Apostolic Action - By David Ulg Ketepa

Presented by David Ulg Ketepa on the Men's Weekend # 70 (July 24th - 27th, 2008) at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Saginaw, Michigan.

Please pray with me…Come Holy Spirit fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in us the fire of your love. Send forth your spirit and we shall be created and you shall renew the face of the earth. O, God who by the light of the Holy Spirit instructs the hearts of the faithful grant that by that same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in his consolations, through Christ our Lord. Amen. Please be seated.
My name is David Ketepa. My wife Michelle and I worship our Lord at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Grosse Pointe Farms, MI. I attended L.V.C.C.M. weekend #64 where I sat at the table of Peter. This weekend I am blessed and honored to be sitting with my brothers at the table of Peter.
My rollo is on (pwtd spell). Apostolic Action.
To help you take notes just use A.A. for Apostolic Action from now on.
I. INTRODUCTION
Christian life can be expressed in three distinct viewpoints. They are (pwtd). Piety, Study and Action. Piety is the direction of our whole life with God and our relationship with Him that motivates our action to have others come to know Him. Study is learning and growing in our faith so that we can recognize God’s will for our lives. Our study builds a solid foundation of knowledge and discernment to use in our Apostolic Action. Apostolic Action is the consequence of our Christianity. We no longer can be satisfied living in God’s grace without being motivated to share Him with others. Apostolic Action is the third leg of our tripod. The final and supporting leg to our stool. We understand from Kurt Aven’s rollo on Piety and John Rabassa’s rollo on Study are combined with Apostolic Action to establish the foundation for our walk with Christ. Each of us is called to a personal conversion, a relationship with God that produces a fundamental change in the direction of our lives. Christianity is more than an individual relationship with God (Piety); a series of truths to be learned (Study), or a program to “preach the Gospel.” Christianity is the whole of life that completely changes a person and affects every community to which he/she belongs. In Genesis 4:9, God says to Cain, “Where is your brother? What have you done to your brother?” Cain replies, “I don’t know. Am I my brothers keeper?” Of course Cain wants God’s answer to be; “No you are not!” However, God’s answer is that, like Cain, we are responsible for our brothers keeping. All of us are to share our love for Jesus and hold each other accountable to the church. We are to encourage each other in faith and continually assure one another of our salvation in Christ.
During a time of falling away from our local church in Papua New Guinea when my grandfather died, a close friend of my family, showed us a good deal of courage by calling my family up and asking, where we were attending services, because he and his family missed us at church. He was concerned about us and where we were in our faith and if we were hearing the Gospel message regularly after the death of our loved one. He at the time wasn’t even aware of the term Apostolic Action, but he was applying it in his Christian life. This man was the sole person from our church to reach out to us - a hurting family and make an attempt to reconcile us to the congregation and most of all to our Lord. He knew that he was his brothers’ keeper. With God’s help he showed my family and I that, as the glowing coal, if removed from the fire, soon cools and dies, that if we remained isolated from the church so would our faith in the Lord cools and dies. He stepped out in faith to talk to an angry and hurting family in Christ and began to tear down the wall of isolation we were building from our Christian friends and God.
II. WHAT IS APOSTOLIC ACTION?
(pwtd) Apostolic Action is anything we do with the sole purpose of influencing others to Christ. When our motivations for action are elevated and empowered by grace, for the spreading of God’s Kingdom, our actions become Apostolic. These actions are motivated, by more than our human action, friendship, brotherhood or neighborliness; they are motivated by Jesus’ love in each of us. Non-Christians are in fact capable of being friendly, brotherly and neighborly, but when we compound this as Christians, with the desire to share Jesus’ love and bring that person to know Jesus as their Savior, we have Apostolic Action.
(pwtd) Apostolic Action is both an expression and a consequence of our love for God, a realization that we are sent to love our neighbor
From creation God has used ordinary people like you and me to carry out His plan of salvation. After the fall of Adam and Eve, God started all over again with Abraham. Today God is willing to start all over with you and me in situations where He needs us most. God has a plan for you because He loves you. Imagine that night when father Abraham was looking at all those brilliant stars and he was looking at the star that was lit just for you. What if Abraham failed to respond to this calling from God? Perhaps God had a backup plan, but then, did He? God made a covenant with Abraham, calling him to be the father of a new beginning – the father of a chosen people. Abraham was a very ordinary layperson. He obviously did not know much theology. He did many stupid and wrong things. He did not even attend a Via de Cristo weekend. However, God was willing to start with Abraham because Abraham believed in Him. Abraham was special because of his faith and trust in God. God said to Abraham in Genesis 12:2-3 that, “I will make you a great nation, I will bless you … and you will be a blessing. Through you every family on earth will be blessed.” God calls each of us to share this message of salvation that was promised to Abraham and because of his faith and trust in God, we are taught to share our faith with those whom we meet in our everyday lives. God uses people just like you and I, all those stars Abraham saw that night so long ago, to spread His message of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
Last year, my wife and I moved to Savannah, GA where she got a job as a youth minister at Ascension Lutheran Church. After being there for couple of weeks, my wife said she was looking at recruiting Sunday school teachers and asked me if I would be interested in teaching the high school class. My immediate response was no-way! She said to pray about it and that she would ask me again after I had time to think and ask God what He wanted me to do. A few days later, She told me that she had found someone to teach the high school class and I began to feel relieved. Then she said that she thought I would be great at teaching the 2nd and 3rd graders allowing her to prepare for other work instead of searching for a 2nd and 3rd grade Sunday school teacher. I told my wife that I was comfortable teaching 2nd and 3rd graders and without hesitation I started teaching the following Sunday. So don’t think that God has a backup plan when you are called to serve Him. You, without a doubt, are His backup plan.
II. AUTHENTIC APOSTOLIC ACTION
(pwtd) Authentic Apostolic Action is rooted and powered by God’s love.
God’s love is the power that changes our hearts and the fundamental direction of our lives in all our relationships. Christian love is having the attitude of Christ towards our brothers and sisters and seeing Christ in each of them. When we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, we are filled with the love of God as we seek His will in our lives, the direction of our lives changes. The center of our lives is no longer self, but the mission that God has given us – as “living Christ’s” to share His love with all people in our environments.
I went home to Papua New Guinea last year after seven years being in the United States. Word spread throughout the villages and a lot of people came to see me and hear fresh stories from a land that they’ve only seen on TV and movies. The hunger they had was to listen to stories from one of their own that has been to the land of milk and honey (USA) of stories like their movie heroes, social life, living standards, famous cities, etc… But I tailored it down and told them how The Gracious Lord has chosen me out of my village and out of the six million Papua New Guineans to come thus far. I found that these folks were eager to know something new so like Christ I told them about how prayerfully I’ve gone through with God’s help and guidance to overcome the difficult situations I encountered in the four years at college. Stories of how God had led me to meet my wife and more wonderful stories of my L.V.C.C.M weekend # 64. Furthermore, I told them stories of the choir and prayer groups that I am involved in at my church at St. Paul Lutheran Church, Grosse Pointe Farms, MI. The folks who came to greet me and hear stories from me were amazed that the good Lord had comforted me in the long journey to the United States and lead me to greater heights. You see; the Holy Spirit touched these folks at my village when I shared what God has done to me. They couldn’t comprehend the fact that I was there in Jesus’ stead, armed with the Holy Spirit to show them His redeeming love. As my one month in Papua New Guinea was winding down all my folks in the village and surrounding villages saw that I was sincere in my effort to bring the love of Jesus to each of them. They could see that I was rooted and empowered by God. They saw that I was really a very courageous man blessed with the Holy Spirit and not some fragile weakling they had pictured in their mind some seven years back before I left for the United States.
(pwtd) Apostolic action is bringing God’s love to the world.
Each of us has many opportunities to bring God’s love to the world, by donating time or money to various mission groups or Christian radio networks, that ask us to help them spread the Gospel and become/send missionaries throughout the world.
I was fortunate to have had missionaries from Germany that helped and shaped up my upbringing. With their financial aid I was being fed, clothed and was sent to church-run schools where I learned about my Savior Jesus Christ. God’s love compels us to share it with others especially the children of God who have no control of the circumstances in which they live. We cannot be satisfied with living in God’s love; we must be witnesses so that others may also live in that love. Had it not been for my German missionaries, I wouldn’t be where I am now standing in front of you.
Jesus reminds us in Matthew 22:37-39 to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…. And love your neighbor as yourself.”
Many times in today’s society we often don’t even know our neighbor’s name. We may know their pet and children’s names before we ever meet them.
In the seven years I had been away more than 30 people died including eight people from my immediate family and many others were in their sick beds including my dad. I spent the first week with my family going through the loss of our loved ones and the other three weeks moving around the villages to visit neighbors and friends to convey my condolences as well as offer words of encouragement and visited those who were sick. I offered those who were sick some little bit of cash so that they could buy some basic items they needed. Many of us have already used Apostolic Action because of the joyful experience of Jesus’ love and because you learned to be self giving and not self-centered. We see each of our brothers and sisters as uniquely different, with their own potential within the lifestyle that they live. We are united to Christ by grace and motivated by the love of God and of others to use our God given gifts and talents to enhance His kingdom.
Jesus clearly reminds us in John 13:34-35: “I am giving you a new commandment to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Christianity is founded in love that allows us to give of ourselves to others. That is the ultimate freedom for all humanity, sharing the Christian message that transforms our families, friends, and acquaintances, co-workers and even our foes. Jesus’ own words in Matthew 7:16 says; “By their fruit you will know them. Grapes aren’t gathered from thorns or figs from thistles, are they?
We are constantly reminded by Jesus Christ to sow as many seeds as we can to those far and wide so that the Holy Spirit can lead them to bear good fruits. We need to move out from our comfort zones to share our experiences, talents, blessings, and even sufferings with others so that, they too may experience the love of God through Jesus Christ. As Christ’s followers, this is one of our responsibilities. In Matthew 16:24-25; Jesus teaches that true love fulfills the call of the cross. “If anyone wants to follow me, he must deny himself, pick up his cross and follow me continually. For any man who wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” What I love most about our apostolic action is that we are fulfilling the explicit command of The Great Commission “make disciples”. I wonder have we discovered that within “make disciples” is an implicit command to be disciples, to follow Jesus?
III. NEED FOR APOSTOLIC ACTION
(pwtd) The need for Apostolic Action is vital for us and for others.
A close friend of mine was once in an intensive care after a severe heart attack and I overheard doctors and nurses ask, “What are his vital signs?” Our vital signs give them information as to our recovery and let them know that we are indeed alive. What are our vital signs with Jesus? Is He alive in each day of our lives, so much, that this vital power within us produces action that enables us to reach out to others and share the love for Jesus in our hearts? If we don’t put into action that vital power we have, it will soon whither and die.
Tom a friend of mine suffered the affects of marijuana. Tom was alone in his struggles with drugs and most of all his faith, when he entered my family in 2000. We all thought Tom was lost when he walked into our home. Little did we know how hurting and truly lost he was! Tom’s courage to admit, to us, that he was searching to see some of Jesus’ love in his life, struck a cord deep in my heart. My parents and I slowly began to show Tom that as Jesus loved each of us He loved Tom too. We prayed over Tom and asked him to come to church with us and join our Wednesday night fellowships. He did and now Tom lives a close relationship with his Lord. Today Tom is touched by the Holy Spirit and if asked; “How’s it going; Tom? He will tell you that he has a “new life in Christ.”
(pwtd) There is no Christian life without apostolic action.
If we would have simply left our seeds in the barn last spring and not worked the ground, made it fertile; put the seeds in the ground and covered them up; would those seeds produce anything? Of course not! When we plant the seeds, make sure they receive enough water and sunlight they grow and we then reap the harvest. If we don’t reach out to others in the love of Jesus, as we did with Tom, it would be the same as leaving our seeds in the barn. The Hymn that has been sung by many of us says: ‘Hark the voice of Jesus calling,’ “Who will go and work today? Fields are white and harvest waiting who will bear the sheaves away?” In order for us to grow spiritually we need to be involved in apostolic action, always ready to plant seeds, watch them grow, and reap the harvest.
(pwtd) We must make Christianity the example and guide for a profoundly sick world.
I use to work in a manufacturing plant in Fenton, MI and I had couple of guys who were not Christians and they would say things, which were inappropriate. During the break and lunch hours, the conversations would continue and everyone would joke and love about it. Sensing the kind of environment I was confronting, I prayed each day prior to entering the company premises. I kept quiet and didn’t take part in any of those conversations but I just greeted everyone politely and helped others out when there was any need. Slowly I realized that the atmosphere during the breaks and lunch hours changed. As Christians and followers of Christ, our actions toward our brothers, sisters, and neighbors need to change to show them the true love of God through Jesus Christ. It only takes a few Christians living apostolic lives to revitalize the world. In this world with all of its corruption, the only solution is Christ and the church.
IV. QUALITIES OF APOSTOLIC ACTION
There are certain sound qualities that are motivated by God’s love. These qualities are:
A) (pwtd) reasonable and balanced- We can use our heads and carefully balance our lives to allow ourselves to put forth the effort it takes on our part because the building of love and friendship isn’t accidental.
B) (pwtd) Constant- Reaching out to someone in love is an act of our will to follow Christ. It often isn’t easy, but once we’ve made that decision we should stick to it.
C) (pwtd) Enthusiastic - We are to reflect the joy of Christ in us because there is no such thing as a sad saint.
D) (pwtd) Supernatural- Comes from God and our relationship with Him.
And you are always to (pwtd) Talk to God about your friend before talking to your friend about God.
Being miles and miles away from home and my family, and excessive international telephone call charges, most times it is difficult to keep in touch with my loved ones. But thank God that I have friends from Papua New Guinea living all over the United States. Although, we speak eight hundred plus different languages and from different provinces, we can be able to communicate using our common language at anytime and whenever we want and on any topic that interests us. It was during these conversations with my friends that I’ve discovered that most of my friends who live here didn’t know who Jesus Christ is and what it means to be a Christian and living a Christian life reflecting Christ. One of the friends is Gabriel who lives in Killeen, TX and owns a taxi company. Gabriel came to the United States before me and lived here for more than 20 years. He and I are from the same province and speak the same language. We would talk for hours when we call each other on the phone. I found that he was an alcoholic and he admitted to me that he couldn’t quit the habit because he has been struggling with it for a longtime. I prayed for him and ask God to give me the opportunity to reach out to him and other friends in Christian love. Each time we talked, I could be able to encourage Gabriel to find a church and quit his bad habits. I would share how God transformed me to live in a Christian life and does amazing things each day in my life that I knew nothing about. Gabriel would listen tentatively to me and say, “God has a plan for me and He will one day change me inwardly for good and for a worthy cause.” In April this year, without informing me, Gabriel flew from Killeen, TX to Cincinnati, OH to visit a fellow countryman and a pastor of a church. Gabriel told the pastor that he needs prayer and counseling for his bad habits. After three days in Cincinnati, OH Gabriel flew back to Killeen, TX and first thing he did was to give me a surprise call and told me everything that had happened during the three days in Cincinnati, OH. That same day, I got another call from the pastor that Gabriel had come to visit him and also sent me the pictures of their encounter. I thank God for showing me how significant prayer can be and the opportunity to share Christ and give encouragement to Gabriel. When I ask Gabriel now, how are things going for you? He would simply say, “ I am back in the race.”

V. THE METHOD OF APOSTOLIC ACTION
(pwtd) Make a friend be a friend bring your friend to Christ.
(pwtd) Pray first, last and always.
In making a friend the first step is always prayer for guidance in seeking out those who need you and not waiting for them to come to you and then making yourself available to them.
A little over four months of dating, my wife to be and I moved from Valpariso, IN to Saginaw, MI in 2006. While in Michigan, she would ask me if I would be interested in attending a Via de Cristo weekend. I really had no idea what that all meant because the name Via de Cristo sounded strange to me. When I asked her to elaborate further, she didn’t give me much information and reminded me that I would find it out myself when I get there. Though troubled by the name and little information I got, I hesitated to attend the weekend but after weeks of persistently asked by my wife, I accepted the opportunity to attend the weekend # 64. My wife saw that I needed to have a deeper meaningful walk with the Lord. She would tell me, “if only I could get you to go, I know you would love it.” My wife and I have become great friends through Christ and we share a great love for our Lord and Savior Jesus despite of our different cultural backgrounds. God brought my wife into my life to be my friend and plant the seeds that gave God the opportunity to open my heart, my eyes and my mind in the ways He wants me to serve Him. This change of heart on my part wasn’t instantaneous. My wife, as I like to say these days, ‘bird dogged’ me for another 4 months being a friend before we got married. She was authentic, took an interest in me, she listened to me, and man did she ever have the joy of Jesus in her heart. I also knew that she was lifting me up to God in her prayers, because she said to me that she was praying for me.
(pwtd) Apostolic action is making friends with others to make them friends of Christ
Finally I agreed to attend the weekend still not convinced that I needed more “religion” in my life. On my weekend I found out that I didn’t need more religion but I did need a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and a deeper love for sharing God’s grace with everyone I meet.
(pwtd) We share Christ with our friends not for ourselves, but for Christ, with Christ, in Christ and like Christ.
Before entering the United States a former pastor and friend of mine once shared with me a dream that he had. In his dream, at the Last Day he was standing in the row of saints and his robe over his shoulder and choir music tucked under his arm and even had his assigned spot in the choir. When he noticed a very long line going the other way that had folks he knew in it, in fact, he recognized everybody he saw. One stopped and said you knew all along, but never told me. Why didn’t you tell me where I was headed? And he said he woke up sobbing. Men! It’s time to wake up. Apostolic Action is as serious as a heart attack! Mothers, fathers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews and nieces, friends, co-workers and the people we worship with and some we don’t even know are in immediate need of our apostolic action. We are the messengers and proclaimers of the Good News. The way we live our lives will be the answer to God’s question, what have you done with your brother/sister? What will our answer be? Are we willing to love all the people Christ is calling us to love? What plans do you have in mind to start with?


GOD LOVES YOU AND SO DO I + + +

Lutheran Via de Cristo of Central Michigan: http://www.editech-mi.com/lvccm/