Moving from Surviving to Thriving!

Welcome

Good Morning! I’d like to welcome you all to the last gathering of Ephesus Baptist Church in this decade, our last gathering of 2019!

Why have we gathered for the past 10 years, really, I should ask, “Why have we gathered since August 14, 1880?” Why do we continue to gather today?

We gather to worship and exalt the name of our good and loving Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, our risen King. Today, provides us another opportunity to fall more in love with Jesus Christ as we seek to follow Him in discipleship.

If you are visiting with us this morning, we want you to who we are here at Ephesus...

We are all one family of faith: “giving our all to love God, love people, proclaim Jesus, and make disciples in our generation.”

That is our mission, our purpose, why we exist as a church.

We have a connect card in the pew in front of you. I invite you to take one and fill it out! If you have prayer needs, you can let us know about those as well.

I promise, our prayer team will lift you up soon. You can place those cards in the offering plate when it comes around.

Church, I want today to be a day of celebration! Later in the service, I want to provide you an opportunity to look back and rejoice at what God has done in 2019, then I want us to look forward into what God can do in 2020 through us!

Who’s Your One?

Scripture Memory

Romans 8:38–39 ESV

38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Opening Scripture Reading

John 10:1–18 ESV

1 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. 7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

Opening Prayer

Time of Celebration

Allow members a few minutes in the service to celebrate what God has done over the past year.

Introduction

Welcome to the last few days of 2019!

Not only is this the last few days of 2019, it is also the last few days of the second decade of the 21st century.

Our nation has experienced a roller coaster of activity over the last 10 years. The 2010’s were truly a wild ride!

Because of this roller coaster of activity, people are left with a tremendous amount of uncertainty in what lies ahead in the 2020’s and beyond.

Of course the biggest response to these uncertain times is fear. When life gets hard, fear checks in!

Many people are digging in, and locking into survivor mode. They are cutting their costs and crossing their fingers and lying low. They are stockpiling food, water, and ammunition in anticipation that they will need those supplies to survive the coming apocalypse.

Others are trying to have as much fun as they can while they can, because they too fear the future. We live in a society with no hope.

Still others, like young Greta Thunberg, a 16 year old environmental activist with Asperger's are living in fear of the world literally dying before with them on it. Again, life without hope!

The truth is, many of us have low expectations for the New Year. If we can just get by, that would be fine. We will be happy to simply survive this year.

Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation” published in the scientific journal Psychological Review, presented what has now become known as “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.”1

Maslov’s Hierarchy of Needs consisted of what he believed to be the 5 levels of human needs. Often portrayed as a pyramid with the largest, most fundamental needs at the bottom and working upward to self-actualization.

From the bottom of the hierarchy upwards, the needs are:

1. physiological (food, air, water, shelter, clothing, sleep),

2. safety (personal security, employment, resources, health, property),

3. love and belonging (connection, friendship, family, intimacy),

4. esteem (recognition, respect, strength, freedom),

5. self-actualization (becoming the best person one can possibly be).

In other words, the crux of the theory is that individuals’ most basic needs have to be met before they become motivated to grow and achieve higher level needs.

The point Maslow was making was that our most basic level of need has to do with survival: breathing, food, water, sleep and so on.

When you are constantly seeking only to survive, you are at the bottom of the “need chain.” I would argue that this is where many of us live the majority of our lives.

What goes for individuals applies to institutions, including the church. That same attitude has crept into many churches over the past several decades. Churches have gone into survival mode.

What does survival mode look like?

Here are five signs:

1. Success is measured solely by numbers.

Butt’s in the seats.

It’s okay to take tabs of and keep records of attendance, it is even okay to celebrate growing attendance, but when the numbers become the end-all of measuring the health of a congregation, we know we’ve veered off into the wrong kind of thinking, survival mode thinking.

2. Ministry is determined by budget.

Bills in the Budget.

I will be the first to admit that paying our bills is important, but when our ministry involvement is determined by the bottom line, survival mode has set in. When decisions become more about what is best for the church at hand than about reaching those outside for Christ, survival mode has set in.

And when survival is our key motivation, the church stops advancing the Kingdom of Christ and settles for less than Jesus ever called her to be.

3. Buildings take a priority!

We need nice buildings, but when our buildings become the focus of our ministry resources and identity, we have again slipped into survival mode.

4. Old methods are the methods of choice.

There were many great methods used in the church in decades past, methods like the Training Union, programs, and various visitation models.

Instead of lamenting their loss, our time is better spent in creating alternatives that fit today’s culture without compromising our faith.

Holding to tightly to the past is a symptom of being in survival mode. We have lost our ambition, creativity, and drive for serving Christ in our world.

5. Rules become more important than relationships.

Jesus is the best model we have.

He did not come to bolster the religious institutions of His day; He came to restore our relationship with God and with others.

By building strong relationships with those he met, especially those in need of what he had to give them; namely, a grace that was unlike anything they had known.

He loved humanity so much because of His relationship with us that He was willing to die for us!

The church that does not follow His example becomes mired in survival mode.

Thankfully, we don’t have to stay in survival mode. We can move from surviving to thriving!

This is what our first sermon series in 2020, “WE WERE CREATED TO THRIVE,” is going to be about.

We’ll be looking at the acronym THRIVE to get a practical handle on how to move from surviving to thriving at God’s house and your house.

It will be centered upon the teaching of Jesus found in John 10:10.

John 10:10 ESV

10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

I want to note two quick observations from this verse.

1. Christ came that humanity may have life!

All of humanity in our natural state are under the sentence of death due to the sin nature infecting our souls. Apart from the work of Christ, we are all under the penalty of execution and eternal torment in Hell.

As sons of Adam, not one of us,

no matter how religious we are,

no matter how wealthy we are,

no matter how benevolent or good we are,

no matter how smart we are,

not one of us can escape the penalty sin has placed upon us on our own.

The only hope we have is in the promise of Jesus Christ.

He came that we may have life through His act of forgiveness, as His forgiveness, grace, and mercy were on full display at His crucifixion.

Every person among us must face that penalty of endless death, unless we go through Him who came to earth and hung upon the cross of Calvary as our substitute, the perfect Lamb of God, and obtain full remission for all our offences, and receive the verdict of life instead of death.

Jesus Christ came to call us from our graves of sin. Many have already heard His voice and live.

Friend is that you this morning?

Life for your soul is only to be had in Jesus! He is the only source of salvation you will find.

John 14:6 ESV

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Christ has come that we may have life; if we could have obtained life without His coming, why did He come?

If life could come to sinners apart from the cross, why did the Lord of Glory have to be nailed to that shameful tree?

Why did Immanuel’s blood have to be spilt, if life could come by some other door?

No, Christ came that we may have life! He is the only way, the only truth, and the only way to eternal life!

John 3:16 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:17 ESV

17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Christ came that we may have life,

and....

2. Christ ordained that life that He gave to be enjoyed abundantly in Him!

Jesus not only gave His life for us, but He gives His life to us every second of every day that we live in union with Him!

But we have to be in union with Him to enjoy Him abundantly!

Can you not see how great a difference there is between some Christians and others; between some churches and others?

What does the abundant life look like? What does it mean to thrive?

When I read our verse, I sometimes wonder how I can do more than just survive. Jesus tells me that He not only came to give me life, but that I can have life more abundantly.

Ephesus, how can we have that abundant life when there is so much pain and suffering all around us?

Our prayer list is always longer than our praise list, so how can we live abundantly when so many of us are barely surviving?

I love gardens, but the love of flowers and vegetation is not enough to make a garden grow and flourish.

Before you begin to garden you have to make a long term commitment that you will daily work your garden so it will grow and thrive.

It takes hard work and diligence to keep a garden growing…thriving.

You have to till the ground; have just the right mixture of nutrients in the soil; proper amounts of water; pruning; weeding; fertilizer; insect control; and just the right amount of sunlight and shade.

When I start to garden, and I haven’t done it in a while even though I enjoy it immensely, I know that all of my digging, sowing, pruning, and weeding, all of my hard labor would not be in vain, because I know that the outcome of my labors will be a beautiful garden for my family to enjoy.

Loving Christ and His Church is nice, but it will not produce the abundant life without effort, especially when we are surrounded by pain and suffering. I think that is what Paul was getting at when he prayed in Ephesians 3...

Ephesians 3:14–19 ESV

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Faith

Rooted and Grounded in love.

strength to comprehend

strength to know the love of Christ

be filled with all the fullness of God.

Paul was praying that the Church of Ephesus would be faithful and strong, rooted and grounded in love with understanding and knowledge of the deep things of God, as they were filled with the abundant fullness of God in their day to day lives.

1 Timothy 4:7–8 ESV

7 Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; 8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

Christ has brought us His life, but we have to train ourselves, by His Holy Spirit, to live that life according to His will and not our own. We have to discipline ourselves to attain the abundant life, which as Paul says, “holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”

Do you all know that Jesus loves you?

Do you know that I love you?

Ephesus, the painful truth is that we have been in survival mode for far too long! It is Time to Thrive!

When I came to you in July of 2018, I recognized that you were a church that was in survival mode. Actually, you were worse than that, you were in triage and as some of you have said yourself, you were barely holding on, you were fighting for your life.

Over this past year and a half, we have sought to trust God and allow Him to heal us and move us out of triage and into recovery.

We can look back this morning and celebrate what God has done. We are no longer a church in triage, but I do think we are still in recovery and still in survival mode.

Don’t get me wrong, we have come a long way, but we still have a ways to go! We have to move from simply surviving to thriving!

I want to share a few things that are on my heart as we begin to move into 2020.

Prayer is going to be emphasized more this year. We are going to be working to provide you more opportunities to come together corporately for prayer, but we are also going to resource you with new ways to pray in smaller groups, as families, and as individuals. Stay tuned.

I encourage you all to dedicate the first 40 days of 2020 to praying fervently for our church to move from surviving to thriving!

The Revitalization Process is going to be ramping up over the next few months. The ReVision Team still has a lot of work ahead of them, but they will begin to present some of their recommendations to you over the next few months so we can begin the process of not only implementing some of those recommendations if approved by the congregation, but also to allow them to know how to proceed forward in other areas of the overall process.

The first set of recommendations they are going to bring before you will be concerning a church wide discipleship strategy they have been developing with under my guidance. We believe that the future of the church has to be grounded in our mission which centers on making disciples.

So please be in prayer for your ReVision Team and our Revitalization process as a whole. As a church, let us decide in our hearts to let God decide our direction as we seek Him together.

Our Wednesday night children’s attendance has increased from 3-4 children to 7-8 children over the last few months. That is a blessing Ephesus, but it is a blessing with a responsibility. Debbie Peace has done a tremendous job with our children, but as our numbers increase she needs more help, and the children need more Bible training.

To that end, I have secured for us what appears to be a great curriculum to use in training the children to become active and productive disciples who can serve in the church and community now! We will be launching our new children’s ministry called, “Nehemiah Kids” in February.

In order to launch Nehemiah Kids successfully, we are going to need to make a few changes to our scheduling. I have discussed this with several of you over the past month or so, and the consensus seems to be that the change will be a positive change for the majority of our church.

So what is the change?

We are going to move our Wednesday night Bible study and prayer time from 7pm on Wednesday nights to 1:30pm on Wednesday afternoons, beginning soon.

There are several things this does for us.

Our attendance on Wednesday nights has been sluggish, so our hope is that many of you who do not like to get out in the evenings, especially during the winter months can now attend during the daytime.

We will also be moving our Monthly Fellowship meals to the first Sunday of each month following our morning service. This will allow for better attendance at that event as well.

For those of you who can’t come on Wednesday’s during the daytime, you can still come out on Wednesday night and help us serve the children, you will still get a time to pray and hear the Bible taught. We really need godly adult mentors to spend some one-on-one time with the children each Wednesday or you can help in the kitchen. For more details see me later.

Business meetings will operate the same as they have been, no changes there.

Choir Practice will remain the same. Choir members can simply leave after practice or stay and help with the Children’s ministry.

This change will free me up to help lead our children’s ministry on Wednesday night as we make this transition. Debbie Peace, Crystal, and several others are still going to serve and lead in the new ministry format.

I would love to begin to grow our ministry staff this year through the use of interns, low hour and wage part-time employees, and/or volunteer staff. This would not put a lot of strain on our budget and has the potential to increase our ministry footprint. It is essential that we begin developing a strong leadership pipeline for the future. More information on that at our business meeting on January 8th.

I would also like to begin developing a teaching/preaching team. If you are a male and you think you are gifted and interested in teaching or preaching or both, I am willing to train you and give you some opportunities to begin to exercise your gift. We need to develop a team of men capable of handling God’s Word accurately.

Pray and Go!

I am meeting jointly with the members of our prayer committee and our outreach committee on January 9th. We will be discussing a prayer based outreach strategy that I believe will help us to begin moving out of our walls and into our community. Pray for that meeting and for the strategy. It will take us all getting involved to accomplish our mission.

Outreach opportunities

Small changes to our worship service.

Our order of worship may change slightly in the upcoming weeks, as I want to invite more of you to be involved in participating in our services this year.

There will be opportunities for some of you to read scripture, pray, and more.

We are going to start praying more during our services.

We are also going to occasionally offer a ministry and mission’s spotlight where we will highlight some of the work that we are doing and supporting here at home and around the globe.

There will be a lot of new adventures coming our way this year as we allow the Lord to direct us in becoming a church that is intent on not just surviving, but thriving.

Will you pray for us to Thrive in 2020!

Invitation

Hymn No. 95

Go, Tell it on the Mountain!

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Maslow, A.H. (1943). "A theory of human motivation". Psychological Review. 50 (4): 370–96.