"Heartbeat" Nov 4, 2018
Overview
The Heartbeat of Our Mission
To love the Lord our God is the heartbeat of our mission—the spring from which our service overflows, whether across the street or around the world. This conviction flows directly from 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, where Paul writes, "For the love of Christ urges us on." That word "urges" carries the sense of being controlled, compelled, held in a grip. Paul was accused of being out of his mind, an insane fanatic for Jesus—and the reason was simple: the love of Christ had taken hold of him so completely that it directed his every word and action.
One Died for All
At the core of this love is substitutionary atonement: "we are convinced that one has died for all." Christ took on the cup of God's wrath that we deserved, dying in our place and on our behalf. Scripture testifies to this with one voice: "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" 2 Corinthians 5:21; "There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all" 1 Timothy 2:5-6; "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us... we shall be saved by him from the wrath of God" Romans 5:8-9.
And then come those four crucial words: "therefore all have died." When Jesus died, we died with him. As Romans 6:3-4 reminds us, we were buried with Christ in baptism so that we might walk in newness of life. When God looks at us now, he doesn't see a sinner deserving wrath—he sees us clothed in Christ Galatians 3:26-27, righteous and welcomed at his throne.
No Longer Living for Ourselves
Paul continues: "He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised." Our natural pull is still toward self—taking care of number one. Jesus warned against this very temptation in the parable of the rich fool Luke 12:13-21. The man had abundance enough to feed countless families, but chose to build bigger barns and store it all for himself. God called him a fool. Our lives are not to be characterized by self-love, but by the compelling love of Christ that flows outward to others.
Sent as Missionaries
The early church in Acts shows us what this looks like. Those first disciples shared the gospel verbally, boldly, without ceasing—even when arrested, beaten, and forbidden to speak the name of Jesus, they kept proclaiming. The Spirit's promise still stands: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" Acts 1:8.
The old model said the church does ministry and the people help. Acts flips this: the people are the missionaries, and the church equips, supports, and sends them. Through courses like Everyday Missionary (the who), Everyone His Witness (the how), and Everyday Boldness (the do), members are being equipped to recognize their mission field and engage it confidently. Mission opportunities are expanding outward in concentric circles—from Kids Beach Club at a local elementary school (Jerusalem), to partnership with My Father's Business in Chicago (Judea), to coming alongside Shepherd of the Valley among the Navajo people in New Mexico (Samaria), to youth trips and a return to Costa Rica (the ends of the earth). Every action creates an opportunity for the verbal proclamation of Jesus Christ.
Living the Refrain
You are the missionary. The love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one died for all. Therefore we live no longer for ourselves but for him who died and was raised for us. To love the Lord our God is the heartbeat of our mission—and so we sing, and so we live.
Transcript
Alright, honest, honest question, how many of you have had this hymn stuck in your heads for a couple weeks now? 0s
Anyone? Anyone? I see a couple hymns. I was driving along and last week, just, 8s
t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t. And I went, 13s
pester, I was right! It isn't my head! It's in my head! 16s
And I had to look it up and listen to it a few times more. 19s
But there's a reason for that. We've had the past couple weeks, this sermon series, 22s
is really based out of scripture and out of this hymn. 29s
Because this hymn really speaks to the mission, and we started with the crux. 34s
Right? What it all comes down to, the crucial part, which is the cross. 40s
It's the cross. The cross is the crux of the matter, what it all comes down to. 46s
And then last week, we heard pastor Eibel preach about the light with that candle, 52s
that verse about the candle. And it's not, it's not to be shunned, right? 57s
And we reflect the light of Jesus. 63s
So there are lots of us who would like to scream and curse the darkness. 67s
You're stupid, darkness! I love that cartoon analogy. 72s
But really, we're called to be who we are as light, reflecting that light of Jesus. 77s
And today, we continue with this hymn, but looking at that refrain at the chorus, 83s
which says, to love the Lord our God is the heartbeat of our mission. 91s
The spring from which our service overflows across the street, or around the world, 96s
the missions still the same. Proclaim and live the truth in Jesus' name. 102s
To love the Lord our God is the heartbeat of this mission, the heartbeat of this mission. 110s
Paul gets into that point in the text for today. 120s
We're going to be working out of second Corinthians chapter 5, 123s
if you'd like to open your Bible to that. It's on page 159 in the New Testament, 128s
if you're using one of the few additions. 134s
And so Paul's been writing to the Corinthians. He's been working with those in Corinth, 138s
and just for a little bit of context or background of where Paul is at this moment. 145s
In his life, at this moment, when he's writing these letters to the Corinthians, 152s
he's being charged for being out of his mind. He's being accused of being an insane fanatic 156s
in his proclamation of Jesus. How many of us are accused of being insane fanatics? 166s
Okay, all right, honest confession here. 174s
So that's where Paul is. He is being charged and accused of being this crazy fanatic in his proclamation. 177s
But we see why where he writes in verse 14, the first part, 184s
he says, for the love of Christ urges us on an urge here, that word urge, 188s
it means to control or to compel. It means to hold in one's grip. 195s
So the love of Christ is controlling or gripping Paul, so that it controls all of his actions. 202s
The love of Christ compels him in the words that he speaks. 213s
The love of Christ urges us on and he writes on, because we are convinced that one has died for all. 219s
Now this is a substitutionary atonement statement. 230s
The word substitutionary atonement. What that means is that the four in this statement, 236s
we are convinced that one has died for all. 242s
That four in this statement means on behalf of or in place of. 246s
So what did someone have to die in place of or on behalf of for all? 252s
Someone needed to die to pay for God's wrath. 262s
God has wrath for sin for evil, and it requires to bring it to justice, 268s
to bring it to order. It requires a death. It requires a death. 276s
And Jesus took on that wrath and he died in our place. 281s
Good Friday. Any of you might remember the good Friday sermon this past spring. 286s
And Pastor Eibel preached about the cup that Jesus drank from, and it wasn't the wine goblet at the last supper. 293s
And it wasn't a water cup. 300s
It was the cup of wrath that was poured out upon him that he took on willingly for us in place of us on behalf of us to pay that price for our sin. 303s
He paid the penalty for your sin. He paid the penalty for my sin. 321s
In second Corinthians it says for our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin. 326s
So that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 334s
In first Timothy it says for there is one God. There is also one mediator between God and humankind. 340s
Christ Jesus, himself, human who gave himself a ransom for all. 348s
Roman's five says, but God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners. 357s
Christ died for us. 364s
Much more surely than now that we have been justified by his blood will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. 366s
The love of Christ urges us on because we are convinced that one has died for all. 374s
And what do those next four words say? 383s
Therefore all have died. 387s
When Jesus died we all died. 390s
We were brought into that death of his. 395s
Our sin died on that cross when Jesus died on that cross that wrath that Jesus took was the wrath that we deserved. 399s
And we died to it with him. 410s
In Romans and we all this should be familiar from our baptismal teachings. 414s
In Romans 6 it says, do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus or baptized into his death. 419s
Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. 428s
So we too might walk in newness of life. 438s
When God looks at us, he does not see the sinner who deserves wrath. 444s
He does not see the sinner who deserves death and punishment. 451s
He sees Jesus Christ. 457s
He sees us through the blood of Jesus pure and righteous and okay with him. 460s
Okay to approach the throne. 468s
Okay to be in his presence through Jesus Christ. 470s
When God looks at us, he sees that new person as we are through Christ. 476s
In Galatians 3, it says, for in Christ Jesus, you are all children of God through faith. 483s
As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothe yourselves with Christ. 490s
We are no longer that blemished sheep. 496s
We are no longer scarlet with our sin. 500s
We are clotheed in Jesus Christ, clothe in His righteousness to be presented to the Father in that righteous state. 505s
In verse 15, as we continue in our reading, it says, and he died for all so that those who live might live no longer for themselves. 514s
But for him who died and was raised for them. 523s
In our simpleness, we are all really tempted to still live for ourselves. 528s
Even when we know we shouldn't, we get tempted into taking care of number one. 534s
Right? I want to live for me. I get tempted by that. 541s
In Luke 12, the 12 chapter I should say, Jesus gives us a great parable of this temptation. 545s
He was surrounded by a crowd. And he said to them, take care. 551s
Be on your guard against all kinds of greed. For one's life does not consist in abundance of possessions. 557s
Then he told them a parable. 564s
The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 567s
And he thought to himself, what should I do? 570s
For I have no place to store my crops. 574s
So he has this interesting conundrum. He has so much. 578s
He is blessed with a bounty of crops. 583s
And he doesn't know what to do with it. 587s
Let's see what he does. Then he said, I will do this. 590s
I will pull down my barns and build larger ones. 594s
And there I will store all my grain and my goods. 598s
And I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample good laid up for many years. 601s
For laks, feet, drink, be merry. 608s
But God said to him, you fool. 613s
This very night, your life is being demanded of you. 617s
And the things you have prepared, who will they be? 620s
So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves, but are not rich toward God. 625s
That man had a choice to make. 633s
He had an abundance. He could have fed how many nodes. 637s
How many families could he have impacted with the abundance of his crops? 642s
But he thought, take care of number one. 647s
I am going to make sure that I have more than I need. 652s
I am going to make sure I am taking care of me. 655s
And I am done. But he was a fool. 658s
He was a fool. Our life is not to be characterized by self-love. 662s
Instead, we are compelled, right? 668s
We are controlled by the love of Christ. 671s
The one who loves us, control the, had a grip on our actions, our words. 675s
It was not the duty of, it was not out of duty that Paul acted. 682s
Rather, it was out of love to love the Lord our God. 687s
It is the heartbeat of our mission. 693s
It is the heart of our mission. 697s
For a while now, we have been studying the book of Acts. 701s
We have been going through the first seven chapters. 704s
We are almost finished with the seventh chapter. 706s
But we really wanted for our congregation to see the early church in mission. 710s
To see how they functioned, how they did it in their mission. 716s
And there was clear focus with those first disciples. 721s
They shared the gospel verbally. 726s
They proclaimed salvation in the name of Jesus Christ without ceasing. 729s
Even when they were told to stop, they wouldn't. 735s
And they were bold. I think that is an understatement. 739s
But it all I can come up with. They were bold. 743s
They were arrested. They were beaten. They were put in jail. 747s
They were brought before the council. 752s
And they would not stop. 754s
I love it when they're standing in front of the panhandra. 757s
When they're in that council and they're being charged. 760s
And they're being questioned. 763s
And their lives are hanging in the balance. 765s
And they're told, you just need to stop speaking the name of Jesus. 767s
And what do they do? 771s
Right there. Two of the council. 774s
I'm sorry. We're not going to stop this. 775s
Or keep on. Keep it on. 778s
And they would go straight back out to the temple and proclaim salvation in the name of Jesus Christ. 780s
They would not stop that. 787s
That is bold. 790s
The witness that they brought is the same witness that we bring. 793s
And we've had. We've taken some thought and put some energy into this in helping us have that witness. 798s
Helping us get bold in our witness. 807s
We have some special classes. 809s
Some of you probably have already participated in some of these. 811s
And they're geared towards helping us in our witness. 815s
The first one is, and these are don't have to be in any particular order at all. 819s
You can jump in at any time. 823s
But the first one that we have is everyday missionary course. 825s
That's the who. 829s
That's showing us who. It's helping us to recognize who is in our mission field. 830s
Who do we see every single day that we can be sharing with? 837s
That's the who, everyday missionary. 843s
Who, who, who. 845s
Then we have everyone's witness. 847s
That's the how. 850s
That's the how we've had our eyes opened to our mission field. 852s
The everyone his witness shows us how to engage with those that are in our mission field. 856s
It gives us pointed questions. 864s
Conversation. 867s
Some direction. 869s
In how to engage with those around us and how to share the gospel. 871s
Sometimes it can be scary. 875s
But if you're scared, we also have everyday boldness, which is do. 878s
Do it. 884s
Just go out and do it. 885s
It's all about gaining that confidence in being a witness. 887s
So we have the who, the how the do and right now pastor, Ival and I are working on developing an academy to further equip the congregation. 891s
And those outside the congregation. 903s
And the academy will be a series of classes that you can take to help equip you to be a witness. 907s
Help equip you to grow in your discipleship and to be a bold disciple in this world and to ably and confidently defend the Christian faith. 915s
So I get really excited about things. 930s
I don't know if any of you have noticed that ever about me. 932s
Whenever I try to pull a prank on someone, I always ruin it. 937s
I never, I can't wait till the moment where I can say surprise. 941s
Someone's coming in for a birthday surprise. 945s
I yell before they're in the house. 948s
I get really excited about things. 949s
So it's been very hard for me to kind of play it cool. 951s
So I'm really excited to get to share with you this next bit because it's just incredible. 955s
It's such a neat journey that we're about to take as a congregation. 962s
And I can't tell you how blessed we are as a congregation as brothers and sisters in Christ as people of God to take this journey together. 966s
In 2019, we're going to see some special ministries emerge. 977s
And this is all born out of the faithful giving of this congregation. 982s
We have such a generous congregation and everything that I'm going to tell you now is out of that generosity of this people, which is amazing and so special. 989s
In Acts 1 verse 8, it says, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. 1001s
And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. 1007s
So if you think about that as concentric circles of mission, you have Jerusalem, right, hometown, home space. 1014s
Then we go out a little bit to Judea, then a little bit further to Samaria and then all the way out to the ends of the earth. 1023s
Well, we've got something for you in each of those mission fields. 1032s
Some amazing, amazing opportunities out of this incredible financial blessing that we have. 1039s
Council and staff got together and we prayed and we talked and we prayed and we talked some more. 1047s
And we prayed some more. 1053s
We found that out of the blessings that we have not just financial, but the blessings of time and talent. 1055s
You guys are an amazing congregation. 1063s
What a shame to waste that because you're incredible people. 1067s
You are amazing witnesses of Jesus Christ. 1071s
And as counsel and staff, we realized that this financial blessing needs to be invested in the people of living where Lutheran Church to be sent out. 1075s
And we are going to be able to do this as missionaries on special mission opportunities. 1085s
In Jerusalem, in our own back door, we're beginning a new ministry. 1090s
It's kids beach club and this will be at Dove Elementary. 1095s
It's for a third through sixth grade kids. 1100s
It needs right after school, one hour a day, one day a week and it's 24 weeks of the school year. 1102s
And we're going to build a team of missionaries to go and share the gospel and put a Bible in these kids hands. 1109s
I heard from one of the volunteers that's worked over there at Dove Elementary and she said, she's had several kids come up to her and tell her, we don't go to church. 1116s
This is my church that Thursday afternoon an hour of hearing the gospel from those volunteers, those missionaries, that's their church. 1128s
And what an opportunity that we get to share Jesus Christ with these little kids and maybe we get that opportunity to share Jesus Christ with their parents or grandparents or aunts or uncle. 1138s
We get to proclaim the name of Jesus Christ in our own Jerusalem. 1151s
And then we move out to Judea. 1159s
We're partnering with a very special ministry called My Father's Business. 1161s
It's in Chicago. If you've taken everyday missionary course with Steve Burke, this will be familiar to you and you will know how important this ministry is. 1165s
The goal of the ministry is to get at at risk kids off the street on Friday nights. 1176s
This ministry feeds the kids. They play basketball or some games. They have a Bible lesson. 1182s
And we're planning on sending a team of four individuals three times a year up to Chicago. 1188s
They took this ministry. They took one night off and two kids were shot and killed and they said never again we will never not be open on a Friday. 1196s
And they proclaim the name of Jesus every single week to those kids that need to hear it. 1207s
We all need to hear it. 1214s
Samaria moving out a little bit further in those circles. 1216s
We're going to work with a Native American ministry in Navajo, New Mexico. 1221s
This is a nation within our nation, a different culture within our own culture. 1226s
We're sending 10 people from this congregation. 1233s
This spring to come alongside Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church in reaching the Navajo people with the love of Christ. 1236s
Shepherd of the Valley was closed five years ago. They didn't have anyone. 1246s
They didn't have worship. They didn't have Bible studies. They didn't have community activities. 1250s
It was for all intents and purposes a dead church when pastor Tim Norton was called there. 1254s
And over the past five years, he has seen 27 people called out of the darkness and into the glorious light through holy baptism. 1261s
And we get to come alongside them and share in their mission and share the gospel of Jesus Christ and the ends of the earth. 1273s
We're sending the kids to do that. 1285s
No, I'm just kidding. We are, we are, we are youth trips are our senior high youth trip this summer. They're going to Tennessee. 1286s
They're going to work with younger kids putting on a VBS type program and they're going to do work to care for the earth as good stewards of God's creation. 1296s
And the senior high youth are going up to South Dakota to help a Native American community in construction that will benefit their community. 1307s
And we're also sending, and this is open for all, this is not just the youth. We're sending 25 missionaries from this congregation back to Costa Rica. 1317s
It's open to everyone. They were there last summer. We're going again. 1327s
And they got to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. They got to do home visit and pray with people who didn't know Jesus and didn't know if they wanted to know Jesus. 1333s
What an exciting opportunity to get back and continue to build those relationships with those people and see if those seeds have been planted or continue to plant seeds. 1345s
The ends of the earth. Who knew it would be Costa Rica, but it is. And it's very, very exciting. 1357s
Approximately $40,000 of the financial blessing is being used to keep participant costs to a minimum. 1368s
We have plans to carry this into 2020 as well, making a similar investment next year. So we can, it's not a one and done. 1375s
We're building these relationships with the Navajo people. We're building these relationships in Costa Rica. 1386s
We're building these relationships with the kids and families of dev creek elementary. These missions are not just to work with our hands. 1392s
But to bring that verbal witness of Jesus Christ to the people that we meet. Think back to the book of Acts. 1401s
All the action, all the physical happenings that the disciples were doing, brought about the opportunity to verbally proclaim Jesus Christ. 1410s
Every action afforded the opportunity for that verbal proclamation. 1423s
The old model of the American church was, we, the church are going to do it and you, the people, get to help us. 1430s
But if we look at the book of Acts, if we learn from the book of Acts, which we have, which we do, we see it flipped. 1439s
It's actually you, the people, the people of God can do it. We, the church, will equip you and support you and send you. 1449s
And that is exciting, that's very, very exciting. 1463s
Luther, as living word, is investing in you because you are the missionary. 1468s
You are on a missionary or on a mission. You will be sent out on special mission opportunities and why we go right back to our text for the love of Christ. 1476s
Or, it compels us, it controls us because we are convinced that one has died for all. 1486s
Therefore, all have died and he died for all so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them. 1493s
And so we sing in our chorus to love the Lord our God is the heartbeat of our mission. 1504s
The spring from which our service overflows across the street or around the world, the missions still the same. 1509s
Proclaim and live the truth in Jesus' name. 1518s
And so we sing and so we live. 1523s
Thank you. 1545s