We are Gods Army, and we must be what God created us to be, what He meant us to be, what He called us to be, and to stop apologising to the world for being who we are and what we are. So, what DID God create us for? What IS our purpose? For me at any rate there are three things....
The first reason God created the Salvation Army was to save souls. No suprises there. To rescue people from sin, from materialism, from meaningless, pointless living. We must do that by taking our message out to the people, and presenting it in a way that is relevant to them and will be understood by them. We must adapt the way we present our message and start winning this war again.
The second thing we were created for is to grow warriors for Jesus. God intended The Salvation Army to be a garden where people grew into beautiful people. People who are generous and kind, and forgiving, and loving. Christ-like people.
And if the Salvation Army is not growing warriors for Christ then it is not being what God created it to be. The Salvation Army was created to be a holiness movement. Now that word has gone out of fashion a bit recently in the Army. We tend not to use it much anymore, but we are still a holiness movement for producing holy people who act like Jesus, who forgive like Jesus, who work like Jesus, who love like Jesus, who suffer and sacrifice like Jesus.
We sing do we not...
To be like Jesus, this hope possesses me
In every thought and deed, this is my aim, my creed
To be like Jesus, this hope possesses me
His spirit helping me, like Him I'll be.
That’s what God intended when He raised up the Salvation Army, and if that’s not what we are doing then we are failing His purpose for us.
Thirdly, the SA was created to serve suffering humanity. We are saved to serve, with heart to God and hand to man. That’s the very bedrock on which this Army of ours is built.
General Booth told us to go for souls and go for the worst. To love those who others would rather cross the street to avoid. To minister to those who would not be made welcome in some churches. He said that you cannot tell a man who is hungry and has no shoes that God loves him. First feed him and give him some shoes...then tell him.
Our founders eldest daughter, Catherine, said she had three secrets for bringing people to Jesus. The first secret she said was love...gotta love 'em. The second secret she said, was love. No hope of winning anyone for Jesus if you don't love them. And the third secret she said was love. She went to say that "if you ask me how you do this, it's firstly through sacrifice, and secondly through sacrifice, and thirdly...sacrifice."
You see love is not an inexpensive commodity. It costs us sometimes to love the other person, often because that person is not loveable. The Salvation army loves the unlovable and the unloved. And we don't love them to death, we love them to life in Jesus' name, and THATS how we will make our contribution to this war.
Catherine’s father of course spelled it out very clearly, shortly before his promotion to Glory. he said in 1912
While women weep, as they do now, I'll fight; while little children go hungry, as they do now, I'll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I'll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I'll fight-I'll fight to the very end!
Now I understand that there is some debate as to whether the founder actually said those words, or whether they simply got attributed to him. Doesn't matter. 98 years later they are still as relevant as they were back then. 98 years later the need is still as great as it was back then, maybe more so. 98 years on the challenge and the fight that the Salvation Army faces is as great as it ever was.
Now you may be asking, well that’s all very well, but has it actually got anything to do with Gods great faithfulness and love, His Grace in saving us as we heard in our Scripture reading this morning? You bet your boots it does.
We are saved by Grace to do the good works that God intended for us to do.
Jesus told His disciples at the last supper 'I give you a new commandment, that you should love others as I have loved you'
Remembers Paul’s words? While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That’s how Jesus loved us and demonstrated that love.
And finally to bring us full circle, we return to the very words we started with
While we were dead because of our sins, God in His great faithfulness, saved us by Grace through Christ Jesus, that we might do the good works that He has prepared in advance for us to do.
We are saved to serve. Saved to meet the needs of this sick and lost society in which we live. The world needs Jesus like never before, and the world needs The Salvation Army like never before. That’s the challenge that faces us as individual Christians. As Salvationists. As a Corps. As an Army and as a worldwide Christian Church.
To be like Jesus, to love like Jesus, and to bring others to Jesus.
And that’s far better than anything you'll hear from the election boys.
Lets pray together.....
The first reason God created the Salvation Army was to save souls. No suprises there. To rescue people from sin, from materialism, from meaningless, pointless living. We must do that by taking our message out to the people, and presenting it in a way that is relevant to them and will be understood by them. We must adapt the way we present our message and start winning this war again.
The second thing we were created for is to grow warriors for Jesus. God intended The Salvation Army to be a garden where people grew into beautiful people. People who are generous and kind, and forgiving, and loving. Christ-like people.
And if the Salvation Army is not growing warriors for Christ then it is not being what God created it to be. The Salvation Army was created to be a holiness movement. Now that word has gone out of fashion a bit recently in the Army. We tend not to use it much anymore, but we are still a holiness movement for producing holy people who act like Jesus, who forgive like Jesus, who work like Jesus, who love like Jesus, who suffer and sacrifice like Jesus.
We sing do we not...
To be like Jesus, this hope possesses me
In every thought and deed, this is my aim, my creed
To be like Jesus, this hope possesses me
His spirit helping me, like Him I'll be.
That’s what God intended when He raised up the Salvation Army, and if that’s not what we are doing then we are failing His purpose for us.
Thirdly, the SA was created to serve suffering humanity. We are saved to serve, with heart to God and hand to man. That’s the very bedrock on which this Army of ours is built.
General Booth told us to go for souls and go for the worst. To love those who others would rather cross the street to avoid. To minister to those who would not be made welcome in some churches. He said that you cannot tell a man who is hungry and has no shoes that God loves him. First feed him and give him some shoes...then tell him.
Our founders eldest daughter, Catherine, said she had three secrets for bringing people to Jesus. The first secret she said was love...gotta love 'em. The second secret she said, was love. No hope of winning anyone for Jesus if you don't love them. And the third secret she said was love. She went to say that "if you ask me how you do this, it's firstly through sacrifice, and secondly through sacrifice, and thirdly...sacrifice."
You see love is not an inexpensive commodity. It costs us sometimes to love the other person, often because that person is not loveable. The Salvation army loves the unlovable and the unloved. And we don't love them to death, we love them to life in Jesus' name, and THATS how we will make our contribution to this war.
Catherine’s father of course spelled it out very clearly, shortly before his promotion to Glory. he said in 1912
While women weep, as they do now, I'll fight; while little children go hungry, as they do now, I'll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I'll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I'll fight-I'll fight to the very end!
Now I understand that there is some debate as to whether the founder actually said those words, or whether they simply got attributed to him. Doesn't matter. 98 years later they are still as relevant as they were back then. 98 years later the need is still as great as it was back then, maybe more so. 98 years on the challenge and the fight that the Salvation Army faces is as great as it ever was.
Now you may be asking, well that’s all very well, but has it actually got anything to do with Gods great faithfulness and love, His Grace in saving us as we heard in our Scripture reading this morning? You bet your boots it does.
We are saved by Grace to do the good works that God intended for us to do.
Jesus told His disciples at the last supper 'I give you a new commandment, that you should love others as I have loved you'
Remembers Paul’s words? While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That’s how Jesus loved us and demonstrated that love.
And finally to bring us full circle, we return to the very words we started with
While we were dead because of our sins, God in His great faithfulness, saved us by Grace through Christ Jesus, that we might do the good works that He has prepared in advance for us to do.
We are saved to serve. Saved to meet the needs of this sick and lost society in which we live. The world needs Jesus like never before, and the world needs The Salvation Army like never before. That’s the challenge that faces us as individual Christians. As Salvationists. As a Corps. As an Army and as a worldwide Christian Church.
To be like Jesus, to love like Jesus, and to bring others to Jesus.
And that’s far better than anything you'll hear from the election boys.
Lets pray together.....
