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The Rev. Randy Thornton, senior pastor of Grace Church in Southern Pines, N.C., said he recently talked with a businessman who said, “Sometimes we get so busy, we forget what business we’re in.”
“We have to drop back to the essentials,” Thornton said, as he introduced his August 5, 2012 Sunday message called “Take the City.”
He told of recently helping start new church plants in West End, N.C., and Leland, N.C. “Last year we gave away over 100 people to do God’s work.”
He explained that about 60-70 people are meeting in a satellite church plant in West End and 45 people have relocated from Grace Church in Southern Pines to Leland, a town that is part of the “Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area.”
Thornton said that when you die, God will ask you two questions: 1. Did you know Jesus as your personal Savior? 2. What did you do with the resources, talents and opportunities God gave to you to fulfill what he had for you to do during your lifetime?
He read Luke 18:31 (NIV): “Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, ‘We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled.’”
Thornton said that when he served in the U.S. Army, his squad was his “Jerusalem” and that when he worked for UPS, his fellow workers were his “Jerusalem.”
“Jesus chose fishermen, tax collectors … not people likely to change the world,” he said.
The Apostle Paul said, “Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are” (1 Corinthians 1:26-28 NIV).
“God always calls you to something greater than you can accomplish on your own,” Thornton said. “The ability to ‘do it’ comes out of an intimate, daily relationship with him.”
Thornton grew up in Colorado, which he called “God’s country,” because of its beauty and hunting and fishing opportunities. After his conversion to Christ, he served in the U.S. Army and ultimately was stationed at Ft. Bragg in Fayetteville, N.C. He received a “call to ministry” and studied at a Fayetteville Bible college. He married Sarah, who grew up in Moore County, N.C. He left the army and worked for UPS in Fayetteville. He felt “called” to start a church in Southern Pines, which he considered “not a very religious place,” and was assigned later to work at the Southern Pines UPS location.
“I wanted to go there [Colorado], not Southern Pines,” he said. “The thing I didn’t do is play golf. It didn’t ‘float my boat.’ And where did God send me? To the golf capital of the U.S.A. … Now, I love the city. I plan on living and dying here.”
Thornton says he wants Grace Church to “Take the City.” He talked about King David’s “taking” the City of Jerusalem during Old Testament times.
He read from 2 Samuel 5:6-10 NIV:
“The king and his men marched to Jerusalem to attack the Jebusites, who lived there. The Jebusites said to David, ‘You will not get in here; even the blind and the lame can ward you off.’ They thought, ‘David cannot get in here.’ Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion—which is the City of David.
“ On that day David had said, ‘Anyone who conquers the Jebusites will have to use the water shaft to reach those lame and blind who are David’s enemies.’ That is why they say, ‘The blind and lame will not enter the palace.’
“ David then took up residence in the fortress and called it the City of David. He built up the area around it, from the terraces inward. And he became more and more powerful, because the Lord God Almighty was with him.”
Thornton said David might have taken Jerusalem by secretly wading into the city through its sewer system. He said that after being in the pastoral ministry for many years, he thinks David probably did have to go into the city through the sewer system.
He said we should cultivate faithfulness wherever we are. He referred to Psalm 37:3: “Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.”
Grace Church, located not far from Ft. Bragg, is home to many military families.
“I love the military families,” Thornton said. “They come in and say, ‘I won’t be here long, but as long as I’m here, I’m here, and I’m going to be here.’”
God didn’t call us just to live our lives and enjoy them, he noted.
“God called you to reach people,” Thornton said. “The only Jesus some people will ever see is the Jesus in you. … See your neighborhood, your workplace as the ‘city’ you are ‘to take.’”
He said that when he worked in “the secular world,” the people who gave him the hardest times were those who later came to faith in Christ.
“They were testing me to see if the Jesus in me was real,” he said. “Bloom where you are planted. God will ask, ‘What did you do with your resources?’ I want to hear ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’”
Thornton talked about 2 Samuel 6:12 NIV:
“Now King David was told, ‘The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.’ So David went to bring up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing.”
“When God’s presence is in the house – your company, your city – God’s going to bless your company because of you,” Thornton said. “Do you want God in your city? Then, like David, go get it [“the ark”] and bring it back, and let it reside in your presence.”
He said worship is not about making you happy; it’s about making God happy.
“Some of us come in here like sour lemons,” he said. “Some wait for the music to be over. … God said to make a joyful noise unto the Lord.”
“If you are not spending time with God, how are you going to know what to do in your city?” Thornton asked.
He said God’s house should be a house of prayer for all nations (Mark 11:17).
He read Luke 19:41: “As he [Jesus] approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it.”
“Are you burdened for your city to the point you’re willing to weep?” Thornton asked. “The Jews think it’s all about them, but Jesus said, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.’”
Luke 19:45-46: “When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. ‘It is written,’ he said to them, ‘My house will be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.’”
“You’ve become religious with religious activities,” Thornton said. “‘BUSY’ means ‘Being Under Satan’s Yoke.’ Distractions can consume time.”
He said that most of the Early Church’s miracles didn’t take place in churches.
“Jesus saw everyday – where he went – as a place of ministry,” Thornton said.
He stated that 85 percent of church youths graduating from high school walk away from God after graduation. He added that 85 percent of young people who grow up involved in ministry in church – ministries such as church nursery, handing out bulletins, etc. – remain in church after they grow up. He stated that 70 percent of aspiring pastors who attend seminary but don’t become involved in ministry while attending seminary never enter the ministry.
“Everybody loves a committed pastor, a ‘little j (Jesus)’ who does everything for them,” Thornton said. “He [God] called me to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. My job is to help you do your job.”
The “American church” thinks the pastor is to do all the work of the ministry, he said.
He read Ezekiel 37:1 NIV, a passage describing God showing Ezekiel a scene and asking him a question: “The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’”
“When God asks you a question, he already knows the answer,” Thornton said. “God asked Ezekiel, ‘Can these bones live?’ God wants us to raise an army of disciples to take the city. Go do that which he called you to do. … You can’t do it on your own. Pray. Ask God to give you a burden for your city, neighborhood. … This is a sheep pen getting sheep ready to go get slaughtered. … How many of you would be willing to say, ‘I’ll go where you want me to go’? I’m going to pray for you … so God will help you see your city as your mission field. … Go, therefore, and make disciples … disciples who disciple people.”
Thornton prayed a concluding prayer:
“Father, I pray for the call of God over every man, every woman, every young person and every child in this room. … I pray for you to put a burden on their hearts. … Show them their ‘cities’ and give them a love for those people … a burden to pray, to bless those people. Bless where they walk. … I pray for each one here to become a disciple. … Give them opportunities to disciple others. … May they stand before you one day and hear you say, ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant.’”
