As we begin here today, I want to tell you a story about Pastor Ed and Henry.  You see, Henry came to worship every Sunday. Or I should say Henry's body came to worship every Sunday - not his mind, especially during Pastor Ed's sermons. Every Sunday Pastor Ed would start proclaiming the Word, and He would look down from the high pulpit and see Henry nodding off, and yet no one but Pastor Ed would notice - Henry didn't snore and didn't fall over. What really got Pastor Ed is that Henry was able to stand up right along with everyone else when the hymn was sung after the sermon. Pastor Ed didn't get how he could do that, until one day....

     One Sunday Pastor Ed started his sermon, and right away Henry was "in the zone." Sure that Henry couldn't hear, Pastor Ed said, "Now I know that here in Heaven or Hell Community Church you've heard me talk a lot about where souls go before they die. But today I want to ask you personally: how many of you here believe, if you died right now, that you would be going to perish in the fires of hell? If so, please stand up!" And as Pastor Ed said this, he shut his Bible like he did at the end of every sermon, and Henry heard his cue and stood up! Henry looked around, bleary-eyed, seeing everyone seated with their mouth open, and then he turned and said to Pastor Ed, "Well, Pastor, I don't know what it is we're voting for, but it looks like you and I are the only ones voting yes!!"

     Now, if we were to ask for volunteers to go and do door-to-door evangelism today, I'm not sure we'd get even that many to stand up and say, "Yes! Pick me!" Part of me would want to stay seated, too, because we live in a time when religion is a very, very touchy subject out there, especially when it comes to the topic of life after death - when it comes to the very question Pastor Ed asked: "Are you going to heaven, or to hell?"

     Yet, the answer to that is important, is it not - even if people don't like to hear the question? Yes, we don't like to talk about hell, that some may go there. And yet, Jesus, our Master talks about hell - and escaping from its doom. He even says this: "I tell you that there is joy in the presence of angels of God over [even] one sinner who repents," who is saved from hell. [Luke 15:10] This is Bill Hybbels' favorite verse, and one of my favorites, as I try to imagine those angels there in heaven, and them maybe hearing a gong or something, announcing a new convert, and getting "jumping-up-and-down happy" over and over again! And, you know, it is at least a "jumping-up-and-down happy" enough time, is it not? - Because we're talking about the gift of a life spent with God for eternity!

     So don't be confused about this. We're here to help God heal and save the world for eternity. It's got both a "now" and a "forever" aspect to it, this healing, this avoidance of "hell," because someone can not only end up in hell after death but feel like they are in hell before they die. Jesus knew this. That's why Jesus offered one very important thing in two stages - not one, but two stages: the "one very important thing" is reconciliation with God; its two stages are these - the two times in life where this reconciliation takes place: NOW - what Jesus called "abundant life now," and LATER - what Jesus called "eternal life forever."  And Jesus will not stop trying to give people abundant life now and eternal life forever, as long as people walk this earth. But, you know, when Jesus was talking about angels rejoicing over one sinner's salvation, He also talked about how He was like a shepherd who would never give up looking for even one lost sheep - not even one! Jesus said the Godly Shepherd will "go after the one that is lost until He finds it." (Luke 15:4) "Until He finds it." He never gives up - and neither should we!! Why shouldn't we give up on trying to reach the lost? First, because we love them, and second, because Jesus Christ has decided to use us - the "Body of Christ" - to work through us to go out and seek and find them - just as we have been sought; just as we have been found!

     This is Jesus' mission: do you want to be a part of it? That's what we're asking as we are about to enter the special Four-Week Spiritual Experience we call "Just Walk Across the Room." Over the next several weeks, all of us who participate will find new insights into what it means to be Christ's voice to our neighbors, to our co-workers, to our relatives, to our friends. And all along in these four weeks, we will be called to answer this question: Just what kind of private are you?"

     There are two kinds of "private," you know. There's the "private" the world wants to recruit to its army, in which our faith is only a "private" thing - something we do not dare to "walk across the room" to share with anyone else. That's the way the Devil wants us. That's the kind of "private" the world wants us to be. But then there is the other kind of private: the private in the army of salvation, the army of Jesus, our Lord, as He strides forward to save the world and each and every person in it! With Jesus as our "General," He is the Lord and Master who gives you and me - His servants - orders...orders to go and share your faith with someone - orders to go and perhaps serve that someone first, showing them some tangible love, because, let's face it: we live in a time period when abundant life now seems more relevant to people than eternal life to come.

     Now, in seeking to obey our Master, there are obstacles to overcome. We especially don't want to be the kinds of "privates" who stay "private" with our faith out of fear of the big, bad old world out there. In fact, one of my favorite songs in recent years on the subject of witnessing to the world makes this point very well. It's a great song by the Christian group Avalon, and it goes like this:

I hide me...far away from trouble
The world outside me grows darker by the day
So I promise to stay here close beside Him
Surely God would want His children safe!

     Notice these words. The author is a Christian who is afraid of the world and what it will do to him. So, he figures, if he stays with church people, and stays close to church, he will be safe - like God wants, right? But, as He reads the Bible, he realizes he's got the wrong idea about how to live out his faith. God is telling him something different. As the song says:

            Then in reading, how my eyes were opened.
            I find that He is leading us out into the world
            Into the middle of fallen saints and sinners
            Where a little grace is needed most!

     Yes, indeed, Christ is leading us out into the world. And it doesn't have to be someplace exotic and far away. Sometimes the part of the world that needs us most is right here, right here, in this metropolis, but outside these four walls!  The song goes on, full of our Master's pleadings:

            Come take the Light to darkened parts
            Share His truth with hardened hearts
            We are not like the world, but we can love it!
            Come bring the hope to hopeless men
            ‘Til the lost are found in Him
            He came to save the world so let us be...
            In it, not of it!

     --That last phrase is based on the old Christian saying that we are all called to be "in the world, not of the world." The song calls us to "take the Light to darkened parts" and another part of this song goes on to explain what this means:

            We've cursed the darkness far too long
            We need to hold the candle high
            We have to go and right the wrongs
            We need to touch the world...with love

     You see, we have been given God's light to share with the world. But what candle is useful stuck in the drawer instead of out and about, lighting up the room?  What light fixture is useful if its switch button is always "off"? You know, Jesus Himself did not stay at home. He went out and, as the song put it, "touched the world with love."

     Actually, He did more than that. He suffered for the world; and we are called to suffer some inconveniences, some embarrassments, and more, for the same old world. As we read today, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son," - why? - "So that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life." (John 3:16) Of course this is one of the most well-known verses in the Bible. But have you ever looked at it more closely?  We focus a lot on God the Father sacrificing His Son out of great love, but we don't talk about what the rest says, about why God does this. God, Jesus says today, sacrifices His Son so that the people He created do not PERISH. PERISH, like old Pastor Ed had said.

     --Which is why I like the next verse - John 3:17 - even more than John 3:16.  Jesus goes on to say, "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him" - through Him.  Through Him and through us - through you and me, as we rely on God to help us do things we never thought we would do...as we use what we will learn in these next four weeks...as we learn how to walk across the room, and as we learn how to listen better to others' struggles, and as we learn how to talk to others about how important our faith in God is to us. In short: we will learn how to stride forward as Jesus, our Master, strides forward every day to save the world...to save the hearts that beat just a few feet from our hearts, every day. Amen!