Can you believe 2005 is over already? It doesn’t seem possible that it has been ten months since God led Diana and I from our church in Arizona to this church in Oklahoma. So many wonderful things have happened to us and to this church during this time that we are left with nothing but anticipation for what is yet to come.
As we enter this New Year, we have two options. We must remember the year we just stepped out of, but we must also keep focused on the New Year that is just ahead of us. As we remember last year, we will be drawn back in memory to relive some of those times, and some of those times will not be the best. As I said this morning, life is like a book. Last year is the chapter we just finished, and 2006 is the chapter we are supposed to begin.
Now I want you to think of something. Almost 20 hours of the New Year has already passed; but have we used much of it for God’s glory? Most of us would say very little indeed. Have you spent any time today actually talking to God in prayer, or reading His Word? One thing that is important to do that many of us never do is to ponder His Word. We should be spending time each day thinking about how His Word can impact our lives for His glory. Think about what He wants you to do and whom He wants you to talk to. In fact, if we really do love the Lord, we should spend our life in His Word; learning as much as possible about Him; understand how He loves us; and trying to show others His love from without our own hearts.
Most of us like to think we are very close to God, but rarely spend much time at all doing any of these things. What does that actually show God about how we really feel towards Him? How do you think this makes God feel? I will tell you. It makes Him feel the same way you would feel if someone you loved very much never had time for you.
God gave us this New Year. This could be the greatest year in our lives; if we want it to be. Whatever we’re going to do with this New Year, we had better get moving, because time is already started to pass us by. Time waits for no man, and time is not going to wait on us while we decide what we want to do this year. One other point I want to make is this; no matter what else we do this year, we had better use this time to get closer to God than ever before.
2005 was a tough year for some of us. We had to make choices we really didn’t want to make, and this church found it a little difficult, too. You hired a new pastor who sees the necessity of changing some things for the good of the church. Change is always a difficult thing to endure, too. But I was told before I was hired that you wanted me to change this church. Let me explain.
Every conversation I had with every board member between the time I came here a year ago to the day we moved here to take the position, was centered around two dictates. I was told I was being hired to preach God’s Word, and to lead this church out of the box. Those are exact words that I heard over and over again.
Upon these commands, I based my decision to take this job and I put my trust in the Lord that He would lead me wisely as I began to fulfill my job requirements.
We initiated a strong Praise Team where none existed before. We did away with the pre-Sunday school gathering in the main sanctuary; moving it to the Fellowship Hall and modifying it so it would appeal to more people, especially any new people who might attend.
We saw the desperate need to join the 2000’s and got computers for the secretary/treasurer and the pastor. We initiated a Sunday evening service, and we began to include some contemporary songs in with our traditional hymns. We are almost to the point of installing our audiovisual display and we have upgraded our sound system by adding newer speakers.
Are these changes working? Let’s look at the figures. The average attendance for 2005 was almost 54% higher than it was in 2004. The tithes and offerings also showed increases in percentages.
Those are a lot of figures, but the point I am making is that as each person has a choice whether he grows in Christ or not, so does each church. This church has too much going for it to just lie down and roll over until it dies. And I am going to do everything in my power to do those things that I believe God wants done in this church so it will have more impact upon our community and upon the missions fields.
And that leaves us with some good news and some bad news. The bad news is there is nothing we can do to change last year. The good news is we can learn from last year and look for ways to grow this church more in 2006. This will necessitate making some changes, but those changes should make this church be able to reach out into the community like it once did, making a difference for the Lord.
Now, here is where we come into the picture. As I said, I was specifically hired to preach God’s Word and to lead the church from where it was to where it should be. I hold no illusion as to the type of preacher I am. I am not the best preacher by any means, but I am able to preach God’s Word to those who will listen. And as far as leading this church, I see it as boiling down to a matter of trust.
Do you trust me enough to let me lead you? I cannot lead you if you are not willing to be led. I know that nobody likes change, but you certainly made some very big changes over the years. You had a wonderful building built after you bought some property, and then later, you even had another big building built. That was a mighty change, wasn’t it? And we can see by those changes that there are some changes that really magnify the glory of God in our community.
We all know that God offers us a fresh new start, with no history of condemnation after we receive Jesus as our Savior. He also gives us another chance to start fresh at the beginning of every year. And He fully expects us to use that time He gives us in the best possible way for His glory, not our comfort.
PROVERBS 17:24 (The Good News Version)
"An intelligent person aims at wise actions, but a fool starts off in many directions."
The words at the beginning of this verse say "An Intelligent person aims at wise actions". That means they have a goal or an objective. The last words of the verse say, “… a fool starts off in many directions.”
Which words do you think describe our church? Are we going to enter this year with a clear set of goals that we would like to see accomplished, or have we done like many other churches and just step through the doorway without having any distinct goals? I will tell you one thing for sure; if we really and truly want 2006 to be better than 2005 was for this church, we had better get a plan, and we had better start working that plan – every day.
This church can only be taken as far as the leaders in this church can take it. We all agree that we want more for this church than it has had in the past, but how do we actually get it? We get the most for this church by getting the most for each individual within the church. Here is how we can help improve ourselves so that we can help improve our church.
1. TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR DECISIONS
When we make bad decisions and reap their results, it is always easier to find someone else to blame, isn’t it? Sometimes, we even look for others to blame, so when things don’t turn out the way the hope, we have someone besides ourselves to blame.
Accepting personal responsibility for your actions is not very popular in our society because we live in a culture that embraces a concept called "political correctness". This basically says, "None of your problems are your fault. Everything bad in your life is somebody else’s fault. Blame the environment. Blame the educator. Blame your parents. Blame anybody else, but it’s not your fault." If you get in an accident, it’s never your fault. If you spill some hot coffee on yourself, sue McDonalds; it’s their fault
We will never be a success in life if we have the attitude that it’s always somebody else’s fault. We must accept responsibility for our own lives.
GALATIANS 6:5 says,
“Each person must be responsible for himself.”
The hard truth to life is that you are responsible for almost everything in your life, good; bad; or indifferent. Now there are exceptions. Certainly the victims of 9/11 and Pearl Harbor were not responsible for what happened, and while we may not be in control of all the circumstances we might face, we do have control over how we will respond to them.
I want to talk to you about three types of people. We have the
· ACCUSERS
· the EXCUSERS
· and the CHOOSERS.
While I describe each type of person, try to figure out which one you are.
The ACCUSER will always blame all their problems on somebody else. No matter what happens, they see it as a direct result of somebody else’s actions. These people always seem polite, but are always looking at others with a guarded heart.
The EXCUSERS always have a quick excuse for everything they do not want to do, or for anything they do that turns out wrong. These people should keep in mind that the Bible says a lazy man is full of excuses.
Then, we have the CHOOSERS. They fully accept responsibility for the things they do or say, and these are the ones who make the most of their lives, including their walk with the Lord.
Have you seen yourself in any of these types of people? All of us are somewhere in there. Once we are honest enough to analyze ourselves, we can then start moving ahead with Christ. Once we begin to take responsibility for our own lives, we can now go to the next step.
2. SET GODLY PRIORITIES
God has given us an incredible gift called ‘choice’. With this choice, each one of us can decide what we want in our lives. We can choose how we are going to live our lives, and we can even choose whether or not we want God involved in our lives.
Most people in America go from day to day without ever putting any real thought behind the priorities they have in their lives. The only way we can excel at anything, including our lives, is to have a clear cut set of priorities, and then stick to them.
In PROVERBS 29:18, we are told that,
‘Where there is no vision, the people perish, but he that keeps the law is happy.’
I want to challenge each of you to make a list of things that are important to you. On that list, write questions like:
· What 5 things do I want to do in 2006?
· What 5 things do I want this church to accomplish in 2006?
After you write these down, I want you to see who they most affect. If these things were to come about, would they make the most for you, or would they make the most for God? If these things deal mostly with you, let me urge to throw them away very quickly, as any time we put the focus on ourselves, we are taking it away from the Lord, and that is sinning.
If you had the Lord in mind when you wrote these answers, the next step will be to see just how the Lord will fit into these plans. I congratulate you, because you are formulating your goals for this year, and you are doing so with God at the center of them.
Here are 3 things that need to be at the top of your list?
YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD IS #1.
What are you going to do this year to strengthen and improve your relationship with God? You need to make your relationship with God top priority.
YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH FAMILY IS #2.
What are you going to do to build a stronger and better relationship with your family? What are you going to change about yourself that will help you to accomplish this?
YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH CHURCH IS #3.
What are you willing to do to improve the quality of your church? How involved are you willing to get to help your church accomplish God’s goals for this church? How willing are you to try new things that might help our church grow?
3. DON’T WAIT ANY LONGER BEFORE STARTING
When your children were small, do you ever remember telling them to do something and expecting them to do it right then instead of waiting? As parents, we have a right to expect certain things to be done immediately instead of being put off, don’t we? And, as our heavenly Father, God also has a right to expect us to stop putting things off until they end up never being done.
From what I have heard from many people this year, including some of the leadership team of elders and deacons, this church has had a history of talking things to death, but never getting around to doing them. We can have the best plans in the world, but if we never get around to acting on them, we might as well not have any plans at all.
Three words that can change our lives are - “DO IT NOW!” Some of you have noticed that I do not sit by and waste time implementing a decision. That bothers some and elates others. Let me explain what I do. In everything I do during the day, I try to keep focused on God and ask Him what he wants me to do. Sometimes, I am not sure if He answers me, so I will put these things on the back burner until I think He calls them up again.
Sometimes, I am quickly made aware of what he wants me to do in a given situation, and in these areas, I will talk to others, explain what I feel, and listen to them give me their feelings. If after all this, I still feel the same way, I will act upon what I think God wants me to do, and I will not waste God’s time so that I can feel comfortable doing so. After all, the focus is on God’s desires, not my comfort.
So, if you see me starting to implement some action, please feel free to talk to me about it if you have concerns. But be prepared that after we talk, I might tell you that I think God still wants me to proceed, and in those cases, I will.
In ECCLESIASTES 11:4 it says,
“If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.”
How many of you have heard the expression,
“If you wait until you can afford kids to have them, you never will.”
Some of you have told me that we should do this or that to help the church grow. I ask if you have ever done these things in the past and you have said “Yes”. Well, I am a firm believer that if something has not worked for you in the past, it won’t work for you in the future, either.
I firmly believe that God sent Diana and me to this specific church. I think it was to grow this church and make it healthy once again. It doesn’t need many great changes, only a few fine tunings. God has already supplied this church with an exceptional congregation. All we have to do is work together.
An old man once said that when he was young, he prayed that he could change the world. When he got to be middle-aged, he saw how wrong that prayer was. He then started praying that the Lord would let him change those people who mattered to him most; his family and friends. He said when he got to be older, he realized how foolish he had been to pray such prayers. He said it wasn’t until he was an old man did he realize that he should have been praying, “Lord, please change me.”
This is the first of what I hope are many State of the Church messages. I want to close by asking you a couple of questions.
· Are you willing to see 2006 as a year we can do more for God from within this church?
· Are you willing to trust me and let me lead you where I think God wants us to go in this church?
· Are you willing to honestly go before God and ask Him to show you what you need to do to help this church grow in 2006?
If you will trust me and let me lead you; if you will trust me and let me administrate the way I truly feel God wants me to; will you please make that trust public by coming up here tonight during invitation as we go before the Lord together in prayer?
INVITATION
