A Fresh Vision “A Church That Put’s God First”

 A Fresh Vision

“A Church That Put’s God First”

Welcome

Jeanne Calment, at 120 years, was the oldest living human whose birth date could be authenticated. When asked to describe her vision for the future, she replied, “Very brief.”

When the reporter asked the birthday girl what she like best about being 102 years old, she answered, “Well, there’s no peer pressure.”

Introduction:

Good morning Eastern Shore Baptist Church. First off I want to thank Josh Raybon for conducting our Communion service last week. It has been a while since Angela and I could get away for a few days and I really appreciate Josh stepping up to help out while I was away. We have a real treasure in all of our staff. 

Church, this morning we are starting a new 6 week series entitled “A Fresh Vision”. Over these next 6 weeks we are going to be talking about the new vision for Eastern Shore Baptist Church. Why are we here? Who are we trying to reach? I want to answer these questions for us this morning. From here on out, you will start to see unveiled before you our vision and our values. You will start to see them around the building. You will see our vision and values in our classrooms, in the hallways, on our signs, and in our media. Now this may seem a bit surprising for you this morning but trust me friends, this has been an ongoing conversation with our staff, with our deacons, and with our church leadership for more than a year now. I have revealed bits and pieces of this new vision in my sermons. I have shared it in deacon’s meetings. We have been discussing it nearly every week in our staff meetings. So while it may seem a bit sudden for some of you, many of you have been privy to this new direction for a while now. 

I don’t want to play “hide the ball” this morning. Let’s just jump right into it. What is this fresh new vision that I am talking about today? Well, it’s written on your sermon outline this morning. Let’s read it together. “ESBC is on mission to share Christ with every family in the community of Lake Forest and the greater Eastern Shore”. Over the next 6 weeks we will unpack that vision and discuss our values as a church. The vision is what we hope to achieve. It is what we want to do in our present and it is what we want to accomplish in the future. Our values represent our core beliefs. Our values make us who we are, who we want to be. 

Our Fresh Vision:

ESBC is on mission to share Christ with every family in the community of Lake Forest and the greater Eastern Shore.

So, how did we arrive at this vision? Pretty simple really. 35 years go Eastern Shore Baptist Church was constituted. Before that, the church was not really a church, it was a mission of Daphne Baptist. Grant Barber was the pastor at Daphne Baptist and he felt God calling the church to plant a congregation in the Lake Forest community. Grant wisely saw the numerous families coming to the area.  He, along with several members from Daphne Baptist, heard God’s command to plant that mission to reach Lake Forest. That’s right friends, Eastern Shore Baptist Church was placed to bring God’s presence and power to the Lake Forest neighborhood. 

In fact, that is your “Today’s Thought”. You can fill in those blanks this morning. Eastern Shore Baptist Church Is Uniquely Positioned To Brings God’s Presence and Power To the Lake Forest Community!

Today’s Thought:

Eastern Shore Baptist Church Is Uniquely Positioned To Brings God’s Presence and Power To the Lake Forest Community!

I would dare say that no other church on the Eastern Shore is positioned better or more strategically located to reach Lake Forest. Grant, along with that handful of members from Daphne Baptist, boldly set out to grow the fledgling mission. The group met all over the community. They met in hotels and houses. They met in community centers and clubs, schools and stadiums, and even the Lake Forest Yacht Club. It would not take long but that mission would grow into the church we are today. Grant would pastor both the mission and Daphne Baptist until one outgrew the other. Eventually God called Grant to the Eastern Shore Mission full time and the mission became Eastern Shore Baptist Church. 

Now today is not so much a history lesson for all of us. Over the next 6 weeks we will indeed look back a few times to look forward. We will talk about what has happened so that we can be informed of our future. I will talk about what my vision was when I first came to Eastern Shore Baptist Church and how that vision has shifted. If Im being truthful with you this morning, our new fresh vision is really not that new and it is not that fresh. What I believe God calling us to do today is to get back to our original calling, our original mission, to reach Lake Forest for the glory of God. 

Essentially we want as a church to win the lost, disciple the won, baptizing and blessing the world. 

Bring them in, build them up, and send them out. 

Now I know what you are thinking. What about Spanish Fort? What about Fairhope? What about the rest of us that don’t live in Lake Forest? Does that mean that Eastern Shore Baptist Church is no longer for me if I don’t live in that neighborhood? The answer to that is clearly “of course not”. 

Friend, I don’t live in Lake Forest. Many of you do not live there either. That’s ok. The Great Commission of making disciples around the world is still our ultimate goal. However, if we can’t reach the community that we are planted in, how can we expect to reach Spanish Fort, Fairhope, or Daphne proper? Frankly, I find it freeing to finally know why Eastern Shore Baptist Church exists. The door way to the nations is that neighborhood. If we cannot be committed to reaching that neighborhood, the one that we are planted in, then we can’t reach the nations. 

If we as members of Eastern Shore Baptist Church cannot commit ourselves to reaching the neighborhood of Lake Forest, then how can the rest of us who do not live in Lake Forest be committed to reach the people that live right next door to us? Essentially Lake Forest becomes our Great Commission experiment. Think of Lake Forest as a classroom where we deploy the lessons of evangelism. We practice reaching those homes, those families for Christ. For those of us who do not live in Lake Forest, we take what we practice in that neighborhood and put those lessons into actions in Daphne, Fairhope, Spanish Fort, Loxley, Stockton, and the rest of Baldwin County. 

Simple as that. 

So, how do we get there? Well our first step is to know our values. What do we believe about God and what do we believe about ourselves? The first value that we are going to be discussing this morning is that we are a “church that puts God first”. Think about it folks, if we are a church that puts anything above God, we will never ever be able to reach our community for Christ. You might be thinking, “but preacher, of course we are a church that puts God first”. The temptation is to think that, but there are a lot of things, situations, or ideals that are detour churches away from putting God first. Churches across America get lost along the way, take their eyes off Christ, and miss out on their calling. This is a problem that dates back to the early church. In John’s Revelation, the Apostle addresses the Church in Ephesus. Listen to what he says to this church, 

Revelation 2:4-5 NLT 

"But I have this complaint against you. You don't love me or each other as you did at first! [5] Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don't repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches.

“You don’t love me or each other as you did at first”. What a terrible commentary. Oh church, we can lose our love of God when we put our eyes on our preferences, our particular worship styles, the outward trappings of our buildings. We can lose our first love when we care more about keeping our facilities nice and neat than the truth that our community going to hell without Christ. We lose our first love when we argue over petty things. Matters that are mundane and monotonous. I’ve been pastoring and in ministry for a long time. Do you know what most churches argue about, tempos and temperature. They argue about carpet colors and church budgets. Ive seen arguments over perfumes in the choir and the cost of postage stamps. True story. Our first value as a church is that we put God first in everything that we do. 

But do we? Do we really?

Know this brothers and sisters, a value is something that we strive for but may not have necessarily arrived at…yet!

Do I think that we put God first in everything? I certainly think we try. We are not a perfect church. We are not a perfect people and I am not a perfect pastor. But I do think that we try to keep God first. We should ask ourselves as individuals, as families, and church members, “am I keeping God first in everything, in every way, in my life”.  

The late Timothy Keller had a great quote about keeping God first. Listen to what he said just before he passed away, “putting God first involves loving Him with our heart, soul, and mind, and loving our neighbors as ourselves. It’s a holistic commitment to live out the greatest commandments.” 

Today’s Quote:

“Putting God first involves loving Him with our heart, soul, and mind, and loving our neighbors as ourselves. It’s a holistic commitment to live out the greatest commandments.” 

-Dr. Timothy Keller

So Eastern Shore Baptist Church, our first value is that we are church that puts God first. God over ourselves. God over our preferences. God over our selfish worldly desires. God over all. In order to reach every single home in Lake Forest, God has to first reach our hearts. God must sit on the thrones of our lives. 

This morning we are reading from Matthew 22. Matthew 22:34-40 to be exact. Let me set up the scene for you. Let me give you the background and the context of today’s Scripture. 

Matthew 22 is an interesting chapter in the Bible. Jesus is in the thick of His ministry. His followers are growing and His teachings are making waves. In fact, the powerful religious leaders are taking notice. They are beginning to feel threatened by Jesus. Jesus made them nervous. The Pharisees were the religious experts and because they were threatened, they would question Jesus in creative ways hoping to trap Him. They desperately wanted to make Jesus look foolish. The Pharisees ask Jesus a question, 'Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?' The Pharisees are hoping to catch Jesus in an inconsistency. To them, the law was their salvation. To say that one law was more or greater than another law would discredit Jesus. Jesus not only answers their question but He goes beyond it. He quotes Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. Jesus tells them that they are to love the Lord but they are to also love their neighbor. Jesus’ reveals the idea that love of God fuels our ability to love our neighbor. Love of God and putting do first is the foundation of our faith.

Before we read God’s Word together, let me tell you how we regard God’s Word. 

Statement of Belief:

We believe the Bible to be inspired, God breathed, infallible, and authoritative. We believe the Bible is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training believer’s in righteousness. God’s Word gives life. It provides peace in trouble and protection in tribulation. It is alive, active, and cuts to the core of the human soul. Since there is no other book like it, we are standing to show our reverence and respect.

Today’s Scripture:

Matthew 22:34-40 ESV 

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. [35] And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. [36] "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" [37] And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. [38] This is the great and first commandment. [39] And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. [40] On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."

How Can The Church Put God First?

I. Listen: The Commandments vs. 37-38

So, this morning we are going to answer that question. How can the church put God first? How can Eastern Shore Baptist Church realize our first value? How can Eastern Shore Baptist Church put God first? Roman numeral one is listen, specifically listen to the commandments. Verses 37 and 38 tell us what those commandments are: love God and love our neighbors. 

"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" [37] And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. [38] This is the great and first commandment.

Let’s talk about listening first and then we will talk about God and our neighbor. 

Generally there are a couple types of people in this world: there are those who listen to God and then there are those who listen to themselves. Which one are you? Which one am I? If Im being honest, I am probably a bit of both. Sometimes I listen to God and then my inner voice gets in the way and drives me off of God’s path. However, it is my desire to be completely tuned into Scripture. I want to put God first in every area of my life. The only problem is that I can sometimes be a very poor listener. 

Friends, let me tell you something right here and now, God is always speaking. He is always communicating. Ive had church members tell me before, “preacher, I just wish God would speak to me”. Friends, God is always speaking. He is always relaying His will to us. It’s not just the fact that God needs to turn the volume up for those folks in the back. That’s not the problem. The problem is that Im either to busy to hear God or I tune Him out all together. 

If you are wanting to put God first in your life, you better start with tuning your ears, your heart, your mind, and your soul to Him. In fact, listening is a lot like loving. Isn’t it funny that if you want to love God, you need to listen to Him, giving Him your very best attention? Church, did you know that the Bible mentions “listening” 278 times. 278 times friends. 

Trying to compare our inability to listen to God is probably going to fall short, but I will give it a shot. 

\Imagine that you go to the doctor. He walks into the examination room and there you are, sitting on the table. The doctor greets you but before he can get out another word, you immediately tell her about your problems. “Hey Doc, Im having all sorts of problems: Ive got fungus growing between my toes, Ive got some oozing here and some bleeding there, Ive got some wax over here, my back aches, my joints hurt, and let me tell you about that headache. Im pretty sure that I need a flu shot and I will be on my way.”

“Thanks for listening Doc I’ll be on my way now.”

The doctor, grabbing your shoulder might say, “well hold on there partner, don’t you want to hear what I have to say?”

You see most of us do that to God. We bring to Him all of our problems. All of our troubles. However, we don’t listen to Him. We never hear His diagnosis. We never get the cure and we never form the relationship. 

Do you know what I discovered the other day, the word “silent” and the word “listen” are spelled with the exact same letters. Isn’t that interesting? To hear God we have to listen, we have to be silent. I think that it is also funny that Jesus was speaking to people that prided themselves on praying. The Pharisees were great men of prayer but they were not great men of listening. They were great talkers but not great listeners. 

Putting God first involves you and I being silent, listening to His voice, and going His way. Going the Jesus way. Like Jesus says in Matthew 11…

Matthew 11:15 NLT 

Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!

II. Love : Our Calling vs. 39

So, how can the church put God first? Listen. Second, love. Specifically love, which is our calling. Jesus tells the Pharisees that the greatest commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” But then Jesus continues, “And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself”. 

A couple of things to look at in this point. What is “love” and who is my “neighbor”. The Greek word for “love” is agapaō. It is the type of love most closely identified with God Himself. It is a love that welcomes. It is a love that entertains. It is a love that sacrifices. It is the sort of love that gives with the expectation of getting nothing in return. In terms of our church, it means that we are to love people where they are, with no expectation of anything in return. It is a love that is filled with grace, with peace, with joy, and with mercy. It’s the kind of love that takes people with all their problems, with all their flaws and failures and chooses to host them in their home without any expectation of payment. It is a love that freely gives even if it means that it costs us our very lives. 

It’s a love that looks beyond race. Sees beyond addictions. Walks through grief. Wades through hardship. 

A love that is willing to open doors. A love that is willing to go out and visit. A love that is willing to prayer walk. A love that is willing to say “here I am God, send me”.

Putting God first means that as a church, that is how we are to love people that walk in these doors. That is how we are to love our community. I know, I know, you’ve heard this before in dozens of others sermons. Of course we are to put God first, to love other people. But practically speaking, how does hits impact Lake Forest? 

I will come back to that in just a second. Let’s break down the second part. Who is our neighbor?

The Greek word being used for “neighbor” is plēsion pronounced play-see'-on. The word goes far beyond the family that lives right next door to you. It also goes far beyond people that look like you, who go to church with you, who are in supper club with you, beyond the women you play bunko with, beyond the men who are in your hunting club, or people that you work with or go to school with. This literally means “the other person”. Jesus is actually saying “the person that you have forgotten about, the person that you want nothing to do with, the person that doesn’t look like you”. That person is your neighbor. 

Loving your neighbor as yourself is found 8 times in the Bible. Not once. Not twice. Eight times! Loving your neighbor as yourself is so vital to Jesus that He not only repeats Himself, He makes it an all out command. It is so important to Jesus that He hooks loving God to loving your neighbor. What Jesus is actually saying is that you cannot love God fully if you do not love your neighbor. 

Loving your neighbor is not always easy. It is not always fun. It can present lots of problems and issues, but it is worth it and it is what this church will be about. 

So practically speaking, what does this look like?

Daphne has a population of 26,600 people. Of those 26,600 people, 8352 live in Lake Forest. 31% of Daphne’s population lives in Lake Forest. 31%! There are 4173 households in Lake Forest. 2300 of  those households have children. From what I discovered, 4259 people in Lake Forest do not attend church of any kind. Thats 4259 people that do not have any type of religious affiliation. My guess is that that number is actually higher than lower. If you were to go into Lake Forest, knock on every single door, and ask them if they believed in God, I bet that upwards of 90% would say “yes”. Yet, when it comes to professing faith in Christ, being obedient to Christ’s commands, sharing the Gospel actively, and serving in a local church, I bet the number falls off dramatically. That means that there are potentially thousands of people, men women and children who if they died today would die lost in their sin, destined for hell, eternally separated from God. 

These are our neighbors and we must reach them. They are clearly not coming here so this means that we must go to them. 

Prayer walking

Door to door evangelism 

Block parties

Mailers 

Opening up counseling groups for grief, groups for substance abuse, groups for addiction support.

Creating a prayer ministry where we send hand written prayer cards to each and every home in Lake Forest.

Social media 

Upward basketball

Tutoring 

English as a Second Language

Targeted events like Vacation Bible School and Musical events.

You and I individually praying daily that God would stir in that neighborhood.  

Think about this for a moment. Imagine that next week we were successful in brining the nearly 4500 people in Lake Forest to Eastern Shore Baptist Church. Do you realize that we would be completely unprepared for that wave. Think about the amount of people serving to be ready for that type of human tidal wave. We would need people in the parking lot. Do you know that we currently have 0 people serving as parking lot attendants and greeters? 0. We would need more greeters at the doors. Do you know that if a visitor showed up to church, they would be greeted but that greeter would have to abandon their post to take that person or family to where they needed to go. That would then leave that door unattended. We need more greeters. We need more Life Group teachers. Currently we dont have enough teachers for that type of influx. We need Biblically qualified teachers to step forward to say that they are willing to teach. Think about the influx of kids that would need to be shepherded. As it stands now, we don’t have enough teachers for our children, youth, and preschool. It’s funny, I hear a lot of complaints about the younger generation but I see so few people willing to step forward to help our young people. We need older Christians to step forward to mentor and teach. If that amount of people showed up we would need more ushers for the service. We would need people, more people to serve on our security teams. We need more people to help on our media teams, social media teams, instrumentalists to play during worship. What about the folks that we would need to pray during before the service, during the service and after the service. Then we need people to go and visit our new friends. Folks do you know that there is a job for just about every single person in this room for just Sunday. Just one day, half a day, could employ just about every single person in this room. One half day could employ every singe person. What about the other days of the week with all the ministry opportunities that are available?

Maybe you have an idea that I did not mention. Maybe you want to lead a ministry that I just suggested. We cannot reach Lake Forest without you. We just can’t. Where will God place you?

Imagine the stir if this church were able to reach that 4300 people who are not connected to Christ. Imagine how that would reinvigorate our community, transforming our homes and lives. 

Isn’t it exciting.? The world is an awfully big place to reach. Why don’t we start with our neighbors? Why not take in their joys and sorrows? Why not pray for them? Why not reach them?

John 13:34 ESV 

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”

III. Lift: Be Courageous  vs. 40

So we need to listen. We need to love. Lastly we need to lift, be courageous. Listen to what Jesus says in verse 40. 

“On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."

Jesus is saying with this quote, the entire faith, everything we believe, hinges on loving God and loving others. Loving God and loving our neighbor. 

Church here is what I need you to do. Be proud. Be proud of Jesus. Share Him. Talk about your faith with your friends, your co workers, your class mates. Lift high the name of Jesus. Lift Christ to the top priority of your life. Next, lift the name of Eastern Shore Baptist Church. In the coming weeks we will start selling church apparel. Mission shirts. Shirts that have our name on it. We are ordering pens and stickers. Have you seen people advertise their church in and around the community? I have. Why not us? Are you proud of your church? I am! Im honored to be the pastor here. Honored to worship with you. Let’s let our community know what we have found. 

Last October we had a staff retreat. We brought in a speaker and a consultant to talk about our church vision and our church values. He asked us this question, “what do people say about Eastern Shore Baptist Church in this community”? We sort of looked at each other and shrugged. 

I don’t know.

He replied back to us, “That’s right. No one is really talking about your church. Your church is not known for anything good and your church is not known for anything bad. That’s actually not a bad thing because today, you can choose what people will say about your church.”

Let me tell you what I hope people will one day say about Eastern Shore Baptist Church. I hope that they say “Man alive, that church sure does love the people of Lake Forest. They love that neighborhood the way I’d imagine Jesus would love them”. 

I want people to point at our building and comment how sold out we are to reaching that neighborhood for Jesus Christ. Remember, Lake Forest neighborhood is the doorway to the nations.

To God be the glory! May we let our light shine.  

I John 2:9-11 ESV 

“Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”

Brothers and sisters, I hope that you will enjoy this new visioning series. Remember…

“Where There Is No Vision, People Perish…”