“Becoming a 3-D Disciple” – 2 Kings 2

What is success? What would you say is a good definition of success? I think of Jesus dying on the cross and His last words were, “Tetelestai!” which means the job has been completed and paid in full. There is nothing else to be done. That is success. That is a job well done. He did everything the Father had sent Him to do and He did it right and did it completely.

The dictionary defines success as the accomplishment of an aim or purpose. So, that begs the question, what is your aim or purpose? If your purpose is to make money, it’s pretty easy to judge if you are a success. If your aim is to make friends, it’s pretty easy to judge if you are a success. But if your purpose in life is to make disciples like Jesus said it should be in Matthew 28, then how do you know if you are successful? You should just invite them to church, right? Does that make you a success at making disciples?

If your purpose in life is to make disciples then you should just pray for people. Then you are a successful disciple-maker. Right? If your purpose in life is to make disciples then you should just get them to make a decision for Christ and walk the aisle and be baptized. Is that being a success at making disciples? Okay, so now we have to define “disciple”, right? How would you define a disciple?

I did some research on this a few years ago (no, I did more than just google it this time) and my brief, working definition of a disciple in our context has been a disciple is simply one who learns from Jesus and then tells others what they have learned. Being a disciple includes becoming more like Jesus and carrying on His work and His message. And we are going to see over the next few weeks that Jesus was the model for disciple-making.

His first command was to “follow me.” All through the New Testament we are told to walk as He walked (1 John 2:6), do what He did (John 14:12), and think as He thought (Philippians 2:5). The whole purpose of Jesus’ three years of ministry was to raise up men who were just like Him and who could do ministry the way He did it. Jesus had a plan for making disciples and He was successful in following that plan so how perfect is it that we, as His disciples, should follow that plan to make more disciples?

In the next few weeks we are going to see that plan and see what we need to do to follow it but for the first message in this series I want us to see that while Jesus is the model for disciple-making, disciple-making didn’t start with Jesus. He wasn’t the first one to make a disciple. In fact, all through the Old Testament period, disciples were being made all over the place; in the temple, in the schools, in the wilderness; people were learning from other people and telling others what they had learned while in the process of becoming more like that person and carrying on their mission.

One of my favorite Old Testament stories about making disciples is in the book of 2 Kings. It goes 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles and Ezra, etc. 1 Kings is where we first meet Elijah. Elijah was a prophet of God and if you want to read about some incredible miracles, all you have to do is read what God did through Elijah. I don’t have time to give examples but it is fun to read about. I’ll just say that you didn’t want to be on God’s bad side when Elijah was around. That old dude wasn’t messing around.

But Elijah knew that his time on this earth was short and he needed somebody to come along after him and continue the work God had called him to do and God told him to choose Elisha. Their names sound alike but they weren’t related or anything like that. But evidently God had told Elijah that Elijah’s time was short so Elijah was preparing to leave by making the rounds of some theological schools to say goodbye and encourage them in the Lord. You might think of these as seminaries and they may have been seminaries that Elijah had started. So, Elijah is the old professor saying goodbye to his schools.

Let’s pick up the story in 2 Kings chapter 2 and we are going to read verses 1 through 15.

When the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. 2 Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here; the LORD has sent me to Bethel.” But Elisha said, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel. 3 The company of the prophets at Bethel came out to Elisha and asked, “Do you know that the LORD is going to take your master from you today?” “Yes, I know,” Elisha replied, “so be quiet.” 4 Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here, Elisha; the LORD has sent me to Jericho.” And he replied, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went to Jericho. 5 The company of the prophets at Jericho went up to Elisha and asked him, “Do you know that the LORD is going to take your master from you today?” “Yes, I know,” he replied, “so be quiet.” 6 Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here; the LORD has sent me to the Jordan.” And he replied, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So the two of them walked on. 7 Fifty men from the company of the prophets went and stood at a distance, facing the place where Elijah and Elisha had stopped at the Jordan. 8 Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground. 9 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?” “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied. 10 “You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah said, “yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours—otherwise, it will not.” 11 As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. 12 Elisha saw this and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his garment and tore it in two. 13 Elisha then picked up Elijah’s cloak that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. 14 He took the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and struck the water with it. “Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?” he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over. 15 The company of the prophets from Jericho, who were watching, said, “The spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha.”

Let’s stop right there. What a sight that must have been! Chariots and horses of fire, a whirlwind that carries Elijah off to heaven, the Jordan River parting not once but twice. Good grief, pass the popcorn. This is a great show! There is enough here to preach a hundred sermons but I want to focus on the disciple that Elisha was. What made him a good disciple? Was it his ability to part the Jordan like Elijah or was it something else?

I want us to see what makes a good disciple so that we recognize it first in ourselves and then in the disciples that we make. Look first at just how devoted Elisha was. Three times Elijah tested him by saying, “Wait right here while I go on ahead.” And three times Elisha said, “No way. I’m going with you.”

It reminds me of another disciple who said something similar and meant the same thing. Ruth was a disciple (disciplette?) of Naomi in the great little book of Ruth. In chapter 1, Naomi is not testing Ruth when she tells her to go back to her people. She is genuinely concerned for her. But Ruth said, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me." 18When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.” (Ruth 1:16-18)

There was no arguing about it with Ruth or with Elisha. They were devoted to their teachers. But, why? Why was Elisha devoted to Elijah? The easy answer is that he loved Elijah and wanted to please him but there is more to it. Love is where discipleship starts but it goes deeper. The devotion is there for Elisha because he believes in the cause of Elijah. He is all in. He has seen the power of God at work and wants the world to see it. He wants the world to know God like he knows God. He wants everybody to have what he has.

A while back, I went to Walmart with Cody. We both needed some groceries so we went together. When we got there we split up to do our own shopping and a few minutes later, I hear him two or three aisles over. “Hey, how ya doin’? Blah, blah, blah…Christ Fellowship…blah, blah, blah…we just love Jesus…something something I couldn’t hear…hope to see you there! Bye!” When we found each other again later, I asked him if he had seen somebody he knows. “No. Why?”

I love that! Cody isn’t perfect. He’s not a perfect disciple. None of us are but Cody wants everybody to have what he has. Cody has been delivered by God from drug addiction, jail and a hopeless lifestyle to become a free man in every sense of the word because he is God’s servant and a disciple of Jesus. He loves God and he is devoted to the cause of Christ. He wants everybody to know God like he knows God so as a disciple, as he goes- as it says in Matthew 28 - as he goes, he tells others about Jesus. It is what Jesus said to do and Cody is devoted because he loves God and is committed to the cause.

Look at verses 8-10 again in our story about Elijah and Elisha. Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground. 9 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?” “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied. 10 “You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah said, “yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours—otherwise, it will not.”

What Elisha was asking for comes from Deuteronomy 21:17 where the law says that the first-born son inherits a double portion of his father’s household. Elisha is not asking for stuff, though. He is asking to be the one who carries on the mission when Elijah is gone. Elijah knows that is not his decision to make and tells him if he sees Elijah taken, then that is God’s sign. There is a lot to this passage but we see that Elisha was developing the vision that Elijah had. We see Elisha developing the character that Elijah had and we see him developing the abilities that Elijah had. He was devoted to Elijah and was developing into Elijah, if you will.

Because Elisha was developing the vision, the character and the abilities of Elijah, God chose him to be used much like Elijah was. When God took Elijah in the whirlwind, Elijah’s outer jacket or cloak fell to the ground and Elisha picked it up knowing full well that this life wasn’t going to be easy. But he walked back to the Jordan River where they had crossed over on dry ground just like the Hebrew people when they left Egypt and hit the water with the jacket, not because he was mad or trying to show off. He just had the same vision, character and abilities now that Elijah had and God did a miracle through him just like He did with Elijah.

In verse 15 the young men from the school had gathered to watch and it was obvious to them even from far off that God was now using Elisha.  They said, “The spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha.” That wasn’t meant to be a compliment. It was just fact. It’s what Elisha wanted more than anything and he was ready to pay the price to develop into what Elijah had been and what God wanted for him. And people noticed.

I think part of the reason that some people start to follow Jesus and then slowly drift away is because they aren’t told from the beginning what is expected of them now. They think that now God is going to solve their problems and get them out of what they had gotten themselves into and they don’t understand the commitment that is required. They have devotion. They love God and want other people to go to Heaven with them but they don’t realize the cost of developing themselves to look and act like Jesus. God is not your spiritual genie that you have in your back pocket for when things go wrong. And for us, developing to look more like Jesus means lots of time in prayer and scripture reading. Don’t call yourself a disciple if you aren’t constantly developing, changing and growing.

There is one more way that Elisha proved he was a disciple. The military calls it to be deployed. Some of you here were in the military. What does it mean to be deployed? It means to leave the comfort and safety of home and what you are used to and engage in the battle. Elisha was deployed. Man, was he deployed! He took off.

After this story, it is chapter after chapter of Elisha being used by God. The same kinds of things that Elijah did, Elisha did them and more and always giving God credit and making God look good. He started with parting the Jordan, then raised a little boy from the dead, multiplied the widow’s oil, purified the town’s water, made the axe head float and on and on, always pointing to God and speaking truth. One of my favorite stories was when a bunch of young boys were making fun of him for being bald and so it says he called down a curse on them and two bears came out of the woods and mauled them. Y’all just remember that the next time you call me the SBC (short bald clergy).

Now, maybe God uses you in the same way to work a bunch of miracles and call down curses…but I doubt it. He is the same God but it didn’t happen much in those days and is needed even less these days but when you are deployed as a disciple of Jesus, God will still use you. I promise.

In Matthew 9:35 we see Jesus going around healing and teaching in all these different places but it says that He saw the crowds, and had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38Ask the LORD of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." Jesus said the answer to human suffering in this world is prayer. But not a prayer that says, “Lord, please help these people. They are really hurting.”

It’s a prayer that says, “Lord…send me. Deploy me. Give me everything I need to do what you have called me to do. Lord, help me help them and as I go, help me make disciples.” But, don’t worry. I hear ya. You’re busy people. You have jobs, kids, grandkids, hobbies and not much spare time to go around being deployed. I understand. In fact, God understands and that is why the Great Commandment, the Great Commission says, well, think about what it doesn’t say. Jesus doesn’t say to go and build a bigger church. In fact, He said that’s His job. He didn’t say to start a discipleship program. He doesn’t command us to call down bears or multiply oil or make axe heads float.

What does He say? He said “Go and make disciples” which means “as you go” – as you go to work, as you deal with the kids and grandkids, as you go to the doctor, as you go to soccer practice or to Walmart, make disciples. That means to lead them to Jesus and get them involved in a local church (I recommend this one, but whatever) and then disciple them to be devoted, developing and deployed just like you are.

So, does that sound like you? Are you 3-D? If it doesn’t, it’s not the end of the world. Becoming a true disciple takes time and it is difficult to do. D.L. Moody said, “It is better to train ten people than to do the work of ten people. But it is harder.” Do you understand that? It is easier to just do all the work yourself than it is to train other people but it’s worth it and it’s a command.

But if that doesn’t sound like you; if you are not making 3-D disciples then that easily tells me that you still need to be discipled and that only comes from being in church, being in prayer and being in the Word. There’s no shortcuts. To be like Jesus, you have to spend time with Jesus.

Maybe you have never started the process of becoming a true disciple yourself. You can’t replicate what you are not. Maybe that’s why you aren’t making disciples. Start by going to God in prayer right now and asking Him to be Lord of your life; that whatever He says and scripture says to do, you will do it. Ask Him to forgive you of your sins and then repent or turn away from those sins.

Becoming a true believer and a true disciple is not a complicated thing. All you have to do is truly believe. But that belief will show itself as a changed life, a changed heart and mind and a focus on learning from Jesus and then telling others what you have learned. That’s being a disciple and there is no better deployment in this world.

We can have peace and joy in this world even in the difficult times plus the promise and security of Heaven when we die. If you have never accepted that gift from God, do it right now as the music plays.

“The Invitational Approach” – John 4

Somebody tell me what it means to you to be a Christian. In just one or two sentences, tell me what you get out of it. What are the benefits of following the risen Lord? Is it the peace and joy you have even in the difficult times of life? Is it the forgiveness of your sins and the release of guilt? Is it the promise of Heaven when you die? Is it the full and abundant life that can be had in the here and now or the rewards in Heaven that you are looking forward to in the there and then?

Aren’t you thankful for all that? Aren’t you glad? Would you trade it for anything in the world? Now, aren’t you glad you don’t have to tell anybody about it? Aren’t you thankful to God that telling others about Jesus is not a requirement for entry into Heaven? I mean, that could get uncomfortable, right? It might be awkward to have to tell somebody else about all the wonderful gifts God has promised us. What if they rejected you or thought you were weird? What if they asked a question you didn’t know?

Let’s just all be grateful that God put pastors and evangelists and missionaries on the earth to do all that so you don’t have to! Right? I know you are busy people. You have kids and grandkids and jobs. Plus, you have pride and actually telling somebody else about Jesus might interfere with all that. So, don’t worry. Somebody else will tell people the Gospel. You don’t have to. And hopefully they will tell your kids and grandkids. Hopefully they will tell the people that you love so much. Just be glad you don’t have to.

I hope you are picking up on my sarcasm because I’m laying it down pretty thick. And yet that is absolutely the way that the vast majority of people live. “I’ve got mine. I hope you get yours.” It’s the most precious and powerful gift that could ever be given and it doesn’t cost any money to give it or receive it and yet…eh, somebody else will tell the people.

What would you say if I told you I had found the greatest place to eat not far from here? If I told you that the food was homemade, healthy and delicious; the prices were very inexpensive and the service was great and the portions were huge, what would you say? You would ask me where it was and what the name was, wouldn’t you? Then we would all go there after church today and we would have a great time.

But what if you found this same place and told me about it and I said, “Oh, yea, I found that months ago and I eat there twice a week now. It’s great!” What would your response be then? “Gee thanks, jerk! Why didn’t you tell us about it before?” Right? You would be mad at me if I didn’t tell you, wouldn’t you?

We are concluding our sermon series on evangelism today and all the different ways there are to tell other people about the Gospel of Jesus. But maybe you still haven’t heard one that matches your personality yet. You have gifts that God gave you but you aren’t as bold as Peter or as smart as Paul. You aren’t comfortable giving your testimony yet like the blind man and you don’t feel like the relational or serving approach would work very well for you either. Well, I have one more for you and it is surely the easiest one yet.

I mean, I thought the blind man did it pretty simply. All he said was, “I don’t know. What I do know is I was blind and now I see.” But the woman at the well evangelized in what may be an even easier way. Do you remember what she said? She basically pointed toward Jesus and told her friends, “Come and see.”

Let’s turn to the Gospel of John this morning and see what the woman wanted us and everybody else to see. The story of the woman at the well is one that I’m sure most of you are familiar with. I’m not going to read the whole story but I want to start with verse 4 and go through verse 19 to start. There are two things I noticed as I read through this story again that I had not noticed before. The first one is found in this part of the story.

John 4:4-19 says, “Now He (Jesus) had to go through Samaria.  5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.  6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. ) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17 “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” 19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.”

That last sentence is almost comical. Yea, I bet you do realize He’s a prophet, there sweetheart. I bet she looked like she saw a ghost when He told her about her love life. And the ghost was her. It can be scary to find out the sins of other people but there is nothing scarier than being shown your own sins. She now had a clear vision of who she was and what she had done and it had to be humbling.

I can tell you from experience that this is a miserable place to be. When you run smack dab into who you really are; when you see who you have become left to your own devices it is an awful place but it is an absolutely necessary place to be if you are to ever be right with God. I think most people are in agreement with Romans 3:23 that says we are all sinners. We have all fallen short of the glory of God. Anybody that is intellectually honest would have to agree with that.

The problem is that none of us are as bad as that person over there. Right? We’re good people. We mean well and over all we are way better than lots of people we know. Why, my cousin’s friend knows a guy that is way worse than me. He’s a real sinner. He needs Jesus. Me? I’m doing okay. I mean, compared to Hitler, I’m a saint.

Realizing you are a sinner along with everybody else in the world and comparing yourself to other people…that’s not such a bad place to be. But when Jesus confronts you with who you really are; with the depth and depravity of your personal sins that are now on full display in front of the One who died on the cross for those sins, that’s miserable.

For the woman at the well, what Jesus said in verses 17 and 18 was enough to show her who she really was – a sinner in need of a Savior – but also who Jesus really was – that Savior. For the first time she has a clear vision of who she really is and Who Jesus really is and that was enough.

If you go on reading in verse 25, the woman says, “I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us." Now, if you really read this and think about where she was coming from, you realize what she is really saying is, “Okay, mister, you are either the Messiah or you need to leave me alone. This is not comfortable for me to talk about with just anybody.” She is asking if Jesus is the Messiah. Is He God in human flesh? Is He the one that has come to forgive and heal and save?

Jesus answers plainly in verse 26. “I, the one speaking to you am he.” In Hebrew, it is “Messiah.” In Greek, it is translated “Christ.” Both words mean the same thing: the anointed one. It is a title given to Jesus that means He is the One anointed and appointed to die on the cross for the sins of the world and rise again the third day. All of that was prophesied hundreds of years before Jesus was born. It is one thing to read about Jesus. It’s another to face Him.

It is one thing to admit to a friend that you have some sin in your life. It’s completely another thing to have your sins pointed out to you by the One who is going to pay for them. Imagine, if you will, a court room setting. The stately judge is sitting in his black robe behind the massive wooden bench. Armed security is at every corner. A stenographer is there to type every word of the trial. And it is your trial.

Two guards bring you in, shackled at the waist and the feet, dressed in prison clothes and brought slowly towards the judge. Your criminal record is brought out of a file and your own attorney starts to read it out loud in front of everyone. It is page after page of everything you have ever done that has displeased God. Every sin you have ever committed is written down in horrifying detail.

The judge hears how when you were three you lied to your mother. But it goes on, year after year. Lying, cheating, stealing, lust, gossip, adultery, murder, idolatry, violence, even the coarse words you said in fun and the times you used God’s name for no reason. The attorney reads for what seems like hours and hours. Every impure thought, every curse word, those times you got drunk and the times you ate too much. Every sin is mentioned. Nothing is left out.

Finally, the attorney stops reading and closes the file. The judge asks you how you plead. It’s a question you have no choice but to answer truthfully. You know you’re guilty. The judge knows your guilty. Everybody knows you are guilty so that is how you plead. The judge looks at you and says, “I have no choice but to sentence you to death. No pardons, no appeals, no waiting. Take him away!”

But just then your own attorney, who has read every sin and knows you and knows your case better than anybody, stands up and offers to take your place and all you have to do is agree to it. That is what the woman at the well is experiencing right here in verse 26 when Jesus says, “I, the one speaking to you am he.”

Galatians 3:13 says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” 1 Peter 2:24 says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” That means by His wounds you have been forgiven and spiritually healed. And 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin.” That is the Messiah. That is the Christ. That is Jesus and that is who the woman at the well knew was speaking to her.

I want to see something else in this fascinating true story. Let’s go on to read verses 28-30. Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29"Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?" 30They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

Now, if you have heard this story preached on before, you may have heard that it was not common for this kind of interaction to happen. But I don’t know if you really understand just how ridiculously scandalous this whole scene was. First, a Jew would NEVER talk to a Samaritan. A man would NEVER talk to a woman. And NOBODY would talk to a woman like this who had, what might generously be called, loose morals.

But here is Jesus, breaking ALL the rules and I love it! But I bring all that up because it plays a part in what she says in verse 29. Can you imagine a woman – especially a woman like this – going into town and telling everybody in a loud voice, “Let me tell you about the Messiah!?” Nobody is going to listen to her with that approach. The approach she uses is the approach of someone who is admitting she has done wrong and is just encouraging others to go check Jesus out and see for themselves.

I love that she leaves her water pot. She was in a hurry but she was coming back so she just left it and went and told everybody that would listen, “Come and see. Come and see for yourself. Don’t take my word for it. My word is no better than my reputation. Come and see.” She didn’t try to debate them or prove anything to them. Just come and see. Spend some time with Him and let Him show you who you really are and who He really is. I don’t have to know all the answers. I don’t have to take up for Jesus or convince you on my own. I’ll let Him do that.

All you have to do is come and have a real encounter with the risen Jesus and He will do the rest. It’s interesting to me that nothing is said of the disciples telling anybody about Jesus while they were off buying food. They went into town and were at the grocery store buying sandwich meat and chips for lunch when the Savior of the world is outside of town talking to a loose Samaritan woman about her eternity.

But I don’t blame them. It might have been uncomfortable for them. Somebody might reject them or ask them a question they didn’t know. Besides, they were hungry and they were doing the Lord’s work. So, who can blame them? They surely knew somebody would tell the people about Jesus. Right?

How about you? Have you had an encounter with the risen Savior, Jesus, the Christ, the anointed? When you do, there’s no excuses to be made because you no longer compare yourself to other people. You compare yourself to Him and you see Him as He really is. That’s a scary place to be but it is a place necessary for true salvation.

All you have to do is come in faith and see for yourself. Allow Him to forgive you of your sin. He has already taken your place. He paid the debt you couldn’t pay and all you have to do is believe. That belief will show itself as a changed life that looks more like Jesus every day. Do that right now as the music plays.

“The Serving Approach” – Acts 9:36-42

Philippians chapter four is one of the most powerful, practical and useful chapters in the Bible. There is so much packed into that one chapter that is helpful for almost anything you are going through. Are you worried? You can find help in Philippians 4. Are you addicted? Philippians 4. Do you have a need? Are you blessed? Do you lack strength? Read that chapter. It’s so good. One of my favorite verses is verse 8. “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things.”

I was thinking about this verse this week and thinking about what it says to think about. I have this bookmark in my Bible that helps me sometimes. It is the 8^th verse printed out and I have written on it some examples of things that are true and pure and lovely, etc. It helps in the heat of battle to have it written out when you need to think of something besides what Satan wants you to think about. Most of them are pretty easy to find examples for but I have always sort of struggled with the word “noble.” It’s not a word we use very often. We all kind of know what it means but what is a good example of something noble that we can really relate to? But as I thought about it this week, I was reminded of and started to thank God for all the people in our church that do noble things. These people do these things, not because they are on the church staff or because they have to or they are expected to but because they love this church.

I think about Ben and Cindy who lead the music and teach Bible study and do a great job. I think of Morris who runs the sound and has spent so much time getting our audio / visual stuff up and running. Troy takes care of the property and his pride in a job well done is obvious. Many of you give and prepare Samaritan’s Purse shoeboxes. You prepare the bulletins and put together the church directory. You pay the bills. You clean and cook and prepare and plan. You make visits to other members in the hospital. You give generously to the food pantry. You pray for and love on those members that need it. All of that is very noble and while I see some of it, God sees all that you do and there will be treasures in Heaven for you for doing it.

Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Colossians 1:10 says, “so that you may live a life worthy of the LORD and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.” For some of you, that is just how God wired you. That is your personality and is how God has gifted you. You enjoy doing good things for other people and by using your gifts, the church is able to minister especially to the poor, the addicted and the incarcerated. But did you ever stop to think that God can use those gifts of service and your personality that enjoys serving other people to actually lead people to have a life-changing relationship with the Lord?

We are continuing our sermon series on the different approaches to evangelism. There are as many different approaches you might take as there are personality types and God-given gifts but today let’s look at the serving approach. Evangelism is a churchy word that just means to tell other people about Jesus. It is witnessing. It is telling what God has done for you because you want others to have what you have. Some people enjoy street preaching or knocking on doors and asking people if they know Jesus. They don’t mind that kind of blunt, in-your-face style but other people are not as vocal and out-going and that’s okay too. In fact, it takes all kinds to make a church work and work well.

In Acts chapter 9, we meet a lady named Tabitha. Actually, it says her name was Tabitha, which translated means Dorcas. So evidently Dorcas was like her biker name. 😊 You know? I’m not sure but it doesn’t matter. Anyway, Dorcas is more fun to say so we’ll call her Dorcas. Dorcas was known by the people around her for one thing. So, let’s jump right in there and meet Dorcas for ourselves and see what happens.

Acts 9:36-42 says, “In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. 37About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. 38Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, "Please come at once!" 39Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them. 40Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, "Tabitha, get up." She opened her eyes and seeing Peter she sat up. 41He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive. 42This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the LORD.” Let me read that last verse again. 42This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the LORD.”

Now, we all have good intentions, don’t we? We all want to do good things, memorable things, meaningful things. We all want God to be glorified. We want people to be helped. We want revival. We want lives changed. That’s good. But there is a world of difference between good intentions and good works.

Bruce Morgan said, “Your good intentions will never overshadow your deeds.” I’ve heard it said that “One kind deed is more beautiful than a thousand good intentions.” (Matshona Dhliwayo) T.S. Eliot said, “Most of the evil in this world is done by people with good intentions.”  Now, don’t worry. I get none of my theology from T.S. Eliot but how do we go from having good intentions to, as Acts 9:42 says, having many people believe in the Lord? We don’t know much about Dorcas. We don’t know where she was born or how she died or even how she died the second time. We don’t even know what kind of motorcycle she rode. But we know she was known for doing good deeds. She obviously made clothes for her friends but we don’t know what else she did and we don’t have to. She had more than good intentions. She actually did good things. But even that is not enough to lead people to having a life-changing relationship with Jesus.

I want you to think of this as a recipe. Some of you like to cook. I’m an awful cook. It’s probably because I rarely follow the recipe. I made some cheesy chicken spaghetti the other day and I almost followed the recipe. I didn’t have all the ingredients so I compromised the best that I could and what turned out was barely edible. I ate it because I was too proud to not eat it after all the work I did but it wasn’t very good. To use the serving approach to evangelism, you need to have the right ingredients. Just having good works isn’t enough. There’s nothing wrong with good works on their own but to really change people’s lives, you have to add faith to the mix. Then add a liberal dose of prayer then allow the Holy Spirit to season it and cook it and then you can taste and see that the Lord is good. (Psalm 34:8)

Look first at the faith of the friends of Dorcas. Did you see that in verse 38? “…when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, "Please come at once!" Why were they sending for Peter? Dorcas was stone dead at this point. They had probably heard of Jesus raising Lazarus and they had probably heard of Peter doing some pretty miraculous things in His name but Dorcas was room temperature. She was passed on and passed the point of no return. Why call for Peter?

I’ll tell you why they called for Peter. They called for Peter exactly because they had heard of the miracles of Jesus and Peter and they knew that if Peter could do a small miracle in the name of Jesus that Peter could do a huge miracle in the name of Jesus. Is there a difference? If something is a little bit impossible, is that any different from being a lot impossible? If Jesus could heal the blind, is it any more difficult to raise the dead? If God can bring this church from Runaway Bay to Lake Bridgeport to minister to our community in His name, can He not use your good works to bring others to Jesus? If God can bring you out of sin deserving death and into a full and abundant life with the promise of Heaven, can He not use your good works to bring others to Jesus? If God can heal Belinda’s legs, bring Morris and Lois out of cancer, deliver Billy from drug addiction, keep Troy sober for 35 years and forgive the sins of this wretched man, can He not use your good works to bring others to Jesus?

I hear people says sometimes that the reason we don’t see more miracles like they had in the Bible is because we lack faith but Jesus said, “if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move.” It doesn’t take a lot of faith. When you do your good works, you do them in the name of Jesus and for the sake of God’s Kingdom and to make God look good and then have faith that God will use those works to bring others to Jesus. That’s what the friends of Dorcas did. The same God that used a burning bush in the Old Testament and the same God that raised the dead in the New Testament is the same God that protects and provides for you and your family and is the same God that will use your servant heart to bring others to Jesus. You know He can and you know He will. Now act like it! If you are going to use the service approach then you first have to be a servant. That’s the first ingredient in the recipe. Then you add your little bit of faith in the God that does big things. Then the next ingredient is prayer. Look at verse 40. “Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed.”

As he had seen Jesus do when Jesus healed Jairus’s daughter in Mark 5:40, Peter sent them all out of the room. He didn’t want to “perform” for a crowd and bring attention to himself so he made that room his prayer closet. Now, this was not Peter’s first miracle. He had seen and done many miraculous things and you might think he would just assume that since Dorcas had the good works and her friends had the faith that all he had to do was just what he had done before. Just use the combination to unlock God’s power. Just rub the Genie lamp the way he had done before. Check off all the boxes and then God has to work because He did it before, right? How many of you know that is not how God works? Just because God has done something one way before does not mean if you replicate all the actions that you did before that God will do it again. Pre-Pentecost, before Peter had the Holy Spirit living inside of him, he might have tried to do it that way but now Peter knows the source of his power and he presumed nothing about the will of God. (McArthur, Acts 1-12, pg. 284) So, he got on his knees and approached the King of kings.

Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Every evangelistic approach you will ever use has to be bathed in prayer and when you do that you can rest assured that, as Ephesians 3:20 says, God is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us.” There are at least two mistakes you can use in using the serving approach. The first is to think that your little bit of service is not worthy of God to even notice. The second mistake is to think that you have done this kind of thing so many times, that you know what God’s will is and how to do this and what to say and how to say it. You have good intentions and with the right motives, you know God will bless it.

It would be a mistake not to go to God in prayer and ask for His wisdom on this and His blessing on this so that He looks good in the end. Because what if it isn’t God’s will that you do this this time? What if it had not been God’s will to heal Dorcas? Peter would have looked pretty stupid if he had just gone in there and said, “Rise, Dorcas!” and Dorcas just laid there dead as a post. Peter would have looked stupid and God wouldn’t look good either. Then what would have become of those people that were in the house? Their eternities were at stake with what Peter did so he started with prayer.

F.B. Meyer told the story about being on a cruise ship and on the ship was an agnostic man. He didn’t know if God was real or not and wasn’t real concerned about it but F.B Meyer was going to preach so the agnostic man thought he would go listen.  Before he left his room, the agnostic put two oranges in his pocket. On his way he passed an elderly woman sitting in her deck chair fast asleep. Her hands were open. In the spirit of fun, the agnostic put the two oranges in her outstretched palms. After the meeting, he saw the old lady happily eating one of the pieces of fruit. "You seem to be enjoying that orange," he remarked with a smile. "Yes, sir," she replied, "My Father is very good to me." "Your father? Surely your father can't be still alive!" "Praise God," she replied, "He is very much alive." "What do you mean?" pressed the agnostic. She explained, "I'll tell you, sir. I have been seasick for days. I was asking God somehow to send me an orange. I suppose I fell asleep while I was praying. When I awoke, I found He had not only sent me one orange but two!" The agnostic was speechless. Later he was converted to Christ. (Our Daily Bread)

Was it a miracle that woman got an orange? Sure, it was. She had no way of getting one for herself. It was impossible for her. So, yes, it was a miracle. And isn’t that just like God to answer a prayer that meets a person’s needs and leads somebody else to Jesus? Even little bitty miracles are miracles and every miracle is meant to lead people to Jesus. And if you want your service approach to be used by God, then pray. Can you imagine what would happen if we all decided to be more service-oriented instead of wanting to be served? Can you imagine if we all wanted to serve and used every service opportunity as an opportunity for God to use that to reach somebody for Jesus? “Lord, I’m not able to do much but I pray that you would use this gift to the food pantry to lead someone to Jesus.” “Lord, I don’t have much to give but would you use my gift of cleaning, mowing, planning, listening, filling Easter eggs, straightening the nursey, etc., etc. for your glory and to bring someone to Jesus like only you can?”

Now, here’s where the last ingredient comes in and it is the most important part. The good news is that you don’t have to add it. God adds His Holy Spirit to the mix at this point and it always turns out for our good and His glory. We don’t always think about the role of the Holy Spirit in leading someone to Jesus. We know that the Spirit lives inside of us and is our Counselor and our Guide. We have peace and joy because of the Spirit’s presence in our lives but in John 16:8, Jesus promised that He would send the Holy Spirit to “convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.”

Aren’t you glad it’s not your job to convict the world of anything? That’s the Holy Spirit’s job. You do your part by serving, having faith that God can and will use that service, praying to that end and then letting the Spirit do what He does. Maybe He brings a great revival or maybe a seed is planted in someone that bears fruit some day after you are gone. All you have to do is be obedient. You use the service approach and let God use you. Whatever evangelistic approach you use, they all are used for one thing. We just want other people to have what we have. We have peace and joy in this life with the promise of Heaven in the next life and we want everybody else to have the same thing just because we love other people. And we love other people because God loved us first.

He loved us enough to send His only Son, Jesus, to die on the cross to pay the price for our sins that we could never pay. Scripture says we have all sinned and what we deserve for that sin is eternal death in Hell, separated from God and all our friends and family. (Romans 3:23 and 6:23) But all we have to do is truly believe that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and no man gets to the Father but through Him. (John 14:6) That belief will be lived out in our lives by the changes that God brings in our lives; changes that make us more like Jesus, with the Holy Spirit living inside of us. If you have never asked God to forgive your sins and then repented of or turned away from those sins, do that right now. The Holy Spirit is calling you. Just trust and obey right now as the music plays.