Whom Shall I Send?

For centuries there has been some debate within the Christian church about "working your way to Heaven." Some believe you have to do so many good deeds to get there, others believe you don't have to do anything but believe in Jesus and follow a few sacraments and rituals. With the opioid epidemic that has hit America and particularly Dayton, Ohio where I am from, I felt like God was calling me to address a few things in this area using His word to do so and not just what some pastor trying to get you to volunteer said out of frustration.

 

First thing we have to understand is there is legitimate reason for the frustration in the church today. It is said that 90% of the work in the church is done by 10% of the church goers who eventually end up burned out and frustrated. I believe this comes from a consumer society that tells us to take all we can get, make sure we get a discount, and if you can rip the other guy off, do it!

 

Too often we go to church and automatically assume things will be taken care of by someone else, but then we complain or blast the church on social media when something is out of place or not done how we believe it should be. We feel we have to be entertained, blessed, moved, fed, and taught all in such a way that has to be enough to last us until next Sunday when we return to refuel again. Church has become a gathering place where we can check in on social media and check off our to-do list for the week so we can feel better about being "good" Christians.

 

"Ok Pastor Mike. What's with the Christian beating?" As I said, there is true reason for the frustration in the church. Many of us want to title ourselves Christians and post on Facebook all the wonderful quotes we heard in a message, but how many of us are actually being Christians? What does that mean? It means this; Jesus Christ (hence Christian), did not come to teach about Jesus Christ. He came to teach us two simple commands found in Matthew 22:37-40. When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was to be kept by all He responded, 

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”  

 

What Jesus was saying is God is the most important priority in your life. But notice what He said next. Jesus was asked what the most important command was. Not, what were the most important commands. He made it a point to say that the second one was "like" the first meaning it is just as important as any other command we ever follow. I would venture to say that no matter what church I walked into and asked how many of you love Jesus and would do anything for Him, every hand in every church would be raised. However, for some reason we miss the point entirely when it comes to loving our neighbors. Jesus Himself is telling us that loving Him is not enough. In fact, there were many people who loved God and thought they were doing what was necessary to keep His commands but they did not love people.

 

The point is this; we are all called to be like Jesus. Not to talk about or preach about Jesus, but to be like Jesus. Preaching about Jesus gets us excited, but even Jesus did not preach about Jesus. He preached about love and Jesus is love. He modeled this as He traveled from town to town teaching the importance of relationships and serving one another and if we are called to be like Jesus, shouldn't we get outside of the church and well, be like Jesus?

 

Mark 10:45 tells us that, "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Arguably, the most famous verse in Scripture is John 3:16 which says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

 

The common theme here is not that Jesus came to consume and find out what He could get from the world, but rather what He could give to the world. God did not take anything from the world because He loved us, He gave because He loved us. It has been said that no one remembers those who take their whole lives, but we always remember those who gave to the poor, who gave their life work to humanity, and those who gave their actual life for the greater good.

 

"But Pastor Mike, Ephesians 2:8-9 says 'For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.'" I absolutely agree. It is not by works because then it would be up to us and it would mean everything Jesus did on that cross was for absolutely nothing. However, what we always forget to talk about is verse ten that follows immediately after and reads, "For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." In other words, we are designed to serve and do good deeds for others. Jesus paid for our eternity, but it is up to us to carry on His work as a token of our appreciation for that sacrifice. We can never repay that level of sacrifice, but we can continue to serve as Jesus did so that His sacrifice was not in vein and others continue to come to Him and know His love for us all.

             

Finally, one may asked "what does this have to do with the opioid epidemic?" EVERYTHING! The American church as a whole has failed society. We have caved to the pressure of "only God can judge me" and "to each his own." We are worried more about filling seats on Sunday than saving lives for eternity. We are committing what I call "involuntary manslaughter" by not doing what we were "created in Christ Jesus" to do and that is to go out and serve others by making "disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19). We have gotten so comfortable with our programs, we have forgotten about people. We sit in our seats each Sunday, have coffee with the pastor, rub elbows with one another in our small groups, and stroke one another's egos with our fancy clichés and catch phrases. While those things are great, Luke 6:32 reminds us, "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them." In other words, its great that you love other Christians, but what about the lost addicts down the street you are afraid to take a Saturday morning and go pray with?

 

Jesus sent 72 disciples out and told them to go be with other people right where they are (Luke 10). He never said "sit in the church, change your music up, have great programs, and pray for me to send them to you." All throughout the bible we are told to GO! The challenge today with our opioid epidemic is this; who will go and be the hands and feet of Jesus and show the lost and hurting where to find hope? To simply talk to, pray with, listen to, and show the love of Christ to a lost society.

 

Who will heed the call of Isaiah 6:8 that reads, "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” I challenge the church to say ME! I am here to serve you as Jesus served me. To sacrifice my time which is far less valuable than the sacrifice Jesus made for us all. Who of us will GO and stop playing church, but rather be the church. I have heard it said that that church is not the building we gather at, it is the people of Christ, and the sanctuary is not in that building it is in the hearts of the people. So if God ask today, "Whom shall I send," what would be your response?

Pastor Mike Lawson