Richard Pratt Talk #2: Genesis 1:26ff

This morning at 9am, Richard Pratt taught a combined all-church class. Again, I recommend that you just listen to the mp3 audio posted on the church website here. (You can put the sermon audio on your ipod by first downloading the mp3 file to your computer. You download it by right-clicking on it and selecting "Save Link As...". After it's downloaded, you open the file with iTunes and add it to your library.)

Here are some remembrances of his talk:

Introduction: Mission is not an add-on
When you add a room onto your house, no matter how hard you try, it always looks like an add-on. I never quite looks like it was originally built with the rest of the house. That is how the American church relates to mission: it feels like an add-on tacked on the end of all our activities. It's almost as if Jesus said and did all the things, and then before he ascended, he gave a little footnote that said, "Oh, yeah, and don't forget the Great Commission." But it's not that way at all. Mission didn't begin with Jesus. Or Abraham. But with Adam and Eve. God's missional kingdom is a pre-Fall reality, not a post-Fall necessity!

The idea of mission is actually bound up in the idea of what it means to be created in the image of God. Other Ancient Near Eastern religions also used the language of "image of God" and "sons of God" to describe people - but only Pharoahs and Kings. It was believed in the A.N.E. that Pharoahs were the true sons of God, made in his image. It was believed that they exercised dominion over the earth on God's behalf. Genesis takes the language of "image of God" from the surrounding religious cultures, adopts it and then co-opts it. It becomes evident very soon in Genesis that every single human being was created in the image of God.

It is a great part of our practical piety to go around saying, "Oh, I'm just a sinner. I'm scum. I can't do anything. God must do it all. I'm insignificant." Not true! This is a lie of Satan. Satan uses this kind of thinking to immobilize the church. Because we are made in his image, everything we do matters. We matter. If you convince yourself that you don't really matter and that you're life really doesn't matter for the Kingdom of God, and you won't try to do anything significant for the Kingdom of God with your life! This is the problem. But if you see yourself as an image-bearer, as God's vice-regent over creation, then you come to see that what you say, think and do matters greatly. We go around thinking that godliness is to dishonor ourselves and our lives. But godliness means living up to who we already are: image bearers of God. And if that isn't enough, we not only bear his image, but we've also been redeemed by his blood! He has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and he is re-working his image in us by Holy Spirit. So live up to who you truly are. Be who you are.

Then, as his image-bearers, realize that he has given us dominion over all the earth. Earth matters. People matter. This planet and world matters. Because God has called us to make earth into his kingdom. Unfortunately, Christians don't believe this anymore. We have given up this world. We are just waiting for "heaven" - forgetting that redemption is a new earth as well.

The only people who really believe in sacrificing themselves for the sake of bringing God's kingdom to earth are the Muslims. They are willing to give all they are and have to make it Allah's kingdom. We aren't. We're giving it over to them by our own passivity. The census department tells us that there will be 5 major cities in the US with a majority Muslim population by 2025. That is tomorrow. Islam is gaining rapid ground, the evangelical church is losing ground rapidly, and we don't even know it. Because we don't think that exercising kingdom dominion over the earth is our calling or that it matters.

We see this in two ways. First, Christians aren't having children. Muslims have tons of babies. So Muslim growth is rapidly outpacing Christian growth generationally in the US. We're going to end up like England, where the Archbishop of Canteburry said a few days ago that England will have to adopt Sharia law if England is to survive. Archbishop Rowan Williams essentially laid down, rolled over and gave it up to the Muslims. We're going to be right there behind them very soon. And we don't even know it. We're too concerned about retiring at the same level of income in which we worked during our careers. So our materialism is keeping us from valuing children.

Then, we don't disciple our children. We aren't training them seriously in the faith. We let them go to a youth group or something, but we aren't serious about training them to be fully productive members of the kingdom of God. It just isn't a priority in our lives. We are loyal to our careers, but not to the kingdom of God. We're blind to the interests of the kingdom.

Our task is to turn the earth into God's Kingdom. We are called to make earth paradise by extending the reign of King Jesus everyway. Not with force like the Muslims do. With love and persusion. But also by laying down our lives. By giving away not 10% of our income but 50% of our income to the kingdom work of the church. Who believes so passionately in the kingdom of God that they give away 50% of their income. In wealthy American, this ought to be the norm among Christians. The King is coming and we must do we all possibly can to get the earth ready.

We continue to circle the wagons here. We are disengaged relationally from our changing world and especially our changing neighborhoods. But the problem is that we're going to keep circling the wagons until we don't have any more wagons. Meanwhile, our granddaughters will belong to a shiek's harem in Dallas. We've already surrendered. We treating mission as if it's a nice little add-on to the end of the happy Christian life. We have it backwards. Being a Christian is living with a mission. We must reconnect with the mission of God.

So what do we do? We fast and pray. We ask Holy Spirit to come. We fast and pray until that happens. Until we are changed. It's not just an extra. It's why we exist.

That's what I heard Richard say this morning. I'm curious - what did you hear him say? What struck you? Leave a comment and let me know!