Sermon Title: “If you want to set someone on fire, you have to burn a little bit

yourself.”

Sermon Text: Acts 2:1-21

Sermon Date: May 20, 2007

Did you know that there is no evidence that the 9-11 terrorist attacks changed Americans when it comes to their faith?

George Barna, a Christian researcher, recently shared the 12 most noteworthy religious findings in 2006. Here are four of them:

• A comparison of people’s faith before and after the September 11 terrorist attack showed that five years after the momentous day, none of the 19 faith measures studied had undergone statistically significant change. Those measures covered aspects such as religious behaviors, beliefs, spiritual commitment and self-identity.
• The faith contours of America continue to shift substantially over the course of time. The proportion of adults who are born again has risen dramatically in the past quarter century, from 31% to 45%. During the past two decades, every spiritual behavior has fluctuated significantly, with recent upsurge in Bible reading, church attendance, and small group involvement.
• I want to test this one here first. Raise your hand if you know Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, James Dobson, Tim LaHaye and T.D. Jakes. These are five of the highest-profile Christian leaders and unknown to a majority of the population. Most of those leaders were also unknown to most born again Christians.
• Although large majorities of the public claim to be "deeply spiritual" and say that their religious faith is "very important" in their life, only 15% of those who regularly attend a Christian church ranked their relationship with God as the top priority in their life. As alarming as that finding was, its significance was magnified by research showing that on average pastors believe that 70% of the adults in their congregation consider their relationship with God to be their highest priority in life. (Check out barna.org)

We will return to some of this later but for now….today we are celebrating Pentecost. Technically speaking, Pentecost is to be celebrated next Sunday – 50 days after the resurrection. However since this is the last Sunday for the choir until September and as next week is Memorial Day weekend, we Baptists have chosen to celebrate it 7 days early, assuming that God won’t be too bothered by this move.

Pentecost is a big celebration in the church of Jesus Christ. Easter could be seen as the beginning of Christianity but Pentecost is the beginning of this -- the church.

If you remember the early chapters of Acts, written by Luke, you’ll see that their efforts were not put into building a structure in which to worship but their passion as about sharing the fire in their bellies, the fire that Jesus had put there, the fire that the Holy Spirit left in them. Their passion was about adding to the church of Jesus Christ…..by leading people to baptism. If we look later in the second chapter of Acts we see that Peter’s sermon went beyond our earlier reading this morning. He talks about King David and how David had prophesied about the coming of Jesus, and that they were all witnesses to, not only the resurrection, but the coming of the Holy Spirit.

“Then Peter says, “So let it be clearly known by everyone in Israel that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified to be both Lord and Messiah!”

“Peter’s words convicted them deeply, and they asked him and each other, “Brothers, what should we do?”

“Peter replied, “Each of you must turn from your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you and to your children, and even to the Gentiles – all who have been called by the Lord our God. Then Peter continued preaching for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners, “Save yourselves from this generation that has gone astray!” (Peg: what generation hasn’t said that!)

“Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church – three thousand in all. They joined with the other believers and devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, sharing in the Lord’s Supper and in prayer.”

They understood what Harry Emerson Fosdick would say thousands of years later -- “If you want to set someone on fire, you have to burn a little yourself.”

Usually on Pentecost we talk about the church and how it is the church’s responsibility to reach out to others, but today I want to ask you something…as an individual for the church is made up of individuals, is it not? This morning let’s just focus on our own relationship with Jesus.

When did you last burn with passion to serve God? PAUSE. When were you last time hungry to know Jesus more? PAUSE

I am not talking about anxious to come to church to experience the music and see your friends. I am not talking about anxious to come to Sunday school for a rousing discussion about what Jesus says about war, or the death penalty or changing time zones. I am asking you – when was the last time you wanted to deepen your relationship with Jesus?

When was the last time you spent time alone with Jesus?

I’ll admit that this is a struggle of mine. I spend most of my week talking, thinking and planning how to help you find God in worship. Seriously, planning worship, working with Ben, Melanie and Harriet takes time and I love doing it, but I struggle to find that time when Peg Nowling will sit and quietly just be present with Jesus, something I really do love doing.

We Christians don’t come from the same camps. Some of us have been involved in church all of our lives and we sit down and read our morning devotions. Others of us are just getting into this God thing and trying to figure out what it means. Others of us are somewhere in the middle - involved in church, but not spending any real time outside of church on our own discipleship.

Let me say this: not one of us is as close to Jesus as we could be. None. We can all be closer, even those of us who set aside time daily. How do I know this? Because the closer we are to Jesus, the closer we would want be.

Being one of those delusional pastors who thought more church-goers put God as their highest priority, I’d like to offer some ways to find this hunger:

1. Ask God to help you find the hunger. We have all known or experienced a marriage that was doomed for failure and yet the couple sought counseling and rekindled the flame of love that they thought they’d lost. It is the same for us. If you are sitting here today saying, “I don’t feel what she’s talking about,” ask God to help you find it.

2. Do it until you want to do it. Once upon a time we were madly in love with Jesus. Perhaps it was at church camp or following a retreat. We promised that when we got home we’d always find time to be alone with Jesus, but work and family intruded into that time and our good intentions were gone. Or maybe you never experienced being madly in love with Jesus. Maybe, for you, being baptized was the right thing to do and you were the right age. Or you wanted to join the right church and you had to be baptized to do so. Maybe, your head knew it was right but your heart wasn’t all that involved in it. But now you want more from the relationship you have with Jesus. For years Jesus has been doing a lot of giving and you have been on the receiving end. Is it time for you to give back to Jesus, with your time and willingness to grow? Not time to the church, but time to Jesus. Maybe your head thinks it is a good idea, but your heart isn’t in it….then do it until you want to do it. Think of it as exercise. We don’t usually want to do it, but we know it is the right thing to do. Do it until you want to do it.

3. Find an accountability group or partner; try a new study group. Quite frankly, we mere mortals aren’t too good at staying with something, particularly something that is good for us. We can stick to eating chocolate every day because we like it; but we aren’t very good at sticking to a plan to get to know Jesus better. We have groups to help and we are in the process of forming triads – smaller groups of three to help you find the relationship that Jesus wants to have with you. I am really going be stretched by Rod’s new Wednesday night bible study. (say more here)

4. Don’t think you are too old to need this. You aren’t. There is not one of us here today who has “arrived” at the relationship Jesus wants with us. Jesus always wants us to go deeper and deeper.

We mainline Christians tend to look at Christianity in an intellectual way. We rationalize about the Bible. We look for loopholes when we read scripture. We think that serving in the community is good enough for God, but if we look at the Bible as a nice guide to living, filled with loopholes or think that God only wants us to serve at food pantries, we are missing what is there for us. That would be like being married and sending cards and flowers at the right time, washing the car for her or doing his laundry but never sitting down and asking, “How’s your day, honey?” and listening to the answer.

Do you want to be hungry for Jesus?

Are you ready to grasp all that Jesus has for you?

Are you ready for the Holy Spirit to really and truly move in your life?

I hope you are. Let’s talk about it together. Come to bible study on Wednesday nights to get stretched. Talk to Rod about joining one of the new smaller groups we are looking at beginning. But don’t do nothing.

Jesus didn’t die so that we would seek him through our good works. It takes more than work to make a relationship flourish. It takes a lot of love, the burning love that spreads around the world and back again.