The Means to an End

This is the script that I spoke from on Sunday in church about the closing of the prayer room. It really was just a blog post I got to share with more than 4 people. I guess that is good. Enjoy:


This prayer room brought us into a focus of prayer. I think it brought many people back to prayer that had somewhat lost their way. I know that was the case for me. It gave me a place to get away from everything else in my life and rest with the Lord. I know I slept less this month than anytime since college. But I was usually refreshed and ready to face my day, even after a night with no sleep. Prayer was a means to an end. It was a path I had forgotten, one that I had probably at times scoffed at, but it brought me to my end. It brought me closer to my Lord and Savior. It brought me home.

The 24-7 Prayer Movement has based itself on a Rule. This rule governs their set-up in their Boiler Rooms (consistent 24-7 prayer rooms). The Rule has layers. The inner-most layer is that their purpose is to love God and love their neighbors. Upward and Outward. The next layer is their principles: Authentic to Christ, Relational to People, Missional to the world.

The final layer is the practices that complete the inner areas. These are the means by which they achieve their purpose. To be Authentic to Christ, they use prayer and creativity. This was where our prayer room shined. You can see in the art and the graffiti, and the journals, and I believe, in the hearts of our people, that prayer and creativity were blooming in that little room. But what I want to share with you today is the other 4 practices that are also vital to our growth. For the 24-7 movement, they are stated as Mercy, Hospitality, Learning, and Mission. To simplify, they are GO and DO!

Now this is not saying that we need to stop praying, but what I have come to understand is, if all you do is pray, you will hit a wall, you will find yourself not getting any closer to God. At the same time, if all you are doing is serving, you will get your eyes off of God and you will find yourself doing things for the wrong reasons, or burning out and not doing them at all. There must be a balance, and it will be different for everyone. In fact your balance may shift in your lifetime. But to continue to grow in Christ, it takes more than one path. It takes a multi-pronged approach.

This congregation is a giving one. We see that in the Mortgage Burning Celebration we will be having soon. We see that in our support of Missionaries and Orphanages around the globe as well as local needs as LAM. But this is not necessarily being missional. Missional is really you GOING. I am not suggesting that we stop supporting mission work, and I am not suggesting that we all get our passports and shots and run off to Africa. But I am suggesting that the idea of GO and DO takes getting your nails dirty, not just your checkbooks out.
The Bible uses the word GO 1,514 times. 1,514! Including Jesus’ last words to the disciples

Matthew 28:18-20 (The Message): "Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: "God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I'll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age."

We are commanded to go. Ever heard of a Wild Goose Chase? This was a concept created by the ancient Celts. They called the Holy Spirit the Wild Goose. So a Wild Goose Chase was a journey one was sent out upon in order to get closer to the Holy Spirit and in turn closer to God. Sometimes our Wild Goose Chases are becoming the answer to our own prayers. Sometimes God lays things on our hearts and then, we pray over it, and we get this sinking suspicion that we are to do something about it. Not just pray, not just send money in support, but to GO and DO.

And this is the scary thing, sometimes that is the only plan you get. Not many of us jump at those things. We like the approach of sending something, we love the fact that we can be ever fervent in our prayers. But sometimes we are called to be more. We are not just called to pray over poverty in our community, we are to create outreach to let them know they are loved by God. (That is what I believe this Angel Food Ministries thing can be). We are to see people making a real effort to clean up their lives and their community and lend a helping hand. Sometimes we see them doing nothing at all to help themselves, we see them digging themselves deeper and deeper into their sins, and God calls us to reach out and be His mercy. We are not to be judgment (we are to have judgment) but God is the great judge. We are to be mercy, we are to be loving and kind and compassionate. And if it is used against us, we are not to be fools, but we should not withhold mercy. We should work to not be calloused over by the wickedness in the world, because even those who are abusing our mercy and seeing mercy from Christ. They are experiencing Him, and that is worth a few times of facing injustice in return.

I have talked a lot about the means, but I have yet to state the End. What are we aiming for? What is success in this adventure? To get ever closer to God. This is the END of our journey. The end that our means are getting us to. We are ever trying to get closer and closer to God. We want to be nearer to Him. Now many of us like to use this “nearness” as a means itself. That our being nearer to God will help us get what we want. But if that is the mindset, you are not making your relationship with God your focus, you are making yourself the focus. If we as a church are going to grow, it is going to be in searching and trusting in Christ and in the leaders He has established here in our church, that we are working for that one goal. That nearness. It is not an agenda to do his thing or her thing or even to balance his things and her things to not upset anyone. It is about doing God’s thing. And doing it WHOLEHEARTEDLY. In complete trust and faith, that it will get us to His presence. So this is my challenge to you today use the means of GO and DO to help get us to the End we so desire.