“Promoting The Gospel With Your Life”

It's the first Sunday in a new year.  We've got a grand opportunity in front of us and in just a moment I've got a little something to show you to set the stage for what is in front of us.  This year we look back and thank God for what He has done.  If you notice in your bulletin, our annual budget for this particular year was rather a faith budget.  We needed $1,317,000 to reach our budget; it's larger than this church has ever had.  God was abundantly faithful and the budget offering received was $1,374,000.  That's an amazing thing, my friend.  We don't talk about money, we talk about the gospel.  We will talk about money when the gospel talks about it, but its hearts we're after, not pocketbooks because when God has your heart, then He has all of you.

But we look back on a multitude of other blessings.  I've been wanting to do this for a long time.  Would you help me do something?  Now, if you are a visitor, just put up with us for a half a second.  If you have begun to come to this church, if you have become part of this church since we have been in this facility, would you please do me the favor of standing right now.  [Applause]  Alright.  Thank you.  I just wanted to see that. I've been wanting to ask for about 6 months.

I think it would be right to say "We will see changes this year," and I pray all of them are changes God, the Holy Spirit, directs us to through His Word.  I noticed during worship you long to have a response when a song is played or sung, when something is done.  You even wanted to respond somehow to the Church Covenant.  We're Americans.  The only way we know how to do that is if there was a performance done, what do we do? We applaud.  There are biblical ways to respond: Verbally, clapping of hands sometimes is appropriate, saying "Amen," there are a number of things we can do all the way down to practical things like that.  We're going to examine everything we do and say, "God, what do you want from us? What does your Word say? How do we live this out as a body? How do we do it as an individual Christian?  Tonight we're going to look at how to keep our heart into it, and we'll talk about that more at the end of the service.

But we stand at a grand place right now and I want to help you see that by showing you a little something right now.

VIDEO PRESENTATION:

"Jesus said, Upon this Rock I will build my church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it."  In 1802 the Lick Branch Church was founded.  Thomas Jefferson was President of the United States.  In 1826, the church moved to LaGrange and renamed itself the Baptist Church of LaGrange.  In 1895, the church moved into new facilities given to them by Betty DeHaven, and the church changed her name again to the DeHaven Memorial Baptist Church.  For 110 years the church would worship at the location of 3^rd and Main and be called the DeHaven Memorial Baptist Church.  It would be 50 years before the church needed to add more facilities to accommodate growth.  However, after its first building, the middle building, it would only be a decade later under the leadership of A.L. Meacham, that the church would need nursery and education space.  Another 16 years would pass as the church grew under God's blessing.  Services were added and when Bill Day was pastor, the church built a family life center.  It housed more education space, a full kitchen, fellowship hall, office space, gymnasium and walking track.  In 1995, the church family paid off all indebtedness and began to look hard into her future.  Over the next few years the church grew to have 3 morning worship services and 2 Sunday School hours. It was during this period of time the leadership of the church knew something had to be done if the church was going to continue her God-given mission of reaching the community with the gospel of Christ.  Several leadership teams were formed, information gathered, and the church came to the realization she needed to take a great step of faith, relocate.  This was no easy choice after being in the same location for 110 years.  The church found an unexpected piece of property made available through God's provision and the generosity of the owners.  It was at this time there was a strange mixture of dreams and doubts among the church membership.  Some saw the project of relocating as an impossibility.  Otherwise saw no problems at all.  Of course, neither perspective was quite accurate.  The dream began to catch on, though it had many ups and downs before it was clearly defined.  Under the leadership of the Building Committee, the church arrived at the building design she fell in love with and adopted.  Every step out of the dream and into reality was an increasingly more difficult step to take.  Finally the day came that some never thought we would see, groundbreaking, and OH, OH, what a day that was!  The church came out in full force.  You could feel the excitement in the air!  When the shovels were actually put into the ground and turning dirt, it was as if we could see our future clearer than ever before.  As in all great accomplishments, there was great fervor at the beginning, but with the pace of construction, there were some days that things seemed to go rather slowly.  Soon steel was coming out of the ground.  Reports were made to the church about the progress of the building.  Every time a new piece of metal was added to the structure, our energy and anticipation grew. It was very hard not to drive by every day and see what was happening.  Soon the building began to take on full dimensions.  You could see where the sanctuary would be, the foyer, the stairwells, and the offices.  We could now envision ourselves meeting in this new facility.  We had decided to return to the church's name when she moved to LaGrange.  When we entered the new facilities, we would be called The LaGrange Baptist Church. 

By the first Sunday in May, 2005, our God-given dream had been realized.  We had space enough to only need one Sunday School hour.  We all worshipped together for the first time in over 20 years.  Yes, Christ, indeed, is faithful to build His church.

What about now? What is the new dream?  Who and what are this new land and facilities for?  Should we be satisfied now that we're at this point? Have we done enough? Both current reality and God's eternal Word tell us that it is time to dream again, only this time bigger!  Jesus told us "To much is given, much will be required" and we have been given much through the blessing of God.  Now I am confident He has a new dream to be dreamt, a new work to be done.  Over the next 5 years, who will come in these doors?  Who will sit in these seats? Who will be baptized in this water?   Will we tear out the balcony walls for more worship space? Will we build another education building to fulfill God's mission of making disciples for the glory of our Great God for the good of the people around us, are we ready to dream again? And will we live that dream?  [Applause]  VIDEO ENDS.

I have to thank my son, Anthony, for all the technical work on that project.  Without him it wouldn't have been done, so thanks, son.  I appreciate that very much.

It is fine to clap for something like that, just in case you are wondering.  You can shout, clap, dance, you can do whatever you want to do.  We've been blest!  Will we dream again? Will we live that dream?

God sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for the sins of the world, to be buried, to be raised again, to prove that he could give what He promised, eternal life to all that asked.  He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God, interceding for those who come to God by Him, and one day He will return.  But until He does, He has left us here and He has said, "All authority is given unto me in heaven and on earth.  Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, and Lo, I am with you always."  That's you!  That's me!  He said, "After that, the Holy Spirit will come on you and you will receive my power to be witnesses.  Have we availed ourselves of who God is and who He is in us and who we are in Him to be His church at LaGrange?  May we forever, from this point forward, take Him seriously that this community may have a gospel witness like she has never seen.

This morning we're talking about promoting the gospel with your life. We're going to talk about it throughout the year.  That is the Theme of 2008.  You'll get a clearer understanding over and over and over of what promoting the gospel is.  But let's just say up front that promoting the gospel is a reasoned responsible reflection of the love of God in your life in this world.  It is a reasoned, responsible reflection of the love of God in your life in this world.

How's your reflection?

Let's turn in our Bibles, please, to Ephesians 4.  I'm only going to just call your attention to some things in Ephesians this morning.  My original plan was to study Ephesians 4: 1-16 for the month of January to learn what the church is, and who the church is, and what the church does.  But the more I've looked at this book the further I want to go.  The more I look at the practical part of the book I go back to the foundational doctrinal part of the book and we may just spend a longer time in it and learn more of who we are in Christ, what God has done in the gospel and then what he asked us to do and be as His church.

So, I'll read a few verses beginning with Verse 1 of Chapter 4, the Word of God says this:

Eph 4:1  I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,

Eph 4:2  with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

Eph 4:3  eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Eph 4:4  There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call--

Eph 4:5  one Lord, one faith, one baptism,

Eph 4:6  one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Eph 4:7  But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.

Eph 4:8  Therefore it says, "When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men."

Eph 4:9  (In saying, "He ascended," what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?

Eph 4:10  He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)

Eph 4:11  And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,

Eph 4:12  to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ

We are to promote the gospel by responsible, reasoned reflection of the love of God in our lives and in this world.  So we promote the gospel in ourselves.  It's where we grasp the gospel and the love of God.  We see what He's done and we tell it to our own heart so we can be set free and firm in Christ to tell the world of the love of God. 

It's really a simple message this morning to make you think about dreaming this dream and then seeing another dream become reality.  The first thing we have to look at is that we have sufficient reason to do this.  Human beings don't do anything without sufficient reason.  Some of our sufficient reasons are stupid sufficient reasons, but we do what we do for reason.  You do in life what you want to do.  Write it down.  You cannot deny it. I cannot deny it.  We do what we want to do.  And Christianity is the most reasoned type of life you can have.  I'm going to give you three things you have heard me say many times and you will hear me say until the Lord takes me home or elsewhere to you as my church family, these three things:

·                     God is a sovereign God (as a matter of fact, I'm going to say them all three, but I'm only going to put them up on the screen one at a time.  The first one is: God is a sovereign God.)  The other two are:

·                     God is a speaking God.

·                     God is a saving God.

What does that mean?  It means we have sufficient reason to have a dream in front of us.  There is something in life beyond us.  We didn't make ourselves, we didn't just happen, we are here by the word and the hand of the sovereign God.  The Bible says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."  It was on the sixth day that he made us, male and female he created us in His very image.  It is in the scriptures that he spoke the stars into space.  He calls them each by name.  The Bible tells us that He holds all things together by the word of His power.  It says that His very Son is the one who sustains all that there is in all of existence by the power of his hand, we have a sovereign God.  Our God knows when a sparrow falls to the ground.  Our God knows the number of hairs on your head.  Our God knows the words you are going to speak before they ever get to your tongue.  He is a sovereign God.  Now, let me stop and cause you to think just a minute.  If you serve any other kind of God, you are wasting your time.  Why would you bother serving a God who wasn't in control? Why would you bother bowing your knee to one and proclaiming Him as God when he really wasn't? That's something made up in our own mind, a figment of human history of a figment of human imagination.  Think about the God that is sovereign, ruler over all.  He is reigning, He is supreme. That is sufficient reason for us to at least think about a God who could make a creation so magnificent that the heavens shout His glory. That every little thing that moves on the earth is a little beam, a stream that runs back to the fountain from which it overflowed.  We have sufficient reason.

We're in Ephesians.  Let me show you a couple of things.  This is like the things that are salted and peppered throughout all of scripture.  Ephesians 1, look at that, Verse 11. It's talking about who we are in Christ.  Who is this sovereign God?  It says….

Eph 1:11  In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,

There is almost nothing in life that I can will to be done, but there is nothing in what God wills to be done that anyone can thwart. Why? Because He's sovereign.  If He says it is going to be done, it's going to be done!  So that's sufficient reason, No. 1, that we can have a dream if we rest it in the scriptures of this sovereign God that we have a dream that can be fulfilled, because the second reason is God is a speaking God.  You're there in Ephesians 1, look at Verse 13.

Eph 1:13  In him [that is Jesus]  you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel…

Where did the gospel come from?  How do you know this gospel?  Did you just think God would be really cool and come up with a neat plan and love people? No, you know it because He speaks, He has revealed himself to you.  He is a reigning God, but He is also a revealing God.  He revealed his plan of salvation through Christ and He acted it out.  So we can know that we can know God because we hear this Word of truth.  But God is not only a sovereign God and a speaking God, God is a saving God.  Same verse…

Eph 1:13  In him [that is Jesus]  you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.

God is a saving God.  Did you listen closely to the words the choir was singing? And one of the things we'll talk about as we go through the Book of Ephesians, is music, and what's distinctly Christian music.  Now, that would be a distinctly Christian song.  And Warren, I want to do that as a hymn one day.  That's a great congregational hymn.  Did you see how it told the story of the gospel? Did you see how it told distinctive Biblical truths? And this is the power of the cross! You see, have you contemplated your salvation lately? You've got sufficient reason, my friend, to have a dream.  O, God forbid that we would ever get used to being Christians!  That we'd ever get used to the fact that God Almighty loved us when we were unlovable.  That he sent His Son to die in our place and take His wrath. That He, through his gracious offer, would receive the likes of us and take the righteousness of Christ and put it on us, and take our sin and put it on Christ that we could know God.  We've got sufficient reason.  We serve a God who reigns over all.  We serve a God who has revealed Himself to humanity and this reigning, revealing God is a God who redeems humanity, all who will come to him.  So, what's the dream that we need to live? It is that we love this reigning God.  It means we listen to this God who has revealed Himself in scripture and it means we live for this redeeming God who has given us His life!

Will we?  Will we live the dream?  Will you dream with me?  Will you think about it? 

You say, Tony, God can't use me!  You don't know me.  Hey, friend, you don't know me.  We've talked about this before.  Sure, it's Sunday, I've got on this nice, cool microphone.  I think it's called, "Countryman!"  I'm going to wear me a Garth Brooks hat and sing "Achy, Breaky Heart" one Sunday or something.  [Laughter] I've got my suit on!  I've got my tie on.  You think I look like this all the time? Just think if you had some kind of spiritual x-ray vision like the Lord Jesus has and you could see into my heart right now.  Or better yet, think if I could see into yours? Your thoughts. Your anger.  What about that? Well it's the chief reason we're not here to worship each other.  That we're a bunch of lost, broken children worshipping a Savior who came to save us and put us back together.  That's why any color, any person - wealthy or poor, any background can walk through those doors and we can say, "Come in!"  The worst sinner that you could find in the community…. as a matter of fact, if we think we've got to go out to the community to find the worst one, that means we're the worst one.  Get the picture?  You see, it's a gospel of grace!  We have sufficient reason to dream. God wants to magnify the name of His Son through saving people.

So, if we have sufficient reason, then God begins to communicate to us as his redeemed people that we together as a church, and you as an individual believer, have certain responsibilities.  That's exactly right.  You have certain responsibilities and on the human side of things, the church rises or falls, the church fails or succeeds based on this truth embedded as we'll look at in detail, Lord willing, in the weeks to come in Ephesians 4.  But, let me just call out three things that you will hear, I hope, again and again, through the year. 

The first is:

·                     You are to be a model.  Remember we are promoting the gospel with our lives.  That means you have to be reasoned, responsible reflections of God in your life in this world.  So you've got to be a model. People ought to look at you and know what a Christian is. If you have to explain it with your lips and they can't figure it out from your life, then something, my friend, is awry.  Look at it.  Show the world, you need to be a model  and you also need to be a model  for those in our church who aren't as far along as you are.  That is your responsibility, it's not the staffs, it's not mine, it's not the deacons or the elders'.  Oh, for a few people it is. But it is each of our responsibility to take what we've learned and pass it on to someone else.  The church succeeds or fails based on that truth. 

·                     You are to engage in meaningful relationships.  You don't just stand off as a model for people to look at you through the stained glass, well, I guess it would be clear glass; it's kind of hard to see through stained glass, isn't it?  You've got to get up close to people.  Somebody said to preachers, "You can impress people from far away, but you can't impact them unless you're up close."  Who are you getting close to?  The church is built, humanly speaking, on relationships.  As close as the relationship as my hand has to my arm is as close a relationship we are supposed to have with each other.  Now you can't relate that close to everybody in the church, but you are to relate that close to some people in the church.  That's part of the mystery and the majesty of the body of Christ.  You are to engage in meaningful relationships.

·                     You are to serve in your area of giftedness.  The church cannot be built on the back of 15% of its members.  Can I tell you a secret?  And I know this without ever looking at any records.  I know it by statistics, national ones.  It used to be in the church, as in many places, 20% of the people did 80% of the work and 20% of the people did 80% of the giving.  Now, it's more like 15% - 85%.  I'll let you in on a secret.  That's true of our church.  Just think what God would do if it was 50-50?  What about 75-25? What about 100?  What if you as an individual member just sat down and said, "God, this year I will know what my gift is, I will search it out by serving, and then I will plant myself in that area and I'm gonna serve."  You don't need to wait on anybody.  You've got the Holy Spirit of God dwelling within your soul.  What are you doing?  Can I say it another way? 

Look in Ephesians 4.  The three words you're going to hear are model, relationship and serve, MRS.  Sorry guys, it's just easier to remember MRS.  I don't have MR.  I've got three, so it's MRS. Model, relationships and serve. So, let me say it another way.  Model  means that you are to be increasing in your maturity.  Ephesians Chapter 4, Verse 13.  He's telling us what we are to do in this work of the saints and the church….

Eph 4:13  until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, [That's for all of us, it's not sexist language, it's just proper] to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ….

VERSE 15:

Eph 4:15  Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up [GROW UP] in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.

Model  means you are to be increasing in maturity.  Are you? 

Second, relationship means that you are to strive for and protect the unity in the church through love.  Verse 13 again:

Eph 4:13  until we all attain to the unity of the faith.

Did you look up when we were reading earlier in Verse 3:

Eph 4:3  eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Did Jesus not say that all people would know we are His disciples by our love for one another? So, relationship means that that is a chief way of protecting and pursuing the unity of the church.  Service means carrying your own weight, or carrying your own responsibility in ministry.  So, another three words you could use are maturity, unity and ministry.  Model, relationships, serving in your area of giftedness.

Eph 4:12  Pastor/teachers are to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

Service means carrying your responsibility.  Can we just imagine?  Can we just imagine?  If you took what God has given you and you engaged all that you have into His service with a heart for unity, what would happen?  Who then would come in those doors? Would we have enough seats?  Would the walls have to come out?  What about the joy that would increase in your own soul.  You know, what bubbles out of us is really what's contagious.  That's why tonight we're going to talk about how to get this into your heart.  But it's a life!  That's why you need a reasoned, this is the responsible part, that you are a model, that you are building relationships and that you are serving in your area of giftedness.  We need a reasoned responsible reflection of God.  Will we?  Will we live the dream? It's time to dream again, this time only bigger.  Will we live the dream? Not only do you have sufficient reason, and not only do you have certain responsibilities, you are a reflection. That's just an indicative statement.  You will either be a good reflection or you will be a bad reflection but you are a reflection of God.  We are light shining in this world.  We are to reflect the light that comes from Christ within us and to us. 

So, let's get real practical for just a minute.   Where are you a reflection? Have you thought about it?  Sometimes it's the strangest thing how our minds can disconnect and segment life and we can think about God and we can think about spiritual things, but as soon as we enter the reality of our fussy children at home, we forget being filled with the Spirit, and we snap at the ones we love just like that.  Or we go to work and we become just as backstabbing and just as gossiping as everybody else in the office.  How do we live with such disconnect? The gospel is to permeate us and we are to be the real thing everywhere we are, so you are a reflection of this great redeeming God at home.  You are a reflection of God at home.  Your spouse and your children and your parents will learn of your God by your reasoned, responsible reflection of Him.  You are a reflection of God at work or school depending on which one fits you.  What do they see when they look into your life?

We need to think that way.  It's a bit frightening, but it's the gospel of grace that allows us to do that, you see.  You say, "Well, I've blown it in the past.  My reflection has been marred. People look at me and they see…. "   That's okay, because you're not wanting them to see you. You're wanting them to see this great, reigning, redeeming God!  And so, even if you've made huge mistakes in the past, and you begin to see this God who did such a great act, and you give your life to Him, He begins to reflect that grace out of your life, and over time change comes.  Yeah, it will take time for people to believe you, but the change will come and your attitude will be more like His and people will look into you.  That's the beauty of Christianity.  It's not me, it's not you, it's Him!  And that's why we're a reflection, not the reality.  His reality comes into us so that we can reflect Him.  But we've got to do it at home and we've got to do it at work.  And we do it at church.  Church is not plastic Christianity.  This is where we grit it out together.  We build those relationships, we serve in those areas of responsibility, we give so the needs of the community and the needs of the church and the needs of the world can be met.  We give our time.  And you are a reflection of God in the community.  What's your reputation?

So, we're here, this year to promote the gospel with our lives.  Promoting the gospel means that your life is a reasoned, responsible reflection of the love of God in this world through your life.  You have a reason, I think that is without question.  It is not even questionable that we have sufficient reason.  You have certain responsibilities.  That's an easy thing.  Are you carrying yours?  You can't answer even for your wife or your children.  You can only answer for you.  Are you carrying them? Are you owning them? Or, have you been coasting?  We've been blest, my friend, but I'd rather participate in the blessings than observe them, wouldn't you?  And you are a reflection.  What kind of gospel, what kind of God does the world see by your life?

So, three questions and we close.  Are you connected?  Are you connected to God through the gospel?  Has church and God and Christ ever gotten beyond just a social thing? Just kind of a religious thing? Has it ever sunk deep within your heart to where you recognize that when the Son of God spread his arms and the nails were driven through his hands, and he looked at the soldiers nailing Him down, and He said, "Father, forgive them for they do to know what they are doing?" that he was saying that to you, also? Has it really sunk in that when he died on the cross and bore the very wrath of God, that's why He died, you know, God has a right, as a matter  of fact, if God wasn't angry about rebellion and sin He wouldn't be God. He's righteous and He's angry, but He also loves and He wanted to get rid of that sin, and what He did is through the only way that it could be done, honoring God's righteousness and honoring God's love is His Son died in our place, and He died for you and me!  Has it sunk in?  Can you grasp that God did it, and not randomly, not haphazardly, but that every ounce of sin in your life was specifically paid for by Christ on the cross?  Not one drop of his blood was shed in waste.  When you come to Him and you ask Him to forgive you, He does it!  It's all gone! Has it sunk in? It's time to get rid of childish Christianity.  It's time to die to self and say, Oh, God, use me!  Do you know that?

Are you connected to God through Christ, and then through Christ, are you connected to His people? Is there a vibrant life coming to you and through you at this place where we love one another, where we share with one another, where we pray for one another, where we bear one another's burdens? You want to know what this world, what this very community of LaGrange is screaming for, where people live in their half-million dollar houses and drive 45 minutes to work and fight traffic, and work about 12 hours and drive 45 minutes back, and the only thing they get to do in their $500,000 home after they go out to dinner because they haven't had time to cook it, is come back and sleep in that bed, to get up and do it again, and they have no friends of lasting value and of significant importance. They're looking for community, and right here Christ is building it in His church.  We can offer that if we'll be what we'll be, what we should be, a reasoned, responsible reflection of the love of God.  Are you connected?  Are you contributing? The simplest way I know to deal with that in my own life is to ask if everybody in the church gave, now I'm not talking about money, that's part of it, but gave of their time, their talents, their excellence, their interests, their passion, their money, all of them, if everybody contributed to the church with their giftedness the way I did, what kind of church would it be?  So, if everybody did it the way you do it, what kind of church would we be?

And third, are you communicating? It really is hard to understand, isn't it, the silence of the church? As long as we're in the church group, it's okay to talk about it, but we get out and we're just like anybody else.  How could that be?  Are we communicating the gospel to the world by how we live and by what we say?

You need to dream.  You need to use that God-given mind and imagination and you need to dive in this Word and you need to read the gospel and you need to read Ephesians 1-3 over and over and over so you can begin to fathom and feel and sense and know what it is God has done for you and get the gospel, promote it to your heart, and then we need to dive into Ephesians 4, and we need to swim around in it, we need to see how to promote the gospel to each other and then we need to see how to promote the gospel to the world. 

Will we live the dream? But I have to ask it this way, I must ask it corporately, but now I have to ask it individually, will you live the dream God is giving you?  Let's pray together.