"Begging For The Gospel"

When our circuit counselor passed around the sign-up sheet for preaching and discussion-leading duties at our monthly pastors conferences, I must admit I had a plan when I signed up for the last month. I figured I could just re-cap the year, so in actuality, each pastor who preached would write part of my sermon for me.

Pastor Ruland began the 2006/07 year of pastor’s conferences by sharing with us a few thoughts on the events of the past months. He talked about the old and the new – the brothers we had recently lost, Art Hornish, Ron Rhinehardt, Dick Lessmann, and about the new faces in our midst, Eddie Sheler, Floyd Smithey, and although not a new face, the then newly ordained pastor Derrick Paetow. He talked about the work that we do and the challenges that we face. He talked about the challenges ahead of us. He used the letter that Paul wrote to Timothy as the text for his sermon that morning.

In October, Hank Malone, a semi-retired pastor who had recently moved to Madison county shared with us some thoughts on having salt in ourselves and how having a purpose in life was God’s gift to us. We had our circuit Reformation Festival on the 15^th.

In November, I must admit that I played hooky from the winkle in Harstelle. I had just taken a week of vacation and spent it hunting in Iowa. I was too tired and felt like I was now getting too far behind to lose another day on the road. So I didn’t get to hear the words of wisdom Hal Hermetz.

In December, pastor Ansorge shared with us his Christmas Eve sermon, and discussed the Word made flesh who tabernacled among us. He compared the words of the Gospel of John to "matzobei." Well, not so much to matzobei itself, but he compared how foreign the words of John are to the world, sort of like the meal and word matzobei are foreign to us.

In January, pastor Arndt suggested the possibility that we are all sitting on a diamond mine, and that we should milk the Holy Spirit on a regular basis, to make sure that the milk doesn’t dry up.

In February, we hit the high seas for some fun in the sun. The sun didn’t cooperate much, the seas were a little high early on, but all in all, it was a good trip. Dr. Paul Maier related some information to us about how archaeology is providing scholars with a lot of good information, and I liked his thoughts on the fact that we have more information available to us than the early church fathers had to them, and what a neat time it is to be a Christian.

Of course there was the incident near the end of the cruise. The barge Repentance hit and damaged our cruise ship Fantasy. Someone said there must be a sermon in there somewhere. I thought it would at least be appropriate to mention it, and let you consider the theological ramifications for yourselves.

In March, pastor Kieschnick helped us figure out that the reason we can’t fix you stubborn, arrogant, self-centered, self-righteous, people whose only desire is come together for a social gathering every week, is because we ourselves are stubborn, arrogant, self-centered, and self-righteous. I’m glad he reminded me that all of us, the people we shepherd and those of us that sometimes wear those funny collared shirts, all operate under God’s grace.

In April, pastor Kuehnert suggested that with the weather getting warmer, we might want to do a personal hygiene check and see how we are smelling. Personally, I thought he was getting a little personal. Seriously, a little gut check now and then is good. It was a good reminder that we are highly visible members of our respective communities and we need to smell like Jesus’ feet – after Mary had finished putting the perfume on them – to the people around us.

This brings us to our text for this morning. It became obvious as I read back through and word-smithed the notes I had made about each meeting that we all have different challenges is each of our respective ministries. Each congregation has a different personality. Some of our congregations are growing, some are in the middle of building projects, and some just sort of peck along, with little or no change week after week and month after month. So since this sermon was a continuation of pastor Ruland’s sermon, I want to continue to address the challenges we face and the work ahead of us, not just us pastors, but each and every one of God’s people.

Today is mother’s day, and I would certainly be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the mothers of our congregation, and in just a couple more weeks, we’ll

I know we all wish things would be as easy and as obvious for us as they were for Paul. I know I wish that as a pastor I could just have a vision – I wish I could get this direct message from God with instructions on where and how to preach or how to implement a sure-fire evangelism or outreach program. I wish I could instill the sense of urgency each of you that Paul and Luke felt as they made their journey to Macedonia to bring the Gospel message to the unchurched.

The man standing and begging in the vision of our text suggests a cry of spiritual desperation. And at least some of the world and the people around us are in that same state of desperation. Sadly, the fact of the matter is that people aren’t generally begging to hear the Gospel.

But the world needs to hear the message that we have to share. They need to hear the Law. And then those who repent need to hear the comforting words of the Gospel. Unfortunately, the Law has been discarded for universalism. The priority of spirituality has been replaced with materialism. Not many people feel spiritually deprived – no one except those whose "pastors" beat them down every week with the Law, and those who struggle with life and are searching for meaning and answers. The man in Macedonia had already felt the burden of the Law. Now they wanted the Gospel.

So often, pastors, people, or congregations as a whole do not have a sense of urgency about inviting people to share their faith. Yet, that need exists today – maybe more than ever. Today there are so many examples of people dying unexpectedly – terrorist attacks, fires, accident victims, shooting sprees, tornadoes, hurricanes, and tidal waves. What if some of these victims had been prospects in our evangelism efforts, but had not been contacted because of the lack of a sense of urgency?

In our text, Paul and Luke are called to the "region" of Macedonia, which was sort of a stepping stone into all of Europe. In the Great Commission of Matthew 28, the command is to go into all the world. Christianity spread in a gradual expansion, like ivy growing on a wall or like the puddle of water that forms from an overflowing from a bucket or like the rings of water that you see when you throw a rock into a pond.

There were no fancy marketing strategies or target groups. In fact, Peter’s initial approach of reaching out to only Jewish people was corrected in the vision that he had in the home of Cornelius. And even though Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, his policy was to preach to his own people in the Jewish synagogue first.

What we need to remember, what each of you need to be constantly reminded of is that it is God who gives success to our mission work. It’s not the right method or the right program that succeeds. We tend to overlook the power of God. We tend to overlook the power of the Scriptures. Every one of us pastors hears from our people all the time that the reason they don’t try to witness is simply because they are afraid of doing a poor job of witnessing.

It is Scripture alone that teaches us what we need to know to obtain eternal life. Scripture testifies about itself in 2 Timothy 3:15, where it says they "are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." It is through faith in what Christ Jesus did for us through his perfect life, through his sacrificial death on the cross, and his resurrection that we share in God’s promises to all who believe.

Salvation is ours through the life and death of His Son, and the Gospel tells us of the love of God who sent His Son into this world. It tells us that Christ made full atonement for our sins, and that through the death of Christ, we are reconciled to and forgiven by God.

While God does want us to proclaim His Word as effectively as possible, the power to convert people to faith comes from the Word itself. It is the Holy Spirit working through the Word in people’s hearts that leads them to faith – not some well-planned market strategy – not some flawless job of witnessing.

So as we take our vacations and catch up on whatever projects that we need to complete – let’s rejoice in knowing that the success or failure of our evangelism efforts, the success or failure of our personal witnessing, is not completely on our shoulders. And knowing that, let’s rejoice in the opportunities to share the Gospel that lie in our paths. Amen.