WHEN GOD BUILDS A CHURCH
ROL 7th Anniversary
- Read Matthew 13:31-33
In these verses we find 2 short parables, 2 earthly stories with heavenly meanings. In the first 2 verses, Jesus describes the way the Kingdom of God grows. He says, “It grows like a mustard seed. It starts off small, and then grows surprisingly large.”
That’s certainly the way Jesus’ ministry went. When we think about Jesus and His ministry, we think of the thousands of people Jesus fed on the day He multiplied the loaves and fish. We think about the many people He healed, and the countless thousands of people He must have taught when He was on earth. Yet, in spite of all the work He did, in spite of the people He healed, the people He fed and the people He taught, we find that at His crucifixion, there were only a few of His followers present at the cross. After His death and burial, there were only a few people gathered in an upper room. Even after His resurrection, only 120 people gathered in an upper room for prayer. That’s even after many saw Him risen from the dead! Talk about a poor start.
But the Bible says that on the day of Pentecost, over 3000 people were saved. A few days later, another 5000 became Christ-followers. Later, the Bible records that the Lord added to the church daily.
From that small beginning, Christianity has spread around the world! Today, the Bible is the fastest and largest selling book in the world! Most people have the scriptures in their own language and more are languages are being added each year. Churches are being planted around the world. Russia, that great persecutor and killer of Christians now has a growing group of Christians and new churches are planted in that country almost daily. China has growing numbers of Christians there, and in spite of the government’s crackdown, the church continues to grow.
From a small beginning, great things.
It was 7 years ago this past May that I met with a group of people at the Deltona Community Center and talked with them a second time, about the possibility of starting a new church. At the time I was pastoring in Locke Station, Mississippi and the Lord was blessing there. I had no real desire to move back to Florida, to the I-4 traffic jams and congestion, but the Lord was working. I had already contacted 10 of my friends in this area to see if they would be interested in being a part of this new church. Apart from my mother and one of my brothers and his family, Tom and Alix McDaniel were the only ones that had said they would come be a part of the new church. But, at the meeting that night, Central Baptist Church sent word that they would be willing to pay 1/3 of my salary the first year if I came.
After the meeting that night, I called Gladys to tell her how things went. She answered the phone saying, “We’re moving to Florida aren’t we?” We had been praying about it for some time and I told her, “Yeah, the Lord has already moved my heart.” I thank the Lord for a wife who believed in me and in my walk with the Lord enough to leave her family and take a leap of faith as well.
That night I drove back to Mississippi. The next morning, a woman from our community in Mississippi called. I barely knew the lady. We had probably met 5 or 6 times during the 3 years I had lived there and she had only visited our church a time or two during that time. She said, “Brother Gene, I don’t want you to think I’m strange or anything and I’ve never done this before, but in my quiet time this morning the Lord told me to call you. I don’t know what you’re doing or what’s going on, but the Lord told me to tell you that He is with you. When I asked the Lord if there was a Bible verse He had for me to share with you, He told me to share with you, Jeremiah 33:3 which says, Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.
A few days later, I got a letter in the mail from Dan Stone. He said, “Brother Gene, the Lord has told me that I’m supposed to be a part of this new church. You are now my pastor. Tell me what you want me to do, Oh, and by the way, my Dad and Barbara want to be a part of the new church also.”
A few weeks later, my brothers and their wives came to Mississippi to help us move.
It was 7 years ago this past June that a group of 18 people first gathered at the Deltona Community Center, with the dream of starting a new church. We didn’t even have a name for the new church until several weeks later. When we started, 18 people committed to being a part of that new work. During that first summer we called over 7,300 homes, asking them if they were interested in being a part of a new church and asking if we could send them some information about the new church.
In June and July of 2000, we held Prayer Meetings at the Deltona Community Center on Thursday nights and worked to make contacts during the week. In August of that year, we began holding our first Sunday morning worship services in Jim & Shirley Ruse’s home. The last Sunday of August, after working all summer, we had 18 people attend our last service in their home.
Tomorrow marks the 7-year anniversary of our first public worship services held at Enterprise Elementary School.
In January of 2004, the former pastor, and last member, of Enterprise Baptist Church gave us this property. It turns out that he gave it to us just 2 weeks before he died. I performed his funeral in this building. In December of the same year, we purchased the property on Garfield, where we had been having our baptisms & cookouts, and where we currently hold MPC, from my mother.
We have come a long way in 7 years. We started with a vision, a promise from God, and 18 people. From that, the Lord has grown this church to what you see today. I want to thank all of you for what you have done over the past few years. Many of you have given and worked sacrificially. You have prayed. You have hung in there when times were tough and finances were tight. You’ve hung in there, through mistakes I’ve made, and prayed the Lord would set me straight. You’ve ministered in our community and taught our children, and we have seen people saved and grow. As Paul said, “One planted, another watered, but God has given the increase.” God has built from a mustard seed.
We still have work and remodeling to do on this building and are currently working on plans for our next building to be constructed behind this one. We are excited about the tools the Lord has given us and look forward to seeing what He is going to do in the future. As we turn from the looking back at our past, to looking ahead at the future I want us to think first about the Mission of the church.
I. THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH
1. The Church’s Mission is to Make Disciples
> Matthew 28:19-20 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.
Our job, our mission is to make disciples. Our goal, our mission is to make authentic Christ-followers. Our success is not to be measured by the property we have, not by our buildings or budgets, nor by our ministries or membership. The success of this church is to be measured by whether or not we are making disciples; people are obedient followers of Jesus Christ.
2. The Church’s Mission is Important
> Hebrews 9:27 And just as it is appointed for people to die once—and after this, judgment.
> Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Friday, after Gladys & I got home from her treatment, I was getting ready to take Drew to his ball practice when I got a call from Fish Hospital. You see, I was the on-call chaplain, and a family there was asking for a chaplain to come see them. When I got there, I visited with a family who were soon going to have the doctors remove the life support from their 49-year-old sister. The 3 women gathered around the bed, and the gentleman, the significant other of Janet McKenzie, asked me to read some scripture and to pray with them and for Janet before they called the doctor back in.
As I read the Bible to them, and prayed, you could almost see them hanging on every word. They were so hoping to hear somebody who was convinced, not just saying words, but convinced that there is something waiting after this life, and that they will be able to see their sister again. Listen, all around us are people just like them. All around us are people who need to know our Savior. All around us are people who are dying and heading to a Christless eternity.
God forgive us for getting distracted by other things and forgetting how important the mission He has given us is. God forgive us for spending more time worrying about the paint on these walls, than we do talking to the lady who sold us the paint about her salvation. God forgive us for worrying more about the discomfort we had in a pavilion without air conditioning than we are about the discomfort our neighbors will endure forever. God forgive us for being more concerned about what kind and what volume of songs we’re going to sing on Sunday morning than we are about the salvation of the children who live right up the road here.
> Luke 19:10 For the • Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.
God forgive us, if we ever forget the importance of the mission God has given us. And let me tell you, God does not have a plan B. If you and I in the church are not doing what God has called us to do, then the Lion’s Club will not pick up our slack. The Sons of Italy aren’t going to do it. Heaven knows our government isn’t going to do it.
Jesus says it is your job and mine to make disciples. It is a vital mission.
But, not only must we think, this morning, about the mission of the church, let’s think also about the method of the church. Look with me again please at Matthew chapter 13 and verse 33.
II. THE METHOD OF THE CHURCH
- Matthew 13:33
Do you see here, the method of the church? Do you see, how it is that we are to go about completing the mission Christ has given us? We do it silently, and continuously, from the inside out.
When yeast is working in bread, sometimes it doesn’t look like much is happening, but all the time that yeast is growing, and multiplying, and expanding. The yeast is working from the inside to cause the bread to expand and to grow.
The same is true of the church. The church grows; the church fulfills its mission, from the inside out. It fulfills its mission by the people that make up that church body, being and doing what God has called each one of them to be and to do. God has equipped each of you. He has given each of you a spiritual gift, and the Bible says that each of you are building blocks in the church. What you are, who you are, determines what this church will be.
When River of Life Church was started 7 years ago, the founding members worked together to decide what our core values would be. We worked, studied and prayed about what we felt God calling us to be and to do. We finally decided on 6 core values. We said that River of Life church would focus on being:
Core Values
a. God-glorifying – In other words, we said that we were not looking for stars. We are not looking to gain attention and recognition for ourselves. Our goal is to bring glory to God in everything we do.
If you are constantly craving attention, if you are looking for the atta boys and such, if you sing, work, serve, mow, or whatever, so that people can tell you what a good person you are, this is not the church for you. We work, we minister, we teach, preach, and sing, in order to bring glory to God.
b. Authenticity and Integrity – By that we mean, we want to be a church where the people don’t say one thing and do something different. We want to be a church where the people practice what they preach.
c. Relationships – We focus on relationships. We strive to build relationships within the church but we also strive to build relationships with our community so that we can earn the right to share Christ with them.
d. Reproduction – By this we don’t mean how Dan and Libby are striving to grow our nursery. We mean that we want to be a soul-winning and a church planting church. We want to support missions and be missionaries ourselves. We are not building us a kingdom, we are working in the Lord’s kingdom.
e. Costly Commitment – We want membership in this church to mean something other than that you simply have your name on the role. If you are a member of this church, you need to be involved in ministry, and in serving.
f. WIT – Whatever It Takes – By this we mean that we will do whatever it takes in order to lead people into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Our goal here is not to make ourselves comfortable. Our goal is to do whatever is necessary, whatever it takes in order to make disciples. Our style of music can change. We will use a translation of the Bible that pre-Christians can understand. We will do whatever it takes to break down the barriers between us and the community in order to make disciples.
Now, if we are going to be that kind of church, then we must be that kind of people. I believe that being that kind of people entails several things.
1. We must be Authentic people –
> Philippians 4:9 Do what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
Paul tells the people in Philippi to do what they have seen him do and be what they have seen him be.
My friends, we must live the life of disciples if we are going to make disciples. We must trust God during the hard times, if we want other people to learn to trust God in the hard times. If we want others to learn to turn the other cheek, then we must turn the other cheek. If we want others to love their neighbors as themselves, then we must do so. …
Heaven knows there are enough back-slidden, wimpy, whining, Christ-doubting, half-hearted Christians and churches in the world, without us adding another one. If you want this church to be different, then you live a life that is different. You can’t change them, and you’re not responsible for them, but you can work on yourself. …
“ Billie Hanks once said, “You will win no more people & exert no more influence for the Savior than the quality of your life allows.”
2. We must be Praying People –
> John 15:5 - I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me.
> John 6:44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.
My friends, all of our work, all of our effort is wasted if we are not prayers.
** Prayer series on Thursday nights. Prayer meetings on Thursday nights.
> John 14:13 Whatever you ask in My name, I will do it so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
3. We must be Passionate People –
a. Christ – Left your first love. Genuinely in love with Jesus.
b. Souls – WIT , Getting back to personal invitations
- Getting back to servant evangelism
- Getting back to busboys & waiters.
c. Excellence –
> 1 Corinthians 10:31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for God’s glory.
Good enough, is not “good enough.” Ask, is it good enough for God.
> Jeremiah 33:3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.
Altar call.
