“OUR CORE VALUES” Matthew 22:37-39
FBCF – 2/23/25
Jon Daniels
INTRO – My phone blew up Thursday. Phone call after phone call, text after text.
- Call from Mark Self
- Call from church member needing some info
- Call from fellow pastor asking me about how we structure our worship services
- Call from Vicki about Bro. Bob
- Call from church member telling me about his new discipleship relationship & that he had also gotten to lead a young lady to Christ
- Call from a former fellow staff member about Bro. Bob
But here’s a call that I haven’t gotten in a long time. I had a good friend call me & ask if he could submit my name to be considered for a ministry position that recently came open. I thanked him for thinking that I would be a good person for that position, but then immediately told him “No” w/ no hesitation or second thought about it.
Why tell him “No”? Might initially think it’s b/c of the vote that we as a church FAMILY are taking today about building a new sanctuary. That definitely entered into my mind. Depending on what we as a Church vote to do today, this could be an historic day in the 138-yr life of FBCF! I certainly don’t want to miss out on that!
But there’s more to it than just that one thing:
- First, it takes about 5 yrs to build trust.
o Normally, pastor has a year or 2 for the “honeymoon” period. Didn’t happen here. I arrived & then 2 wks later Covid hit. Immediately had to weather that storm, which was followed by w/ a couple more intense storms over the 1st 2 yrs of my ministry as your pastor. Even wading through the hardest experiences I had ever had in ministry, I never once doubted God’s call here to be your Pastor. God continued to show His faithfulness, His GRACE, His power, His blessings & favor on us as a Church as we pressed on through those storms & came out on the other side of them. So many of you prayed, encouraged, supported, &, like Aaron & Hur held Moses’ arms up in the battle against the Amalekites, you held my arms up as the enemy relentlessly attacked.
o And next Sunday will be my 5th anniversary as your Pastor. I hope & pray you believe that you can trust me:
? To love you
? To pray for you
? To preach the truth of God’s Word to you in a passionate, unflinching way
? To help equip you to do God’s work in this world
? To protect you from false teachers
? To hear from God & lead this Church the way HE says for me to lead you
? To understand God’s vision for this Church & go hard after it
- Another reason I said, “No”, is b/c there is something special going on in this body of believers, unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in the 42 yrs I’ve been in the ministry.
o Vicki & I headed to Petal Friday night
- God is moving in this church! God is stirring the hearts of His people. Hardly a week goes by that I don’t talk to someone about what God is doing in their lives – people sharing the Gospel, winning people to the Lord, discipling other believers.
o Text from a church member Thu AM asking how she could pray for Vicki & me – something this church member does on a regular basis. Also shared w/ me about a new job she’s gotten – a job she wasn’t seeking – but how she knows this job is a part of God’s plan for her family: “He is fulfilling His promises of giving us what we need financially to help further His K’dom.”
- Another reason I said, “No”, is b/c I believe that we are on the verge of seeing the Lord move in our midst in ways that will leave us awestruck & breathless. And, Lord willing, I want to see it & be a part of it!
EXPLANATION – Matthew 22:37-39 (p. 828)
My journal entry – 3/14/23: “He requires us to be obedient to His Word, the Great Commission, & the Great Commandment.”
Everything that Jesus did or said, He did with intentionality.
- His ministry of healing
- His ministry of teaching
- His ministry of preaching
- His mission was intentional – “To seek & save the lost”
- Going to the cross was intentional – No salvation apart from that
And He made it very clear that this commandment must be intentionally followed & obeyed by every Christ-follower.
If you boil the Christian life down to the basics, you’ll see that in these verses:
- Love God
- Love People
“The greatest commandment is to love God with all that we are and have—heart, soul, mind, strength, possessions, service. To love God is not to “have good feelings about Him,” for true love involves the will as well as the heart.” (Wiersbe)
In other words, there will be intentionality.
- Feelings will change
- Feelings are based on circumstances
- Feelings are affected by experiences
- Feelings are unpredictable & unstable
And to continue to w/ Jesus’ words, our love for God will move us to love others. Wiersbe: “Where there is love, there will be service and obedience…If we love God, we will love our neighbor, & if we love our neighbor, we will not want to do anything to harm him.”
Again – intentionality is the key. Not just feeling love for others – not just saying that we love others – not just agreeing that we should love others – but actually & truly & intentionally loving others, whoever they are & wherever they are – the “anyones” in our vision statement.
APPLICATION – Our core values are those intentional practices that guide our lives.
If Jesus’ commandments here did anything, they let us know that we must be intentional in our walk w/ Him individually & corporately. We can’t be haphazard or nonchalant about the things we do, the things we say, the way we live, the way we serve, how we treat people, or anything else in our lives.
- Intentional in our marriages, our parenting, our finances, our relationships – EVERY aspect of our lives.
OUR CORE VALUES:
Intentional in excellence in corporate worship
- ALL OF US are created to worship. You are a worshiper of something or someone.
- We don’t just go through the motions in here
- We are the church of the LIVING GOD (1 Timothy 3:15) not the church of the dead god or church of the fake god or church of the false god.
- Psalm 22:3 – He “inhabits the praises of His people.” – He is present right here right now when we, His people, are lifting our voices to Him in praise! He deserves our very best.
Intentional in evangelism & discipleship
- NOTICE that both of these are included in our vision, mission, strategy, & here in our core values.
- WE MUST NOT MESS THIS UP!
- Kie Bowman: “We, the Church, are the only group of people who’ve been given the assignment of winning the lost. If we don’t do it, it’s not going to get done.”
Intentional in fervent, faith-filled prayer
- Jeremiah 33:3 - "Call to me & I will answer you & show you great & mighty things you do not know."
- Mark 11:24 – “…whatever you ask for in prayer, BELIEVE that you have received it, & it WILL BE YOURS.”
- James 5:16 – “The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” (KJV)
- John 15:7 – “If you abide in me & my words abide in your, ask WHATEVER you wish & I will be done for you.”
- 1 timothy 2:7 – “I desire then that in every place THE MEN should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.”
- Vicki – Tauren Wells – “When We Pray”
o "All the world starts changing
When the church starts praying
Strongholds start to break
Oh, when we pray
Prison walls start shaking
At the sound of praising
Nothing stays the same
Oh, when we pray"
o She said, “We need to play that when we pray b/c that’s our church!
Intentional in loving God & loving people
- Back to Jesus’ foundational intentional commandments for His people. His commands to love God & love others form the foundation for our core values.
CONCLUSION – (ask Allison to stay playing) Michael Catt – “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus”
My calling into ministry – Hannibal-LaGrange college – “Lord, I will go wherever you want me to go, do whatever you want me to do, be whatever you want me to be. I’m yours, Lord.”
Have YOU ever made that commitment? A total commitment of your total life? I invite you to do that today!
