A Note of Encouragement
Hebrews 10:25
September 13, 2009
“Pre-Introduction”
This week’s message is going to be a departure from the plan I had for today.
I had told Lowell that the plan was to discuss Jesus’ trial before Pilate, only briefly discussing how Judas reacts to Jesus’ condemnation by committing suicide.
But as I was working on the message, I felt that there was more I needed to think through regarding Judas, and that that section of Scripture had more to offer than I had previously thought.
So today, and next week, we’re going to look at a couple different things, and we’ll pick up in Matthew 27 in two weeks.
Introduction
For our guests, I just want to let you know that this isn’t our normal procedure during the message, and most of this will be geared to our folks.
But I’d invite you to rejoice with us as we go through these things, and invite you to pray for us as well.
You’ll notice that the title of the message is “A Note of Encouragement,” and that’s because I felt it would be good if you were to hear about some of the things I believe God is doing in the midst of our church, so you can be encouraged.
I also want to pass on a challenge or two, but I want to spend the majority of my time telling you some of the things that are on my heart.
The board gets to hear some of this stuff each month when I make my reports, but I think it’s good for you as well.
Unlike most messages, this one won’t center around a passage of Scripture, but I do want to mention one here in the beginning.
Encouragements
Hebrews 10: 25 –
25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
I want to visit about five areas of growth that we are experiencing here at AWC.
My hope is that as you hear what is encouraging me, you will be encouraged as well, and it will give us even more incentive to keep it as we get ever closer to the day of Jesus’ return.
So let’s take a look at these, shall we?
The first area I want to mention is growth in…
1. Unsolicited monetary help.
I’m not talking about tithes and offerings, here.
I’m talking about people giving to specific ministries of the church.
People from this church have come to me and asked how they could help, over and above their tithe.
They’ve seen a need in someone in the Church and wanted to help.
Or they felt God telling them to give specifically toward one of our ministries here at the church.
You have no idea how awesome that is for a pastor to see. It’s a tremendous blessing.
By the way, just in the last two months we’ve received two large gifts from people who aren’t part of our church.
One of these was specifically to help us finish up the parking lot.
Those two gifts equal almost 10% of what we’re trusting God for for our general fund.
And another person within the church has given money to help with the educational ministries of the church.
I’d say God’s being generous to us, through His people – both here at AWC and outside AWC.
I mention the money first because I want to get it out of the way.
The income in encouraging, but to me, it’s not the most encouraging thing that’s been going on, and I don’t want to focus on it any more than possible, so I want to move on to another area of growth here, and that is…
2. Growth in attendance numbers.
We are up over last year, and right now we’re on track to have some of the best numbers we’ve seen in over a decade.
That’s saying something considering that we closed our last church year in April with a 19% increase in attendance.
And we’re looking to beat that this year, just given what we’ve seen so far in these first four months of the church year.
It’s not just in the worship service, either. It’s also in Sunday School, and that is very encouraging to me, especially since it reflects our adult Sunday School as well.
There are some who say that a church shouldn’t focus on numbers, and that looking to increase the bodies in the seats is not the correct priority.
They feel that they should focus solely on those who are already there, making sure all their needs are met, and if anybody happens to come through the doors and they want to be with them, that’s fine. But let’s not waste time talking about “church growth.”
They say we need to focus on “quality” and not “quantity.”
Well, that works about as well as parents who say they don’t need to spend a lot of time with their kids as long as the time they do spend is “quality time.” In other words, it doesn’t work, at least not real well.
Folks, we keep track of these numbers because behind every number is a person Jesus died for.
We want as many people as possible to hear the good news of Jesus and be equipped to live for Him.
Those numbers aren’t for bragging rights at District Conference, although it’s nice to show people that God is moving around here.
Those numbers are an indicator of what’s happening among us as God does His work.
There’s another area of growth that thrills me, and that is our…
3. Growth in outreach efforts.
Folks, I remember last year when Jolene Harms approached the board about restarting Vacation Bible School, and that she was believing God for 50 kids and 5 families.
I have to admit that although I can believe God for big things, this seemed a stretch for me. But we prayed and asked God.
We didn’t have 50 kids last year, nor did we have 5 unchurched families start attending.
But this year we had 64 kids. And we’ve seen a bit of fruit in terms of families.
We’re still praying for those 5 families, and I have no doubt that someday we’ll see them find Christ and find this as their church home. We’re just going to keep praying until they come.
Spinning off the canvassing efforts for VBS, some of the ladies felt God laying on their heart the mobile home park just west of the church.
So they started an outreach effort over there, handing out the rest of the post-it note pads they had prepared, and even taking some ice cream to them.
Folks, do you realize how huge that is? That’s not exactly the posh part of town. It’s filled with people who a lot of other people and other churches would just as soon ignore.
In other words, it’s filled with sinners – people who don’t love Jesus and don’t live for Him.
But wouldn’t you know, these ladies remembered something – that they were sinners once, too! And that Jesus changed their lives.
And that Jesus loves the people in that mobile home park just He loves you and me.
So they decided to do something about it.
And you know what? They didn’t ask my permission. They just told me they were doing it. How rude, huh?
I’m thrilled! I hope that even just the little time they’ve been able to work over will yield people’s lives being changed for eternity.
And then this last Thursday night we finished the Just Walk Across the Room class.
What a blessing that was for me to see some of you taking that class, and I’m praying that God will bring fruit in your own life and for the Kingdom through your time in it.
Your Local Board of Administration has come up with an action plan to become more intentional about ministry to international students, the mobile home park, and the new apartments just to the east of the church.
We’ve set a “God Goal” of reaching 20 people, with the hope of baptizing 15 new believers this church year.
That kind of stuff doesn’t just happen because you want it to.
It takes work. Prayer-filled effort, trusting in God to work as we move toward what we believe He wants us to do.
This is one area that I am most thrilled about growing in.
But there are a couple other areas, and it fills my heart with joy to see this happening.
4. Growth in opportunities for deepening our relationship with Christ.
Here’s where we’re working on the “quality” part of the church.
I know that I have given the impression in the past that I’m so concerned about reaching the lost that I’m not concerned about those we already have.
I never meant to give that impression, because it’s simply not true.
And one of the greatest encouragements for me is that particularly from the last church year into this one, the opportunities for people to grow in their walk with Christ and become equipped to serve Him have increased.
Men’s study, ladies studies, prayer group, Just Walk Across the Room, Financial Peace University, new SS classes.
This is huge, folks, because church is way more than the Sunday service.
The Church isn’t a worship service any more than it’s a building.
The Church is people – all those who call on Christ and follow Him.
And that Church needs strengthening in any area of life you can think of, and one of those areas is in our walk with Christ.
The people of this church are more intentional than ever about making that happen.
I love it when people come to me and say, “I’d like to start this or that, or lead this or that. What do you think?”
And in every case up to this point I’m like, “Go for it!” Because every one of those has been something designed to help people grow closer to Christ and serve Him better in whatever walk of life they’re in.
The last area of growth that I’m seeing, and that I believe will be one of the areas we grow most in in the coming year is…
5. Growth in intentional efforts to build fellowship.
One of the areas I believe God is wanting to stress here as we finish up the gospel of Matthew and get through the holidays is the strengthening of the family.
The family of God and individual families, so that is where we will be spending probably the majority of our time and effort over the next year.
Obviously we won’t drop the other stuff, because we also want as many people as possible to find Christ and become part of the family.
In other words, we want the family to get bigger.
But I think we also need to work on building the camaraderie and family atmosphere of this bunch of believers at Aberdeen Wesleyan Church.
So we’re going to work on that a bit in 2010.
But over the last year I’ve noticed a specific effort on the part of a couple people to really get us together as a family more often, especially around a meal.
Next week is another one of those opportunities as we gather after the service in which Darin and April will share with us.
And this afternoon we’ll have the opportunity to just get together and have some fun at Wylie Park.
I think that’s great, and I think that as the family is strengthened, more people will get excited about inviting other people to join our family by believing in Jesus.
So those are five areas of growth that God has brought to us.
The Challenge
We can’t become complacent. We can’t rest on the modest gains and successes we’ve had to this point.
The job is not done. We need to press on.
We still need to do two things in particular:
1. Grow in our knowledge of Christ.
2. Press on in service to Christ.
Why? Because as encouraging as all this stuff is, it’s not about us or the church, it’s about Christ and His Kingdom.
We’re growing in these things because we are having a more intentional focus about those things.
And if we continue on that, these other things will continue to grow. So that we can more effective in living for Christ and impacting our area for the sake of His kingdom.
We still have work to do, and some of that work is just stuff like painting the canopy and the church, and finishing the parking lot.
But again, that’s not so we can have a pretty property, it’s so that the property can be better used to bring glory to Christ and His kingdom.
The Invitation
Join with your leadership and others who are believing God for even more growth in these areas.
Join in taking advantage of the opportunities for growth in your walk with God and becoming equipped to serve Him.
Join in taking advantage of serving Christ through the different opportunities that come up through the church or just in the opportunities God throws your way during the week.
Join in prayer:
* That we will remain focused on Christ and His kingdom above all else.
* That God will work in us as individuals to make us more like Jesus.
* That God will bring glory to Himself and advance His kingdom through us.
In Experiencing God, Henry Blackaby says that when God invites us to join Him in His work, it requires that we make major adjustments in our life.
That’s what it’s going to take for all of us – myself included, if we really want to see God working here as I believe He wants to.
Are you willing?
Are you willing to join the adventure of knowing Christ and making Him known to the people in our area?
My prayer is that everyone who calls this their church home will say yes. Not yes to me, but yes to God.
For His sake and the sake of His kingdom.
We’re going to pray. But I’m going to open the altar as we do.
And I’d like to invite two specific types of people up here.
The first type is those who would pray for the church, that God would continue to bless us in these areas as we continue to focus on Him and His kingdom.
The second type of person I’d like to invite is anyone who is ready to join in that awesome work.
If you’re ready to get off the sidelines and into the game, this time is for you.
So if you’d like to pray up here at the altar, I invite you to do that now.
