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Where To Now?
Now that we are in 2022, what are our plans as a church?
I want to take some time today dreaming about our future and what I believe God wants us to accomplish.
I wanted to start by going back to this passage I read last week as our call to worship.
The background for the book by Isaiah includes the recent fall of Israel to the Assyrians.
Judah was living in a state of idolatry.
They political situation was fraught with rise of nations fighting for territory that Israel was right in the middle.
Isaiah prophesied the fall to Babylon due to Hezekiah sending the Temple treasures to them as a way to appease them.
But He also predicted the restoration of God’s people under Cyrus II and the fall of Babylon.
That includes the restoration of the nation and the future it’s blessing.
The latter part of the book includes many prophesies of the restoration by the Messiah.
Which is what we see here this morning.
Isaiah’s last section though speaking to Israel also points to the our redeemer, Jesus Christ.
As Israel was redeemed out of Babylon to go back to their land and restore their nation.
One the Messiah will come and restore God’s kingdom with His people the church made up of Jews and Gentiles.
God’s Witness To The World
Israel is God’s servant in the world and also God’s witness to the world.
In this passage God is showing them how idols cannot reveal themselves or help them at all.
Yet, He is the Lord God of Israel, who redeemed them out of Egypt and brought them to the land with a promise of blessings if they obeyed.
He also told them that if they disobeyed, He would bring curses upon them.
He was going to bring them out of Babylon, give them their freedom, allow them to be a witness of who God is for the world.
In our focus passage, the Lord calls to their remembrance the mighty deliverance he worked over Egypt at the Red Sea (v.
17).
But then God commands them to forget the former things (v.
18) as he unveils amazing news with the word “Look” (v.
19).
He is going to work a far greater salvation in the future, something that will cause the exodus to shrink in memory.
We see that when God forgives and restores His people, He wants them to forget the failures of the past, witness for Him in the present, and claim His promises for the future.
Why should we remember that which God has forgotten?
He forgave them, not because they brought Him sacrifices, since they couldn’t in Babylon without an altar.
He forgave them purely because of His mercy and Grace.
What Does That Have To Do With Us?
Good Question!
This coming March will be my 10th anniversary as your pastor.
During that time, God has done a lot for in our church.
And we’ve seen some downs in that time.
Then throw in the pandemic and everything we knew as normal was thrown out the window.
We started implementing a strategy to lead us to health, but it seems that every turn, something happens to disrupt us.
I heard a saying that seems to fit: Make a plan, implement the plan, expect the plan to go off the rails, throw the plan out.
Plan, prepare, flexecute
Improvise, overcome, and adapt, the unofficial Marine motto
But for us in the church we must stay close to God, follow Him, and obey Him.
The biggest obstacle is spiritual and we need to be ready.
I look back and I see that we’ve been beat up, but we are still here fighting for God.
I still feel like I did when I came that God has great things in store for us as are obedient in following Him.
I feel like we have been in exile like Israel, but God has promised to bring us back from exile.
Three Year Plan
As you know, I have been interested in Church Revitalization for several years.
One thing that I’ve learned is that it is hard work.
I’ve been to several workshops to become a better revitalizing pastor.
But one thing I discovered is that it takes at least 1,000 days to turn a church from unhealthy to health.
In my study, I was asked a question, “Where is your church?”
In the wilderness
At the Jordan
Conquering the land
In Exile
My answer was in exile.
We have a great history of growth and ministry in our community,
I felt we were like Israel who was once in the land then went into exile
That we have declined since out heights in the 70’s
I began to study how Israel wound up in exile and how did returned to Jerusalem.
They were judged by God for being disobedient to His commands and turning to idols.
He used the Assyrians and Babylonians to carry out His judgement on Israel and then Judah.
When you think about our church and its history.
There was a time in the wilderness as they formed the church and got it off the ground.
Then came a time of expanding ministry - at the Jordan and into the land.
Then there was a time a great ministry.
Then the church began a slow descent in health and numbers.
Did God send the church into exile?
I’ve thought about that and prayed about it and I’ve to believe that He did.
The reason was we turned from completely obeying the mandate we have been given as a church among other things.
Churches decline for two main reasons — both having to do with a shift in priorities .
First , they lose passion for the Great Commission and the Great Commandment .
Second , as a result , they no longer give God glory .
When a church no longer pushes outward with the gospel , the people will no longer look upward to God’s glory.
A church lacking both an outward and upward perspective will inevitably move in the other two directions : inward and downward .
So how do you restore, renew, and revitalize a church?
A study of Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, and some of the other prophets we can find our answer.
Coming out of the pandemic, one thing is true for churches: what was normal is not normal now.
We will need to rethink how we do church in 2022 and beyond.
Rebuild the Temple
First from Ezra we learn the first thing to do is to rebuild the Temple.
Cyrus learns about Isaiah’s prophecy that he would allow the Jews to return to their homeland and rebuild the temple and Jerusalem.
So after 70 years of exile, Zerubabbel led the first group back from Babylon to the land given to them by God.
The first thing they did was to rebuild the altar and then the temple.
After laying the foundation stones and the work stopped.
They didn’t finish the temple due to outside and inside conflict.
20 years after their return they were able to finish the temple.
Applying this to us, I see that the first thing we need to do in our revitalization is to rebuild the temple.
Not that we need a new building, but Israel first built the altar.
After building it they could worship God as He prescribed them to them.
We began this in 2020, but the pandemic hit and like Israel the construction stopped.
So this year, I would like us to focus on rebuilding our worship.
Like I said last week, the first priority is to have 52 weeks of quality worship.
We need to discover true worship where we give God glory and praise, not just on Sunday but every day of the week.
Therefore, we will learn how to truly worship God.
Why? Look at verse 21, “So the people I formed for myself will declare my praise.”
Prior to the exile, the Israel were worshiping idols.
Once they returned from the exile, Israel has been a monotheistic nation.
Never returned to idols.
What are our idols that we worship?
Career, comfort, politics, good looks, whatever is stopping us from putting God first, what is your idol.
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