Minister for First Baptist Church
Roger Head – Minister
God is a great God and it is an honor to be His child. God has been at work in the world since before the beginning of the time. He has been in the process of establishing His kingdom for centuries. He has given us the great privilege of joining an army of saints who have served God down through the ages. We join forces with them in our few short years upon this earth to lead people to Christ and then disciple those who know Christ to do the same for others.
It is very important to remember where God has brought us from. Isaiah 41:14 pretty much sums up who we are before God; we are nothing but a worm before the great and mighty and awesome God of the universe. And yet Isaiah 57:15 expresses His willingness to condescend to meet us.
“For thus says the high and exalted One, Who lives forever, whose name is Holy,
I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit,
In order to revive the spirit of the lowly, And to revive the heart of the contrite.”
God has loved us with an everlasting love. God demonstrates His love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for the ungodly. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (sin sacrifice) for our sins. The wonder is not that we love God, but that He would ever love us in the first place.
Because of God’s great love for us, we are debtors. Paul wrote in Romans 1:14-16, “I am under obligation … I am eager to preach the gospel … I am not ashamed of the gospel …” A believer’s faith should not be self serving. Rather, we should “with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” (Phil. 2:3-4)
We are holy people, we are called out and set apart by God to be about His eternal purposes. God has equipped us with resources to accomplish His work.
He has drawn us to Himself with cords of love. Our hearts were strangely warmed to the mercies of Christ and we gave our life to Him and fell in love with Him.
Then He began to develop within us the Fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Next, He has given to each of us spiritual gifts, abilities beyond our natural talents that enable us to serve Him.
God has given us His Word, the Bible. Through the Bible the same Holy Spirit who inspired the ancient writers of Scripture speaks to our human spirit and instructs us in the ways of God. The result is that we are transformed by the renewing of our minds, so that we develop the mind of Christ.
We, as the temple, the dwelling place of God, are in dwelt by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is our helper, our teacher, our guide, our prayer partner, our corrector when we fall into sin, the healer of our broken hearts, and the One who instills love, joy, peace and hope in our hearts.
God has given us trials, difficulties, through which He teaches us to trust Him at a deeper level, through which He refines and purifies our lives, through which He molds us to become more like Christ.
God gives us the gift of prayer and tells us to “pray without ceasing.” We are compelled over and over again everyday to pray. Through pray we don’t change God, rather He changes us and gets us in sync with His plan for our lives.
When you sum it all up, Phil. 1:6 expresses what God is doing in our lives for time as He gets us ready for eternity. “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” This is a good life verse, a reminder of what God is about in your life.
But there is at least one more thing that God has given us, each other. Believers make up the Body of Christ, the New Testament Church, the organization that God has ordained to be His hands and feet on the earth. We live in the age of salvation. The church is to share God’s love and salvation with those that don’t know Him. As believers, we are to grow in respect to our salvation, so that we might become mature, fully developed believers, equipped for the work that God has called us to. We are called to be a people who are “rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer.” (Romans 12:12)
God’s eternal purpose to establish His Kingdom is heavily dependent on the church being obedient to God. The Great Commandment of God is to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength; and our neighbor as ourselves. The Great Commission is to go into all the world with the gospel.
Every church goes through cycles of growth, stagnation, decline and then renewal. Sometimes the church goes forward in hope against hope. At times we are “afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not despairing.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9) But God always has a remnant. In Ezekiel 6:8, God said, “I will leave a remnant.” When God’s people have drifted away from God, He specializes in renewing them. His mercies are new and fresh everyday. He calls us to repent and receive times of rejoicing. As God’s people return, He begins to send renewed blessings upon them. When a church is hungry for God, He will do great and mighty things which you know not among them. He tells us to call upon Him, to seek Him while He may be found. God tells His people, the church, “For I know the plans that I have for you … plans for welfare and not calamity to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)
When you look at the important work of God, and how He has chosen to involve the church, how can you not say with Paul, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His way! For who has known the mind of the Lord or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:33-36)
It is great to be child of God. It is a special blessing to be a part of His church. When God’s Spirit is trying to speak to us, may we be slow to speak, slow to anger, quick to listen.