The Village Church
Balance - How to Approach The World - Audio
Father God, as we come to your word, I pray that you will be glorified. As I always say, Lord, this is not about Alex. It's not about my words. It's about my king. It's about my father. And it's about his glory. And so my prayer is that I would decrease and you would increase in this place. And that we would leave here glorifying you more and thinking less of ourselves in the lives that we now live. So spirit, take this word that is preaching, apply it to all of our hearts. Meet us where we are, and rest in my prayer. Amen. Well, I hope everyone's doing well this morning. Nice spring day out. All right, there we go. Last week, I saw something on the news that really turned a knot in my stomach. There were some parents in Maryland lost their son in Iraq, I think maybe in 2006. He was an American soldier serving this country. And what turned my stomach was, there was members of a local church in Maryland protesting at this man's funeral. Sand nasty and hurtful things to his family. They were holding up signs that said, God hates you, you're in hell. Thank God for dead soldiers. Pray them for more dead soldiers, they said. Too late to pray, God is your enemy. God hates America. And I said to myself, is this the way the church is supposed to respond to the world? Is this the way God wants his church to respond to America with hate, hope, listeners, turning the gospel, the good news of the gospel into a gospel anger, into a gospel of hate? No, this is not the way the church is supposed to respond to the world. It's not the way. And those church members, a lot of church members, even us, sometimes have something mentioned in our gospel. I'm reading a book by a guy named Richard Stearns. I don't know if he's your cousin Mark, but his last name was Stearns, his first cousin. And he has a book called A Whole In Our Gospel. And he says, being a Christian is more than just having a personal transformer relationship with God. It also entails having a transformer relationship with the world. What does he mean by that? He means, if I love Jesus, then I love other people, even my enemies. If I love Jesus, I have a relationship with Jesus, then I will love other people, even my enemies, even the people that get on my nerves, even the neighbor who gets on my nerves, I will love other people. This means you will see the world through the eyes of Christ and you will respond to the world with the heart of Christ. And that means something. It changes our life. It requires a lifestyle change for a lot of us. What is your relationship with the world? What is your relationship with the neighbors? What is your relationship with your community? What does it look like? As a church, as believers, how are we to see and respond to the world? The short answer is that we have to have a balance approach. What do you mean by that, Alex? We have to have balance. Christ approached the world with balance. He had balance. You see, you read passages like in John 4-4. John 4-4 says, "You are adulterous people. Don't you know that friendship with the world and it ends to me with God. Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes themselves an enemy of God. He didn't go to 1 John 2-5. He says, "Do not love the world or things in the world. If you love the world or love of the Father, it's not in him." Now, you can read those passages and think, "Well, I shouldn't love the world. I shouldn't be friends with the world." So I guess I need to avoid the world and withdraw. Some Christians have used that to do that very thing. When I lived in Greenville, South Carolina, there's a Christian college up there and they have a wall built around the college. And what does that communicate to the world? You can't come in. We're different. We isolate in ourselves from the world. Then when I moved to Huntsville, I've seen two churches that have fences around the church. What does that communicate? Isolation, avoidance, withdrawal. In these passages from James and John, some Christians have used them to justify doing those very things. This is their approach to the world. I'll avoid it and I withdraw. And I ask you, is that right? Is that right? Is your life looked that way? Is my life looked that way? Now, when we come to First Corinthians 9, verses 20 and 21, Paul says to the Jew, "I became as a Jew in order to win the Jews. To those under law, I became as one under the law that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law, I became as one outside of the law that I might win those outside of the law." From this verse, we get a different approach. We see a different approach. Not withdrawing from the world, not avoiding the world, but we engage. We participate. Some Christians, they see this verse as a way to contextualize what we do to our particular culture, to a particular community, to become all things, to all people, in order that you might save some. And so we do. Problem is that for some of us, some Christians, when you really read this verse, this is what we think. To those who are materialistic, I become materialistic in order that I may save those who are materialistic. But what ends up happening? You stay materialistic and you don't save nobody. So what happens is that you conform to the world, and it changes you, and you become worldly, worldly pursuits, worldly dreams. That's all you think about. Again, is that right? Is that the approach we should take? Where are you this morning? Do you withdraw and avoid? Do you join and conform? Where are you? See, our problem, and I believe, but it's a problem in a lot of churches, is that we have a natural tendency to be one-sided. You see, independent of each other, these two approaches are wrong. They're wrong. Jesus does not call us to completely withdraw and avoid the world. He doesn't. Nor does He call us to completely join and conform, either. So what do we do with that? See, it's not a matter of either or, it's both and. And as believers, you have to have a both and approach to the world and your relationship with the world. See, one Christian guy said this. He says the world as a lost world is both doomed and spared at the same time. The world that we live in as a lost world is both doomed and spared at the same time. But what do you mean by that, Alex? I mean, it is spared because God is merciful. He's made the world the object of his love and is doomed to cover the God's judgment against it. It's doomed and spared. This is how Jesus approached the world. Even in the falling world, broken world, unrepentant people are still created in God's image. And our approach to the world has to take that into consideration. And so what's the application? Sometimes you fight the world. You fight the evils that is in the world. And other times you can participate and enjoy the things in the world. You see what I'm saying? It's both and. You fight sometimes and you participate sometimes. Another way of saying it is this. Sometimes you can enjoy it. You can appreciate it. And other times you ignore it. There are things in the world you just needed ignore. You don't need to engage in those things. It's both and balanced. This is what I want us to see. Like a football game, in a football game, you have an offense and a defense from two opposing teams. It's the defense's job to stop the offense from scoring touchdowns and doing any particular game. NFL game, college game, high school game, part one in the league, whatever. Every offense wants to be two-dimensional. But what do you mean by that, Alex? It wants to pass the ball and it wants to run the ball. And if they're able to do that, the odds of winning the game goes up. Now the opposing defense, they want to make the team one-dimensional. If you can make a team one-dimensional, you have a better chance of stopping from scoring touchdowns. Us, as a church, we have to be a two-dimensional church. Running the ball, passing the ball, engaging the world, sometimes fighting the world. But don't forget, there is another person at play. There is an opposing defense on the field that ain't gonna make it easy. Ain't gonna make our job easy. You're not just gonna march up and down the field and throw a seat through your touchdowns at will. There is an enemy at play and he's the evil one. And he will stop us in our mission in our relationship with the world. Sometimes it's the world. Sometimes it's our own sin. We have to understand where we are. Are you unbalanced? Are you one-dimensional? Are you two? We have to be two. We have to be two. Because as I said, even though this world is falling, it still got us creation. And because of that, we can participate and enjoy things in this world, because of that. And because the world is broken and sinful, there are things we have to fight against. Things we have to stand firm on, and there's things we just have to ignore. And I believe the reason why we have a one-dimensional approach to the world as a church and as not just us, but other Christians, because we're one-dimensional in another area of our life. We have a one-dimensional mission. One-dimensional mission of the church in the world, it's unbalanced, it's one-sided. What do you mean by that, Alex? This is what I mean. It's true. Jesus has given the church a mission. The Bible is clear about that. And that mission, for God to save a lost world, to bring more folks into his kingdom, that's the mission, to save sinners. And through the gospel, Jesus does that. He does that. Well, I'm gonna lost my spot. And so, that sounds simple, right? It's a simple mission. Is it simple? Is it easy? It's not. Every church that you've ever been part of has hobby horses. Every church has a hobby horse. It has a hobby horse that it rides blindly. Sometimes it's a theology. Sometimes it's their vision or mission. Every church has a hobby horse. And when it comes to the mission of the church in the world, we have a dangerous tendency to be one-sided. Well, how does that look, Alex? Church A, for example. Church A, church A believes the mission of the church is spiritual. Spiritual, Alex, that's the mission of the church. It's the ministry of the word. That's the mission of the church. That's what we should be concerned about. We evangelize, we get people saved. But you know, we don't engage in social stuff. We don't engage in social issues. That's not the mission of the church. It's just spiritual. Is that right? Church B, they believe the mission of the church is physical. It's all about the ministry of deeds, Alex and Mercy. That's the mission of the church. That's what we should be concerned about. We meet the physical needs. We share our faith, if we get around to it. Is that right? You see, a popular pastor said, the first reformation was about creeds. Creeds are just statements of beliefs. He said the second one is gonna be about deeds. The first one divided the church. This time, it would unify the church. The statement sounds good, but what it does is it just highlights the problem I'm talking about. When you divide the ministry of the word from the ministry of the deeds from each other, you are in big trouble. They were never meant to be divided. Christ's ministry was a ministry of word and a ministry of deeds. Our problem is that we make it either or. And we get in trouble when we do that. You've been a part of churches that do that. Not here. Not here. We're gonna be both. Both would be priority. Both would be a part of who we are. We would be both two-dimensional here. We cannot fail here. Ministry of the word, ministry of the deeds, together, in this community, in this church, in this neighborhood, in our lives. That keeps us unified. You see, when you, if you believe the mission of the church, is only a ministry of deeds, you compromise the gospel. If you believe it's only a ministry of the word, you compromise the gospel. You see, if it's all about deeds, then you give real attention to the great constitution of the church. I'll just play what that means later. If it's all about the ministry of the word, you give little attention to the great commission. But when you keep them together, you give priority to both the great commission and to the great constitution. What's the great commission? The great commission is in Matthew 28, 18 through 20. Most of us know that. That verse. Jesus said to them, "All of those in heaven and earth is given to me. "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. "Baptize of them and them to father, "the son and the Holy Spirit. "Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you "and behold on with you always to the end of the age." That's the great commission, ministry of deeds. He says, "Go. "A lot of you have left churches "to come be a part of this church. "You heard Jesus' call, and so you came." And so when we take the gospel to the nation, to this community, to our neighbors, we are to disciple people. Baptize them and teach them the word. And discipleship is holistic discipleship. It's just not one thing that we focus on. This ministry that we're a part of, we engage to this community. Not just with kids, not just in the school, not just in the neighborhood, but with everywhere. God said for us to have dominion. And that's what we're doing here. We're not one-sided. This church is part of a bigger ministry. And we work together for one goal and that's to redeem this area for Christ. That's why we here. This means we mentor to the spiritual needs of the people and their physical needs of the people. We do both. We provide food, medical problems, whatever. We do those things out of the heart of Christ. When I was in Greenville and turning to the church there, a friend of mine was involved with a present ministry. And he asked me to go with them one day I did. And we walked around, we talked to a lot of the inmates. And he told me that he goes in, he shares the gospel with the inmates. And he says sometimes when they bring up different things that they need, like they need some clothes or whatever, he told me that he don't really talk about that stuff because what they really need is Jesus. Now I don't want to hear about the physical needs, basically it's just they need Jesus. So I'm here to give you Jesus, not anything else. You know, when he first told me that, I was like, I guess that makes sense. But I didn't call him out only either, he was wrong. If you ain't willing to meet physical needs of people, you see them never have gospel. If a man can't pay his bills, but I say he needs Jesus, Jesus never does that. He meets both needs. And so people don't care who you are, they don't care what you know, if they feel you don't care. And if you have no love, it doesn't matter who you are, you can't reach nobody, loving people for who they are. The same way God has loved you in spite of your mess, he loved you. And a few weeks ago, the spirit convicted me bad. The more I grow my faith, the more I realize, man, I really don't understand the gospel at all. Because I was pretty much had a critical and judgmental spirit towards someone that I helped. I believe because I helped this person, that that gave me the right to be big brother. Because I'm helping you pay your bills, or if you need some help with food. If I'm helping you, now I get to be big brother. I get to call you out when you're doing something I don't think you should be doing. And the spirit convicted me of that, why? Because if I'm in need, if someone helps me, and it comes with the condition that they question everything I do, then I don't want the help. And see, for us as a church, we cannot have the big brother mentality. Think that we're here to help little brother out, to make sure little brother get this stuff together. No, if we have that mentality, we forget one thing, that you have issues too. You're not always responsible with your money either. You don't always do the right thing or say the right thing. And so, when we give mercy, it has to be undeserved mercy. The same mercy we receive from God, we give to this community. And the spirit convicted me of that. He needed to, that kind of spirit, that kind of attitude hurts people. It makes them feel that they're different, that you're here to fix them. We're not here to fix anybody. All of us at the further cross are equal. I don't care where you live, I don't care where you're from. We are all a sinful at the further cross. Everything is equal. And so, the folks of this community, that they are our friends. They need, we need them. If you're here because you think they need you, then you're wrong. We all need the same thing, and that's Jesus. We all have issues. Don't forget that. Don't forget that. And it's about relationships, genuine relationships. And people can sense out falsehood. They can sense out when you're treating them differently. Treat people like you want to be treated. Treat people like you want to be treated. That's what we have to do. And so, the challenge for us is in an integrate commission, what is my role? What is my role here? What place do I have here? And I said this before, think about your life differently. Use what God, be faithful what God has you. Be faithful what he has you. We have tons of things going on in this community. Tutoring, our school program, working on the houses. If you give, if you're giving in those things, use that for the kingdom of God. Use that for his glory. You do things for Christ. That's why you do it as unto the Lord. And when you do it unto the Lord, you don't get mad when someone doesn't be grateful, if someone doesn't say thank you. When he's done unto the Lord, you do it with the right attitude, the right attitude, 'cause everything you have and I have is mercy, everything down to the shoes on your feet. It was God being merciful to you. And you take that same mercy, and we give it to other people without limit. That's loving people, where they are. Jesus says, I call, he called, he said, all authority in heaven has been given to him. And what does this mean? It means he will fulfill the great commission. He will do it. The power does not come from you. There's not come from me. It comes from him. And that's the good news, that he would be with us to the end. He would give us what we need to do the things when it gets hard. Jesus. Now the great constitution of the church, where is that found? That's Matthew 16. Jesus said, Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the Son and the living God. And Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Peter, for flesh and blood and not reveal his to you, but my Father who is in heaven. I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church. In the gates of hell should not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom. And whatever you bind on earth should be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth should be loose in heaven. What point is Jesus making there? That he would build his church. He would build this church. Jesus would do it. You see, in the great commission in Matthew 28, Jesus is saying this is the mission, and I'm gonna give you the power to do that. And in the great constitution, he's saying that's all about him. This is what we call the people too, to Jesus. That's what we call them to, not to us, not to some program, not to look like us, but we're pushing them to Christ, because he will build his kingdom. He will build his church. In the gates of hell, no government, nothing will destroy it. He will do it. One preacher said, the world missions is not dependent upon humans. It's not dependent upon our wisdom, our perseverance. It's dependent upon the power, wisdom, and faithfulness of the risen and living Christ. To keep this promise, I will build my church, not you, not me, not missionaries, not our programs, but I will build my church. And he uses broken vessels to do it. Thank God that he uses broken vessels to do it. All of us are broken vessels, but God uses us for his glory. One of the things that we deal with on a daily basis, I think is the flavor of the weak mentality. And you see this and we have, see new restaurants come up, you know, our new stores, our new product, like the new iPad from Apple, you know, it's the new flavor of the week. We gotta have it, we gotta taste it. And so people flock to these things until something else better comes out. It's just the flavor of the week. And I remember driving up University Drive, and I mean, months ago, and they had a sign for a new restaurant coming. I was like, hmm, that's a strange name, Chetters. And it had a nice little catchy name. And I say, well, maybe, maybe I need to try that out one day. And so every time I drop past it, you know, it's always filled, tons of cars there. I was like, man, I'm gonna call my key to me. We need to go one Saturday and see what it's all about. And so once Saturday we went, nice atmosphere, you know, it's nice, catchy name. But when I looked at the menu, I was like, well, it's no different than Ruby Tuesdays. I mean, it's the same stuff. And so what I realized is that it's the same food packaged a little differently. And what we have to realize about this church, we don't want to be the flavor of the week. Where you just hear because it's the new catchy thing. It's the new church, cool name, ooh, Village Church. I need to check that out. I don't want to be the flavor of the week because when folks come to our church and they open up the menu, they should see that we're no different than the church down the road. 'Cause we serve in the same food, the same here. Package a little differently. We're no better than anyone else. You're not more righteous because you left your church in South Huntsville to come down here. If you think that, you can do business with God. That's wrong, we're no different. Not the flavor of the week. We package differently. We have the same mission as every church to have. That's to take the gospel to the masses. The ministry of the word and the ministry of these working together. That's what we're here for. That's what we're gonna do. That's how we're gonna change this community. And that's what's been going on before the church even started. Started back in 1992 with the Harvard's ministry. But now God has decided to play in church here for His glory. And it's for His glory. We do things, y'all. So people will praise God. Not so people can come and praise us and say, good job. Y'all really love Jesus because y'all are down here. We want people to see what we do and say, thank God for this church. Thank God that He's using this church for His glory. That's why we're here. That's why we live our life. That's why you live your life. That's why you do the good, these you do. So people will praise God for it. 'Cause we push people to Jesus, not to ourselves. And so one Christian God said, He says, mission is important. And if we lose the mission, the gospel is lost. Do you see that? If we forget the mission, that we're here on a mission. We're not here for creature conference. We're not here to build the village church empire where we got a workout facility. We got another campus to work on. All that stuff's gonna burn. That's what it's gonna burn. All of it. Buildings are not the priority. Building a Christian hub is not the priority. We are sojourners, sojourners. That's what we are. Moving through and along the way, we save some of those who are lost. 'Cause we are constantly moving forward to heaven. That's where we're going. That's what we're in. This life is war. It's war. And when you see this war, you realize, I got POWs out there that need to be saved. You have been saved from your sins so you can go back out and bring others in. That God can use you to bring others in. Use what you've been through. Use your life experiences to bring others back in. That's why we're here. That's why the church is here. We praise God and we live for God. And along the way, we engage, maybe. We fight. We take up arms with the Word of God. And your stand power in this battle is always your relationship with Jesus. Always. God be growing in Him. God be praying to Him. This has to be your food night and day. It gives you strength to persevere through the battle. If you don't think life is war, then you not engage. Then you ain't fighting. You live in a comfortable life. And this is to me too. It's not just to you guys, me as well. I preach to my own soul too. But we win in the end. We win in the end. And so my challenge to you and to myself is engage. In this community, engage in the neighborhoods. And no, remember, the power comes from Jesus. He says, "I am with you to the end "through His Spirit that lives "in each and every one of you who are believers. "You have the power from above living in you, "to be the witness that God wants you to be. "And the Spirit would give you the power "to be and the Spirit would give you the things "that you need in Christ's name." Let's pray. Father God, I praise you that you have given us the ministry of the word. You have given us the ministry of deeds, and they go together. They can never be divorced from each other. And I pray that our relationship with our friends in this community, our relationship with our neighbors, Lord, would change. That we're not going to withdraw. We're not going to abandon. We're not going to do those things. We're not going to completely conform either. But Lord, we're gonna love. We're gonna fight for those who can't fight for themselves. And we're gonna stand up against injustice. Call things out that need to be called out. Help us to be what we need to be. Yeah, we will not be silenced, Lord. Martin Luther King says, "In the end, it won't be the words of our enemies that we remember, but the silence of our friends, the silence of our friends who did nothing when they could have did something. And if we have friends that are in need, we need to step up to the plate, Father, and serve all of our love for Christ. If I truly love Jesus, if we truly love Him, then it will show in our life. It will show how we treat other people, spirit. You are the deposit that guarantees our inheritance. Mold us to be what we need to be as a church for one another and for what you have placed upon our hearts to do in this community and Christ in my prayer. Amen. Well,