New Year, New People, Same Message, Same God

In January of 2021 I started preaching through the book of Acts and made it through chapter 9 before the Lord called Lindsey and I here to FBC Salem. Sometime in the next few years I’d love to preach through that book but if you think Hebrews is going to take a long time… wait for Acts! If God opens that door, we’re talking a minimum of 2 years with its 28 chapters and amazing stories of God’s providence and Gospel proclamation from start to finish. Tonight as we prepare to close the book on 2022 and begin 2023, I want to take “a few words” as Brenda put it, and unpack our goals and mission for the new year. We are living in a world that doesn’t know Jesus - I don’t have to tell you that, you’re here on a Sunday night… But we’re living in a community that also doesn’t know Jesus. I’ve crunched the numbers as best I can and less than 1/4 people in our county attend church on a semi-regular basis, and that number might be too generous. We’re facing a problem, even in the Bible belt, as people don’t know the Bible and they only know some things about the God in the Bible. What we need in our church is an urgency to proclaim the Gospel to ourselves, our neighbors, and the nations. It’s not enough to simply study the Bible and keep it bottled enough. It’s not enough to do programs and events and trips that only help our congregation and our community. That’s not the Great Commission. It’s also not enough to only go to Moldova, Guatemala, Mexico, Japan, or any other country you can think of and call it good. We must do it all. We must grow spiritually, we must give generously, and we must go consistently. We have the best news to share and there are people in our community and beyond who do not care - and that ought to break our hearts and get us to our feet.

Tony Merida said it well when he shared this, “Perhaps the greatest problem with the church today is the attempt to do the work of God apart from the presence and power of God.” Friends, if you read the book of Acts, you find quickly that whenever the power and presence of God are the central focus of God’s people, God moves in mighty ways! We see thousands saved left and right in this book. I don’t want to go another day, another worship service, another church event, another year trying to do the work of God apart from His presence and power. Not saying that we’ve done that - but we must guard against that temptation and tonight I want to recenter our focus on our mission and our message as we end this year and get ready to begin a new one. Let’s turn to Acts 17 and see what Paul shares with the Athenians on Mars Hill

Acts 17:22–33 CSB

22 Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, “People of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every respect. 23 For as I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’ Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it—he is Lord of heaven and earth—does not live in shrines made by hands. 25 Neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives everyone life and breath and all things. 26 From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. 27 He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’ 29 Since, then, we are God’s offspring, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination. 30 “Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has set a day when he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man he has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” 32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to ridicule him, but others said, “We’d like to hear from you again about this.” 33 So Paul left their presence.

In 2023, Our Message is the Gospel (22-29)

Before we can truly understand this message on Mars Hill, we have to better understand who the speaker of this message is and who he is giving this message to. Paul is the poster child in Scripture for the Biblical doctrine of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. God’s grace changed Paul’s life and Paul shared that he is the least of sinners - meaning that if God could save and change Paul then he can save and change any future sinner, including you, me, everyone else here tonight, our neighbors in our community, and every person on planet earth. Paul is an apostle or sent one, of Jesus Christ and he took several missionary journeys to take the Gospel to Jews and Gentiles alike throughout the Roman Empire. Often, he would go into Jewish areas and synagogues and preach the Gospel and then he would move into more public forums and do more of the same and train and disciple leaders within the church and then move on to plant more churches and preach the Gospel more!

Here in Acts 17 we see that Paul is in Athens and he is preaching the Gospel. If you know anything about ancient cultures, you know that the Greek people are crucial in understanding western culture like our own. Greek philosophy, law, and thought have had an impact thousands of years later on millions of people. These people were a religious people - Acts 17:16 tells us this

Acts 17:16 CSB

16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed when he saw that the city was full of idols.

They even had an altar to an unknown God, as we see in verse 23. These people weren’t silly enough to claim to be atheists - they knew better than that, but their problem was that they didn’t know which god to believe in. Some in Athens believed that God existed but wasn’t interested in the affairs of humanity and was distant and removed - therefore humans had a license to do whatever felt good… others believed that God created all things and desires his people to rise above the problems in this world and show next to no emotion - these people were cold, ruthless, and calculated. They were intrigued about religious talk, though, and this opened up a door for Paul to present the Gospel.

Paul simply gives these people the truth about who God is. The God of the Bible is not a god who lives in a temple or shrine - He created all things. Not only has God created all things, but Paul shares another truth in verse 25 that God sustains all things. Verse 26 shares that God rules all things. At this point Paul is highlighting the wonder and power of the One true God, but in verses 27-29 he shares the most remarkable truth of all: The God of the Bible is knowable - He created all things and we know deep down that there is something more to this life than simply to make ourselves happy or be cold and emotionless. What more is there? What does the Gospel tell us?

The Gospel message tells us that we are separated from God due to our sin. Though we may very well be religious and know lots of things and work very hard to do the right thing, we are fundamentally separated from God because of our sinfulness. This is bad news, but the amazing thing about the Gospel that Paul points out in this address, is that the God of the Bible has made Himself clearly known to all of us through the birth and life and death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. The Gospel stands out from Greek philosophy and modern Bible-Belt thought as it shares that you are not good enough. You can never be good enough to be your own savior - so stop trying. This is the message that Dent County needs to hear in 2023, church. You’re not enough, but Jesus is! Our world needs the Gospel like never before.

There are people in our world who observe God’s power, they know the stories, they might even classify themselves as being religious, but they’re lost - just like these Athenians. What do they need? They need a church who loves them enough to tell them the truth: Being religious isn’t enough. Being good isn’t enough. Being smart isn’t enough. You might think a certain way and you might even say that you were born that way… but the Bible tells us that we must be born again. Our community and our country and our world needs the Gospel - may our message simply be the Gospel that Jesus Christ alone Saves Sinners. May we remember our desperate need for the Gospel each day and may we love others enough, like Paul, to give them the truth and speak that truth to them in love as Ephesians 4:15 commands! We must contextualize this message to our community and give them the truth, just as Paul did.

In 2023, Our Motivation is Salvation (30-34)

Why must the Gospel be our message? I’ll be straight with you all, there are easier messages to preach and teach than the Gospel. It would be so much easier to stand before you each week and tell you my opinions, preferences, and specific passions. It would be easier to say things that I know will generate applause in the middle of the Bible belt in South Central Missouri. That would be easy… but it wouldn’t be right. 2 Timothy 4:2 instructs pastors to

2 Timothy 4:2 CSB

2 Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and teaching.

Outside of this being God’s call on my life, my motivation for preaching the Gospel is because I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that it is the only message that can lead to salvation for God’s people. It is the means through which God saves His people and helps us grow deeper in our walk with Him. My motivation to preach the Gospel message of our sinfulness and Christ’s holiness and sacrifice in our place on the cross is because that message doesn’t come back void and it saves sinners!

Paul gives these people the Gospel on Mars Hill - He shares that He commands all people everywhere to repent and that he will judge the world in righteousness - not our standard of righteousness but His standard of perfection! We all will fall short and the judge will condemn us to what we deserve! This is bad news and our motivation in our conversations with others must be that they would hear the Gospel and that the Holy Spirit would work in their life so that they would repent and be saved.

I trust that you know people who do not know the Gospel and who are not saved. If you can’t think of a single person in this category, understand again that nearly 80% of our county do not attend church. Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian, but as a Christian you should desire to attend church and worship with God’s people! We are living in a dark community - even though there are good people here, just like there were in Athens, there are people who are lost and they don’t even know it!

Y’all Lindsey and I love it here - I’ve met high schoolers who are bright and going to do amazing things here in Salem. I’ve met families who are hard workers. I’ve met senior adults who have contributed and continue to contribute much to others here. This is true inside and outside of FBC Salem. As much as I love Salem, my heart breaks over the amount of people who don’t know Jesus and who don’t feel like they need Jesus. Our motivation in the coming year must be the salvation of the lost. This was Jesus’ mission

Luke 19:10 CSB

10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”

If we’re going to be like Jesus, we must do the same. Christ must be our hope because Christ is the need for ourselves and our community. As we do ministry here and the Gospel is faithfully proclaimed each Sunday and Wednesday from this pulpit and our Sunday school classrooms, I believe that Christ will change lives! His Word will not return to Him void. Some will reject, just like they did Paul. Some will have their curiosity peaked and want to know more, just like with Paul. But others will hear the Gospel and be changed for all eternity - our motivation as a church can’t be to get comfortable and win cultural skirmishes… We’re in the midst of a cosmic battle and the souls of people are at stake.

How much do you have to hate your neighbor to not tell them the good news about Jesus and the salvation that He gives to those who repent and place their faith in Him? That is our motivation. Not the glory and social media praise of FBC Salem but the glory of our God and the eternal good of those around us.

In 2023, Our Mandate is Faithfulness to our King

The question we ask in moments like this is this: how do we judge ourselves in the year to come? How do we know if we have succeeded or not? Is our mandate to hit numerical goals or is there something greater and more important? Some people view pastoral vision as meeting numbers and doing things that other people are doing in order to fit in. They base this on Proverbs 29:18 as God’s Word says this

Proverbs 29:18 NASB95

18 Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, But happy is he who keeps the law.

Many preachers use this verse to come up with a blanket sentence that everyone rallies around and seeks to accomplish. I’ve heard some that are centered on numerical or financial growth such as this: This year we believe God for 500 new members and 250 baptisms, 12 new life groups, and a 50% increase in our budget. Man, if God were to chose to send us 500 new members, 250 baptisms, 12 new sunday school classes and a 50% increase in our budget, I’d be the first to rejoice this time next year and write the Pathway and tell them that God is doing something remarkable in the water here in Salem! Numbers are great because we can track them. Numbers are make or break in the business world. Numbers matter in the church because we have things that we have to do and without receiving enough tithes and offerings, we couldn’t keep the lights on - those things matter to an extent! But what matters more? Hitting certain numerical benchmarks or being faithful to our King with whatever He calls us to do?

Paul doesn’t set out on his mission journeys saying that he wants to baptize 10,000 people and plant 100 new churches. He trusts the Holy Spirit and sometimes the Holy Spirit forbid him to go and tell some people the Gospel - read Acts 16:6 and that’ll mess with you for a minute! He trusted and obeyed. This is what we want to do as a church. If we grew by 50% or if we met our budget in 2023 but weren’t faithful to Jesus and His Gospel then it’s been a failure of a year. If we’re faithful to the Gospel and we grow spiritually, regardless of the red or black or what planning center tells us about growth or attendance, it’ll be a successful year.

Our mandate isn’t to do what’s easy… It isn’t to treat our church like a corporation or a business. It’s not and the moment we do that, we’ll get view God’s work through the wrong lens! What is our mandate? To be faithful to King Jesus! How can we be faithful to Jesus?

So what is that vision? It isn’t numbers. It isn’t gimmicks. It isn’t fads. It isn’t fads to fill pews. It also isn’t watering down the Word and it isn’t keeping the status quo just because it’s what we’ve always done. The message never changes but the methods will change over the years. Our purpose remains the same as we glorify God by the proclamation of the Gospel, making of disciples, and loving God and others as He has first loved us. That purpose never changes, but the seasons do change… and our focus must always be centered on faithfulness to our Lord where He has planted us. The vision that Proverbs 29:18 is talking about finds its fulfillment in Jesus. The vision is His Gospel being proclaimed and lives being changed and that’d better start with us at FBC Salem!

In praying diligently about what God has done, is doing, and wants us to do in the coming year, this statement kept coming into mind about our congregation and our community and what we all desperately need!

insert 2023 statement + goals = talked with staff about this on Monday and these emphases will be posted around the church as a reminder throughout this year, especially in January.

Christ, the Hope of FBC Salem and the Need for Dent County

Focus: Making a "dent" in the lost population of Dent County for the Glory of God and the good of our community

Steps: How Do We Glorify Christ and Reach our Community?

1. Personal Spiritual Growth - Growing Matters

2. Persistent (not Sporadic) Generosity - Giving Matters

3. Publicly Sharing the Gospel - The Gospel Matters

Our goal this year is to grow, give, and go. Our message is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our mission is to see lives changed because of the Gospel and that starts with us. As we wrap up this business meeting and this year, prayerfully consider how we can be like Paul and give a defense of the Gospel to our community and support the missions of our church in order to make a dent in the lost population of Dent County together.