Endeavor 5: An Active Endeavor
Notes
Transcript
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Bookmarks & Needs:
B: Genesis 45:25-46:7
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Welcome
Welcome
Good morning, church family, and thank you for being here this morning to join together as we worship the Lord. I’m senior pastor Bill Connors, and I’d like to welcome those of you who are guests of the Eastern Hills family today, whether you’re in the room or online. We’d love the opportunity to get to thank you for being here in a more personal fashion, so if you’re in the room, take a look in the seat backs of the pews in front of you. You’ll find a welcome card there, and if you wouldn’t mind taking a minute to fill that out during the service, we’d appreciate it. You can then put it in the offering plates at the end of the service, or you can bring it down to me here at the front so I can thank you myself, and give you a welcome gift as well. If you’re online, or you’d rather complete an online form, you can just text the word WELCOME to 505-339-2004, and you’ll get a text back with a link to our digital communication card. Either way, if you’re in the room, I’d like the chance to meet you and thank you for being here in person.
Thank you praise band for leading us in worship this morning, and thank you choir for reminding us of the way that God has used our armed forces in His providence to ensure our nation’s continued safety and freedom. Veterans Day was Friday, and I’d just like to say “thank you” to all who have served or who are serving in our armed forces.
Announcements
Announcements
I have just a couple of announcements this morning before we get to our last ENDEAVOR message:
Business Meeting tonight at 5:30 pm. We need a quorum to vote on some important things, including next year’s budget.
BSU or Christian Challenge lunch needs (desserts) by Wednesday morning at 9:00.
Opening
Opening
Throughout this ENDEAVOR series, we’ve been talking about Joseph, and for good reason: God called Joseph into a God-sized endeavor, a generational endeavor that we’re still feeling the impact of today… an endeavor of generosity and trust, using the time, talents, and treasure that God provided to him, in spite of the circumstances Joseph found himself in.
But interestingly enough, according to Scripture almost the entire story of Joseph is actually a piece of the story of Jacob, or Israel (see Genesis 32 for his name change). Back at the beginning of the Joseph narrative, we see this interesting statement:
Genesis 37:1–2a (CSB)
1 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. 2 These are the family records of Jacob.
Except for the very end of Genesis 50, Joseph’s story is God telling us how He preserved His people Israel: He did so through Joseph, but the thread of the story of the Messiah doesn’t go through Joseph: it goes from Jacob through Joseph’s brother, Judah. Joseph is absolutely important, but today, we will consider the faith of Jacob as we finish our ENDEAVOR series:
25 So they went up from Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan. 26 They said, “Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt!” Jacob was stunned, for he did not believe them. 27 But when they told Jacob all that Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to transport him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. 28 Then Israel said, “Enough! My son Joseph is still alive. I will go to see him before I die.” 1 Israel set out with all that he had and came to Beer-sheba, and he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. 2 That night God spoke to Israel in a vision: “Jacob, Jacob!” he said. And Jacob replied, “Here I am.” 3 God said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. 4 I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you back. Joseph will close your eyes when you die.” 5 Jacob left Beer-sheba. The sons of Israel took their father Jacob in the wagons Pharaoh had sent to carry him, along with their dependents and their wives. 6 They also took their cattle and possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan. Then Jacob and all his offspring with him came to Egypt. 7 His sons and grandsons, his daughters and granddaughters, indeed all his offspring, he brought with him to Egypt.
PRAYER (FBC Los Lunas, Pastor James Runyon)
Sometimes walking with God can be challenging. This is because God’s plans don’t always line up with our plans. His way of doing things doesn’t always match the way we think things should be done. Our priorities don’t always align with His. And that’s really where what we actually believe and what we say we believe come into conflict, as I shared last week.
At the beginning of 1999, I had been actively involved in the student ministry as a volunteer for several years, teaching Bible study on Sunday mornings, going to Wednesday nights and big events, and I was also in the church praise band, leading the music for our contemporary service every Sunday, which we had only started about a year before. Larry had been pastor for a little over three years, and at the March business meeting of 1999, our youth pastor resigned.
Following that meeting, I was standing at the counter in the church office, and one of our students—Shannon—came up to me and said, “I have something that God wants me to tell you, but I’m not sure you want to hear it.” An ominous way to start a conversation with anyone, but I knew that Shannon had a pretty good sense of discernment and an active faith. So that made it even more ominous. “OK, Shannon… what?” She looked at me and said, “You’re going to be my next youth pastor.”
Keep in mind that being a pastor of any kind wasn’t on my radar at all. I was the office manager of a small law firm and a legal assistant. It was a more-than-full-time job with good benefits. I had actually thought about and had been praying about going to school to get my law degree, so I could practice law as well. Eastern Hills couldn’t afford a full-time youth pastor, and I didn’t have any real experience, qualifications, or education to be a youth pastor. Sure, I loved working with the students and had a good rapport with them, but youth pastor? “No, Shannon… that’s not what God is telling you,” I said. “Don’t tell me… I’m just telling you what God told me to tell you.” I thanked her, gave her a hug, and went to dinner. I had no intention of acting on what she said, because I didn’t believe it. I didn’t have faith that my being called to the ministry was God’s plan.
I think that the Webster’s 1828 Dictionary does a good job of capturing the essence of saving faith and its ongoing nature in the life of the believer:
Faith: n. … That firm belief of God’s testimony, and of the truth of the Gospel, which influences the will, and leads to an entire reliance on Christ for salvation.
—Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
So faith can be defined as an active trusting in God. We considered trust last week. This morning, we are going to consider the active part of faith.
Think about some of the ways that the Bible talks about faith. It often uses faith to describe the means of an action, such as:
Walking:
7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.
Standing:
13 Be alert, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong.
Living:
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.
Therefore, faith is not merely a mental declaration of a fact. It is actively trusting God’s revelation of His person and will through His Word, prayer, His people, and His work by the power of His Spirit, and then acting in accordance with that revelation. However, there is a process that God takes us through as He works in our lives to deepen our reliance on Him and to move us toward faithful obedience.
The first step in the process is that faith must agree with God in order to BE faith.
1: Faith agrees.
1: Faith agrees.
In our focal passage, we find Joseph’s brothers returning from Egypt weighed down with wealth that Joseph has given them to take to Jacob in order to prove that he was actually alive. This was going to force them to own up to a lie that they had been carrying on for over two decades—that Joseph had been eaten in the wilderness. And Jacob had lived believing that lie for 22 years. He wasn’t going to give up that belief easily, which we see in verses 25 and 26:
25 So they went up from Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan. 26 They said, “Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt!” Jacob was stunned, for he did not believe them.
This is one of those things that I love about Scripture: It shows people as they really are: even the heroes of faith. Jacob’s favored son had been dead in his mind and heart for over two decades. This was akin to Joseph being resurrected! He was going to have a hard time trusting in this new information. Before he could come to faith, he had to wrestle with his unbelief.
In the first message of this series, I mentioned that Joseph is a type (or picture) of Christ. Tucked away in the Gospel of Matthew, right before the Great Commission, we find that even among those who saw the risen Lord Jesus, before there was faith, there was a wrestle with unbelief:
17 When they saw him, they worshiped, but some doubted.
Can I just say that this is ok, and in fact, can be good? I had to wrestle with unbelief as I came to faith. So if you’re not a believer and you’re hearing this this morning, I want you to know that wrestling with doubts about the Gospel is not surprising at all. But you’ve come to the right place to look into those doubts. There are so many people in this church who would love to talk with you about the Scriptures and the truth of the Gospel. There are good, good reasons to believe that Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, came as a man and died on the cross to pay the penalty that we owe because of our sins. But just as it says in Matthew, He beat death and came out of that grave never to die again. He did all of this so that we could have our sins forgiven and that we could have eternal life as God’s children. Questions were part of the pathway that God used to bring me to faith in Christ. He can use them in your life as well, to bring you to a place of agreement with the Gospel and surrender to Jesus as your Lord and Savior. So please, reach out and ask, consider the evidence, and trust in Jesus.
But this agreement isn’t only about salvation. It’s also about our daily walks. The author of Hebrews would write about the agreeing aspect of faith, saying:
6 Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Agreement comes before action. No one will draw near to a God whose existence they do not believe. No one will want to draw near to a God who doesn’t care if we draw near or not. Faith makes it possible for us to be pleasing to God and to draw near to Him.
Jacob looked at the evidence before him and believed the testimony of his sons, coming to agree with the truth: that Joseph was alive, and that he was in charge of all of Egypt.
27 But when they told Jacob all that Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to transport him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. 28 Then Israel said, “Enough! My son Joseph is still alive. I will go to see him before I die.”
Following that conversation back in 1999, I didn’t have Shannon’s faith. I didn’t agree with what she was saying that God was saying.
But like a rock in my shoe, I couldn’t let that conversation go. So I thought since I knew Shannon and trusted her walk and discernment of the Spirit generally, it was silly for us to not start praying about what she had said. So Mel and I started praying about it. After several weeks, we believed that God was moving in that direction through times we had had with the students, through our own quiet times, and through a growing burden that He was giving us for student ministry.
So I went to my pastor, Pastor Larry, to ask him for counsel and prayer in this regard. We sat down with him in his office and when I told him of the reason for our meeting, he sat shocked. Then he said that he had been praying about what to do with the student ministry since the business meeting, and that he believed that God was leading him to ask me to take the position, but he hadn’t done so yet. This meeting was his clear confirmation.
This morning we together are committing to the direction that we believe that the Lord has pointed us as a church in His will. Yes, there is a financial aspect to this, as we believe that we need to make serious capital repairs and improvements to our facility. But please hear that it’s not ONLY that, and honestly, it’s not even PRIMARILY that. It’s truly more a call on the life of this church family to own and continue and pass on the endeavor that God started in Eastern Hills nearly 60 years ago to be His people, His bride, His light, His hands, His feet in the northeast heights of Albuquerque, and the building is just a tool that He’s provided us in His grace to support us and give us a place to meet and gather and invite so that we can be a community of Gospel believers walking through this life together.
But even before we commit, it’s a question of agreement in faith. Do we believe that this is who God would have us be as a church family? This is the issue at hand. Is this what God is doing in the life of Eastern Hills? I believe with all of my heart that it is.
But really, agreement is the easy part. Faith doesn’t simply agree. Following God by faith is often costly for the faithful, because we aren’t just called to agree with God. We’re called to adjust our lives to Him, His plans, and His purposes. Faith adjusts.
2: Faith adjusts.
2: Faith adjusts.
Jacob did something that might not make much sense to us if we don’t consider the journeys of his father Isaac and grandfather Abraham. Jacob says, “Pack everything up, we’re going to Egypt to see Joseph!”, but then he doesn’t go there. He goes somewhere else first:
1 Israel set out with all that he had and came to Beer-sheba, and he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. 2 That night God spoke to Israel in a vision: “Jacob, Jacob!” he said. And Jacob replied, “Here I am.” 3 God said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. 4 I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you back. Joseph will close your eyes when you die.”
When I studied this, I thought, “Why did he go to Beersheba first?”
Beer-sheba literally means “well of the oath”, and we hear of it first in Genesis 21 with Abraham: He and Abimelech made an oath to one another at a well that Abraham had dug in Canaan, and they called it Beer-sheba, and following that agreement, Abraham called on the name of the Lord at that place. Then, God reaffirmed the oath that He had made to Abraham to Isaac at Beer-sheba in Genesis 26, and Isaac built an altar to the Lord there. So upon hearing of Joseph’s survival and the call to leave the land of Canaan for Egypt, Jacob goes to Beer-sheba to worship and hear from the Lord, perhaps to be reminded of the oath that God had made to his grandfather and father. He was adjusting His life. But notice: God says that HE WILL GO WITH HIM, and HE WILL BRING HIM BACK. He wasn’t only adjusting His life to God’s plans… He was adjusting His life to God Himself—His very presence. In Experiencing God, Henry Blackaby and Claude King said this this way:
“You cannot continue life as usual or stay where you are, and go with God at the same time.”
—Henry Blackaby and Claude King, Experiencing God
If Jacob was going to go where God was going, He had to adjust his life radically. To refuse to make that adjustment was to refuse to go with God.
If you’re not a believer this morning, please don’t hear that you have to “get your life right” before you can be saved. What this point means for you is that those who believe adjust their lives to God. God saves by His grace through faith alone. But the one who has surrendered to God through faith in Christ has declared that all they are is God’s. Surrender is the adjustment. Then Jesus does His work by His Spirit in your life.
Now, brother or sister, if we’re going to walk with God, we are going to have to make these kinds of adjustments in our own lives. Nothing that we have—not our time, nor our talents, nor our treasure, nor our relationships, nor our very lives—is actually ours. All of it is God’s, and He can call for us to adjust any and all aspects of our lives for His purposes, plans, and presence, whenever He wants, because He is Lord. Jesus said it this way in Luke 14:
26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, and even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
33 In the same way, therefore, every one of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.
The reality is that our lives are to be so completely available to God that when He calls for us to adjust in faith, we adjust. Even Jesus adjusted His life to the purpose of our salvation through the Gospel, because as the Son of God, He had everything, and laid it all down for you and me, so we could be saved:
9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: Though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.
5 Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, 6 who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. 7 Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, 8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross.
The question we need to answer at the point of adjustment is: “Who’s plan for my life is better: mine, or God’s?” If we say that we agree with God, but somehow think that God is never going to call us into anything that He’s doing in such a way that it will demand a major adjustment on our part, then we don’t believe what Jesus said, and we are lying to ourselves about the example that Jesus gave.
In 1999, Melanie and I had to make major adjustments to our lives to follow where God was leading us. After further prayer into the summer (the church called a college student to lead as an intern for the summer), the church called me part-time in September, 1999. I had to go to my boss and risk my job by telling him I needed to be out of the office at least every other Tuesday for staff meeting at the church. I had to rethink any vacation plans, because I would need all of my vacation days for student events. If God was calling, then radical adjustments were going to be necessary.
If we agree that God is doing a God-sized thing in the life of Eastern Hills right now in the Endeavor campaign, then adjustments will be needed. We might need to start thinking about how we can find more time to minister to and share the Gospel with our neighbors and co-workers. We might need to look for or even create ways that our talents might be used for the good of the church family or the community around us. We might need to find ways to give over and above our tithes so that the building can be repaired and reinvigorated. This is what today is all about: Adjusting our lives to God, and then taking the next step of faith: action.
3: Faith acts.
3: Faith acts.
Jacob made the necessary faith adjustment in his heart, and that put him in the position to be able to act in faith as well. To put it as simply as possible: He went to Egypt, as we read in verses 5-7 of chapter 46.
5 Jacob left Beer-sheba. The sons of Israel took their father Jacob in the wagons Pharaoh had sent to carry him, along with their dependents and their wives. 6 They also took their cattle and possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan. Then Jacob and all his offspring with him came to Egypt. 7 His sons and grandsons, his daughters and granddaughters, indeed all his offspring, he brought with him to Egypt.
I won’t belabor this point, because it’s clear what Jacob did. But the one thing I want us to think about is this: Jacob knew going in that he would die in Egypt. But that didn’t stop him. It didn’t matter what else was true—if God was going with him to Egypt, he was going to go to Egypt too, because faith takes action.
We cannot simply agree with God, make adjustments to prepare ourselves to do what He calls us to do, and then refuse to do anything when He calls. As I said, salvation is by God’s grace through faith alone, but faith that has saved should never BE alone. It is followed by trusting action, the doing of those things that we are called to do in Christ, lives that are sold out to His glory through our obedience:
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.
26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
Our faith should present itself in godly action. If it doesn’t, then we should check our hearts to see where we are not acting in faith.
From September of 1999 to January of 2001, Mel and I had to do all of those things we had made the adjustments to do. Then two things happened at nearly the same time: I lost my law office job when my boss closed the office, and our first child was born. At that point, I firmly believed that the Lord had called me to full time student ministry at Eastern Hills, but we had to keep walking in obedient trust while that came about.
Again, the active response to the call and work of God in the life of Eastern Hills this morning is more than just about the building. It’s about who are are committing to be, not just how much we’re committing to give. It’s what we’re going to do in response to the plan and work of God with our lives, not just our livings. It’s in faithful obedience that we experience the presence of God, and His mighty power working in and through us.
If you are visiting with us for the first time today, I want to let you know that today will be a little different than most Sundays. Eastern Hills has been on this discipleship journey called ENDEAVOR for the past four weeks, culminating in this morning. We will as a church be making commitments regarding our participation in the future of this church and this building.
Time of Commitment
Time of Commitment
This isn’t about the building. It’s about the church. We want everyone to give cheerfully as they can in faith.
7 Each person should do as he has decided in his heart—not reluctantly or out of compulsion, since God loves a cheerful giver.
The commitment cards were mailed to most of you this week, so you might already have yours with you and filled out. For those who don’t, in a moment the deacons are going to come down the aisles with commitment cards and pens. The pens are for everyone who’d like one. I’d like to take a moment to explain the cards and give a couple of instructions.
Explain the cards. If you can’t give financially right now, then don’t. But can you give of your time? Your talents? Write that down as a commitment and put that in. If you’re making a financial pledge, and you’re committing to giving your time and talents to the Lord through this church as well, put that on your card! During this time, we would like everyone to take a moment in prayer: as families, if you’re here with your family, or individually, or with a group of your brothers and sisters around you if you are willing. Then, after you’ve confirmed your commitment with the Lord and completed your commitment card, fold your card in half and bring it to the front and place it in one of the baskets. Again, come as a family if you’d like, whether a blood family or a church family.
No one is looking around and making a list of who drops a commitment card in and who doesn’t. If you can’t come to the front, that’s fine. Just raise your hand and deacon will come and get your card. If you’d rather just drop it in the offering plates at the end of service, that’s great as well.
Call down Mel and Abbie, and give your commitment.
Prayer
Deacons begin distribution as Bill and Mel go to piano and mic.
After distribution:
Thank you for that time of worship and commitment! God is doing and is going to continue to do great things in the life of this church family. I have one last thing to share this morning before we go. A “closing shot” to finish our series, if you will. Faith agrees. Faith adjusts. Faith acts. And finally, faith arrives.
Closing Shot: Faith arrives.
Closing Shot: Faith arrives.
Very quickly, let’s look at Jacob’s arrival in Egypt, and the meeting with Joseph:
28 Now Jacob had sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to prepare for his arrival at Goshen. When they came to the land of Goshen, 29 Joseph hitched the horses to his chariot and went up to Goshen to meet his father Israel. Joseph presented himself to him, threw his arms around him, and wept for a long time. 30 Then Israel said to Joseph, “I’m ready to die now because I have seen your face and you are still alive!”
After 22 long years of believing that Joseph was dead, Jacob sees his son, embraces him, and weeps with him. His faith finished the process of agreeing, adjusting, and acting, and now he was receiving the reward of his faith: the arrival of what he had hoped for when he heard of Joseph’s living.
Our faith goes through the same process, and we have an even greater blessing to look forward to than seeing our long lost son. We look forward to seeing our Lord and Savior face to face, and to be with Him for eternity because of what He has done for us.
8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; though not seeing him now, you believe in him, and you rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
There will be a day that our faith will arrive at the place prepared for us by the Lord, a place where we will be made complete in Christ, never to suffer the ravages of sin and pain and death.
But for right now and our campaign, I believe that our active trusting in God as a church today is going to bring us precisely where He wants us. We can confidently look forward to the future that God has planned for us, as we endeavor to follow Him in obedience in committing our time, talents, resources, and lives to him.
Praise the Lord for His gracious work in our lives!
It wouldn’t be fitting to share the Gospel and not give the lost an opportunity to respond. Right now, surrender your life to God as Lord and Savior, believing that Jesus died for your sins and rose from the grave, giving up going your own way. Let us know if that is you today.
Join the church.
Prayer needs
Tithes and offerings
PRAYER
Closing Remarks
Closing Remarks
Charles Clark passed away on Monday. His memorial will be tomorrow at 10am here.
Bible reading (1 Chr 10)
Instructions for guests
Benediction
Benediction
10 For this reason we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.