Substance vs. Form

Most of you probably know this by now, but do you remember what my profession was before I was a pastor? An accountant. And everybody used to look at me funny about why we would make such a distinct change. And there’s still something about accounting that when I, like when it comes to budget time or when we’re working on reports, the administrative stuff that pastors hate in the church, I do that.

When I do those things, I get done and I go, wow, I feel like I actually worked today. Now, when I was a CPA, I was never in the field early enough that I had to do a tax return by hand. The only one I did by hand back in those early days was my own personal return, that I could do the 1040EZ at least for a while.

But every firm I was at, we had to know, and probably it’s because some of it is because some of the guys who had grown up doing everything by hand made sure we know how to do it by hand in case the internet blew up and we could not do tax returns with electronically. But so it was a backup. So you have to, what’s the point of hiring a CPA if you don’t know more about preparing a tax return than the tax software does, where you know more than plugging in the number.

So when you go through the forms, it’s kind of cool where you go to the Schedule SE where it’s self-employment tax. And it says this goes to this line on page 1040. And that changes with different laws.

And you connect it here. And it’s all there. And it’s all lined out the way they do that.

And if you are a left-brained organizer, it feels good to see an even flow from one place to another, that it works well. The structure in the form of those tax returns makes it follow well. I mean, believe it or not, it’s a little bit like poetry.

You haven’t heard too many poems on tax returns probably. But poetry, when you learn poetry in school, you had different stanzas. You had to have the same rhythmic pattern in the first line and the second line, or the first and third and second and fourth.

Or there was a limerick or different ones that were hard to write because each line had their number of syllables they had to have. And you’d work through that. And you’d have that structure.

But somehow, you’d have to put something in there that was meaningful, that just because you have a poem that fits the structure of the number of syllables and everything in a line or that it rhymes, it has to be meaningful. Just like on a tax return, you have to know more about it once you understand the structure and the form. Just like preparing financial statements, once you understand FASB layout and the debits equal credits and how it lays out from current assets to current to long-term assets to current liabilities man, I’m getting excited now, just oh, man.

Then it all comes together. And what happens is once you understand the structure, you have to have the knowledge and the substance not only to put things in the right place, but if you’re working with a company, you have to understand it enough that you can help them and work through it to enhance their company, to help them know how to read it, and to help them grow and to help them save money on taxes in a legal sense. Now, that has a lot to do with life in the church.

As we, today is our last Sunday, and say, they’ve been responding with hey every week. Say that really loud because I don’t always hear it on the recording. Hey, Methodist, why go global? I just love hearing responses like that.

That’s almost as fun as if you shouted amen all the time. Why go global? We’ve talked about the point of how it helps us move and think beyond us to realize God is moving beyond us right here in this place. The guidance we have helps us to live out scriptural holiness instead of just saying, you know, I believe the Bible.

How do we live the Bible? How do we make it a part of our lives? In fact, that’s going to kind of be the building blocks for our next sermon series is how do we live our lives in holiness set apart for God. Talked about one hope that it keeps us on track so we have our faith in the one hope in Jesus and we don’t stray. The autonomy and accountability where we’re accountable for who we are, what we do, what we believe, but we have the autonomy to do it in the way that fits how we do it here and how we live it out.

Last week, we talked about how we have one spirit. And no matter if it’s us, if it’s a church that speaks in, say, Korean, if it’s another church in another location in rural Kansas somewhere out in the middle of where your GPS may think you’re driving through a pasture to get there, that we have the one spirit that connects us and bonds us and brings us closer to Jesus. And today, we’re going to talk about substance versus form.

The form or the structure can do two things. It can bring us closer to Jesus or it can help us just to rely on that. What is the substance we have as a church behind that form? A couple weeks ago, we read about the church in Ephesus in Revelation, and today, we’re going to look at the church in Laodicea because I think they’re going through some of the same stuff that we face here in our world today.

Will you stand as you are able? Revelation 3, 14 through 22. And to the angel of the church in Laodicea The words of the amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. I know your works.

You are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot or cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing but realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich, and white garments so you may clothe yourself, and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and sad to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those who I love I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent, because I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I have conquered and sat down with my father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

The word of God, inspired by God, for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

You may be seated. Now, Laodicea is an interesting case when everyone, when a lot of times, I mean, even before I was in ministry and I did a Bible study or something, and Laodicea would come up, we’d go, ooh, this sounds like the church today. And there’s a lot of crossover with Laodicea and what we are faced with in the United States and how we need the structure of the church and a religious life, the structure of a denomination, but we need more than that.

And we can never forget what that is. Now, Laodicea was an interesting place. These churches that Jesus was telling Paul about were all in a place called Asia Minor, which is all on kind of the northern side of the Mediterranean Sea.

On the west of that northern side was the boot. Does anybody know what the boot is? The map? Italy. Italy.

And on the east side were these cities. And they were all kind of together. John, the apostle, the evangelist, had connections with all these churches.

So Jesus was giving him these messages to say to these churches. And when he came to the church of Laodicea, as he talked to each one of them, he gave them points of reference that they would understand clearly. I mean, I love the words of Jesus when he says the words of the amen.

You know, who makes prayers happen? God makes prayers happen. Who is the so be it of everything in our lives? It’s Jesus Christ. He’s the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation, the beginning of our opportunity for eternal life.

He starts off by saying, I know your works, you are neither hot nor cold. You are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, so I will spit you out. Isn’t that just more warm fuzzies from Jesus? Who wants to be spit out by Jesus? Now, in the United States, we use more ice than almost any other country in the world.

We’re just conditioned to that. Who loves using ice in their drinks? Yeah. Not everyone does, but the ice makes it.

Oh, man. I mean, if you have a cold drink, it can taste so good, especially, you know, I’m staring out at that sunshine and that 60 degree weather going, man, that lawn looks like it’s saying, water me, please water me. And you get into the summer and it’s warm and you want something cold.

Now, or in the winter or in the morning, there is a drink that people like to drink that’s hot. I like it cold, but it’s, some people drink it hot, whether it’s tea or coffee. And, you know, when that coffee can smell so good and taste so good when it’s fresh, but if you leave it on the counter for an hour or two and then take a drink of it, who loves that flavor? Oh, lukewarm coffee.

Oh, my gosh. Jesus is saying, if you look at the city of Laodicea, you look to the south and you see mineral deposits all over the place. And you see on the north, you see mountains.

And they, in geography, when they dug up places there, they saw water ducks going into Laodicea because the water would come down from the mountains and it would be nice and cold. But those were at cities away from Laodicea. So by the time it got to Laodicea, one of the things they were famous for was having tepid water.

Lukewarm water. And that lukewarm water was what people did not love about Laodicea. And Jesus was saying, hey, I see what you’re doing.

I see that you’re doing some good things, but you’re lukewarm. The truth is, a lot of times, we’re lukewarm in our faith, where we’re not hot, where we’re not cold, where there’s no excitement within us. Jesus, on that note, says, hey, you need to be zealous for me.

Now, sometimes we think of zealots being too extreme, but if you have no excitement at all about God, then just because you’re going to church, just because you’re doing devotions, just because you’re reading the Bible, if you don’t have that excitement, that Holy Spirit excitement that says, oh, I want to share this with other people. Oh, I’m excited to love people. I’m excited to help people.

I’m excited to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I’m excited for what God has in store for One Hope Church. Then we’re lukewarm.

We’re not even palatable for Jesus if we don’t have that, and we all go through, is it just me, or do you go through peaks and valleys in your life, or sometimes you’re raring to go, and sometimes it’s like, you remember that Dunkin’ Donuts commercial from back when only old people watched TV, and he’d go, time to make the donuts, because it was like four in the morning to get there. Time to make the donuts. Time to go to church.

Time to read my Bible. The reason why I pray in the morning instead of at night is because I fall asleep praying, and that didn’t work out too well for me. What is your passion? What excitement do you have? How do you live into that? How do you either be hot or cold so you have that zeal and that flavor for God in Jesus Christ so that you love that? Now sometimes we can become so dependent on the structure, whether it’s from a denomination or whether it’s from the church or whether it’s from our own lifestyle that we don’t have that substance in there.

Now the other thing, one other thing Jesus talked about very clearly with the church of Laodicea was that they were wealthy. They were surrounded by cities that were on the sea, near these places, and so they were in between all these great trade routes. So they were a very wealthy city.

You had to go through Laodicea to get somewhere. So anyone who is a little bit entrepreneurial knows that’s an awesome opportunity for trade. Laodicea was wealthy.

And Jesus is saying, which leads into the lukewarmness, oh, you’re wealthy. You got everything you want. You have no needs.

But he says, spiritually I see you as pitiable, in distress, lost, hurt, and naked. You believe you have the finest clothes and they’re guarding your nakedness, but you need to buy white linens. He said you need to trade with me for pure, refined gold that brings eternal life, that brings hope, that brings joy.

Laodicea reminds me so much of us in the United States. Just a real quick story, if you’re from Stilwell, I think I told this story a long time ago, so you might have heard it, but when I was in seminary and I was up here on Truman Road, when St. Paul’s was up on Truman Road and we were studying for finals and I was studying for a Greek final and I was getting burned out. Can you believe I would get burned out studying Greek? And I thought, you know what I need? I need a nice diet Mountain Dew from Quick Trip.

So, you know, I’m going, I’m going to take a quick 15 minute break, run down Truman Road, get my Mountain Dew, come back home, and then I can stay up a little longer and study and enjoy that drink. And I got my Mountain Dew and I sat down in my car and there was a guy with his hood up, a couple cars down, that as soon as I got back in my car, I saw he was walking towards me and my thought was, how fast can I get out of here? I’ve got to study. You know, my study is really important.

And I thought, you know, I’m not a mechanic. I can’t help. And then all of a sudden, he’s standing at my window.

I roll down the window and he said, can you help me? And I was like, what do you need? And he said, I’ve got another battery back at my house. If you could just take me back to my house that is in this dangerous Hispanic area in Kansas City, Missouri. He didn’t tell me that part.

I will help you out. So I said, okay, hop in the car. And he got in the car and I’m just praying going, well, I forgot to tell you the part that before I asked him then, I was praying anyway.

And it felt like God said, you need to help this guy. So he got in the car and we’re driving along and the first thing he says to me, he goes, are you a Christian? And I was like, yeah. And he said, I could tell you were a Christian because you didn’t even hesitate to help me.

Well, there’s a back story to that. It’s just like assuming the chiefs are always going to win. So as we’re driving, he’s telling me he comes from Mexico and he’s helping with the church here and he’s helping them with revivals.

And he goes, you Americans, when I was in Mexico, there were revivals happening everywhere. The Holy Spirit was powerful. You could go into a church and the Holy Spirit would fall on everyone there.

But he said, you Americans are too comfortable. You just have it all you need. And I didn’t feel like he was judging me.

I felt pretty convicted, like I got my Mountain Dew and I’m ready to go. That’s all I need. And here I was in the car, supposed to be the one helping and he’s the one preaching to me.

So we went, he got that battery and we went back and it was just an amazing experience with the Holy Spirit. But a lesson I never forgot is, why is the Holy Spirit, why are churches growing in every place around the world? But here it just seems that it is harder to reach people and it’s because if we have what we need, we don’t think we need God so much in our lives. We don’t need to pray to God to hope we get our next meal, to hope we can put a battery in our car to drive to the next place we need to go.

We think of ourselves as being comfortable, but God looks at us and says the same thing. You’re pitiable, wretched, poor, blind, and naked. So it’s so easy to get sucked into the world around us just like that or rely on other things that aren’t God directly.

Trust that the denomination is going to take care of everything. When we had our district meeting last week, our president pro tempore, Jordan McFall, said, hey, we have, you know, talking about the structure of the Global Methodist Church and the structure of the Heartland Conference in that they only have two employees right now. Everybody else is volunteering.

There’s not much. He said, when you need to come to us and you ask for us to do something for you, it can’t happen. You’ve got to lean on each other as churches.

You’ve got to do church in a different way. The structure and the form that props up a church is not there. The church needs Jesus and that substance in order to thrive in the Heartland Conference.

The last thing in Laodicea that they were famous for was their eye salve. Remember the minerals I could tell you, I saw you, they could take those minerals and create an eye salve that would, you know, if you had any kind of eye disease, like our last dog was a Bichon Frise and it was almost as high maintenance as the name sounds. It was a fringe name, Bichon Frise.

And it would get allergies and I’d have to put that, go to the vet and get the eye salve. Do you ever, you’ve seen that. The eye salve that you’d have to put in there and certain times of year were tough.

And our dog has had some, our current dog, which is a golden doodle, has had some eye issues too. But they were known for that and it would help clear eyes up, help take the pain out of eyes. And Jesus was saying, you need a spiritual salve so that you can open your eyes and see me working and wake up.

John Wesley said this in his thoughts on Methodism in 1786. Some of you probably heard this before because it is so convicting today. He said this not too long before his death.

I am not afraid that people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America, but I am afraid that they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion, still going to church, still reading the Bible, still talking about Jesus, still helping others out, but without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case unless they hold fast to the doctrine, spirit, and discipline which they first set out in. He was an evangelist, but he seems to have become a prophet later in life.

And that is what we can, no matter what denomination is in the United States, that can affect us. The Heartland Conference did a survey last fall asking all the pastors. I don’t know if they asked anyone outside of clergy what they thought the conference should be about.

What was most important? And they put together these values based on an acronym from worship that would guide us as a church to help us not just have the form or the structure of saying we are a denomination, but to have these values that guide us as we go through. The Wesleyan Way. The W is Wesleyan Way.

We will promote and teach Methodist doctrine and theology. Openness. We will be transparent with our processes and funding.

I mean, all of these are who we should be as a church as well. Resource churches. We will provide churches and clergy with coaching, mentoring, training, and help identify materials for discipleship in person and online.

Servant leadership. We will follow the example that Christ, as Christ is leaders to serve not to be served. When I had dinner with Jordan and Joshua, our supervising elder a couple weeks ago, they just kept asking the same question they said.

How are you doing? What do you need? How can we help? What is there? They can’t do everything, but they can point us to the right things. They wanted to live out this servant leadership, and we do that too. Holiness.

We will help clergy and churches strive for personal and social holiness so that scriptural holiness spreads across the Heartland Annual Conference. That’s our whole Lenten time. Intentional connection.

We will promote and encourage relationship building among clergy and churches for ministry, spiritual health, and vitality. One of the things we’ve talked about is connecting with the church in Ethiopia, but I’m hoping and I’m thinking way down the line that as we go on that we can help at least another church here and there in the Heartland Conference, especially new church plants that come along that we can be there for them in some way and intentionally connect. And the pursuit of one more.

We will pursue the Great Commission. We will pursue one more person for Jesus, one more pastor to be recruited and developed, one more congregation to be helped, and one more church to be planted. Churches can easily reflect the culture.

No matter how new you are, you can go to the point where you start reflecting the culture. Right? That the church seems like the culture that the church adapts what the culture says. When will the culture reflect the church instead of the church reflect the culture? And that’s only going to happen when disciples shine the light of Jesus warmer and brighter than the glitter of the world.

And when that happens, the structure and the form give substance to one’s faith and they can work together to be a blessing to all of us. Let’s pray. Almighty God, thank you so much for your love and your grace Help us not to be lukewarm.

If we feel like we’re in a pit or a valley instead of on a mountaintop high, help us to seek your face. Put within us that new energy, that new spirit, that new excitement for Jesus Christ. Connect us with the passions and the gifts that you have given us so that we can serve with excitement and joy.

Help us to know that because you are God and you are the substance within our form, that we are alive, that we are awake, and that we will not become a powerless sect, but that your power flows through our every breath.