Voting Missionally and Biblically

Thank you for visiting this link to check out the sermon manuscript which outlines our missions strategy called the PEACE Plan. Click on the read more link below to read the abbreviated sermon manuscript. God bless!

Sermon Title: Facing the Giants Pt 1
Sermon Theme: RCC Missions Goals & Strategy
Speaker: Dave Longstreth
Date: Sunday, May 18, 2008

***ABBREVIATED MANUSCRIPT***

Introduction
Rick Warren, author of Purpose Driven Life and Founding Pastor of Saddleback Community Church has clearly and succinctly identified some of the biggest problems that we face in this generation all over the world. He calls them the Global Giants or Global Goliaths if you will. So today we are going to talk about Facing the Giants.

Many of you here remember some of the global campaigns that we took part in from the past started by Rick Warren and his church in California: 40 Days of Purpose, 40 Days of Community, even the structure of our adult Christian education classes that were once illustrated as a baseball diamond – remember these – Classes 101, 201, 301, 401 and 501?

Well in the past few years Rick Warren and a few hundred churches around the world have been silently developing and beta testing something called the P.E.A.C.E. plan, which begins with identifying 5 of the greatest problems in our world today (the Global Giants). The second part of this plan then studies what Jesus did during his earthly ministry which also just happened to be the 5 antidotes to these problems.

So this is what we’re going to accomplish today – identifying the problems and then revealing the solutions, then I’ll do my best to stay out of the way and just let God speak to you about what’s next.

Opening Text
Matthew 24:36-40 (NLTSE)
“Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the Law of Moses?” Jesus replied, “‘you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important; ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.’”

Main Points
1. THE GIANTS: The Five Biggest Problems that Our Generation Faces

a. Spiritual Emptiness
One of the biggest problems that we face in this generation has also been one of the biggest problems since the creation of humanity – Spiritual Emptiness. We are empty without a relationship with the one who made us. Billions of people across the world are spiritually empty; in fact in a world of over 6 billion inhabitants only about 2 billion claim to be followers of Jesus Christ.

We as believers know that Jesus is the only way to have an eternal relationship with God and it doesn’t matter how well-off those other 4 billion people are who don’t know Jesus – if they don’t have eternal life, then that is the biggest and most important problem that we face in our world today.

Here’s what the Bible has to say about spiritual emptiness in John 6:64: “The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes noting. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But some of you do not believe me.”

And also in the book of John,
“I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin. A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever. So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.” (John 8:34-36 NLTSE)


b. Corruption and Injustice
The second problem in the world today that we’re talking about is the Giant of Corruption and Injustice. This occurs when leaders are egocentric or self-centered. Corruption and injustices many times cause the other big problems. Many of the problems that face nations and kingdoms could be solved if we just had leaders who were willing to lead with courage, character, conviction and maturity.

Now the definition of corruption and injustice is when someone who has more power abuses that power to take from someone with less power the good things that God intended for them: their life, their liberty, their dignity, the fruits of their love and the fruits of their labor.

The book of Ecclesiastes records, “Again, I observed all the oppression that takes place under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed, with no one to comfort them. The oppressors have great power, and their victims are helpless. So I concluded that the dead are better off than the living. But most fortunate of all are those who are not yet born. For they have not seen all the evil that is done under the sun.” (Ecc 4:1-3 NLTSE)

That’s kind of a downer, isn’t it?

The book of Luke records the disciples arguing among themselves about who would be the greatest among them. (Can you imagine this? I mean come on, there they are, hanging out with Jesus, you know, who’s walking on water, giving sight to the blind, feeding thousands, forgiving sins and they are arguing behind his back who is going to be the greatest among themselves?) Anyways, in Luke 22:25, Jesus gets wind of their conversation and says to them…

“In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called ‘friends of the people.’ But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant. Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves.”

Jesus knew that corruption and injustices were a big problem in his day, and they are still big problems today. You don’t have to go very far to find a self-serving leader or corruption and injustice, do you?

The sad fact is that there is a dramatic shortage of Jesus-type leaders in the world today – and this is cause for so many of the world’s problems.

Most people don’t know what to do with power – they make the mistake of thinking that the power and influence given to them is for their own good rather than the fact that they’ve been given power and influence for the good of others.


c. Extreme Poverty
The third problem that we’re talking about today is the Giant of Extreme Poverty.

Lamentations 4:8-9 says, “Their skin has shriveled on their bones, it has become as dry as a stick. Those killed by the sword are better off than those who die of famine; racked with hunger, they waste away for lack of food.”

Rick Warren says, “Poverty keeps billions of people in miserable, desperate, dehumanizing conditions.” 3 billion people in the world live on less than $2 per day according to the United Nations. That’s half of the world! Of those – over a billion people live on less than $1 a day.

So it’s pretty safe to say that 1 out of every 2 people in the world are living in extreme poverty, worrying about what tomorrow will bring them if they wake up alive…

Will they have enough food to eat, will they have to choose which of their children doesn’t eat, will they worry about whether they’ll have a roof over their head or if their children will have any kind of hopeful future.

The truth is, billions of people are living in these kinds of conditions because of circumstances beyond their control – sometimes it’s corrupt leadership that puts them there, sometimes its poor education – but no matter what their cause, most of the time they cannot help the fact that they live in poverty and have little or no hope of getting themselves out of their desperate situation.

The problem with extreme poverty that really gets me is that it is many times preventable. Jesus says that we will always have the poor – that’s because there will always be people who make a lot of money, people who make an average income and people who make far less than average…

One billion people live on less than $1 per day – that is extreme. It is extreme when people live in the same community where there are million dollar mansions and just a few blocks away in the slums people can’t afford the basic necessities such as food, water, shelter and clothing.

This is poverty that we can change, this is poverty that we are compelled to change.

Each of us here today are wealthy compared to the other half of the world. If you make more than $100 per week then you are in the top 15% of wealthiest in the world. If you make more than $34k per year then you are in the top 5% of the wealthiest in the world. And if you make a six figure income – over $100k per year – then you are in the top 0.66% wealthiest in the world. Extreme poverty – it’s real and it’s everywhere.

d. Pandemic Diseases
The fourth problem that we’re talking about is the Giant of Pandemic Diseases. Pandemic diseases are diseases that infect humans; they are infectious diseases – and although diseases like cancer kill many people – it is not infectious like HIV/AIDS, malaria and others. Now this doesn’t mean that we won’t also address those with cancers or heart disease or other diseases – it just means that we can make a significant difference in some of the big pandemics that are ravaging the lives of millions of people across the world.

Most diseases that people are suffering from across developing countries are diseases that we’ve had cures for since the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We have the cure to diarrhea, the number one killer of children under the age of 5; we also know how to prevent it.

We know the cure for malaria, too. We know how to prevent malaria – its simple and its not that expensive either; remove stagnant water, buy a few bed nets, spray some DTT and yet this year over 500 million people will get infected from a mosquito bite.

We also know how to prevent the spread of the HIV virus which causes AIDS – yet this is the big one that is destroying Africa and South East Asia.

Have you heard of the tsunami-a-week statistic? Well when the tsunami hit South East Asia back in December of 2004 – over 240,000 people were killed in the first week.

We have a tsunami in the world every eight days because according to the United Nations, 30,000 children die of preventable diseases every 24 hours! That means we have a tsunami every eight days.

8,000 people die every single day from AIDS.

In 2002, only 8 deaths were reported in the US from Malaria – but every day over 2,700 people die from the disease, most of them young children in sub-Saharan Africa.

And then there are water-borne diseases. Now this one really gets me – every day over 3,800 children die from diseases associated with a lack of safe drinking water and proper sanitation. That’s one child every twenty seconds.

…As long as it takes me to step over here and take a drink of water…

Another child has died because they can’t have this. And yet we take it for granted, don’t we?

Pandemic Diseases – often preventable and even curable…


e. Illiteracy and Poor Education
Finally, the fifth major problem that we’re talking about is the Giant of Illiteracy and Poor Education. Do you realize that half of the world cannot read or write? Half of the world is functionally illiterate. That sounds the same as the statistic for Extreme Poverty – I wonder if they go hand-in-hand?

The fact is that children living in poverty are unable to access good education. Often the standards and facilities of the educational institutes they can afford are lower than those available to children of higher-income groups. And all too often we see poor children dropping out of school earlier to support their families, especially in developing countries. We see this in rural Cambodia all the time.

Poor education vastly contributes to the entrenchment of the cycle of poverty. Corruption and injustices are also entwined with poor education as the lures of income and education are promised to families with younger children, and then their children are taken away and forced into slavery or the sex trade.

So you see the problem of illiteracy and poor education is something that feeds the problems of corruption and injustices, the problems of extreme poverty and pandemic diseases and even the problem of spiritual emptiness.

That’s why a multifaceted solution to any one of these problems is necessary. You can’t reduce or even put an end to pandemic and preventable diseases if you don’t lift people out of extreme poverty.

And you can’t lift them out of poverty if you don’t address corruption and injustice.

And you can’t win the war against corruption and injustice until you overcome illiteracy and poor education.

You can’t just evangelize people, get them saved to go to heaven and hope that all these other things will somehow magically take care of themselves.

This is why we need to have a purposeful, holistic approach to what we do as Christians to serve others and what we do as the mission of our local church. We are the body of Jesus – his hands AND his feet, called to love him AND to love others. We are called to serve God AND to serve others.

I was moved by a quote that I heard a couple of years ago at a WCA conference by Bono, the lead singer of a rock band named U2. In a recorded interview he told Bill Hybels the same thing that he addressed at the 2006 National Prayer Breakfast earlier that year – he said…

Quotation
“The one thing, on which we can all agree, among all faiths and ideologies, is that God is with the vulnerable and the poor… God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house… God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives… God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war… God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them…” (Bono, at the 2006 National Prayer Breakfast)

Transition Text
Again, I am reminded that if we are to be the church that Christ came to establish, then we will live as Christ lived.

And this is what it says in Matthew 20:28 (Msg):
“This is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not to be served
– and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage.”

What did Jesus spend his time here on earth doing?

What did he teach us to do in response to these Global Giants –

And furthermore – how did Jesus model it for us in his life and in his ministry?

From these things we are able to clearly articulate 5 antidotes to the 5 Giants that we talked about. So here they are…

2. THE SOLUTION: The Five-Part Mission of RCC (P.E.A.C.E.)

a. Promote Reconciliation
Matthew 16:18 & 19 records Jesus as telling Peter and the disciples, “Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.”

What did Jesus do – he planted a church and he gave the keys to Peter. So our model for combating the evil, global giant of spiritual emptiness is by Promoting Reconciliation (Promote Reconciliation) and we do this through 1) planting churches, 2) partnering with churches, 3) and evangelism.

I think that Jesus was successful, right? Look around – we are here because Jesus came to reconcile humanity with its Creator – Jesus worked through his church to reconcile us to God. I really like what Rick Warren says about the local church, it’s true and it’s something that we have to react on. He says…

There is an army of over a billion volunteers sitting in pews every week just waiting to be mobilized and our challenge is to figure out how to get the average person sitting in the average pew involved in addressing the biggest problems that we face in the world today.

Are you hearing this? We are an army. Rick’s not the first person to call the church an army though, is he? First of all I think of the armies of the Lord throughout the Bible, and then I think of the armies that went to war in the “name of the Lord.”

Well here’s the truth – WE ARE AT WAR! Only this war isn’t against flesh and blood but rather against the powers and principalities of a dark kingdom that are just thriving on the torture and mutilation of human spirits and physical lives all over this planet. And we have sat around doing nothing about it for all too long! It is time to stand and fight.

So we begin by fighting in the war for souls.


b. Equip Servant Leaders and Fight Injustice
So Jesus did not just give us a message – he gave us a model – and our model for combating the evil, global Giant of Corruption and Injustice is by Equipping Servant Leaders and Fighting Injustice (Equip Servant Leaders and Fight Injustice).

How did Jesus model equipping servant leaders for us? First, he demonstrated what a servant leader is. Remember Matthew 20:28, “Even, I, the Son of Man, came here not be served but to serve others and give my life as a ransom for many.” Jesus simply said, “I am modeling how you are to lead and you are to lead by serving.”

Now Rick Warren spends a lot of time equipping servant leaders and he points this out to us, he says…

“Jesus loved everybody, and he fed the five thousand, trained the seventy, discipled the twelve, and even within the twelve he mentored three. Peter, James and John were the three he mentored most.” Jesus invested the maximum time in those who would bear the maximum responsibility.

Jesus showed us that we are to mentor and equip leaders who will be others-centered rather than self-centered. This is something that I learned at Valley Forge Christian College, one of our Bible Colleges here in the Northeast that we support. In fact we’ll hear from them next week. Anyways, the point is that to combat corruption and injustices we need to first fight injustice, then remove leaders from power and influence and then replace them with servant leaders.

It’s a daunting task, but I’m up for it – are you? It doesn’t take very many pictures of children forced into prostitution or suffering from extreme poverty to make equipping servant leaders and fighting injustice one of my missions in life!


c. Assist the Poor
Next, Jesus modeled combating the Giant of Extreme Poverty by Assisting the Poor (Assist the Poor). And in Jesus’ very first public sermon he reads from the book of Isaiah and announces his agenda for ministry. He says, “The Spirit of the Lord… has anointed me to preach Good News to the poor.” (Luke 4:18)

Not enough evidence? Well there are over 2,000 verses in the Bible just on the poor, second only to personal redemption. So it’s safe to say that the Bible speaks a whole lot about spiritual poverty and physical poverty. How did I miss this at Bible school? It wasn’t until the past few years that this really got my attention and gripped my heart.

Some passages to consider include…

1 John 3:17 (in the Message version): “If you see someone in need, and have the means to do something about it, but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love in you? It disappears!”

James 1:27: “What God considers to be pure and genuine religion is this: to take care of orphans and widows in their suffering.”

Proverbs 19:17: “If you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord – and He will repay you.”

“God is with the poor and vulnerable and God is with us if we are with them. Assist the Poor.”


d. Care for the Sick
Jesus also modeled for us the need to Care for the Sick; this combats the Giant of Pandemic Diseases. Matthew 9:35 says, “Wherever Jesus went, he healed people of every sort of disease and illness.” In fact the Bible tells us that he went into every village preaching, teaching and healing. 1/3 of Jesus’ ministry had to do with caring for the sick. So we see that Jesus spent a great deal of time modeling for us the need to care for the sick.

Jesus was the healer and the Bible shows us that Jesus was full of compassion, mercy, tenderness and caring. Matthew 14:14 says, “Jesus had compassion on them and healed their sick.”

Luke 6:36 reads, “You must be compassionate just as Your Father is compassionate.”

And Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:2: “Live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.”

If we’re going to be like Jesus, we have to learn to be full of compassion, mercy, tenderness and care for people when they are sick. We must develop a heart about compassion, care about the things that God cares about and care for the people that God cares for – everyone, and especially those without a voice – the least, the last and the lost.

How can we demonstrate this heart of compassion and act on it? We must be prepared to go to the sick, no matter what their sickness or how they got it.

And we must be willing to relieve embarrassment, give hope, help to get the right medicine to them, teach healthy habits and ask God to heal those that are sick.



e. Educate the Next Generation
And finally there is the question of how we address the Giant of Illiteracy and Poor Education. We simply but purposely Educate the Next Generation. Jesus educated people – we all know that he was a teacher, THE teacher.

The Bible says in Matthew 4:23, “Jesus went throughout Galilee teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.”

Teaching was also 1/3 of Jesus’ ministry. And teaching the children was very important to Jesus. It was recorded in the gospels that the people were trying to bring the children to Jesus but his disciples tried to shoo them away. Jesus then said, “Allow the little children to come unto me; for as such is the kingdom of God.” In other words, the kingdom of God is in the next generation.

Jesus also says in the gospels, “It would be better to have a millstone tied around your neck and be thrown into the ocean than to hurt one of these little ones.” I am not a smart man, but I think that children are important to Jesus, right?

Teaching children about knowledge and past experience is a responsibility for every person, not just for parents. Somebody passed that information onto you that helped you to grow and succeed in life. And God expects you to do the same for other people who are younger than you.

There are five building blocks that help people to grow: knowledge, perspective, conviction, skills, and character. Jesus modeled all five of these in how he trained his disciples.

Now according to Warren, “studies have shown that the number one determining factor of whether a child makes it in life or doesn’t is the presence of a caring adult in his or her life, somebody who could relate to him or her. It doesn’t have to be a parent. The parents may even be absent. If there is one caring adult in that child’s life, the likelihood of that child making it goes up exponentially.”

Educate the next generation – it your responsibility as a parent, in your profession and as a member of the body of Christ. It doesn’t matter if you are not a parent, you are called to help educate the next generation. It doesn’t matter if you have already parented your children – you are called to educate the next generation. It doesn’t matter if your profession isn’t a school teacher or daycare worker or if you aren’t the Sunday school teacher or member of the PTA – as a member of Christ’s body, you are called to educate the next generation.

The Bible says in Psalm 78:6-7, “So the next generation will know, and all the generations to come – know the truth and tell the stories, so your children can trust in God.”

In Proverbs 22:6, “Teach the children how they should live, and they will remember it all of their lives.”

If anyone living in poverty has sustainable hope…

If any community that is plagued by diseases can have them prevented and even cured…

And if any enslaved people have any hope for freedom…

We must educate the next generation and allow individuals, communities and nations the chance to think for themselves and sustain civilized lives.


RECAP
So Jesus spent his time here on earth promoting reconciliation, equipping servant leaders and fighting injustice, assisting the poor, caring for the sick and educating the next generation. This isn’t my plan, its not Rick Warren’s plan, it’s not an American plan or a United Nations plan – this is a Jesus plan.

Quote
Billy Graham said, “The highest form of worship is the worship of unselfish Christian service. The greatest form of praise is the sound of consecrated feet seeking out the lost and the helpless.”

Conclusion - Recap
There was a clear point in time, and it was just a couple of years ago during the summer of 2006 that my heart had changed significantly – and it was one of those instantaneous types of changes. I was at the WCA Leadership Conference and had seen and heard about these types of things and I realized how blessed I really am and how I really don’t deserve any of it, really…

It was also something that Bono said in his interview with Bill Hybels that got me thinking. He said, “An accident of latitude and longitude can decide whether your child lives or dies.” And I thought about it for a moment.

And there I was, sitting with hundreds of leaders around me; yet completely alone for that moment standing before God hearing Him say to me, “What will you do with what I’ve given you?”

When I think about what it was that moved me to compassion like I’ve never known, what it was that gave me the resolve to spend the rest of my life doing everything that I could within my power to inform, inspire and integrate others into service and action –

It wasn’t a picture of a malnourished child in Cambodia…

It wasn’t even a picture of child suffering from AIDS in Kenya…

It was a picture of my little girl with a big smile on her face…
Beautiful clean hair and skin…
Nice clean clothes…
Nutritious food on her plate…
A warm and safe home to live in…
Enough toys to keep her attention…
A loving family and friends involved in her life every day…
And an amazing church to grow in with all the best hopes for success as she grows up.

And then I just realized that it was like Bono had said… Why was my daughter here with so much hope, so much opportunity and someone else’s daughter over there with no hope and no opportunity? That is reason enough to die trying to save the rest of the world.

Jesus said, “This is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not to be served – and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage.”

And it was said of Him in 1 John 3:16, “We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.”

Application and Point of Decision
So how will you respond to this? When you are sitting here today with people all around you but you really find yourself alone with God asking you this one question, “What will you do with what I’ve given you?”

How will you respond? And how will you spend your life responding? Let us pray.

Father in heaven, hear our hearts today, we rejoice in your compassion and mercy,
You have given us all that we need and have blessed us beyond measure,
We offer our lives as living sacrifices, for all you have done.
Let your kingdom be done here on earth as it is in heaven,
And help us to stand against the evil giants of our day; and to serve you and others.
In the name of Jesus who modeled this for us, Amen.

Benediction
So now I leave you with the words of Jesus before he ascended into heaven, his great commission to his disciples and to us: “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

God bless you!