Immanuel Baptist Church

I just want to remind all of our Senior Adults to be a part of Homecoming and invite someone to come with you.

We need to stay involved with all that is going on at Immanuel. See you this Sunday.

Martha

The following is our menu for the Wednesday evening fellowship meal on August 26th.

Baked chicken
Potato salad
Green beans
Baked apples
Rolls
Dessert

The meal will begin at 5:30 in the fellowship hall. Those unable to attend can still come at 6:15 for the prayer time and Bible study.

Cost for meals is $5.00 per adult or $3.00 per child.

1 Kings 1-11; Proverbs; Ecclesiastes; Song of Solomon

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This sermon was preached by Rev. Chris Roberts during the evening service on August 16, 2009.

The following resources are also available from this service:
Handout
Presentation notes

Ephesians 4:1-3

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This sermon was preached by Rev. Chris Roberts during the morning service on Sunday, August 16, 2009.

As we have worked our way through Ephesians we have seen Paul return several times to the theme of Christian unity. Unity is a major part of Paul’s ministry, working to help Jews and Gentiles learn how to live as members of a new community, a new people group, Christians. In today’s passage Paul is again discussing unity, this time telling believers how to walk in unity. Here we move from the principle to the practical, from thinking to doing. There will be loads more theology in this book, next week’s passage is one example, but starting today Paul’s focus shifts to the Christian life.

Turn to Ephesians 4:1-3.

This morning’s sermon is a truncated version of what Paul is saying in this passage. I can see at least six sermons in just these three verses: one on the calling, one each for the four principles of unity, and one on the instruction to maintain the unity of the Spirit. But I have not given the text six sermons, we are moving through it in one. We will not even come close to saying everything that can be said but I pray this sermon will trigger your deeper thinking and acting on these issues.

Paul starts off by connecting what he is about to say with what he just said. The word therefore is our clue that as we read the following verses we need to remember the preceding verses. What Paul has just said will be the basis of what he is about to say. Because God has chosen you, brought you to life, made you righteous, filled you with power and love, united you with believers, and given you a glorious, eternal purpose, live in unity. Such unity also follows what he just prayed in Ephesians 3:21: to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. God is glorified by a unified church.

As Paul writes this letter he is not working in a comfortable office or by the fireplace at home. He is perhaps shackled to a wall or chained to a guard. He is a prisoner. Captivity was a regular part of Paul’s ministry and it says something about his passion and beliefs. Paul knew that trouble waited for him around every turn. At any moment there could be stoning or shipwreck or imprisonment or execution but Paul was willing to risk it all. Shining the light of the glory of Christ was more precious to Paul than his own life. When he tells the Ephesians that he is a prisoner he is reminding them that what he teaches, he practices. He is no academic looking from afar, he is a prisoner facing the devil’s legions because of these truths.

Paul’s hardships are worth it because God is worthy of our service no matter what the cost. Do our lives reflect the worth of God? In verse 1 Paul urges us to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. The call he has in mind is the call from Eph 1:5 that we should be sons and daughters of God; it is also the call of 1 Thess 2:12 where Paul says, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. You have been brought into God’s kingdom and made a member of his family. Does your life reflect your call?

The life we are to live contrasts with the way of the gentiles. Paul makes this contrast in Eph 4:17-19: Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. That is not the Christian life. You are to follow a different pattern. Paul will show us this pattern throughout the rest of Ephesians. Right now his interest is in unity, instructing believers how to walk together. He will look at this from verses 1-16.

Whether the focus is unity or purity or faithful living or gospel proclamation, we are to walk the Christian walk. This is a walk of faith. In Colossians 1:10 Paul tells us to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him. The walk that is worthy of the Lord, worthy of our calling, will be pleasing to him. But we cannot please God on our own, as Hebrews 11:6 tells us: And without faith it is impossible to please God. So the Christian walk is done by faith, trusting God and following his way, knowing that he will give you the strength to live obediently for him.

By faith we are to walk in a way worthy of our adoption and kingdom participation. In what way do we become worthy? Paul could mean two things here. Do we somehow make ourselves deserving, make ourselves worth receiving adoption and participation in the kingdom so that what God gives us is not a gift of grace but a payment to those deserving? Or does Paul mean that we walk in a manner that displays the worth of God? John Piper helps clarify the issue: “To ‘walk worthy of the Lord’ means to walk in a way that the Lord is worthy of. Walk so as to show what the Lord deserves from us, not to show what we deserve from the Lord.” We walk worthy when the life we live reflects the value of what we have received.

Is our unity worthy of God? How can we as individuals do a better job living in community with one another? In verses 2-3 Paul gives us four principles of unity. Four things that must characterize my life and dealings with other people if I am to live in unity: …walk… with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

The four principles of unity are humility, gentleness, patience, and love.The principles that guide the Christian life are not the principles that guide the world, and Christian unity is not pursued through worldly means. Humility, gentleness, patience, and love are not principles the world upholds. There are some worldly folk who will talk highly about these things but they do not give the principles godly meaning.

As we look at these four things, we will see them first from the standpoint of what they are not.

Starting with humility. There are three things humility is not. It is not self-degradation but self-denial; it is not humiliation but modesty; it is not depression but Christ exaltation.

Humility is not when you think bad things about yourself. I have read some writers who are very good at describing what miserable failures they are. They think this is humility, it is not. Humility means taking your eyes off of yourself and focusing on others. It is self-denial, not self-degradation. Nor is humility achieved by humiliating yourself. Humility means modesty, presenting yourself in ways that aren’t designed to draw attention. As Christians we seek to point people to Christ, not to ourselves. The fashion of the modern world is designed to make people look at Me, take notice of Me. This cannot be the Christian mindset.

Depression is not humility. As Christians we are to have joy in Christ. Depression is something many people struggle with, Christians included, but it is not a sign of a humble heart. One mark of depression is an inability to turn my eyes off of me. I become self-absorbed. But my calling as a child of God is to exalt Christ. To turn my eyes and the eyes of others off of me and onto Christ. We feed our depression when we become self-fixated. We feed joy when we focus on the source of our joy, Jesus Christ.

Then we have gentleness. Some of your translations say meekness, it is the same thing. Gentleness is not a carpet to be walked on but a lion under control; not a punching bag but a two-cheeked Christian; not wishy-washy but wise.

Some people fear gentleness, perceiving it to be weakness. Gentleness does not mean making yourself a carpet, giving in to every whim of others. A gentle person is a lion who keeps his strength under control. He is not wishy-washy, tossed back and forth by what others want for him, he is wise and careful and controlled in his dealings. He does not feel the need to force his way in everything, but he is wise enough to know when to yield – and wise enough to know when to charge. He is not a punching bag, accepting every blow, but is a two-cheeked Christian, not reacting to every offense but responding as our Lord who in Matthew 5:39 instructed us to turn the other cheek. He is tender with those suffering, in despair, or burdened by sin, again being like Jesus in Matthew 12:20: a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench.

Then comes patience. Patience is not a stopped clock but a crouched tiger, not prolonging sin but enabling grace. A patient man or woman is not frozen, inactive. Patience doesn’t mean being slothful or delaying that which must be done. The tiger waiting to crouch on her pray is a great image of patience. It is holding back, restraint, waiting for the right moment. When the moment comes – Action!

Patience is also not to enable sin. What I have in mind here is Romans 2:4: Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? and 2 Peter 3:9: The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. When you are patient with sinners it is not to prolong their sin. Some may mistake our patience for approval. Patience does not give approval of sin, patience gives room for repentance.

Finally, Paul tells us to bear with one another in love. This principle is greatly misunderstood by the world. Love does not mean accepting all things but forgiving all things, not permissive but corrective, not without disagreement but with respect, and love is not defined by the world but defined by God.

Some today will say, “If you love me, you will overlook the wrong I’ve done.” But love does not accept or overlook wrong. As we bear with one another we will forgive time and time again. Similarly, love does not mean saying that every life choice is equally valid. You might hear someone say that if you love them you will accept their choices for their lives. This is not love. Love does not accept or legitimize wrongdoing, true love will correct those in sin.

Love also does not mean we must always agree with one another. People can agree on everything and not get along. People can disagree on many things and still walk in love. Love is not about how alike we are but how much like Christ we are. The eternal God looked down on rebellious sinners, vastly distant from his character and holiness, and loved us. Differences will exist among humans but we must still love.

Finally, love is not defined by the world but by God. We often try to make our image of God conform with our notion of love rather than have our notion of love conform with what God has said. Love is not to be defined by the creature but by the one who created it. God has given us words about love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7: Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. God has also given us an image of love in his Son.

Having seen that walking worthy of our calling in Christ requires humility, gentleness, patience, and bearing with one another in love, Paul tells us in verse 3 that we should be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The first thing to note is that unity is something we maintain, not something we create. We do not form our own unity, it is accomplished by the Holy Spirit. Nonetheless, we are to maintain what the Spirit has done. This maintaining does not happen automatically. It takes effort and sacrifice and humility, gentleness, patience, and love.

In the end love is what holds unity together. Paul tells us in Romans 13:10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. When we truly love God we will serve him as we ought. When we truly love our neighbor we will treat him as we ought. When we find ourselves struggling to live in unity with others it is love we must pray for. God can grant this request as sure as any other. Do not be content with just tolerating other believers. Jesus has brought us into one body and would have us love one another. If love is missing, seek it from the Lord.

Our homecoming service is just under two weeks away. During this time we will celebrate all that God has done in the last one-hundred and nine years of our ministry as a church. On August 27, 1900, sixteen Millville residents formed a new church to provide better opportunities for Millville residents to worship. From the beginning this church has existed to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Looking over the early minutes, the church has experienced many good times and many tough times. Many pastors stayed less than a year. Funds were often low. In 1929 the church stopped using a bank since a 50 cent fee was imposed on all accounts less than $50.00. At times only the actions of the WMU provided money to pay the pastor. Christian conduct was taken seriously and the minutes show many times when people were removed from the church for heresy or immoral conduct. In 1939 the church celebrated G. C. Williams for serving 3 years and 2 months, longer than any previous pastor. Then in 1942 Rev. Adolph Bedsole was called. He served until the end of 1978.

In our 109 years we have been through great growth and great decline. Through it all God has been faithful to us. In recent years we have seen numbers move downward. This is discouraging but it is also a reminder about how much remains to be done. There are more lost people in America than ever before. As we celebrate God’s work through Immanuel over the last 109 years let us also commit again to be active in the ongoing work of making disciples. This means helping believers grow in their knowledge of and service to the Lord and it means spreading the gospel in a lost and dying world. God’s work in the world continues. Let’s be a part of it.

The following is our menu for the Wednesday evening fellowship meal on August 19th.

Hamburger steak/onions
Baked apples
Black-eye peas
Mashed potatoes
Rolls
Dessert

The meal will begin at 5:30 in the fellowship hall. Those unable to attend can still come at 6:15 for the prayer time and Bible study.

Cost for meals is $5.00 per adult or $3.00 per child.

Our Senior Luncheon Meeting this past Tuesday was very nice. There were 27 in attendance.

Bob’s Bible Study was taken from Ephesians 6. Again, he challenged us from God’s Word. As Christians we are to put on the full armor of God and stand up always for Jesus. Remembering to read and study our Bible daily and to pray in the spirit.

Our program for the day was some good ole’ Southern gospel music. Ron and Trish Brewer and their son Joseph were our guests. They are from Summerville, Ga. and we all enjoyed his singing. They were on a traveling tour and were to sing in two more churches in our area.

Please stay involved in all that is going on at Immanuel. Remember Homecoming is August 23rd. Call someone and invite them to come.

Martha

1 Kings 1-4

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This sermon was preached by Rev. Chris Roberts during the evening service on August 09, 2009.

The following resources are also available from this service:
Presentation notes

Ephesians 3:20-21

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This sermon was preached by Rev. Chris Roberts during the morning service on Sunday, August 09, 2009.

A few years ago I listened to an interview with a man who had survived a plane crash and extended isolation in the Andes mountains. He said that when he realized the plane was going down he did not expect to survive the crash. In some ways he was pleased, he would finally shed the dark glass and would stand before God face to face. But he did survive and with other survivors went on to endure seventy-two days in very rugged conditions.

He said one of the great things he learned in the mountains was that his image of God was wrong. God is not an old man in Heaven with a long white flowing beard, sitting in a chair while saying wise things. God is at the top of the Andes mountains in the midst of a crushing avalanche and a raging blizzard.

Which of those images resembles the God you worship?

In 1952 a Greek scholar named J. B. Phillips released a little book called Your God is Too Small. He was trying to help those who never got beyond seeing God as a wise old man or a good teacher or a great motivator of human effort. What Phillips had to say in 1952 is worth saying to believers today. Is your God too small? Or do you worship the God of the storms and the seas, the winds and the rains, the cosmic supernova, the one who holds together all the quantum chaos of all creation, the one who holds you?

In Ephesians 3:14-21 we have been looking at Paul’s prayer for believers. In this prayer there are five things Paul prays for believers and proclaims about God. The first three we have already seen but will revisit briefly today. Paul prays: (1) that we be strengthened with God’s power, power from his limitless riches; (2) that we would know the immeasurable love of God; (3) that we would be filled with God’s fullness as God lives in and through his people; (4) Paul rejoices that God is able to do more than all we ask or think, God is more powerful and creative than you or I could ever be; and (5) Paul proclaims glory to God in the church and in Christ, the church following the example of Christ in living for the glory of God.

Ephesians 3:14-21

People have tried to make God be many things. George Bernard Shaw once quipped, “God created man in his image and then man returned the favor.” What many people worship or believe in is not the God of the Bible but what their minds have imagined. Even many who say all the right things about God live in ways that demonstrate they do not really believe the right things. Of the many ways people might talk about God, there are two that I think are the most popular and they are demonstrated in Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.

Benjamin Franklin was something of a sceptic. He believed in God but seemed to be unsure of who or what God actually is. At the end of the day God is a teacher of morality – in this Franklin was like Jefferson and a host of others. But Franklin did believe in the power of the individual. If you want God to aid you, do what you can and who knows? God might come along and labor with you. This led to his famous quote that many have mistaken for actual Scripture: “God helps those who help themselves.” Bumper sticker sentiments such as “God is my co-pilot” or “God + me make a majority” reflect this sort of mentality. Franklin’s god is not one who holds all power and authority but one who is limited by the whim of human strength and will. If we took Franklin’s simple statement to one extreme we would sound like many modern day prosperity or feel-good preachers: “God is able to match your efforts and double your potential. As you find your way out of your difficulty, God will work with you.” Franklin’s god is only as powerful as we are. His god is too small to survive the Andes. He could scarcely survive getting out of bed in the morning.

Then there is the god of Thomas Jefferson. Those who think Jefferson a model of presidential faith have missed much of what he said and wrote about God, the Bible, Jesus, and Christianity. He talked quite a bit about God but religious language does not make one a believer. Here is what Jefferson thought about the Bible. He took a Bible, some scissors, and some glue. He kept only parts of the gospel, removing the Old Testament, all the letters and Revelation. He also removed from the Bible anything miraculous or spectacular. If a gospel recorded Jesus saying something Jefferson thought unlikely, Jefferson removed it. Jefferson would have considered himself a true follower of Christ, one of the few who could see past the misguided notions of Jesus’ first followers. He was an early form of the modern liberal Christian, one who takes the Bible and stands above it. His god is so small he can be judged by human standards. By Jefferson’s example, if we ever find that God violates our human sense of what is acceptable, we should revise accordingly. Jefferson saw Jesus as a great moral teacher, not the divine Son of God. God tells us how to live but guides nothing. His god is powerless, able only to teach, instruct, and guide, never able to rule.

What is God? What does the Bible reveal? Does your belief about God fall short of what he has told us about himself? His Word to us is our guiding statement. Don’t get your belief about God from Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code or William Young’s The Shack, get it from what God has said about himself, found in the Bible.

In Paul’s prayer he reveals five things about God. First, that God gives powerful strength to his people. This means God has strength to spare. Thus Paul writes in verse 16 that he gives us this strength from the riches of his glory. This strength cannot be overcome. This strength enables us to live like Christ, enjoying the best kind of life. Not a life free from struggle or adversity but a life in which we will be seen safely through trial and kept faithful no matter what the evil one throws our way. Our God is mighty, powerful, he cannot be defeated and his help for us will never end.

Second, God loves us with an everlasting love, love that has no limits. Paul describes God’s love in verse 19 as the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge. None of us have a real notion of how much God loves his children. Not until I became a parent did I understand how much a child can be loved. Children don’t know the full measure of their parents’ love for them. Nor do we know the depths of God’s love for us. But we are given all eternity to explore and enjoy and know more.

The third thing we are told about God is that he is always with his people and his life within us will grow. This is what Paul prays at the end of verse 19, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. You are not stuck at the limit of God’s presence in you. You do not have all of him. But by his grace you can have more of him today than you had yesterday. Paul prays for God’s fullness in believers. God does not leave us on our own to do what we can, he is with us as we labor. The more Christ reigns in our lives, the more we live as God intended, the more we have God in us. This is accomplished through the Spirit’s empowering and the Son’s love sustaining.

Fourth, here we come to new territory, in verse 21 Paul describes the capability of God’s power: Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us… What God is able to do is not limited by the boundaries of your imagination. This is where some of the more liberal scholars completely misunderstand one important fact about God: being God means he is more powerful than humans. They say God cannot violate the natural laws of our physical world so miracles must not be possible. Paul said God can do far more than we could come up with. Miracles are just a tiny demonstration of his power.

How powerful is the God you worship? Can he speak a universe into existence without even approaching the limit of his power? Paul says God can do far more.

So God is not limited by our conception of him; what he can do, what he should do, what we would like him to do. His power is overwhelming. Where are some places we see this power at work? Out in creation, certainly, but you can look much close. In verse 20 Paul says what God does is according to the power at work within us. This surpassing, abundant power, it is at work in my life. As Paul said back in Ephesians 1:19-20, this is the power that raised Christ from the dead. It is in us through the presence and work of the Holy Spirit and the indwelling of Christ. It is there because God loves me and will sustain me. It is there working on me, growing me, molding me to be what God wants me to be.

How should I understand the work of God in my life? Is it cooperative, only responding to what I do, matching my efforts, helping me when I help myself? Is it separated, there only to teach but not to empower? Or is it present in greater and greater measure as the gift of the Father in the Son through the Spirit? Have I given up on God’s work? Do I abandon myself as a failure? Do I worship a small god who looks on my sin and failing and throws up his hands and says, “I’ve had enough, no more of this guy!” Or does the abundant, great power of the mighty, loving God continue to work in me and will do so until I am brought safely to the feet of the Father in Heaven? God is not limited by your strength, by his limitless power he will accomplish what he has set out to do.

What is the ultimate purpose of the God you worship? Is he small, living like those depraved individuals in Romans 1:25 who worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator? Is he so small that his purpose is focused on humanity making God the biggest idolater in the universe, elevating something created above the creator? Or is he so magnificent that his plans for his creation are infinitely greater?

This is the fifth thing Paul reveals about God. Stepping back we see that God loves us and out of his love he does good for us. His love is one expression of his righteous, glorious character. In his love he has arranged things so that his people are blessed when he is glorified. The higher he is exalted, the greater our experience of the glory of God. But his being, his purpose, is not centered on our experiencing good things. We do not worship a co-dependent God who needs for us to love and enjoy him if he is to be satisfied. He is fully satisfied in himself and everything he does is ultimately for the purpose of his glory.

Paul tells us in verse 21, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Scripture is filled with this kind of language. So many people today want to make a god in service of people rather than people in service to God. We were created for him, not the other way around. Is your God so small that his purpose is focused on mortal, fragile flesh, or does he lift up the greatest thing in existence, himself?

Hear some other things the Bible says about the glory of God. In Philippians 4:20 Paul prays to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. John says something similar in Revelation 1:6: to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. In Isaiah 42:8 God says, I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. Later in Isaiah 48:11 God speaks directly about his work to forgive and refine, For my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another. In John 17:4 Jesus prays to the Father, I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. In Matthew 5:16 Jesus says the purpose of our good works is so others will give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Christian, follow the example of Christ and the purpose of God. Live for the glory of God. Not for yourself, not ultimately for those around you, live for God. Too many people try to define their purpose or identity in life apart from their service to God. Without God you are nothing. Your God is too great for split devotion. Serve him in all things! This is the only way the Christian life should be defined – that in all things I am the servant of the living God.

Enjoy him and show the world your enjoyment of him. Show the world he is a greater pleasure than anything they have to offer. Show them what it means to live obedient to Christ, exalting his purpose in your life. Show the world that you worship a God bigger than any riches or worldly pleasure, bigger than every trouble and trial. Glorify God by showing his glory to the world.

Paul has not mentioned it in this passage, but we saw earlier in Ephesians that God is mighty over sin. He is mighty in Ephesians 2:4-5 to bring life to those dead in their trespasses. He is mighty in Revelation 20:15 to cast into the lake of fire all who remain in their sins. Is your god so small that sin is a minor triviality, something to be overlooked, ignored because of his love? In love God sent his Son so that we might have life. Love does not mean God ignores rebellion, love means God rescues us from rebellion. Show his majesty by turning from your sin, by following the commands of God and finding in him a treasure more precious than any fruit of sin and Satan.

God is great and mighty. His power spans all things. His mercy and grace is sufficient to cover all the world. The death of the infinite Son of God was sufficient for your sins. Do not follow a small god that expects you to make yourself better. It will never happen. Saint, live in the mighty mercy of God who has made you holy. By the power of his Holy Spirit, live in his righteousness and display his purity to the world. Sinner, put aside your ideas about God and cling to the God of the seas and the mountains and the terrors of the storm and the beauty of creation, God who reigns over all things, who reigns over your life whether you would have him or not. So much better to serve him as a child than fall before him as a conquered foe. One day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. Make that confession today and experience the love of a child of God.

Come join our senior adults on Tuesday, August 11th at 10:00 for a time of food, fellowship, and Bible study. The morning will begin with a Bible study led by Bob Bondeson followed by a special program with Southern Gospel singers Ron Brewer and his wife. After this we will enjoy a fellowship meal together.

Please make plans to join us!