The Wine Issue: Asking the Right Question Lesson #4: Marks of a Christian

Transcription

1 The Wine Issue: Asking the Right Question Lesson #4: Marks of a Christian Wheat Street Baptist Church Rev. Ralph Basui Watkins, DMin, PhD Interim Pastor Introduction: As we move through the book of Mark we continue to see Jesus way of ministry going against the grain. Jesus is always pushing the boundaries and redefining what it means to have an effective ministry. As we think about this principle: Radical Ministry and Redefining Boundaries what does this mean for you personally and us as a church? Personally: What new thing is God calling you to do that is radically different than what you have been doing in your personal life? of 6

2 Note: If you aren t doing any new things that are challenging you then you aren t growing as God wold have you to grow. God wants to expand and grow us and we are develop by our experiences. The Growth Process: A Sample of Growth Opportunities 1. God ordained experiences / answering our call(s) 2. Engaging God s word (private and public) 3. Worship (private and public) 4. Time with God 1. In study 2. In prayer 3. In silence 4. In times of fasting 5. In meditation 6. In reading 7. In the music we listen to 8. In the things we watch 9. In the places we go to commune with God 5. Doing the new God has called us to do 6. Treating the mundane and routine as new don t allow what you do to become routine 7. By being thankful and mindful of each God given second of life What about our church? If we hope to grow and see 250 to 300 new people journey with us each year what new things must we do? As we strive to reach the world with a life changing ministry and in-turn see at least 500 people in worship every Sunday what must we do? What radical changes must we make and how will you be a part of that change? The two stories we engage tonight are about change. This is constant theme in the ministry of Jesus. The changes Jesus makes aren t change for change sake but rather Jesus is changing based on his response to the needs of the people. Whenever Jesus encounters an individual or a crowd he fashions his healing and needs based ministry to meet the needs of the people. Jesus doesn't complain about where they are or what they are doing but rather he meets them where they are and meets their need. 2 of 6

3 What would this look like for us today? If Jesus is our model for ministry how are we touching people where they are to make sure we are meeting their needs? Where are we going? Are we in the streets (uptown, midtown, downtown, south side, west side, suburbs)? Are we online in the virtual world where most people are connecting daily? If Jesus is our model for ministry how does what we do in our personal life and the life of the church mirror what Jesus is doing? The Pharisees Who Can t See: Asking the Wrong Question We are here again with those Pharisees. They are so locked into the routine that they miss God. They miss God with them because they think what they are doing is Godly. Mark 2: Now John s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, How is it that John s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not? 19 Jesus answered, How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. 20 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast. 3 of 6

4 The Pharisees are so focused on going through the motion of what it looks like or what it means them to be religious that they are missing an experience of life time. They are missing God. They are so judgmental of what they see they can t see what they should see. Our old ways get in the way us encountering God in new ways. When the question becomes why is this or that happening because it goes against what I am used to instead where is God and what is God doing and how can I get on God s agenda for my life and God s church? Our ultimate goal is to be in the will of God. In this passage the Pharisees are out of the will of God because they are asking the wrong question! The right question is: What is God doing in the world and how I am I to be in God s will doing what God would have me to do and in-turn have our church to do? The question for the church is not how do we raise more money but rather how are we more faithful so that we attract people to Christ and God s church so that we can serve and save the world? If we are effective servants of the world the church will grow. God didn t call us to save the church but rather God called us to save the world. If we reach out and save the world the church will thrive! We have to ask ourselves: are we serving the church and church folk or are we serving the world! If we are asking the wrong question(s) we will never get the right answer! Remix not Repeat Many churches are trying to get folk to come to church but God didn t call people to come to church. God called the church to go out into the world. If those of us in the church would reach out in real meaningful ways to touch and heal people who are not a part of God s church then people would come. John 3: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17 Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 4 of 6

5 God sends us into the world. We connect with the world and serve the world it will change the church to conform to the will and call of God. Something happens to us when we encounter new people and are called to meet them at their hour of need and serve them. The Wine Issue: We Need to Drink Some New Wine When do we through away the old so that we can do the new? What things need to go in our personal lives and in the life of the church? When we try to put some old things and new things together there are times when this just will not work. Lets Talk About Wine: Do We Want to Make Some New Wine? Mark 18: No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. 22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins. New wine stretches the wine skins. Once the wine skins have been used to make wine it becomes old wine skin and it is not fit or able to make new wine. For new wine to be made we have to have new skins or new ways to do make this new wine. This requires a new way of thinking. We have to think differently!!! The Pharisees Asking the Wrong Question Again! Mark 2: One sabbath he was going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath? 25 And he said to them, Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? 26 He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions. 27 Then he said to them, The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; 28 so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath. 5 of 6

6 Two issues here: 1. The laws of the sabbath - people were to rest and do no work 2. The needs of the people - Jesus saw those who were hungry and was doing what was needed to meet their needs. Jesus put the needs of the people of the law or tradition. When we allow the need of the people that God has called us to meet to lead us it will result in us naturally going against what we have done. It will go against what we have done because to meet the changing need of people in a changing world requires what the church does and how the church does it to change. The Pharisees can t see because they are always asking the question about the law or tradition. They can t see beyond what they have done. They refuse to let their imagination see what God is calling them to do or what could be. When we take time to imagine we begin to see the possibilities of what God can do and what God wants to do. One of the tools of the devil is to stop us from dreaming or imagining. The power in the believing that things are possible. Prayer Request Ephesians 3: For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,[a] 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. 16 I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, 17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. 18 I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. 6 of 6