Now That's Radical!

    Is it really a radical objective to take seriously Jesus’ Great Commission? It probably shouldn’t be, but for too many Christians, it is. Too many Christians have little desire to see the family of God grow. Some are even critical of growth in the church. Sadly, they want to keep the church all to themselves. But Jesus made it clear, and the example we have in the Book of Acts is that God wants His church to grow. He wants more churches, and he wants all of them to grow. I think we can say categorically that it is God’s will for The Bridge to grow! That’s our radical objective: to see explosive growth at The Bridge this next year, a doubling of our family.
    We introduced this renewed focus on evangelism and growing God’s family at The Bridge on March 11. That day, many of you committed to radical prayer over the following 30 days, to see the Lord do just that. The stories I have gotten back from you have been inspiring. One man told me that as he began to seriously pray for his coworkers to be saved, those he never dreamed would respond to the Gospel began asking him questions about his faith, seemingly out of the blue. Another young man said that since he began to pray earnestly for people to know Christ, that he has had freedom to share his faith like never before. A number of you have indicated this has been the most spiritually invigorating time in your life. We’ve already had guests in our services these last two weeks from people who were invited because they were inspired to on March 11. Making a radical commitment to prayer works! If you have not joined us in this, you still can!
    But we also talked about two other vital ingredients necessary for this radical objective to be reached: radical inviting and radical sacrificing. Next week, we’ll talk about making radical sacrifices (I’m sure you are looking forward to that – haha), but let me talk about radical inviting.
    On Sunday we gave every person in our church two special invitation cards for Easter weekend (including Good Friday). We also announced that next week we are sending out 100,000 invitations for Easter weekend through direct mail. We are taking Jesus seriously and are going “into the highways and hedges to compel people to come in”. But direct mail isn’t enough. And while we are praying that you will follow through with inviting those two people we prayed for last week (I am praying for you by name), inviting just two people isn’t exactly “radical”, is it?
    We still have a couple thousand invitations at church ready to be taken by you to everyone you know. I’ve given them to the drive-through lady at McDonald's and the cashier at Walgreen's. I’m going to my neighbors and keeping a dozen or so in my pocket and car to give to everyone I see. Will you do that with me? I know, that’s radical, but that’s the point. Just think what would happen if all 800 or so of us (the number who attend The Bridge at least monthly) would give out a dozen invitations each and ask that many people to come and check us out on Easter Sunday. We would not have room for them all. But again, that’s the point! What do you think Jesus will think of that? To have our auditorium overflowing with curious seekers learning about the significance of His resurrection. Wow! I get goose bumps thinking about it!
    So let’s do it. Let's get radical in our inviting. Let's invite EVERYONE we know.

Does God Want a Crowd?

    Jesus said that where two or three are gathered together in his name, he would be in the midst of them. He also told his followers to go out into the highways and hedges and compel people to come in. In Acts we read Luke proclaim with rejoicing that 3,000 were saved and added to the church on her first day, and then 5,000 more were added a few weeks later. Over a dozen times in the first fifteen chapters of the book, we read Luke rejoicing over the many numbers of people who were added to the faith and added to the church.
    But we also read that early Christians gathered in homes to pray and worship––probably groups closer to a dozen. Story after story of individual lives being transformed because of one-on-one or small group conversations, are recorded for our benefit.
    So which does God prefer? The small group or the crowd?
    The answer is both. He wants both.
    It’s hard to deny that God is into large crowds. Even in the Old Testament we read of great crowds gathering to worship Yahweh as a very good thing. The prophet Daniel told his countrymen that in the end times, God’s people would gather in innumerable multitudes. Revelation 5 speaks of our gathering for worship as being “myriads upon myriads, ten thousand times ten thousand.” I don’t even know what a myriad is, but I’ll bet its a lot of people. It seems to me that God wants crowds gathering to worship Him. He sent His Son to die for the whole world (a pretty big number) and He did that to have a big family. That’s why Jesus told us to go into the highways and hedges to bring even strangers in. That’s why He gave his marching orders to go into all the world to make disciples. He wants a big family! Do we want what God wants?
    So what about where the Bible talks about small numbers of people gathering in His name? Well, He wants that too. Spiritual growth takes place best in the context of a small group of people who love each other, challenge each other, and walk through life encouraging each other. You can’t do that in a crowd (not even in a small congregation of a hundred or so); that takes a small group. The church in Jerusalem was both big and small. They gathered for worship in the Temple as a very large group, a crowd, and they gathered in homes through the week for fellowship, prayer and encouragement. I believe churches work best and accomplish most when they are both big and small.
    So yes, at The Bridge, our desire is to grow and attract and reach the greatest number of people possible. We aren’t exactly going into the highways and hedges and compelling them to come in, but we are working on it. We want what God wants, and God has made it clear, He wants his church to grow! That, in a nutshell, is our Radical Objective. It is our intentional drive to reach as many people this next year as possible, to bring in a crowd of people to worship our great God, and then to meet together in Life Groups to grow spiritually with a few others.
    God wants a crowd worshiping Him. So let’s go bring them in!

Can You Really Fix It Yourself?

    When the type on his printer began to grow faint, Bob called a local repair shop where a friendly clerk informed him the printer probably needed only to be cleaned. Because the store charged $50 for such cleanings, he told Bob he might be better off reading the printer's manual and trying the job himself.
    Pleasantly surprised by his candor, Bob asked, "Does your boss know that you discourage business?"
    "Actually, it's my boss' idea," the employee replied sheepishly. "We usually make more money on repairs if we let people try to fix things themselves first."
    I can sure relate! I can’t tell you the number of home repair projects and attempts at automobile repairs, when trying to save a few bucks, that have resulted in disaster. (You’ll have to ask Junior about his recent bathroom renovation project.)
    I learned a long time ago that I’m better off leaving the “fix-it” projects to those who know what they are doing. In some cases, I can eventually figure things out. But by the time I get it finished, I almost always wished I would have payed the professional.
    Then there are those things we try to fix where we are just plain incapable of doing it ourselves. Like the time a thought I would change engines out in a car that I got a great deal on. Hahaha! After enlisting the help of more mechanically minded friends, and putting it all back together, I realized I had put the fly-wheel in backwards and we had to start over. So...I found a mechanic who then did it right. I am a bit embarrassed at some of those failed attempts to “fix” things.
    Some of you are trying to do the same thing right now. You’re trying to change yourself...shake an addiction, break a habit, turn negative thinking into positive thinking, become a better husband, wife, parent, or employee. But you’ve failed miserably and are ready to give up.
    That’s not a bad place to be. Maybe then you’ll do what I did––look to an expert.
    I’m not talking about any old expert. The truth is, the experts have little more handle on life than the rest of us. The only real tool that people have to help us solve our problems and fix the stuff broken in our lives is the instruction book from our designer/maker. And he’s willing to make things right with what’s wrong with you, if you’ll stop messing it up by trying to fix it yourself!
    God knows best. His answers work. His Word gives the real solutions. Anything else is just a shortcut that you’ll eventually pay for. And I don’t want you to get it all done and realize the flywheel is in backwards.
    Go to God and let him fix things before you mess them up irreparably. His repairs are sometimes costly, but always worthwhile!

Will You Matter After You Are Gone?

    Saparmurat Niyazov served as president of the former Soviet block nation, Turkmenistan, from 1990 until his death in 2006. While his title was “President”, he changed the title to “President for Life”, declaring it to be a lifelong position with no need for ongoing elections, also making him the nation’s dictator. He was eccentric, to say the least, and made sweeping senseless legal changes at every whim. Among other things, he banned keeping dogs in the capital city, along with opera, ballet, makeup, lip-syncing and gold teeth.
    He was also the epitome of pride. He replaced the traditional names for the months and days, renaming them for himself, his mother and the rest of his family. He named towns, schools, airports and a meteorite after himself. Today, six years after his death, Most of those senseless laws have been reversed, the calendar has been changed back to its traditional names, and many of his other namesakes have also been renamed. Few politicians and government officials will mention his memory in public, for fear of being associated with him.
    We all crave significance. I believe it is a God-given drive to want our lives to matter. But Niyazov, like many others, went about this striving for significance in the completely wrong way. By building ourselves up, we limit our lasting influence and relegate our lives to near meaninglessness.
    Jesus taught the opposite. He taught that the way to achieve significance is by putting others’ interests ahead of our own; that the way up is down; the way to be exalted is by being humble. We impact eternity by becoming the servant of God and others.
    Jesus not only taught this principle, he lived it. Read what Paul said in regards to Jesus’ example: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:5-11 ESV).
    Paul used Jesus as an example to make this point: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3-4 ESV).
    You want your life to matter. You want your life to mean something after you are gone. Of course you do! God created us with this drive. But our sin nature deceives us into thinking that significance is achieved through personal ambition. Biblical Christianity teaches that the opposite is true.
    You want your life to matter. So find God’s special place where you can pour yourself into impacting eternity by becoming a servant. And in doing so, truly following Jesus! Be a servant and your influence will outlast your life.
    “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.” – Jesus (Matthew 16:24 NLT).