2022 and the Future of You
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2022 and the Future of You
2022 and the Future of You
This Sunday we would normally have a Christmas message. In fact, I had originally planned on preaching such a Christmas message. However, I felt led to preach on something different.
As I reflect on ministry for the past two years, and look prayerfully and hopefully to many more, should the Lord will, I have a burden to see each and every one of you grow. I want to see you more grounded in the Truth of God’s Word, more sustained by the glories of union with Christ, more passionate about sharing the Gospel with others, and more loving to one another.
In a word, I want to see you grow. Along that line of thought, I want to talk about 2022 and the Future of You. By the future of you I mean both individually and corporately. I want to see you grow individually. I also want to see our church (corporately) grow. The question is, do you? Do you want to grow closer to the Lord, individually? Do you want to see our church grow?
My prayer is that to both questions you answer in the affirmative. I am assuming that you want to grow this next year. I am believing that you want to end 2022 closer to the Lord, more holy, and more spiritual than you ended this year.
The question before us is “How do I grow?” To answer that question I want to read a phrase that has been on the bottom of our sermon notes for almost two years. It summarizes the Scriptures’ call for the believer, similarly to Jesus’s summary of the 10 Commandments. It is to know Him and make Him known. There are two main steps from which other steps can be added. My prayer for you, both individually and corporately, is that 2022 will see remarkable growth in grace for God’s glory.
I. To Know Him—the privilege of every believer (Phil. 3:7-11)
I. To Know Him—the privilege of every believer (Phil. 3:7-11)
The first “step” to growing is to know God. By know I mean more than simply accumulating certain facts, but not less. Love God, is the way Jesus expressed it. To know God is to love Him. And to know God better is to love Him better.
Just as a spouse loves their spouse more because they know them, we love God more by knowing Him better. Consequently, not to know Him is the cause of a lack of joy, peace, happiness, contentment, and victory over sin. Therefore, it is vitally important that we know Him.
A. We know Him by consuming His Word- Psalm 19:7-11
A. We know Him by consuming His Word- Psalm 19:7-11
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
If we are to know God, we must consume His Word. I mean read it daily, study it, memorize it, contemplate it, and study it with others. I know that many of you read devotionals and there is nothing wrong with that. But devotionals should not by the main diet of the believer. We make sure to eat, we must treat Scripture like food. Jesus, quoting the OT, says “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matt. 4:4)
So many of us treat God’s Word like it is an option rather than a necessity. I want to challenge every one of you to read the Bible this year like you have never read it before. I mean cover to cover. I have printed reading plans for you. Can we all read through the Bible this year? One of the print outs includes videos that give you an overview of the book that you are reading. It also organizes Scripture in a way that conveys the main message of the Bible.
We as a church should hunger for God’s Word. We should encourage one another in studying the Scriptures. When people come to Warrior Creek, I want them to leave and think, “Wow, they sure do love the Bible!”
If you want to grow in 2022, you must know God by consuming His Word.
B. We must pray fervently- 1 Thess. 5:17
B. We must pray fervently- 1 Thess. 5:17
pray without ceasing,
Imagine claiming to worship and love God and yet never speak to Him! How insane is it when Children of God do not regularly commune with God!
It is the height of pride, brothers and sisters, when we do not pray to God. It is as if we were telling God, “I got this.” We should spend time every day, several times a day, in prayer.
Corporately we should pray as well. Now, I will preface what I am about to say with the fact that I know that at times God providentially hinders us from coming to church. Sickness, physical problems, work, etc. all can keep us from attending corporate worship. I am not talking about the fact that you cannot be here. I am addressing those who can be here but choose not to.
They say that the way to measure a church’s health is by examining its prayer service. It is our chance as individuals and as a body to demonstrate our dependence on God.
My challenge, as individuals and as a church, that we pray without ceasing. That 2022 would be a year that Warrior Creek Baptist Church become a church of praying people. We want to know Him.
C. We must attend faithfully- Hebrews 10:23-25
C. We must attend faithfully- Hebrews 10:23-25
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another 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.”
Notice the corporate words: us, our, one another, you (or y’all, if we had a good translation). Notice too the direction the author of Hebrews is bring us: attend more. As the end of all things come, meet together more.
If we are to grow, we must attend church regularly. We need to, God designed us to be that way. To not attend faithfully is to fail to know God, to love God. Let 2022 be the year that the same amount of people who come Sunday morning come Wednesday evening.
II. To Make Him Known—the purpose of every believer (Matt. 28:16-20)
II. To Make Him Known—the purpose of every believer (Matt. 28:16-20)
Matthew 28:16-20 “Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.””
Our purpose is to make God known. That is as much as a privilege as knowing God, but it phrase it like this because perhaps we have missed our mark.
We are not to be a sedentary church, we are a sent church. Several things stand out in this passage.
First, there are those who are worshipping God and some who doubt. You may struggle with how to share the Gospel, that’s okay. It is a process. I struggle with telling people about Jesus. This is not a reason not to share.
Second, Jesus’s commission contains several points. As we are going we are to make disciples. We are to evangelize. If you are not sharing the gospel you are not growing. I challenge you to read through the epistles and find a portion that does not contain some form of evangelism. I will save you the time: it cannot be done. It may not be explicitly stated, but it is implied.
If we are to grow in 2022, as a church, we must evangelize. We cannot not preach and teach in the name of Jesus. Are there challenges? Sure, but that does not stop us. It did not stop the apostles in the book of Acts, even when people were physically hurting them.
We evangelize and baptize. Baptism is the responsibility of the believer, it is a outward proclamation of the inward creation of a new man and new woman. It tells the world that Jesus is yours. God brings the growth, Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 3:5-7. But Paul preached!
We also teach them everything Jesus commanded. This goes back up to the reading, studying, and living God’s Word.
So, here is the 2022 Plan for Growth:
Commit to read, study, and memorize Scripture—read the Bible through this year
Commit to pray regularly and fervently, alone and with the church
Commit to attend church services consistently—unless providentially hindered, be here
Commit to evangelism— “Who’s Your One”
Commit to building others in the faith