FBC Pharr: Who Are We?

Introduction

Good morning and Welcome

In starting out a new year, it is only natural to reflect on where we’ve been and what we’ve accomplished in the previous year. FBC Pharr made some great strides forward in 2022.

Soccer Camp here in Pharr

VBS was well attended [Donated our VBS material to another church in Donna]‌

Baseball Camp in Dietmar, Germany

Brought in a new Lead Pastor

We brought on new Children’s Ministry Directors, Joel y Irene Cavazos

We brought on new a Youth Ministry Director, Ana Campos

Back to School outreach to support local families (Ricky Reimer)

Back to School outreach in Matamoros (WMU / Women’s Ministry)

Served the Pharr community with a Fall Festival

Completed a study on understanding our church constitution

Welcomed many regular attenders into church members

Many Baptisms & New Members

We helped several families with physical and financial needs through the cooperative efforts and donations of a few who were aware these situations

We established a new ministry effort to reach children and families in dire need right here in our community by partnering with local agencies through our CarePortal ministry.

We collected over 100 boxes of gifts that were donated through Operation Christmas Child, a program to brings the gospel message to underprivileged children around the world.

We also collected food supplies for our Thanksgiving Blessing Bags that were given to families in need throughout our community.

We served children and families in need through community outreaches in Matamoros, Edinburgh & Rio Bravo providing Christmas joy, food, warm clothes, and the Gospel message of Jesus Christ.

Our Children’s Ministry performed at the Christmas Posada for the City of Pharr

We had an excellent turnout for Thanksgiving, Christmas Tamalada, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day

Let me just say that this is NOT an exhaustive list. Many things happened that I am unaware of or just didn’t get included here.

Yes, we have had a few bumps along the way. But, overall, the positives outweigh the negatives. Our regular attendance numbers are holding steady, and maybe even climbing a bit. Our church leadership believes that, as long as we stay the course, we will continue to grow stronger as a church and overcome any obstacles that we come up against.

We couldn’t do these things and accomplish the work that we do without each of you. Your generous gifts to FBC Pharr and to our ministry efforts are critical in helping us to accomplish these things. Please continue to give to our ministry efforts. We have big things on the horizon that we will never be able to accomplish without all of us helping out and giving from the gifts that God gives to us.

We should all strive be like the widow in Jesus’ lesson...

Luke 21:1–4 CSB

1 He looked up and saw the rich dropping their offerings into the temple treasury. 2 He also saw a poor widow dropping in two tiny coins. 3 “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all of them. 4 For all these people have put in gifts out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.”

I know that giving is hard, especially in difficult times where the economy is like it is today. However, scripture is clear on this that God loves a cheerful giver...

2 Corinthians 9:6–7 CSB

6 The point is this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each person should do as he has decided in his heart—not reluctantly or out of compulsion, since God loves a cheerful giver.

I include this because it is my desire that FBC Pharr be known as a generous church. We come into ministry with our hands open to receive what the Lord brings us, but we should also hold what he brings to us with our hands open, ready to bless others.

You all are already generous with your volunteer service, many of you are. We see the volunteer work that you do and we ask that you continue to do this. We would ask that you would prayerfully consider being generous in both your service and with the financial blessings that God has given you.

I’m no proponent of the Prosperity Gospel that teaches people to give so that they will get something from God. But Scripture is clear that God does bless those who give generously.

I will say this about being a generous church. It is my personal policy that “We will help wherever we are able when the need is evident and the means are readily available.” Often we hear of a need and we are unable to help. Sometimes we are able to help and we have exactly what is needed. Occasionally we discover that we have been deceived. And sometimes we find people that will take and take and take and never be satisfied with what they have received. To all of these situations, I say, “It’s okay! We help where we can with what we can when we can.” Each of these situations is an opportunity to represent Jesus Christ and administer his peace and grace through our hands and feet, and our gas and vehicles, and sometimes the sweat of our brow and the tweaking of our backs.

I don’t want to turn this into a message on Sanctity of Human Life. We’re going to get that message in a few weeks when we have a guest speaker coming in and we’ll have several local ministries represented to teach us how we as individuals can care for others and protect human life.

But I did want to say these things, because we are working to establish a culture of caring here at FBC Pharr. We want to care for our community by doing what we are able for those around us who are in need.

I have titled this message “FBC Pharr: Who Are We?” because I wanted to start the year with a brief series looking at our Vision and our Values. These things are important to go back to regularly to make sure that we don’t get off the track. This week I will be focusing on who we are and next week I will focus on what we do.

Here at FBC Pharr we are Baptist, which speaks to our way of practicing church, our church governance, and our practice of the ordinances given to us by Christ: 1) Baptism by water immersion and 2) Regular remembrance through the Lord’s Supper.

We are Christ followers, dedicated to practice what he taught us and live our lives in a way that would honor him and bring glory to God, the Father.

Additionally, we are a Bible-believing and Bible-teaching congregation. We hold the Bible to be our highest standard.

In order to understand our vision and our values, I want to start out with our marching orders, the last words given by Jesus Christ before he ascended into Heaven to sit at the right hand of Father God...

Matthew 28:19–20 CSB

19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

[pray]

Our Core Values

At FBC Pharr, we know who we are and what our purpose is. We are all disciples and missionaries working to LOVE God, LOVE Others, and LOVE the World with the character of Jesus Christ. I like to say sometimes that we are ONE Church with TWO Languages and THREE Loves: We LOVE God, LOVE Others, and LOVE the World with the character of Jesus Christ.

How does that play out in our everyday lives?

As a church we are DIVERSE in the parts of the body of believers that regularly attend here, yet we are UNITED in spirit and work together for the unity of the church. Sometimes we do this better than others, but this is always our goal. This is how we “do church” together, with unity.

I have stated various of our core values on previous occasions. Our Core Values, as I see them, are these:

Discipleship

Missions (Service / Outreach / Local & Global Missions)

Bible Study

Prayer

Worship

These are all things that are central to the way that we should be living our Christian Lives and are central to all of the programs and activities that this church undertakes. Everything that we do as a church should be connected to one of these things.

Who Are We?

We Are Apprentices

one bound by indenture to serve another (bond-servant) for a prescribed period with a view to learning an art or a trade

one who is learning by practical experience under skilled workers a trade, art, or calling

The Apostle Paul called himself a “bond-servant of Christ” in Romans 1:1. When he used the word bond-servant he was talking about indentured service to Christ. When we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are doing this very same thing. We are bonding ourselves to Christ and beginning to learn his ways so that we can do his work in this world.

We Are Disciples

A convinced follower of a school or individual

One who accepts and assists in spreading the doctrines (teachings) of another

A disciple, then, is one who has believed on Jesus Christ and expressed this faith by being baptized. He remains in the fellowship of the believers that he might be taught the truths of the faith (Acts 2:41–47). He is then able to go out and win others and teach them. This was the pattern of the New Testament church (2 Tim. 2:1–2).

Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 107.

We Are Missionaries

a person undertaking a mission, especially a religious mission

engaged in or devoted to the mission

These are the words that define us as believers of Jesus Christ. Next week I’ll look at the actions that define us. But I wanted to remind us that at our core, as believers in Jesus Christ, we are changed.

Let’s look again at our marching orders and study Jesus’ last words...

Matthew 28:19–20 CSB

19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

1. GO

The first word Jesus uses is “go” but he also says “therefore.” In my biblical interpretation classes in seminary, I learned that whenever we see the word “therefore” we need ask the question “What is it there for?” That means it’s a word that causes us to look at the context. In this case Jesus is referring to his statement about authority...

Matthew 28:18 CSB

18 Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Jesus is claiming his authority as the ruler of heaven and earth and literally handing out marching orders to the disciples before he goes away. He wants them to know—He wants US to know—the work that he is leaving for them to accomplish while he’s gone.

Matthew 28:19 CSB

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

We have this word “go” which at first blush we can take to mean “to move away from one place to another.” We might take this as the key verb of the sentence, “Jesus is telling us to go away and do these things somewhere else.” However, that is not the case here. Our English and Spanish translations don’t quite get this verse right. Right at the gate, we think we have to stop what we’re doing and go someplace else to make disciples. And some people do that. My family has done that. But that’s not really what this verse is saying.

Jesus command is actually a continuous action. What he is really saying here is this...

“As you are going, make disciples.”

This is an ongoing activity that should occupy our time all the time. No matter where we go, no matter what we do for a living, whether we are young or old, we should be going about the business of making disciples.

How are you going about your business and your mission?

Yes, we have other things to accomplish. We have jobs, we have school, we have family, we have responsibilities. But we should not forget our mission. As we do these things that we must do in life, we must also be looking for ways to...

2. MAKE Disciples

Making disciples is our core responsibility as Christians. THIS is the central command...

Matthew 28:19 CSB

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

We are all called to make disciples. Are you making any disciples? How do you do that?

My son trains horses for a living. Sometimes he comes home and talks about what it takes to “make a horse.” That’s how he puts it, “making a horse.” This is what some of us might call “breaking a horse.” But that’s how he says it. He “makes a horse.”

I sometimes think to myself, "Don’t you think that horse was a horse before you showed up to make it?” Well, yes, technically it was a horse, but it wasn’t a useful farm animal with the ability to do a job in a way that it could be counted on to complete the task at hand. That’s what he’s interested in, a domesticated animal that allows the rider to ride, that understands what is required of it to work the cattle, that allows itself to be outfitted with all manner of strange paraphenalia: halters, saddles, blankets, bits and bridles. A wild horse is useless to him in his ranching business, but a trained and fully domesticated horse is a valuable tool that can be used to accomplish the work.

But the making of the horse doesn’t come easily. It takes somebody who knows how to care for the horse and communicate with the horse what is required of it. Only after the horse has been taught is it ready to be considered a useful animal on the farm or ranch.

Jesus tells us that we are to “make disciples.” He wants for us to seek out people and tell them about him and teach them of his ways...

Matthew 28:20 CSB

20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Just like making a horse, making a disciple does not come easily. It requires that we keep our spiritual eyes open and our ears ready to hear people as we go about our business. We can first hear what people are saying, but it takes truly caring in order to go beyond what they are saying to connect with them at a human level.

People are hurting, lonely, and scared these days. We have the opportunity to approach people and speak to their inner person—to speak to their spirit—and care for them the way Christ would care for them.

When we take the time to care for people at a deeper level, we truly have the opportunity to make a difference in their lives. Yet too often, we get busy and hurry along without pausing to be mindful of the opportunities that the Holy Spirit is placing in our path.

How do we make these disciples?

The rest of the verse informs us of how we should be making these disciples...

Matthew 28:19–20 CSB

19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Baptize / Teach / Remember

Being Baptist, this is easy right? We’re a Baptist church, that’s what we do, right? We baptize people! But baptism is a basis for discipleship.

Every person that comes to this church asking for membership or baptism goes through a discipleship class. Our membership class has two purposes:

We ensure the salvation experience.

We teach candidates for membership what the expectations are for membership and what their rights and responsibilities are as members.

Our membership class is our beginning point for discipleship.

Ongoing discipleship takes place in our Sunday School classes and in our Wednesday night study.

Discipleship classes are simply about learning how to live the Christian life in a better way, how to share your faith, and how to train others in their own spiritual disciplines.

Are You A Disciple? Are You a Discipler?

The disciple’s gotta disciple!

If you’ve been a Christian for any length of time and you are not intentionally discipling someone or bringing people to a deeper place of faith in God, then you are not doing the work that Jesus gave you to do.

Too often in our time, we who believe in Jesus think that we are not equipped to disciple others. We think of ourselves as followers, but not leaders. But Jesus command, his calling, to us is to take an active part in shaping the spiritual development of those around us.

How different would the church be today if we were all active disciplers, pouring ourselves into the lives of another believer?

Our training journey as disciples who disciple is like that of a mountain climber...

The wise mountain climber does not strike out on his own. He ties himself off to the group. This is so that they can rescue him if he falls. But the interesting thing about the mountain climber is that he is tied off both above and below. While he is reaching up to depend upon the one who has gone before him and he is learning to follow someone else’s leadership, he is reaching down below to help someone up who is coming along after him.

This is an almost perfect picture of discipleship that we should keep in mind as we seek our own spiritual development as well as those who are coming along behind us.

So I ask you again, are you a disciple or a discipler? I hope your answer is BOTH!

Conclusion

The Lord’s Supper

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 CSB

23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

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