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Century Christian
Church 1301 Tamarack Road, Owensboro, KY 42301, (270) 684-0286, Pastor: Rev. Jim Westmoreland |
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The Master Plan of Evangelism This past Friday, I attended a planning meeting for the 2004 Kentucky Regional Assembly, which will meet in Owensboro this September. There are 10-15 committees and hundreds of people who have been working since before the first of the year to prepare for this meeting to be held in the Executive Inn Convention Center. I have accepted a small part to play on the Local Arrangements committee chaired by our own Betty Jagoe. Planning for events and major campaigns is a major effort with very detailed organization involved. Have you ever wondered what Jesus' plan was to continue the ministry that He began to spread the Good News of God's love and forgiveness? Here is what you will find. Instead of infinite details you will find simplicity, and it is mind-boggling! That's it? That's all there is? Missionary Del Tarr who served fourteen years in West Africa tells a story that illustrates how simple, yet critically important, Jesus' plan was. Tarr served in Africa in the Sahel, a vast stretch of savanna more than four thousand miles wide just under the Sahara Desert. In the Sahel, all the moisture comes in a four month period: May, June, July, and August. After that, not a drop of rain falls for eight months, which is a time when there are no crops to harvest. The year's food, of course, must all be grown in the four months of mosture. People grow sorghum or milo in small fields. In October and November the granaries are full -- the harvest has come. People sing and dance. They eat two meals a day. The sorghum is ground between two stones to make flour and then a mush with the consistency of yesterday's Cream of Wheat. The sticky mush is eaten hot; they roll it into little balls between their fingers, drop it into a bit of sauce and then pop it into their mouths. The meal lies heavy on their stomachs so they can sleep. December comes, and the granaries start to recede. Many families omit the morning meal. Certainly by January not one family in fifty is still eating two meals a day. By February, the evening meal diminishes. The meal shrinks even more during March and children succumb to sickness. You don't stay well on half a meal a day. Then, inevitably, it happens. A six-or seven-year-old boy comes running to his father one day with sudden excitement. "Daddy! Daddy! We've got grain!" he shouts. "Son, you know we haven't had grain for weeks." "Yes, we have!" the boy insists. "Out in the hut where we keep the goats -- there's a leather sack hanging up on the wall -- I reached up and put my hand down in there -- Daddy, there's grain in there! Give it to Mommy so she can make flour, and tonight our tummies can sleep!" The father stands motionless. "Son, we can't do that," he softly explains. "That's next year's seed grain. It's the only thing between us and starvation. We're waiting for the rains, and then we must use it." The rains finally arrive in May, and when they do, the young boy watches as his father takes the sack from the wall and does the most unreasonable thing imaginable. Instead of feeding his hungry family, he goes to the field and with tears streaming down his face, he takes the precious seed and throws it away. He scatters it in the dirt! Why? Because he believes in the harvest . (1) As I hear this story and I think of our scripture this morning as Jesus shares his last words and gives his last instructions to His disciples as He prepares to leave His earthly ministry to ascend into heaven to be with the Father, I am struck by how bare and simple and plain His plan was. There is nothing over-complicated about it. There are no abstractions and no subtleties requiring lots of brain power. He is like the father who takes the leather pouch with the only remaining seeds and he sews them into the dirt saying, "I'm depending on you." Jesus told the disciples, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses ..." It was as if Jesus was saying with His very last words, "Here is what I want you to do." As I hear those words, "Here is what I want you to do," I think of three ways we might hear and respond to them. First, they are understandable, they are unforgettable, and they are simple instructions given by Jesus. "Here is what I want you to do-be my witnesses." Tell others about what you know, what you've experienced. Second, for us today, Jesus' words may be a prophetic and confronting challenge. Too often, we may be like the disciples jumping at their own shadows when it comes to us telling someone else about our experience with Christ. Yet, Jesus challenges us to not quietly hide our faith. He says to us, "Here is what I want you to do!" A light hid under a basket is no good. Take off the basket and let your light shine before others. The third way for us to hear these last instructive words of Jesus is to hear them as His affirmation of us of the trust that He has in us. When His time is all over on earth, He says "Here is what I want you to do." He has given me the job of spreading the Good News of God's love and forgiveness, and He has given it to you, too. He trusts us to do the job, and He is counting on us. Willie Mays began his major league baseball career with only one hit in his first 26 at-bats. Though he went on to hit 660 home runs (third on the all-time list), and steal more than 300 bases, his debut was so unimpressive it seemed unlikely he would last more than a few weeks as a big-leaguer, let alone become one of the greatest to play the game. The turning point for Mays occurred when his manager, Leo Durocher, found him crying in the dugout after yet another miserable performance at the plate. The coach put his arm around Mays and said, "What's the matter, son?" Mays said, "I can't hit up here. I belong in the minor leagues." Durocher said this to Willie Mays: "As long as I'm manager of the Giants, you'll be my centerfielder." You know how the story ends. It wasn't long before Mays began hitting the ball, and he was on his way to becoming a legend of the game. If Willie had been left alone in the dugout that day, his career might have ended before it started. Fortunately for him (and for baseball) someone believed in him even when he didn't believe in himself. Durocher's speech wasn't "You're a disappointment. Do you know how much you're costing the team? You're on the verge on blowing your big chance!" He simply said, "I know that you can make it." (2) Jesus placed the whole future of Christianity, of spreading the
Good News of God's love and forgiveness on US. He didn't say to
the disciples, "You're a real disappointment. You scattered and
abandoned me at my trial and crucifixion, and you've been afraid
of your shadow ever since." No, He said, "You will be my
witnesses . . . I don't have a backup plan. You are my plan. I
know you can make it and I'm counting on you. Now, you go and
tell others." _____________ 1. Del Tarr, Leadership, 1983. 2. Steve May, in “Words of Encouragement” on
1 Thessalonians 5:11, at SermonNotes.com. |
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