Seeing TBC Thru the Eyes of a Visitor, Part 3

The point: Be concerned with how you are perceived by others, not to be hypocritical, but to genuinely become what you ought to be by God's grace.

Martin quotes Robert Burns' line, 'Would some power the gift would give us to see ourselves as others see us?' to introduce the sermon's theme of self-perception through a visitor's eyes.

The following is part three of a guided discussion with Pastor Albert N. Martin held on Sunday morning, February 1st, 1998 in the Adult Sunday School class at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. The topic being discussed is seeing ourselves here at the Trinity Baptist Church through the eyes of a visitor. It was Robert Burns who wrote, not quite in this contemporary American East, but in his own Scottish dialect, Would some power the gift would give us to see ourselves as others see us?

0:04 - 0:44 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The chief end of man is to glorify God first, foundational, central, and growing out of that, we relate to one another, and we seek to be an instant of blessing to the ends of the earth.

Martin explains that the Beatitudes are a portrait of those on their way to heaven, not a roadmap to get there, clarifying their function in describing character traits.

His people whose character traits have been described in the Beatitudes. And remember, the Beatitudes are not a map as to how to get to heaven. They're a portrait of those who are on their way to heaven. Now, you don't use your portrait for a road map, or you get in big bad trouble.

15:51 - 16:09 Read in full sermon

The point: Manifest an aggressive friendliness towards visitors, without showing partiality based on external appearance or status.

Martin uses the church growth movement's concept of homogeneous assemblies (like attracting like, yuppies vs. homeless) as a negative example, contrasting it with James 2's rebuke of partiality to show its unbiblical nature.

The ushers bring him down to the chief seats. But when this poor fellow comes in looking like maybe he was a homeless man who came in off the street, he shunted off somewhere, so he wouldn't be an embarrassment. You see, here's where I can't help but mention this. The whole concept that lies at the heart of the church growth movement that like attracts like.

29:59 - 30:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Be sensitive in your interactions with visitors, applying the Golden Rule by considering how you would want to be treated as a stranger.

Martin tells a story about a friend who would immediately ask 'Are you born again?' to everyone he met, scaring people and being insensitive, to illustrate what 'insensitive' evangelism looks like.

As you would that others do to you, even so do you also unto them. Now, if you go in as a stranger into a new place, Pete has alluded to this. Try to remember what your experience is. How do you feel if 10 people, all of you, 10 people all descend on you with bulging eyeballs and within 30 seconds are you saved?

36:52 - 37:12 Read in full sermon

The point: Prayerfully consider enterprising ways to manifest love, such as inviting visitors home for a meal.

Martin shares an example of couples agreeing to make extra food (watered-down soup) once a month to be ready to invite visitors home, illustrating a practical way to show hospitality.

Then as Peter suggested, and we were talking about this a few weeks ago. I was with one of the members that we know that there are some of you who in the past, I don't know if you're still doing it, husband and wives agree that one Lord's Day a month, a little more water is thrown into the bowl of soup with a view that if on that particular Lord's Day that couple meets any visitor and invites them home, they know there'll be some watered down soup to put on the table. And you as the Lord's people may want to prayerfully consider that kind of an enterprising way that you might manifest your lov...

43:05 - 43:39 Read in full sermon

The point: Cultivate and manifest an active concern for those outside of Christ, including children, young people, neighbors, and those to the ends of the earth.

Martin recounts Trinity Baptist Church commissioning a missionary and sending thousands of dollars to plant a church 120 miles away, even when they had no building fund or land themselves, to illustrate their commitment to outward gospel work despite their own needs.

God advance in this place. The building in which you sit now that was dedicated in 1985 there are many people that thought those crazy people will never have a building of their own because when we were just a year and a half out of the womb as a church in 1968 coming up on 1969 meeting in a rented school with no building fund with no land no prospective building. We were foolish enough to commission a whole lot of money a whole missionary to go 120 miles from here and plant a church. And in a short time we were sending thousands of dollars for them to build a building.

52:15 - 52:55 Read in full sermon