Worship-04B-Announcements

Those Boring Announcements (cont.)

Soul Saving

�� Are the announcements over yet?� No, not yet.� Remember, according to Hebrews 10:25 says the reason we are to meet together is to encourage love and good works toward each other and toward others.�

�� But we can do all the good works in the world and not be any different from good moral people who never go to church.� The reason we do good works is to open up the hearts of people to let them know God loves them.� Christians need constant reminding of this.� Non-Christians need to learn this for the very first time.� Until they are approached about their salvation, our work is not yet done.�

�� Romans 10:1-3 says we can have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge, and therefore be lost.� So where do we get knowledge of God?� Romans 10:17 says knowledge which leads to faith comes from the Word of God.� We need to get God's word out to people.� Otherwise our work is not done.

�� A poll taken several years ago revealed that 9% of people chose a particular congregation because of the architectural beauty of the building; 3% made their choice because the minister came to visit them; 18% chose on the basis of their prior denominational ties; 22% were influenced to attend because they knew and respected certain members; 34% because they were invited by a neighbor or friend.

�� Every Sunday morning, the strongest emphasis must center around the unsaved, the seekers.� Other assemblies, such as Sunday night, Wednesday night, or Saturday night, can emphasize the needs of the regular members.

�� Every Sunday morning, someone needs to stand up and say, "Have you brought a visitor with you today?"� Do not make the visitors stand and embarrass themselves.� But just ask the members if they have.� Then welcome the visitors.

�� But we can even go farther than this.� The congregation can be divided up in groups of four or more (one for each week of the month).� Each Sunday that group holds a potluck dinner in the fellowship hall for newcomers.� Visitors and new members of the congregation are personally invited to the dinner.� Also people in the community are called and invited - possibly along with the telephoners calling absentees.� The rest can be done from someone's home or by the church secretary.

�� Before you say you don't have time, everyone has to eat, including the members.� If you eat at home, you have to consider cooking time as well as eating time.� If you eat out, you have to consider ordering time and waiting time as well as eating time.

�� At your newcomers dinner while they are eating, you can explain the types of work the congregation is involved in.� Perhaps a few of the members who like to sing can entertain them while they eat.�

�� After their meal, you may wish to show the first five minutes of a Bible survey film or a film proving the Bible is true, or so on, and have sign-up sheets available for people who would like to see them in their home.� You may also wish to give a Bible to every family who would like to have one.�

�� You could also have a skit about someone deciding to become a Christian, or about someone in the Bible.

�� Some larger congregations have information centers for visitors in their lobby.� This is a more personable form of accomplishing what the information center tries to do.� You can have at each place last week's bulletin, a list of good works the congregation is involved in, and even a budget.� In the chapter on giving, surveys are explained showing that money and the suspicious use of money is the main reason people leave churches or never go in the first place.� Individual members who are business owners could have discount coupons at each place.

�� The idea for new people is to give, give, give, not take, take, take.� They are a little suspicious.� Let them know they do not have to be.

�� Another way to reach out to souls is to offer Bible correspondence courses.� This may be a world-wide evangelistic outreach, or a local outreach.� At any rate, people's courses need to be graded and their questions answered.� In another classroom a few members could gather to eat sandwiches they've brought, then grade lessons together.�

�� Another outreach may be in yet another classroom.� This would be the prayer room.� Some people have a special gift of prayer.� It is meaningful to them and they have no trouble with it.�

�� On the other hand, there are some people who just do not have a long attention span.� They didn't in school growing up, and they still do not.� It just isn't one of their gifts.� Rather than hold the congregation hostage with long, drawn-out prayers, the people who are comfortable with prayer can meet together after services.� They may not be there long enough to need a meal.�

�� They are needed to pray about everyone who was included in the announcements.� Also they may have confidential access to the names of people who are studying the Bible and are showing an interest in becoming Christians.

�� On the attendance cards may be private prayer requests.� Those can be referred to and prayed for at this time.� Prayers of thanksgiving are also vital.� And prayers of praise.

�� People wishing to contribute extra money to a special cause, or who have low incomes, may wish to gather after services once a week to fast together and use the money they would have spent on dinner for a worthy cause.� They could do any number of things during their hour or so together.

Why?

�� But, you may object that the announcements during the services would take too much time.� There wouldn't be any time left for the preacher.

�� Perhaps the preacher would like to incorporate the announcements into his sermon.� Or perhaps the preacher would like to spend his time presiding over the Lord's Supper, or prayer requests, or reading the scriptures (all discussed in other chapters).

�� Or perhaps the preacher really wants to spend more of his time teaching the Bible on an individual basis during the week to these new people who have begun worshipping with your congregation.� Even though they finally feel religion makes a difference in their lives, they may still not be sure how to become Christians, or they have a multitude of philosophical, moral, and theological questions they need answered.

�� Or perhaps he really wants to spend more time following up on the contacts made in the community through the newspaper outreach of the congregation.

�� Preaching a sermon he must make general applications.� Talking to people individually, he can zero in on certain spiritual questions people have and, after finding God's opinion of them in the Bible, help people find applications to their own lives.

�� Well, isn't that what the clergy is for?� To preach a sermon every Sunday?�

�� In the church as set up in the Bible, there is no clergy and laity.� In Revelation 2:6, Jesus from heaven praised one congregation because "you have this in your favor:� You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate."

�� Then in Revelation 2:15-16 Jesus warned another congregation, "Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.� Repent therefore!� Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth."

�� The word Nicolaitan comes from the combined words Nicholas and laity.� Nicholas means victory, and laity means people.� Therefore, what we have here is power over the ordinary people.�

�� Actually, we are all priests.� Peter said, "You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ....You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light" (I Peter 2:5, 9).

�� As spiritual kings and priests (Revelation 1:6), we have crowns.� Over and over in Revelation chapters 2 and 3, Jesus sent his messages to the congregations and said, "I know your deeds."� Then in chapter 3, verse 11, our Savior admonished, "I am coming soon.� Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown."

�� We are reassured about our Christian works in 1 Corinthians 15:57 and 58:� "But thanks be to God!� He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.� Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm.� Let nothing move you.� Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain"

�� And Galatians 6:9 and 10 encourages us by saying, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.� Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers."

�� In the last day when our eternal destination is pronounced, we can depend on the righteous judgment of God who "will give to each person according to what he has done.� To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life" (Romans 2:6-7).

�� "God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.� We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure.� We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised" (Hebrews 6:10-12).

�� When, after a long hard week, and a weekend where you have rushed around to get your grocery shopping done, the lawn mowed, and the myriad of other things necessary, but you get up on Sunday morning and worship and serve, you may sometimes wonder if you can stick it out another ten years.� Think of Revelation 14:13:� "'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.'� 'Yes,' says the Spirit, 'they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.' "

�� Does this, then, mean that we earn our salvation?� Definitely not.� We can never be good enough to be saved, ";for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus" (Romans 2:23-24).

�� Why, then, do good works?� It is to imitate Jesus whom we have grown to love.� He said in Mark 10:43-45, "Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.� For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve."

�� God, that's scary.� I'm going to be judged partly on my good works?� I don't have time.� I care about all those hurting people, but I really don't have time.� Could you change you mind about this one thing, God?

I'd Rather See a Sermon....

�� Edgar A. Guest wrote a poem entitled, "I'd Rather See a Sermon than hear one any day."

�� Sermons We See

�� I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day;

�� I'd rather one should walk with me than merely tell the way.

�� The eye's a better pupil and more willing than the ear,

�� Fine counsel is confusing, but examples always clear;

�� The best of all the creatures are the men who live their creeds

�� For to see good put in action is what everybody needs.

�� I soon can learn to do it if you'll let me see it done;

�� I can watch your hands in action, your tongue too fast may run.

�� And the lecture you deliver may be very wise and true,

�� But I'd rather get my lessons by observing what you do;

�� For I might misunderstand you, and the high advice you give,

�� But there's no misunderstanding how you act and how you live. [16]

�� How hard would we work for the church if we were paid $500 for each soul, $25 for each person visited, $20 for each visitor brought to worship, $250 for each home Bible study you conducted?

�� God came to us in the form of a man.� When Jesus walked the earth, God too walked the earth.� Jesus left.� God's Spirit remained.� God still walks the earth.� Through those who have God's Spirit.

�� What would our lives be like today if God hadn't taken the time to come to us?� What would our everyday lives be like if God took as much time for us as we do for him?

�� E. Stanley Jones, missionary to India, wrote in his THE CHRIST OF THE INDIAN ROAD: [17]

�� "Jesus was never in a hurry.� He never ran, never fussed, never worried.� But he was always busy, so busy that sometimes he didn't even take time to eat.� But he always had time for that next person with that next need.�

��"At the end of Jesus' day, he was fresh and adequate.� Why?� He was not worn out with inner conflicts.� He was inwardly adjusted to the will of God.�

��"Modern advocates of 'spirituality' put too much emphasis on introspection, too much emphasis on absorption with oneself.� Eventually we must dismiss ourselves from the focus of attention, and get on with the work of God.� That, ultimately, will bring us the leisured heart.

�� "Jesus did not argue that life was a growth, and character an attainment.� He 'grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.'

�� "He did not speculate on why temptation should be in this world.� He met it straight on.� And after forty days' struggle with it in the wilderness, he conquered and 'returned in the power of the Spirit' to his home.

�� "He did not discourse on the dignity of labor.� He worked at a carpenter's bench and his hands were hard with the toil of making yokes and plows, and this forever makes the toil of the hands honorable.

�� "He did not try to prove the existence of God.� He brought him.� He lived in God, and men looking upon his face could not find it within themselves to doubt God.

�� "He did not argue, as Socrates, the immortality of the soul.� He raised the dead.

�� "He did not teach in a didactic way about the worth of children.� He put his hands upon them and blessed them.� And setting one in their midst he said, 'Of such is the kingdom of God.

��"He did not paint in glowing colors the beauties of friendship and the need for human sympathy.� He wept at the grave of his friend.

�� "He did not teach in the schoolroom manner the necessity of humility.� He ';girded himself with a towel and kneeled down and washed his disciples' feet.'

�� "He did not discuss the question of the worth of personality as we do today.� He loved and served persons.

�� "He did not discourse on human equality.� He went to the poor and outcast and ate with them.

�� "He did not prove how pain and sorrow in the universe could be compatible with the love of God.� He took on himself at the cross everything that spoke against the love of god.� And through that pain, tragedy and sin, he showed the very love of God.

�� "He did not discourse on how the weakest human material can be transformed and made to contribute to the welfare of the world.� He called to him a group of weak men, transformed them, and sent them out to begin the mightiest movement for uplift and redemption the world has ever seen.

�� "He wrote no books.� Only once are we told that he wrote anything, and that was in the sand.� But he wrote on the hearts and consciences of people about him, and it has become the world's most precious writing.

�� "He did not paint a utopia, far off and unrealizable.� He announced that the kingdom of heaven is within us, and is 'at hand' and can be realized here and now.

�� "He did not discourse on the beauty of love.� He loved.

�� "He told us that the human soul was worth more than the whole material universe.� And when he had crossed the storm-tossed lake to find a storm-tossed soul, ridden with devils, he did not hesitate to sacrifice the two thousand swine to save this one lost man.

�� "He did not merely ask men to turn the other cheek when smitten on the one, to go the second mile when compelled to go one, to give the cloak also when sued for the coat, to love our enemies and to bless them.� He himself did these very things.� The servants struck him on one cheek, he turned the other, and the soldiers struck him on that one.� They compelled him to go with them one mile from Gethsemane to the judgment hall.� He went with them two, to Calvary.� they took away his coat at the trial and he gave them his seamless robe at the cross.� Then, in the agony of the cruel torture of the cross he prayed for his enemies, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.'

�� "He did not merely tell us that death need have no terror for us.� He rose from the dead, and told the world we could too.

�� "Many teachers have tried to explain everything, yet changed little or nothing.� Jesus explained little and changed everything.

�� "Many teachers have tried to diagnose the disease of humanity.� Jesus cured it.

�� "Many philosophers speculate on how evil entered the world.� Jesus presented himself as the way by which it shall leave.

�� "He did not go into long discussions about the Way to God and the possibility of finding him.� He quietly said to me, 'I am the Way.'

�� "The philosophical, the mystical, the spirituality-centered person is weak.� The mere practical person is weak.� But Jesus, glowing with God and yet stooping to serve, is Strength Incarnate."

�� I have read somewhere of a wild duck on migration that came down into a zoo where tame ducks were feeding.� This one particular duck liked the food so well that he stayed a day, a week, a month, then the whole season.

�� One day he heard a familiar honking high overhead and he recognized the call of his erstwhile companions winging their way home.� His eyes sparkled, his heart beat faster, and he rose to join them.� But he had fed too well and could get no higher than the tops of the zoo trees.

�� So he said to himself, "Oh well, what difference does it make?� I like it here."� So he spent the rest of his life in the zoo.� The day came when his old companions passed over and he never even heard their call.

�� Reader, did you once mount up with the wings of eagles, but are now content to live in the zoo?� Does your heart sometimes beat a little faster and your eyes be filled with tears?

�� But have you fed too well on the feasts of the Word in the church building?� Do you like it too well there until you have finally reached the sad state that you no longer respond to the call from on high to go and share and tell those around you?

�� An unknown author once wrote this:

When the great plants of our cities have turned out their last finished work;

When our merchants have sold their last yard of silk;

And dismissed the last tired clerk;

When our banks have raked in their last dollar,

And paid the last dividends;

When the Judge of the earth says, "Close for the night,"

And asks for a balance ~ WHAT THEN?

When the singers have sung their last anthem,

And the preacher has made his last prayer;

When the people have heard their last sermon,

And the sound has died out of the air;

When the Bible lies closed on the pulpit,

And the pews are all empty of men;

And each one stands facing his record,

And the Great Books is opened ~ WHAT THEN?

When the bugle's call sinks into silence,

And the long, marching columns stand still;

When the captain repeats his last orders,

And they've captured the last fort and hill;

When the flag has been hauled from the masthead,

And the sounded afield check in,

And a world that rejected its Savior

Is asked for a reason ~ WHAT THEN?

When the actors have played their last drama,

And the mimic has made his last fun;

When the film has flashed its last picture,

And the billboard displayed its last run;

When the crowds seeking pleasure have vanished

And gone out in darkness again;

When the trumpet of ages has sounded,

And we stand up before Him ~ WHAT THEN?

�� Have we set proper priorities in our life?� Read Ecclesiastes.� Solomon tried everything possible to feel fulfilled in life, but felt complete emptiness in everything he did except where it concerned his God.

�� What kinds of plans do we have?� Do our announcements at church center around getting it over with so we can go on to the important parts of the worship?� Do we discuss in our classes and sermons how much good we should be doing?� But it is always rhetoric?� Then we go home unchanged?� And our friends untouched?

They were going to be all that mortal could be tomorrow.

No one would be better than they tomorrow.

Each morning they'd stack up the letters to write tomorrow.

It was too bad indeed they were too busy to visit,

But they promised to do it tomorrow.

The greatest of workers they would have been tomorrow.

The world would have known them had they ever seen tomorrow.

But the fact is they died and faded from view,

And all that was left when living was through

Was a mountain of good they intended to do

TOMORROW.

�� Some day our life will be over.� It may be fifty years from now.� Or five years.� Or one.� Or less.� How do we want to be remembered?� For what will people remember us?� For building the largest building?� For going the fastest?� For being the best?

First I was dying to reach my teens,

Then I was dying to graduate from college,

Then I was dying to get married,

Then I was dying to have children,

Then I was dying to get on with my career,

Then I was dying to retire,

Then I was dying.

And I suddenly realized I had

forgotten to live.

The Second-Century Church

��� Some of the quotations below refer to money gifts, but can also be applied to working toward helping in other ways.

�� Clement of Rome about 96 AD wrote in 55:2, "We know many among us who have given [sold] themselves into bondage in order that they might ransom others.� Many delivered themselves into slavery and taking their price provided food for others." [18]

�� Aristides, a Christian from Athens wrote the earliest surviving explanation of Christianity and addressed it to the emperor Hadrian about AD 125.� In his Apology 15 he said:� "They love one another.� They do not overlook the widow, and they save the orphan.� He who has, ministers ungrudgingly to him who does not have.� When they see strangers, they take him under their own roof....

��"And if they hear that some are condemned or imprisoned on account of the name of their Lord, they contribute for those condemned and send to them what they need....And if there is any that is a slave or a poor man, they fast two or three days, and what they were going to set before themselves they send to them, considering themselves to give good cheer even as they were called to good cheer. [19]

�� In the Epistle to Diagnetus by an unknown writer, 10:4,5:� "But whoever takes upon himself the burden of his neighbor - he who wills to benefit another who is worse off in respect of those things where he is better off, who taking the things which he has received from God distributed them to those who are in need - this one becomes a god to the ones who receive.� He is an imitator of God." [20]

�� Lucian of Samosata, a pagan author of satires, was born about 120 AD, and wrote in The Death of Peregrinus 12-13:� "At dawn there were to be seen waiting at the prison aged widows and orphan children, and their [church] officials even slept inside with him....Varied meals were brought in, and their sacred words were spoken....They exhibit extraordinary haste whenever one of them becomes such a public victim, for in no time they lavish their all....For these poor devils have altogether convinced themselves that they will be immortal and will live for all time; for which reason they despise death....Therefore they despise all things equally and consider them a common possession." [21]

�� Hermas of Rome, wrote in the early 2nd century, Similitudes V.ii.7, 8:� "On that day in which you fast, you shall taste nothing except bread and water.� Of the foods which you were going to eat, reckon how much the food of that day when you fast was going to cost, and give the amount to a widow or orphan or one in need.

�� "Therefore instead of fields, purchase afflicted souls, as each is able.� And visit widows and orphans and do not neglect them....For the Master made you rich for this purpose that you might perform these ministries for him." [22]

�� Justin, who lived about 150 AD, said in his Apology I, 67:� "We always remember one another.� Those who have, provide for all those in want....for the orphans and widows, those who are in want on account of sickness or some other cause, those who are on bonds and strangers who are sojourning." [23]

�� Barnabus, who lived about 190 AD, said in his writings 4:10:� "You are not to retire by yourself and live alone as if you were already righteous, but you are to come together in one place and seek the common good." [24]�

�� Sextus lived about 190 AD wrote in Sentences 47; 217:� "Kindness to men on behalf of God is the only suitable sacrifice to God.� God does not hear the prayer of the one who does not hear men in need." [25]

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Endnotes for This Page

[16].� Collected Verse of Edgar A. Guest, Contemporary Books, Inc., Chicago, 1934.

[17].� Jones, E. Stanley, The Christ of the Indian Road, 1925, p. 122

[18].� Ferguson, Everett, Early Christians Speak, Sweet Publishing, Austin, 1971, p. 208

[19].� Ferguson, p. 207

[20].� Ibid.

[21].� Ferguson, p. 208

[22]..� Ferguson, pg. 208-209

[23].� Ferguson, pg. 81-82

[24].� Ferguson, p. 69

[25].� Ferguson, p. 210

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