Pastor's Notes Hello We're going to talk a little bit about an application of God's love this week. Since I have been pastor here people have come to me and said, "We don't want to be a mega church we like being a small country church. Why do we need to grow?" Others have said, "Our numbers are getting to small, how will we keep the doors open?" There's a lot of talk out there about church growth. So this week I want to focus on Macedonia Christian Church. Does our church need to grow? And if so, why? Don't we have enough members? Why don't we just stay where we are? We've got a good fellowship. Let's enjoy it. Why do we need to add new members?" Now, how would you answer that question? If somebody asked you, "Why should we grow? You know, we've got enough people why should we grow?" How would you answer that question? It's a legitimate question. It's an important question to ask. To answer that question, you have to ask another question. What in the world is God up to? What's God doing in the world today anyway? And you can summarize what God is doing in the world with one word, it is the word missions. Missions. Jesus said, Luke 19:10 (NLT) "I came to seek and to save those which are lost." In fact, that's what he tells us in the three parables in Luke 15. He talks about a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son. And three times, the Bible tells us that God is searching for people. And when we talk about growing our church, we're not talking about a bunch of other Christians to transfer their membership here. We're talking about going out and reaching people who have no faith in Christ. Who have no hope. Who don't have answers to life; reaching those people. What we're talking about this week is very important. We're going to look at three reasons why every Christian must reach out and three reasons why our church must never stop growing. They are the love of God, the Word of God, and the will of God. 1. The Love of God Compels Us. The first reason we must continually reach out is because the love of God compels us. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:14&20 (NIV) "The love of God compels us... We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us... to reach out." The fact is, God loves people. And he wants everyone to know Him. He's not satisfied with just a few people knowing him. He wants everyone to know Him. How important is outreach to God? Well, you notice, he left the 99 to go after 1 sheep. Luke 15:4 (NASB) "What man among you... does not leave the ninety-
nine... and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?" That's how important God says outreach is. He left 99 that were in the fold to go after one that wasn't. He says it three times in three stories. He's saying I want you to get this, the top priority is to reach lost people. God loves everyone. God has never made a person that he didn't love. As long as there is one person in this community who does not have any faith or any hope or doesn't know God in a personal way, this church cannot stop growing. We have to reach out. Leave the 99 to go get the one. In his book, "Love Leaves No Choice" C.B. Hogue says this, "We have to reach out, because of the love of God, we must care because God cares, because everyone needs Jesus." If I have the cure for cancer and I share it with you and we say, "Let's form a club. And we will have the cure for cancer, but we're not going to tell anyone else about it." That would be pretty selfish, wouldn't it? And when a church says, "We don't want to grow anymore." They are in essence saying to the community, "We don't really care about you." Why must the church grow? Jesus said there's a hundred sheep and one of them is lost. He said, you leave the 99 and you go get the one. You see, we grow a church not for our benefit, but for other people's benefit, for those who don't have faith. And the love of God compels us. 2. The Word of God Commands Us. A pastor was talking to one of his church members one day and he asked him, "Do you know what the great commission is?" The man said, "Yeah, that's what I was supposed make in 2018." The pastor said, "No, that's not exactly the right idea." In Matthew 28:19-20 (NCV) there's a statement there called the great commission, "So go and make followers of all people in the world. Baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit..." Matthew 28 gives us the great commission. Jesus says, "Go into all the world." He says take the good news and let everyone know that I love people, and I care about them, and I have solutions to their lives and I have answers to their problems and I am here to meet their needs. God loves people. It's not an option for our church. We are compelled by the love of God. We are commanded by the word of God. It is a great privilege. Every Christian gets to share the good news. You say, "Scott, well, then why don't some churches reach out and grow? Why, don't they want to do that?" Well there are usually two or three common excuses you hear as reasons. Here's three real common excuses. a. God isn't interested in numbers. How many of you have ever heard that excuse? God isn't interested in numbers. Some people think it's unspiritual to set goals for a church to
grow. Why? Because they think, well, God isn't interested in numbers. "Well who says?" They haven't been reading the Bible. You go to the Old Testament. Several times in the Old Testament, God gives specific instructions for the Israelites to be counted. Do you know when they had the exodus and Moses led the Israelites from Egypt to land of Canaan. They took two counts. One at the beginning and one at the end. They counted everyone. Why? Because God wanted them to know who was lost in the wilderness. God is so interested in numbers; he even dedicated a book to it in the Bible. The name of the book is Numbers. It's right between Leviticus and Deuteronomy. What is it? It's simply a list of names. That's all it is. Then you get over to the New Testament and Jesus is constantly talking about the importance of counting. He talks about the fishermen who count their fish and the Shepard who counts his sheep and the businessman who counts his investments and the woman who counts her coins, and the king who counts his soldiers, and the builder who counts his cost. It's all through scripture. And in the parable about the one hundred sheep and 99 are in the fold and one of them is lost. Let me ask you, how did the Shepard know that one was missing? He counted. He counted. Was that a numbers game? No, it was an act of love. And look at Luke 15:7 (NCV) "In the same way, I tell you there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who changes his heart and life, than over ninety-nine good people who don't need to change." You know what that says? It says every time one person becomes a Christian, they have a party in Heaven. You know what that means? Someone up there is counting. Have you ever taken 40 students on a field trip anywhere? Now, that's brave. And you know what? Every time you stop, when we get back on the bus, you say, "Is everyone here?" And then you stop and count. And you always count, every time. And why do you count every time? Because it's your responsibility to see who's there. Someone said, why do we take registration cards in church? We count people, because people count. Every number is important. It represents a person. I read about a pastor one time and he said, "I don't believe in counting attendance. I don't believe in counting members." The he was asked, "Do you believe in counting the offering?" He said, "Well, of course." So, is money more important than people? God says, there are 99 people in the fold, but there's one out there. As long as there's one, you go after him. God is intimately interested in numbers. b. Our church is interested in quality not quantity.
Have you ever heard this one, "Our church is interested in quality not quantity"? Well here's the thing, I want both. And who says they have to be either or? Who says it? Who says they have to be enemies of each other? Quality and quantity. Let me ask you, were you the first child to be born in your family? Well if you were not the first child it's okay. Because, that's most of us. But what would have happened if after the first child was born, your parents had said, "Well, Honey, I tell you what, why don't we just stop with one quality kid? I mean, our family is big enough. Let's don't overdo it. Let's just stop with one quality kid." Where would the majority of us be today? We wouldn't. We wouldn't exist. Now, some churches have this the same attitude. They say, "God's family is big enough. Our church has plenty of people. And now that we're all Christians, let's emphasize quality. And forget reaching out." It's the same attitude. Let's say you were to go camping in a forest and you have four kids and all four of them get lost and you find one. What do you do? Do you say, "Hey, let's call off the search. We found the best kid. She's the brightest one anyway. Just leave the other three out there. Let's go ahead and get warm by the campfire?" No. You keep searching. Do you know the first words Jesus said to his disciples? Jesus said, "Follow me and I will make you," what, "fishers of men." Have you ever fished? Or even if you haven't, have you ever been around someone talking about fishing? Okay. Let me ask you this, when you go fishing, do you go for quantity or quality? I don't know about you, but I go for both. I want the biggest fish and I want the most fish. By the way, have you ever heard of someone going fishing who didn't count their fish? Ha. You come home and they say, "Hey, how many did you catch?" And you say, "I have no idea." Yeah right! I've never met a fisherman who didn't count. Even Peter when Jesus did the miracle and they put the net on the other side of the boat and they had the great amount of fish caught. John 21:11 (NCV) says, "Simon Peter went into the boat and pulled the net to the shore. It was full of big fish, one hundred fifty-three in all..." Who counted? Peter did. Why? Because he was a fisherman. If your life depends on fishing, you're going to count, folks. You're going to count. So, numbers are not important to God. Oh yes they are. They are important, because numbers represent people. We just want quality, not quantity. No, we want both. Here's another excuse that you hear sometimes. It's this. c. Big churches are impersonal. Big churches are impersonal. You know what, they don't have to be. They don't have to be. There's a simple solution to that. It's called small
group Bible studies. In our church, it's called the Sunday school and Life Group. You enroll every person in a small fellowship where everybody knows you by your first name and you can get to know people and they can care about you and they can pray for you and when you're sick, you are missed. And you keep multiplying small groups, so everybody knows a small group within the church, even as the church grows. Did you know there is a church where they have a system worked out that every day that a person is sick, that person gets visited every single day and provided with meals every single day that they are sick. And if they lose their job, the church pays for their sick leave. That sounds pretty good right? Do you know what church it is? The church in Seoul, Korea. It's the largest church in the world and has 480,000 members. They are so organized that if a person comes to church on Sunday and makes a commitment to Christ, by Monday afternoon they're given a visit by the Christian in that church who lives closest to them. Because they are organized. You know, you can go and visit the two largest non-denominational churches in our area. Do you know what they are; they're the Vineyard Church in Springdale and Crossroads Community Church in Oakley. Those churches run over 5,000 members. If you were to go visit them, yes, Lord, if you were to go visit them, if you were to go in and come out, you know you'd what you'd probably say? That church is impersonal. You would probably say that. Why? Because you're not involved in that church. The people who are involved there, they don't think it's impersonal. You see even a small church is impersonal if you're not involved. You could have a hundred people and if you don't get to know anyone, it's impersonal. Obviously, a lot of people go to those churches. That doesn't mean they are impersonal. They're big because they are personal. They know how to build relationships and fellowship and spread the love of God. That's how they grow. Fellowship is important. That's why we encourage people to attend small group. Did you know we eat dinner together every Wednesday night? We need fellowship. We need that close communion. We need the personal touch, but the moment that fellowship becomes the number one priority in a church instead of outreach, the church is no longer a church, it is a clique. It's a social club. It becomes a barrier to fulfilling the very reason God made the church. Do you think the 99 sheep were having great fellowship? Sure. But someone had to go after the one. If fellowship were the number one purpose of the church, I would stop the growth at about 15 members. Because that's about all I need to have fellowship. Why must we
reach out? Jesus tells three parables; the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son. He's saying this is the most important thing in the world; finding the lost. What is God up to in the world? He's up to reaching people. He wants everyone to know Him and we must be a part of that because the love of God compels us, the Word of God commands us, and... 3. The Will of God Convinces Us. It convinces us. It is God's will that our church grow. Unquestionably. No doubt about it. In Matthew 16:18 (NCV) Jesus said, "...On this rock I will build my church, and the power of death will not be able to defeat it." He's the one that causes the growth. "I will build my church." It's His church. Colossians 2:19 (NCV) says, "...Christ, the head. It is from him that all the parts of the body are cared for and held together. So it grows in the way God wants it to grow." God expects every church to grow. Look at Luke 14:16-24 (NCV). There's a parable there of a great banquet. Jesus is saying, I'm God and I'm offering a great big banquet to the world, but, he says, people won't come in to the banquet. So he says, you have to go out in the streets and get them. In verse 23 "The master said to the servant, 'Go out to the roads and country lanes, and urge the people there to come so my house will be full.'" Friends, God wants His house full. Not half full. He wants it full. It's natural to grow. You know, in Chicago, there's an aquarium. It's called the Shed Aquarium. At the entrance to it, there's a plaque. And on the plaque it says, "What is life? What is a living thing?" There are four characteristics of a living thing and the number one characteristic, do you know what the number one characteristic of a living thing is? Growth. Growth. It is natural to grow. It is the evidence of life. All living things grow. The Bible says the church is a living body. It is our nature to grow. You may say, "Scott, are there any churches that can't grow?" Sure. Sick ones and dead ones. Dead ones can't grow, but if the church is healthy, it will grow. It is God's will. In fact, I bet there's something you've never seen before. Maybe you have. But if you've got a Bible turn to Matthew Chapter 24. Let's look at something about God's plan for the world. Matthew 24:14, Jesus is talking about when he comes back and he says this, "And this gospel, this good news of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations," and then, what's going to happen? The end will come. You read on there. Once everyone has heard the gospel, that's when the end comes. You hear a lot of people talking about Jesus Christ coming back. You hear about that. When's it going to happen? Folks, I'll tell you when it's going to happen. It's going to happen after this has happened. After the gospel has been preached to all the world. If you
want Christ to come back, simple. You want to make it faster, go out and share the good news. That will make Him come back quicker. And it's happening now. Did you know that right now, today, 7,400 people will become Christians, new Christians, 7,400 every day in the world? How do I know that? Somebody counted. We were figured in to that statistic somewhere. Our church. We are on the winning team. That's good news. We are part of the greatest cause in history. We are on the winning side. Let's look at an example of the very first church, the church of Jerusalem and the amazing growth rate recorded in the book of Acts. The Jerusalem church started with the 12 disciples. They were the very first church. Look at Acts 1:15 (NCV) "During this time there was a meeting of the believers (about one hundred twenty of them). Then Peter stood up and said,"how many believers? 120. Okay. That's a pretty good group. Now, look at Acts 2:41 (NCV) "Then those people who accepted what Peter said were baptized. About three thousand people were added to the number of believers that day." That's pretty good church growth. They added 3,000 members in one day. Okay. That's pretty good. Now look at Acts 2:47 (NCV) "Every day the Lord added those who were being saved to the group of believers." Now, it says people are becoming Christians every day. It's plural there, so that means at least two a day. How many is two a day in a year? 730. Do you realize, do you know if our church added, if we were a New Testament church, if we added one person a day to our membership on average, in ten years, do you know how many members we'd have added to those we've already got right now? Over 4,000. We'd have over 4,000 members ten years from now if we just added one a day. Now, look over at Acts 4:4 (NIV) "But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand." How many? 5,000. Now, is that talking about everyone? No. Just men. Anywhere you've got 5000 men, how many women do you have? At least 5,000. And how many kids do you have? Probably 10,000. So we are talking here probably 15,000 to 20,000 people. Look at Acts 4:16 (NIV) "What are we going to do with these men? The Pharisees asked. Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle." I guess so. They've got a pretty big church. Look at Acts 5:14 (NIV) "Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number." It's just growing and growing. Acts 5:28 (NIV) says, "Yet, you have filled all Jerusalem with your teachings." That's an understatement. This church was exploding with
growth. Acts 6:1 says, "In those days the number of disciples was increasing." Multiplying. Acts 6:7 (NIV) "So the word of God spread and the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly and a large number of priests became obedient in faith."this is the very first church. It's just exploding with people. Why? Acts 8:4 (NIV) has the answer, "Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went." Everyone who was a member of that church took the good news. They spread it all around. They shared it everywhere they went. Now look at Acts 21:20 (NIV). This is 25 years later, after the church had begun at Jerusalem. They started with how many? 120. Okay. 25 years later, Paul returns back to Jerusalem and in verse 20 it says, "'When we heard that, we praised God.' Then they said to Paul, 'You see, brother how many thousands of Jews have believed and all of them are zealous of the law.'" What's he talking about here? What was Israel? It was all Jewish. It was a Jewish city. He says look how many thousands believed. The word thousands there is the Greek word mirandas and it literally means tens of tens of thousands. When can you stop counting church growth, when you have tens and tens of thousands. Then you can just estimate there's a multitude. Okay. There's a multitude. Tens of tens of thousands. If you were to study scripture and history, you would find that most Bible scholars say that 25 years after the church in Jerusalem started, they had over a hundred thousand members. So, how big was Jerusalem? Jerusalem had been about 200,000 people at that time. We are talking about a church of a hundred thousand people in a city of 200,000 people. That means half the population were members of Jerusalem Christian Church. Now, that was church growth. So, why do I share all of this? Because it is the most important subject to God. What is God up to in the world? He's up to missions, reaching out. And he tells three parables. He said that if a woman loses ten coins, she goes and she searches and she tears the house apart until she finds the one that she lost. She had ten, she lost one. If a Shepherd has a hundred sheep and he loses one, he goes out and he searches for it. God wants His church to grow. And God has placed our church in a community full of folks who need Jesus. And the only limitations on this church are the ones we choose to place on ourselves. That's it. And the need of the hour today is a core of committed Christians who are compelled by the love of God. God loves people who respond to the commands of the word of God that he's told them to share. God loves those who are convinced that it is the will of God that we grow.
You may say, what can I do on a practical way? How can I be a part of God's great mission of the world in our community? First thing is ask God to give you a vision of your part. Give you a new dream. How can I be a part of a great winning team? Pray for the growth of your church. Pray that people come to know Christ here every week. Pray for your leadership. Get involved in a small group Bible study. Come to Life Group or one of our Sunday School classes where you can share and learn and grow and reach out. And then I can't think of a better thing than to ask God to give you the privilege of helping reach at least one person for Christ in the next year. One person. Each one, reach one. Blessings, Scott