Service

I’d like to ask you some questions this morning – sort of a personal survey to see if these questions are true of you

are you ready?

please participate; don’t be embarrassed; we’re not taking photographs or keeping records

how many of you have dialed the phone, called somebody, and when they answered, you couldn’t remember why you called them?

as a little aside, how many have dialed the phone and not remembered who you called?

how many of you have left one room and gone into another room to get something, and not had a clue what it was when you got there?

how many of you have been in a conversation, and have talked yourself down a dead-end street, and when you got there you’ve had to say, "I don’t know where I’m going with this thing"

these are little instances of the things we do without thinking

and we human beings are guilty of going through the motions without thinking

sometimes we can get so caught up with the structure that we forget the reason for the structure

we get so caught up in action that we forget the reason for the action

and it happens everywhere

and it even happens in the church

I believe that there are churches that are going through the motions

there’s lots of activity, but there’s little progress

and as we saw last week, if you walked up to one of the people and said, "What’s the point?" they wouldn’t have a clue how to answer

Richview Baptist Church exists for a reason – a reason that God has given us

and on top of that, God has given us five things to do to accomplish our mission

from now until the end of October, we’re going to look at these five things – five reasons why we exist as a church

are you ready?

Father, thank you for the church

thank you for bringing us to this place as a church

thank you for the optimism that comes as we reflect on God’s clear calling to the church, to lead all people to become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ

we pray that today you would begin to fill in the blanks on how we’re going to do this

speak with clarity and power, we pray

in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen

this summer, I took two weeks away from the church

I spent a few days in prayer and fasting

I spent a lot of time in prayer, and in writing down on paper where I sensed God leading me in my ministry, and where I sensed him leading the church

I came to the conclusion that I had two options

one is that I could come and tinker with things here and there – fix a ministry here and a problem there

I would stay incredibly busy, there would be no shortage of problems to tinker with, and it would even look like things were getting done

that’s option number one

but then I thought of the second option

I could be part of launching a revolution in the way we think as a church

I couldn’t do it all myself, but imagine if instead of tinkering with a thing here and there, the entire culture of the church changed

the way we do things changed, yes, but it changed because we thought differently

everyone understood our mission and our purposes, and they came up in our conversation every time we began to talk about the church

tinkering or a revolution – a change in our culture

which one do you think I’m going to pick?

this morning I’d like to do nothing less than to change your thinking in an important area of our church life: service

and the way you think will determine the way that you act in the future

this morning, my goal is to get you to believe that God has given us four things

ONE: BELIEVE THAT GOD HAS GIVEN YOU A PURPOSE

(Acts 17:26) From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.

look around you this morning

isn’t it true that you could have been born living in the 10^th century?

isn’t it true that if God wanted, you could have been born in the 14^th century?

but for some reason, God chose you to be born and living today

not only could you have been born at a different time, you could have been born in a different country – Siberia, or around the world

but for some reason God chose you to be living at this time and in this place

not only that, God chose you from all the ages of time, put you in this time, but together with these people in this congregation

to me, just think about it

that’s a miracle!

now, God doesn’t make any mistakes

you are not here by accident

from all the ages of time and from all the nations in the world, God put you in Toronto

and in all the churches in Toronto, God has placed you at Richview with this group of people

and there’s a reason for that, don’t you think?

well, what’s the divine reasoning behind this?

it wasn’t just to save you

if God’s only goal was to get you to heaven, then as soon as you stepped over the line of faith and gave your life to Christ, God would have killed you

because the goal is getting you to heaven – no use you taking up room here!

but instead he had a different plan

he saved you and he breathed an assignment into your soul

he said, "Now go back, because I’ve paid for people for eternity, and they don’t even know it"

that’s the first thing we need to believe this morning

you are not at Richview Baptist Church in 1999 with these people by accident; God has put you here for a purpose

now, we only go around once

we only have one life to live on this earth, and it will soon be over

James 4:14 says that our life is just a vapor

right now, as still as it may seem, you are traveling at over 66,000 miles an hour

that’s how fast our earth is spinning around space in its orbital rotation

and just a few more spins, and we’ll all be gone

look around

in forty years, this auditorium will basically be empty – except for me and a few others who are younger

but we just don’t have that much time

God has given you a purpose for being here

out of all the ages of the time, you were born at this time

and out of all the cities in the world, you’re in Toronto

and out of al the churches in Toronto, you’re at Richview, with these other people around you

God has a purpose in that – do you believe that?

TWO: GOD HAS GIVEN YOU A GIFT

(1 Peter 4:10 NLT) God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so that God’s generosity can flow through you.

question: how in the world are we going to reach the 50,000 people who live within two kilometers of the church?

we don’t have enough ministers!

we need more – we just don’t have enough ministers?

how many full-time ministers do we have in this room – raise your hand?

okay, not that many

now everyone raise your hand and keep it up

now let me ask the question again, how many full-time ministers do we have in this room?

that’s your answer

you say, "Wait a minute, I don’t work from the church. I get my salary from a company, or from a department of education"

well, don’t mix up the source of your income with the channel through which your income arrives

let’s trace back your income, like we would stereo wires

if you’re a teacher, you’ll see that your salary comes from the school board, but it’s not sourced there

keep going

lo and behold, guess where your income comes from? right, the throne of God

the same with a policeman, a businessman, a pastor – every single one of us has our income sourced from the throne of God

now why in the world would God take that income and run it through different places – the school board, the police department, your business

good question!

does God love teachers? does God love police officers? does God loves lawyers?

what’s the best way to reach teachers? through a pastor coming in and doing a Bible study?

no, through another teacher

so how does God reach teachers he loves?

he takes a full-time minister, and disguises him or her as a teacher

and he sends that teacher with gifts and passions to be the best teacher they know how and sends them in the school system

we’re all full-time ministers for Jesus Christ!

anybody here love Jesus part-time?

anyone want to be in heaven part-time?

before you’re a businesswoman, you’re an minister – full-time!

before you’re a teacher, you’re a minister – full-time

and he’s placed you here with different gifts and passions to be the salt of the earth

but we need to awaken this in our minds!

don’t forget who you are!

a rabbi in a Russian area was discouraged, and one day he went out for a night stroll

he was so disheartened that he inadvertently walked into a Russian compound that was off-limits to any civilian

and he heard the brash yell of a Russian soldier yelling, "Hey! Who are you and what are you doing here?"

the rabbi said, "Excuse me, how much do they pay you every day?"

the soldier said, "What does that have to do with anything?"

the rabbi replied, "I will be willing to pay you the same amount if you will ask me those two questions every morning: who are you and what are you doing here?"

I want to be that Russian soldier to you today, and ask you, "Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

God so loved people, that he’s given every believer a special gift in order to fill his or her assignment

and we need everyone

one person uninvolved is one person too many

we need everyone to be involved – don’t you agree?

we have people in this church with gifts of leadership and mercy and evangelism and teaching and service

and the church is incomplete in its assignment until everyone is involved

God has given you gifts and passions

do you believe that?

God has given you a purpose, he’s given you a gift

THREE: GOD HAS GIVEN US A STRATEGY

do you think that God would put us here at Richview for a purpose, give each believer here some spiritual gifts and passions to use in the work, and then leave us without a strategy?

God has given us a strategy to release these gifts into ministry here and now

(Ephesians 4:11 NLT) He is the one who gave these gifts to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.

(Ephesians 4:12 NLT) Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.

the job of the pastors and teachers isn’t to do the work of ministry; it’s to equip you to do the work of the ministry

a pastor is a thief every time that he denies his people the opportunity to minister

a pastor is literally stealing from his congregation every time he makes a decision to do instead of to equip

a man visited Japan

he saw a man selling birds for thirty-six cents

well, at that price, who wouldn’t want a pet?

so the man bought the bird, and as he walked away he heard the merchant say, "Don’t forget to bring back the cage!"

he said, "The cage? What do you think I’m going to do, eat the bird?"

well, the merchant explained that the entire purpose of buying the bird was to release it

and while he didn’t want to do it, the merchant was glaring at him pretty hard, so he walked to the edge of the ravine, opened his hand, and let the bird go free

and surprisingly, as he returned the cage, he felt a joy within his heart that came from letting that bird go free

you have gifts and passions that God has placed in your heart

do you know what my job is? that of a dream-releaser

that’s God’s strategy

God has put you here for a purpose

he’s given you gifts and passions

my job is to go around releasing your dreams – dreams that you didn’t even know you had – so that you could do the work of the ministry

if you hired a pastor to do all the work, you hired the wrong man

in fact, by now you should be noticing that I’m not doing some of the things that you might be expecting

I’m calling it planful neglect

one of my pastor friends said, "You’re going to fail in some areas, so plan in advance where you’re fail"

and I would choose time after time to fail doing the ministry if I could succeed in being a dream releaser

are you with me?

so God has given us a purpose

he’s given you a gift and a passion

he’s given us a strategy

FOURTH: GOD HAS GIVEN US EVERYTHING WE NEED

do you believe that?

I don’t know how many times I’ve sat in a church and heard people say, "If only we had more workers"

well, let me tell you this: God would never be so cruel as to call us to do something and not give us the resources and the power to do it

God would never give us a purpose, and then refuse to give us enough workers to meet that challenge

so if you think there’s a scarcity, one of two things is true

either you’re doing something God didn’t tell you to do, or else you’re not looking around hard enough

God has given us enough teachers, enough leaders, enough evangelists, enough merciful people, enough givers – God has given us everything we need at Richview

D.L Moody once said, "If this world is going to be reached, I am convinced that it must be done by men and women of average talent. After all, there are comparatively few people in the world who have great talents."

God is looking for people of average talents this morning to be filled with his power, and to use their gifts and their passions to lead all people to become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ

and if we’re going to move ahead as a church, we need every single person involved

if it’s your intention to just come and be a spectator, then I have to tell you that it’s not enough

I don’t care how old or how young you are – you wouldn’t be here if God didn’t have a purpose for you, if God didn’t give you gifts, if you didn’t have something to offer the body of Christ

and so what I propose this morning is that we begin to change our culture at this church

that we begin to change our thinking

and let me conclude by asking you this question

would you like to be a congregation of spectators led by a pastor?

or would you rather be a congregation of ministers led by a pastor who is equipping you and releasing your dreams?

let’s pray

Lord, you’re the giver of the gifts

every single believer here has received at least one

you’ve put us here for a purpose

you’ve given us a passion

you’ve given us the strategy and everything we need

now release us

change our mindset, we pray

in Jesus’ name, Amen.

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