Sunday Sermon: "What Does Frankfort Church Want to Be Known For?"

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION
Let us pray: Gracious God, as we turn to your Word, may the Spirit of God rest upon us. Help us to be steadfast in our hearing, in our speaking, in our believing, and in our living. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING: Ephesians 1:15-23
15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.
17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be opened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

The grass withers and the flower fades but the Word of the Lord endures forever. Amen.

SERMON: INTRODUCTION
The Apostle Paul planted a lot of churches. I mean, he planted A LOT of churches. He took three missionary journeys which we read about in Acts. On these journeys, he either visited churches that already existed or stopped to plant new churches along the way. He started them from scratch. He built a church where none had existed before. It seems like practically every letter in the New Testament is from Paul to some church he planted.

But not Ephesians. Believe it or not, but Paul did not plant the church in Ephesus. Verse 15 says, “. . . ever since I heard about your faith.” Paul has never met the believers in Ephesus. He doesn’t know them. He’s never been there. God must have given someone else the gift of being a church planter because Paul was not involved with the church at Ephesus. He only heard about them through the grapevine, as the song goes. He heard about them through the grapevine and wrote them a letter.

#1
Maybe, at some point in your life, you wrote a letter to your favorite band or your favorite actor or actress. That’s a letter that would technically be written to someone you’ve never met, which kind of sounds like the situation we have with this letter to the church at Ephesus. But it’s a little bit different.

Ephesians, which is one big, long letter, is actually more like your favorite actor writing YOU a letter. Paul was like a rock star in biblical times; so imagine what it would be like for a church to get a letter from him! He had never met them; he’d only heard about them.
Technically, it was probably one of Paul’s disciples who actually wrote the letter, but he used Paul’s words and Paul’s ideas. He was so impressed by the church at Ephesus that “Paul” sent them a letter.

The church at Ephesus had a reputation for being a pretty outstanding church. They were known for their faithfulness and how they expressed their love of God in their actions. It’s like the old hymn says, “And they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

So, the Apostle Paul sends the Ephesians a long-distance piece of fan mail. He tells them that he never stops giving thanks for them and that he remembers them in his prayers—these people he’s never met. He prays that God would give them, according to verse 17, “wisdom and revelation” so that they might know God better. He prays that the eyes of their hearts—that’s one of my favorite phrases in the Bible—so that the eyes of their hearts might be opened so that they would understand the hope they have in Jesus Christ.

This must have been a stellar group of Christians. We don’t actually know too much specifically about the church. We just know that they had the reputation for being exceptional enough as a church that it caught the attention of Paul the Apostle/Rock Star.

#2
But you know, reputations are funny things. You probably grew up with your mom or dad telling you not to worry about what other people think of you, particularly when it comes to doing what is right. I know in some classroom of mine hung a poster that said, “What is right is not always popular. What is popular is not always right.”

So we know that we shouldn’t worry about what others think or say about us. Here’s the problem, or the rub, as Shakespeare would say: when you’re looking for a new doctor or a new plumber or a new car dealer, or if you’re looking for a college or a new job, what’s the first thing you want to know about? Someone’s reputation. You want to know what other people of the doctor or plumber or car dealer. You want to know what graduates think of a particular school. You want to know what people think about your potential employer. You want to know about their reputation.

Despite all our parents’ teaching, it would seem, usually, we DO care about what others say.

If you’re a doctor, you want to be known, I would guess, as being patient, wise, and caring. That’s what you hope your reputation says about you. If you own a car dealership, you want to be known as friendly, helpful, and fair. That’s the reputation you want.

With a good reputation, the sky is the limit, for businesses, individuals, and even for churches. And this brings me to the “audience participation” portion of today’s sermon. . . .

#3
The church at Ephesus had such a stellar reputation that word spread over miles and miles and miles about their love and their faithfulness. Personally, I think the best PR a church can do isn’t big billboards or fancy commercials on TV. The best PR a church can do is to spread, by word of mouth, their reputation of who they are and what they are about.

So, I’ve got some work for you guys to do. In your bulletins, on the insert, you’ll see I’ve divided the paper up into two sections. On the top is the question “What does Frankfort Church want to be known for?” On the bottom it says, “What is Frankfort Church known for?”

So, what I want you to do is, for five minutes, I want you to get in groups of 4 or 5—just move a little closer to the other people sitting near you—and talk about the question “What does Frankfort Church want to be known for?” Pick one person to write your ideas down. Try to come up with at least three things that your group hopes Frankfort Church would be known for in the community around us. What kind of reputation do we want our church to have in the community and with our neighbors?

OK, five minutes. Ready? Go . . . .
Who would like to share their ideas with everyone? . . . .

Now, there’s still another question on your page, isn’t there? "What is Frankfort Church known for?" Well, that’s your homework for next week. As you go through your week, if you run into someone who knows about the church but doesn’t come, tell them that your minister gave you homework. Ask them what they know about the church. Try not to prompt them or guide them at all. Just write down what they saw, for better or for worse.

Bring your answers back with you next week. And we’ll see how what we hope to be matches up with what our reputation actually is. I don’t know exactly how this will turn out. We might be pleasantly surprised at how well what we hope we are known for matches what we are actually known for. Or we might be a little shocked by the results. It will be an interesting little experiment.

CONCLUSION
There are a million things that churches SHOULD be known for. Paul gives a lot of ideas for the kinds of things churches should be known for. But, you know we cannot be all things to all people.

What do you think God wants this church to be known for? Jesus died and rose again so that this church might have life and have it abundantly. How can we live up to God’s expectations for us? Like I asked the children, what does God want us to be known for?

Thanks be to the God who is known for faithfulness, steadfast love, and everlasting glory.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.