Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon
You probably have not memorized what Proverbs 29:18 says. But, you’ve heard it enough that you know it by heart. KJV says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Often people think of vision in this verse as coming up with your freshly minted, never thought of, original kind of stuff that grabs you. But, here the vision is of the prophetic nature, meaning it is what God had communicated to the people through the prophets. And, the prophetic ministry was called into place in order to call people back to God. So, without God grabbing the attentions of the people through the prophetic vision, without the word from God through the prophets, there would be quick descend to anarchy and destruction.
Let me illustrate it this way… I am a stickler when it comes to wearing seatbelts. My girls will tell you that I get very intense when it comes to wearing seatbelts correctly. When I first learned how to put seatbelts on my little girls, I took my time, I watched video on how to put it on correctly, and I read a manual about it. The prophetic word from God is like parents putting on seatbelts on their children correctly so that if they ever get into accident, their children will not fly off the windshield, but be kept safely.
Now, imagine parents no longer putting seatbelts on their children correctly… you are going to find little children squirm their way out of their seatbelts. You will see the little children “cast off restraint” sort to speak and put themselves in danger.
Last year I felt like a child without wearing my seat belt, vulnerable and fearful. I felt this way about us as a church. It felt like we as church were heading towards a crash without our seatbelts on. Without God’s vision, we perish!
But, what difference it makes when God speaks through his word. In this month of March, I am going to share with you confidence I have because God has placed me back in my seat, and put the seatbelt to secure me. He is been speaking to me through his word. I believe that you and I as church will experience confidence because God is securing us for the ride ahead of us through his vision, through his Word. God’s vision, his word absolutely demands changes. You cannot embrace his vision and do things as usual. We have to change. No status quo in the kingdom ride.
I believe that God wants to secure you in his vision not to have you ride on the all too familiar smooth, comfortable, lazy scenic route we’ve been on too long. It’s been a journey with no edge. God knows that the boredom without adventure is going to kill you because you are a creature shaped for the kingdom adventure. I like my Toyota Siena… but really I think it is time for my family to trade it with Land Rover with eight seats because we are about to go off the trail for the kingdom adventure. And, I want you to come with me. Buckle your seatbelts and fire off your Land Rover. Are you up for the adventure?
The word of God that has been speaking to me is 1 Corinthians 9:19-23. What you are going to see in this passage is the vision of the supremacy of the gospel over cultures.
- The supremacy of the gospel over cultures
You know great deal about Paul, how he lived, what he lived for through my preaching from Acts and 2 Timothy. 1 Corinthians 9:19-27 is another passage that speaks so clearly how Paul was a man who was fully committed to the supremacy of the gospel over cultures.
If you know Paul, you know Paul was once the proud Jew, so proud of his culture, traditions, and beliefs that he didn’t think twice about cracking down any threat against his Jewish culture; he would never have befriended the Gentiles. It wouldn’t be wrong for me to describe him as once an ethnocentric jerk.
But, in our text, we see him speaking with words like, “I make myself a slave to everyone,” “To the Jews I became like a Jew,” “To those under the law I became like one under the law,” “To those not having the law I became like one not having the law,” “To the weak I became weak,” “I have become all things to all men.” Paul wasn’t talking about being a man with no sense of identity and character, full of compromises and no purpose in mind; merely a chameleon shifting his colors depends who he was talking to with no moral convictions. No, that’s the farthest thing from what Paul was saying here.
To “become all things to all men” had very specific purpose… “to win Jews,” “to win those under the law” that is God-fearing Gentiles and among those who converted to Judaism, “to win those not having the law” that is the Gentiles, “to win the weak” that is the social misfits of his time, “to win as many as possible,” “by all possible means… save some,” “for the sake of the gospel.” Paul stood for the supremacy of the gospel.
Paul went from being an ethnocentric jerk with massive dose of superiority complex to being a sincere and humble, winsome, down to earth kind of guy; he was able to befriend, to come along side of non-believing people of different backgrounds, cultures, and beliefs; he didn’t befriend them just because they were potential converts to Christ and only to abandon friendship if they rejected the gospel. He really cared for them and loved them.
Just like Jesus who befriended people labeled as sinners and misfits of the society, Paul did the same thing. All for the purpose that some of his non-Christian friends from different culture, backgrounds might come to embrace the gospel and be saved.
Paul was gripped by the telos, the vision, the end goal of the gospel that can never be contained, restricted into the domain of one subculture. To restrict the gospel into one dimensional subculture is like putting a wild mountain lion into a 6 by 6 foot cage. No, they need tens of hundreds of square miles to roam and thrive. Paul understood this about the gospel. Do you?
I believe that each of you is uniquely gifted to live out the vision and the power of the gospel. Generally speaking, the first generation immigrants cannot engage the greater territory effectively; they cannot broaden the network of friendship beyond those who speak the same language.
But, you are uniquely positioned with God given capacity to form friendship with anyone you choose to and you can invite them to Jesus. Imagine with me. Imagine what it would be like us as church being driven by the supremacy of the gospel over cultures. What would it be like to be released from the restriction of a subculture into the wild? Once you’ve seen the wild, I don’t think you would want to go back.
Some of you heard from me last time to consider the path to join KCUMC and become their English Ministry instead of continue CMC. And, hearing from me today, you might be thinking that I did a 180 flip on you. You may say I had a vision to join KCUMC and now to I have a different vision. As I told one of you, I would say that through the month of December last year, I lost the vision for CMC. I had no resolve to see what could be. And, it is not an understatement that I felt like I was slowly dying inside.
But, as I renewed my relationship with him, as I recommit my love to Jesus and freshly hear his call to me to feed you, his sheep, and to lead you, God is making things very clearly to me.
The decision that was before us, either to cease to exist as Cornerstone Mission Church and join KCUMC or to continue to exist as Cornerstone Mission Church, is not a moral decision. Whether there is one church or two separate churches, there is only one true Universal Church of our Lord Jesus Christ.
However, it becomes a moral decision of right or wrong when it involves what God wants to see with CMC, with us. If God has his vision set on for Cornerstone Mission Church to be a church that honors the supremacy of the gospel, to be released into the wild beyond the little plot of our subculture, then surely it become the moral decision. We either obey God’s vision for the supremacy of the gospel and go for the kingdom adventure that requires bold faith or withdraw from his vision and remain in our comfortable, non-threatening, non-committal lot only to die in boredom and frustration.
What do you think?
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