TAKE A SEAT
COMING SOON
DR. JIM DIXON
2 CORINTHIANS 9:6
AUGUST 15, 2010
Ten years ago, Barb and I travelled to Detroit, Michigan. We went there along with some other folks from our church staff. We went there for the General Assembly of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. While we were there in the Detroit area, we decided to spend a day or an afternoon and go out to Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. The Greenfield Village and Henry Ford Museum are contiguous, they are connected. There at the Greenfield Village you can see more than 100 early American houses, homes, shops and schools, perfectly restored. It is a fascinating experience.
At the Henry Ford Museum you can see the largest collection of antique cars in the world. What we were most interested in was a bus. At the Henry Ford Museum, even today, they have a bus and people wait in line to get on that bus. They want to get on the bus and they want to sit in a seat. There is one seat they want to sit in. They want a picture of themselves; they want a photograph taken of themselves sitting in that seat. So, I got on the bus and John Patterson, who used to be our pastor of Pastoral Care (and John has gone to be with Christ), and Mike Anderson (who is on our staff and one of our pastors), went up onto the bus with me. We sat in this seat; we had our pictures taken together. In fact, Barb and I looked all over for the picture so we could show it to you, and couldn’t find it. We were on that bus, in that seat, with our pictures taken.
You are thinking, “What seat was that?” Well, it was the seat that Rosa Parks sat in on that bus. Rosa Parks, the civil rights leader. Rosa Parks, who was born in 1913, but was 42 years old and the year was 1955 when she sat on that bus in Alabama. She refused to give up her seat to a white person and she was, therefore, arrested. Believe it or not, in 1955, in Alabama, in Birmingham, Alabama and indeed in the whole state of Alabama it was law that in public transportation the front seats are reserved for white people. This was 1955. The front seats on the bus reserved by law for white people. If there were more white people than seats in the front then whites were entitled to the seats in the middle, and black people had to get up and give their seats to the white people and the blacks had to move to the back of the bus. This was the law. She was arrested. She was arrested because she refused to give up her seat. Martin Luther King Jr. thereafter boycotted the bus company and this was the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement in America. You never know what might happen when you take a seat.
That is what I want to talk about this morning as we start. What can happen when you take a seat in the house of God? What can happen when you take a seat in the church of Jesus Christ? If you have ever been to the Bruton Parish Church on Gloucester Street in Williamsburg, Virginia, Barb and I have been there, I am sure many of you have. As you walk down Gloucester Street in restored Williamsburg, colonial Williamsburg, you go into Bruton Parish Church and you will notice if you go in there, you will notice something that you will also see in the early colonial churches in Boston and Philadelphia and indeed all of the cities that were part of colonial America. You will notice the same thing that is in each of them and that is this: people used to buy their seats. Did you know that? People in churches used to buy their seats, or they bought their pews. Or they bought off a box; they bought a box of pews. This was a row, maybe two or three rows of pews, or maybe even pews that were arranged in the shape of a square, but they were boxed in. You could buy that for your family and for your friends or invitees.
So, you will see that George Washington had a box of pews for his family and friends. John Adams had a box of pews for his family and friends in church. Some of them had boxes in a variety of churches in a variety of towns because they travelled around a lot. So, you would pay for your seats. You would pay for your seats a beginning charge and then, in most of these churches, every year you would give an additional sum of money to reserve those chairs or those pews for you and your family.
Now, in the back of the church there were common seats. In the back of these colonial churches there were common seats for people of lesser income, for poor people and even for slaves in colonial America, but the seats from the middle forward were purchased. It is a fact, that a pastor could come to preach on a Sunday morning, nobody be there, but they would still be making money, still making money because people were paying for the seats whether they were there or not. What a racket! What an amazing deal. You will be glad to know we are not going to ask you to buy your seats. Be glad to know we are not going to ask you to get together with some other families and buy a row. It is true that many of you do sit in the same seats, I notice that. They are not technically your seats. What we are asking you to do is to give. We are asking you to give so we can have nice seats. We are not putting in new seats, we are just reupholstering the seats so that we can serve people in the House of God. We are asking you to give so we can repair worn out carpet, give so we can replace the roof. We are asking you to give because people come in here and you never know what God might do when people take a seat. Never know what God might do.
For eight and half years I served on the staff at Faith Presbyterian Church in Aurora, Colorado. I was minister of education and privileged to serve there. Some of you were actually part of that congregation so many years ago. Many of you have been friends through the years. We were a growing church. When I arrived on staff there were only three of us who were pastors, Dean Wolf, who was the senior pastor, Mark Moore and me as well, we were associate pastors. The three of us served together. It was a privilege for me to serve Christ with Mark Moore and Dean Wolf. Mark and Dean were wonderful evangelists. They had, I think, an endowment from God to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ in such a way that people were drawn to Christ and fell in love with Christ. They were wonderful evangelists. The church grew.
When I arrived, we had about 600 members in the church. By the time I left, eight and half years later, we had 4,200 members at Faith Presbyterian Church in Aurora. It was an exciting time to be part of Faith Presbyterian Church in Aurora. We tried to welcome everybody. We would have a section of every service where we had visitors stand and we would say, “Who’s new in the pew?” Then as we began to fill up, we put up chairs; we put up folding chairs in all the aisles. We would say, “Hey, there in the chair. Who’s new in the Pew?” and “Hey, there in the chair.” The church just kind of kept growing.
There came a point when Mark Moore retired and I will never forget it. Mark and Nancy Moore had three wonderful daughters. The daughters blindfolded their dad and took him out in the car and he had no clue where he was going. He didn’t know what was going on. They drove him around that night and brought him back to the church without him knowing it. They walked him blindfolded into the worship center. He had no clue where he was. We had all gathered that night to honor Mark as he was retiring. They took the blindfold off and there were a lot of tears as he saw the congregation. They asked folks that night how many people had given their heart to Jesus Christ through the ministry of Mark Moore. More than 500 people stood up.
I can promise you this: as many people who accepted Christ through Mark, certainly more accepted Christ through the ministry of Dean. In fact, to this day, I run into many of you who tell me you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior through the ministry of Dean Wolf. It really is all about God. It’s a God thing. It is all about the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s the Holy Spirit who convicts us of sin and it’s the Holy Spirit who draws us to the Savior, but you never know what might happen when you take a seat. You come into a church and you take a seat and you never know what the Spirit of God might do and how the Spirit of God might convict you.
You have all heard of Billy Graham. Did you know this, that Billy Graham was the son of a dairy farmer and grew up on a dairy farm outside of Charlotte, North Carolina? Every morning Billy got up at 4:30 in the morning, every morning, to milk the cows. He had to milk his share of 75 cows every morning on that dairy farm. That was the family business. The family went into church in Charlotte every Sunday and Billy Graham hated it. He hated church. He knew not Jesus Christ.
He was 16 years old; the year was 1934, Billy was 16 years old, almost 17. He and some friends had gone into Charlotte and they were having some fun and they noticed there was an evangelist in town named Mordecai Ham. You don’t see a name like that anymore: Mordecai Ham. He was conducting a revival, a tent revival in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was a three-month revival. You don’t see that anymore either, not in Charlotte, not in Denver, not anywhere: a 3-month tent revival.
Billy and his friends thought, Well, let’s see what this guy has to say. They went one night, and another night and another night. There came a night where Billy and his friends thought, Well, let’s give it another try, see what is going to happen over there in the revival tonight. They went and there were no seats available. The place was packed, no seats under the tent. So, they turned around to leave, but that night there was an usher that saw these boys, these teenage boys and said, “Hey, wait a minute! Wait a minute! Don’t leave. I will find you some seats, come back.” They came back kind of reluctantly. This usher found them all seats and put them together.
Billy Graham stayed that night and that was the night the Holy Spirit convicted him of sin and drew him to Jesus and the cross. That is the night that Billy Graham went forward and got down on his knees and committed his life to Jesus Christ. You never know what might happen when you take a seat. I have a picture of Billy Graham that was taken in that time of his life, just after he accepted Christ. There he is, and that’s his description of how he got down on his knees and accepted Christ that night. Billy Graham.
You know that Billy Graham then became a world evangelist and he conducted crusades all over the world. It is a fact that more than one hundred million people have listened to Billy Graham live at Billy Graham crusades. That doesn’t even count the greater number of people who have heard Billy Graham on television and on radio all over the world. Millions of people have come to faith in Jesus Christ when they take a seat and the Holy Spirit convicts them.
Now, Billy Graham was at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 1963. An estimated twenty-five to fifty thousand people were outside, couldn’t even get in. That’s how huge the Billy Graham Crusade was in Los Angeles. I was there that night. I was in the Coliseum that night and I was a counselor. Seventeen years old, approaching eighteen, I had gone through all the training to be a counselor at the Billy Graham Crusade in Los Angeles. I was a counselor that night. I remember walking down when the invitation was given and identifying a person that I would counsel. It turned out to be a middle-aged business man in a suit. He was the head of a company in L.A. I felt so intimidated and so inadequate, as I was a teenager. I can remember being so nervous as Billy Graham said, “There is a counselor who is standing next to you who will explain to you the decision you just made.” This guy turned and looked at this teenage boy and I felt so nervous. I was so nervous I forgot to give him all the literature, but he did accept Christ that night and I was able to follow up with him and he continued to walk with Jesus.
You never know what happens, you see, when you take a seat. I promise you when Billy Graham accepted Jesus Christ in that tent meeting with Mordecai Ham, that was precious to God, but no more precious than when any other person takes a seat and falls in love with Jesus Christ. It is all precious and you never know what God is going to do when people take a seat.
That is true here at Cherry Hills Community Church. We get emails, we get letters, have conversations, hear testimonials; I promise you; people are accepting Christ here. People come in here and they take a seat and the Holy Spirit ministers to their soul. People give their heart and their life to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. There are people who come in here and their marriage is just about over. They take a seat and they make the decision, the Holy Spirit convicts them while they are here. They are going to give their wife another chance; they are going to give their husband another chance. They are going to forgive their wife or husband or they are going to ask their wife or husband for forgiveness. They are going to repent. It is amazing what happens when you take a seat. I want you to know that. I want you to know that a lot is at stake here, that this church honors Christ, that we provide a worship environment that is pleasing to Christ, where ministry can take place. A lot is at stake. I think, in a sense, it is a test of our faithfulness.
I want to take a few moments and talk about stewardship. I cannot deal with all aspects of stewardship in the short period of time we are going to have here, but there will be future occasions where I can deal with it more thoroughly. I can promise you; this is not the last stewardship message you will hear unless this is your last Sunday at church.
Well, you don’t have to be a genius to find happiness. You don’t have to be very smart to have joy. You don’t have to be genius, don’t have to be very smart to have friends. You do have to be a giver, though. You have got to be a giver. Giving pleases God, brings joy to the giver and it blesses the people who receive the gifts. Pretty powerful: so, throughout the Bible we have this admonition to be givers. In terms of biblical principles of stewardship, we are told that we are to give sacrificially.
This is not easy because we are also told to give cheerfully. I think it is hard to combine those two things. If your giving is not sacrificial, it might be cheerful. But, if you are really giving sacrificially, I think it creates a little cognitive dissonance that you would also be cheerful. In our passage of Scripture for today it says this is the point. “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Let each give as he has made up his own mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion. God loves a cheerful giver.” The Greek word is the word from which we get the English word hilarious. God loves a hilarious giver. This is an amazing concept. It implies extravagant giving with laughter. That is what God loves. He expects us to do that while it is sacrificial.
You come to Luke’s Gospel, the 21st chapter, and Jesus is at the Jerusalem temple: a magnificent structure, inlaid with gold and silver by the design of God, crafted with the use of the cedars of Lebanon. In the Court of the Gentiles, near the Court of Women, there was the treasury. The treasury was a separate area that had 13 great boxes. Each box accessed through a trumpet, 13 trumpets. People would come, men and women and children. They would place their gifts, their gold, their coins of varying worth, they would place their offerings into the trumpets and they would go into the great boxes. Each box was used for different cause in the plan of God.
So, Jesus is there with the disciples, Luke, chapter 21. There is some evidence that from time-to-time Jesus liked to go into the treasury and watch and see what people would do. He is watching with the disciples and there are people who are very rich and they come and give a large sum of coins into the trumpets and into the great boxes. Jesus comments that they are giving out of their abundance, a Greek word which means surplus. These people are giving out of their surplus. It is good, but he is not impressed. They are giving, but they are giving out of the surplus. There comes this woman who is a widow and she is poor and she puts in two copper coins. Jesus marvels. He turns to the disciples and says, “They are giving out of their abundance, but this woman, in her poverty, I tell you, has given all that she has.” He was moved. Sacrificial.
I tell you this: he is watching still. I hope you know and believe that. He is watching still. He is watching me and he is watching you. He wants us to give to the cause of heaven and he wants us give sacrificially and he wants us to give cheerfully. It is easy to give sacrificially today; we are very blessed to be in this economic recession. It is hard for people to give out of their excess, they don’t have excess. It is hard for people to give out of their abundance; a lot of people don’t have abundance. This is a real test and what an opportunity because we can give sacrificially and still be cheerful. This is the call of Christ upon the people of Christ.
In Genesis, chapter 4, Cain and Abel brought offerings to God. God was pleased with Abel’s offering; he gave of the firstlings of his flock and other fat portions. God was not pleased with the offering of Cain. Theologians can debate the whys and wherefores, but the book of Hebrew simply tells us something was wrong in Cain’s heart. It is by faith that Abel’s sacrifice was more acceptable the Cain’s. Maybe Cain did not give sacrificially or cheerfully, maybe.
You have all heard of Woodrow Wilson. Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States. During his second term in the year 1919, it was Woodrow Wilson who was the primary force behind the establishment of the League of Nations, which was headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. So, Woodrow Wilson, this was his dream, this was his vision, this was his passion, the formation of the League of Nations. To his great joy nations all over the globe joined the League of Nations. To his great sadness the United States of America did not. He was President of the United States and his own country refused to join the League of Nations. This was prior to television; radio was in its infancy; how would he get the word out to the American people about the importance of joining the League of Nations? He decided to go by rail. He decided to go by rail to towns and cities all across America.
On September 23, 1919, Woodrow Wilson arrived in Billings, Montana. He arrived in Billings, Montana and two little boys come up to him as he is talking about the League of Nations. One little boy has an American flag and he offers it to Woodrow Wilson and says that he is proud to be an American. He accepts it. The other little boy reaches into his pocket and pulls out a dime and gives it to the President and says, “This is for the League of Nations.” Two days later, Woodrow Wilson is in Pueblo, Colorado, September 25, 1919. He is talking to the folks in Pueblo about the League of Nations and he passes out. He just faints. They rush him by rail to Washington D.C.
One week later, October 2nd, he has a massive stroke, never to be the same. He would still be able to function through the help of his wife and through a variety of other people, but he died February 3, 1924. That day he said to his wife, “I am tired of swimming upstream.” He left this world. Then his wife, who loved him very much, had the difficult task of going through all of his stuff and deciding what needed to be kept, what needed to be thrown away, what was important, what wasn’t. She found his billfold. As she opened up his billfold and went through it, she was amazed to see this dime that was taped onto a card. It said, This dime was given to me in Billings, Montana by a little boy. He gave it for the League of Nations and this dime is precious to me. For five years the President of the United States had kept that boy’s dime in his wallet.
I know people who think God is like that. You might be one of them. You might think God is like that, every dime given to him precious to him. You would be wrong. Your dimes are not precious to him. I think it is true that if a little boy has only a dime and gives it to Christ it is precious to him. I think God wants our gifts to represent us and to be sacrificial, so that when we give him dimes, it is not precious to him. He is looking for hilarious gifts, extravagant gifts, with laughter and gifts that are truly and genuinely sacrificial because we love the kingdom of God and we want to see it grow.
It is also true, in terms of stewardship, that there are promises of blessings when we give. There are warnings if we do not give and I think that surprises a lot of people. I want to tell you a little joke. This is an old joke. I heard it long ago. You might have heard it long ago. I kind of like it. You’re going to think that is really strange. This joke is about a Chinese emperor, a Chinese emperor who had a very impressive cadre of Samurai swordsmen. He prided himself in the fact that his Samurai came from many ethnicities, many races, many nations, they were all skilled with the sword.
One day his head swordsman, his head Samurai, died, and he needed to appoint a new head Samurai. He took his three greatest swordsmen and he had them candidate, so they came into the room where the emperor was to compete for this job of head Samurai. The emperor explained to the first swordsman, who was a Japanese swordsman, a Japanese Samurai, he said, “I am going to release a fly from a box. I want you, as quickly as you can with your sword, I want you to draw it, I want you to strike it. I want to see how accurate you are and how quick you are.” So, he opens the box, the fly comes out, the sword is drawn and in one blazing swipe of the sword the fly falls down in two pieces. The emperor says, “Impressive. Impressive.”
Then another Samurai, a Chinese Samurai, comes in and he is candidate. The test is explained, the box is opened, the fly is released, and the Chinese Samurai draws his sword and like lightning, two strikes of the sword, in the form of an “x” and the fly falls to the ground in four pieces. The Chinese emperor said, “Most Impressive. Most Impressive. You may indeed be my lead, my head Samurai.”
Then the third candidate, the last candidate, a Jewish Samurai, came in, skilled with the sword. The Emperor releases the fly and the sword is drawn, and it is just quick as lightning. There are six strikes of the sword and fly remains airborne. The Emperor said, “Very Disappointing. Very Disappointing. How can it be that you have taken six swipes of your sword and the fly still lives?” The Jewish Samurai said, “Circumcision is not intended to kill.”
I knew you would think it strange. It is true that circumcision is not intended to kill. What is circumcision intended to do, biblically? Circumcision is intended to seal; it is intended to seal. It is a sign of the old covenant. You have the Old Testament and the word testament means covenant. So, the Old Testament is the old covenant that God made with his people Israel. The sign of the covenant was circumcision and it seals them into the covenant community, they and their families. In the New Testament, you have a new covenant between Christ and his people. It is a covenant of grace and mercy. The sign of the covenant is not circumcision but baptism. The seal of the new covenant is baptism.
A lot of Christians say, “Well, we are in the new covenant and it is a covenant of grace and mercy. God loves us and he does not discipline us, that is for the old covenant, the Old Testament. That is between God and the Jews, that discipline stuff.” That is a complete misunderstanding of Holy Scripture. In both covenants we are called to faithfulness. Though we are saved by grace through faith, God loves us too much to discipline us. We have warnings in the New Testament. Look at 1 Corinthians, chapter 10. In 1 Corinthians, chapter 10, you have the words of the apostle Paul.
“I want you to know brothers and sisters that our fathers were all under the cloud and in the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; they all ate the same supernatural food; they all drank the same supernatural drink, for they all drank from the same supernatural rock that followed them, the rock of Meribah.
“That rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased and they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now all of these things are warnings to us not to desire as they did. We must not be idolaters, as some of them were for it is written, for the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to dance. We must not indulge in immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell down in a single day. We must not put the Lord as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents. Nor grumble and complain as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. All these things happened to them as warning but were written down for our instruction upon whom the end of the age has come. Therefore, if any one stands let him take heed lest he fall.”
You don’t hear a lot of sermons from passages of Scripture like that. In fact, a lot of Christians aren’t even familiar with New Testament passages like that because they sound kind of Old Testament. Most Christians are drawn to passages of mercy and grace. Understand, God warns us throughout the New Testament, the new covenant, that he loves us too much (though we are saved by grace and the cross) to leave us without discipline when we are unfaithful. So, you have promises of blessings and warnings of discipline.
In the Old Testament, they were disciplined because of immorality and idolatry. You say, “We may struggle a little bit with immorality, but we don’t have that idolatry thing. That is not a problem for us.” I would submit to you that we might be the most idolatrous culture in history. We don’t label our gods, but we worship material things. We worship pleasure and comfort. We worship ascension in the work place and success. We even worship self. We are idolatrous. The warning is given that we are to seek first the kingdom of God. We need to search our hearts and ask ourselves, “Do we seek first the kingdom of God and it’s righteousness.”
The children of Israel, in the wilderness, Exodus 32, built the golden calf and they worshiped it. It was a young bull, probably a symbol of the Egyptian god Sera pis or Apis. Perhaps the Israelites were indulging in syncretism and pluralism. But how many Christians today are dabbling in syncretism and pluralism? We don’t have a passion for the church of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. The call of God is upon us. I say this to you: you never know what is going to happen when someone takes a seat because the power of the Holy Spirit descends. We have been called to give. So much is at stake. “Give and it will be given unto you, full measure, pressed down; shaken together, it will be set in your lap. The measure you give is the measure you will receive.” These are the words of Jesus. “Bring the full tithe into my storehouse, put me to the test, see if I will not open up the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing. It is written, he scatters abroad, he gives to the poor, his righteousness endures forever. He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and multiply your resources and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enhanced in every way for your great generosity.” These are the promises of God, but there are warnings too. There are warnings.
You may choose not to give to the Take a Seat Campaign; that is between you and God. You may choose not to give to Cherry Hills Community Church; that is between you and God. But I warn you of this: you must give to the kingdom of God, somewhere. This is so important. You must give somewhere. You don’t have to give here; you don’t have to give to this church, you don’t have to give to our worship center restoration, but you have got to give.
There are a lot of wonderful churches out there. Give. There are a lot of wonderful kingdom causes—Young Life, Youth For Christ, Campus Crusade, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, World Vision, Project Cure, Colorado Christian University, Valor across the street. There are so many wonderful Christian causes. Give. Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness. The warning is given.
I will say this, as the pastor of this church, that we strive with all of our hearts to be faithful. When you give here, every dollar goes to support the cause of Christ, either here in our community or in some other part of the world. Part of every dollar goes to the poor, but all for the cause of Jesus. If you choose to give to the Take a Seat Campaign, give over and above what you give to our ministry budget because we can’t afford to shrink the ministry. So, if you give the Take a Seat Campaign, it has got to be over and above. Prayerfully consider it if you are part of this congregation and you are part of this church.
What an amazing opportunity. I have got to tell you, 28 years, a little over that, being pastor of this church, I’ve never had anything this hard. People want to give to a building for the kids, even a building for us, a new chapel. Those are exciting projects. Repairing a worship center is not very glamorous, not very romantic. As I said, you walk down these windows and you look down those rows and you see the stuffing coming out of those chairs. Is that what you want people to see when they come to worship Christ here? Do you want our lighting and our sound and our video to work? We are having to go online to find replacement parts because they are no longer available. We need to do this. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.