We’ve Come This Far By Faith
9/8/2002 40th Celebration Deutoronomy 8:1-18 Hebrews 10:35-39
Toby
Today we celebrate our 40th anniversary and declare that we have come this far by faith. The year was 1961. The United States had attempted to overthrow the new Government of Cuba. The attempt had failed miserably. Cuba aligned itself with the Soviet Union, and began receiving military aid from it. By the fall of 1962, the world was on the brink of a nuclear war.
Rick
American spy planes flying over Cuba had revealed that the Soviet Union was building offensive nuclear missile installations. If installed and launched, the missiles could destroy American cities in a matter of minutes. Tension between the Soviets and Americans had been building for years. The United States set up a naval blockade around Cuba.
Would the Soviets challenge the blockade and continue to send in their ships with the rest of the parts needed? Would either nation back down? The lives of millions and maybe even billions of people was at stake.
TOBY
You would have thought that those dramatic events would have consumed the thoughts of God. But God’s wisdom, God’s grace, and God’s love is far greater than any national conflict or any international crisis. Sure God was concerned about the Cuban missile crisis, but God also had an agenda of His own.
RICK
A part of the heart of God was focused not on Washington D. C with President Kennedy. A part of God’s heart targeted a tall young man fresh out of seminary in Cleveland, Ohio in the section of the city known as Glenville. His name was Rev. David Zuverink , and God had placed in his heart a desire to build a church. The Spirit of God was moving especially in the lives of a number of people on East 107th, East 108th, East 109th and Elk Avenue. In the face of a world crisis, God called them to walk by faith and to build Him a church.
TOBY
As in the book of Acts, they began meeting in one another’s homes to do bible study, to pray and to fellowship. They went from house to house knocking on doors to find others who had a need for God in their lives. They came together, walking by faith, believing that they had been called to minister in an area where a former Glenville Presbyterian Church had closed its doors just a few years earlier.
RICK
They believed that God had a mission for them to begin and to complete. There were social issues, civil right issues, and spiritual issues they felt called by God to address in order to bring freedom to the lives of people in Cleveland. In the Old Testament. God’s people the Israelites had been slaves for 430 years. God sent Moses to be their leader to set them free.
TOBY
God promised that God would lead them to a new land where there would be no more slavery, and the land would be produce all kinds of food for them to eat and minerals for them to use. It was wonderful. It became known as the promised land, because God promised to give it to them.
On the night before the people were set free from Egypt to go to the promise land, they celebrated with a meal called Passover. It was joyous time as they were marching out of Egypt set free to serve the Lord.
Just like that first Passover celebrated by Moses and God’s people as they prepared to leave Egypt, so the people of Glenville marched together and celebrated the birth and charter of Glenville United Presbyterian Church in 1962.
RICK
Here we are some 40 years later, looking back over what God has done, and we are standing on the verge of entering into ministry in ways that at one time seemed impossible. What is our purpose church?------“our purpose is to bring people into a right relationship with God and to equip them for the ministry of Jesus Christ by teaching the word and by providing opportunities to worship, fellowship and serve God in a loving and a caring community.”
With the vision of New Life Fellowship Church and the New Life Center, we are on the verge of entering a promised land that God has for us. It’s not a physical land that we can touch, but it’s a place in the future where we can enjoy the blessings of God.
TOBY
God had called Moses so that the people could be free to enjoy the good things of life while serving the Lord their God. God had prepared everything for them. God did a number of miracles to bring the people to the boundaries of the land He wanted to give them. But when they got to the land, they sent in spies to make sure it was all that God had told them it would be. 12 men went forward. All of them came back with the report that what God had for them was far greater than what they had imagined.
RICK
Two of the twelve said “let’s make plans right now to go and take the land because we can certainly do it.” The other 10 said, “No way can we take the land. The people are bigger and stronger than we are. We would be wiped out by them.” The Two pointed out, “we’ve come this far by faith, surely the Lord will give the land into our hands.”
TOBY
The 10 however were walking in doubt and fear and insisted that it would be impossible to do it. Their negative thinking spread through the entire group of people, and they refused to enter the land God had for them. Some even suggested “Let’s choose a new leader and go back to Egypt”.
They were ready to stone Moses. It was tough being a pastor in those days. God was angry with them for rejecting His plan and promises for them and told them, “you will not enter the land I had for you, instead you will spend 40 years in the desert. I will give the land I promised you, to your children.”
RICK
It was at the end of the 40 year period that Moses gave his sermon to the children of Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 8. It was their 40th anniversary from having been set free from the slavery they had found in Egypt. They like us ,after 40 years, were ready to enter into the promised land.
TOBY
Entering into the promises of God is not something that happens automatically in our lives. We may stumble into God’s blessings, but we only remain there by obeying God. You see the love God desires from us is not our feelings, but our sacrifice to doing God’s will. Jesus put it this way, “if you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
RICK
Moses began in verse 8 “Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land that the LORD promised on oath to your forefathers.” Being obedient to God in our lives has nothing to do with God being angry with us, trying to make sure we never stop out of line. Being obedient means we will go so much further in life in the things that really matter. God’s desire is for us to live, to increase, and to receive all that He wants to give us.
TOBY
It hurts sometimes to follow the Lord because pain and cost is involved. But as our New Testament reading emphasized in , Hebrews 10:35-36 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. 36You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
Saints, we have come this far in our lives by faith. Let’s continue to trust Jesus Christ with our lives. There is no one who cares more for us than Jesus does.
RICK
Verse 2 reads, Deut. 8:2 “Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.” We often talk about the people of God wandering in the desert for 40 years. We even say, “I feel like I’m just wandering in a desert.”
But when Moses took the time to look back over where they had been and to where they had come, he did not use the word “wandering.” He said, “The Lord led you all the way in the desert these 40 years.” Led means God was in control.
TOBY
Think for a moment of some of the problems they had in the desert. First there was no food to eat. Then there was no water to drink. They didn’t have meat to eat. They thought that Moses had deserted them and they built a golden cow to worship. They got into trouble and poisonous snakes killed some of them. They rebelled against Moses and an earthquake swallowed up a lot of them.
RICK
They lost their first battle against the Amalekites. They had to take the long road around Edom in the desert because their cousins would not let them go through their land. It seemed like one problem after another. Yet Moses said, “God led you all these 40 years.”
God led them this way in order to humble them, to test them, and to discover what was in their hearts. God was looking to see would they keep his commandments.” How do we know God led them? Because God saw them through each and every situation.
TOBY
Our 40 year history has had its share of experiencing the humbling hand of God to test us. After seeing God bring us together as integrated congregation in the beginning, white flight hit our church as it hit our community. After a while there were very few whites left in our congregation.
As God blessed some of us financially, we left the neighborhood and the church to become part of the new black middle class. We would not surrender our tithes and offerings to God. For years many of us were throwing pennies at God while the doors of the church was faced with being closed because of our finances. We expected Presbytery and others to pay for us to worship God, even though we had the money in our pockets.
RICK
After our 3rd pastor, Rev. Pinkney who served 9 years, we were changing pastors every 2 to 4 years. Our reputation in presbytery was “the church that was just wasting mission dollars and needed to be closed.” Talks were held to merge the church with another church.
But they didn’t want us, and we didn’t want them. Pastors Bob and Pastor Camille had come to our church with a mission from presbytery, not to pastor to growth, but to help the church decide if it wanted to continue on as a church.
TOBY
Just before we arrived as pastors, there was a question as to whether or not there would be any money available to call a pastor. Our pastoral search committee was given $800 to find a new pastor, and offer them a salary of a high school graduate, even though they were required to have a college and seminary education with the student loans that came with those degrees.
RICK
Gail H. Banes was about scared to offer to have us come here from Boston. Once she paid for our tickets and food, there would not be any money left. What if the church said “no” to us as pastors, or what if we said “no” to the congregation to become the pastors? There would not be any money to look for anybody else. Maybe the Search Committee told the congregation before they voted on us, “look there ain’t no money to bring in anybody else,” and that’s why we got such a high percentage of yes votes to come.
TOBY
From the outside, it looked as though we were truly wandering in the desert. One pastor asked us, “what on earth would have caused you to even consider going to pastor Glenville. Every time it was mentioned at Presbytery it was in some kind of trouble.” But God had not forgotten the vision he had lain on the heart of Rev. Zuverink and some of the charter members and members who had come in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s
RICK
They recognized they had come this far by faith, and now was not the time to talk about giving up. They had dream for Glenville not for what it was, but for what it could become. Despite the gloominess of the 80’s, everything Glenville needed to succeed was already within the congregation waiting to come forth.
TOBY
Just before the end of the 40 years in the desert, Moses and the Israelites defeated a number of kings. They battled the Amorites, the Amalekites, and the Midianiates. They seized their territory and their faith had come alive.
Although the promised land was on the other side of the Jordan River, 2 ½ of the 12 tribes wanted to stay in the land they had already conquered. They asked of Moses, “Please don’t ask us to leave this land, we don’t want to go across the Jordan. This will suit us just fine with all our livestock.”
RICK
Since we arrived here at Glenville, God has likewise united us for battle against God’s enemies. We’ve seen a number of kings that have fallen. The King of “I Can’t Tithe” was slain. The King of “I Can’t Come To Bible Study” was severely wounded. The King of “I Can’t Commit Myself” was knocked off his horse.
TOBY
The King of “This Is My Kind Of Music” was forced to flee. The King of “The Service Is To Long” was put to death. The King of “We Never Did That Before” was banished. The King of “This Is Presbytery Building, Leave It Alone” has never been heard of again in the past 10 years.
RICK
We are on the other side of the Jordan like the 2 ½ tribes. The question is, are we content with staying out of the promised land because it looks pretty good right where we are? But saints, we all know we have come this far by faith, and we have no intention of stopping now.
Our vision to build the New Life Center, to touch lives that are yet to be touched by the power of Jesus Christ is our commitment to enter the promised land. Our vision to establish New Life Fellowship as one of the greatest churches on Cleveland’s south side is our declaration that we intend to enter the promised land.
TOBY
Our vision to see more of you rise up and become leaders for God is proof we want to enter the promise land. Everybody here ought to have a vision for their lives to make a difference for God. All year, we have been call to pray, “Lord use me to win one for the kingdom and for our church this year.”
Some of us have had the prayer answered but many of us have not. But we keep on praying because we don’t know who God is leading into our lives before this year is over.” If the first group of people 40 years ago, added 79 members to the roll in one year, then let us do the same for the 9:15 service, the 11:15 service and for New Life Fellowship. They did it by faith in the same God we serve today.
RICK
We should all have a vision to be actively involved in some ministry of the church. Whatever service we offer to God in the church should be the best we have to offer. Be the best usher you can be. The best teacher, the best choir member, the best staff person, the best counter, the best coffee worker, the best greeter, the best reader or the best volunteer.
TOBY
Be the best giver you can be, the best server, the best praying servant and the best evangelist. Be the best encourager, the best backup singer, the best cleanup person and the best lover of God’s word.
Why do you need to be the best? Because God offered his very best for us. We have been here 40 years, not simply to say, we’ve been here 40 years. We’ve been here 40 years because God wants to use us to save people from destruction.
RICK
John 3:16-19 tells us "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men and women loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
TOBY
Moving into the promised land is about leading more and more people from destruction to Jesus Christ. That’s at the heart of our purpose statement. Our purpose is to bring people into a right relationship with God.
RICK
Yet at the same time God has a blessing and a warning for us. First comes the blessings in Deueteronomy 8:7-9 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land--a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; 8a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; 9a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.
TOBY
God is saying, “in the promised land, I will do more than simply take care of your needs. I will bless you with a very rich blessing. You will have more than what you need.” It’s a small thing for the Lord to provide us with material things. In being obedient to God, we place ourselves in a position to be blessed.
RICK
Our vision is to see more of our homes blessed with love, with acceptance and with forgiveness. Our vision is to see God bless you with Christian husbands and wives for those of you who desire to be married. Our vision is to see our young people and adults graduate and receive the education and good paying jobs good has for them.
Our vision is for us as church to be able to bring healing to all those who walk through our doors, and to go in search of those who God is calling us to find that they too might be saved. That’s the promised land that we want to cross over into for the next 40 years of our existence.
TOBY
Once we have built the New Life Center and New Life Fellowship is a strong thriving church, and we have all received great blessings from the Lord, we should come back to this passage. For there is a challenge and warning to remember where we have come from this first 40 years.
The word of God tells us in Deut. 8:10-11 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. 11Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.
RICK
There is something about, the more God blesses us, there comes a temptation to feel as though we no longer need God. Our hearts are tempted to become proud. Instead of saying, “I’ve come this far by faith”, our hearts speak the words, “look what I’ve done.” In verse 17, Moses put it this way, Deut. 8:17 You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me."
TOBY
The challenge will be for us to remember the Lord our God, for it is God who gives us the ability to produce wealth of whatever kind it might be. We celebrate 40 years today not because of our own strategic planning or great insight, but because the Lord has kept his promise that if we put our hope and our confidence in God, God will make a way for us. Truly, we have come this far by faith.
