"New Year's Resolutions, pt.2 (Various Texts)", Will DuVal | 1/5/25
Various Texts | 1/5/25 | Will DuVal
In case you weren’t here last week, let me quickly catch you up: these two Sundays after Christmas and New Years, we decided to do a 2-part “New Year’s Resolutions” series, where we are unpacking the list I presented at our church’s Annual Meeting last month of the “Top 10 Areas of Needed Work & Prayer” here at West Hills in 2025. That’s how I framed the calling: “Let’s resolve together to work and pray for”, these 10 goals, resolutions.
We need RESOLVE, determination; “firmness of purpose or intent”.
We need TOGETHERNESS; unity in this collective calling from the Lord.
We must WORK. In EACH of these 10 pursuits, God has given us AGENCY, the power to affect real CHANGE in our church where needed, with God’s help. Which brings us to that last, most important word…
PRAYER. We must PRAY. All the work in the world by us, without the LORD behind it, will be in vain. So we ASK HIM to work.
And with EACH of these 10 resolutions, I am first highlighting the biblical principle we ought to pursue together, and then grounding that principle in a short passage of Scripture. But then secondly, I’ve tried to make the case for why this resolution is especially pertinent for US here at West Hills, and in the coming year in particular. And then lastly, I’m proposing both a PRAYER as well as a tangible, actionable response with each resolution, that I believe God is calling us to this year.
So last Sunday started with a call to 1) REMEMBER, from Psalm 78, because we’re at a generational crossroads right now as a church, and we need to pray and work to preserve our history, so we can both celebrate God’s “glorious deeds” as well as LEARN from any mistakes.
Second, I called us to 2) PREPAREDNESS. “The wise see danger and hide themselves” (Pr 22:3). A very PRACTICAL admonition: to be better prepared, as a church. And as for praying and working, I had 3 or 4 of y’all come up to me immediately after the service and offer to help serve on an emergency response team… help draft up an emergency response plan… that is SO appreciated. One of the things you WON’T find on my list is a need for better volunteerism, because this church ALWAYS steps up to meet needs when they arise. I LOVE that about the culture of West Hills; many hands make for manageable work.
Third, I asked you to join me in praying and working towards more DIVERSITY here, specifically, the ethnic and socio-economic diversity that we find biblically within the Body of Christ in both the EARLY church of the first century as well as in the LAST church in the eschaton: that “great multitude… from ALL nations, tribes, and tongues standing before the throne [of] the Lamb” (Rev 7:9). We want to be a church who “makes disciples of ALL the ethnes”, ALL the ethnicities.
Fourth, and in a similar vein, we want to be a church known for our radical INCLUSION (Rom 15:5-7). A church that “welcome[s] one another as Christ has welcomed [US].” Where EVERYONE feels welcomed, seen, known, loved, cared for.
And then lastly, last week, we resolved to work and pray together for more PRAYERFULNESS this year. For more humility and DEPENDENCY on the Lord. To submit more prayer request cards, to avail ourselves of the opportunities to be prayed for after the service down front, DURING the service, in the pastoral prayer, during staff meetings, elder meetings… We want to pray for you, you NEED the prayer; it’s a win-win. But you gotta ask. “You do not have, because you do not ask,” James 4:2 says. Let’s ASK. And not just ASK; let’s ADORE, confess, thank, lament… ALL the various forms of prayer that God invites us to in his word.
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And that gets us up to speed for this MORNING, and resolution #SIX now - and remember ALSO that I’ve tried to ARRANGE the list in ascending order of importance. Greater importance BIBLICALLY, as well as PRACTICALLY, for us as a church, insofar as FAILING to pray and work towards the 5 resolutions we’re considering together this morning will have even WEIGHTIER, more DIRE consequences. Therefore…
#6- “Let’s resolve together to work and pray for MISSION-HEARTEDNESS. (Mt 25:31-40)
As with ALL of these, I could have chosen a NUMBER of different texts to ground this principle in, but Matthew 25 is as compelling and clear-cut as any, where Jesus announces:
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory… he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me [there’s “INCLUSION” again, by the way…], I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we [do it]? And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers,[f] you did it to me.’”
I told you already: this church serves one ANOTHER as faithfully as ANY church I’ve ever seen or been a part of. But do we serve **THEM, just as devotedly? Those OUTSIDE our walls - the hungry and thirsty, the impoverished and imprisoned, the sick and the stranger - those ESTRANGED from GOD… who need him MOST! - are we reaching THEM?
I have said for YEARS now that the question that causes me to lose the most SLEEP is this one: “If West Hills Church FOLDED, would anyone who’s NOT a member or regular attender NOTICE or care?”
Now, I wanna believe, and I really do think that, by God’s grace, and with a lot of hard work from Pastor Thad in recent years, and now Pastor AUSTIN, heading up our missions team that SPECIALIZES in outreach beyond our walls, we’re beginning to work toward a better ANSWER to that question; that “YES! We have every reason to BELIEVE that there would be MANY people, and churches, and parachurch organizations, who would be adversely affected if we went belly up… who are POSITIVELY affected by our PARTNERSHIP with them, our ministry to and with them. I used to list “mission-heartedness” as like number 8 or 9 on my list, but I think we’re improving.
But there is STILL work to be done. And I say “mission- HEARTEDNESS”, because it STARTS with us collectively having “a heart after GOD’S own heart” - one that breaks for the hurting, the downtrodden, the outcast, those in greatest need of help; in greatest need of CHRIST. If that’s where our heart TRULY is, as a church, the missions team won’t have to beg and beg to convince y’all to sign up and show up when they set up these church-wide SERVING opportunities for us.
And I wanna get some of them on your radar NOW, and get super practical here. We’ve tried for YEARS to get consistency with this - lining up a monthly missional opportunity where we can make an impact together as a church outside our walls, and get collective BUY-in; where serving “the least of these” becomes an integral part of the CULTURE of our entire CHURCH. And Austin and his team have already got some GREAT opportunities lined up for us for quarter 1 of 2025:
THIS month, January, we are partnering with OASIS International - wonderful local ministry here in town serving St. Louis’s REFUGEE population; I told you last week: St. Louis is the FASTEST-growing foreign-born population of ANY city in the COUNTRY; we don’t even have to get on a plane or a BOAT anymore to “GO to all the nations to make disciples”; GOD is bringing the NATIONS to US! They’re already HERE, right in our backyard; we’ve just gotta build BRIDGES. And perhaps the BEST way we can DO that, is by SERVING them; meeting PHYSICAL, tangible needs, which opens the door… opens their HEARTS… to meeting their SPIRITUAL need for CHRIST as well. As the adage goes: “They don’t care how much you KNOW (about Jesus), until they know how much you CARE (about THEM).” And we’ve got a chance to PROVE it - that we CARE about St. Louis’s refugees - these are folks who FLED here from their countries to escape WAR, religious persecution… sometimes with nothing but the shirt on their BACK. And we’re partnering with Oasis to provide them with basic household items (toiletries, cleaning products…), FURNITURE (Oasis says they see cases where a family is given ONE mattress for a family of FOUR or more to share; how many of us have extra mattresses in the basement, blow-ups, old couches we’ve been wanting to replace and get rid of anyway…), we’re collecting TOYS, for their children - how many of our kids unwrapped a DOZEN shiny new toys last week on Christmas, that are gonna replace the 3 or 4 dozen toys they’ve accumulated in the LAST couple years and already gotten BORED with and never touch anymore - toys these refugee kids would be OVERJOYED to receive! We’ve got a POD set up in the back right corner of our parking lot here (it’s may be buried under SNOW at the moment), but it’ll be there all month long; PLEASE come drop off - if you got BIG stuff (beds, couches…) just email Austin and we can even COORDINATE a PICKUP straight from your house. But that’s January.
In February, we are excited to announce we’re gonna be hosting a “Compassion Sunday”, and partnering with Compassion International, whose mission is “releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name”. And some of you will remember, I was blessed to TRAVEL with Compassion to Guatemala just last June, and see their ministry in action - our family has sponsored a child thru Compassion for YEARS now, but I’d never seen it on the ground until last year and I can tell you, they do PHENOMENAL work, absolutely transforming the lives not just of these children, and their families, but whole COMMUNITIES in these third world countries. Kids and communities that are impoverished not just MATERIALLY - Compassion doesn’t just want to release children from PHYSICAL poverty; although they do that too - they are TRULY “feeding the hungry, clothing the naked”... some of the kids I met on my trip, the only sure meal they can COUNT on each day is the lunch they receive at their local Compassion center; they receive an EDUCATION, they get medical care - but MOST of all, Compassion wants to free them from SPIRITUAL poverty, and introduce every child to the love and hope of JESUS. And they’re doing it; AMAZING ministry. I’m so excited to partner with them in February and Lord willing, for years to come.
And then in MARCH - again: Lord willing - we are excited to announce that we are planning to partner, with not ONE but TWO brand new pro-LIFE ministries here in town: Reach Reproductive Health and House of Refuge Ministries. You probably remember we bumped “Sanctity of Life Sunday” up this year to NOVEMBER, in the wake of the tragic passing of Amendment 3 here in Missouri, but we knew we needed to replace our former partnership with ThriVe. Well, big thanks again to both Austin as well as Cassidy Campbell, who is overseeing our new “life team” as sort of a ministry WITHIN a ministry, under the missions team, but think we’re ready to RE-launch partnerships now with both Reach and House of Refuge, to rejoin the fight for LIFE - not only the lives of the UNBORN, but the lives of the vulnerable WOMEN and even MEN, who are PREYED upon by the abortion industry; we want to give THEM life as well; give them HOPE, freedom, CHRIST!
You’ll hear more about ALL of that in the weeks to come. But in the meantime, would you commit to PRAYING? Asking GOD to make us a truly mission-hearted church here. One who puts our money (and HANDS) where our MOUTH is, and who puts our MOUTH where our HEART is - head, heart, hands… that ALL of it would be where GOD’S heart is: with the LEAST and with the LOST. May we be a church KNOWN for reaching THEM.
#7 - “Let’s resolve together in 2025, to work and pray for GOSPEL-FOCUS. (2 Tim 2:3-4) Gospel-focus stands in contrast to the seventh THREAT I highlighted at the Annual Meeting: DISTRACTION. Here’s the way the apostle PAUL warned the church against distractions in 2 Timothy ch2; he writes: “Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.”
The CONTEXT there, is gospel multiplication. And we’re actually coming BACK to the verses just BEFORE this passage in point #8, but Paul has just exhorted Timothy “what you heard from me [the GOSPEL - the good news that Jesus Christ lived, died, and was raised from the dead to give us FREEDOM from sin, RELATIONSHIP with God our heavenly Father, and life EVERLASTING with Him in heaven - that good news, Paul says]... entrust [it] to [others]”. Pay it forward. But then Paul IMMEDIATELY adds here: “It’s gonna be HARD; get ready to SUFFER, as a good SOLDIER of Christ Jesus.”
We just wrapped up Ephesians together last month, where Paul instructed us to “SUIT UP!” “Put on the WHOLE ARMOR of God”; because we - the Church - are AT WAR… NOT against flesh and blood, but “against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (6:12).
“I may never march in the infantry
Ride in the cavalry
I may never FLY o’er the enemy
But I'm in the Lord's army! YES SIR!”
And we ARE, Church! “THEREFORE,” Paul says, “we can’t get DISTRACTED, SIDE tracked, “entangled” in CIVILIAN pursuits.”
POLITICS… is a civilian pursuit. What if the Church had spent even HALF as much time and energy and money in 2024 campaigning for JESUS as we saw so many Christians devote to one of those two GODLESS candidates on the ballot - Can you imagine a Church that EVANGELIZED like that? THAT fervently?!
ENTERTAINMENT… is a CIVILIAN pursuit. Can you imagine if the Church spent HALF as much time, money & energy cheering for JESUS as we do the Cardinals, the Blues, and City soccer?
So Paul’s reminder here of the importance of maintaining our gospel-focus is ALWAYS an important one, for EVERY church, at EVERY time. But it is an ESPECIALLY important reminder for OUR church, at THIS time, because of all that we have on the horizon here. We’re planning to roll out a multi-million dollar building campaign in 2025. Most churches - most PASTORS - gearing up for something like that would PLAN to spend a SIGNIFICANT portion of the weeks and months ahead on FUNDRAISING. Capital campaign. Building design meetings with the architect. Permit approval meetings with city officials. And to be sure, SOME of that is unavoidable… for ME… for US, as a church; SOMEONE has to jump through SOME of those hoops if it’s gonna get it done. But I will warn you - PAUL wants to warn us… GOD wants to warn us! - that for every minute we spend “entangled in civilian pursuits” this year… begging for MONEY, discussing the color of the new CARPET, requesting Town & Country’s permission to DO any of it - those are INVALUABLE, irredeemable hours that we will NEVER get back - time is the ONLY non-renewable resource we can’t buy MORE of. And I know I’D rather spend all the time possible that God sees fit to give me here, focused on GOSPEL MINISTRY.
But we all have different GIFTS. And we’ll come back to this one in resolution #8, but ONE of the gifts we need MORE of here is LEADERSHIP. And we’ve got to realize that for every minute that our LEADERS are the ones fundraising, designing, PERmitting… those are minutes we are NOT shepherding, praying, preaching, teaching.
So let me just jump to the prayer request and the ACTION item now: couple things…
Prayer-wise: I WOULD ask you to pray SPECIFICALLY for those of us in church leadership in the year to come (I hope you do that already, but would you add this to your prayers): “God, would you help our pastors and elders, our staff and deacons, to remain FOCUSED on YOU. Even WHEN they have to get down in the weeds, of the budgets and blueprints and permits - some of it is just unavoidable; but God, even THEN, would you help them to DO it all with a gospel-FOCUS, as a function of their faithful soldiering. Even SOLDIERS have to go to the dentist, pay their taxes, shine their boots - it’s the BORING part of being a good SOLDIER.
But Church, I would ask you - BEYOND that - to the extent you are ABLE, to not only pray but to help us WORK toward distraction-free (or at least distraction-MINIMIZED) ministry and gospel-focus, by playing YOUR part. I would LOVE it - just like I had those 3 or 4 people approach me after last week and offer to help with the safety initiative - if you have EXPERIENCE, giftedness, passion in any of these areas of facilities and finance that you’d be willing to lend in service to the church, to free our leaders up to pray and preach - I think of Acts 6 and the birth of DEACONS in the church. God was adding so many new converts to the early church that the apostles hit a wall; they HAD been in charge of the orphan and widow care, but eventually they recognized: ““It’s not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables… we [gotta] appoint [OTHERS] to this duty. So that we can devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”” (6:2-4) I think that’s the point WE’RE at now, as a church. We gotta appoint OTHERS to worry about the budget and the building, so WE - the elders - don’t get too entangled in civilian pursuits. Maybe you can help us with that, free us up.
One way I KNOW you can, that I mentioned specifically at the Annual Meeting, is with the whole fundraising / capital campaign part. I told you: my plan (and I believe GOD’S plan) is to kick off our new series in the book of NUMBERS next week. I would HATE to have to interrupt that series - interrupt the beauty of expository preaching, chapter-by-chapter, verse-by-verse through God’s WORD - to make you sit through weeks and weeks of sermons on GIVING; I’d HATE to interrupt the beautiful book of NUMBERS to talk about some boring financial NUMBERS! How AMAZING would it be if I didn’t have to ask at ALL; if God just MOVED in your hearts, in ALL of our hearts… if we saw the VISION, the PURPOSE behind this building expansion: not to expand OUR Kingdom, but to advance HIS! GOD’S. Because more seats and more parking spots mean more HEARTS that get touched by the GOSPEL every Sunday, every Wednesday, every VBS, every Fall Festival and Easter Eggstravaganza. We don’t want there to be a CAP on how many PEOPLE God can reach through the ministry of this church - within reason. We’ve still gotta be able to SHEPHERD them all well. But by God’s grace and with His help, we believe we can. So we’re ASKING him to do it - to CONTINUE building His church at West Hills. God is doing something SPECIAL here. 80% of churches in the U.S. have plateaued or are declining; by God’s grace, we’re in the 20%. And we’re praying, “God KEEP building it!” But that means we’ve gotta LITERALLY build, expand.
Now, I don’t know who gives WHAT, nor do I know how much any of you MAKE. But I DO know that on AVERAGE, Christians who are active church attenders - we’re not factoring in folks who checked a box on a survey but never show up; I’m talking ATTENDERS - in this country give on average only 2.5% of our income to the Church. Now, without getting into a whole SEPARATE conversation about TITHING (the OT practice of giving TEN % to the Lord; some will argue it’s no longer the rule of thumb under the new covenant), but I would just point out that JESUS did seem to affirm the practice of tithing in Matthew 23:23, and that the clearest ALTERNATIVE example we’re given in the NEW Testament to inform our approach to giving today is found in Acts chs 2 and 4, where believers were selling ALL their possessions and giving ALL the proceeds to the church.
To be clear: we are NOT asking you to do that! 🙂 Nevertheless, 2 Corinthians 9 says “God loves a CHEERFUL giver”, a GENEROUS giver. And Jesus affirmed the tithe.
And while I’d LIKE to think West Hills is better than the national average - that we give MORE than 2.5% to the church - even if we were DOUBLING that, we’d still only be giving HALF of the 10% mark that Jesus approved of. Again, I have no idea who gives what. But I DO know that every minute I’m inviting you to open your WALLETS in 2025 is a minute I’m NOT inviting you to open your HEARTS to the LORD, which is my primarily calling as a preacher, and as your PASTOR.
And IF God is truly calling us to expand our facilities, I believe he is going to provide the means to do it, the resources - through YOU, through US - to accomplish it… WITHOUT us being FORCED to go way “off message” and get entangled in civilian pursuits. I bet if we ALL pledged to give 10% in 2025, and trusted God to provide - to give us the ability to do it, the FAITH to do it - I bet this is the LAST you’d ever have to hear from me about money from the pulpit for a LONG long time, until it was time to CELEBRATE how much God had provided - without us even CAMPAIGNING for it! - and without having to go into DEBT to BORROW it either.
I don’t know about y’all, but that EXCITES to me - the prospect of following where God is leading, while REMAINING focused on the gospel. You can help be a part of it. And we can ALL be praying to that end, in this new year.
#8 - “Let’s resolve together to work and pray for LEADER-EMPOWERMENT. (2 Tim 2:1-2)
Here’s that passage I mentioned right BEFORE Paul warned us against entanglement in civilian affairs; he encouraged Timothy: “You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men (and women), who will be able to teach others also.”
We spent a whole WEEK in Ephesians, ch3, discussing Paul’s - and discussing our OWN - stewardship of the GOSPEL. How God has entrusted US with the greatest news in the world - Christ crucified and resurrected for the forgiveness of sins - but as JESUS said, “you don’t light a lamp only to HIDE it under a BASKET; “Let it SHINE, let it SHINE, let it SHINE!” God is calling us to “pay it FORWARD” - to “entrust” that same glorious gospel that WE were given… to OTHERS… “who will be ABLE”, Paul goes on, “to pay it forward and teach even MORE others” - disciples who make disciples who make disciples who make… you get the picture.
But it is significant here, when we consider the CONTEXT of this passage - the author and audience - that this is the apostle PAUL writing specifically, and personally, to his protege TIMOTHY, who Paul had entrusted not ONLY with the gospel, but with the reins of LEADERSHIP in the church of EPHESUS, the church Paul himself had once pastored and LOVED so much - Paul appointed TIMOTHY to then take over and LEAD the church in his PLACE. So while “disciple-making in GENERAL” is in view here in 2 Timothy 2, it is clear that LEADER-EMPOWERMENT more specifically is in Paul’s mind here as well.
We actually talked about THIS recently as well, with our ADVENT sermon from Jeremiah 23: as the LEADER goes - it was their wicked kings, their selfish “shepherds” in the book of Jeremiah, who led to the Babylonian captivity; but it’s no less true still TODAY - as the leader goes, so goes the organization. God places a HIGH PRIORITY on godly LEADERSHIP, in his word. On those who are SPECIALLY entrusted with wearing the mantle, bearing the responsibility; yes, the PRIVILEGE and JOY… but also bearing the BURDEN - of “TEACHING others” the faith “that was once for all delivered to the saints”.
And in the church, in accordance with New Testament example and instruction, that STARTS with the ELDERS. We are blessed, at THIS church, with 7 GODLY - imperfect, but GODLY - elders (well, 6 plus me 🙂). And we’ve had another 6 - I think, if I counted right and didn’t forget anyone - 6 additional elders who served their term and then rotated OFF the council to recharge their batteries, because let me tell you: it is TAXING! Emotionally, spiritually, relationally - shepherding a church of 260 members takes TIME… that’s time away from your FAMILY, from your JOB… it is a SACRIFICE. Which makes me all the more GRATEFUL for those men who have MADE that sacrifice, and ESPECIALLY for the ones who are making it right NOW, day in and day out, to serve YOU; I hope you are grateful as well, and I hope you EXPRESS your gratitude to them often, for “keeping watch over your souls” - what a WEIGHTY job; I hope you “Let them do it with joy and not with groaning”, as Hebrews 13:17 encourages.
But BECAUSE it’s so weighty, we need more SHOULDERS, to help carry, help spread the load. I really think our elder council ought to be more like 10 or 12 instead of 7. Same with our DIACONATE, our DEACONS; we’ve got TEN, we could PROBABLY use more like 12 or 14. Offset some of the workload. Pretty soon we’ll need more STAFF, more SMALL group leaders, more leaders ACROSS THE BOARD, as a growing church. WITHOUT it, we get stretched too thin and the EXISTING leaders burn out and the whole thing falls apart - as the LEADERS go, so goes the CHURCH.
So what can we DO? Well, once again, it STARTS with PRAYER. Would you PRAY with us… FOR us… in this new year, that God would raise up more leaders at West Hills? SPECIFICALLY, here’s the thing: I really think we’ve already GOT ‘em; it’s just a matter of getting them ON BOARD, ready and willing to serve. Because it IS a sacrifice.
But SOMEONE’S gotta make it, or the church collapses. And I want to be clear: we’re not on the BRINK or anything at West Hills; I don’t wanna be overly alarmist. I wouldn’t say we have a “leadership CRISIS” on our hands here. But we ALL know that left unaddressed, today’s “concern” is tomorrow’s “crisis”; 2025’s “concern”, left unaddressed, is 2026’s “crisis”.
So we’re asking you to PRAY. And we’re asking SOME of you to step up and LEAD. And we’re asking the REST of you to “let them do it with JOY and not groaning”. Don’t be the BLACK sheep of the flock here. Don’t be the reason the shepherds GET burned out and NEED a break. I thank God for the 90% of you here that are a JOY to shepherd. It’s a joy and an HONOR. Let’s pray that God would move in the hearts of even MORE of our sheep, to SEE it as a joy and honor… to shepherd, to DESIRE it - 1 Timothy 3:1 says “If anyone aspires to the office of overseer [elder, shepherd], he desires a noble task” - shepherding is intended to be DESIRABLE; let’s pray that more of our sheep would DESIRE to be shepherds.
It may mean - last thing I’ll say here - it may mean not just “identifying” but actually TRAINING new leaders too. This is the first year in quite a few years that I am not leading a D-group, as of last week. And part of the REASON is that I feel led to leave MARGIN, in case the Lord is calling us to some kind of new leader-TRAINING initiative. I’m not sure. But you can pray with us about that as well.
#9- “Let’s resolve together to work and pray for COMMUNITY-COHESIVENESS.
Hebrews 10:24-25 exhorts us to: “consider how to stir one another UP to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” The NEARER we draw to the Day of Christ’s return, Jesus warned us that things are gonna get pretty ROUGH. We’re gonna NEED each other - the church family - more than EVER: ENCOURAGEMENT, “stirring up”, togetherness, strength in numbers. That is more and more true - the importance of true, deep COMMUNITY, fellowship, koinonia - it’s more needed with every passing DAY.
But it’s also more DIFFICULT, in an increasingly fragmented, isolating, tribal, ANTI-social world, where more and more of our lives are spent hiding behind a screen. Even for CHURCH! This is NOT church, by the way; just quick reminder on that. WHATEVER this WEIRD thing is we’re all doing this morning at home in our PJs, it’s FINE; it’s at least better than NOTHING - praise God for the technology, to record and stream like this - but let’s not kid ourselves; it is NOT “church”. Ecclesia, means “ASSEMBLY”; the very WORD means “gathering… COMMUNITY”. And sometimes we forget - take for granted - the POWER and IMPORTANCE of it, til it’s GONE; even for just a week, 1 Sunday we pray.
There’s ONE prayer we can pray this morning: that God would USE this week - SEPARATED from the church community, MISSING OUT on the joy of community - to DEEPEN our appreciation for it.
But I put this one so HIGH on the list, not only because it’s so important, but because WITH all the planned changes for 2025, we are at a much greater RISK of community-disintegration this year, the weakening and FRAYING of the bonds of brotherly love that exist between us. They’re not a GIVEN; relationships take WORK. And what IS the church if not a NETWORK of relationships - horizontal with each other as WELL as vertical with God - they ALL take work, time, investment, attention. And what we DON’T want is to spend lots of time and money and energy growing that web of relationships BROADER, only for them to get SHALLOWER. We DON’T wanna be the “mile wide but only an inch deep” church that many of you CAME here from, because you were LOOKING for real, authentic, biblical community, and you stayed cuz you FOUND it here. But we’re gonna have to work EXTRA hard now to CULTIVATE it, in a year of transitions, where we might be out of our own building for MOST of the year.
So we need to PRAY: “God, would you STRENGTHEN the cords that bind us together here; we’re not just asking you to SUSTAIN them, but to STRENGTHEN them”; the changes ahead in 2025 have the potential to test and strain relationships, but they ALSO have the potential to FORTIFY and DEEPEN them, if we are intentional and PRAYER-ful.
But on the “intentional”, actionable side of it: I just wanna take this opportunity AGAIN, at the beginning of the year, to URGE you: if you are NOT in a weekly small group - a LIFE group, a DISCIPLESHIP group - or at LEAST in one of our other less FREQUENT expressions of community (Sunday school, midweek Bible studies, men’s breakfast, women’s gatherings, etc.) - NOW is the time! Start your year off RIGHT, in community with fellow believers, who will “stir you up to love and good deeds… and ENCOURAGE you”. We’d love to get you plugged in - talk to me or Pastor Thad. And if you ARE plugged into community here - start making PLANS NOW for the changes ahead. How are you gonna STAY closely connected when we’re out of the building? We gotta work to cultivate that cohesiveness.
But lastly, and like last week with PRAYER, I’ll be briefest on this point not because it’s LEAST important but because it OUGHT to be most OBVIOUS to us, and take the least CONVINCING (and also because I’m out of TIME), but…
#10 - “Let’s resolve together this year to work and pray for SOUL-WINNING.
James 5:19-20 – “My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”
Can you believe that God entrusts THAT to us? That He CALLS us and actually USES us to save others’ SOULS from DEATH?! HOW?!
Quite simply, by pointing them to JESUS, the ONLY one with the power to save them from their sins.
We PREACH it - the GOSPEL - every SUNDAY here. And we CALL on people to RESPOND, with REPENTANCE and FAITH in Christ, who alone can SAVE. But we RARELY get to see those responses. And if that is God’s plan for this church, that we would merely, faithfully plant and water the seeds of the gospel that OTHER churches will later get to see GROW and BLOSSOM into true saving FAITH, then we’ll trust His plan in that.
But it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t PRAY for it. WORK towards it. If it is a good and godly goal to prayerfully pursue REMEMBRANCE, PREPAREDNESS, diversity, inclusion… ALL those other resolutions; what could be MORE good, MORE godly, than asking the Lord to use US to “bring back sinners from their wandering and save souls from DEATH”?! We cannot read God’s word and conclude that he wants ANYTHING more than he wants that - “he desires all people to be saved”; the Lord doesn’t “wish that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” - and we know he wants to use US to help ACCOMPLISH it. Will you commit to PRAYING to that end this year, and WORKING toward it as well - EVANGELIZING, discipling others. Or at least inviting them to church - you KNOW they’re gonna hear the gospel here. Let’s pray they RESPOND.