State of the Church 2025

Welcome to Maranatha Baptist Fellowship State of the Church

I am pleased to report the state of the church here at Maranatha Baptist Fellowship is good and healthy

I think I say this ever year

But for some this is your favorite sermon

This has been an opportunity for us to look back and see how we have done

Let me just get this out of the way we didn’t meet our goal of baptism

what I have learned in pastoring is that yes numbers are important but they only give us part of the story

Yes those numbers are important because they give us some insight into how we are doing, but rather they don’t tell the entire story

So this may you favorite sermon or a sermon you enjoy but this might be different this year

So as we look back in 2024

If you will recall our verses for the year were

Romans 1:16 NASB95

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

and Romans 12:2.

As a church we cannot and should not be ashamed of the Gospel

The Gospel is the most important thing to the church in Rome and dare I say it church but it should be second only to Christ Himself for our church as well

See the Gospel is the good news that Jesus saves

To know and understand that Jesus stepped out of Heaven and willingly came to heaven to take your place and my place on the cross

That Jesus being innocent took my sin and your sin and then took my punishment and your punishment to the point of death on the cross

To know that church you compel us and drive us to be disciples of Christ Himself

Romans 12:2 NASB95

2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Calls us to be different than the world

So we home school our girls and most of you know that

I often struggle with oh man they will miss this or that experience

And then I come to my senses and think but that is OK because that is all about the world and in the large scheme of things that is not that important

Church if the Gospel is the driving force in our live then we will live different than the world

To do that we must begin to think different

Because we have a new spirit inside us the Holy Spirit Himself we should be thinking different anyways

Then to live that out which is the will of God

And church the will of God is perfect and good

Now I won’t stand up here and tell you that it is easy as long as you follow God

Sometimes it is hard and painful but church it is oh so very very good

That was our verses in 2024

We saw 5 people come to know Christ

We saw 8 baptisms

We had 8 people join our church

We brought in 262,724.60 dollars

And we spent 221,487.66 dollars

As a church we gave 11,759.02 dollars to KNCSB

We gave 7,705.10 to the Flint Hills Baptist Association

We gave 4,358.00 dollars to Annie Armstrong Mission Offering for the North American Mission Board

We gave 2765.00 to Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for the International Mission Board

Some other High Lights

We sang 303 Worship Songs together

Most of you will know this but the Pastors Wife is really really awesome

We got a new kitchen, in part because Lydia came to the church at just the right time to catch the pipe burst

We worked with our insurance company and because we had not had a claim in so long our deductible was cut in half

So we got a new kitchen to be used for many many fellowship dinners and times

We sent 26 students and 4 adults for a total of 30 people to Super Summer

Super Summer is a week of camp where students are able to get away from the worlds distractions and focus on Christ with some absolutely amazing people who are ready to pour into them

We sent out 7 students and 3 adults to serve at Camp Barnabas on a Mission Trip

Camp Barnabas is a camp for those who have disabilities and we send people to minister to them by helping them, some of our students were assigned a camper when they got there and they got to help them do everything and were able to hang out with them the entire week

We had 6 students get up in front of the church and proclaim Gods word Ps 23 that they had memorized to us and 3 from Holton would have done it

A large group of our student around 10 say they want and have committed to living a sexually pure life until they are married

Church you have invested so much into our youth and we see that

You have given 11,377.00 to our youth group

Our students have started to serve in areas around the church from children's church, to hospitality, to the cafe, to worship team and sound and words in the back

Church we have even seen a shift in our students serving in VBS

They get excited and desire to be a part of not just the extras but wanting to teach the lessons

Church we are training up the next generation here at Maranatha

We had about 90 to 97 people at VBS each night

Some of those events we saw people come to know Christ and they are part of that first number

Along with doing a normal church life

I believe God has called Maranatha to do something Big

Church last year we were able to plant Holton Baptist Fellowship

We were able to commission and send out 2 elders Matt and Ed

We were able to commission and send out Matt Narsh as pastor

Who also received a green light

And that is a lot for a smaller church

But when God calls you to it then you had better be obedient to Christ

And so I would remind you church that yes doing church and being part of a church is going to be difficult and hard and sometimes painful at times

But I would also remind you of the amazing times you will have doing and being the church

It is far better to be obedient to God than not

So as we look to 2025

First let me say wow never thought I would say 2025

I remember as a freshman I was in the class of 2004 and that seemed so far away and yet here we are 2025

Rather than a specific verse we will use a few or a bunch or the whole Bible

It is the Gospel is our focus and priority

Acts 13:32 NASB95

32 “And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers,

We will continue to preach and teach the Good News that Jesus came to seek and save those who are lost

Jesus was obedient to God the Father to the point of death on the cross and because of Jesus’s death and resurrection we can be saved if we repent of our sins and trust in Jesus

And if you have done that then the grace and mercy you have recieved should compel you to go out into the world and share that with others

It is also to be a disciple of Christ

Colossians 3:16 NASB95

16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

to dwell or as I like to think marinate in Gods word

Read it and read it and read it again

Ask it questions then flip through the pages to find the answers

A disciple is defined as a follower or student of a teacher and a personal follower of Jesus during his life

To be a student of Gods word means we need to know Gods word from cover to cover, inside and out, front and backwards

So for this year we are going to attempt preach through some of the more well known Bible Accounts from cover to cover

Which should also excite us and compel us to be reading it on our own

It should excite us to dig into Gods Word, study it and gather a fuller understanding of Who God is and that only helps us know what He has called us to do

Wether its 60 days, or 3 years, you and I need to be reading and reading and reading our Bibles

I have long said this you cannot expect to be a growing Christian if you are not reading your Bible

There will be some people who would want to soften that message but I do believe for you to grow in Christ you must be a student of Gods word which is to be a disciple

I get excited when Mrs. Joy who is a Spiritual Giant comes up and says after studying her Sunday school lesson is so excited because she learned something

I recently got some messages from Mrs. Jeanie doing the same thing

I know there are times when I have read a passage over and over and at the dinner table or just sitting talking with my family I get so excited they get a mini sermon about what I just learned about the passage

After we have spent time reading it and studying it church then we move into putting it into action

Psalm 119:105 NASB95

105 Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.

The Word of God should be giving us direction in our daily lives, in the lives of our families and churches

This is the other part of a being a disciple is to put it into action in our daily lives

Joshua 1:8 NASB95

8 “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.

This is where the rubber meets the road

This is where we will struggle and it will get difficult

And that is ok we continue to press into that and work through that difficulty

We do that be getting involved in the local church with other believers who will be there to help us press into the difficulty of putting into practice the things we read about in the Scriptures

Church the reason it will be difficult is because we like our sin to much to flee from it

This year church I would challenge you to flee from the sin in your life

I am reading The Cost of Discipleship

In that Book Dietrich Bonhoeffer shares a passage of scripture and does some explaining

Luke 10:25–29 NASB95

25 And a lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 And He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” 29 But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

A lawyer attempts to go to Jesus and sort of catch Him

Like a got you moment

He asks the question, Jesus directs him back to the scriptures

Like you know what it says

You get the sense the Lawyer is trying to justify his not being obedient

Let me clear

Church we know what the Bible says, if you don’t then you need to be reading it

But the majority of us know what it says that you and I as believers are to be doing

The Bible doesn’t tell us to do anything that would be harmful to us or to others or even difficult for that matter except that it runs in direct contradiction to the world and sin

Now it is time to put what the Bible says into practice

I hope we are able to see these disciplines through the Bible Accounts we plan to preach

That doing those Biblical Disciplines will help us walk closer with Jesus and grow us in our faith with Jesus

So church we need to be putting into practice the disciplines we read through The Bible

1 Timothy 4:7 NASB95

7 But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness;

To discipline ourselves we must be doing the spiritual disciplines

We need to be praying, reading

Not only should we be reading we know this

But stop with the excuses of I don’t like reading, its boring, I don’t understand it

Best way to read your entire Bible is one verse at a time just like eating an Elephant, one bite at a time

We have long said that prayer are the lungs of the church, if we want the church to be growing we must be praying

We must be praying together, and as individuals

We need to be sharing the Gospel

Mark 16:15 NASB95

15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

We must as commanded by God to share the good news with those around us

In the past we have asked the question how much do you have to hate someone to not share the Good News that Jesus saves

We must be sharing with lost people what we know to be true about God ourselves, what we have experienced from God Himself

We need to be teaching what we have learned from God Himself

Older wiser believers we have a responsibility to those who are younger in the faith

We get to share with them what we have learned from Jesus and encourage them to spend time daily with Jesus

We need to be fasting, serving, and giving

We should be fasting not as a weight lose idea but as to sharpen the mind to finally tune into what God is speaking to us

To sacrifice of our selves to hear from God

We should be serving so as not to put the weight of serving on just a few

But to bless others in our serving just as Jesus served

We should also be giving again so as not to put the weight of giving on a few, and so that we can go out and do things for Jesus because we have given

I know we have some big things we need to get done this year around the church, I know we are looking at replacing our roof and then our van and buses will need some major work or replaced, that doesn’t happen if we don’t give

But rather than that God calls us to give when we do we trust in the Lord to provide for us

As someone who gives God has never not met a need for me or my family because God is faithful

If we read through the Bible we read those disciplines

It time we put them into action this year

So as we close our State of the Church address

Let me leave you with this reminder as we go out in 20025 seeking to glorify the Lord

James 1:22 NASB95

22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.

To put the Word of God who alive and active into action in our own personal lives and in the life of our church

Church to be obedient to the entire Word of God not just the convenient or comfortable parts

So as we close we will call the band up

And as we sing I would encourage to worship the Lord and to dwell on where God is leading us into 2025

Stand and Worship