Sit Down and Be Blessed

(Message to Wesley United Methodist Church Celebrating Ushers’ Day - Luke 9: 14 – 18) People all over Waco, Texas are attending churches open in the name of Jesus. They are attending for various reasons. Churches struggle to market themselves like McDonald’s, Target, Mike Staas Plumbing, Allen Samuels, and Katie’s Frozen Custard (local businesses). We know that people evaluate churches and church services like they do businesses, so we try to provide the church experience that attracts the people: (feed them, brief services, tamborines, hospitality, entertaining preaching, charismatic service, good choir, give aways, kind Pastor, drums, and a great musician). Church leaders know that people come to church and leave with an Evaluation Checklist. We’ve all been guilty. “How was the choir? How was the preaching? How was the preacher?” We focus more evaluation on the people in charge than we do on the God in charge of the universe. The choir sings. You physically hear the words and the music. The preacher preaches. You hear the words with your ears, and you understand them with your brain. Then you evaluate the preacher’s message piece by piece: Agree with this; Disagree with that; Good; Bad; Boring, or maybe you don’t even listen at all. Stop evaluating the people who serve you and evaluate the God we are all here to serve. Give Him a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Come to church and work on your relationship with Him. God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Hear the choir with your ears. Hear the preacher with your ears. But while you are physically listening, your spiritual hearing needs to take control of your thoughts. Spiritual hearing works from the inside out. Ears can’t help you comprehend the spiritual things of God. After Jesus feeds the 5000, He and His disciples had slipped away for some private time. Church leaders and gossipers too, ya’ll know about the meeting after the meeting. Sometimes the meeting after the meeting is in somebody’s office. Sometimes it’s on the parking lot. Sometimes it’s on the phone. Sometimes it’s at the restaurant where you and your crew go after church or after the meeting. Jesus asked His disciples in the meeting after the meeting where He fed 5000+ men, women, and children, using only 5 loaves and 2 fishes, “Whom say the people that I am?” The disciples began popcorning out what they heard. Some say you are Elias. Some say you are John the Baptist. They named other prophets. Everybody had an answer for what “they say.” Then Jesus asked them the most important question that must be answered by everybody in this life, “Whom say you that I am?” Only Peter spoke up. Verse 20 says, “Peter answering said, ‘The Christ of God.” If you are a Christian, a born again believer, you correctly answered this question for yourself one day. If you want to evaluate your church, evaluate your response to this question, “Who is Jesus?” When you try to answer that question, something spiritual should happen to you. Something should start happening to you from the inside out. Everybody needs to know who Jesus is. Once you know who He is, you should come to church and work on your relationship with Him. The work of an usher is a ministry. It is a work of service. Ushers meet the needs of those attending service. They assist with keeping the service reverent. They provide order where there otherwise may be no order. Imagine the problems in the service if there were no ushers “to obey.” Who would manage the offertory worship? Who would assist the people with seating? Who would make the guests feel welcome? We have all needed the assistance of the ushers. What if the ushers had not been available to provide the service we needed? Jesus had been preaching all day in this Bible lesson. The people had followed Him quite a distance away from the town where all the food sources were. The disciples were concerned and suggested to Jesus that He dismiss the service , so the people could go away before expecting to be fed. Jesus told them to feed the people. The disciples said that the only food available was 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes. Jesus said to His disciples in verse 14, “Make them sit down by fifties in a company.” Like ushers, the disciples got the people seated. Like ushers, they assured that there was order. Like ushers, they served the people’s needs. Imagine with me what the chaos could have been. 5000+ hungry men, women, and children hear the rumor that the only food available was 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes. Even after 1000 people were successfully fed, problems could have occurred from the other 4000 thinking and wondering, “Will there be enough?” Maybe the last 1000 considered cutting into the line for fear that the food may run out. But that did not happen. Jesus told His ushers, “Make them sit down….” The people sat down, and they were blessed. Verse 17 says, “And they did eat, and were all filled.” Everybody’s needs were met. That’s what Jesus does. He meets needs. We don’t need a meal, but we do have needs. We have financial needs. We have health needs. We have a need to be forgiven. We have a need to forgive. Jesus still meets needs. Come into the sanctuary, sit down, and be blessed. Have your needs met. Look at the second half of Verse 17,…”and there was taken up of fragments that remained to them twelve baskets. Nobody hauled away the surplus. They returned it. The disciples were like ushers gathering an offering. The people gave, and the disciples gathered 12 baskets. Wesley, come into your church, sit down, and be blessed by the worship experience. Evaluate your God instead of your preacher. He can pass your evaluation. I guarantee you, if you have a heart of gratitude, you will leave better off than you arrived. Evaluate how He loved you. Evaluate how He picked you up when you were down. Evaluate how He woke you up this morning despite all you’ve done. Evaluate how He has come to your rescue time and time again. Evaluate how He met your needs down through the years. Evaluate how He sent His Son, Jesus to pay the price for your sin. Evaluate how He saved you by the blood of Jesus. Jesus hung, bled, and died on a rugged cross to save me from eternal damnation. Because of the love of God and the obedience of Jesus Christ, I shall have everlasting life. Come into this sanctuary. Sit down, hear what the Spirit has to say to you, and be blessed.