We were blessed today to hear an amazing sermon by Mark Anderson, president of Call2All. Now first, I feel like I should preface this by saying that while Call2All was an amazing experience, I felt a little left out most of the time. People seemed to be having incredibly moving experiences there, and I was just feeling spiritually stale. I wasn’t hearing God, and felt like he wasn‘t hearing me, and was feeling a fair amount of frustration at seeing him show up for everyone except me. Naturally, I wasn’t as excited as some of the others when I found out that Mark Anderson was going to speak at church. God took this opportunity to teach me a little something about expectations…
The sermon he delivered was powerful, insightful, and MOVED ME TO ACTION. I don’t know about all of you, but for me, that is a big deal. I am used to hearing a sermon, critiquing it on the car ride home, and then giving it very little thought over the course of the week. This message was one that struck a nerve in my soul and would not be ignored. He spoke to us about what it means to be a Christian. He said that Jesus called his disciples not just to believe, but to become “fishers of men”. This means that we not only have to accept God into our own lives, but we have to work to bring the Good News to others as well. If we don’t do that, we are not being Christlike. We also are not fulfilling the Great Commission, which was given to all Christians from Jesus himself. I felt convicted by this. I mean, sure, I’m on a mission right now, but what am I doing in my own life to bring others to God? The answer is, almost nothing.
One of the key phrases that stuck with me from this sermon was this: love and tolerance are not the same thing. To love someone doesn’t mean we tolerate them. If we see someone who has gone astray, the only act of love is to guide them back to the right path. We certainly wouldn’t let our family and friends who we love step out into oncoming traffic without doing something, so how much worse does that make us for watching them go to hell without trying to warn them? Mark Anderson also warned us that we have to get over our fear of rejection. Some people, maybe even most people, wont like us for bringing this message to them. They killed Jesus for this message. We can EXPECT persecution, so why should be let fear of rejection stop us from fulfilling the Great Commission? Jesus disciples knew that they probably faced martyrdom for spreading the gospel, but they did it anyway, and with boldness. Now THAT is faith.
At the end of the sermon, he had us make a list of things we are willing to give up to God. For different people, this meant different things. For one person, it might mean their house. They would say, “Okay God, my house is yours now, and it’s not mine anymore. Use it however you’d like.” This means that they would open up their home for bible studies or neighborhood outreach. For others, they might feel compelled to give up their car. This could mean driving people to church events when they need a ride. For us, the list had more to do with giving up our gifts and abilities to God, since we don’t have many material possessions right now. At the end of the service, we prayed over our lists, and put them up on the stage, symbolizing giving them up to God. I felt so free, empowered, and emboldened by this experience! I am more ready than ever to make God the focal point of my life, and make sharing the gospel a normal part of my daily routine, rather than a rare occurrence. This is a message that I WILL bring home with me, and I know that my life will look very different because of it.
