Celebration Sunday 

September 1, 2002 

What Does God Expect of Us?

In a nutshell: God calls us to be fruitful and faithful.

I. Introduction

Have you ever asked yourself the question, "What does God expect of me?" Afterall…, -He's given you eternal life in heaven. -He gives you the potential for abundant living here on earth. -He's removed guilt and sin from you as far as the east is from the west. -And He's given you His Holy Spirit to dwell in you and act as your guide, conscience, and comforter. So, what does He expect in return? Let me show you two things this morning. They are both intricately wrapped up in what this 100 Days of Prayer, Promise and Power has been all about.

II. Fruitfulness

The first thing is talked about in Mark 11. If you have your Bibles please turn there.

A. Fruitfulness

Mark 11:11-14 and 20-22 11 Jesus entered Jerusalem and went to the temple. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve. 12 The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. 14 Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it. 20 In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. 21 Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!" 22 "Have faith in God," Jesus answered.

Why did He do that? Was he just showing off? Of course not. Jesus was making a point-the point was that one of the things God expects from His people is fruitfulness.

Romans 7:4 4 So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.

But what does it mean to bear fruit? What is the fruit that God expects us to bear? It's really not very complicated. Fruit, in Jesus' teaching, is viewed in the context of two things: the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.

1. The Great Commandment

The Great Commandment is found in…

Matthew 22:37-40 37 "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Love the Lord your God, and love your neighbor. We call that the Great Commandment. According to Jesus, that pretty much covers the gist of all the teachings in the Old Testament-two thirds of the content of your Bibles is wrapped up in this teaching. All the Law and the Prophets have their foundation in these two commandments.

2. The Great Commission

The second part of bearing fruit is found in what we call the Great Commission…

Matthew 28:19-20 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Before Jesus went back into heaven, He told his disciples the second "Great Thing" they had to do. Because loving God was so important, and loving people was so important…so important that all the law and the prophets received their foundation for existence in those commands…, Jesus gave a command that would help us practically do that. He said, "Go and make disciples… teach them to obey everything I taught you." Friends, The Great Commission is God's master plan of how to practically carry out the Great Commandment.

B. 100 Days

And friends, that's what we've been doing, very specifically, during these past 100 Days of Prayer, Promise and Power. That's what all these goals around the room have been pointing us toward. During a time when desert dwelling Christians normally take a break, we have been making a renewed effort to carry out the Great Commandment and the do the Great Commission. Look around the walls of the room. In significant ways, we have been bearing fruit this summer. We've been doing what God expects us to be doing, as His church.

III. Faithfulness

But not only does God expect us to be fruitful. He also expects us to be faithful. But what does it mean to be faithful? The answer might surprise you.

A. Meaning of faithfulness

You see, we often think faithfulness means being faithful to the word of God. Many hymns and sermons that were written and preached while the WWII generation was growing up spoke about being "contenders for the faith" or "fighting for the faith". Many of us who grew up in the church in the years since WW2, have been exhorted to be true to the faith or keep the faith.

And that has led many of us to think that faithful means believing the right thing. But to Jesus, being faithful meant far more than just believing the right thing.

In Matthew 25 Jesus tells a story that we call The Parable of the Talents. Three different servants were given various amounts of money to take care of while the Master went away. They were expected to invest that money and make it grow.

But there was a risk. The risk was that they could lose it. Two of the servants took the risk and doubled what they had been given. But the third servant was so afraid of losing what the Master had given him that he decided to take no risks at all, and he buried the single talent he had in the ground.

When the master returned, look at what He said to the first two servants…

Matthew 25:20-23 20 The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.' 21 "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' 22 "The man with the two talents also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.' 23 "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

But look at what the Master said to the servant who was afraid and buried the money given to him…

26 "His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant! Throw this worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

Two servants were called faithful, one was not. Why wasn't the third servant called faithful? Because he hadn't taken any risks. If you're not taking any risks you don't need any faith. And if you don't need any faith, you are being unfaithful.

Unfaithful is knowing what you ought to be doing and not taking the risk to do it.

B. Risk Taker

One of the things Rick Warren tells pastors at his Saddleback Pastor's Conferences is that there are three basic ways you can lead a church. You can be a risk taker, a caretaker, or an undertaker.

1. A Risk Taker is someone who will risk great things for God. Risk takers go out on a limb, because that's where the fruit is. An old proverb says, "Behold the turtle. He only makes progress when he sticks his neck out." Warren tells pastors, "If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space."

2. You can be a caretaker. Do you know what a caretaker is? A caretaker is someone who maintains the status quo. Do you know what status quo is? It's Latin, for the mess we're in. Caretakers just plod along. Care takers like to say they have a "sound church". The truth is they're sound asleep. On the front of your copies of this week, I put a comment from General George Patton that he said regarding his British counterpart, Field Marshall Montgomery, "He seems more interested in not losing battles, than he is in winning battles." That's a caretaker.

3. Or Warren says you can be an undertaker, where you oversee the slow death of your congregation, because the power of God has left it.

C. Satan's Greatest Tool Against Church Leaders

Friends, Satan's greatest tool against churches being faithful is the fear of failure. It's the reason why many Pastors and church leaders are afraid to set significant goals. Because if we set a goal and don't reach it, then we think we've failed.

Proverbs 29:25 25 Fear of man will prove to be a snare,

When I, or any pastor, or any elder fears what you're going to think of us if we don't reach a goal that we've set, then we've taken our eyes off of God and put them squarely on you. When that happens, we are bound to fail.

But the truth of the matter is that all of us in our church family must learn to live our lives for an audience of one. I'm trying to live my life this way. I'm trying to live my life so that one day when I stand before God, He will say, "Well done thou good and faithful servant. You were faithful in a few things, now you'll be faithful in many. Come now, you blessed of my father inherit the kingdom that's been prepared for you from the foundation of the world." And that will be worth it all.

It really doesn't matter what anyone thinks about me or our church. What matters is what God thinks. And if God is all you're concerned with, then you don't have to worry about failure. You just have to worry about pleasing Him.

So how do you eliminate the fear of failure? Because we will never become a faithful church if we fear failure. For that I want you to hear something our pastors and elders heard at our retreat, last month. It is a portion of Rick Warren's message to leaders.

Video of Rick Warren-16 minutes

IV. Conclusion

As we finish up, I want share some personal reflections and confession:

1. When we began setting goals for this 100 days, I have to admit, I was scared. That's because I was afraid of what you all would think if we didn't reach these goals. I was afraid of failure. I had to ask God's forgiveness for that. Because that's taking my eyes off of God and putting them on you. And let's call that what it is-that's sin. That's being unfaithful. And unfaithful leaders will never lead any congregation to being fruitful.

2. Along those same lines, I have to also confess that we made some mistakes along the way. One of those mistakes was that we sprung this whole idea on you without much warning. That took some of you off guard. And it caused some of you to never really come on board and be excited about this 100 day adventure. We recognize we need to plan a major emphasis like this much farther in advance.

3. We also didn't include you in the initial planning stages or setting the faith goals. The ideas and the goals that were set came exclusively from the pastors and were ratified by the elders. But we didn't get ownership from many of you. We blew that one. Next time God leads us to do this, we need to involve more of the church family in setting the "faith goals" we attempt. And if we're indeed going to be a family, ownership needs to be present in all that we expect God to do.

4. But friends, the thing that was encouraging, was that despite my mistakes, many of you trusted our leadership and mobilized to pray together, like never before. And in 2002, as a church family, we didn't just tolerate another desert summer. We bore fruit because of our faith. The Kingdom of God was advanced like none of the other summers we've experienced together, before.

My encouragement to all of us is DON'T STOP! The goals we have around this room that haven't yet been accomplished, I believe God still wants to accomplish-but in His timing, not our 100 days. So, this was only the beginning.

But as your pastor, I must exhort you concerning one thing. The time is growing short. So, we need to get busy. Just look at the past year around the globe in light of Biblical prophecy. -Forces opposed to the One true God are mobilizing in the mid-east. -Israel figures prominently in everyone's thoughts and plans around the world. -The Muslim religion is gaining unprecedented strength on every continent. -And tolerance of anything outside of Christianity has become the norm in every society.

Friends, Satan is beginning his final push to succeed in a war where he cannot win. There is a profound urgency for the church of Jesus Christ to be doing Kingdom work. -People matter to God, so they must matter to us as well. -Every person we make eye contact with needs a relationship with Jesus as the forgiver of their sin and the leader of their life, otherwise they will spend eternity in Hell.

Jesus is coming soon. How will He find us? Risk-less and barren? Or Faithful and Fruitful.

End time in prayer groups.