I want to offer my commendations to each of you, this morning. Every single one of you deserves a huge congratulation because, as of this moment, you have not missed one church service all year long. That’s something to be proud of. And I am proud of you. Granted it’s still the first day of the year and there are another 52 Sundays left, but that’s OK. You’re here today and that’s what matters today.
There’s a story told about the English actor, Frederick Lonsdale, who was engaged in a long running and bitter feud with another member of a club he was a part of. The two had once been close friends, but now bitterness kept them apart. It was a New Year’s Eve when Seymour Hicks insisted Lonsdale reconcile with his old friend. "You must," Hicks said to Lonsdale. "It is very unkind to be unfriendly at such a time. Go over now and wish him a happy New Year." Finally convinced, Lonsdale crossed the room to speak to his friend-turned-enemy. "I wish you a happy New Year," he said, "but only one."
This is New Year’s Day, and I do wish you a very happy one, hopefully more than one. While it is the first day of the year 2006, this day also represents the last of the holiday season. We’ve celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas, and today we finish off this round with the coming of the new year. Personally, I believe that of all the holidays this one is one of the greatest. Don’t take me wrong, I love Christmas and Thanksgiving and Easter and the Fourth of July. And I understand that it’s probably heresy for me to say that I think New Year’s Day ranks right up there with or above some of those. I know it has no biblical significance. I realize the importance of Christmas and the sacredness of Easter and the blessedness of Thanksgiving. But I believe that New Year’s Day is just as personally beneficial as any of those, if not more so in some cases.
Why do I say that? What is it about New Year’s Day that would cause me to consider it so highly? It’s because New Year’s Day forces you to take a close look at your life. There is something about the new year that causes us to stop for a moment and look back over the past year. There’s something about it that causes us to stop and evaluate where we are. There’s just something about it that causes us to consider what we should have done better or what we shouldn’t have done at all. And then, when we’ve finished looking back the New Year drives us to look ahead and begin making plans for this year. Whether we sit down and write out a list of resolutions or not, we begin laying out our goals for ourselves. We want to do better in an area this year than we did last year. We want to break a habit that controlled us last year. We want to lose that weight, we want to make more money, we want to spend more time with our family. Whatever it may be, we try to take the opportunity we have in this fresh start, this blank slate in front of us to improve ourselves. What other holiday causes us to do that? New Year’s Day is a great day to evaluate the past and plan for the future.
So why do we do it? Why do so many of us sit down and try to write out our list of goals or resolutions or whatever you choose to call them? Why is it such a big deal to us to make improvements on the past year? I believe it’s because we want this year to be the greatest year of our lives.
This morning, as the pastor of First Wesleyan Church, I find myself doing that same sort of thing on the broader scale of our church’s ministry. I find myself thinking about the past year and what we did well, and what we could do better. I find myself looking to the year 2006 and trying to plan how we can improve our ministry. How can we be more effective? How can we make sure that this year is the best year we’ve ever had?
I want to try and answer those questions for you today. I’m not going to do it by looking back over the past year and pointing out all of our failures. I’m not going to do it by listing a bunch of programs that are guaranteed to give us success. But I have three New Year’s Resolutions for our church that I believe can help us to be able to look back this time next year and say, “2006 was the best year that First Wesleyan Church has ever had.” Let me give them to you.
I. Complete Allegiance To The Great Commission
First of all, I believe that we as a church must resolve that this year will be one of complete allegiance to the Great Commission. If we want this year to be one like we’ve never experienced before we must be committed to the Great Commission like we’ve never been before. The Great Commission is found in Matthew 28:19-20, where Jesus says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
The central task of the church is found right here in these words that Jesus spoke moments before He ascended into heaven. This is what we’re all about. This is the purpose of the church… to win the lost. If we aren’t winning the lost then what are we here for? If we aren’t working to win people to Jesus then our entire reason for existence is lost.
During the early fifties Thomas Wedel, in the “Ecumenical Review” told about a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occur. On this coast there was once a little life-saving station. The building was primitive, and there was just one boat, but the members of the life-saving station were committed and kept a constant watch over the sea. When a ship went down, they unselfishly went out day or night to save the lost. Because so many lives were saved by that station, it became famous.
Consequently, many people wanted to be associated with the station to give their time, talent, and money to support its important work. New boats were bought, new crews were recruited, a formal training session was offered. As the membership in the life-saving station grew, some of the members became unhappy that the building was so cold and primitive and that the equipment was so outdated. They wanted a better place to welcome the survivors pulled from the sea. So they installed some wood-stoves, they replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged and newly decorated building.
Now the life-saving station became a popular gathering place for its members. They met regularly and when they did, it was apparent how they loved one another. They greeted each other, hugged each other, and shared with one another the events that had been going on in their lives. But fewer members were now interested in going to sea on life-saving missions; so they hired lifeboat crews to do this for them.
About this time, a large ship was wrecked off of the coast, and the hired crews brought into the life-saving station boatloads of cold, wet, dirty, sick, and half-drowned people. Some of them had black skin, and some had yellow skin. Some could speak English well, and some could hardly speak it at all. Some were first-class cabin passengers of the ship, and some were the deck hands.
The beautiful meeting place became a place of chaos. The plush carpets got dirty. Some of the exquisite furniture got scratched. So the property committee immediately had a shower built outside the house where the victims of shipwreck could be cleaned up before coming inside.
At the next meeting there was rift in the membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club’s life-saving activities, for they were unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal fellowship of the members. Other members insisted that life-saving was their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a life-saving station. But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save the lives of all those various kinds of people who would be shipwrecked, they could begin their own life-saving station down the coast. And do you know what? That is what they did.
As the years passed, the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old. It evolved into a place to meet regularly for fellowship, for committee meetings, and for special training sessions about their mission, but few went out to the drowning people. The drowning people were no longer welcomed in that new life-saving station. So another life-saving station was founded further down the coast. History continued to repeat itself. And if you visit that seacoast today, you will find a number of adequate meeting places with ample parking and plush carpeting. Shipwrecks are frequent in those waters, but most of the people drown.
There are many churches around today that have forgotten their purpose. Many soul-saving stations are no longer trying to save souls. Too many are sadly content to remain in maintenance mode. They become more concerned with protecting their little flock of Christians than they are with bringing new people into the fold. They’re too concerned with trying to keep their own little fire burning that they neglect to spread the fire. And for whatever reason, whether it be because they think that nobody wants to hear our message these days, or because they don’t want those “filthy sinners” walking through their doors, or because they simply don’t want to shake the boat of their comfort zone; whatever the reason they choose not to take the Great Commission seriously. Instead or reaching out they become self-involved. Instead of winning new people to Jesus they have the same four and no more who walk through their doors each Sunday. Instead of fishing for men like Jesus has called them to do, they resort to merely talking about fishing. They lose their commitment and their allegiance to the Great Commission.
I’ll tell you what, this morning, Clinton, TN is full of people who are drowning in their sin. And here at 821 Fowler Street God has installed a life-saving station. The only question is, are we willing to get out of our comfortable pews and our warm, clean family atmosphere to dive into the cold waters around us to save those who are dying all around us? Or are we going to fill our minds with excuses why we can’t or won’t?
But before you answer that question, let me ask you something else that J. Wilbur Chapman once asked… If those who reject Christ are in danger, is it not strange that we, who are so sympathetic when the difficulties are physical or temporal, should apparently be so devoid of interest as to allow our friends and neighbors and kindred to come into our lives and pass out again without a word of invitation to accept Christ, to say nothing of sounding a note of warning because of their peril? If today is the day of salvation, if tomorrow may never come and if life is equally uncertain, how can we eat, drink and be merry when those who live with us, work with us, walk with us and love us are unprepared for eternity? If I am to stand at the judgment seat of Christ to render an account for the deeds done in the Body, what shall I say to him if my children are missing, if my friends are not saved or if my employer or employee should miss the way because I have been faithless?
Our purpose here at First Wesleyan Church is to win the lost. It’s not to enjoy each other’s company. It’s not to sing pretty songs together. It’s not to do our weekly duty of assembling together as fellow believers. Our purpose is to win the lost. It is our privilege and our responsibility. It is what we exist for. And the sooner we realize that, and the sooner we resolve to commit ourselves to that purpose as a church and as individuals, the sooner we will begin experiencing God’s blessing upon our church and our efforts, and we’ll begin seeing this year becoming the best year we’ve ever had as a church.
II. Complete Obedience To The Lord’s Direction
The second resolution I think we need to make if we want this to be the best year we’ve ever had is to live in complete obedience to the Lord’s direction. If we can ever hope to see God’s blessings on our church this year then we must be obedient to His leadership.
In committing ourselves to fulfilling the Great Commission we must also go a step further than that and not just do it, but do it His way. I believe the only way that we can truly be successful in our attempt to fulfill the Great Commission is by following God’s leadership in how we fulfill it.
So I guess that leads us to a question… Is it possible to attempt to fulfill the Great Commission and be disobeying at the same time? Maybe another way to ask that would be… Is it possible to do the right thing in the wrong way? I believe it is. Let me give you an example.
In 2 Samuel chapter 6 the story is told of how King David brought the Ark of the Covenant from out of the land of the Philistines. It had been gone for quite some time and so it was a great thing that the Israelites were now able to bring it back. No doubt it was God’s will that the Ark, this great symbol of God’s presence, be returned to its rightful place among His people. No doubt He was pleased with David for being the tool He could use to bring the Ark back. But something dreadfully wrong happened that day. You see, David had had the Ark placed upon a new cart to be returned to the city. And as the joyous procession was being made, the cart hit a bumpy path and the Ark began to sway as though it would fall. And in all sincerity and innocence a man by the name of Uzzah reached over to steady the Ark and keep it from falling and instantly God struck Him dead.
The following verses tell us that David was angry because of the Lord’s actions. And how can we blame him. Here he was, doing what he was sure to be the will of the Lord, and God had the “audacity” to strike dead one of the men who was laboring with him? How could He do that? Why would He do that? Well, I’m not going to pretend that I know God’s full reasoning for striking men dead in the Old Testament. But the reason for punishment is clear.
You see, the Levitical law had clearly stated that the Ark of the Covenant was to be transported on the shoulders of the chosen priests. Staves were to be used to lift the Ark. No human hand was to touch it. For someone to place a hand on that sacred dwelling of God’s presence was a sign of deep irreverence. So while David was doing what the Lord had chosen him to do, He had chosen not to do it the Lord’s way.
One commentator said, “The act of David and of Israel was evidently intended to return to the Lord and submission to His revealed ordinances; but, if so, obedience must be complete in every particular.” Another said, “Two things make a good Christian, good actions and good aims. A good aim makes not a bad action good; and yet a bad aim makes a good action bad.” David’s aim was correct. He was bringing God’s Ark back to its rightful place. His actions were symbolizing the intent of Israel to be God’s people again. But His action was bad. He failed to bring that Ark back the way that God had commanded him to do so. And that disobedience cost him and his people the blessing of God upon that venture.
Is it possible to do the right thing the wrong way? Absolutely. Is it possible to attempt to fulfill the Great Commission and be disobeying at the same time? Yes. God’s will must be carried out in God’s way.
So what am I saying in all of this? I believe that there are many churches who are trying to carry out the command of Jesus to evangelize a lost world, but instead of following God’s leadership for how they should do it, they follow their own schemes and their own plans and ideas. And most of the time it’s done very innocently. It’s not done out of rebellion or out of an attitude that wants to reject God’s plan. But it’s done from a feeling that human wisdom is better or more up to date than Godly wisdom. Man’s way of doing things is more effective than God’s way of doing it.
Youth pastor or professor, Kenda Dean writes from her own experience… “There have been times I’ve left the gospel unsaid so I could "earn the right to be heard"—an excuse I give myself when I trade in truth, God’s truth, for affability. While my deepest desire is to get out of God’s way so the Holy Spirit may rush into the youth room unimpeded, my most common failing is becoming God’s speed bump. When this happens, it’s usually because I’ve insisted on doing ministry that "works"—all in the name of Jesus, the one whose ministry on earth looked for all the world like a failure.”
I would imagine that there aren’t very many pastors out there who don’t want to have a ministry that works. We want to be successful in our ministry. But I’m afraid that in our efforts to find that success we all too often leave the most important part out of it, the Gospel. We have all of our gimmicks and tricks and ways to entertain in order to draw a crowd, in order to be affable. But in the midst of it all we neglect to share the truth, we leave the Gospel out of it, because it isn’t “seeker friendly.” And when we do that we have exited from doing ministry God’s way to doing it man’s way. We rely upon human wisdom instead of Godly wisdom all because our ideas seem like they’re more successful.
But I believe that it was Solomon who admonished us… “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.” God’s ways are always best. And when we fail to do it His way, while we may experience success in drawing great crowds or holding great influence, while we may see some great achievements on the human level, we still lose the blessing of God upon our ministries and the real purpose of taking lost men and women and seeing their lives dramatically turned around is never realized. Because only when God’s work is done God’s way will God’s people experience God’s blessing. Our church will be healthy and God will be truly glorified in our church only when we as a church learn to do ministry God’s way and commit ourselves to doing that.
Now, I’m not going to stand up here and give you a 10 point outline about the way that God wants our church’s ministry to function. My whole point in saying all of this is not to point fingers at the mega churches and say that I have all the answers for how God’s work should be carried out. My point this morning is that we as a church must be committed to being obedient to God’s leadership in every area, great and small, if we want to see Him do great things through us and in us this year. If He tells us that we need to take on an additional specific ministry, then we need to do it. If He directs us to drop a particular ministry, we need to do it. If He leads us to change the form of our service then we need to be willing to do it. Whatever He directs us to do as a church, we must be committed to obeying Him.
On an individual level we also must be willing to obey. If He directs me to preach on a tough subject I must be willing to do it. If He directs you to say something to a co-worker you must be willing to do it. The success of our church is not just dependent upon whether or not our board is following God’s direction in our ministries, but it’s dependent upon our people being obedient in their daily lives. We must be living lives of complete obedience to God. We must live our lives God’s way and we must do ministry God’s way. And when we begin truly committing ourselves to that I believe that God will help this year to become the best we’ve ever had. I don’t want to be a speed bump, do you? I want to be doing God’s work God’s way so that He can accomplish through me exactly what He wants to accomplish.
III. Complete Dependence Upon The Holy Spirit
The final resolution I believe our church should make together if we want to see the best year ever is that we will live in complete dependence upon the Holy Spirit. We must give our allegiance to the Great Commission, but we must go further than that. We must be obedient to God’s leadership in our efforts to fulfill the Great Commission, but we must still go further than that. We must also be completely reliant upon the Holy Spirit to take our efforts to fulfill the Great Commission and make them effective.
Sometime back the news was shared that a man by the name of Leslie Puckett, after struggling to start his car, lifted the hood and discovered that someone had stolen the motor. You know, without the Holy Spirit’s power we are like that car without its engine. We work and work and work, endeavoring to get something to happen, trying to do what God has called us to do, but we never seem to be able to get anywhere. And it’s not because of a lack of effort or zeal. It’s not because we’re not trying. It’s just because we’re working in our own strength. We’ve lost our motor, so to speak. We’re committed to winning the lost, we’re doing our best to be obedient, but we’re not allowing ourselves to rely upon the Spirit for His power. We think we can do it on our own, or maybe we just are too busy working to slow down and realize our need for the Spirit.
But if we want to see success in our attempt to fulfill the Great Commission, if we want to see people saved, if we want to see our ministry be blessed by God, then we must take the time to show our dependence upon the Holy Spirit.
Let me see if I can show you what I mean. In Matthew 17,
starting in verse 14 we’re told a story that goes like this:
“And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatic, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falls into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goes not out but by prayer and fasting.”
Jesus had gone up to the mountain to be transfigured, and He had taken with Him on Peter, James, and John. The rest of the disciples were left in town and there they had been confronted with a man with a demon possessed son. But they could not cast that demon out. They tried. They wanted to. But they just couldn’t do it.
Now flip over to the book of Acts, chapter 3. Beginning at verse 1,
“Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.”
It’s a little different story now, isn’t it? There was something that happened. There was a change that took place. What was it? What made such a difference? It was because in Acts 3, the disciples had learned the importance of depending upon the Holy Spirit. They realized that they couldn’t do it in their own power. It was going to take the power of the Spirit to work a miracle. In the same way, you and I can have no hope of truly fulfilling the Great Commission if we don’t learn the importance of depending upon the Holy Spirit.
So how do we do that? We understand that we as a church must depend upon the Spirit, but how do we do it? I believe there are three things that must be a part of our lives in order to truly be depending upon the Spirit. And I believe all three of those things can be found in Christ’s answer to why the disciples couldn’t cast that demon out in Matt. 17. He pointed out three things to them that must be present in order to see God’s power at work. Faith, prayer, and fasting.
If we are truly dependent upon the Holy Spirit we will be people who live and walk by faith. We like to think that we’re people of faith, don’t we? But I’m afraid that most of the time what we really are is people of logic and reason. We like to know what the consequences are going to be before we make a decision. We like to be able to come to a logical conclusion about something before we decide to do it or not. If we can’t see the details it’s hard for us to do it. If we can’t have evidence that what we’re about to try is going to work it’s difficult for us to take the risk. But Martin Luther said, "Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has..." If we’re constantly trying to come to the logical conclusion, if we’re constantly trying to make the reasonable choice, then we are not living by faith.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that we should always through logic and reason to the wind. God gave us those things for a purpose. But I am saying that there are some times that God will direct us to do something that doesn’t seem like it is really that logical. There will be times that God leads us into the dark. And if we are truly living by faith we will be willing to follow Him there, whether we can foresee the outcome or not. To truly be depending upon the Holy Spirit, that dependence must be displayed by our walking by faith, trusting in His guidance.
We must also be people of prayer. You know, we pastors are often guilty of lacking in this area. We work hard during the week preparing for Sunday. We go visit people trying to minister to them. We study hard. We do our jobs to the best of our ability. But too often we neglect our prayer lives in the busyness of ministry. It has been cited that the average pastor surveyed prays only three minutes each day. I’m sure, this morning, that this is not true of pastors only. I know that having a dynamic prayer life is a challenge. The devil makes it so. But I also know how important prayer is to successful ministry, and successful Christian living for that matter.
How can we claim to be relying upon the Spirit if we aren’t even taking the time to pray? How can we expect to see the Spirit moving in and through us if we aren’t seeking the face of God on a regular basis? Prayer is so vital to ministry. E.M. Bounds quoted another writer when he said, “Prayer is the first thing, the second thing, the third thing necessary to a minister. Pray, then, my dear brother; pray, pray, pray.”
When we rely on the Spirit through prayer God can do great things. Dr. Wilbur Chapman tells of his experience when, as a young man, he went to become pastor of a church in Philadelphia. After his first sermon, an old gentleman said to him, “You’re pretty young to be pastor of this church. But you preach the Gospel, and I’m going to help you all I can.” Dr. Chapman thought, “Well, here’s an old crank.” But the man continued: “I’m going to pray for you that you may have the Holy Spirit’s power upon you. Two others have covenanted to join with me in prayer for you.” Dr. Chapman said, “I didn’t feel so bad when I learned he was going to pray for me.
Well, the 3 prayer warriors became 10, the 10 became 20, and 20 became 50, the 50 became 200 who met before every service to pray that the Holy Spirit might come upon their pastor. He always went into his pulpit feeling that he would have the anointing in answer to the prayers of those who had faithfully prayed for him. And the Lord began doing some mighty things. In a matter of three 1,100 people were converted through the ministry of that church. And Dr. Chapman gave all the credit to the fact that it was the fruit of the Holy Spirit in answer to prayer!”
Quickly, the third element needed to truly be dependent upon the Holy Spirit is fasting. What is fasting? James Packer says this: “We tend to think of fasting as going without food. But we can fast from anything. If we love music and decide to miss a concert in order to spend time with God; that is fasting. It is helpful to think of the parallel of human friendship. When friends need to be together, they will cancel all other activities in order to make that possible. There’s nothing magical about fasting. It’s just one way of telling God that your priority at that moment is to be alone with him, sorting out whatever is necessary, and you have cancelled the meal, party, concert, or whatever else you had planned to do in order to fulfill that priority.”
I can’t really explain it, but there is something about fasting that God honors. There is something about it that pleases God and drives Him to honor your requests. When He hears the prayers of His church and when He sees that they are making that time with Him their highest priority, it causes Him to pour out His blessings in amazing ways. And it opens up the door for the Holy Spirit to work in mighty, mighty ways.
Depending upon the Holy Spirit… it’s shown by our walking by faith, giving our lives to prayer, and making God our highest priority through fasting.
Do you want this year to be the best year our church has ever experienced? Are you willing to resolve with me to give your complete allegiance to the Great Commission this year? Are you willing to resolve with me to be completely obedient to God’s leadings this year? Are you willing to resolve with me to be completely dependent upon the Holy Spirit this year? Then this is what I want us to do. I want everyone who will join with me in these three New Year’s resolutions for our church to stand and join hands with me around this altar. And let’s close this service by not just agreeing to resolve together, but making those commitments to God together.
