“New Year’s Resolutions, pt.1 (Various Texts)", Will DuVal | 12/29/24
Various Texts | 12/29/24 | Will DuVal
But the two Sundays after Christmas and then New Year are always tricky. It’s not a great time to start a new series; with all the traveling. So most years we try and take this opportunity, as we say GOODBYE to one year and HELLO to another, to do both some reflection - taking stock of where God has led us this year as a church - as well as some recentering and looking ahead to where we believe God WANTS to lead us in the year to come. And if you were able to attend our annual meeting here 3 weeks ago, you’ll recall we started the process THEN. You heard about 90 minutes of positive reports and CELEBRATIONS from my fellow elders, representing ALL of our various ministries here, most ALL of which truly are THRIVING. But then I got up for a half hour at the end and kind of rained on the parade by giving you a list of the 10 areas that I believe need additional focus, work, PRAYER in the year ahead. Not that they’re all necessarily “weaknesses”, or even “areas of needed GROWTH” (although with a few of these 10, that IS the case). But ALL of these areas need to be on our collective radar for attention and prayer in 2025. And I thought these next 2 Sundays would be a good excuse to UNPACK each of them a bit more.
So here’s what I’m gonna do: I’m gonna cover FIVE of these “areas for additional attention” this morning, and five NEXT week, with each of the 10 functioning kinda like its own little MINI-sermon, if you will; around 8 minutes a piece. And with each of the 10 resolutions I wanna do 3 things:
1) First: I will suggest a positive, biblical PRINCIPLE for us to collectively AIM at together as a church, and then I’ll GROUND that principle in a brief passage of Scripture. Again, more of a devotional (we could easily spend a whole sermon on each of these, but…)
2) Second, I want to briefly explain why I believe this is a principle that WE need to focus on especially here at West Hills in 2025. That’s what I STARTED to do at the annual meeting, but not everyone was THERE, and these are important enough matters to be REMINDED of anyway. So I’ll make the case for why this principle is particularly relevant for us here as a church. But then…
3) Third, I don’t just wanna bring “problems”; I wanna suggest SOLUTIONS - REsolutions! So I’ll suggest both a collective PRAYER, as well as a practical ACTION item, a STEP that I am calling us to take together in 2025, to WORK toward each of these worthy principles, goals, RESOLUTIONS. That’s how I’ve framed it in your outline:
“Let’s resolve together to work and pray for…”
Every word there is important. We must RESOLVE to aim for each of these good biblical principles; if I can’t convince you BIBLICALLY that they are worth our attention, then I’ve failed. We must resolve TOGETHER - it’s not enough for ME to be convinced, or even for church LEADERSHIP - the elder council and staff; we must ALL see these resolutions as worthy pursuits, and strive for them in UNISON. And that’s the THIRD important word: “WORK”. Yes, we must pray, but often God’s ANSWER to our prayers is to call US to ACTION! I think of Moses by the edge of the Red Sea in Exodus 14, when the Israelites are afraid, and Moses says, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today…. you have only to be silent.”” And God replies to Moses: ““Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it” (14:14-15) In other words, “Sure, you need my HELP. But Y’ALL got a part to play here TOO - wheels up! Get a MOVE on! Moses- I gave you that staff for a REASON!”. So God calls US to work TOO. But lastly: we know unless the LORD builds the house, we labor in vain. So we work like it’s up to us, but we PRAY like it’s up to him. Cuz ultimately, it IS.
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Alright, let’s go! First principle: “Let’s resolve together to work and pray to…”
1) REMEMBER. (Ps 78:1-8) To remember the WONDERS God has worked for us as a church over the past 55 years now so we can PRAISE him for them, while also remembering the HARDSHIPS so we don’t forget the LESSONS he taught us through them.
That’s a principle we see on display especially in Psalm 78. It’s a LONG psalm - 72 verses; the 2nd longest psalm and FIFTH longest chapter in the BIBLE (by verses). And the WHOLE thing - it’s a song written by ASAPH - and it’s ALL about calling ISRAEL, God’s PEOPLE, to REMEMBER what he has done for them. It starts out like this:
“Give ear, O my people, to my teaching…
I will utter… 3 things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us.4 We will not hide them from our children, but tell to the coming generationthe glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done…
7 so that they should set their hope in Godand not forget the works of God” (Ps 78:1-7)
And then Asaph goes on for 72 verses, REMEMBERING God’s works: How he PARTED the Red Sea, He LED them through the wilderness, PROVIDED manna and water for them, and ultimately led them INTO the Promised Land, driving OUT Israel’s enemies for them.
But Asaph ALSO reminded them of the NOT so wondrous parts: when their forefathers REBELLED against God in the desert, when a NEW generation rebelled AGAIN, once they were IN the Promised Land - they NEGLECTED God’s word and fell away into IDOL worship instead. So God PUNISHED them.
And Asaph says, “We can’t FORGET it! Both the good, AND the bad - we must REMEMBER so we can PRAISE God for the wonders while LEARNING from, being WARNED by the punishments.” And this call to “REMEMBER” is one of the most frequently REITERATED commands in all of Scripture.
And I’m suggesting this is a principle that is particularly pertinent for US, for a couple reasons: First of all, we’ve got some pretty big PLANS for 2025 - expanding our sanctuary and parking lot, renovating the fellowship hall, kitchen, some bathrooms… But they say “If you don’t learn from the past, you’re doomed to repeat it.” Dave Holmes asked me the other day, “Remember how we realized after the fact that we had OVEREXTENDED ourselves financially, with the LAST building addition - the Doxa - 20 years ago; is anyone crunching the numbers to make sure we don’t do that AGAIN??” I know we’re PROJECTING for continued growth, but if God has other plans, that we would STAY a church of around 500, and NOT cross that threshold - what then?” Good question.
I would add that BUILDING that Doxa - instead of a full-fledged GYMNASIUM - was the worst decision this church ever made. How do we ensure we don’t regret the design plans for this remodel later? We gotta learn from the past.
But the bigger reason I’m highlighting this call to “remember” is that I think we’re at a bit of a crossroads, generationally right now, as a church. Asaph said, “Tell the coming generation”. In just the past year, we have lost JR Smith, Bob Dierberg, Sal Paez, Barbara Underwood… so MANY of our “Silent Generation” and even “GREATEST Generation” members (in their 90s!). And we are so BLESSED to have a few of them still here with us - especially Ms. SANDI and Ms. JUNE, who started this church in her BASEMENT 55 years ago and she turns 100 just 6 months from now! But we know eventually the Lord will call THEM home as well. And I for one would HATE to see so much of the RICH HISTORY of this church be lost when God DOES take them home. May we “forget NOT the works of God… the wonders that he has done,” for THIS church specifically.
So let me suggest both a PRAYER, and an ACTION item for us:
First, let’s pray together as a church that God would HELP us to REMEMBER. First and foremost, we must remember the GOSPEL - the “WONDERS” God worked to DELIVER us from sin and ADOPT us as his people 2,000 years ago by sending Jesus to live as our Lord, die as our Savior, and resurrect as our King that we might be SAVED. And secondly, we need to remember God’s WORD - which not only RETELLS the gospel story for us, but also COMMANDS us now to LIVE as God’s redeemed, sanctified children; we remember and OBEY God’s WORD.
But THIRD, and perhaps the call we most often OVERLOOK, is the charge to remember Church HISTORY. God’s story - his wonders - didn’t END 2,000 years ago; he was still at work, building his church 3 centuries LATER, when the Bible was canonized; and during the 2 centuries that followed, establishing orthodoxy at the ecumenical councils; and 5 centuries after THAT, during the Great Schism; and through the next 2 centuries of CRUSADES; and 3 centuries after THAT, during the Reformation. And 75 years ago when the EFCA, our denomination, was founded. And God has continued working his wonders every step of the way for 55 years now in the life and history of THIS church as well. Let’s pray and ask Him to give us the DESIRE to learn and remember.
But as for what WE can do PRACTICALLY - I want to call us to even MORE intergenerational ministry in the year to come, listening to and celebrating the stories of God’s wonders here at West Hills. And let’s commit to remembering more broadly too - I would LOVE to see, I’ve been asking for years now, for a “Church History” class to be taught during one of the Sunday school hours; if you’re interested in TEACHING it, you don’t have to be an EXPERT, but come let us know. May we REMEMBER.
#2 - And by the way, I tried to order these ascending order of importance, in MY view anyway; so #10 for NEXT week will be the MOST important. But second: “Let’s resolve together to work and pray toward… PREPAREDNESS. (Pr 22:3)
This will be one of the shortest and SIMPLEST, most straightforward points, but Proverbs 22:3 exhorts:
“The prudent sees danger and hides himself,
but the simple go on and suffer for it.”
In GENERAL, it is WISE for us to avoid DANGER.
Now, there are exceptions - when the GOSPEL is on the line, and SALVATION is at stake - God calls some of us to risk our LIVES to take the gospel to unreached peoples, even those who may be HOSTILE toward it. But in MOST cases, as a general PRINCIPLE, resulting from the extremely high view of the sanctity of LIFE that we hold as believers, whenever possible, we seek to preserve and protect LIFE. Avoid danger.
And this principle needs more attention from us, as a church. To be really frank, we are NOT properly prepared right now, as a church, to avoid danger. We should have emergency response and evacuation plans in place in the event of a tornado, earthquake, active shooter, medical emergency - and our elders and staff should all be TRAINED in them, on the same page. Fortunately, we DO have MOST of that in place in our KIDS ministry - Ally and Holly have THEIR house in order - but when it comes to the wider church, maybe it’s stupid for me to admit it publicly like this - I probably should’ve checked with our Rob, our INSURANCE rep first, on whether or not admitting it makes us more LIABLE or something - but the fact of the matter is: we really don’t have a PLAN.
Now that’s the BAD news; the GOOD news is I think this one’s an easy FIX!
First of all, I ask you to PRAY that God would CONTINUE to protect this church from the need to IMPLEMENT any emergency safety protocols - “God, SPARE us the tornadoes and earthquakes and shooters and heart-attacks…”
But secondly, as for ACTION, you have MY word, that this will be top of our list in next week’s elder council meeting, to figure out who we need to HIRE to come in and consult and TRAIN us, to get the church prepared. And God willing, we might be able to check THIS one off our list by JANUARY! (But then of course we’ll need to CONTINUE to prioritize RE-training every year or so, I imagine.)
#3 - “Let’s resolve together to work and pray for…
DIVERSITY. (1 Cor 12:12-14)
“Diversity” is one of those words - like “evangelical” or “abortion” - that has been usurped and politicized in recent years, but as BELIEVERS, it’s important for us to remember that God LOVES diversity. He CREATED it. From the wide array of heavenly bodies out in the cosmos, to the diverse ecosystems and forms of wildlife all over our planet, God makes it MANIFESTLY clear that he is WILDLY creative. And the same is true - ESPECIALLY so - when it comes to God’s creation of US, human beings. 8.2 BILLION people alive today, and no TWO of them are the same; ALL of us are completely unique, by God’s good design.
And there are lots of different TYPES of diversity we could focus on, and lots of places in the BIBLE where God encourages diversity within his CHURCH: diversity of OPINIONS (Rom 14:5); diversity of WORSHIP (1 Cor 14:26); diversity in LEADERSHIP (Acts 13:1); diversity of ETHNES / PEOPLE-groups (Revelation 7:9 - “I looked, and behold, a great multitude… from every nation (ethne), from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne (of God)” - God wants to fill heaven with all KINDS of peoples. And the Church here on earth is just an OUTPOST, an EMBASSY of heaven, meant to reflect that SAME heavenly diversity.
One of the most explicit passages is 1 Corinthians ch12, and particularly vv12-14:“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many.”
The apostle Paul actually mentions THREE types of diversity there: the most important, and the wider CONTEXT for the passage, is the diversity of spiritual GIFTS that God has given to the church. Paul opened the chapter by pointing out: “to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge… to another faith… to another gifts of healing…” (vv8-9), and he CONCLUDES the chapter in a similar way: “God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers…” (v28), etc. - diverse spiritual GIFTS, each of which is meant to EDIFY - to build up and BLESS - the body of Christ in a UNIQUE way.
But Paul more subtly mentioned two additional types of diversity there in v13 that ALSO ought to be represented within Christ’s CHURCH: the ETHNIC distinction between “Jews or Greeks”, and the SOCIO-ECONOMIC distinction between “slaves or free” believers. And Paul makes it CLEAR that there IS still a distinction between Jews & Gentiles, slaves & free; actually, it’s why he uses the word “OR” - Jews OR Greeks; slaves OR free. It’s also the whole point of the passage - Paul’s saying that the HUMAN body is a METAPHOR for the body of CHRIST. Your body needs a diversity of “parts” or “members” - 206 different bones, 600 different muscles, and 78 different organs. You DON’T need 78 eyeballs, or 78 hands; you need DIVERSITY. Paul says: it’s the same way in the CHURCH. We need a diversity of spiritual gifts, but the church ALSO needs ETHNIC and SOCIO-ECONOMIC diversity as well. Jesus isn’t interested in heading a “JEWISH church” or a “BLACK church”; he won’t settle for a “slave church” or an “upper-middle CLASS church”; Christ is head of THE Church! The ONE Church… WITH MANY diverse PARTS.
Now how does this - how SHOULD this - play out in our various LOCAL congregations? Some will argue “Well, of COURSE God wants people of all ethnicities and socio-economic groups in the “capital “C” Church. It would be a problem if there were NO Korean Christians ANYWHERE. But that doesn’t mean that EVERY local church must include Korean believers, must include both white and black and everything in between, every ethnicity; that’s IMPOSSIBLE - there are 17,267 ethnes in the world and we only find a few HUNDRED of them represented in all of St Louis.” So many Christians will argue, FAIRLY I think, that your church ought to reflect the diversity of its surrounding AREA. We’re not gonna BUS in Bosnians a half hour from South City just so we can feel BETTER about how DIVERSE we are at West Hills; there are great churches in South City.
But at the same time, we DO need to recognize that we’ve got a GOOD number of congregants here who DO drive half an hour from EVERY direction - Pacific, Defiance, Florissant, BOTH O’Fallons - West Hills is NOT a “neighborhood” church. Less than 2% - TEN of our 500 congregants here - are Town & Country residents. We are a HIGHWAY church; a 40 & 270 & 141 church. Average drive time to get here is 15 minutes. So maybe we can’t let ourselves off the hook so easily by simply reflecting the diversity (or lack thereof) in Town & Country; perhaps we ought to be a demographic snapshot of all of West County: 77% white, 11% Asian, 6% multiethnic, 5% Black or Hispanic.
4.4% live below the poverty line. (https://datausa.io/profile/geo/st-louis-county-west-puma-mo#:~:text=The%205%20largest%20ethnic%20groups,of%20the%20households%20in%20St.)
Now, some of you get uncomfortable when we start talking about this, either because the very concept has gotten so poisoned in your mind by the WORLD’s version of FORCED diversity- equity of outcome, affirmative action, DEI initiatives, and the like. Or perhaps because it feels PERSONAL - “Well, Pastor, I’m one of the 90+% of upper-middle class white congregants at West Hills; if you’re saying we oughta reflect West County and be at 77%, which of us are you gonna start KICKING OUT?!” (which of course is the wrong way to look at it anyway; why would we subtract?! What if the Lord just ADDED 50 NEW congregants who DIDN’T look just like most of us?)
Which brings us to the BIGGEST reason some of you wish I’d just drop it: because WHO CARES? Wouldn’t it be great if God added 50 new members here REGARDLESS of their ethnicity and socio-economic status?
Sure it would. But the question is, “Would it be even BETTER if our church was able to become more diverse?” And I think the clear BIBLICAL answer is: YES, because God loves diversity.
And you claiming to be “color-blind” doesn’t make you MORE like God; it actually makes you LESS like him. God DOES see color, that’s why He PAINTED us differently. And we IGNORE our distinctiveness to our DETRIMENT. We are NOT all eyes, NOT all hands; God made us DIFFERENT, for a REASON. And then he brought us TOGETHER, so we can learn from and complement one another.
So we ought to CELEBRATE the diversity of spiritual giftedness God has blessed this church with. I praise God we don’t have 500 people here with the gift of PREACHING (otherwise I’d be out of a job pretty quick!). We celebrate the diversity of spiritual MATURITY God has blessed us with. We have some beautiful life-on-life discipleship and intergenerational ministry going on here. Let’s celebrate our diversity of OPINIONS, on second and third tier issues - I praise GOD that we’re not one of those churches where EVERYONE is a dispensationalist, or a credobaptist, or a Trump-supporter.
So we celebrate diversity where we’ve GOT it… AND… we ought to PRAY and WORK toward it where we don’t. Or at least where we’d love to see even MORE of it.
I’d love to see even more ethnic and socio-economic diversity here. We’ve had $70,000 sitting in our Mercy Ministry fund for over a year now and we can’t figure out who to give it AWAY to, cuz we don’t have enough congregants in NEED here. Jesus said “It’s more blessed to GIVE than RECEIVE”; our lack of socio-economic diversity, lack of folks to whom we can GIVE is keeping us from being BLESSED!
As the father of a black son, I’m a LITTLE afraid he’s gonna grow up thinking church is really - mostly - for WHITE people. I think I’d be less afraid if West Hills reflected the diversity of West County - 23% non-white.
So here’s what I’ll ask you to do, to pray and work.
First of all, if you’re STILL not convinced, that God loves diversity, and that West Hills - as great as this church already IS - that we’d be even BETTER if we were even more diverse, then I encourage you to PRAY, and ask God IF it’s true, to make it CLEAR to you. And then I further encourage you, if you haven’t before, to study for YOURSELF what His word SAYS on the topic - if you can prove me wrong BIBLICALLY, I will publicly recant and DROP the whole diversity push. But you CAN’T, and I trust that God would USE such a study to open YOUR eyes to HIS heart for VARIETY - it’s the “spice of life”! It’s a beautiful thing.
But SECOND, if you ARE convinced - you’re WITH me; “PREACH it, Pastor!” - then I would ask YOU to commit to PRAYING with me in 2025 as well, that God would bring us more diversity as a church. We claim every WEEK that we’re gonna obey Jesus’ Great Commission, and “go make disciples of ALL nations”, all ethnes in the Greek; all “ethnicities” is really the better translation… PEOPLE-groups. Did you know that St. Louis has the fastest growing foreign-born population in the entire COUNTRY?! (https://www.stlmag.com/stlmade/st-louis-multicultural-city/#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20the%20metro%20area%20saw%20the,Latino/Hispanic%20and%20Black%20populations%20grew%20as%20well.)
We don’t even have to get on a PLANE anymore; God is bringing the nations HERE, to US! We just gotta INVITE and WELCOME them. Would you pray with me that God would bring them to WEST HILLS, specifically. And then WORK with me to make West Hills the most WELCOMING church folks have ever stepped FOOT in. Especially when you know that person, that family, is going to be predisposed to feel a bit like an outsider already. EVERYONE feels like an outsider the first time you walk in a new church. But ESPECIALLY so when you’re in the minority. You say you don’t see color? Try going to an all-BLACK church, an Iranian church; I bet your whiteness shows up pretty darn quick! I bet you’d really appreciate someone THERE going out of their WAY to seek you out and make you feel INCLUDED.
Let’s do that for folks HERE.
And that’s a good segue way into my FOURTH exhortation as well; if I didn’t trigger you with my cry for diversity, how about THIS one: #4 - “Let’s resolve together to work and pray for…
INCLUSION. (Rom 15:5-7)
Yet another word that has sadly been TAINTED by the whole DEI movement.
But once AGAIN, when we just go straight to the BIBLE, we HAVE to conclude that God is RADICALLY inclusive!
He “so loved THE WORLD! that He gave His only SON, that WHO-SO-EVER believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”
Heaven is open to ANYONE and EVERYONE who SIMPLY says “YES” to Jesus!
And I’m sure I don’t need to cite ALL the passages where we see just how inclusive JESUS was in particular - Jesus, who EARNED his nickname: “friend of sinners”, and wore it like a badge of HONOR (Lk 7:34), as he hung out with Samaritans and lepers, centurions and children, tax collectors and prostitutes - the people that respectable Jewish men of Jesus’ day were supposed to pass right by on the street without a second glance, or better yet, CROSS the street to avoid them. But Jesus LOVED them, and he invited ALL to come to Him.
And now he calls US to do the same. Most notably, in Romans 15, vv5-7:
“May God… grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Therefore WELCOME one another as Christ has welcomed YOU, for the glory of God.”
As we talked about just a moment ago: everyone ought to feel RADICALLY welcomed - INCLUDED - when they’re at West Hills. But ESPECIALLY those who are most at RISK of feeling EXCLUDED, marginalized; they’re the folks who Jesus made a SPECIAL effort to seek out and include.
That could mean folks in the RACIAL or FINANCIAL minority, or as we discussed back in Ephesians during the election cycle, folks who are in the POLITICAL minority at our church, but Christ’s call to radical inclusion and hospitality extends to the most DIFFICULT of people to love. A few months ago, one of you called me to check and make sure it was okay if you invited your transgender coworker to church with you; “He dresses like a woman, but it’s very obvious; Pastor: do you think he would be WELCOMED here?”, and I said, “He BETTER be! If anyone here loves JESUS at all, he will be - What Would JESUS Do? He’d make a BEE-line for your co-worker, to make sure he felt welcomed and loved.” Now, things might get trickier if he wants to use the female RESTROOM - that goes back to principle #2; we still have an obligation to protect the safety and well-being of others. And showing hospitality must ALSO never mean that we soft-pedal the gospel. I told that member, “I can’t promise that your co-worker won’t be OFFENDED by the sermon; cuz the gospel IS offensive - most people don’t like being called a “SINNER”. But EVERYONE SHOULD love hearing the GOOD news that WHILE they were yet a sinner, Christ DIED for them. Your co-worker’s gonna hear that Jesus loves him RIGHT where he’s at - NO sin is too big or “weird” for Jesus - AND Jesus also loves us too much to LEAVE us the way he found us; he WILL change us, sanctify us, make us more like him. More WELCOMING!!
But the more PROMINENT demographic of congregants I had in mind when I added “inclusion” to my list, that I mentioned at the Annual Meeting, is our SINGLES. I’ve had 3 different conversations now in just the past 2 months, with folks telling me, “It is HARD to be single at this church.” Now, in ONE of those cases, I could argue it’s gonna be hard for you to be single at ANY church, because you really want to be married. And that’s just tough - when God has PUT that GOOD, godly desire for a spouse within your heart, and just not yet FULFILLED it yet; it’s ESPECIALLY tough when you’re at a church of predominantly MARRIED people, MOST of whom are in their 20s, 30s and 40s. That’s HARD; no way around it.
But at least ONE of those conversations I had was with a young lady who is VERY content in her singleness; she discusses it in the same way the apostle PAUL did in 1 Corinthians 7: as a “calling”, a “GIFT” from God, that allows her to give her “undivided devotion to serving the Lord” and his church (7:35), and she DOES; this young lady is absolutely as plugged in here at West Hills as ANYONE who is not full-time, paid staff. And yet, she’s telling me, “It’s HARD to be single - even CONTENTEDLY single - here.” Actually, here’s what she said (this is a short excerpt from the email she sent me to clarify her thoughts and direct our conversation before she came in, which I share with her permission; she writes):
“I have asked fellow single adults why they don’t participate in Life Groups. Most have said it is an incredibly intimidating environment to walk into because almost all of those who are involved in a Life Group are couples/families… telling singles to toughen up and just get plugged in isn’t going to lead to any permanent change unless the rest of the church changes, too. Sometimes, it’s exhausting to always be the token single… I know I belong to [Jesus], so I know I belong among his people. Sometimes I just want to feel like I belong at West Hills by the same means-- namely, that I didn’t have to do any work to earn the belonging.”
She had to WORK to feel like she BELONGED at life group. Imagine with me for a minute - DREAM with me… PRAY with me! WORK with me! - towards a church where that was NEVER the case, EVER again, for ANYONE. Where ANYONE - where a SAMARITAN PROSTITUTE, where a transgender African-American… where an UNMARRIED CHRISTIAN! - could walk in on a Sunday morning, or a Wednesday night, and feel 100% welcomed, 100% loved, and 0% intimidated, 0% exhausted - like they had to WORK to PROVE that they belonged.
Boy, that sounds like a Spirit-filled, Christ-led, God-glorifying church to me!
Would you pray with me that God would continue to change us more and more into that church in the year to come? And would you commit to doing YOUR part - to WORK towards that change - as well? Towards radical hospitality. Some of you may need to confess and quit hiding behind your introverted personality - you wanna talk about UNBIBLICAL? You won’t find ANY exclusionary clauses for introverts in God’s word: Hebrews 13:2 - “show hospitality”; 1 Pet 4:9 - “Show hospitality”; Rom 12:13 “show hospitality.”
Personality experts will tell you that introversion is about where you get your ENERGY. That’s fine - you may need to go home after church and take a 3-hour NAP, to recharge your social BATTERY, but while you’re HERE, you can - Romans 15:7 - “welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you”.
Man, if we ALL started doing that, and PRAYING that God would give us more EMPATHY, to put ourselves in that OTHER person’s shoes - “What MUST it be like, to be the only single person in the life group?” - and then we started TREATING people accordingly, “Do unto others… Welcome as YOU’VE been welcomed…” - WATCH OUT! We’d need a new sanctuary sooner than next SUMMER, or a third service; cuz no one would EVER leave a church like that! I don’t care HOW bad my preaching may be; people STICK AROUND a church like that. We ALL want to be included, welcomed, LOVED.
Finally for this morning, and I will be BRIEFEST here, not because it’s the least important - it’s the MOST important! - but because now I’m exhausted and also because this principle is the most clear-cut of them ALL, biblically; it shouldn’t take ANY convincing:
#5 - “Let’s resolve together to work and pray for…
PRAYERFULNESS.
There are DOZENS of verses to pick from, but Colossians 4:2 is as short and sweet as you can find – “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”
God wants us to PRAY, church. He INVITES us to pray. Prayer is the most heavenly, hallowed, RAPTUROUS thing that you will do today - spending time in the presence of Almighty God?! We get to spend time WITH him; TALKING with him, as our FATHER - ANY time we want, every single DAY - unlimited access to the Creator and Sovereign Sustainer of the UNIVERSE, and our Lord and SAVIOR, the great LOVER of our SOULS.
Nothing else that you and I will do today even comes CLOSE to how MIND-BLOWING that truly is.
But I fear that too often we take it for granted. I’ll just speak for MYSELF - I know I do, personally. And while I can’t of course see into your heart, to properly diagnose YOUR prayer life, I do get glimpses. I know we have our elders and prayer team stand up here every Sunday after services, offering to pray for folks, but they very rarely get asked to. I know we encourage you to fill out the prayer request cards in your bulletin every Sunday, and it’s usually the same 15 people who do so each week.
And my FEAR is that EITHER we don’t think we NEED prayer - cuz prayer is a confession of dependency on the LORD; “Lord, I NEED you, in THIS area of my life - I depend on YOU for grace in my marriage, for patience in my parenting, for contentment at my job, for boldness in my evangelism, for SALVATION for my LOVED ones; I can’t MAKE them believe and CHERISH the gospel, what you’ve done for them to RESCUE them from sin; YOU’VE got to do it! And I’m BEGGING you to do it! I am UTTERLY DEPENDENT on you…” - if we’re NOT as prayerful as we could and should be, it’s either because we don’t think we NEED it…
OR… because we’re not really sure it MATTERS. “Does prayer even make a DIFFERENCE, if God’s will is gonna be done regardless?” Or “Does MY prayer request even matter to God? Surely he’s got more important things to worry about… I’m sure the ELDERS and PRAYER team have more important things to pray for…”
Church- can I just remind you that it is an HONOR to be able to lift you up in prayer each week. But can I also confess that I DON’T, when you’re not ASKING for it. Please ask. Ask like your requests matter, because they DO, not just to me, but MOST importantly, to your heavenly FATHER: “Cast ALL your cares on him, because he cares for you” (1 Pet 5:7).