The purpose of this brief series of sermons has been the presentation,
to a local Wesleyan-Holiness congregation, of a simple, concrete, spiritual
growth model. It is based upon scripture, informed by our Wesleyan-Holiness
faith tradition, and in response to the needs of 21st-century persons. The
goal has been to establish a pattern of living that will help Wesleyan-Holiness
people grow in Christ-likeness and remain true to the core values of the Kingdom.
Aubrey Malphurs defines core values as the constant, passionate,
biblical beliefs that drive a ministry. They are unchanging, they touch the
heart, and often elicit strong emotions. They arouse to action—they are
inspirational. And if biblical, they are sourced in God (Malphurs, Values-Driven
Leadership, pp. 34-38).
Once determined, preaching becomes the pastor’s primary
methodology for introducing core values to his or her congregation. A written
credo, organizational structures, programs, brochures, videos, and other such
methods can be helpful and do have their place. But for the Wesleyan-Holiness
pastor, preaching remains the most effective way of casting core values and
recasting them. Bill Easum describes a values-driven pastor this way:
“. . . (they) feel passionately about a few core issues
and think paradoxically about most other things. To feel deeply about a few
core issues and be able to accept and use the yin and the yang of most everything
else is the key to leadership in the 21st century. Leaders have to have an
intense passion about the core issues and an amazing flexibility with everything
else” (Easum, Leadership On The Other Side, p. 32).
Preaching has been and will continue to be the primary way the
Wesleyan-Holiness pastor projects the church’s core values throughout
the congregation, and in so doing, “prepare God’s people for works
of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach
unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature,
attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians
4:12-13).
Eugene Peterson, in his introduction to the Gospel of Mark,
writes: “Mark wastes no time in getting down to business, a single-sentence
introduction, and not a digression to be found from beginning to end. An event
has taken place that radically changes the way we look at and experience the
world, and he can’t wait to tell us about it” (Peterson, The Message,
p. 1808).
Having only half of the gospel story, Mark moves to an opportunity
to decide: “Reader, who do you think Jesus is? Are you ready to commit
your life to Christ? Are you ready to imitate His life?” The text declares:
it’s time, it’s time to decide, and it’s time to commit one’s
life to Christ and to the process of becoming like Him.
(For the full manuscript of this sermon
go to www.preachersmagazine.org and click on “Sermons”)
Our world has become a very complex, rather complicated place
to live. So many choices! So many things have changed in your lifetime.
1. When I was in high school in the late ’60s and early
’70s, there were 4 basic groups of people: (1) jocks, (2) brains, (3)
blocks, (4) preps. Now, observes Leonard Sweet in his book Soultsunami, “No
one group is in anymore; groups have demassified into affinity communities.
Besides the jocks, there are now bands, blacks, blonds, brains, computer geeks,
crews, dorks, druggies, floaters, FOB’s (fresh off the boat), friendlies,
groovies, hippies, losers, needs, nobodies, normals, overly violent, partiers,
place freaks, pom-poms, rappers, richies, herd-bangers, scumbags, snobs, stoners,
tides, trendies, wannabes, wavers, weirdos, and yuppies. Complicated!”
2. And back when I was in high school, food choices were a lot
easier too. At my house, you had two choices: take it or leave it. Monday
night was spaghetti, Tuesday hamburgers, Wednesday salmon cakes, Thursday
pot pie, Friday stew, Saturday leftovers, and Sunday roast beef and veggies.
Wow!
There was an amusing Reader’s Digest article not
too long ago about a man visiting a restaurant with his wife, to be greeted
with the pleasantry, “Would you like to sit by the window, the balcony,
or in the back?” When the waiter appears, the diner is asked, “Would
you like your water with ice, without ice, sparkling water, or water with
lemon?” The list of appetizers takes a page, the entrees four pages.
And then when you order something like a potato, will it be baked, mashed,
boiled red, or French fried? Baked? Then with chives, sour cream, butter,
plain, with cheese, with broccoli? The story goes on to document how the man’s
enjoyment of the meal vanishes in the confounding number of choices he is
forced to endure in the course of getting through one simple meal.
Finally, after the waiter asks him for one more decision, the
diner loses his cool and challenges the waiter to a fight—only to be
asked if he’d like to fight at the table, or in the lobby, or would he
rather step outside?
Nothing is simple anymore. Too many options. Too many choices.
3. Back in Hollywood, Maryland, you had options on Sunday morning:
St. John’s Catholic, Hollywood Methodist, Hollywood Nazarene or to be
a bedside Baptist. Now? We’ve moved from church hopping to church shopping!
4. People are absolutely desperate for simplicity. The “complexity
catastrophe” has left a whole generation of people longing for less.
5. Good news! The choice concerning Jesus of Nazareth is a simple,
uncomplicated one. It’s not easy, but it is simple. Turn with me to Mark
8:27-30.
6. Here are your choices concerning Jesus: He is either the
Christ, the Son of the Living God, or He is not.
7. C. S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, wrote: “A
man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not
be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with
a man who says he is a poached egg—or He would be the Devil of Hell.
You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Christ, the Son
of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool!
Or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come
with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great teacher or prophet.
He has not left that open to us.”
8. Peter made his choice, we call it his great confession: “You
are the Christ.” Have you made your choice? It’s a simple one .
. . yes or no! No means death. Yes means life. Choose life. Choose Christ.
We are going to sing our testimony, our confession concerning
Christ, for the next several minutes. If at anytime you should choose to leave
your seat and come to the front and make your choice for Christ, the altar
is open. We will pray with you. Choose ye this day whom you will serve. Confess
Jesus as Lord and Christ.
“The word is near you. It is in your mouth and in your
heart. That is the word of faith we are proclaiming: if you confess with your
mouth ‘Jesus Is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised
him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:8-9).
It’s as simple as that!
