We are honored and blessed to have with us in worship this morning, Bishop John Yambasu, the resident Bishop of Sierra Leone and Rev. Lori Steffensen, the State College District Superintendent of the UMC. Bishop Yambasu is here to work with Faith Church on a partnership with a UMC in Pa Loko, Sierra Leone.
For
the last 2 weeks we have been talking about the need to stand strong in our
faith because our children and youth will never be able to stand strong in
their faith until we are standing strong in our own. We learned from Paul that to stand strong we
need the full armor of God and we need to pray in the spirit with all kinds of
prayers. Today I want us to end our look
at standing strong by looking at the very end of Paul’s letter - Ephesians 6:21-22.
In
20 years I am sure I have never taught from this verse and I know I have never
preached on it, but what we find here is an important lesson about how to stand
strong in our faith. First let’s
remember that Paul is writing this letter to the followers of Jesus in
Ephesus. They are a young body of
believers who are learning how to stay faithful to Jesus in the midst of a
culture that was working hard to pull them away from Christ. While Paul told them to stand strong in God’s
word and to trust in Jesus and to call upon God in times of prayer – Paul also understood
that they were human beings who needed some human contact, love and
support. This church, these people, needed
to be encouraged. They needed to know
they were loved and cared for and that Paul and the other leaders had their
back.
Don’t
we all need this? Whether it’s in
Bellefonte or across Pennsylvania or across the Atlantic Ocean to Sierra Leone,
don’t we all need encouragement? There
are times we all get weary from trying to stand strong. We get tired in our battle to stand strong at
work or at home and my guess is there have been times when you have wondered if
there was anyone who had your back.
Standing strong in our faith can get lonely, so if we are going to stand
strong and stay strong for the long haul, we can’t stand alone. We need the love and support and
encouragement of one another.
Nature
gives us the perfect example of this principle in the giant redwoods.
One thing I found really interesting is that
the roots of redwood trees will only intertwine with the roots of other
redwoods – in other words they need each
other if they are going to stand.
This
is how we need to our lives. As
followers of Jesus we need to live in close connection with one another so that
we can support each other not just when the storms blow, but at all times. When we put down the roots of our faith we
need to make sure they touch and connect with the faith of others so that we
can grow stronger together, this is how God created us. None of us was meant to go through life
alone. God created us for human contact,
touch and relationship. We are created
to be part of a family. We were created
to bond with parents and siblings and grandparents. We were also created to be part of a church. God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit all worked
to build a family of faith and community committed to one another. This all means we need to encourage one
another and understand that power comes when we reach out to love and support each
another. Paul knew this which is why he
sent Tychicus
to the people of Ephesus.
Tychicus
was a partner with Paul in ministry. In
Ephesians it says he is a beloved brother
and faithful minister. Paul sent his
friend to the people of Ephesus because he knew they needed help and support
and he knew they needed something more than the words of a letter or the
promise of a prayer. The people needed human
contact, but what is interesting is that as we read about Tychicus, we see that
Paul also needed this human touch.
In
Paul’s letter to Titus he says, when I
send Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me. And when Paul sent Tychicus to Ephesus it
gave Timothy, who Paul placed in charge of that church, the opportunity to
return and visit Paul. So what Tychicus
shows us is that Paul is not only concerned about encouraging the churches but
that Paul needed some personal encouragement as well.
What
this little known person in the Bible with the funny name teaches us is that we
all need encouragement. From a Bishop to
a DS to a pastor to a person, we all need encouragement and the kind of
encouragement we need comes from the people God places in our lives. Friends on facebook are fine. Skype, face time and google hangout are OK –
but they are no substitute for real personal face to face connections.
We
need to encourage one another here in the local church, but we also need to
find ways to encourage people around the world.
There is power in building friendships and personal relationships with
our brothers and sisters around the world and we need to step out in faith and
do it. In his book Love Does, Bob
Goff tells the most amazing story about his family in the days after 9/11. Bob asked his children what they thought they
could do to help bring the world closer together and they suggested inviting
the world leaders to their home and asking them what their hopes and dreams
were. After some discussion, what they
ended up doing was writing every single world leader and asking if they could
interview them and ask what they hoped for so they could share those hopes and
dreams with other leaders.
The
Goff children sent out the letters and as you might guess, the majority didn’t
get returned or they got a form letter saying, “thanks – but no thanks”. But
then one day they got an invitation to visit Bulgaria, then Switzerland, then
Israel and then several other countries.
The children answered every invitation and each time they visited a
world leader they would present them
with a key to the Goff family home and told them they were welcome anytime
because that’s what friends do.
Somehow
these children knew the key to world transformation, its friendship. When we get to know people and count them as
our friends and brothers and sisters – things change – our lives change and we
all grow stronger. The most amazing part
of that story is one day the Goff children got an email from a world leader who
said, “we miss you, can we please use our
key and come for a sleep over?” And
they did.
There is power in friendship but
stepping out to develop these relationships isn’t easy. Encouraging people isn’t always easy. It takes a certain amount of risk. The Goff children sent out hundreds of
letters and the majority of them said no.
Sometimes reaching out to others is met with closed doors and closed
hearts and that hurts – but we can’t let that hurt keep us from reaching out
again. Maybe we are the ones who are
struggling to accept the help and love of others. If that’s the case then we need to step out
in faith and allow others to care for us.
(Optional)
The
encouragement we need as a church doesn’t just come from those who sit here with
us, we need the encouragement of others and we need to work to encourage people
beyond our walls. Bishop Yambasu and
Rev. Steffensen remind us today that we are part of a much larger church and we
need to reach out to encourage our brothers and sisters and we need to be encouraged
by them. This happens when we invite
people into our homes and into our lives.
It happens when we partner in ministry and give what we have to our
brothers and sisters and then learn from what they have to offer us. We are part of a body and the more we lean on
each other and learn from each other the stronger we become.
One
of the most significant ways we develop friendships and connections is by
eating together and my hope today is that by joining at the Lord’s Table with
our DS and the Bishop we will form lasting relationships with our brothers and
sisters across PA and across the ocean. We
need them. We need their prayers, love, support
and friendship. And they need us. They need our prayers, love, support and
friendship. We need each others, so
let’s make this happen. Let’s stand
strong in faith not alone and not just with those here at Faith Church, but
let’s stand strong together with God’s people around the world.
Next Steps
Standing Strong
Together
1. Identify one person in the life of Faith
Church you would like to get to know better.
Find a way to reach out and build a stronger friendship with them. Invite them to your home for dinner or take
them out to breakfast or lunch. It’s a
risk worth taking.
2. Consider being part of a Sunday School class,
Bible Study, small group or ministry team.
Use these small group settings to build deeper relationships with God’s
people here at Faith Church. Stop at the
Connection Table to learn of opportunities for deeper connection with God’s
people.
3. Ask God to show you who at work or in your
neighborhood needs some encouragement and the look for opportunities to love,
care and support them.
4. If you are sensing God leading to develop a
relationship with people in churches across Pennsylvania or across the world,
talk to Pastor Andy or Paul Neff about opportunities and available
ministries.
Pray for Bishop John
Yambasu and the churches of Sierra Leone.
Pray for Rev. Lori
Steffensen and the churches of the Susquehanna Annual Conference of the UMC.
