10/23/22 Acts 2:42-47 “Intentional Love”

21 Oct 10/23/22 Acts 2:42-47 “Intentional Love”

10/23/22   Acts 2:42-47        “Intentional Love”

This is the time of year when many things are happening.  We have a lot of church dinners in the area including the ever-famous lutefisk dinners.  We are winding up football and volleyball seasons and other fall sports.  And of course, for all you baseball junkies, it is time for the World Series.  Some of you may remember that years ago when I was still in school, we were allowed to listen to the World Series if we were done with our work and didn’t have class.  Often times we used a transistor radio.  If you don’t know what this is, please ask some of the older folks around and they will tell you.  I have always enjoyed baseball.  However, I think it is one of those games where it is much more fun to play than to watch.  I know some of the strategies of the game but there are probably many among you who know much more.  Now there has always been one thing that has really bothered me about baseball and that is all the spitting.  I would like someone to explain what this is all about.  It is disgusting.  Anyway, one of the strategies of the game is giving the intentional walk.  This is where a pitcher throws 4 straight balls intentionally so that they can put a runner on first base.  Then it is the intention of the defensive team to force the man out at second base.  It is quite a strategy but it doesn’t work unless the ball is hit in a certain way.  You see, this can backfire and work against them.  Today, we will be talking about another strategy called intentional faith development or intentional love and how can we be a little more effective in this area.

John Stafford tells this great story of an old well that stood outside the door of their family house in New Hampshire.  The water was always pure and cold.  Some of us know about this type of water or at least remember it.  I remember a tin cup that everyone used that was always hanging beside the pump handle.  Anyway this well was always good even in a severe drought.  It was a good memory.  Well, years passed and the old farmhouse was modernized.  They put in electricity, indoor plumbing and hot and cold running water.  The well was no longer needed so they sealed it up.

Years later, John wanted a drink of cold, pure water and he thought of the well that was sealed.  So he went and unsealed the well and lowered a bucket to get some of the very refreshing water. He was shocked to discover that this well that had survived for years in harsh conditions was bone dry.  He went on to learn that wells were fed by hundreds of tiny underground rivulets that were kept open with the flow.  As long as water was drawn out of the well, new water would flow back into the well.  But when the water wasn’t drawn from the well anymore, the tiny rivulets plugged up and stopped running.  The well dried up because it wasn’t used enough.

This is like Christians who become saved and then don’t do anything else.  This happens in churches where people don’t take part in any programs.  It is a pretty common practice in larger churches for people to come to worship and get out before they get talked into doing something for someone else.  You see, in many places, Christianity has become all about me and no one else.  I will defy the independent nature of people out here in the western part of the country when I say that Christianity cannot be practiced alone.  Christianity works in a community and not in isolation.

Look at our reading.  The believers gathered together.  They broke bread and ate together.  They prayed together.  I really don’t think there is anything more powerful than when we pray in a group.  They also taught each other.  They did so many things together and then they grew.

Can you imagine what it was like in those early Biblical days?  You couldn’t really be a Christian in public because there was so much persecution.  Just suppose you were one of the marginal people, say a widow, and had no place to go.  You lived by whatever means you could.  This would be the same for the sick or lame.  Then you heard about this man, Jesus Christ, and you wondered what this was all about.  Then some of these Christians invited you into their homes.  This was never done if you were a marginal person.  They not only invited you in but they talked with you, fed you and cared for you.  They even prayed for you.  To make a long story short, they loved you when no one else loved you.  It is no wonder that so many of these early people came to Christ.  They came for the love that was found no place else.

Now let’s fast forward a few centuries to the time when John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was in London.  I think about the absolute poverty conditions that existed there.  This would be very hard to imagine in our world.  The food was poor at best and the sewer was in the streets.  Imagine that you lived in these conditions and you met someone who knew about Jesus and John Wesley.  You see, in those days church was only for the privileged and rich.  The poor people had nothing, no hope.

But you just happened to meet someone who invited you to join their group.  They didn’t care about your ragged clothes.  They didn’t care if you didn’t bathe.  All they cared about was you.  They would help you in any way they were able.  They invited you back to their group and even to their church.  You finally had that something that you were missing.  You had the love of others for you.  It seems that this love is something that has been passed down for centuries.

Now imagine that it is today and you are poor.  Imagine that you are a Native American on Spirit Lake Nation.  Or imagine that you are a single mother with two children.  Either way, the going is very hard for you.  Your kids keep you going at least 25 hours every day.  You become so tired and worn out that you don’t know which way to turn next.  I know what this is like because I have been there.  Even if you wanted to fit in, there is no place for you.

Then you meet someone who invites you to get together with some friends at their house.  They invited you to bring your children.  They make you feel welcome by offering food and drink.  They are studying the Bible.  They pray for you and the children.  You finally go home feeling better than you have in a long time and wanting to come back.  These people have taken a broken person and they have loved them.  This is the love that started centuries ago with Jesus.  We have people like this in our own community today.

I wanted to use these examples to show you the rich heritage that we have as Christians.  You are important to the world and whether the world likes it or not, it is Christ who makes the world function.  One of the disadvantages of Christianity is that it has to be passed on from generation to generation, and if it skips a generation, then it all dies out with the people.  It is very important to try to pass this heritage on to our young people.  I remember a few years ago when the youth and I did an event called Homeless and Hungry to raise money and food for the homeless in the area.  We did that for several years and I couldn’t be prouder of our young people.  They worked hard and they cared for the poor in the area.  Many of these young people will carry on this heritage for another generation.

But this continuation is not guaranteed everywhere.  We always have to be aware of our surroundings and we have to have a plan for the future.  If we look at our Scripture again we see that the believers devoted themselves to the apostle’s teachings.  This wasn’t a haphazard thing, it was devotion.  This devotion extended into their prayer life, their fellowship and their communion.  It was a way of life for them.

That is kind of funny thing for us.  I think that most of us realize that being a Christian is a way of life but the new person who comes into our midst may not.  Often times we seasoned Christians feel that we don’t need a Bible Study on the Holy Land.  We may not need to get together in prayer and fellowship.  We feel we may not need many of the things that we do at church and in our homes.  However, you have to remember that all these things may not be for you.  You may not need these things but you are called to model Christian behavior to others.  Guess what?  Once again, it is not about you.  It never has been and it never will be.  It is about God and how you go about spreading His message.  So, if any of you are feeling this way, remember this and come and model Christian behavior in whatever gatherings you have.

So the early Christians gathered.  John Wesley came along and he went back to the basics of the Bible.  He gathered people in small groups so that they could take care of each other.  Times were tough in those days.  You would come to one of those meetings and people who cared about you would ask you, “How is it with your soul?”  They would stress to do only good and not do any evil.  Then they would talk about this.  They would also pray and study the Bible.

Now there are a couple of things that we should learn from this rich heritage.  The first thing is that you are to be intentional about your faith development.  This means that you should have a plan when new people come into your presence.  Are they just visiting or are they seeking or are they Christians?  All these things matter as to how we treat them.  We need to have plans in place for our children.  When we get new families, are they invited into our groups?  Do we have groups or are we able to form groups that will meet the needs of the seeker or new Christian?  These are just a few of the things that we need to be very aware.  This is how we pass the Christian torch to the next generation.  Now don’t get me wrong here.  You probably do a fairly good job of this but you need to be reminded that your programs need to continue and new ones need to be formed.  And in all of these groups, you need to show the Christian love that we all have in common.

I read once about a church that hadn’t grown in quite some time.  So they had a new pastor and he started some new programs that pretty much tried to include as many people as possible.  What happened is that they had a tremendous growth spurt.  Things were looking good but they noticed that their attendance at Sunday worship was not growing.  Here is what they found.  They were great at inviting people to worship but when they tried to incorporate the new people into their small groups, the people disappeared.  They found that their small groups were not accepting of new people.  More came in the front door but more left by the back door.  We need to be vigilant in our hospitality.  I have seen this happen in many churches where they are friendly and accepting to themselves but not new people.  It is a huge problem.

So, we need to have Bible study and faith building groups.  The other part of this is that you just need to have groups.  I don’t care what kind of groups you have; you should have lots of groups, even in your small churches.  I have gotten myself in a little hot water with my colleagues on this subject.  You see, I don’t think that all church groups have to be a Bible Study.  Now that’s pretty radical, isn’t it?  I believe with all my heart that you can have church book clubs.  You can have bowling groups, sports groups, mothers groups, dining groups, racing groups, Ping-Pong leagues or any other group that you can imagine.

If Christianity is a lifestyle, then just about any group you can think of can be a Christian group if you meet, pray and do the fellowship.  I think the death of many church groups is that people think that they all have to be Bible studies.  They can be like this if you want but please don’t try to limit yourself to Bible studies.  Don’t try to limit God!  The part to remember in all of this is to be intentional in what you want to do.  You need to invite fellow believers and seekers.  And when new people come along, you absolutely have to show them love.  I know this isn’t hard for you people.  The hard part is to come up with the groups.  I think this is the next step in your church growth.

I would like to leave you with a story from Mike Wilkins that dates back to when Romania got its freedom.  This was a country where they had huge orphanages.  They were like warehouses.  I think that this was one of the greatest tragedies in human history.  How could so many people have children and then abandon them to these orphanages?  This is what happened.  These places were vastly understaffed.  The babies had their physical needs kind of taken care of as they had food, shelter and their hygiene was marginal.  By our standards the conditions would have been dismal.  What these babies really lacked was for someone to come and pick them up, cuddle them and play with them.  The babies suffered from “failure to thrive syndrome.”  Therefore, these babies would be many months old or in some cases many years old and they still looked and acted like newborns.  They did not have a family to love them.  There were a lot of people from this country who answered the call and adopted many of these children.

Many churches and Christians are like this also.  People are led to Christ and then they are forgotten.  They are not loved and they are not nourished.  They become like our opening story of the well or the children from these orphanages.  Jesus loves you so much that He gave you the church and fellow Christians.  It is your job to try to help these people.  Help us to intentionally reach out to your friends, family and neighbors with groups and opportunities for all of us to grow.  Let Jesus shine through you and through you and through you.  And thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.