Psalm 25:1-10

In this third sermon in our mission statement series, we consider the task of empowering one another in the faith. First Baptist Church Muncie exists to equip this body of believers to walk with Jesus. We do this by engaging Scripture, sharing our stories, praying together, prompting each other in spiritual disciplines, and discerning and using our spiritual gifts.

I was reading from Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals this morning and came across a quote from Jesuit Jean-Pierre de Caussade (18th Century). Now, don’t forget, this upcoming sermon is on stewardship; it is about realizing all we have is God’s and we are responsible to use it for his purposes.

“The great and firm foundation of the spiritual life is the offering of ourselves to God and being subject to his will in all things. We must completely forget ourselves, so that we regard ourselves as an object which has been sold and over which we no longer have any rights. We find all our joy in fulfilling God’s pleasure — his happiness, his glory and the fact that he is our great and only delight. Once we have this foundation, all we need to do is spend our lives rejoicing that God is God and being so wholly abandoned to his will that we are quite indifferent as to what we do and equally indifferent as to what use he makes of our activities.” ¹

You may need to read this a couple of times to let it sink in. It is a powerful confession that our lives are not our own. We have given them over to God to use for his purposes.

When we see the word “steward” or “stewardship” in a sermon title, we assume the pastor is going to talk about money. But stewardship is much deeper than dollars. Sure, it has to do with dollars. If our checkbooks are not submitted to God, there is a problem. Jesus has much to say about money and it a key concern for anyone who seriously follows Him. Yet, living as a steward is a worldview; it is about how we understand our proper relationship to the Creator.

We are going to explore the parable of the prudent steward in Luke 16:1-13 this week. Jesus defines our position before God as He shocks us by praising questionable behavior. Join us on Sunday as we engage the story together.

You can check out their site at: www.internationalministries.org/teams/55-chapman.

I think the story is also a call to us to be a light to the nations as well. This is especially true to us considering the very diverse culture we find ourselves in our country today. When I was a boy, dealing with diversity amounted to little more than we Baptists being friends with an occasional Methodist or Presbyterian! Today, we are confronted by a far more diverse world. Like Jonah, we are also called to be a light to people from all over the world who live and work in our own neighborhood.

I now reflect on my career as a hospital chaplain, I recall the many opportunities given to me to know people from many different backgrounds and faiths. I have been able to know doctors who were Muslim, social workers who were Unitarian and Jewish, child care workers who were Hindu, to name a few. I suppose we all have far more diverse contacts today than we ever imagined when we were growing up. Like Jonah, I believe we today are being called to be a light to the nations in a very unique way.

I possess no special wisdom as how to best live as the light God is calling us to be. I do think, however, that a good guiding principle is to respond to those of other faiths around in the same way we would hope their people would respond to us were we to live in their homeland. As God reminded Jonah, the people of Nineveh were His children as well. So too are those whom God has brought to our world. Let us we not run from the task, but answer the call to be a light to all those around us.

to give somebody a greater sense of confidence or self-esteem

Is this what we mean when we speak of the need to empower one another in the church? Are we simply trying to bolster individual confidence in matters of faith? I am not sure that this definition offers an accurate picture of what was intended in our mission statement.

The sort of empowering that we are talking about has to do with equipping believers to walk with Christ. A better definition might include the words “equipping, preparing, or training.” You might even consider using the word “disciple.” As Jesus ascended into heaven he commanded believers,

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 (Matthew 28:19 NIV)

So when we are talking about empowering, we are talking about discipleship. But what does this look like? How does it play out in the life of the church? On Sunday, we will consider how we empower one another to be all that God wants us to be. It is more than what we have often termed “Christian education.” It is more than learning and passing on a curriculum. It is about sharing life together. Join us on Sunday as we explore the third action verb of our mission statement.

We will be following the lectionary during this season. You might remember that the lectionary gives us an Old Testament reading, a Psalm, a gospel reading, and a reading from the epistles. We will be focusing on the Psalm each week. Here is a schedule if you would like to read ahead and prepare for each Sunday.

• February 26 – Psalm 25:1-10
• March 4 – Psalm 22:23-31
• March 11 – Psalm 19
• March 18 – Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
• March 25 – Psalm 51:1-12
• April 1 (Palm Sunday) – Psalm 31:9-16
• April 8 (Easter Sunday) – Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24