Things that Matter

November 11, 1990 AM

Colossians 1:9-18

Why Do We Schedule Special Meetings?

Times have a way of changing. Churches change. You are not the same person you were last year. But what about our responsibility and relationship with God? Has that changed, too?

A textbook on pastoral ministry starts off with a story about a group of people who lived on a treacherous seacoast. They formed a band to rescue people when their vessels were shipwrecked, as often happened there.

The little band acquired a lifeboat, and built a small life-saving station on the shore. The building became the center of their lives, and between storms they spent a lot of time in good fellowship together.

After a while their little station became inadequate for the social times that developed. They built larger, and furnished more lavishly. Soon it actually it seemed a shame to bring half-drowned sailors in where they dripped all over the rug.

The life-saving station had evolved into a yacht club. Another little band down the beach had to take over the life saving chores.

A church can be like that. The basic purposes for which we exist can sometimes change. There is nothing wrong with fellowship on purpose. Still, we need to step back from time to time and ask ourselves,

• 'Why are we here as a church?'
• 'What is important to me as a Christian?'
• 'What do I really want for my family, my children, in the next year, five years, or ten?'

The special emphasis, the special services of revival this week, are opportunities for us to stop and pay attention to things that matter.

I. THINGS OF THE SPIRIT MATTER

A key verse: Ephesians 4:32 "Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."

1. A. The vital things of the spirit are not necessarily those things that consume the most time. We cannot be in church, or even in postures of devotion eight hours a day. We do have to work and prepare meals and go about the everyday tasks of life and living. Still, the things of the spirit permeate the rest of life, and determine what the true quality of that life shall be.

   It is legitimate that we make a living. There is no sin in paying attention to things. It is right that we sacrificed to build a church building and maintain it; it is a tool. It is right that we take on the added burden of helping an inner-city ministry center get off the ground. But all these things are not ends in and of themselves; they are means to a more important end.

2. The vital things of the spirit are not necessarily even the highly visible or spectacular spiritual qualities we have come to honor and value. The "Love Chapter" says it best: everything, even everything GOOD, is worth nothing unless it is dominated, shot through, permeated by genuine love!

   It is possible to be accepted as spiritually gifted and still not be like Jesus. It is even possible to be active in spiritual concerns and not be tuned in to what Jesus Christ really wants to do in this world. Selfish ambition and pride and jealousy are not limited to the world outside the church. Thank God for gifts and gifted people. But we need to remember that real spiritual growth is often almost imperceptible.

3. What really counts? Perhaps only God can persuade us that things like ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY ... and LEARNING TO PRAY ... and BECOMING MORE AND MORE LIKE JESUS... that these mark real achievement.

   The things that matter most always have to do with love. Love for the LOST. Love for the CHURCH. Love for the LORD of the church.

Things of the SPIRIT matter! Also ...

II. THINGS OF THE KINGDOM MATTER

But how can we see "kingdom things?" What gives us discernment to know what is and is not important in the kingdom of God? Another "key verse" might be Romans 14:17: "For the kingdom of God is NOT meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost!

1. Righteousness is an essential! OUR LIVES MUST BE CHANGED! We must live a separated life! Unless we have settled our own sin problem we can never hope to rescue others trapped in guilt and sin. We do not see a world in need and simply plunge in to do good deeds.
2. Peace is vital! WE HAVE TO BE AT ONE WITH GOD! Peace is perhaps the most attractive thing in the world. We keep the TV on all the time ... we need the constant influence of music. We try to fill all the silences, the 'dead space' in our days, and often it is because we do not know the wonder of PEACE!

   But PEACE comes as a result of being right with God, and learning to be at home with Him, in Him.

3. Joy in the Holy Spirit! THE FORGOTTEN INGREDIENT! Oh, from time to time we have flashes of God's JOY. That is wonderful. But it is Christ's legacy to us— and when we pass from the purely negative into the positive side of the Christ life, He intends for us to experience this JOY as a way of life!

III. THINGS WHICH MATTER CENTER IN JESUS CHRIST

(We've 'arrived' finally at our text:) Colossians 1:9-18

1. Paul prays that we shall KNOW GOD'S WILL. How do we make certain that we are in God's will? Certainly it IS vital, important!

   Tom Nees left Washington, D.C., First Church of the Nazarene ten years ago to pastor in the ghetto of inner city Washington. This in itself is some kind of testimony to the reality of God's leading, for Tom Nees has flourished as a Christian and as a Christian influence in the last ten years.

   One observation Pastor Nees has made in his ministry to his 'new parish' is that WHERE LIFE IS REDUCED TO ESSENTIALS, PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE TO BE PERSUADED ABOUT THE THINGS THAT MATTER! In the more affluent suburban church pastors spend much time and energy trying to prove God exists, and that sin is personal and devastating!

   Our schedules and our comparative wealth can bring us to a practical complacency about the really IMPORTANT things! We can be INSULATED FROM LIFE ITSELF!

2. PAUL CHALLENGES US: IN EVERYTHING, CHRIST!

   A Christian newsletter [National and International Religion Report] stated last week that religious fervor is spreading among U.S. soldiers in the Saudi Arabian desert. A Marine officer told National Public Radio that service personnel were being immersed in a makeshift baptistery made from a plastic tent container. Christian radio broadcasts are being beamed in from Southern Lebanon.

   If that is true, and I believe it is, it took a massive interruption of normal schedule to bring spiritual matters to the attention of those who now see what really matters.

   What will it take for us to be able to say that in EVERYTHING Jesus Christ shall have undisputed first place?

Prayer:

Not just a nod of the head, O Lord, but a total surrender of all our lives! Help us to put YOU first today, and in all the days and hours of our lives. Amen.

#326 Jesus Calls Us