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Teaching podcast from the Eagle Community Church of Christ in Mont Belvieu, TX.
Hello. This is John Guenther of the Eagle Community Church of Christ. Thanks for listening to our podcast. You're listening to sermon number 5 in our I will series. This week we're talking about I will go.
John Gunter:I challenge our congregation not to just be content sitting back and waiting, but to go out and to reach people, and and reach the lost to bring them closer to God. We hope this helps. Have a great week.
John Gunter:A book by Tom Rayner called I Will. And again, this is the idea of not just looking at what we want or what we desire, but making things happen, saying yes. It says 9 Traits of the Outwardly Focused Christian. So we are not just focusing inside, we are looking at other people as well. We begin this morning with a story.
John Gunter:Only the name of the church has been changed, the facts have not. Twin Springs Church started as a mission. The Twin Springs Church started as a mission of a large downtown church. In the 19 fifties, the population was moving toward the Twin Springs area. Some visionary leaders of the downtown church saw the possibilities of reaching more people with a new church and the growing community.
John Gunter:So the church gave selflessly of people, and money, and time. In 1955, a new church was born. The early history of Twin Springs Church seemed to be mostly positive. The church grew steadily from a core group of 7 families to a peak of 450 in average worship attendance. The peak attendance occurred in 1985.
John Gunter:Hardly anyone noticed the decline, at least hardly anyone said anything about the decline. For the next 3 decades, attendance declined steadily, but the decline was imperceptible to most of the members. Let's put it in perspective. The decline average was only about 1 attendee each month, but in more than 30 years, the decline in attendance was 360 in average attendance. Did you get that?
John Gunter:The decline was 360 in average attendance. The once vibrant church of 450 in attendance now only has 90 showing up on a typical Sunday. What happened? Well, that's a good question. Rayner says this, he says, my involvement was minimal, but the analysis was pretty simple.
John Gunter:I compared the growth of the church with the growth of the community. The community was growing rapidly through 1985. The church benefited from the demographic growth of Twin Springs, though its growth was not nearly as rapid as that of the community. It was indeed simple. As the community grew, the church grew.
John Gunter:The members and leaders of the church hardly had any intentional outreach or evangelism to the community. Twin Springs Church basically let people know the doors were open and they came. At least they came until 1985. The church probably would have grown as rapidly as the community had it been intentional about going. But the leaders and members were content with a y'all come attitude.
John Gunter:The church never developed a DNA of going. They rarely reached out beyond their own walls. The members became more inwardly focused. They focused more and more on their comfort and needs. The decline was inevitable and tragic.
John Gunter:Today, the church of 90 in attendance is in a large facility it cannot afford. It has been 12 years since Twin Springs Church had a full time minister. Cash reserves are totally depleted. I've seen it happen too many times. The church will close its doors in just a few years unless something dramatic and drastic takes place.
John Gunter:So this morning, our lesson is about I Will Go. I hope what you heard and what you thought about during that story is our church. We exist in this unique situation, don't we? We've had a past in another place. You've seen the rise, you've seen the fall.
John Gunter:A lot of you have, haven't you? And right now, we exist in the new place that he talked about, right? Where the growth is happening. Since we've been here, Mont Belvieu has averaged, I think, a little over a 1000 people a year, coming into just this place, Mont Belvieu. Mont Belvieu city limits, of all things.
John Gunter:And so we are experiencing a lot of that same growth. But are we going? Are we like the church in this story where we just benefit from everyone coming in? Or are we intentional about reaching out? Because we can since I have been here, I have said we can do a lot of things wrong.
John Gunter:Our desire was to get into this community where so much growth was going on, and grow the church. Well, we can do that, I think, and do a lot of things wrong and incorrectly or even really just exist there like we read about in this church. Or we can intentionally reach out and see what God can do with that. Now, when you think about the decline of that church, or any church, maybe you are thinking about, Lakewood, where we used to be, where there is a time in the past where you remember maybe fuller auditoriums, and then numbers got less and less. No one person can be blamed for that, but when decline happens, like anything else or growth, we really need to look around the room because we are all responsible, are we not?
John Gunter:We are all responsible for reaching out, for bringing the gospel to everyone around. Jesus said this in Acts 1:8, as He is talking to His disciples here, He says, but you will receive the power, receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. This is one of the last things Jesus is able to say to his disciples, and it was important that he said, you are going to be my witnesses. It is now on you to go out again to Jerusalem, which is where they were, Judea, the surrounding area, Samaria even further, and to the end of the earth. It is now on you to do this.
John Gunter:And as we talked about last week, our what our goal should be as Christians is to be like Jesus. We should want to grow into people that look like him. Again, that idea, remember that Jewish blessing, may you be covered in the dust of your rabbi, may you be covered in the dust of your teacher because you are following him so closely that you are covered with his dust as he goes. That we shouldn't be content with just existing and saying, well, I love Jesus and I'm just going to exist here, but we want to become more and more like Jesus because, well, this is who Jesus was in Luke 1910, for the son of man came to seek and to save the lost. That is what Jesus was about and that's what we should be about as well.
John Gunter:What we need to do, church, is this. We need to focus on our Jerusalem. Not Jerusalem over there, but our Jerusalem. When He said that to His disciples, He was talking about the local church. We start here.
John Gunter:We do everything we can to reach out to our community here. For whatever reason, over the years it has become I use the word because I can't think of a better term. It has become sexier to put money into the ends of the earth instead of Jerusalem. I have known churches who gave far more outside the church to parts of the world unknown than they gave or, you know, tried to put into the local community. Because for some reason, it feels better if I'm and if I'm putting it out there.
John Gunter:And sometimes we we feel like we get better results. Right? Because we like to gather and count. We like to count things baptisms. And if, you know, missionary Joe over there is getting a lot of baptisms, and guess what?
John Gunter:You're in part of the church here, and we don't see many baptisms. We think, well, the money ought to go there. Well, we have to start here, though. Right? We don't Part of that idea, I think, is, well, I feel like I've done my job because we send money over there.
John Gunter:We need to focus on our Jerusalem. Focus right here, what can I do? How can I reach the people right here in Mont Belvieu, Baytown, in Winnie, in La Porte? Where else are we from? Dayton?
John Gunter:We got Dayton. We are in Dayton, aren't we? Yeah, you are in Dayton. We actually meet in Dayton. It feels like Mont Belvieu.
John Gunter:We are in Dayton right now. But that's what we need to be focused on, what we can do. Rayner says this, he says, in fact, in a study I led several years ago, our team found that fewer than 10% of the churches in the United States are growing at least at the pace of the community. So percentage of population, growth. Stated simply, most of our churches are losing ground in our communities.
John Gunter:We are not going. Why are we not going? We've decided that it's okay. Right? That all I have to do is come and exist, and we're happy.
John Gunter:Think about the story there. We're happy as if what we experience, whether here or another location or in a new building that we build, we would be thrilled if we keep seeing the numbers go up, wouldn't we? And that's great, and we are glad that those people are coming to hear about God each and every week. But what are we supposed to be doing? Sitting back and waiting?
John Gunter:Just putting the hours on the door out front and saying, Y'all come, we'll be here? Or are we supposed to follow Jesus and do as He did, to seek and save the lost? As He tells His disciples, you go out, you be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, in all the rest of the world, to the ends of the earth. But you have to believe that people may be lost. Because if you don't think that it's a dire circumstance, you're not going to do anything, are you?
John Gunter:One of my favorite stories to tell about this, I think it was, you know the magician show Penn and Teller? Have you ever seen these guys? I think it was Penn, I should have looked this up. Things come into my brain last minute, I'm sorry. But he's atheist.
John Gunter:He's an atheist and doesn't believe, but he had someone come to his show, and the guy came back a second night, and he really wanted to talk to him, and so he actually met with him backstage, and the guy was a Christian, like I just got to share this with you. And so he told about the guy, and he said, yeah, he shared the gospel with me, he shared me, you know, with what he thought. And, he said, you know, I don't believe a word of it. But, he said, I have so much more respect for someone who sees that circumstance, thinks I'm lost, and wants to do something about it. He says, because think about it this way, what if you see me out there on the train tracks and you believe the train is bearing down, and you do nothing?
John Gunter:Because in that moment, you either decide, well, you know, it's not my business, or I don't want to get involved, or you see that as a circumstance where I need to save him or he's going to be gone. I need to help bring him to safety. And so that's what he said, if you are not out doing that, what are you actually doing? That's from an atheist, right? Looking inward, and I think a lot of times we can get a lot of clarity on what we are about from people outside looking in.
John Gunter:And so if you're not going, why not? He says, we are not going. In John 14, Jesus says this, Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms.
John Gunter:If it were not so, what I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and I will take you to myself that where I am, you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going. And Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you're going. I love Thomas' honesty, don't you?
John Gunter:We do not know where you're going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. Jesus clears it up.
John Gunter:Sometimes we're we're called universalists. Universalists means that, well, I'm okay, you're okay. We're just all getting to God in our own way, and whichever God we serve or claim or whatever is fine. Might not say that out loud, but that's how we act. That's how we hope.
John Gunter:Jesus says, okay, I am the way, the truth, and life. No one comes to the Father except through me, and unless you understand that and believe it, you're not going to go. So, what I want to talk about right now is objections to sharing our faith because we all have them. So, let's talk about it for just a second. Number 1, that's not my spiritual gift.
John Gunter:That's not the way God gifted me, so somebody else do it, which I think is really the the reasoning behind maybe all of them. I really don't want to. It really makes me uncomfortable, so here's my reasoning. But why would Jesus ask his disciples to do this very thing and then think, you know what? Oh, Jeffrey over here.
John Gunter:I don't wanna give him that gift. He doesn't need that spiritual gift to tell anybody. Jeffrey, you're free to clam up and just keep to yourself. Right? That's how we act.
John Gunter:Right? It's not my spiritual gift. It's not for me. I don't believe that at all. I believe you have to hone your spiritual gifts.
John Gunter:And a lot of times what we do is we end up just clamming up and saying, well, I can't do it. I don't want to do it, and so I don't do it. What we need is more people saying, I will. I feel like I I can't do that, but I will. Like I told you the story, it's running together now if I told it on Wednesday and not Sunday, I don't remember.
John Gunter:But one of my buddies, when we were, we were going through a Sunday evening service and I had all different guys do sermons, and his wife was just crazy. I thought he was crazy that he said yes, he would give a sermon, because he said he may she said he very well may pass out. And she was serious. I could see that in her eyes. Oh, really?
John Gunter:But he told me yes. Okay. We will see what happens. But the guy got up and he gave a sermon. He was obviously nervous, right?
John Gunter:And the crowd booed him and ran him out, didn't they? No, of course not. He gave that sermon, and that gave him enough confidence that he grew in that week or weeks that he had to prepare, and he went from there to filling in at other churches, someone who thought they would pass out just by standing up front. So don't say, it's not my spiritual gift, if you haven't said yes to even trying that spiritual gift. It's not my spiritual gift is not a good excuse.
John Gunter:Number 2, that is what we pay the preacher to do. You ever said that before? He just go and be honest. I had a buddy that, real close friend that, in his church, he was he was complaining one day. He's like, I don't know why they asked us to do all this serving stuff.
John Gunter:He said, we got, you know, 3 pastors on staff and all this stuff. I don't know what we're doing. But often, again, like the first one, I think the the idea is I'm not comfortable doing it. Isn't that why we pay the preacher? Which is a ridiculous notion.
John Gunter:I've said this before, but most of the time, the preacher, is not from the congregation. Now sometimes that's the case, but normally the preacher is from somewhere outside. Right? And so in your head, the best person to share in that community is someone who's not from that community, that doesn't know the people, that doesn't have the the connections, that doesn't know anything, that's the best person to share. And often, we just kinda hide behind that And it may be, well, I don't I don't know enough or or whatever it is, but, you know, I I want to believe that that's what we pay the preacher to do.
John Gunter:Number 3, I don't have time. How many of you have an absolutely full schedule right now? My week has been nuts. Right? I didn't want it to be, it was.
John Gunter:But guess what? We make time for the things we want to make time for, don't we? We find the time. How many of you have have kids or grandkids and you've said, I don't know what we did before kids. You said that before?
John Gunter:Still not sure. We used up our time. We felt like we were busy. We had kids and we go, well, how in the world do we do this? But we do it.
John Gunter:We make time for what we want to make time for. And what we ought to make time for, as people following Christ, is becoming like Christ, doing as He did. Right? And number 4, I don't want to impose my beliefs on others. That's probably something that we maybe hide behind even more today, because it feels like it's more taboo.
John Gunter:Like, don't don't push that on me. Right? I'm gonna hide behind that. Well, I don't want you to go out there and just, you know, beat somebody over the head of the Bible. But how about you focus on how you're living your life, how you're acting, that you're becoming like Jesus, and that's what you show.
John Gunter:And when the opportunity comes, well, then you can share, right? I'm not gonna show up at work tomorrow and and call an impromptu meeting and say, hey, all you all need to hear this. But there are ways to go about this, right? Without hiding behind, I don't want to impose my beliefs. Number 5, personal to me, I'm an introvert.
John Gunter:I've told you guys before when I took Myers Briggs, anybody ever taken a study like that to see where you are at? Yeah. No. Kaylee, I'm sure you have. But I was one question over into extrovert, which means I've got tendencies in both.
John Gunter:And I know what it means to be an introvert. I when I get done preaching, you guys know I'm going home and I'm gonna rest. I may go get lunch first, but there's gonna be some resting happening. I need to refuel. But being an introvert is not an excuse to not be like Jesus.
John Gunter:That is not comfortable for me to talk to other people. Understand that, people even have social anxieties, right? But you still, you don't need to hide behind that, you need to say, God, will you help me in this? Right? Because that's usually not what we do.
John Gunter:We usually just hide behind it and say, I could never because I'm an introvert or I have this or that, instead of praying, God, would you open this door for me? And so, what is our response going to be? We can see from the lives of Peter and John, after Jesus has gone back into heaven, Peter and John are actually put into prison because they have shared the gospel. Anybody in here, have you been put into prison for sharing the gospel yet? Not because you imposed your beliefs or were an introvert, nothing like that, right?
John Gunter:Peter and John were put into prison because they were rabble rousing or telling people about Jesus. And, as they were discussing this with the people who held them captive, Peter said Peter and John answered them, whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you and not talk about Jesus anymore, rather than to God, you must judge for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. Said, it is impossible for us to have seen and heard all these things and to not share it. And sometimes, we act like that's the last thing I want to do is to share it. That God has impacted my life in such a way that I don't wanna share it with anybody.
John Gunter:That makes sense to you? But that's how we act. So what's our response going to be? I want us to say, we're gonna take action. We're gonna be intentional.
John Gunter:Number 1, I want you to pray for opportunities. That may be scary. If you were hiding behind one of those five things, you're not praying for opportunities. You were using that as a as a shield. I want you to pray for opportunities.
John Gunter:God, I don't know how it's gonna work out. That's fine to pray. God, I don't I don't I don't know how it's gonna work out, but I would really like for me to have an opportunity to share the good news about you with someone. K? Number 2, you can invite people to church.
John Gunter:You invite people to this group. You can join a small group, invite them to that. They may very well come over. What's crazy is, Rayner says this. He says, so will people really come to church if we invite them?
John Gunter:He says, my research team and I did this, did such a study several years ago. The results surprised all of us on the team. 8 out of 10 people who did who do not attend church will come to church if someone invites them. You get that? 8 out of 10 people who do not attend church, so you're not pulling them away from something they're already in.
John Gunter:Okay? 8 out of 10 will come to church if someone invites them. Now it does not feel like that, does it? You feel like, there's no way they'd come. He says that one statistic may be one of the most amazing we have uncovered in my 25 years of research.
John Gunter:And we're out here scared to death that somebody's gonna think something about us or be worried that we talk to them about Jesus. And he's saying 8 out of 10, in our research, 80% will come if you invite them. And again, that doesn't have to be to this assembly. If you're more comfortable in their home or in your home or you think they will be, invite them to your your house, to your small group, something like that. But invite them and see what happens.
John Gunter:Number 3, intentionally look for opportunities. Okay? I've prayed about it. I want to invite people. I'm going to look for opportunities.
John Gunter:The example Raider uses with this, have you ever looked for a new vehicle? I did that this week. I don't lie. That's one of my things I hate in life is shopping for a vehicle. Hate it.
John Gunter:First of all, I'm not buying a new vehicle. I can't afford it. So it's a new to me vehicle, but I hate the process. But as I'm deciding which one I want, Rainer says this, have you ever noticed how much you realize that truck or that car is on the road? Because you're searching for it, all of a sudden you think, oh, oh, I like their tires, I like their rims, I like their if I talk tires and rims, Katie rolls her eyes.
John Gunter:She doesn't like any of that stuff. She says I'm a little extra on that. I'm telling you, I'm from Southwest Arkansas. Everything I own would be lifted, mud tires, all that stuff. Okay?
John Gunter:You all don't judge me for that. But have you ever noticed when you are looking for something, I am intending on, you know, that thing, all of a sudden you see it everywhere? Because you opened your eyes, you started looking. And that's exactly the same thing. Okay, I am going to pray about it.
John Gunter:Now I'm going to look for opportunities because a lot of times what we say is, well, I just don't know who to talk to, don't we? I don't know who to talk to, I don't know who to invite. I'd invite them if I knew them, but I'm not putting myself out there to do it, right? Intentionally look for opportunities, and number 4, be prepared to speak when the opportunity arises. Guess what?
John Gunter:Do you know you can prepare for this kind of stuff? It doesn't have to be impromptu off the cuff. You know, you can think about right now what I would say if someone asked me about, you know, why I live the way I do. Or that I could have a chance just to, hey, would you come over? You want to do a Bible study?
John Gunter:I have access to Right Now Media. I can give you access too and you can watch as many videos as you want. By the way, they even come with, study guides and stuff. You guys are gonna be blessed with this stuff. But you can prepare.
John Gunter:You can be ready. You can have prayed about it. You can have intentionally thought about it. You can be ready and prepared when the time comes. Because guess what?
John Gunter:If you pray about it and you're intentionally looking, you know what's gonna happen? It's gonna happen. It's going to happen. And that might scare you to death sitting here right now. That that probably just means you need to go pray about it some more.
John Gunter:God, prepare me that I don't want to hide behind all of those excuses. I don't want to be someone that says, well, you go do it or it's better if they do it. Why don't you be that person? Because you're a disciple. We're all disciples of Jesus, are we not?
John Gunter:Apprentices of Jesus. Again, growing to be just like him. And we can't do that if we're hiding behind all of these excuses. Rayner says this, and I love it. He said, I think one of Satan's greatest tactics is to convince Christians that they can be comfortably silent.
John Gunter:Let me sit with that just a second. I think one of Satan's greatest tactics is to convince Christians that they can be comfortably silent. He says, it is a sin to be silent when we have been commanded to speak. I hadn't got your toes yet this morning. I I don't know.
John Gunter:You've been asleep the whole time, I think. He also says this, he says, one person in one church can make a difference. Sometimes we just feel like we don't have the ability, something that we could never, it could never happen, and he says, as one person in one church can make a difference, one member committed to going can be a spark that ignites a fire. Because in that moment you have aligned yourself with the will of God. You have said, I will, instead of I won't, or they should.
John Gunter:I will. Can you be that one person? Can you be that apprentice of Jesus that says, Yes, I will prepare myself, that I will pray, I will intentionally seek out, I am not going to hide behind those things. I want to bring people to Christ, and I believe because of where we live, we are going to grow, and we have people sitting right here that we didn't know very long ago. People that because of jobs and growth in this community are sitting here with them.
John Gunter:We've been praying for you, by the way. We prayed for you for a long time, and we want people to come into this place. But what if what people saw when they came to this community is a group of Christians determined to follow Jesus, and to bring His message into the world. What do you think growth looks like then? And it's not just about I don't want it to ever seem like what I'm preaching is about getting numbers in the seats.
John Gunter:Our goal should always be to become like Jesus. We pray and pray often. We want to grow closer together and closer to God. And that's what it's for. It's not about having a large congregation and being boastful in that, experiencing things that we could experience and just being happy about it.
John Gunter:It is about people encountering the living God. And so will you be a part of that? We've got an invitation song kicked out this morning. We'd love to pray with you. If that's something you need, we'd love to pray pray with you and for you, encourage you.
John Gunter:If there's anything, you need at this time, you come as we stand and as we sing.