Florida Thoughts Part 2

Living Missionally

 Florida Thought Part 2

 My pastor, Mike Osminski, also spoke at the Master Builders conference a few weeks ago in Florida.  Pastor Oz, as we call him is a man on a mission.  He reminds me of Dan Akroyd in “The Blues Brothers”.  No, he doesn’t look like him, it is just that he imparts a sense of “we’re on a mission from God” when you are with him.

 Anyhow, Pastor Oz spoke about being a missional church.  He talked about the American dream and how it conflicts with the Gospel message.  He outlined church history, showing how in every major church movement and growth spurt, there was oppression, and in every death of a nation, there was a political church.  (This is a very quick summary of the history of the church.) 

 He also spoke of the origins of our country.  How people came here for a number of reasons, one of which was religion and a missional mindset.  This missional mindset is what I would like to focus on.  At this point, I will be writing most of my own thoughts in listening to this word.  Again, many of these thoughts I have had for quite some time.

 Somewhere along the history of our country the American church stopped having a missional identity.  Through time, and significant points in history the church took on a more political end.  I am not going to debate whether or not this was necessary in light of the situations that it happened in, but I am going to focus more on the outcome today. 

 Today we have a church that is involved in so many political areas.  I will say that I am not in disagreement with many of the church’s issues.  I do agree with a lot of the things the church has stood against.  There needs to be a voice for the unborn, and a stand against the rampant immorality in media.  In saying that, however, I wonder if we have gone about things wrong.  I wonder if the cause for these things has overpowered the message of the Great Commission.

 Pastor Oz took this track as he spoke.

“Mat 6:19  Do not lay up treasures on earth for yourselves, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.

Mat 6:20  But lay up treasures in Heaven for yourselves, where neither moth nor rust corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.

Mat 6:21  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Mat 6:22  The light of the body is the eye. Therefore if your eye is sound, your whole body shall be full of light.

Mat 6:23  But if your eye is evil, your whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

Mat 6:24  No one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. “

 

This is where we have been as a church nation.  We have been serving two masters.  We have been a church, but more importantly, it seems, we have been a political entity.  We need to look a little further in this passage to understand the previous portion in full light.

“Mat 6:31  Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, With what shall we be clothed?

Mat 6:32  For the nations seek after all these things. For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things.

Mat 6:33  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you. “

 

We need to adopt the view of the Kingdom FIRST.  We do not need to put our needs first, we do not need to put our rights first.  We need to put the kingdom first.  Notice Jesus has everything else put in His control when we do this. 

 

I think about two big names in the church.  Fred Phelps, and Mother Teresa.  Yes, these are two polar opposites, but I don’t want to pick on any of our more normal heroes.  Fred Phelps is known for his stand against homosexuality.  I could have used others, who have a similar view of political freedom through religious interpretation, but as I said before, I don’t want to pick on anyone.

 

(AGAIN NOTE: I am not saying that the church should not be involved with political issues.  There is a place for that.  What I am saying is that the church can’t serve both the kingdom and the religious right.)

 

What about Mother Teresa?  What was so different about her?  Well, every time I think of her, this thought pops into my head.  I once saw some TV show where they followed her.  At one point she was very open to have them come and see the sick and the lost and the brokenhearted.  I think, from the way I saw it, that she was getting a little frustrated that the people filming her didn’t understand the vision.  At one point she turned to the camera and asked the man interviewing her, “Do you want to see Jesus?”  The man obviously said yes, thinking she was going to show him something spectacular.  She walked the man around for a while, then knelt down on the ground to a very ill leper.  This person was very torn up by the disease.  She kissed him on the forehead and told the camera, “this is Jesus.” 

 

Here is where I get choked up and challenged every time I think about that.  How often we stand up for things, or against things when there is a lost, dying world out there waiting to hear of the love of Jesus.  Jesus did do several seemingly political things, I won’t deny that.  But what did Jesus really do?  He lived a missional life.  He went to all the despised people.  The sick, the poor, the hated, and went on a mission to reach them with His love.  Here is the missional impulse as the Gospel puts it:

 

Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

Or in other words, “here is the purpose of eternal life that they may know you, God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent out on a mission". 

 

Our entire lives revolve around the mission of God.  We need to bend our minds around this.  Jesus repeatedly gives us His vision, but this one stands out in light of my previous thought about Mother Teresa:

Mat 25:31  But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He shall sit on the throne of His glory.

Mat 25:32  And all nations shall be gathered before Him. And He shall separate them from one another, as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats.

Mat 25:33  And indeed He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats off the left.

Mat 25:34  Then the King shall say to those on His right hand, Come, blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

Mat 25:35  For I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you took Me in;

Mat 25:36  I was naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.

Mat 25:37  Then the righteous shall answer Him, saying, Lord, when did we see You hungry, and fed You? Or thirsty, and gave You drink?

Mat 25:38  When did we see You a stranger, and took You in? Or naked, and clothed You?

Mat 25:39  Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and came to You?

Mat 25:40  And the King shall answer and say to them, Truly I say to you, Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you have done it to Me.

Mat 25:41  Then He also shall say to those on the left hand, Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels.

Mat 25:42  For I was hungry, and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty, and you gave Me no drink;

Mat 25:43  I was a stranger and you did not take Me in; I was naked, and you did not clothe Me; I was sick, and in prison, and you did not visit me.

Mat 25:44  Then they will also answer Him, saying, Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to You?

Mat 25:45  Then He shall answer them, saying, Truly I say to you, Inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.

Mat 25:46  And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into everlasting life.