Christianity

07/29/08

Missing in Action Part 1

Luke 15:1-7

You will notice that today we have a POW - MIA flag hanging behind the pulpit.  It is an unfortunate symbol that has come about because of the Pride of man.  While we are in the middle of this war on foreign soil and we are anticipating its end, we are now receiving the great news that our solders are starting to return home and less will be sent to take their places. And while this is great news we are also faced with the fact that there have been over 2000 lives that have been lost in this struggle. A reality of war is that some good people die and some good people never get home.

Paul says in Ephesians 6:10-12 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his great power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can fight against the devil's evil tricks. Our fight (or War) is not against people on earth but against the rulers and authorities and the powers of this world's darkness, against the spiritual powers of evil in the heavenly world.

Paul says that we are at war.  And if you have been clothed with Christ then you are a solder in this battle. And just like in any war or battle there are some unfortunate consequences. In the Army of God today there are those who are Missing in Action.

I. Who is Missing In Action?

There are several different types of causalities in this war. The result of every case is death.  You see we can fool everyone in this room, this town and this county but God knows the truth if He lives in our hearts.

The first group of those who are Missing in Action are those who only come to worship on Sunday Mornings and do not study or pray.

Sure you believe that because you are a warm body on Sunday morning and make it to an occasional Bible class that you are fine. But we need to realize that God wants 100% of your heart.  Not just part.  If we are Sunday Christians at best then we are lukewarm at best.  

John writes in Revelation 3:15-16 "I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, I will spit you out of my mouth!

If we are lukewarm, we detest God to the point that the King James says we make Him want to puke, do you think that we are pleasing to God?

The next group of those who are Missing In Action are those who only come every now and then.  

They might have been committed at their Baptisms but now they are just dabbling or playing with Christianity.

They come once in a while when other things don’t come up.  They would be at worship but the weather is just perfect for golf, or if their next door neighbors best friend’s brother’s girlfriend’s dog wasn’t having puppies then they would be sure to be here.

If you like College football then you know that we are in the best time of the year. Over the past two weeks and for one more wonderful week we get to see the best that College athletes have to offer.  It has got me wondering what would happen if football coaches approached their work like most churches are expected to. For example, I wonder what would happen if when a player was too busy to show up for practice, the understanding coach simply said, “We’ll miss you. I hope you’ll be able to make it next week sometime.” Imagine the players leaving practice and hearing the smiling coach say, “Thanks for coming. I hope you’ll come back tomorrow.”

If a football team operated like a typical church, we might expect concerned members to call the coach, saying, “I believe that Practice is boring, and I don’t want to come anymore. I was wondering, could you make it a little more fun? And by the way, you might want to talk to the coach at the school across town. He seems to have the right idea.”

The coach might send out quarterly questionnaires about what the players would like to change about the team (I can just imagine the answers: “shorter practices,” “more winning”).

A coach, responding like a typical church, might first feel guilty that the practices were not meeting the player’s needs, and he would try to adjust his program to suit this player and every other player who complained. Between trying to keep everybody happy and giving every player a good experience, the coach would squeeze in a little football practice. And what kind of season would this coach have? It’s a safe bet that the coach wouldn’t be the only one who felt like a loser.

But this is the very way that most churches function. To expect that members be committed to the church at the same level of commitment that would be expected on an athletic team would draw the charge of legalism and become intolerable to most Christians. Because the god of individualism pressures us to program to the lowest common denominator, we seldom raise the expectations high enough for members to experience real community.

Real community means real responsibility for each other. It means a commitment to be there for each other even when the schedule is tight and when motivation is low. But the typical Christian adult in our culture knows little about commitment to community.

The last group of those who are Missing In Action are those who were here once but now they have fallen off the face of the earth.

I am sure that if you think hard enough you could come up with a list of brothers and sisters in Christ who at one time worshiped with you, attended Bible Class with you, fellowshipped with you and then slowly at first and eventually all together fell off the face of the earth. 

You had wonderful intentions, to call them and check on them but something came up. You made excuses for them in your mind but they have done the very thing that the Hebrew writer warned against in Hebrews 3:12 Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God.

II. Why Do They Leave

In our reading today we see a glimpse of why there are those who are Missing in Action and what our responsibility to those are.

Luke 15:4 "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?

The first reason some are Missing In Action is because they are not connected

There are several things that we do as a church to let people know that they are not wanted.

We are secret keepers: We interrupt conversations so that we can whisper to people or pull them off in a room so we can talk in private.

We are ignorers: there are two people standing there and we ask one person out to eat but not the other one.

We Are Braggers: we go on and on about something we did with a group from church where other individuals weren’t invited.

Anytime you do these things you are basically saying to someone you don’t matter.

The Second reason some people are Missing In Action is because they were run off.

Luke 15: 8 "Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin,”

Some times we shoot our wounded.  How many times has it happened in churches across the globe, that someone comes forward to confess a sin and we treat them as lepers?

We believe that we have all sinned and fall short of the Glory of God but we also believe that your sins are worse than mine.

I am reminded of a friend of mine who told me about a Sunday in the Church where he worshiped.  He offered the invitation and a man came forward to confess that he was struggling with Internet pornography. He said as he took the confession he could imagine the gasp that the congregation would utter. But he felt compelled to do something more.

As he stood before the church on behalf of this brother, he told of his confession, and then he said I know that he is not alone.  As a matter of fact I know that there are some more in this congregation today that struggle with the same things. And I beg you today that if you also have this same struggle that you come forward and hold this brother accountable.

It was a very uncomfortable silence for the next 50 seconds. He said it seemed like an eternity. But then one man finally came forward.  What happened next was truly a work of God. He said when it was all over 24 men and 2 women came forward.  

How easy could it have been for that church to kill that Christian off? 

The Last reason some people are Missing in Action is because of the hardness of their hearts. 

Luke 15:12-13 and the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.' And he divided his wealth between them. And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country,”

This isn’t the first time that Jesus has approached this issue. In Matthew 13 He tells the parable of the sower. Listen to what he says about the soils.

Matthew 13:19-21 What is the seed that fell by the road? That seed is like the person who hears the message about the kingdom but does not understand it. The Evil One comes and takes away what was planted in that person's heart. And what is the seed that fell on rocky ground? That seed is like the person who hears the teaching and quickly accepts it with joy. But he does not let the teaching go deep into his life, so he keeps it only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the teaching he accepted, he quickly gives up.

Our hearts determine what type of solder we are in the war. If our hearts are soft and moldable, if we truly search for the will of God then we will be wholly committed to the church and family of God.

But sometimes we are confused.  We are trying to make the church and the world compatible. If it works by a worldly standard then it must also work in the church. But we forget that the church and the world are opposed to each other. So in our struggle to get the world and the church to agree we get frustrated and leave. 

Then there are those who are like the seed planted on the rocky soil.  They get excited and work real hard at first but then they get frustrated.  People don’t have the same enthusiasm or have the same drive and desire that they have. People want to be involved in other ministries, or want to minister in different ways.  It is immaturity, struggling to be the greatest in the Kingdom, wanting everyone to see it, feel it, and do it my way.  And when the pressures and strife come it is better to just leave.

Finally there are those who are like the thorny soil who come to this family and they seem to have real growth in their lives but something happens at work, or someone in their family get’s sick, and they begin to miss meeting with the church.  We know where they are and begin to make excuses for them but pretty soon the sick family member is better or things cool down at work and the next thing you know the Baseball game, or family time with the kids has become more important than the church.  They start having family worship time on the lake in a fishing boat and pretty soon they don’t come to church at all.

762 times in the Bible we read about the heart of man. We are told that our relationship with God and the family of God depends on our heart.

The Hebrew writer says in 3:12 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

You see some people are Missing In Action Today because of a heart problem. 

Close:

            There is a story about a story about Vladimir Nabokov, the Russian writer who wrote Lolita, and Pale Fire. One summer Nabokov and his family were staying with some friends in Alta, Utah.  While there Nabokov took the opportunity to enlarge his collection of butterflies and moths.

One evening at dusk he returned from his day’s excursion saying that during hot pursuit near Bear Gulch he had heard someone groaning pathetically down by the stream. “‘Did you stop’ His friend asked him. “‘No, I had to get the butterfly.’”

The next day the dead body of an aged prospector was discovered in what has been renamed, in Nabokov’s honor, Dead Man’s Gulch.” While people around us are dying, how often we chase butterflies!

            There may be some of our family today that are Missing In Action that are just waiting for you to come. Are you committed to this family enough to go and get those who are missing? To encourage them, love them, and lift them up?   

And maybe there are some here today that need to come home.  Who have not been the child of God they need to be. Maybe there are those here who need to be held accountable by this family to do more than warm a pew on Sunday mornings, and be a totally committed child of God.

And then there may be some here who have driven people from the family of God, or shot the wounded.  Maybe you realize that your attitude has driven those away from God instead of encouraging them to be an active member of the family, and you now know that you need forgiveness of your sins.