Do You Know?

Good Morning and welcome to Standing Stone Church.

I’m glad to see everyone here today.

It has been a long time coming

628 days to be exact

88 Sundays away from here. 89 if you count last week, when some of us gathered here for the first time.

But here we are, back again at 61125 Highway 140 East.

Standing Stone Church. Or as is was called for many years. The Christian and Missionary Alliance Chapel of Bly.

Last Week, for those who were here we learned 3 sentences. Does anyone remember what they were?

Jesus Died For Your Sins.

Jesus Was Buried for Your Sins.

Jesus Rose for Your Life.

Three simple sentences that communicate the gospel.

It was taken from 1 Corinthians 15:3-4

1 Corinthians 15:3–4 ESV

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

I had ordered some very simple gospel tracts for you all to take with you at the end of service. However, they didn’t get here until after the service.

But that did give me an idea. Perhaps, since Amazon delivers on Sundays, we can all have stuff shipped here if it’s going to be delivered on Sunday and that will get more guests to hear the gospel.

But in all seriousness, last week we went over the gospel. We kept it simple, because it’s meant to be simple.

Today I want to do something a little more complicated.

I want to discuss the mission of this Church. Standing Stone Church has been here since 1940.

86 years.

That’s a long time to serve a community.

It’s been through many changes. 15 pastors. A few more if you count interim pastors.

A few building additions. At least 2 fires. A name change. And many many people to come through the doors.

But what any church group needs is a purpose.

Some church’s like to meet, put in their hour or two and go back into the world and not think about Jesus again for a whole week.

Some churches take a great commission stance. They go out and knock on doors and tell people who Jesus is.

Some really love Jesus, but like to keep him to themselves.

I’m sad to say that churches that have been around a long time likely have gone through all if not more of these stages.

We are likely no different. I’m not going to bash anyone or shame anyone. But I will say that there was a time when someone tried to convince me that the church I pastored had been closed for years.

So what are we here for?

To share the gospel? Yes. Absolutely. Tell people about Jesus. And if you’re visiting today and don’t know about Jesus, then listen up, but I’m gonna tell you.

What else? Well, there is a lot to our mission and while it might sound complicated. When we are all done, I’ll give us a simple way to remember what we are supposed to do.

But first I want to show you a chart. It’s a chart you’ve likely seem in some form in your life.

Bible Chart

Describe

These are good categories. But I said it last week and I’m going to say it again.

Let’s keep it simple.

I’m going to break down the whole Bible into three categories for all of us today.

They are in your bulletin:

-The Need For a Savior -Finding the Savior -Living with the Savior

For those who regularly attend Standing Stone, you know that at the beginning of 2025, just before the fire, I started talking about finding Jesus in the Old Testament. We’ve spent many weeks looking for Jesus in the Old Testament and have, as of the end of September. Gotten all the way to the end of Nehemiah. Today. We do the whole Bible in one go.

Don’t worry, I’m going to keep it simple.

The Bible is not a difficult book to read, but it is sometimes hard to understand.

We didn’t grow up in the ancient middle east and the vast majority of us don’t study it.

That’s okay.

But here is my challenge for any time you read the Bible.

It’s to know this. The Bible is for you, but it’s not about you. It’s about Jesus. From the first verse to the last.

And if the Bible is all about Jesus why doesn’t he show up until to thirds of the way through?

That’s because the Old Testament is about our Need for him.

The Old Testament is about our need for a savior.

The Need for a Savior

I’ve lived in Bly for a just over 8 years. About 3,000 days. And you know what. Everyone I have met, from the gas station to the firehall, from the school to the mercantile, from my house to yours, everyone needs a savior.

We all need a savior. Because we have all fallen short.

In the book of Genesis we saw the fall of man with the disobedience of Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve sin

One rule. Don’t eat from a certain tree.

They failed. The punishment was death. And death came. Not right away. But what wasn’t in the original design came to be.

Because of what Adam and Eve chose to do we are under that same curse of death.

So what do we do?

When I was in college I worked harder than I had ever done in my life so far.

Prior to college I did enough to pass. I didn’t study, I ignored assignments. I slacked. School was not a place for me to thrive.

But then I went to college. I was choosing to be there. I did the assignments. And there even came a point where I was asked by my advisor to take some honors classes. And I did well in some classes, but not all.

I ended my college career, let me remind you, working harder than I had ever worked in school before. And I ended with a 2.359 GPA or a C+ average. I missed the mark. I worked hard and didn’t make it.

That’s what it is like for all college students. Not being C+ students. But not being perfect. We are incapable of perfection.

No matter how hard we try, we can’t be perfect.

And the Old Testament really shows us this. We hit Exodus and Leviticus and we see all the rules.

We know we can’t keep them all. So we have two choices, at least we think we do.

Try harder. Or give up. Trying harder is pointless.

We tried hard to get this building ready for today. We are not 100% there, though many workers and volunteers gave much of their life. We didn’t quite get there.

Our whole lives we miss the mark here and there. We sin. We make the wrong decision.

We

Isaiah 53:6 ESV

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

We have all wandered away from the one who would set us straight.

And if you read through the Old Testament, it’s not a list of rules to save us. It’s a list of all the things we can’t do. At least not perfectly.

Like this message. I give time to these messages. I read and study. But they are not perfect. Sometimes they remind me of the pastor who was retiring after 50 years of preaching and as he was getting ready to move and he found a shoe box under his bed with 3 eggs and $5000. HE asked his wife what that was and she said every time he preached a bad sermon she would put an egg in the box.

3 in fifty years, he felt pretty good. But then he had to ask. What’s with the $5,000. She replied. Every time she got to a dozen she sold then for $3.

That’s what I feel like sometimes. But no matter what we are doing. Our best in school, work or ministry. We fall short.

We need a savior.

Finding the Savior

This is likely the most well known part of the Bible. Jesus being born is celebrated nearly world wide every December. His death and resurrection likewise every spring.

People know of Jesus walking on water. Preaching the Sermon on the mount. Rebuking Pharisees, healing the sick and raising the dead.

And this is where the Old Testament is fulfilled. The promise of the Savior is complete.

You see all through the Old Testament the Father says one must shed blood to forgive sins. For many centuries people would do this through the killing of animals.

However, it would have to be done again and again. It would never stop. You sinned, kill an animal. Call your mother a name, kill an animal. Steal, animal. And so on and so on. It never ends.

A solution was needed in which a sacrifice is made and covers all sins for all time

And God had a Plan? No, not a plan.

We had a plan when we build this church building. We got together, talked about rooms and ceiling heights. How many windows. It took months and we even had digital walkthroughs and made major changes.

God does not plan like we do. He didn’t sit down and come up with a plan A and if that didn’t work a plan B. He doesn’t have reserve planets with people on them to start over with if we don’t work out.

Before he created us, he knew exactly how things needed to go so we could understand our need for a savior and then when our Savior came we would, hopefully be able to recognize him.

Because there are hundreds of prophecies about Jesus in the Old Testament. And he fulfilled them. I could focus on so many, but I’m Going to talk about lambs for a moment.

Here is an interesting thing about lambs. If you are bitten by a snake and have venom going through your veins. The very best antidote is anti-venom created from lamb’s blood. Other animals can be used, but it is the blood of the lamb, or sheep, that produces the antibodies needed to keep you alive after a venomous snake bite.

If you think about this Biblically, a Snake deceived Adam and Eve, they were affected by the snake and the venom infected them.

But then Jesus comes and his blood poured out for them counteracts the effect of the snake.

Theologians said this many years before it was discovered that lambs blood could cure snake bites.

Even John the Baptist knew who Jesus was.

John 1:29 ESV

29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

The snake brought death, the lamb brings life.

And this is what we talked about last week.

Jesus died for your sins.

Jesus was buried for your sins.

and

Jesus rose for your life.

All three of those are crucial.

And if we truly believe that we are saved.

We are transferred from death to life. We are saved from the pit.

But that doesn’t mean it’s over.

After we have found the Savior, we then live with the savior.

Those of us with a history in the Christian and Missionary Alliance know that part of our four fold gospel lists Jesus as our sanctifier. That means he works in us to make us holy, like him.

The first thing to know when you become a follower of Jesus is that he makes you new from the get go.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

This is what Jesus does when we come to him.

He makes us new.

And that is what Acts to Revelation is all about. Jesus working in the lives of those who say they follow him.

Check this out

Acts 4:32–37 ESV

32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. 33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35 and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. 36 Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, 37 sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

Isn't that great? Everyone was getting along, no one was fighting or arguing about carpet colors or pulpit designs.

And as we all know, every church in the world gets along perfectly all the time right?

No, they don’t. Do you want to know why all the churches in the world don’t get a long. It’s kind of a secret, but I’m going to tell you anyway.

The reason that churches don’t always get a long is because. There are people in them.

This wonderful little story at the end of Acts 4 is immediately followed by a story in Acts 5 where a couple tries to ride Barnabas’ coat tails and says they sold all their land and gave it all to the apostles. But they didn’t. They kept some of the money for themselves. Which wasn’t even the problem. It was their money, they could do with it what they pleased. But they lied. And then they died.

And if that was the only conflict, that would have been a miracle.

But it wasn’t. We have this follower of Jesus named Paul. When he became a Christian he began going all over and telling people about Jesus left and right.

He built churches everywhere.

But then people started going to these Churches. So Paul started writing letters. One thing to know about following Jesus. If you haven’t picked it up yet. Is this.

You will never be perfect this side of eternity. But you are called to strive for it.

Meaning you are, as a follower of Jesus, be a mouth piece for what he commands. Love God, Love People, Serve the World. Those are some basics.

And if we break it down we can say that if you are not Loving God, then you are not loving people and you are not serving the world. That goes for any order.

So, Paul wrote a lot of letters to a lot of Churches. And they were not all rainbows and lollypops.

Churches video

When you become a Christian you are joining a community of people who pledge to help you walk with Jesus.

And if you’ve ever gone up to a brother and sister in Christ and said to them, you know you sinned when you, let’s say, dined and dashed.

Any every time you do something like telling a brother or sister of their sin, each time, they immediately repent and and everything is great, right?

No, it’s not. Some people love their sin more than they love you or dare I dare, Jesus. They like their way, more than God’s way. And much of the New Testament is the people who love Jesus telling us how best to live for Jesus. To be that new creation.

And all three of these things is our mission at Standing Stone Church.

We want to show people that we all need a savior. That we have fallen short and can’t make it on our own.

We want people to know about Jesus. How he gave his life for us. Shed his blood as the Lamb of God. And he rose again to offer us a new life as a new creation.

He also teaches us a way to live and calls us to hold each other accountable to each other in accordance with the scriptures.

It all sums up with a simple sentence

Leading people to love God, love others, and impact the world through service.

That’s our mission here at Standing Stone Church.

I like how we have been able to gether here today and hope to see the Love of God grow here and the love of people. I hope we leave behind the gossip and hate that comes with our flesh and join together in service of our king.

Let me pray for us as we transition to the next part of our day.