"A New Resolve"

Preached by Rev. Ed Brouwer at The Gathering Place,
Pulpit Series Volume 18, Issue 01, 01/13/2008


The definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again in the same manner expecting a different result. I sometimes feel we are bordering insanity within the church system. We’ve actually become paranoid of change. Yet change real God led change is what we need, if the church is to survive.
Certainly God is challenging us as individuals to be more than a “Sunday Christian”! Without doubt He has been trying to show us that church is more than a four walled meeting hall.
But what does all that mean? What does that look like?
Chances are God’s already tugging on you to step out for Him and change your world. Note I said your world not the world.
You have a world outside these walls! Do you realize that we spend 70% of our life working in the Marketplace.
In the last 30 plus years in the ministry as a pastor, I have realized that fewer and fewer people are actually coming to church without a connection with that church, and that connection needs to be someone that they trust.

When I read the gospels and watch Jesus in His ministry here on earth, He spent little time in the temple and mega time in the marketplace.

It was in the marketplace that He connected with the people and it was in the marketplace where He healed, performed miracles and raised the dead.

I think we’ve gotten things a bit backwards in our ministries in the church in the last few decades. We’ve thought that if we can get a crowd in church, Jesus will show up and people will get saved healed and set free. I read in the Gospels that where Jesus showed up, on the street or in the church, crowds gathered and people were healed, saved and set free.

Each one of you has God given or God empowered gifts and abilities. You have hobbies and skills, if you as a believer take them into the marketplace, people will get to know you and begin to trust you and you’ll win the privilege of being heard.

This is a wonderful thing, to impact your community for the Lord. God wants us to shape and influence our co-workers. He is calling us to move from being a “Sunday Christian” to working for Him everyday.

To help us get a grip on this turn to Luke Chapter 19.
Luke 19:12-13 Jesus said, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said to them, Occupy till I come.

Luke 19:15-26 And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Then came the first, saying, Lord, your pound has gained ten pounds. And he said, you good servant: because you have been faithful in a very little, you now have authority over ten cities. And the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. And he said likewise to him, you are over five cities. Another came, saying, Lord, behold, [here is] thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin: I feared you, because you are an austere man: you take up that which you did not sow. And he said to him, Out of your own mouth will I judge you, you wicked servant. You knew that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow: Why did you not then give my money to the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with interest? And he said to them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to him that has ten pounds. And they said to him, Lord, he has ten pounds. I say to you, That to every one which has shall be given; and from him that has not, even that he has shall be taken away from him.
The key being 13b "Put this money to work until I come back" - which in the KJV is translated as "Occupy till I come"
Each of us will have to give a personal account for the extent to which the gift we have received of Christ has actually been put to use.
This parable holds a very important key for us today. It shows the challenge and the responsibility, that all of us face.
Salvation is a gift - what have you done with it?
We dare not give into the temptation to simply wait for the Lord’s return. To us, as to them, Jesus says, Put what I’ve given you to work until I return" or, "Occupy until I come".

I believe 2008 is to be the year of this type of Christianity to flow into our communities. We need to renew our expectation for amazing things to happen. We need to think outside the box!
Think - what that servant felt when his master said to him Because you’ve been trustworthy in a very small matter, I give you charge over 10 cities (v17)
But for the one who simply kept his gift in a cloth there was a harsh judgment. In fact even what he had been given him was taken away. He was described as an unprofitable servant, standing empty-handed before his master.
As we look ahead to another year, the question is what sort of return will there be for that which the Lord has placed in our hands: as individuals, and as a church?
Will it reflect faith-filled living that results in multiplication?
Will others be impacted by the consequences of our relationship with the Lord?
I believe we must resolve to take actions that open up the possibility of God-honoring multiplication.
The Lord has kingdom ground for us to take, but it will only happen in so far as we take steps into it. We need to get off of our butts, casting off the insanity of the same old same old and grab hold of Almighty God with a renewed resolve!
The Lord wants us to take whatever He has put in our hands, to, in the words of the parable, "trade with" or "do business with." You’ve heard it said, “use it or lose it!”
If we don’t make right choices our money - just like our time, will be wasted before we know what's happened to it
I pray that we together will for the glory of God by encouraging, equipping and mobilizing Christians bring Christ into the marketplace. Be yourself and let Jesus love them through you!

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” Colossians 3:23, NIV