Now before I met Natalie, I’ve got to tell y’all, the idea that I would ever draw a sermon illustration from a musical would’ve seemed preposterous to me.  But you know how women always make their men better by broadening their horizons, well, Natalie’s no different.  One of the musicals Nat familiarized me early on in our relationship with is Man of La Mancha.  It’s the musical retelling of Miguel Cervantes novel “Don Quixote.”   The story focuses largely around two principal characters.  Don Quixote, he’s “the dreamer of impossible dreams, lover of those who won’t love him back, jousts with windmills.”  The other character is Sancho Panza, his faithful follower who never dreamed of something better or dared to color outside the lines.” 

  In a lot of ways, it seems to me that the vast majority of mainline denominational churches in America have become Sancho Panzas, content with “muddling along or merely surviving.”  As a result of shooting just for survival, these churches are failing left and right across the country.  You see, when a church’s main ambition is just to hold on, it is, by definition, overly fixated on meeting its own ends and not necessarily the Lords.  Folks, I don’t want to be a part of a church aiming merely to survive and I trust you don’t either.”  I want to be part of a church filled with Don Quixotes, unafraid to dream the impossible dream.  A church that loves unconditionally and dares to take on the world and shake it until it rattles.  I pray to be a part of a church that thrives on the inherent risks of the Great Commission” of Jesus Christ to make disciples of all the nations.

  So, in the name of the Lord our God I’m asking you all to join together with me on this mission.  To turn this small band of faithful believers into an army of Jesus Christ, filled with His spirit, sharing his message of forgiveness of redemption into West Charlotte and the world beyond. 

  The great news revealed to us in Scripture is that this isn’t an IMPOSSOBLE DREAM, not by any stretch of the imagination.  Rather, it’s the desire God holds for this church just as he hopes it for all congregations who worship Him.  And what makes me so confident to say that is that it’s recorded over and over again in Scripture.  So, over the next several sermons I’ll preach with the exception of next week, for Epiphany, we’ll be exploring The New Testament as well as the Old Testament with a simple aim – to show how our church is called to reflect the aims of our creator God.  These aims are to gather, to educate, to nurture, to equip for ministry and to send into the world to proclaim the gospel.

  Scripture is going to show us that each of these acts are woven into God’s being.  Having been created in the image of God, they’re etched upon our hearts as well.  The Book of Acts reveals that the church is the means by which we’re drawn together by the Holy Spirit to express our God-given purpose –to heal and reconcile a broken world in the name of Jesus Christ.  And the church does this by gathering, educating, nurturing, equipping and sending.  It’s in our genes.  It’s the shape of our mission.  And I believe as we, Cook’s Church set about doing these five simple things with greater focus and renewed passion, we’re going to find this church overflowing with people just as our own hearts will be overflowing with contentment, joy and love. 

  So today we’re going to talk about the first act the church is called to perform as the body of Christ on Earth… Gathering.  Fundamentally, Gathering is God’s ardent desire to lead His people together to a place of healing and hope.  Throughout the Scriptures God is shown gathering His people back away from darkness into the light.  It happens in the Exodus.  It happens over and over again in Judges.  This coming reading from the prophecy of Jeremiah brings us face to face with a God who longs to return his people back from exile into his embrace.  Here’s the really amazing part –it’s God’s people who chose estrangement from him in the first place.

  “For thus says the Lord:  ‘Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and raise shouts for the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, ‘O Lord, save Your people, the remnant of Israel.’  Behold, I will bring them from the north country and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame,    the pregnant woman and she who is in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here.  With weeping they shall come, and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back, I will make them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble, for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.  You see, the people in Jeremiah’s time were merely paying lip-service to God and God’s ways.  God cried out to them like a parent seeing their child recklessly running into oncoming traffic to follow an errant ball.  “STOP” he said.  “DON’T GO THERE!”  he yelled.  And yet God’s people chose to follow the evil inclinations of their own hearts.”  But instead of washing His hands of His people, God loved them enough to gather them back from the edge of darkness into his presence.