Good
morning! I am Tim Roberts the pastor here at Sunrise Church and let me take the
time to welcome you and thank you for being here to worship Jesus Christ with
us this morning. While I am sure that there were plenty of other things that
you could have been doing this morning, you chose to be here and I pray that
you receive a blessing from God.
Over
the last several weeks, we have been taking this time as an opportunity to gain
a better understanding of the Mission and Vision that God has implanted into
our collective hearts here at Sunrise. Last week, we finished looking at the
all the elements of our Vision Statement, which you can find hanging on the
wall in the Commons Area. This morning, we begin looking at those things that
we hold dear as the unique characteristics of Sunrise Church, our Values.
Now as is common with us, let me ask
you, What is a Value? One definition that I came across stated it this way
A principle or quality
intrinsically desirable as a means or as an end in itself.
Last year, as we began to prayerfully
think through these, we came to understand that our Values are our non-negotiables
- those principles or qualities that are unique for us here at Sunrise and
without them, we would not be who we are.
It should come as no surprise that our
first Value is akin to one of the main emphases of our Vision - Be Missional. With that, I invite you to
look at and read with me our first Value:
We are Committed to be a Missional
Church - utilizing our time, money, and energy.
[Prayer]
As you may recall, last week, I
indicated that last week's sermon and this weeks are almost like a two-part
message. So, let's take a moment to bring us back up to speed as we recap what
it means to be missional.
- Missionary Nature of God - God is one
who sends (for us this morning, we
are witnessing that as we celebrate God sending thirty-four of our youth and
adults to New Jersey to help with the clean-up and recovery efforts from
Hurricane Sandy).
- Incarnational Ministry Today - embodiment
of Jesus for the world today
- Actively Participate in Mission of
God - be the instrument that God uses to reach people with the saving grace of
Jesus Christ.
While the term "missional" is
one that has only been around for about thirty years and has been popularized
in the last fifteen or so, the concept of being missional has been around for
thousands of years. As I stated earlier, God's nature is about sending people
to meet the needs of their neighbors and bringing them to a place where they
can experience the transforming grace of Jesus.
I believe a prime example of this is
found in Mark's gospel. Let's take a look at it in the first four verses of the
second chapter.
Mark
2.1-3 (CEB)
1 After a few days, Jesus went
back to Capernaum, and people heard that he was at home. 2 So many gathered that there
was no longer space, not even near the door. Jesus was speaking the word to
them. 3 Some people arrived, and four
of them were bringing to him a man who was paralyzed.
Jesus was well known at the time. Though
this event occurred relatively early on during Jesus public ministry, we know
just from the first chapter of Mark, he was known to be a great prophet (one
who spoke for God), an exorcist (as he cast out demons, and a healer (as he
healed many persons). Even if people did not really believe that he was a holy
man with supernatural powers, they came from around to see the speckle of his
actions. This we can see from our reading today. But evidently, there were some
who believed in the power that Jesus possessed too, because we read that four
of them came carrying a man who was paralyzed to see him. But the crowd was too
great and they could not get to Jesus, at least in any conventional manner.
Mark
2.4 (CEB)
4 They couldn't carry him
through the crowd, so they tore off part of the roof above where Jesus was.
When they had made an opening, they lowered the mat on which the paralyzed man
was lying.
You know, I am still struck with the
audacity of these four men every time I read this story. They did not let
others get in their way of bringing their friend to Jesus. They did not let
proper social protocol or even respect for other people's property stand in
their way.
I know that some scholars tend to
downplay the story a bit by saying that roofs of the time were constructed in
such a way that it is not the same as tearing a hole in a modern roof today.
But to me, that does not alter the fact that they were willing to destroy
sombody else's property to get access to Jesus for their friend in need.
It makes me take pause and wonder,
"To what lengths are we willing to go to bring someone we know to a place
where they can experience Jesus?"
I cannot imagine that we will ever need
to tear through a roof and lower someone to be in Jesus' presence, but there
are still barriers that we sometimes to encounter, that seek to prevent us from
doing so.
Let's take just a few moments and talk
with those people right around you about:
What are some of the real and implied
barriers we face today in bringing others to Jesus?
There are some real barriers to our
efforts and there are some perceived barriers. Either way, they stand to try to
prevent us from doing what we know in our heart we should do.
Several years ago, Robin Williams
starred in a movie where he was a medical student. He let his heart lead him
too many times and found himself expressly forbidden from interacting with
patients. For our context this morning, we can understand it as he had a
formidable barrier placed before him.
(Video Clip from Patch
Adams)
Going against conventional wisdom,
Patch saw a need and responded - which is exactly what a missional church is
called to do.
Almost a year ago, Sunrise embarked on
a spiritual reorientation which we called God
Into Focus, where we prayed and discerned how we are called to do more than
just good things - we are called to do God Things.
During our time together in God Into Focus - we prayerfully identified
several things.
First, we began to identify - The Needs of the Community. We talked
with our neighbors, civic leaders, schools, local agencies and did a thorough
demographic study. We did all of this so that we could sense the pulse of the
community in which God has placed us.
Next, we identified - Our Mission, of which we reconfirmed it
to be Sharing to Love of Jesus so All Become His Followers.
Next, we were led to discover - Our Vision, that is how we see
ourselves living out our faith. That is what we covered over the last five
weeks.
Next, we spent time grasping - Our Values. Of course you know that is
what we are beginning to look at more closely today - our non-negotiables,
those principles that make Sunrise who we are.
But we did not stop there. We took the
final step in this equation here and began to see where all of these things
intersected. This is where we discovered -
The Synergy. This is where we are able
to find our knack or niche for making a difference in the world for Jesus
Christ. This is sort of a take on a verse found later in Marks gospel (Mark
10.9) "What God joins together..."
We have already begun living into this
synergy over the last few months and have seen God at work in us. But a couple
of months ago, God opened up my eyes and then the eyes of our Church Leadership
Council to a new and exciting venture for Sunrise.
How many of you were here ten years
ago? Those who were remember that Sunrise started a ministry for special needs
persons called No Limits II.
No
Limits II, started as a dance for these folk right here in this Worship Center.
You may recall this is why we have this superstructure in here and you may
remember there used to be a mirrored disco ball suspended from it with lasers
bouncing off of it. The ministry quickly outgrew our space here and it moved to
Pinedale Christian Church (which it has outgrown as well). That is phenomenal!
We have in our DNA something unique that has now affected thousands of lives in
our community and throughout the greater Winston-Salem region.
Okay,
now fast forward several years with me. Before I became your pastor here in
2010, I began working on my doctorate. As a result, I have here this book
entitled, Creating New Life: Forming New
Faith Communities Within Existing Congregational Settings Utilizing Personal
Traits and Experiences, and it was written by...well, by me. Anyway, I have
often wondered, how in the heck will I ever use this new knowledge?
Then
just a couple of months ago, I talked with Jayne Koeslin about ministry and her
passion for working with people with special needs. When we finished our
conversation, she left feeling like she had a goal and I was happy for having to
be of help. Then, later that night, I began to have a nagging sensation that I
was missing something. I could not sleep for a couple of nights. I had no idea
what the problem was. Then early one morning, as seems to be customary for me,
I bolted wide awake - it was like God finally slapped me with the obvious -
this was our Synergy - Sunrise's history, Jayne's passion, my education, and
the community's need! God is joining all of these together to reach a certain
population in the greater Winston-Salem area of which for far too long has been
woefully overlooked.
So,
brothers and sisters, in nine weeks, on Sunday, September 15th, we will be
launching
another
worship service that will be designed reach people with special needs and their
families. It will be either late Sunday afternoons or Sunday evenings.
You see
that the service will be known as Genesis
Kardia (Gensis = Hebrew for Beginning and Kardia = Greek for Heart).
Now,
some may be saying, why are we starting a third service when we still have
plenty of room in our present two? Simply put, as we began to inquire how to
create a service where persons with special needs will feel the most at home
the response we overwhelmingly received back was the need for a new worship
service. There are more details than I have time to spell out this morning, but
I will be sending out a letter to you in the near future explaining the details
of this new service.
In the
meantime, I ask you to join with me and the Church Leadership Council in prayer
as we seek to serve God and God's people in this new and exciting way. As with
any new venture, there will be some changes - some you may readily accept and
with some you may struggle. But as is most of the time as we seek to serve God,
we encounter barriers. The question we need to ponder is, will these barriers
stop us or will they cause us to be even more tenacious in helping others
experience the transforming grace of Jesus Christ.
I am
excited about what God is joining together - you, me, the Mission, the Vision, our Values, the Needs of
the Community. God is with us!
Pray
with me.
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