Getting To Know YOUR Church
“So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people.
The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.” Acts 11:26
Intro: I believe this is a great church! God is doing great things!
[But there is still greater work that God is calling us to do.]
Over the many years there have been difficult times…,
lean times of struggle and labor
There have been times of birth and joy
And times of sorrow and death
But I am convinced as Your Pastor…, that there are still greater showers of blessing…, that are yet to come…
Today we are going to talk about “Getting to Know Your Church.”
Some of you have been life-long members of ____(YOUR CHURCH)___ Methodist.
Others have only recently joined in the past few years…
I believe it is important for us all to remember the history of how Your Church United Methodist Church came about.
If we are to learn what Our Mission is…
And Why We are here…
I believe it is important for us to learn how we got started…
And how we came to where we are…
[ INSERT A BRIEF HISTORY OF YOUR CHURCH ]
Your Church Methodist Church came into being around the end of the 19th century.
In the late 1890’s a small group began to meet in homes…
And finally found a place to organize at the First Christian Church here in Your Church.
By 1900 this group decided to build a church of their own.
The first step was to purchase a lot from Mr. J. D. Beldon for the sum of $264.00 on May 5th 1900.
The old First Methodist Church was build and dedicated in 1907.
There were seven stain glass windows
Six of the memorial plaques that are over 120 years old hang on the wall of the entrance of our building today.
The church started as a four point circuit…
That means there were four churches…
Liberty, Middleburg, Bruce’s Chapel and Salem
Under the spiritual leadership of one pastor…
The first parsonage was at Middleburg
Later Your Church and Middleburg became a two point circuit
And finally in the 1940’s Your Church became a full-time appointment.
With the Rev. R. L. Anderson the pastor…
The old parsonage was built in 1945
As the church grew in 1930’s
and more space had to be added on to the church when Rev. B.M. Wesley was pastor.
The Sunday School grew in the 1950’s and a concrete block building was added
But ten years later the church continued to grow…and by 1960 more Sunday School rooms were needed…
Thinking and praying and planning and labor and love
built the Sunday School rooms that are still part of the church today.
The final phase of the dream
was this new sanctuary which was built in 1972 with the Rev. James Powell as pastor…
In 2005 I became the pastor of Your Church
In 2008 the new parsonage was built
I’m in my sixth year as pastor here…
This historical sketch of your church pivots on building sanctuaries
and adding more Sunday school rooms…
and constructing new parsonages
But buildings… are not the mission of the church…
Buildings are the result of faithfulness…
I. ___YOUR CHURCH_____is the result of FAITHFULNESS
Their purpose was to be faithful and obey God…
Like the disciples in the Upper Room in Luke 24:49
"Stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven." Luke 24:49 (NLT)
The temptation might have been to pack up and go home…
The temptation might have been to not wait where Jesus told them to wait in the city of Jerusalem
But to go somewhere else and wait…
The temptation might have been to not be open and obedient to the Holy Spirit
But they were faithful…
They didn’t give up and go home
They didn’t quit and search elsewhere
They were faithful…
Faithfulness and Obedience are always the link to power and blessing from God.
The promise to the disciples of course, was the blessed Holy Spirit.
Jesus had promised in Acts 1:8, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you . . ." This promise is made to every person who has the desire to receive it from the Lord.
Their result was an extraordinary authority to witness and spread the Gospel of Salvation
Their response was their understanding of what the Mission of the Church was…
The same way our response to receiving the power of the Holy Ghost
is our understanding of what the Mission of the church is…today
They were to be witnesses . . ."both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in
Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8).
Peter stood before the great crowd in the streets of Jerusalem ...
and offered the Gospel to anyone who would listen…,
and probably to some who would not listen…
The sermon was clear,
His faith was simple.
He wanted to help people get to Heaven.
These great churches at Jerusalem and Antioch where the disciples were first called Christians
Are our God-given example of "how to do it."
These folk were faithful
They prayed and got in touch with Heaven,
And received their orders and the power to carry them out and please God.
In this day, when hundreds of churches that are like dead batteries,
Having no power and no purpose…
Our Mission is clear…5 SHIPS
1. To WORSHIP God
2. To Join in MEMEBERSHIP to belong to Body of Christ
3. To Teach other through DISCIPLESHIP
4. LEADERSHIP to be example of Godly men and Godly women and Godly Youth
5. To be in Missions through our PARTNERSHIP with other churches locally and around the world.
That’s what YOUR CHURCH Your Church Methodist has been doing for over 120 years
Passing on from generation to generation the faithfulness and obedience to God…
Let me share with you a couple more things about your church.
II. ___YOUR CHURCH_____has a great MESSAGE.
That message has been preached by ordinary men…,
Some may not have been great preachers…
But you don’t have to be a great preacher if you have a great message…
The content of the sermon was great preaching.
Great preaching has 3 important characteristic:
Great preaching
1. Exalts the Savior, (teaches the Word of God through Worship)
2. Edifies the listeners, (Uses the Word of God to build up the hearer)
3. Exposes sin (Uses the Word of God to tear down the bondage of sin…,
cuts loose the sin that wants to hold you down.)
"How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
and how shall they hear without a preacher?" Romans 10:14 (KJV)
"And how shall they preach, except they be sent?
as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace,
and bring glad tidings of good things!" Romans 10:15 (KJV)
How will your loved ones and neighbors hear it unless someone tells them?
Let me ask that question again…
How will your loved ones and neighbors hear it unless someone tells them?
YOUR CHURCH has a great message.
That message has been preached by ordinary people…,
Some may not have been great preachers…
Some may not have even been pastors…
But you don’t have to be a great preacher or a great pastor…,
All you have to have is a great message…
Is God calling you to take a part of His message to someone in this community?
You don’t have to think long to think of someone who needs to hear the Good News
About the Saviour Jesus Christ…
I am convinced that right now you know someone who needs your help
Someone who is hurting
Someone who is broken
Someone who is lost…
Someone who needs to hear a good message…
The Mission of the Church is to take the Message of Christ to the Community
Your church has a great message… the good news of Jesus Christ
Who forgives sin
Who offers a fresh start to anyone who will repent…
The message of change and hope…
The message of peace and salvation
The message of the cross
The message of heaven and eternal life
Your church has a great message.
Would you like to know a little more about YOUR church?
Your church goes through both Highs and Lows…But God has always used it…
III. God has always used ___YOUR CHURCH___ for His GOOD.
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28 (KJV)
There was once a little girl who was riding along on her bike
when she bumped her head on the low hanging branch of a tree.
She ran into the house hollering, "Mom! Mom, my brother hit me!"
The Mom looked around and said to the little girl,
You brother did not hit you. He is not even here…
He went to the grocery store with your daddy."
The little girl got this trouble look on her face.
Then in a bit bewildered fear she said,
"That means stuff like this can happen on its own at anytime?!?"
We are told that God causes all things to work together for good.
It is easy to believe that God is going to make something good come out of something good happening to you.
It is not so easy to believe that God is going to make something good
come out of something bad happening to you.
When the church is high and everything is going great it is easy to see God is doing great thing around us…
When the church is low and life is filled with crisis…
God is still able to use us when…, when we make ourselves available to be used…
The phrase “to know” means to learn by instruction.
How do we know math addition and subtraction? By instruction, by learning.
We know that God causes all things to work together for good
because we are taught through God’s word this is true.
The only way we know this fact is through the teaching of the Bible.
If it were not for the revelation of the God’s Word
we would think that too many things happen in life to work for evil…, instead of God.
How many times have you seen what seemed like a hopeless situation turn into something good?
In my own life there have been many things
I have seen something hopeless…something fruitless…, something discouraging…, something impossible
Be turned into something promising…and something good.
How many of you think it would be terrible to be beaten and sold into slavery by your own brothers?
This happened to a man named Joseph in the bible.
But Later on in his life, Joseph’s brothers thought Joseph was going to get them back
But instead Joseph said the following in Genesis 50:20,
"As far as I am concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil.
He brought me to the high position I have today so I could save the lives of many people."
Genesis 50:20 (NLT)
It may be during our lowest moments…
That God uses us…
In fact if there were another 100 people here today
Some of you might say since there is so many of us…
I think I will let somebody else… ___________________YOU fill in the BLANK…
See God has not stopped calling people into ministry
God has not stopped calling people to do his work…
It is just that people have left it up to somebody else to do it…
Someone here today needs to pray “God, use me.”
Others here today need to pray, “God, make me usable.”
Great power comes thru prayer, but not prayer only.
We must put “feet” to our prayers!
Will you go out this morning…, and tell people about your church?
Will you tell them about the faithfulness of the disciples who followed Jesus in Jerusalem
And who were first called Christians at Antioch
Will tell them about the faithfulness of the people who started this work in ___YOUR CHURCH___
I have here in my hand an original Church program from 1943.
At the top is say “Your Church First Methodist Church”
“I was glad when they said unto me,
Let us go into the house of the Lord.” Psalm 122:1
“THE FRIENDLY CHURCH”
“Somewhere, someway, sometime each day,
I’ll turn aside and stop and pray
That God will make this church the way
Of righteousness to men.”
(By the way it has the phone number on here if you want to call
The phone number was “68F4”)
Closing: How well do you know your church?
Do you know our history?
Do you know the people who started this church
Do you know the people by name that sit on the other side of your church?
Do you know our faith?
Do you know how to tell someone to accept Christ as their personal Saviour
Do you know our message?
Do you know our mission?
Last week we had 35 people return the survey question: What is our Mission? Why are we here?
I want to read just a few of those…
1. Serve God. Minister
2. Praise God and get others to praise God
3. To Serve the Lord, to tell our community about Christ
4. Build up the body of Christ locally and to build up the Kingdom of God
Become more spiritually mature (sanctified)
Teach our children and bring in more children
5. Lead the lost to God
(then there was someone who wrote…)
6. Sometimes I wonder
Then my favorite
7. To share the story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection so that others will know and believe
and can have the opportunity to live eternally
Will you take the message of the exalted Savior?
Will you teach the Word of God through Worship and example?
Will you be listeners of the Word?
But not only be listeners but doers also?
(Use the Word of God to build up the hearer)
Will you repent of your own sin?
And let the Holy Spirit sanctify and make you forgiven and holy
Will you let God use you on the good days and the not so good days?
That no matter what your circumstance…
You are letting God use you for good for the kingdom…
I hope today you have gotten to know your church a little better
So that when you leave here you might always give God thanks and praise
For being part of such a great church, for our great and marvelous God.
