11 minute read
My pulpit message notes: Is the news worth trending
from TT 150
by TIMES TODAY
Is the News worth trending?
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Information is simply knowledge. News is an upgrade of information. News is information that is interesting, important and a recent happening. Trend is news that is high ranking. It is fashionable.
Today there are ridiculous amounts of information at our disposal. In a single second, 6,000 tweets are released. Also two million books are produced every year. This is an overload of information. There are 600 million blogs and over 1.7 billion websites.
The gospel that we have proven from the past weeks is really, good, isn’t fake, it’s breaking and is worth trending. It should be a calibre above the six thousand tweets a second.
1. Supremacy of the Sender
2. Substance of the message
3. Nobility of the task
Supremacy of the Sender
Matthew 28:18
- Here it is us considering who is sending us to go. They say that there are certain aspects of news and information that make it newsworthy. For information to become news, it has to meet certain criteria for example, about a celebrity, or someone of prominence etc.
- Colossians 1:15 says
- Why should this news trend? Because the One from whom it originates from has superiority in the whole universe. We are talking about the Creator of the heavens and the earth, Who put a boundary to the sea.
If you want to check how impossible that is, take a bottle of water, spill that water and try telling it, don’t go past here.
Imagine someone who can tell the sea, don’t go past this point. Someone who formed such complexity in the intrinsic fibres of creation. Someone Who formed patterns and designs. Someone Who split the sea into two.
- I cannot begin to fathom Someone who could split the sea into two, and instead of using the ferry to school, I walk on dry ground. That is the supremacy of our God. That is the Who’s message we are being asked to trend. Yes, His news is worthy trending.
- We are looking at One Who holds the answers/solutions to this fallen world. I look at the state of things today and wonder, how we got to such hardship and devastation. How did we end up with gas prices skyrocketing? As Paul would describe it, ‘an evil generation’.
- But there is One Who holds a message that is able to rescue us in this time, in this fallen world. He has wisdom and solutions to problems of humanity. That is the supremacy of our God. In Hebrews, He says He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him.
- In answering the question as to whether this news is worth trending, I would ask, what did it do for you? What wereyou saved from? Where did you come from? What did it change for you? All of us are in this fallen world. Then think of all those other people going through the same things and surely, isn’t that gospel that rescued you worth taking to them so that they will come to where you are now. That is worth trending.
Substance of the message
Matthew 28:20
- In my first year of school we touched a little on IT, the basics, and there was a unit called ‘Networks’. I understood a network to be, as when we were young a game we used to play of using a pipe to talk through it with one person on one end and the other person on their ear. Imagine the pipe to be a network / medium that will transfer information.
So one of the characteristics of a good network , we said, was one that maintains the integrity of the data. This means the message that is leaving point A should be the same message received at point B. It should be undistorted / unchanged.
- If we are the network and Jesus is point A and the world / nations to whom we are sent is point B, we are supposed to pass a message that retains its integrity. It should be undistorted.
- In this world, in these times, in this generation, there are topics that are now considered sensitive. There are topics where someone asks you what is your stand / take and because there is that fear of what if you answer and you are taken to be a judgmental person. It is important for us to maintain the integrity of the data that we are transmitting.
- Jesus is saying, ‘Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.’
- I recently completed my attachment at a certain institute and there was one time when I was asked what is my stand on homosexuality. This is a topic all of us have come to interact with. Either being asked, or watching shows about it and it is such a sensitive topic now, but that and the rest of the topics that we might be asked that are very sensitive.
Sexual immorality these days is so easy, the come-we-stays are so normal, but it is important for us to maintain the integrity of the data. Teaching them to obey everything that we have been commanded.
- It means that when we speak, act, make a decision, when we choose a path, we are still maintaining the integrity of that data. Why? Because as Paul would say,
And that is why it is integral for us to maintain the integrity of that data. The gospel is the power of God, it is able to change/transform the listeners, it is able to turn their lives around. Again, what did it do for you? Then it can do for other people. It is vital for us to maintain the integrity of that data.
- We don’t have to have gone to a theological school, I haven’t. We were simply called to be witnesses.
- On our dates with Mrs. Mulandi, an amazing company, one of the questions she almost always asks is, have you started discipling someone yet? My answer the first days was, I’m too young , I was around 20, or 21 then, and she asked me, am I being discipled and I answered, yes. And she said it is simply that. What you are being taught, you go and tell others. Just that.
- That is the substance of the message that we are also taking. It shouldn’t be overwhelming that we should have gone to some theological school and graduated after some six years. It is simply passing on what you have heard.
- So I feel like we can put more pressure on going for Bible study because then you can have something to share. We can put more weight on going to church and sharing with believers because then you have something to share. We can put more weight on personal studies and quiet time because then, you will have something to share.
But remember, the weight of this is to maintain the integrity of that data. Don’t veer off. We shouldn’t trend what is acceptable / fashionable to people. We teach everything He commanded us.
Nobility of the task
Matthew 28:20
I love movies, particularly epic movies. Epic movies are those which talk about the period of vikings and warriors and kings. It depicts the period between after Jesus coming and just before technology rose. There is a phrase that they make, ‘someone being on the king’s errand’. That would simply mean, someone has been sent on behalf of the king to represent them somewhere. They will either pass a message, or hold discussions on behalf of the king. They are the king’s hand. It did not really matter who this errand boy was because you are simply the image of the king so if you respected the king, then you would respect this errand boy because he is representing that king. It is interesting because they ride on the best horses, they get robed in red regalia, they eat nicely and are treated very well, but it is not them. It doesn’t matter whether this person came from a poor or rich background, because they are representing the king and were treated as the king would have been treated. It doesn’t matter where you come from, but it is vital that you don’t embarrass the king. So they are always acting in their best behaviour.
- We are on the King’s errand and it is not fiction/movie/ movie genre. This is real life. We have been sent by the King who split the sea into two. We are representing the King and so when we talk, we should speak oracles, as people who have been sent by the King.
- The King chooses to use me, who sometimes is not diligent, sometimes steps on people’s toes etc. But the King has sent me and you to hold this message that is able to change people’s lives and make them better, to give them hope. We have been sent, we are on the King’s errand.
- The conclusion of the matter is this; that man is in desperate need of a Saviour. Someone who will save us from ourselves, from our selfishness, from our distractive nature,Someone who will help us in our struggles.
- Man is also completely unable to help himself. We need help, but cannot help ourselves. Even our best efforts really come to nothing. Out attempts at salvation, self preservation are futile. We can look at the environment around us, things degrading and things dyeing and it is really us. There is a disconnect.
- The good news is that there is a Saviour. Someone who is able to help. Again, what did He do for you? Where would you have been if it wasn’t for God?
- In this world where things are going astray there is a Saviour, there is a God, who was willing to save this wretched man. So willing, He laid down His life to call me and you, us lawless people us naked, rebellious, poor, weak people, sons. There is a Saviour holding out salvation. There is a Saviour Who’s impact in our lives will make our impact actually matter. Why would anyone miss it? Why would anyone miss that good message? Why would anyone struggle for what will not satisfy? Why would we continue striving and we are not even helping ourselves? Because we have not heard? Far be it from us.
- That is why we need to trend this news. Because there is a Saviour. It is relevant to people. They need to know that there is a Saviour. So we are the ones who will trend this news. We are the ones who will stand boldly and say / shout on top of our lungs that there is a God. He rescued me and He can rescue you. And we will use whatever tools we have.
We may not all have gone to a theological school, but we can sing, so we will sing loudly. We can dance, so we will dance vigorously. We have our professions, we have people under us, people we can impact, so we will make it trend with tools that we have. We will use our voices, and our passion and we will use our knowledge, our testimony and we will make this news trend because it is worth trending.
- Yes this news is worth trending. So my life and your life should reflect that.
- I know if all of us decided to send a tweet, it wouldn’t reach six thousand in a second, but we can use what we have and we can make this news to trend. There is forgiveness and help and salvation, and hope and joy and peace like people have not experience before if we will just turn our focus and look at Christ, the supremacy of the Sender, the substance of the Message and the nobility of this Task. We are on the Kings errand.
