Scripture: Matthew 5:1-12
Introduction
- Candy recently shared this Facebook post that says so much:
A pastor asked an older farmer, decked out in bib overalls, to say grace for the morning breakfast.
“Lord, I hate buttermilk”, the farmer began. The visiting pastor opened one eye to glance at the farmer and wonder where this was going.
The farmer loudly proclaimed, “Lord, I hate lard.” Now the pastor was growing concerned.
Without missing a beat, the farmer continued, “And Lord, you know I don’t much care for raw white flour”. The pastor once again opened an eye to glance around the room and saw that he wasn’t the only one to feel uncomfortable.
Then the farmer added, “But Lord, when you mix them all together and bake them, I do love warm fresh biscuits. So Lord, when things come up that we don’t like, when life gets hard, when we don’t understand what you’re saying to us, help us to just relax and wait until you are done mixing. It will probably be even better than biscuits. Amen.”
Within that prayer there is great wisdom for all when it comes to complicated situations like we are experiencing in the world today.
Stay strong, my friends, because our LORD is mixing several things that we don’t really care for, but something even better is going to come when HE is done with it. AMEN!
- Think of Biltmore Baptist church as a giant mixing bowl that God is using to make something truly wonderful.
- I’m always talking about restoration and rehabilitation of what has always been here.
- I dream of children and youth and young families and full pews and just lots of life.
- I dream of a new parking lot with lines to know where to park.
- God may have a whole different dream for us – things that I could never even dream of.
- We are all part of God’s plan, and this is God’s mixing bowl to create His biscuits.
- I think I’m the spoon: my job is to keep stirring the bowl and keeping things from sticking to the sides.
- I don’t know what He is making, but God is dumping in three main ingredients:
- Different people
- Different needs
- Different work
1. Different people
- In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount that we read from today, we get a picture of the different kinds of people that God is putting in our bowl.
- God is pouring in people to work and people to benefit and sometimes both.
- He is giving us the poor in spirit, not just the poor in material things.
- We need to be ready to go beyond clothing and food and school supplies and minister to the crushed spirit of those who struggle.
- He is giving us those who mourn – those who are grieving the loss of loved ones.
- We also have those who are mourning the aging process and diminished ability to do what they once could do.
- There are those who are mourning the loss of jobs and financial losses.
- The world can be cruel and vicious physically and mentally to people.
- Most of us mourn this world and long for a time when things were simpler.
- We mourn the loss of the Christian church in America that is sliding rapidly into the abyss.
- God sends us strong leaders and driven workers, but He also sends us the meek.
- We need to understand that there are people coming that are not as aggressive as others.
- God is sending us those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
- Church is like the Golden Corral for filling up on hunger and thirst. It’s all-you-can-eat!
- It’s an endless buffet of worship, music, prayer, Bible study, fellowship, and missions.
- Therefore, we must always preach the Bible unaltered and not watered-down.
- People are hungry and thirsty for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that’s why we are here.
- God also mixes in a healthy supply of the merciful people Jesus talked about.
- Just like the yeast added to bread, mercy grows and expands our mixture beyond our bowl.
- He gives us people who are pure in heart because, despite our best intentions, we must make tough decisions and enforce rules and keep things organized and productive.
- I am blessed to serve amongst some strong, tough people who I know are pure in heart.
- God sends the peacemakers because we are dealing with a lot of worldly stuff.
- We need the peacemakers to help us when the world interferes, and we are compromised.
- God sends the persecuted because of how the world rejects righteousness.
- We are called to be a safe harbor; a hospital for sinners who are seeking righteousness.
- God will send us people who will insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you.
- It’s these tough customers who will greatly benefit from being mixed in with us.
- Clearly, this will be a salty, tangy, spicy mix of people and our biscuits will not be bland.
2. Different needs
- We can easily see some of the more obvious needs that God is sending.
- He is sending us people who need clothing for themselves and their families.
- We have been successful cultivating and growing this ingredient in our mix.
- There are language needs as so many of the people God is mixing in are immigrants.
- But also included in this is the need people have for donating and serving and He has sent us people with those needs as well.
- He is sending people who need food based on the enormous success of the blessing box.
- We can easily see the needs God is placing in our mix.
- There are needs to serve and needs to be served,
- God is stirring and mixing these needs together into a glorious concoction.
- The world we live in is in trouble. Does anyone agree with me?
- God wants to save the world, but He needs help, and He has asked this church to help.
- We are His mixing bowl, and He is bringing just the right ingredients to make the perfect vessel to reach this community of need.
3. Different work
- If you asked me 20 years ago if I would be working here today as a pastor, I would have laughed out loud – yes I would have LOL’d In fact, I probably would have ROTFL’d.
- I never in my life even considered becoming a pastor, but God had other plans.
- God was thinking way ahead. He realized this church needed an IT geek.
- He needed someone who could get us a strong presence on the internet; create an electronic worship experience; create online attendance; establish online giving.
- But He also needed a communication guru so He retired Barbara Jean just in time to become the queen of Facebook.
- Marsha Ann has brought our music program to rival much larger churches.
- Norma has championed the Clothes Closet from modest beginnings to big business.
- God retired Wayne just in time to fill so many gaps in this building and grounds.
- God called Susan to minister to the neighborhood youth and children.
- God brought Donna Fay and her vision to make this building pretty again along with Mary Jane and Angie and let’s not forget Mutt and Troy and even Wayne pulled in.
- Angie’s passion told her she wanted the playground to look nice for the bookbag giveaway – so she re-mulched it with some help from Wayne after previously painting it.
- I am sorry for not mentioning everyone here because there is so much more, and you probably want to go home at some point.
- My point is this: the work we are being called to do is what God wants us to do.
- How about some of you? Did you think you would be running a major clothes closet?
- Did you think God would have called you to step up and do the work we are doing now?
- Did you think this church could ever have become the mission powerhouse it is now?
- Some of the things we are doing here are very different than they ever were before.
- Some of us have had to step way outside of our comfort zones, haven’t we?
- One of the things I am the most excited about is that we have become an “influencer.”
- For those of you who aren’t that into social media, an influencer is someone who people follow and trust and try to copy.
- When it comes to missions in this area, we are an influencer and other churches, like Hunton, are following us with their own much greater mission efforts.
- What’s next? We have a clientele that speaks a different language. What do we do?
- God is mixing us up and changing the way we do things – changing our work.
- Sometimes this is painful – sometimes you are floating around the bowl and sometimes you are in the mixer’s beaters getting beat up.
- I’m sorry about that – its growing pains brought on by God’s finger stirring us up.
- Sometimes we get stuck holding the bag on projects. Sometimes we feel unappreciated.
- Sometimes we question the unfairness and inequity of what we are called to do.
- I’m sorry about that – its growing pains brought on by God’s finger stirring us up.
- God is doing a wonderful thing here with and through us.
- Remember what Jesus said: “Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.”