As we prepare to come to the Lord’s table, I want you to think about Taylor and the surrounding communities that we come from. Do you have hope that the Gospel will triumph here? Do you really believe (like feel-it-yin-your-bones kind of believe) that the light of the Kingdom will conquer this present darkness?
It can sometimes seem like nothing more than an impossible wish to think about God’s Kingdom invading and our communities. It may seem like the stuff of fantasies for our governing authorities to kneel before the King of kings. It may seem all but impossible that our friends and families and co-workers and our employers could be transformed by the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead.
I am here to tell you those things are impossible, they belong in a storybook. But be of good cheer, our God has written this story and He likes His plots very thick. Our God prides Himself on doing the impossible which is why when we flip back to our stories of old, we see Him miraculously overcome the impossible over and over and over again.
Now think about this table—the bread and the cup that we are about to share. How it is small yet it is a feast. How it doesn’t fill our bellies with sustenance and yet there is no meal more satisfying. We come to this table every week and yet once we eat the bread of life and drink the living water, we never hunger or thirst again.
As Christians we are saved and we are being saved. We have become one with Christ, seated in heavenly places and yet here we find ourselves between two worlds. Dying yet eternally alive. Blood stained sinners yet snow white saints. Suffering servants yet conquering kings. We are a part of a most mysterious and glorious story.
Today is Reformation Sunday, the day that many Christians celebrate the 16th century reformation. Think for a moment of all the Christians that have come before us! We can take away from this special day a lot of things and this is one of them: we are here today worshipping the Almighty God because of faithful men and women who have lived and died before us.
The apostles who all gave their lives as seeds for the cause of Christ and His Church. The early Christians who followed in this path and paid with their blood to ensure that this seed would continue to grow and flourish. Think of reformers of the 16th century and just prior like John Wycliffe, Jan Hus, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, William Tyndale, Huldrych Zwingli, and Martin Bucer who relentlessly spent themselves to further the Kingdom by spreading the light of the word of God across the globe. Think of the bold men and women that while history may have forgotten their names their selfless and satisfying lives and deaths have been the very stones that make up the path on which we today—this Sunday morning are traveling upon. And then there is you and me.
When you look around and when you examine your life, what do you see? What do you feel? I believe that within many of you there is a holy discontentment that you just can’t shake. A desire and even a burning need for your life to matter. Why are you still here? After all, you are a Christian, why didn’t God simply call you to be with Him after your ticket to Heaven was punched?
I have the answer. He wants you to see it—His Kingdom. He wants you to see not just a snapshot of it from far off, He wants your blood and your sweat and your tears to water and help it grow. He wants to use your life like a garden tool to cultivate it and watch it spread beyond your wildest imagination.
Our God wants to defeat His enemies and expand His Kingdom in ways that are more magical and mysterious and unexplainable than any fairytale so at the end of the story all of creation will look upon this Almighty Author in fear and wonder and majesty and awe, and give Him finally the glory that is due His holy name. He wants to use you, yes you to accomplish this, and guess what, you’re not special. He’ll use all of His children this way.
So are you His child? Are you being used like a garden tool? Or does this exhortation find you wasting your time and treasure on temporary pleasures and personal gain instead of relentlessly spending yourself for the advancement of His Kingdom? Do the people around you even know you are a Christian? When was the last time you spoke about Christ with someone? Have you ever shared the gospel? Would you even know what words to begin with? Do you even know enough about the faith you profess, to teach it to your own children much less complete strangers? If not, what are you doing about it? Do you read your Bible regularly? If you do read you Bible, do you get board because the only reason you are doing it is because you feel obligated? Do you obey what it says even when it hurts, like, oh I don’t know, giving ten percent of every dollar you earn to your church? Do you gather with God’s people and sing soft enough so the person directly in front of you can’t hear and then leave “hoping and praying” you life sings loud enough for the deaf to hear? Finally, do these questions make you angry? Do they discourage you and make you want to quit more than they encourage you and make you want to grow? Just some thoughts… Something to pray about…
Do we think it is too crazy or too useless to pray for 150 people to be saved, approximately 1% of the population of Taylor? Then let me ask us this, why do we struggle so much to pray for just one? Here’s a crazy thought, what if each of the families represented here didn’t just pray for someone to be saved but we began to actively pursue our lost friends as if we were cashing in on a promise from God.
Just imagine if we purposefully sought out just a single lost friend just to share the gospel with them. Now imagine that your friend got saved and started coming to church with you. Imagine if that friend who you shared the gospel with, who got born again, and began coming to church with you began to follow your lead and shared the gospel with one of their lost friends. Imagine if they started to see the same results you were seeing and their friends got saved too.
Do you see how things in Taylor could get out of control pretty quickly if only we were the kinds of Christians that the Bible talks about? I mean if we’re not careful, we might accidentally fill up our little room here too quickly and run out of chairs…
What’s stopping us? What’s stopping you? What’s your excuse this morning? Here’s what I want you to do, I want you to think about your excuse, maybe you have a bunch, but I want you to hold it in your hands and look at it—to get a feel for it. Then when you come to the table, bring your excuse with you and as you take the bread and the cup and as you consider the Lion of the tribe of Judah, I want you to hold your excuse up and see how it compares. Hold your sinful excuse up and see how it measures up to the Lamb that was slain. Then when you see it in it’s proper context, maybe, just maybe you will be willing to let it go and leave it behind. If your eyes are opened, you’ll leave it right there. Leave it under the table walk back to your seat clinging to the body and blood of Salvation instead of your excuse.
Christians, reformers, seeds, garden tools, come and welcome Jesus Christ…
Prayer:
Blessed are you Lord our God, Sovereign of the universe. You have sanctified us with your commandments and commanded us to be the light of the world. You have sanctified us with your Word and You have commissioned us to proclaim the victory of Your Kingdom to the world.
As we have come to the table, we have come in humility. Laying aside our pathetic excuses as they pale in comparison to Your glory and majesty. Forgive us for our stubbornness. Forgive us for we are little faiths. We confess our sin and ask You to make us like children. Restore our idealistic belief that the impossible isn’t impossible. Restore our faith and our hope, and reassure us by Your mighty hand that you are not finished with us. As we eat and drink be our satisfaction.
We ask this in the mighty name above all names, the name of Jesus Christ. Let all God’s people say, Amen!