Sermon Tone Analysis

Future Church: How May I Help You?

2 Timothy 3:16-17 • 1 Peter 5:5b-9

On October 3, 1992, Sinead O'Connor appeared on Saturday Night Live as a musical guest.

At the end of her second song, she presented a photo of Pope John Paul II to the camera and tore the photo into pieces, exclaimed "Fight the real enemy," and threw the pieces toward the camera.

She was protesting a particular issue within the Catholic Church, but she was also from Ireland, where Protestants and Catholics had been LITERALLY at war with each other … including several incidents of blowing up children!

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In my lifetime, things have not been that grim in the U.S.

However, Historic Church has taught us to feel a pulse of competition with other churches.

And they did a good job of it, didn’t they?

I could name a few Christian churches here in Terre Haute, and I know some of our people would recoil at the thought of this church or that church for whatever reason.

Let me be blunt for a moment.

There are lots of reasons that go into such a reaction … but the PRIMARY reason is usually jealousy!

We’re jealous because THAT church has better facilities, or THAT church has more people, or THAT church is too much like a show, or THAT church is growing in numbers … and we’re not.

The harsh reality is ... THAT church is reaching people for Jesus Christ that we can’t reach … AND THAT’S A GOOD THING!!!

In most communities where I’ve lived, churches have inherited a business mentality.

If I own a Subway restaurant, I know people eat other places, but I certainly hope it’s not Quizno’s or Jimmy John’s.

If they want sandwiches, they should come to us!

I know people are involved places other than churches, but if someone is going to be part of a church, we feel like it should be our church.

It doesn’t matter if the person doesn’t fit our community, or if our community doesn’t fit the person.

It doesn’t matter if the person speaks a different language than we do.

We have somehow come to believe that other churches are our competition, so we’re overprotective and suspicious of other churches.

Other Christian Churches ARE NOT our competition!

SATAN is our competition, and as long as we’re looking at humans as our competition, Satan has a field day with us.

In that context, let’s look again at our reading from Peter’s second letter today:

1 Peter 5:5–9 (NASB 2020)

5b all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God is opposed to the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.

6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you at the proper time,

7 having cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares about you.

8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert.

Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

9 So resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brothers and sisters who are in the world.

Peter begins with this admonishment:

1 Peter 5:5 (NASB 2020)

5b and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God is opposed to the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.

Humility puts us on the same team.

Humility helps us realize that we DO have an enemy, and that every Christian Church, and every Christian person SHARES THE SAME ENEMY!

Competition demands making comparisons that breed a lack of humility … dare I say those comparisons breed pride … the unholy kind of pride that God tells us countless times to run away from!

So, that’s how the passage begins.

Now, look at how it ends:

1 Peter 5:8–9 (NASB 2020)

8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert.

Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

9 So resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brothers and sisters who are in the world.

Friends, we have a common enemy, and he prowls around seeking someone to devour.

And churches can defeat Satan together a lot easier than we can if we’re fighting each other.

Churches are all experiencing the same attacks.

We’re stronger when we work together, and focus on the REAL enemy!

Sorry, Sinead … the Pope is not the real enemy, Satan is the real enemy, and he wins battles when we fight each other.

Future Church: How May I Help You?

Vigo County, Indiana, has a TON of churches.

I googled “Vigo County Indiana church”.

There may have been a duplicate or two in their list, but I stopped counting at 200! Now that we know we’re not competing with those >200 other churches in the county, let me ask a personal question.

How are we doing … how is Methodist Temple doing in sharing the truth of Jesus Christ with our community?

Remember, we’re not comparing to other churches or cities … we’re just looking at the data.

We have 123 names of lost souls on slips of paper in an offering plate on the Communion Table.

(I counted them this week.)

If I told you one of the people you listed started attending another church’s services, would you be upset or happy about that?

They are not our competition!

I’ve quoted these statistics before from a group called MissionInsite (2017 data):

8.5% of people in Vigo County believe in multiple gods

15.4% “I don’t believe a god exists; the material universe is all that is”

That's nearly 1/4 of the county either believes in multiple gods or no god at all.

“Jesus is the only way for human salvation from sin” — 50.6% --- probably well below 50% by now!

MORE THAN HALF OF THIS COUNTY DOESN’T BELIEVE JESUS IS THE ONLY WAY TO SALVATION!

The Church is losing ground, and souls are hanging in the balance.

Based on a population of 107,569 - 53,139 people all around us in this county are destined for Hell!

That figure is 5 years old!

AND THE NUMBER IS RISING!

MORE THAN HALF THE COUNTY!

So, if you’re a Christian, chances are neither of your next door neighbors are Christians!

And they aren’t coming to any of the churches in Vigo County.

If I told you a new church was starting up, you’d probably think, “What do we need another church for?

We got plenty of those.”

Apparently, we don’t.

Every other person you encounter in Vigo County doesn’t know Jesus.

Maybe another church is exactly what we need to reach those people for God’s Kingdom.

Ah .. Maybe we don’t need new churches to reach those people.

Maybe we just need to work better with each other.

Maybe we can work better with other churches in the area to make disciples so that every man, woman, and child in this county hears about the saving grace offered at the cross of Jesus Christ.

We’ve been working separately … and at times even against each other.

And we have to admit … it’s not going well!

Peter tells us to remain humble because [click] “Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking 53,139 people to devour.”

1 Peter 5:8 (NASB 2020)

8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert.

Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking 53,139 people to devour.

It’s time for Christian churches to work together and stop looking at each other as competition.

We have a shared enemy, and we all want nothing more than to see him defeated.

Heard?!?! Aren’t we stronger working together than we are individually?

Future Church: How May I Help You?

I’ve talked to lots of people who weren’t happy with the churches I was leading.

Sometimes that’s a person who’s leaving.

Sometimes that’s a guest who didn’t find a fit for their church home here.

I always try to express two things to them:

We love them regardless of what they decide to do.

But I also offer to help them find a church home where they fit because our task is to build God’s Kingdom.

And if a soul or a family finds the right place for them to be fruitful in their faith, God’s Kingdom wins … and SATAN LOSES!

We have lots of opportunities to see the result of Satan’s handiwork in the world.

We MUST unite to defeat our common enemy.

I’m not always sure what that looks like, but I know how it begins.

It begins with looking at other churches as our brothers and sisters instead of our competition or enemies.

So let’s begin by praying for those other churches, that God would help us find ways to work together to reduce the number of men, women, and children in our community who don’t know Jesus.