State of the Church Address New Life Assembly April 3, 2011 2 Corinthians 4:7-12, 16-18 Main Sermon Idea: While we are here, let us do the work of God set before us with everything in us! Introduction As we complete our series on influence, I want to challenge our church today to be more influential for Christ. This is more of a corporate challenge, but it plays out in our individual lives. Three or four Wednesday nights ago, we started with prayer as we usually do, but in the prayer requests someone mentioned praying for our church. That began a discussion on our church and how we re doing as a church. I want to take some time this morning to talk about the tangibles and intangibles of our church and what it means to be a healthy or good church. Every once in a while, it is good for us to evaluate how we are doing, but in our evaluation, we can only look at part of the whole picture. Let s look at some tangibles this morning, the hard realities that we see every time we walk in here, and the intangibles, the things you and even I may not know are going on! What does it mean for a church to be alive or vibrant? What do we mean when we talk about a dead church? Let s take a look at ourselves this morning. Here s a bit about our church: The Tangibles Things everyone can see. o Attendance. One of the very noticeable aspects of our church is that people love to call us a small church because of the amount of people that come to our services. Does the amount of people here bother us? Should we have more? If so, what is our reason for wanting more people here? o Finances. We have about $10,000 in the bank right now. This scares some people greatly! But for others, they realize that this is a good thing. Let me tell you that most churches have a mortgage and debt that you don t want to even imagine. Yet we work in the black every year. Right now, we are almost breaking even from income to expenditures. But it would be nice to know that we are financially solvent. That would make some sleep better at night. But does God want us to trust in our bank account for provision or in Him? Can we function with only that amount in the bank? o Visitors. We get visitors from time to time. Usually the visitors do not stay. One of the most perplexing questions in our church since I have been here is how to get people to stay. What can we change? What should we change? What should we not change? Should we attempt to target certain audiences? What makes people stay? What turns them off to our church. As I have run the numbers and 1
asked people why they stay when they visit, I have been surprised every time. Could it be that God decides who is supposed to be here and who is not? Could it be that we cannot do anything to make people stay? Could it be that if we do something to make people feel comfortable that this will draw people who aren t actually here for the right reasons? o Service Substance. I believe we have good services. We have prayer, we have worship, and we have offering and a message. We would be deceiving ourselves if we think all of these aspects of our services are perfect. Sometimes the sermon s good and helpful and life-changing. Sometimes it s not. Sometimes prayer brings us closer to God, and sometimes we don t feel God s presence in prayer. Sometimes the worship in this church has moved me personally into the very presence of God just like Isaiah 6 and I am undone before my God. Other times, I worship the Lord and don t necessarily have that dramatic of an experience. Our services are like other services. I believe that God can move in any attempt to worship Him and hear His Word. They style and details of our service some will like and some will not. But could I suggest that the more each of us participates, the more each of us will see God move and the more we will enjoy the service, and more importantly, the more God will be glorified by us. The Intangibles Things we can t always see. o God s Moving and Working. I have said it often and say it again today. In this church more than any other I have been involved with on a leadership level, God answers our prayers. I get to hear this more than you, because I m the one most people tell. We can t always see that God is moving. Sometimes we feel God more than others. Let me suggest that s our fault, not His. Sometimes we don t think that God is doing something, but He is. We must in these times trust that God is moving. o The Love We Have for God and One Another. One of the most important factors of a living church is how we love God and love one another. John said that the world would know Christians by their love for one another. You can t measure that, so it s an intangible. You can see the love that we have for one another and for God at this church. Sometimes, I look around when we have our meal downstairs and see community and fellowship happening all around me and feel like I m at home, like that will be part of what heaven s like. That is something you cannot force or make happen. God does that. In the same way, I can t tell just by outer posture whether or not someone is communing with God in worship. Different people react to God in worship in different ways. There are a host of postures of the heart and the body throughout the Bible. So God is working in our lives sometimes in ways we don t see. The question is if we are responding to God or not. The method is as varied as the people of God. But when we worship and love God, we do something. 2
o Holding fast to Scripture. We must not only hear God s Word, but do what it says. I would tell you that believing the Word is only half of what holding fast to Scripture means. Doing the Word is the other half. When we hear a sermon, does it go deep enough to cause action? That is an intangible that becomes tangible. The working of God eventually is seen. We must in word and deed hold fast to Scripture. o The Working of the Spirit. Since I have been here, I can see the Spirit at work in our church through gifts, but in our services, I have not seen the Spirit use people in ways that He uses people in our Pentecostal churches I have been a part of. That is one of the intangibles where we need to grow. But we cannot force the Spirit to use us. So one of the ways that I am making an opening for the Spirit to move is to teach on the gifts of the Spirit. We will be covering them in Sunday School very soon. Teaching on the gifts helps people to be aware of them and their function and it opens a door for the Spirit to use people in them. That is an intangible that I feel we must allow God to work in us more deeply. Jesus instituted the Church and Jesus is the one who started this church. If we truly believe that, then Jesus will take care of His church. It s a lot like salvation. God did the work of saving you. Nothing you can do can save you. It s a gift. Jesus instituted the Church. Nothing we can do can stop it. The church is a work of God like all of His other works. And God is sovereign over His church. He will infuse it with life. He will guide it. He will fill the church. He will send the people to the church, and then from the church into the world. We will steward the church and its resources until He decides that the church is no longer needed. So, if we make the wisest, Godhonoring decisions that steward what we have been given, God will do the rest. That is my premise at this church for two years. And it remains my premise now. Pastor Reynold and I were talking this week about when he first arrived and when I first arrived. He shared with me how when he first arrived, the church looked like it was going to close down. The people were disheartened and tired and worn out. Their hope was almost gone and they were reaching their end. But it s been three years since then and we re still here! Don t gloss over that! Listen, we are still here, despite what has happened, God ordains that His church is still here. When I came, there was new hope that God is going to do something great. And He is. Will we hold fast to that hope now? The question is not how much time is left in this church. The question is what we will do with the time we are given. I know some of us are still tired. I know that many worry about our church s future. If God began this church, and God sustains it, then it is not up to us to control it or keep it afloat or anything else. That is in the hands of God. Many of us, especially in leadership, feel that we must be worried about God s church. But even with our best efforts, this is not our job. It s God s job to keep this church going. Let us stop trying to take all the weight of 3
that God-sized job on our human shoulders. It s one thing to evaluate how we re doing. It s another thing to think we have a job we don t. My evaluations tell me that this church is confounding every worldly understanding of how it can maintain itself. That s because God sustains our church. Let us trust the Leader that He knows what He is doing and when. The Goal I want to set: So if it is up to the Lord to decide how long we are here, I want to make every moment count. I want us to be good stewards of God s resources. But I also don t want us to be afraid to step out and do something just because it scares us in one of our tangibles. If God is telling us to do it, it may confound what we perceive to be the facts. So, let us be the church while we are still here. What if this church can only make it another year or two? Then for that year or two, let us be the living breathing Jesus with skin on that ministers with everything in us! Let us choose today to not hover in survival mode, but to thrive with the life God gives, and let Him decide when it s over! I have some Scripture to encourage your heart, and then a challenge to the whole church corporately and individually. How then must we continue? Being faithful in the small things Phil 3:12-16 Walking through the open door Church in Philadelphia Rev 3:7-13 Do not become weary in well doing Gal 6:6-10 Conclusion and Challenge Individual: Worship Ask yourself, How much do I show God my love when I worship? Do I participate in worship when I have the opportunity? Do I think more of myself or what others think of me when I worship? What can I do to go deeper in worship? Evangelism How many of my friends are unsaved? How many need Jesus? How many conversations with them have I had this week about Jesus? Who has given me an open door? What have I done with opportunities this week? Discipleship Who am I discipling right now? Who sees me as an image of Christ, someone closer to God? Who can I influence to go deeper in God? Who is trusting me to help them go deeper in God? Who am I feeding? Am I growing as others are growing with me? Compassion Who have I helped in the name of Christ this week? Who has benefited from the blessing I have passed on this week? How can I personally get involved in changing someone s life or circumstances? What resources has God overly blessed me with so that I can help others? What can I do in my world? What is my level of commitment to God? How important is God to me? Can I increase my level of commitment? Give more time? More money? More resources? More of myself? What should I change in my walk with God? Is there somewhere that I am weak in my devotion? If there is one thing that I can do more to show a deeper and greater commitment, what is it? 4
Corporate: Fasting I would like to call our church into a time of fasting and prayer. In the Bible, when a situation seemed impossible or dire, people would call upon God and would fast and pray, bringing that need before God and waiting on Him to do something miraculous and supernatural. While many of us can express a sense of needing God to move in a huge way, we can also show a deeper conviction and devotion to Him in that need. I am calling our church to corporately fast from April 18 th to April 20 th, a three day fast. On the back table is information about fasting from Sunday School this morning. I know there are some who cannot fast food for medical reasons, but there are other things to fast. Fasting means that we spend the time and energy we spend eating to pray and seek God. Any type of fast that you feel you can do during these three days from a Monday to a Wednesday is up to you. You can do a full fast, a partial fast, or anything that God lays on your heart. I believe that God can do incredible things if we are willing to surrender to Him even for a short time. I will present you with Scriptures and needs of our church close to that time of fasting. God has great things for us. Let us be obedient to Him and let Him be our life. We must trust that the Lord will use us and not let the enemy distract us with questions of our own existence and how long we will last. Let us lend ourselves wholly to God s cause while He has planted us here for this day and this hour. Let us serve God in all things until the end, whenever He wills that to be. 5