We have a multitude of ways that you can serve from cutting the grass, to loving our babies in the nursery, to being an usher/an offering counter, a bulletin stuffer, to music ministry, to volunteering in our office, to being a Bible study leader or hosting a Bible study. You could assist at the Lord’s Clothes Tree or God’s Pantry. You could volunteer at SJCA or with our youth ministry. The ways to serve Jesus are limitless. Some even tithe there time to the work of God’s Kingdom. Jesus said, “The greatest among you must be a servant.” (Matthew 23:11) If you want to be great in God’s Kingdom, sign up to serve.
IV. The fourth action of becoming more fully engaged: I invite one friend a month to church with me. I know that can be intimidating but as Christians one of our main tasks is to bring people to Jesus. Somebody brought you, didn’t they? You could invite them to attend a less threatening event—like the Family Movie Nite, or a Parenting Seminar, or a study about stress. Some years ago, our softball team was a great way to introduce people to SUMC and to Jesus. You might invite a friend to a Sisters of Faith dinner or men’s breakfast. Youth can invite their friends to a retreat or Super Bowl party. Our crochet group has grown because people are inviting their friends to be a part of that ministry. It doesn’t always have to be to worship or something potentially more intimidating. One way to help you do that is to pray for people by name asking God to open doors so you can invite them to church. Watch and see what God does! But then you have to get out of your comfort zone and actually do it. Paul writes in Colossians 4:3, “And pray for us too that God may open a door for our message, so that we might proclaim the mystery of Christ….”
V. Fifth, I bring the tithe to God each week. The Bible teaches that tithing, which is giving 10% of you income back to God’s work, is one of the most important benchmarks that determines your level of engagement with Jesus. Everything we call our own comes from God. The air we breath, the food we eat, the water we drink, our money, our homes and cars, our retirement accounts, the clothes on our backs, our time, our planet, our natural skills and spiritual gifts---all of it comes from God.
In Malachi 3 we read a conversation with God and God asks, “Will a man rob God? Yet you (speaking to His people) rob me?” The people retort, “How do we rob you?” God answers, “In tithes and offerings.” A lot of Christians even don’t know that by not tithing they are robbing God and taking for themselves what rightfully belongs to God alone! Verse 10 reads, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it!” That certainly is true in my house. We don’t have enough room for all our stuff. And it is true as well with God’s intangible blessings in our family. God has blessed us beyond measure. I have never in my life gone hungry and I have never once worried about money. That is one of the greatest worries that cause most people the greatest anxiety. Through Christ I learned early on to trust God and also to live within my means.
If you want God’s blessing in your life, start tithing. Put God to the test. This is the only time God tells us to ‘try Him’ and I find it interesting that it has to do with money! Maybe because it is the easiest way to determine our prosperity and yet the hardest thing for most people to do. Ultimately our issue with money is not a financial issue, but a trust issue—an issue of the heart. In Matthew 6:21 Jesus said, “Wherever your treasure is, your heart will be there also.” A couple old sayings come to mind here: “You are what you eat” and “Do the clothes make the man or does the man make the clothes?” Want a greater heart for God and a more fully engaged walk with Jesus? Do you want to know God’s purposes and plan for your life? Start giving 10% of your treasure back to God. Put God to the test!
These are the fruits of the power of a committed and fully engaged life with Christ: Taking responsibility, experiencing contentment, Serving God in ministry, inviting friends to church, and tithing your income to God.
In Matthew 7:16ff Jesus said, “By their fruit you shall know them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistle? Like wise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.”
Don’t miss God’s best for you through a fully engaged and committed life to Christ. It’s an eternal thing!