Experimental Sermon
Wildwind Community Church
David Flowers
April 12, 2008
River of Life First Day
1 Corinthians 1:9 (NIV)
9 God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.
Most of you know Christy’s mom passed away on April 5. It’s all so fresh. I spent most of this past week thinking about and writing mom’s funeral, knowing that this service was coming – this celebrative service where people would be excited, where I knew I would be excited, but frankly where I felt so drained that I just didn’t know what to say. The sermon you are hearing right now is actually officially titled “Experimental Sermon.” That’s because it was one of three I started for this occasion and by the time I scrapped the two before it, I was no longer confident that I’d end up sticking with this one either! I opened up a new document, wrote “Experimental Sermon” at the top, and off I went. One of the two I scrapped was very militant, talking about all the ways the church in America nowadays is misrepresenting God. That’s something I’m passionate about , but it can be a way of just kind of coasting sometimes when I’m at a loss for words. Then I wrote one that started out with losing mom and the timing of all this, how all this didn’t turn out the way I had thought and hoped it would, how I’m feeling so burned out, etc. It was a “real” sermon. Real depressing.
Then I realized that none of that is the point. The excitement of today isn’t the point. The exhaustion in my heart and mind isn’t the point. The point – and the reason we come to church week after week – is God is faithful. God has been faithful in our lives in the past week. God has been faithful to you. And you know what, God has been and continues to be faithful to Wildwind Community Church. Today is just one small evidence of that.
Back when Wildwind was running about 90 people, I remember driving home from somewhere one night, and I just hit the wall. I mean emotionally. I prayed, “God, I can’t do this anymore. Wildwind has a high attendance day and I’m up and feel worthwhile. Then that week someone sends me a critical email and I get down and feel depressed and want to give up. A few weeks later we set a new contribution record and I’m up and feel worthwhile. Then somebody misunderstands something I said in a sermon and leaves the church and I’m depressed and want to give up. A few months later we have a month where seven people make commitments to Christ and lives are changing and I’m on top of the world. That same week someone UNDERSTANDS something I said in a sermon and leaves the church and I want to give up! Then I get a note from someone thanking me for a sermon I preached that helped change their life in some way and I thank God for the opportunity to be a pastor and do what I do. A few months later I watch Christy suffering pain from someone in the church who has it out for her and I get depressed and just want to quit. A few days later I get the call that one of my leaders isn’t on board anymore and now I’m really down, but a few weeks after that, a new family comes to the church and tells me how great it is and I feel effective and worthwhile and wonderful. And let’s be honest. One of your relatives dies and though my heart breaks for you, I feel so good knowing that I was able to help you and care for you and be there for you and I wouldn’t ever do anything else. Then my own mother in law dies and I’m sad and exhausted and empty, and I just don’t know what to put on paper to bring to you that week.
Do you live with that? The ups and downs? Do you find that how you have performed and what has happened in your life in a given week determines your opinion of yourself or of God? Do you find you are up when the family is good, no one is sick or dying or recently dead, the money is flowing in, and you are doing well at work? And then do you find that you are down and depressed when there are problems in these or other important areas of your life? It’s easy to let that happen, isn’t it? It’s easy to get distracted and to let our feelings determine our faith. I almost did that in writing a message for you today. In my last series called Getting Free, I was on top of the world. I felt really close to God and words came easily and I knew how to encourage you and move you forward. Today, I speak to you from the desert. Sleep has not come easy most nights. Words are not readily available. And unlike other times when I have suffered something, I’m not even ready to preach to you about it, to pull out lessons from it, to process and learn from it. I can’t make heads or tails of what has happened. All I know is that it has left me numb and burned out and in many ways beyond words.
So I don’t want to preach to you today from my pain. I don’t want to preach to you today just to meet your expectations that I preach an exciting and memorable first sermon in the new space. The only place I know to preach from today is from what I most deeply believe to be true about God. That he is faithful. In mom’s funeral last week I wrote and spoke these words to a familiar hymn, and I want to speak them to you now.
Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;There is no shadow of turning with Thee. Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not; As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.
Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; All I have needed Thy hand hath provided. Great is Thy Faithfulness, Lord unto me.
Summer and winter and spring-time and harvest, Sun, moon and stars in their courses above join with all nature in manifold witness to Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth, Thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide, Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!
Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; All I have needed Thy hand hath provided. Great is Thy Faithfulness, Lord unto me.
Isn’t this really what it’s all about? It’s not “Great is Thy faithfulness when everything is going great.” Or “Great is thy faithfulness when we’re at the end of our rope.” It’s “Great is thy faithfulness – ALL I have needed thy hand hath provided.” God is sufficient. This is a song that basically says, “It’s not about you. Get off the roller coaster. Dave, it’s not about the attendance in your church on Sunday. God is faithful. It’s not about who has praised you and thanked you this week. God is faithful. It’s not about who leaves your church or who comes and checks it out. God is faithful. It’s not about whether everyone in your family is healthy and alive and vibrant – great is God’s faithfulness.” God promises us his presence – that there will be strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.
The same is true for you. God is faithful. It’s not about your circumstances. It’s not about how effective and powerful you may feel this week, or how pathetic and weak you may feel. Thank God our point of reference does not have to be ourselves and our own feelings. Some of you have come into church excited and up and ready to worship God today. You are thrilled about this new meeting space and the rest of your life is going well and you just have a sense that God is Lord of life and Lord of Lords and you’re ready to put your hands up and worship God today. Some of you barely dragged yourself in here. You’re still uncertain about church being on Saturdays, or something terrible happened to you this week and you’re frustrated or angry or depressed. To both of you I say, “God is faithful.” And why do I say that to you? Because it’s what I most deeply believe for me. If today were just about my feelings, I wouldn’t have much good news for you. As excited as I am about what we have gained in this new facility, I am still in a place where I constantly sense what my family has lost. God has been faithful to my family and will continue to be. God has been faithful bringing Wildwind to this place, and will continue to be. So in all the circumstances of life, we must set aside our feelings and focus on what we know of God – that God is faithful.
The Old Testament is a record of two important things. God’s faithfulness to his people, and their unfaithfulness to him. The more I read the Old Testament the more I see it is an ancient story about our modern predicament. Still today, God is faithful and we are unfaithful. So again and again and again and again in those ancient Old Testament books, God says, “Remember – I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I am the God who brought you out of slavery in Egypt, led you across the Red Sea and into the Promised Land.” The only way we can ground ourselves in the faithfulness of God is to remember his faithfulness to us in the past. Let’s trace the line of God’s faithfulness to Wildwind from the beginning.
God was faithful years ago when I worked as a youth pastor and began dreaming of a church that would not play by all the rules, but wouldn’t try to be super hip and cool either – a church that would disregard rules only when they got in the way of relationship with God. God was faithful when a door opened up in 2002, and Christy and I were given a chance to partner with our last church to plant a brand new baby church in Grand Blanc. God was faithful as about 25 people (along with their children) felt called to this work with us and left behind the comforts of their home church and came with us to create something from nothing. God was faithful as people began realizing the money wouldn’t come it if didn’t come from them and rose to new levels of generosity and faithfulness in return. God was faithful in supplying our first meeting space to us for $10/hour. Our church was able to grow from 30 to about 65 in that temporary meeting place in Lapeer where we stayed for about three months. By that time we were able to move into Grand Blanc and take on the burden of a great deal more money to rent Brendle Middle School. God was faithful to provide for Christy and my girls and me during that time, as we bought our first home less than one year after planting Wildwind. God was faithful in positioning us financially to live on very little income, as we discovered that with my last check from our last church, we were debt-free – barely two months before Wildwind’s first service, and after a six-year debt relief plan we had followed. God was faithful to lead Tim Courneya to us who helped us get used to Brendle and then led us on to Indian Hill, which became our home for nearly five years. God was faithful to us as we grew numerically and launched new ministries to children and teens, and launched our small group ministry. God was faithful to us in providing two wonderful volunteer secretaries to assist in the beautiful office God had faithfully provided for us for $1000/month less than the asking rental price. When Wildwind went into deep financial crisis a year ago last October, God moved in the hearts of Wildwind’s people and through them faithfully took care of the church. Not long after that Wildwind was growing and we were able to hire Brent Adams as our first associate pastor. God has been faithful to us and Brent and I have an excellent working relationship. A couple years ago Christy noticed River of Life Church sitting here between our house and my office. She started asking me questions about it but I never really did much with it. God faithfully led me to do a wedding here in September so I got to come inside and see the place. God faithfully led our Little League team to play here last summer – another connection. Best of all, God led Chuck and Heidi Nutter to us, Chuck having grown up here as a kid and knowing Pastor Steve very well. Chuck helped make some important connections between Pastor Steve and me and little by little things began to come together. Steve, thank you for the way you have ministered to us in letting us be here. It has been good for both churches and we look forward to more of God’s faithfulness to both of us in the future.
Which is why I have taken a moment to chronicle God’s faithfulness to us in the past. See, the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Girls, that guy who’s cheated on you many times before? Don’t believe him when he says he won’t cheat again. People will almost always do again what they have habitually done before. That car dealer who ripped you off once? Don’t quickly give him a second chance. Spouse been faithful to you all your lives together? Count on more of that in the future. Has God kept his promises? Has God provided for us, taken care of us, and helped us over almost six years create a new church with a new identity that works in a different way, but still works? Absolutely! We can count on more of that faithfulness in the future.
And in all of this, what has your part been? Simply to say yes. Yes God, we’ll venture out and help start this new church. Yes God, we’ll put up the money. Yes God, we’ll join a small group and come to love these people. Yes God, we’ll submit ourselves to the authority of our pastor and leadership team. Yes God, we’ll set up equipment and tear it down in a school gymnasium every Sunday for five and a half years if that’s what it takes. Yes God, we’ll be part of a church that is focused on reaching people who don’t know Christ, who have been hurt by other churches, who are skeptical, who have never heard God presented with love and grace and compassion. Yes God, we’ll ignore the conventions of traditional church, but not just to be rebellious or radical but in order to make sure nothing gets between you and the people you want to reach. Yes we’ll meet on Saturdays at 6pm, or Wednesdays at 6am or Mondays at 10pm or whatever time we can come together and worship God. Yes God, we’ll listen to a preacher who says things that sometimes make our ears bleed, who refuses to get too comfortable or to allow us to, and who regularly invites us to leave the church if we’re no longer going the same direction. Yes God, when someone in the church is hurting, we’ll take food over and love that person/family (like you have done for us this week). Yes God, when we have a chance to move into a new space, we will buy the materials, and we will provide the labor, and we will use all our creativity and ingenuity and enthusiasm and care and love to get the job done and honor you with our work. And yes God, we will trust you to be faithful with us in the future the way you have been faithful to us in the past. To lead us into tomorrow the way you have faithfully brought us to today. No God, we don’t need all the answers right now. No, we don’t need to be like the other churches and no, we don’t need to think makes us superior in any way. No, we don’t need to live with fear of the future or concern that we will run into problems you will not empower us to solve. No, we will not be lured away from our mission by the beautiful comfort of our new surroundings but will simply continue to give thanks. No God, we will not expect of you the same unfaithfulness you will sometimes get from us, and that we sometimes get from each other. And no, we do not need to know every detail of what you have on the road ahead for us in the next five and a half years, but will simply continue to trust in your faithfulness because you are faithful.
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 (NIV)
23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
24 The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.
God thank you that you are faithful, through al circumstances, at all times, in all places, and in all ways. May we trust in you and your faithfulness. God you are mighty to save and we are lost without you. We love you this morning and praise you for all you have done. Amen.
