Just Walk Across the Room - Sept. 22nd, 08

Date: September 21nd, 2008

Speaker: Kevin Snyder

Title: Room For One More

Series: Just Walk Across the Room

Last week:

Focused on what it takes to be a gift-giver of the single greatest gift.

Be willing to enter the zone of the Unknown
Listen for the Holy Spirit’s promptings

Today:

What happens after you decide to just walk across the room?

What do we do when we get there and reach out our hand?

Where does it go from there?

We are there in this “event”. What needs to happen for it to be more than just an event?

We are faced with a decision:

The Decision:

Will I be “friendly” or will I be a “friend”

Will I have room for one more?

Graphic: Sponge dripping with water or so wet it is unable to soak up a spill…(label: “Sponge-Bob)

Object Lesson: Sponge

I want to think of your relational life like a sponge.

Pretend: This is Sponge-Bob

If you have lived in the same place for awhile.
If you have been blessed with a well-connected family near you.
If you have been in a church and small group for a time you feel connected.
And, if you are skilled relationally your sponge is like this. (dip in water). It is full, saturated.

Now if you go to wipe something up with a saturated sponge what happens….not very effective because no absorbency there. It’s full. Sponge-bob is relationally full.

Contrast

Graphic: dry sponge labelled sponge-Fred

Sponge-Fred

If you are new to an area…
moved to a new city.
Moved into a new church.
A lot of times your sponge is pretty dry. You have a lot absorbency left.
In fact, you can long and be looking for relationships because you feel dry.

And so what happens when dry sponge (Sponge-Fred) meets saturated sponge (sponge-Bob).

Dry sponge (Sponge-Fred) is longing to move into relationship with wet sponge(sponge-bob).. And wet sponge (sponge-Bob). is full. Wet & saturated sponge(sponge-Bob) feels no compelling need to move into relationship with dry sponge(Sponge-Fred).

Our relational schedule is full.
We don’t know where to fit another get together.

And so what happens.

Wet sponge (Sponge-Bob) is friendly, nice.
But dry sponge (Sponge-Fred) isn’t looking for a friendly sponge, he is looking for a “friend.” He is inwardly hoping this wet sponge (Sponge-Bob) will help fill the relational voids he feels. And so he expects more.

“Fred” bounces from person to person, or group to group never feeling like they get in….and eventually go out the back door.

Why?

Wet sponges (Sponge-Bob’s) we’re “friendly” but too saturated to add a “friend.”

(Sponge-Fred has some responsibility too…can’t sit by phone waiting for it to ring. Need to step out and show you want friends…many people leave church…”no friends” but have never stepped out…sat by phone waiting)

We could call this ailment in the church – “koinonitis”

Koinonitis

The disease of a church that has come to love each other and feel so comfortable with each other that it has no more relational room for one more. Sometimes referred to as “Sponge-Bob syndrome”

= the disease of a comfortable, plateaued and declining church where comfortable fellowship transcends the mission of Christ.

The result is new people don’t stay. There is no way in.

Application

And so here is the challenge for us:

How do we always live out the slogan on our website “Always room for one more.”
How do we continually keep room in our sponge for one more?

Somehow Jesus did.

Remember the parable of the lost sheep. The shepherd had 100 sheep and one gets lost. What farmer wouldn’t be content with a mere 1% loss in calves born, or loss in his herd yearly. But this shepherd wasn’t content with 99, he had room for one more. And so it says “He left the 99 and went to look for the one.”

Jesus not only told the story lived that out in real life.

Zaccheus: Jesus is walking through Jericho….surrounded by crowds. People around Jesus are so thick, that a new guy Zaccheus climbs a tree to just see Jesus. And Jesus surrounded by people sees and has room for one more. He says “Zaccheus, today I want to come to your house.”

Children: One day Jesus was busy and surrounded by people his schedule was full. And so his disciples took to prioritizing people in Jesus schedule. The 1st ones to get shifted to “low priority” was the children. And what was Jesus response when he heard what was happening.

Matthew 19: 13 – 15

Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them.

14 Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” 15 When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.

Somehow Jesus was able to keep his sponge from being so saturated. There was always room for one more of God’s lost kids, or a child, or person in need.

And friends, what I have found is that growing churches have captured that essence of Jesus. They always have room for one more.

Note:

Church life is always most uncomfortable when the church is growing.

The most comfortable church is a plateaued or declining church.

In a growing church, it doesn’t feel the same anymore.
There are new people sitting in my section I don’t know.
I don’t know everyone anymore.
It doesn’t feel the same.

In a declining church it’s comfortable. It’s Don & Tina next to me, Grandma Joan behind me, the Herd family in front of me. I know them. Been sitting like this for 5 years. Nobody else has invaded my space. But when church grows suddenly my “Circle of Comfort” becomes a “Zone of the Unknown.”

And so every Christ-follower in every church has to wrestle with a basic question which will determine whether that church reflects Jesus or not.

And that question is:

“Do I have room for one more?”

one more in my heart
one more in my schedule
one more in my group

Your answer to that question on a daily and weekly basis will determine the future of this church.

“Every church wants to grow, but not every church is willing to pay the price for growth.”

So,

How do we keep our sponge with room for one more and from just getting saturated?

What can we learn from Jesus?

I sat and wondered about that.

I could only come up with one key.

Let me tell you a story.

True story.

Back in Winnipeg when I went we had a Wed. night Bible study. And it was made up of all the old faithful. It was comfortable and good.

Every week we would pray that God would bring new people and they would come once or twice and then quit.

And finally I said to the old faithful. You know I love you folks and I love meeting with you, but I need to ask you to release me. We have these new people that I need to gather into a group and get them connected. You can lead this and carry on.

They weren’t excited about the idea but they saw the need and released me.

So Joyce & I gathered a group of these new and fringe-like people who had started coming to the church into a small group. We did 2 Bible Studies a month, a potluck dinner, and some kind of activity. Did life together.

Oh that was a good group. People grew and actually just about all the leaders in my church came out of that group. We learned, we laughed, we cried, and we grew. Other people wanted into the group. And that was good. But we came to the place where it wasn’t working. Our living rooms weren’t big enough. People didn’t feel free to share in the big group…so we saw the same thing happen….new people would come and drop out.

And I remember the night we had a painful conversation as a group. I shared with them that we needed to start another group. I needed them to release us and another family and let us go and start another group. None of us wanted to do that on an emotional level. But I remember one of the couples articulating what pushed us over the hill to do it.

They said “We really like each other and would like to spend all our time together, but we have to put the kingdom before our comfort. We will still find ways to connect but phooey we got heaven to spend eternity together.”

There’s the key. In that statement is the defining issue.

It’s about Christ’s kingdom not my comfort.

The key question that separates a church from a country club is

“How important is God’s mission of reclaiming lost people to himself?”

Does that heart for God’s lost kids supersede my need for comfort?

Story of Good Samaritan

Story of 2 people who walked by and one who stopped and helped the man.

Too fully appreciate the story we can’t assume that the Samaritan’s schedule and sponge was less full. We can’t assume that he had nothing to do. No the story is about priorities.

The priest saw his church responsibilities as coming before this lost man

The Levite too saw that too get involved with this man would call for more commitment and time than he was prepared to give, and so he too walked on the other side.

And the 3rd man saw that people in need are my first priority. That God’s lost kids always come before fellowship….come before worship….come before church business…come before entertainment.

You see, what comes next after we just walk across that room is a decision.

A sacrifice.
A commitment.
A decision that takes this from a friendly one-time encounter to a friendship.
A question that asks, ”Do I have room for one more?”

One of my favourite poems was written by a pastor Stan Shoemaker. Every time I read it reaffirms this truth. He wrote at a time of conflict in his church.

There were people who were feeling uncomfortable with the new people coming in. They were criticizing that they weren’t getting fed. They wanted to go deeper. And Pastor Stan expressed what he felt was the heart of God and his commitment in this poem.

I Stand at the Door

By Sam Shoemaker (from the Oxford Group)

I stand by the door.
I neither go too far in, nor stay too far out.
The door is the most important door in the world -
It is the door through which men walk when they find God.
There is no use my going way inside and staying there,
When so many are still outside and they, as much as I,
Crave to know where the door is.
And all that so many ever find
Is only the wall where the door ought to be.
They creep along the wall like blind men,
With outstretched, groping hands,
Feeling for a door, knowing there must be a door,
Yet they never find it.
So I stand by the door.

The most tremendous thing in the world
Is for men to find that door - the door to God.
The most important thing that any man can do
Is to take hold of one of those blind, groping hands
And put it on the latch - the latch that only clicks
And opens to the man's own touch.

Men die outside the door, as starving beggars die
On cold nights in cruel cities in the dead of winter.
Die for want of what is within their grasp.
They live on the other side of it - live because they have not found it.

Nothing else matters compared to helping them find it,
And open it, and walk in, and find Him.
So I stand by the door.

Go in great saints; go all the way in -
Go way down into the cavernous cellars,
And way up into the spacious attics.
It is a vast, roomy house, this house where God is.
Go into the deepest of hidden casements,
Of withdrawal, of silence, of sainthood.
Some must inhabit those inner rooms
And know the depths and heights of God,
And call outside to the rest of us how wonderful it is.
Sometimes I take a deeper look in.
Sometimes venture in a little farther,
But my place seems closer to the opening.
So I stand by the door.

There is another reason why I stand there.
Some people get part way in and become afraid
Lest God and the zeal of His house devour them;
For God is so very great and asks all of us.
And these people feel a cosmic claustrophobia
And want to get out. 'Let me out!' they cry.
And the people way inside only terrify them more.
Somebody must be by the door to tell them that they are spoiled.
For the old life, they have seen too much:
One taste of God and nothing but God will do any more.
Somebody must be watching for the frightened
Who seek to sneak out just where they came in,
To tell them how much better it is inside.
The people too far in do not see how near these are
To leaving - preoccupied with the wonder of it all.
Somebody must watch for those who have entered the door
But would like to run away. So for them too,
I stand by the door.

I admire the people who go way in.
But I wish they would not forget how it was
Before they got in. Then they would be able to help
The people who have not yet even found the door.
Or the people who want to run away again from God.
You can go in too deeply and stay in too long
And forget the people outside the door.
As for me, I shall take my old accustomed place,
Near enough to God to hear Him and know He is there,
But not so far from men as not to hear them,
And remember they are there too.

Where? Outside the door -
Thousands of them. Millions of them.
But - more important for me -
One of them, two of them, ten of them.
Whose hands I am intended to put on the latch.
So I shall stand by the door and wait
For those who seek it.

'I had rather be a door-keeper
So I stand by the door.

Conclusion

People aren’t looking just for friendly people they are looking for a friend.

Do you have room for one more?

Does the mission of Christ, the purpose of the church supersede your desire for comfort?
Does it stir you enough to keep enough room in your sponge for one more?
Can you like Jesus find the strength to leave the comfortable place and move on to another “village” or situation for the sake of the kingdom?
Can you sacrifice a little koinonitis (group devoted to just each other) for communitas (community of a group devoted to a cause)

Mission trip – something binds us together more than just worshipping together….common mission & experience

Are you willing to be one who is committed to “stand by the door” and help one or two to put their hand on the latch?

Perhaps everyone here could say:

“But Pastor, my life and schedule is so full. You don’t understand I don’t have any more time.”

My question today is: What is it full of?

If it is too full for one of God’s dry and seeking sponges, what the heck is so important?” What could be more important than what is at the very centre of God’s heart?”

And how important will all those things sound when at the end of your life you stand before God and he says:

Tell me again why you couldn’t embrace that new person at church?
Tell me again why you couldn’t include that person in your small group?
Tell me again why you could never find the time to get together with guy at work?
Tell me again why you couldn’t work with those children? Those youth?
Tell me again why you couldn’t reach out to that new kid, that lonely kid, that bullied kid at school?
Tell me again why you shied away from that alcoholic at work?

“Oh yeah, you were too busy….you had to get together with your Christian friends, ….you were afraid of the cost…you had to make those sporting events….oh yeah, you had to make use of those toys you bought….oh yeah, you had to do laundry…..

How do you think that will sound to the one who left the 99 for the one?

Who set his schedule aside for the broken man on the road. For the one who never was too busy to stop and bless a child
To the one who found time for the Zaccheus’ in his life.
The one who walked across the universe and gave up his life for you.

…The most tremendous thing in the world
Is for men to find that door - the door to God.
The most important thing that any man can do
Is to take hold of one of those blind, groping hands
And put it on the latch - the latch that only clicks
And opens to the man's own touch….

So I stand by the door.

Prayer

Oh Lord,

Forgive us for loving comfort more than you.
Forgive us for when we did not see the least of these brothers of yours and give them water, or food, or time.
Forgive us when our selfish hearts keep us from ministering to your lost kids.
Expand my/our hearts to have room for one more than is presently in my/our circle.
Increase my heart for your kingdom and your lost kid’s that it would take precedence in my life.
Give me courage when I stretch out a friendly hand to stretch out and make room for a friend.

Amen

Exercise:

Someone you greeted in last couple of weeks….someone that you have walked across the room to meet…challenge you to bigger step. To step beyond friendly to being a friend.

Perhaps:

Set up a time to do coffee or have them over for a meal.
Sign up for a ministry that you haven’t done because frankly comfort has come before the kingdom.
Sign up and commit to getting into a small group….where can develop relationship

My desire is that East side be a church that stands by the door.

The Holy Bible: New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Mt 19:13-15

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