Complete this phrase…”Don’t just sit there ____________________”
Don’t just sit there. Do something.
Last weekend I saw people who took that to heart:
· families – Mom’s Dad’s and kids assembling food packs for Kids Against Hunger
· hundreds of people collecting and sorting food
· men and women up to their armpits in cars changing oil and inspecting for safety
· biking crazies assembling a new bike repair ministry
· people assisting refugees at Neighborhood Christina Legal Clinic
· assisting IPS schools with murals and food pantry reorganization
· painting walls at a Life center
· deep cleaning the Trinity Health Clinic
· beautifying the grounds of Midwest food bank
· planting 400 trees and creating a new forest on our back 40.
1000s of people didn’t just sit there…they did something and actually accomplished a great deal – 39,000 lbs of food for instance.
It’s all good but… it isn’t enough. It’s a start but only a start. It’s an episode of justice but only an episode.
Ø The Weekend of Service is not enough nor are the hundreds of occasional projects many of you engage in from time to time throughout the year.
Ø My hope and desire is that service projects are only catalysts in your life to something more…something deeper…something essential…something comprehensive…something revolutionary.
Ø You don’t trade up from me to mission with a few good episodes of service.
That phrase I began with…Don’t just sit there. Do something...is inadequate…only a start…and must shift to this: Don’t just do something. Be something.
This trade up from Me to Mission is not about mixing in a few good deeds it’s about a reorientation of your whole life.
Trading up from Me to Mission is trading:
…from the American Dream to Kingdom Passion
…from a life of consumption to a life of calling
…from the daily grind to daily destiny
…from being a doer to becoming a prophet.
A Prophet is a person who speaks on behalf of God, feels on behalf of God
A prophet is a representative of God…and ambassador for God
I want Grace church to be teeming with prophets.
Prophets are the voice of God whether or not people listen. They speak regardless. And they speak recklessly. They have a profound sensitivity to evil as well as good. God’s fire and love rage through the lips of prophets.
Shane Claiborne, Jesus for President
Imagine a church full of people like that! That’s what I am talking about.
Don’t just do something. Be something.
That’s the ultimate trade up…from Ordinary Joe or Josephine to prophet of God.
How does one become a prophet?
Isaiah 6 page _________
How does one become a prophet?
1. A prophet experiences God and, as a result, is transformed
Week 1 we saw how Isaiah the prophet experienced the royalty, holiness, fear, and forgiveness 1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
When he had experienced God it transformed him and he accepted the call of God
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" Isaiah 6:1-8
Two weeks ago Steve reminded us that it is from a heart transformed by God that truth pours out from us into the lives of people around us.
· He said - You can’t share it unless you’ve experienced it – unless you’ve been transformed by it.
· It’s hard to sell what you have yourself have not bought into.
· It’s hard to give away something that you don’t yourself have!
Steve Znachko
Someone sharing what they themselves are living, what they themselves have tasted, what they themselves have become, is almost impossible to resist! Steve Znachko
Isaiah was impossible to resist – he was a prophet who wasn’t speaking from theory but from experience.
For you to graduate from doing to being – from me to mission – you must experience God and be transformed…and that starts with surrender!
How does one become a prophet?
2. Get passionate and speak up.
Note what happens after Isaiah offers to be sent…
9 He said, "Go and tell this people: "'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.' 10 Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed." 11 Then I said, "For how long, O Lord?" And he answered: "Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, 12 until the LORD has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken. 13 And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land." Isaiah 6:9-13
This is complicated and hard to grasp but let me take a stab…
· Prophets speak up even when people around them are calloused
· Prophets persist even when people appear dull to their message
· Prophets represent even if it takes forever and the world is going to hell in a hand-basket
· Prophets carry on as is suggested in Vs 13 believing there is a seed of hope for change.
What is it about prophets that make them so persistent. so intense …so cranky?
“To us a single act of injustice – cheating in business, exploiting the poor – is slight; to the prophets it’s a disaster. To us injustice is injurious to the welfare of the people; to the prophets it’s a deathblow to existence; to us, an episode; to them a catastrophe, a threat to the world.” Rabbi Abraham Heschel
Prophets are passionate people...they're intense...always on...quick trigger for injustice...heart never takes a day off.
· their discontent is not shallow – it is conscience deep.
· they get angry and speak up about it
· they are heartbroken and don’t cover their disappointment
· they live with a low grade fever of sadness and aren’t afraid to share that with you.
that’s what I’m talking about…And I want a church full of them. Why?
Sometimes it takes just one voice to interrupt the pattern of injustice. Shane Claiborne, Jesus for President
Imagine if we had 5000
Don’t just do something. Be Something.
One more thing…How does one become a prophet?
3. Focus on a broken place of the world
Ø This is more of a helpful suggestion than anything. You could start becoming a prophet and get all worked up about everything wrong with the world…all 6 broken places…6 Broken Places of the world (slides)
Ø But… it would be better for you and all of us if you focused your attention on one of the broken places…narrowed your passion. energy and anger:
Isaiah doesn’t mention all 6 broken places but he does focus on a few. For instance:
He’s concerned about - Separation (slide)
"Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. Isaiah 1:18
He’s worked up about - Injustice (slide)
Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, 2 to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. Isaiah 10:1-2
And he’s troubled by - Hatred (slide)
Isaiah 2:2-5 –2 In the last days the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. 3 Many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths." The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 4 He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. 5 Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the LORD. Isaiah 2:2-5
Isaiah is calling for an end to hatred. He was angry about racism; Frustrated by war; an disturbed by genocide. ARE YOU?
Ø In just two weeks we’ll return to the subject: Series – Becoming US / diversity
o and Play “to Kill a Mockingbird”
But, let’s do a deeper dive into this broken place – see what we can learn about hatred from Celestin Musekura who experienced this hatred first hand and now is a prophet of peace and reconciliation.
VIDEO
Don’t just do something. Be Something.
This might be a pipe dream but I imagine a day when Grace church is full of Celestins.
Ø Men, women boys and girls who’ve become prophets
o prophets calling people to no longer be separated from God
o prophets being catalysts of community for isolated people
o prophets moving into the pain of others with hope and healing
o prophets who tackle injustice
o prophets who care for a creation that is in decay
o prophets who stand against hatred in all its forms
Imagine a church full of people who have experienced God and have been transformed…who are pouring into the lives of people around them…
Imagine if we were a church full of passionate, focused, cranky people who don’t just sit there…they do something and they don’t just do something…they become something – prophets of God…ambassadors of hope.
Could that be you?