This morning we’re going to take a pause on the book of John and the conversations we’ve been looking at where we find out who Jesus said He is. This morning, I want to start by reading Psalm 119:36, “Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain.” (NIV)
The Psalmist here talks about the desire of his heart, that his desire is for the Lord’s ways and not toward things that satisfy his own selfish desires. It is my sincerest desire that each and every one of us would find ourselves with the same desire in our own hearts. It is my sincerest desire that each of us will want the Lord’s ways, and not our own selfish desires. That is my desire, not only for myself, not only for my family, not only for each of you, but for every person who has believed in Christ.
Our hearts are meant to be aligned with His heart. Our desires are meant to be aligned with His desires. Our thoughts, words, and actions are meant to be aligned with what He would have us think, say, and do. I think this is a statement that most, if not all, Christians would agree with, in word anyway.
But, do we actually practice this? Do we actually act like we believe that our greatest desire should be for the Lord and not for our own selfish interests?
In some ways I would say, “No”—not specifically us, our church, but the Christian church in America in general. We’re plagued by the “Have it Your Way” mentality.
“Have it Your Way.” That was the Burger King slogan, as I’m sure you’re well aware, and it stuck around for over 40 years! “Have it Your Way” meant that when you ordered your cheeseburger at Burger King, if you didn’t want ketchup on that burger, you could tell them you didn’t want ketchup and they would make it your way. Burger King’s slogan was so successful that it revolutionized the fast food industry. Now, ordering something at a restaurant and expecting that you can order it your way is the industry standard.
That’s great for cheeseburgers. It’s not so great for the church. Why? “Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain.”
The “Have it Your Way” mentality has become so prevalent, so wide-spread, that it now governs how a majority of Christians find a church, and determines if they stay at that church, and also determines why they leave a church.
The “Have it Your Way” mentality means that what most Christians look for in a church is no longer about what is in line with the desires of God’s ways, but rather with what is in line with their own selfish gain. As a result of this way of thinking, what we see is larger and larger numbers of Christians flocking toward churches with better music, more ministry choices, multiple pastors, churches that fill a niche or are geared toward one particular people group. Why? Because we want church our way. We want the church that has the best to offer because we want to make sure we are able to get the most out of the Sunday morning service experience. We have created a church consumer culture where we shop for churches the same way we shop for clothes, and we look for what we can get out of church.
And if a church doesn’t offer those things, they miss out and people move on to the bigger and better…or do they?
I’m going to give you some statistics that might be surprising to you, because they were certainly surprising to me. Did you know that 47% of Protestant churches in America have 50 people or less in their membership? Look around. That’s us! That means 47% of Protestant churches in America look just like ours.
Let me add another surprising statistic to that. Another 25% or so of Protestant churches in America have 50-100 people in them. So, in total, nearly 75% of Protestant churches in America have a membership of less than 100 people. The majority of Protestant Christians in America attend a church that looks much like ours.
The first Christian churches looked like ours. They were small groups of believers gathered together humbly and sincerely to worship God, read His Word, and love one another.
So, while it may feel like everyone around us is telling us that we can’t compete with the bigger and better of the biggest churches, the truth is, that while the biggest churches certainly have their place and they do a lot of good, their biggest and best isn’t actually the biggest, and may not even be the best.
I’ve been told a handful of times that if my church isn’t growing in numbers, it’s not a healthy church—healthy churches grow. I’ve received the message that our smaller church isn’t as important as the bigger churches. I’ve, at times in the past, felt inferior to the superiority of big churches. But all this is wrong. Why?
“Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain.” Psalm 119:36, NIV
What is the most vitally important thing in a church? Hearts turned toward God’s ways, hearts seeking Him and hungering and thirsting after His righteousness more than anything else, hearts desiring to be in His presence, hearts to do as He wills, hearts surrendered to Him in worship.
It’s not the light show and the fog machine, it’s not the coffee-bar, it’s not the professional praise band, it’s not the charismatic preacher, it’s not even necessarily the wide offering of ministry and group choices.
“Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain.”
This requires a renewing of our minds, and a realignment of our hearts to God’s. How do we do that? How do we transform our mindset so that we don’t miss all the amazing things God is doing here and think that the grass might be greener on the other side?
Paul wrote, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Philippians 4:8, NASB
We want to tune our hearts to God’s frequency, and open our eyes to see the ways He is at work here at Cornerstone Church. And then we want to do two things when we see and recognize what He is doing: 1. We want to praise Him for what He’s doing; and 2. We want to join Him in what He’s doing.
So what are these things we’re supposed to think about to help us recalibrate how we think and what we see? Well, Paul says whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent or worthy of praise.
Let’s do a little exercise here, shall we?
What about our church is true? Well, our Bible teaching. Our Bible teaching is true. Whether it is my message on Sundays, or either of our Sunday school classes, or our women’s group, or our young adult group, or kids church. What is taught in those times is the Bible, and the Bible is truth. Those leaders humble themselves before the Lord in preparation every week to ensure that what they are teaching is true. They are in prayer every week about what to teach and how to teach it in a way that fosters spiritual growth.
What about our church is honorable? I think one of the many things that is honorable about our church is our perseverance. Not just our perseverance during difficult times, but our perseverance to keep doing what is right and good. You all have such a persevering spirit. James 1:2-4 says that when we persevere through challenges, the end result is that we will be made complete lacking in nothing. We count our perseverance all joy! James 1:12 says that we’re blessed when we persevere. And Galatians 6:9 tells us to keep persevering in good deeds. I have seen the heart of this congregation, and this is a persevering church, and that is honorable. When we persevere, we grow spiritually!
What about our church is right? Well, intergenerational ministry! What do I mean by that? Well, because we are a small church, and because the aren’t dozens and hundreds of people in each age group, we don’t segregate the children into another room for the entirety of service, and we don’t have multiple study groups that are segregated by age. Every age group in our church worships together. Every age group in our church gets the blessing of encountering and forging relationships with people of every age, from 4 to well…as old as our oldest member.
There have been so many studies that show that an important factor in younger generations staying and remaining active in the church is the presence of a relationship with someone older than them in the church who is not a member of their family. In other words, younger people stay engaged in the church when they have a non-family member mentor in the church!
This makes me think of Paul’s words to Titus, whom Paul mentored, when he gave Titus instructions in Titus 2 to have younger women in the church be mentored by older women in the church, and to have younger men in the church be mentored by older men in the church. The size of our church makes this easy, and until you really think about it, you don’t even realize that it’s happening, because it just happens so naturally. Those who are younger learn from the wisdom and example of those who are older, and once again, spiritual growth happens.
What about our church is pure? This is easy for me to answer: our worship is pure. Our worship time together as a congregation is so pure, and so sweet. What I see when I worship on Sunday mornings is a group of people who aren’t concerned about how they sound, aren’t concerned about saying the words right, aren’t concerned about what people think, aren’t concerned with the distractions around them. What I see is a group of people who are simply worshiping the Lord in spirit and truth.
I see the Lord humbling us and drawing us close. I see people who have the most beautiful expressions of peace and love on their faces as tears stream down in adoration. And I’m reminded of this promise from Psalm 22:3, that the Lord is pleased by the praises of His people, the promise that He is here amongst our midst when we are praising Him; and I know beyond a doubt that this is true when I see and experience the purity of our worship. And as we do that together, we grow spiritually.
What about our church is lovely? The meaning of this word is something that is full of love. Here, I point to our conversations. Our conversations and our interactions with one another are full of love. I hear questions asked every time we gather about how family members are doing, how are you doing with this illness, how is so and so recovering from surgery, how’s your garden coming along, how are your pets, how was your trip, I’m glad you got back safe, how was your doctor’s appointment, what can I pray for? Our conversations are full of genuine love and concern for one another.
Ephesians 4:29 says that the words we speak to one another should be for the encouragement and building up of one another. That is exactly what I hear when we gather. This fosters spiritual growth as well.
What about our church is commendable? In other words, what is good, righteous, holy, what is in line with God’s will? Lots of things, but one thing that I see that is good, commendable about our church is the level of faith displayed. We don’t have all the bigger, better things that help big churches grow. We can’t rely on those things to bring in people and reach people in the community and touch lives. So what do we have? Faith. We have big, huge faith here because we clearly see the gap between what we desire to do to reach people and what we’re actually capable of.
We have big faith that if we are faithful, He is faithful to us. We have big faith that if we seek Him, He will build His church the way He desires to. After all, that was His promise, wasn’t it? He said that He would build His church. We have faith that if we focus on the job He gave us: making disciples, then He will do the rest. We have faith that as we lean into prayer and we reach out into the community in ways He has put in front of us, that He will bring us to people who we can love on and minister to. We have big faith in the abilities of our God and we have faith in His grace that truly sustains us every day, and as He continues to show up in mighty, amazing ways that are unexpected to us and out of our capabilities, our faith grows.
What about our church is excellent? Colossians 3:23-24 says, “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord and not for people, knowing that it is from the Lord that you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.”
You all have excellent servants hearts. I have seen many of you come and take care of the church property without being asked. When COVID hit, many of you offered to bring groceries who might not be comfortable going to get groceries. You’ve sent cards of love and encouragement to one another. You faithfully bring in Alabaster offering twice a year. You bring in yummy goodies for all of us to enjoy. You jump in and fill in gaps when someone is out of town. You volunteer for events and bring in supplies for those events. You serve whole-heartily, as for the Lord, and not for people, and that is excellent. And as you do that, you grow spiritually.
What about our church is worthy of praise? Here, the thing Paul is talking about is anything that is like the character of God. So, whatever hasn’t already been covered by true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, commendable, and excellent and is like the character of God. Here, there’s just so much. I love the kindness shown toward visitors that I believe shows the character of God. I love the compassion extended toward those who are hurting. I love the understanding that is extended when we find we might not see eye to eye on things. I could go on and on, and I’m sure you could to.
So, church, can you have it your way? Yeah, somewhere, you could, but the most important thing is to seek instead to turn your heart toward the Lord’s ways, to recognize the ways He is moving here and now, to praise Him for it, and to join Him in His work.
1. What true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, praise-worthy things about Cornerstone Church can you add to the list?
2. How might it affect your relationship and engagement with the church to focus on these things?
3. How has your faith been affected by consumer culture?