Mission #4 - ... to the Fame of God

MATTHEW 5:13-16

TO THE FAME OF GOD!

          The religious landscape in America has changed dramatically in the last 40 years.  Forty years ago, the United States was still largely a "Christian culture." Now, religious pluralism has become a reality in American culture.  Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and various New Age religions are now a part of all major urban areas and of many smaller communities as well.  Added to this, the number of persons who have no religious affiliation has grown significantly.  This is particularly true of those under 40 years of age.   Surprisingly in the midst of these, socially conservative denominations grew faster between 1990 and 2000 than others.  An even more disturbing change has been in the structure of the Christian culture. Forty years ago, religion in American culture was largely progressive, a force for tolerance, justice, and social change.  Today it has been reduced to either a very private religion, which focuses almost exclusively on the peace of mind and/or salvation of the individual, or it has become a force for intolerance, social conflict, and social repression.  This has caused these denominations to dwindle. 

Every week we come into contact with 1,000’s of people who are considering what to do with Jesus in their life.  Whether we are aware of them looking at us, each believer has someone looking to you to see if Jesus is the real thing.  They won’t pick up a Bible and read about Jesus, but they will look at your life to see if God really does care about them and if He is able to help them.  Does you life help turn them to Jesus?  Let’s look again to our mission statement.    

I.  GOD’S PRIMARY AIM IS TO SPREAD HIS GLORIOUS FAME.

          When the King James was written the word fame was used many times to describe the work of God.  In the later translations other words have been substituted that don’t quite have the same meaning.  So we want to regain it’s use. 

As you study the Bible you become aware that it is the desire of God that His name be made famous throughout the whole world.  As you read through the Old Testament it is clear that God desires to make His name famous in all the earth.  His fame was spread through many of His mighty works such as the deliverance of His people from Egypt , Joshua’s leadership of His people, David’s kingdom, Solomon’s wealth, and the splendor of the Temple .

          When you read through the New Testament God is doing the same thing with the name of Jesus.  We read that the fame of Jesus spread because of His works such as healing the sick, raising the dead, and removing evil spirits from the lives of men.  Even as a newborn God caused Jesus’ fame to spread all the way to King Herod.

As we reflect on these actions of God, we see that he spread His fame by doing miraculous works on earth, which revealed His glory.  God’s glory is His reputation.  It is the beauty and excellence of all His many perfections.  It is His kingly magnificence.  It is His infinite and overflowing fullness of all that is good. 

          Our two shooters that were arrested this week will always be famous, but it will be for the wrong thing.  God didn’t desire just any fame, but He wanted a fame that made His name famous as the God who really cares about people.  Jesus showed how much God cared-He gave His only Son to die in our place.  God knew when the world would hear about all His amazing feats of power, many would glorify His name become His fully devoted followers.  TO HIS FAME!        

II.  OUR PRIMARY AIM IS TO SPREAD HIS GLORIOUS FAME.

That’s where we, His church, come in.  He has given to us the job of spreading His glorious fame throughout the whole world until it is blazing!  That’s the underlying meaning of this word for making famous.  We are to work to cause the fire of His fame in the world to ignite and blaze uncontrollably.  We do this by enhancing God’s reputation in quantity and quality and not diminishing it in any way.  (Repeat-Charles Ryrie)  Isaiah 66:19 states that God wants to make His name famous by revealing His glory in Ridgecrest .  He desires that it spread like wildfire from person to person and becomes a wildfire throughout the world!  I Peter tells us that we do this by what we speak and what we do.    

Jesus tells uses the example of salt and light to illustrate.  We are to be the salt of the earth.  Remember that in the day of Jesus there were no refrigerators.  They saved their meat by rubbing salt into the meat over and over to preserve it.  You haven’t eaten until you try some country ham that has been preserved with salt. 

The gospel is penetrating and powerful to preserve our world from rotting.  When we speak and live the Word of God we will keep our world from rotting into death because of sin.  That’s our job.  We must get His word out and make Him famous for being the God who cares for them and will help them out of the mess they have created for themselves.

By the way notice that if a church is not doing this, Jesus says that church is absolutely good for nothing to Him!  In the same way that we cannot darken the sun, we cannot decrease the glory of God.  But we can cause others to take their eyes off his glory.  May we never become worthless to the Kingdom of Christ ! 

We are to be the light of our world.  Just as the lights of a city that is on a mountain can be seen for miles and cannot be hidden, in the same way if we are doing and speaking the Word of God, then you won’t be able to hide us from our world.  We will stand out because the power of God has been unleashed in our lives.  This will definitely stand out in a world that is for the most part controlled by the spirits of darkness.  Our lives will show what happens when the power of God is unleashed in a life.  The world will take notice and be drawn to our God. 

          So we must be telling the truth about Him.  We must ever teach and preach the Bible as the Word of God for our world today.  Also, we must live the truth according to His Word.  We do this by relying on His Holy Spirit to help us trust in His promises, praise Him for His greatness in our lives, live our lives daily in a way that honors him, die to ourselves for Him, suffer for Him, bring the fruits of righteousness into our lives, have patience in our afflictions, and be faithful to Him through the years.  Then God will work works in our midst that can only be credited to Him.  This will cause His fame to spread in our area and people will be drawn to Him as a God who loves people enough to work in their lives.  Prayerfully, they will then come to Him and become fully devoted followers.  TO HIS FAME!   

CONCLUSION

          A young minister, who was about to be ordained, stated that at one time he almost became an atheist.  “But,” he said, “There was one argument in favor of Christianity, which I could never refute--the consistent example of my father!”

          1 Corinthians 10:31 tells us to glorify God in everything we do.  That means that the fame and glory of God should at the middle of the circle and everything we do.  This should lead us to look at everything we do and say at Ridgecrest and make sure that it makes God famous for the right things and enhance God’s reputation in quantity and quality and not diminish it in any way! 

If we do this then we will fulfill this part of our mission statement, “to the fame of God,” and help His fame spread throughout the world so that people might hear and see Him in our church and have their lives changed by coming to Him.