Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

It’s an honor to serve here at FBC as pastor.

I’ve read from several other pastors of semi-local congregations who are struggling immensely with division, envy, and bitterness within the local church.

As Christians we’re all humans and we’re not immune from allowing worldly problems to filter into the church - but there has to be a better way than allowing stress and differences of opinions to bring about seemingly irreparable division within the church of Jesus Christ who died to bring us together under His Gospel.

It’s a blessing to serve here with so many of you all who lovingly serve and share the Gospel.

It’s a blessing to serve here with so many of you who are willing to get out of your comfort zone in order to make a difference in the life of someone else.

Each year, Barna research publishes polls, surveys, and trends among churchgoers and pastors alike.

In recent years they have begun to call this the “State of the Church” and include recent trends, concerns, celebrations, and encouragement in one easy to read article.

Given where we find ourselves as a church and in the midst of a changing landscape in our community and world, I felt like tonight would be an appropriate time to have our own “State of the Church” examination as we look at where we are, where we are going, and how exactly we are going to get there.

Before we examine these questions and look at our specific church, let’s spend a few minutes tonight looking at Hebrews 10:19-25

Christian Confidence and Responsibility

The letter to the Hebrews is one of the richest and deepest books that we have in our Bible.

This preacher points out to his audience how Jesus Christ is greater than their previous way of life.

To the Jewish Christians in his audience, Jesus is the greater sacrifice.

He is the greater Moses.

He’s the greater Aaron.

He’s greater than the angels.

He’s the perfect priest who died for His followers.

The 3rd and final section of Hebrews, which begins in Hebrews 10:19 transitions from theological to practical as this preacher encourages and instructs his audience to live differently as a result of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done.

Many of these instructions are for the entire church and we find several things that we as Christians are responsible to do in these 7 verses tonight.

Let’s look at 4 things that the church must do

Have confidence in Christ (19-22)

As Christians, we know that we can’t place our ultimate confidence in our works… We place our confidence in Christ’s finished work in our place on the cross!

Because of Jesus we are able to come before our God with boldness.

We are instructed to draw near to God.

This is a responsibility for Christians and one that we cannot take for granted.

Persevere in Christ (23)

The second thing that the church is supposed to do is to trust in Christ.

Why is this a big deal?

Why should Christians trust in Christ?

Because He is faithful.

He is good, He is in control, He doesn’t change… Therefore He can be fully trusted!

The verb for holding fast is a present tense verb indicating that we must continue to hold fast to Christ not because it’s easy… But because He is always faithful and He can be trusted.

Lift One Another Up in Christ (24)

The third thing the church is supposed to do it lift one another up and help one another produce good works.

Whenever we know someone is struggling, we encourage them and lift them up in prayer.

There must be love inside the local church.

As we love on one another, our prayer should be that we would continue to produce good works and proclaim the Gospel inside and outside the walls of this church.

This is a responsibility for all of us!

Gather Together in Christ (25)

In 2020 Hebrews 10:25 became the most divisive verse in the Bible as people debated this, “What does it mean to gather together?”

Some people took that verse to mean that it’s wrong to miss church under any circumstance… Others in 2020 took that verse to mean that I can do church by myself from home and not miss anything.

Both of these aren’t the meaning of the text, at all.

Hebrews 10:25 is clear: Christians are supposed to gather together - corporate worship matters!

You should feel like you missed out whenever you can’t come to church because there’s something inside of you that longs to gather with God’s people and praise Him.

Why?

Because whenever you gather, you get encouraged by God’s people.

Does this mean that you’re in sin if you are sick and don’t physically come to church and worship online?

No - sick and unclean people in Jesus’ day didn’t go to the temple.

Our responsibility as Christians is to desire to gather together for worship and to be careful not to fall out of that habit… Isn’t it easy to fall out of a good practice?

If you develop a habit of waking up at 5am to read your Bible and you get sick and sleep in for a few days, it’s a lot harder to pick that habit of waking up at 5am after you’ve slept in till 8am for a week!

We have to be careful to not fall out of the habit of gathering together to worship our Savior.

These are Christian responsibilities and things that we must do inside our church.

We must proclaim the truth of the Gospel.

We must stand on the Gospel unashamedly.

We must lift one another up in Christ.

We must gather to worship Christ together.

These things might be contested in the media or in some churches, but we can’t confuse what the Bible says with what is popular or trending on social media.

The Bible says it, that settles it!

Where We Are

For the next 10-15 minutes, I want to spend some time examining where we’re at as a church and what is on the horizon.

God has been so gracious to us and has blessed us left and right.

I’ve been praying for months and months about direction and guidance on where the Lord wants us to go in the days and years to come.

Some pastors call something like this “Vision Sunday” where the pastor lays out his vision - I think that can be done Biblically, but I’d much rather share some truths, trends, and thoughts that I’ve had in spending time with the Lord about His plans.

At the end of the day, we want to do exactly what the Holy Spirit is leading us to do… Nothing more but certainly nothing less.

We want to stay in the center of His will and follow His plan!

So, where are we?

We’re in the middle of a busy season of ministry in the life of this church.

Between Love Thy Neighbor, Camp Joy, Day Camp, VBS, and our Guatemala Mission Trip, we are going to have lots of events and trips where the Gospel will be shared and, we pray, disciples will be made!

We’re also in the middle of a busy time of the year for people traveling as some are today.

As a result of traveling, trips, and events our attendance is kind of all over the place.

Some weeks we’ll have near 300 and other weeks we’ll be closer to 250.

The Lord has sent and is continuing to send people to our church and this has to make us pause and give thanks to Him for that!

From July of 2021 to June 1 of 2022 we’ve had 25 people join our church by statement of faith or transfer of letter and we’ve had 18 people join our church by profession of faith in Christ and following through with believer’s baptism!

That’s 43 new members of FBC Salem in less than 12 months!

This number doesn’t include a number of people who have been consistently attending our church and have yet to officially join.

Our 3rd quarter 2021 average attendance in morning worship was 194 and our 2nd quarter 2022 average attendance in morning worship, excluding Easter, was 280.

This is reason to celebrate that more people are hearing the Gospel.

More people are growing spiritually.

More lives are being changed by the Holy Spirit.

And more friendships and relationships are being made!

Numerical growth is cause to praise God, but spiritual growth is even more reason to give thanks to Him!

Lots of churches and pastors get hung up on numerical growth and they make that the barometer of their success or lack-thereof.

Whenever we make numbers the indicator of our success then we’re going to get depressed in a hurry.

Whenever we make numbers the sole indicator of our success, we’ll begin to cater to numbers instead of people.

It’s been said that whatever it takes to get people into a church, it will take to keep them at church.

Meaning this, if the only reason that you come to church is to hear songs that you like and David starts to introduce some songs that you don’t like, you might stop coming because the thing that brought you here was the songs.

If the reason that you came to church was because you really liked the sermon series on the Sermon on the Mount and we started a new series through Philippians, you might stop coming because the thing that brought you here has changed.

The thing that we pray brings people to FBC Salem is not our songs, sermon series, or specials… We pray that it would be the people who gather to worship our Lord and follow His Spirit.

We pray that people come here because we stand with confidence upon the inspired and inerrant and sufficient Word of the living God.

We pray that people come here because of the love that exists here.

We pray that people come here because this is a church that loves God and loves others well.

We pray that people come here because this is a church that doesn’t just make converts but makes disciples and strives to make disciples of all nations.

The biggest praise about where we are is the spiritual growth and the unity that exists within this body.

Without question spiritual growth trumps numerical growth and it’s been a blessing to see people come to faith in Christ and continue to grow in their walk and begin serving in this church.

This is where we are.

By God’s grace we are united under the Gospel.

We are proclaiming His truth.

We are loving our community.

We are making disciples of all nations.