INTRODUCTION
• Here we stand, at the dawn of a new year. I do not know what you think, but I am very excited over the opportunities God will open up to us in the new year!
• I would like to do something a bit different during the sermon time today. I am going to focus the message on the great things God is doing through the Auburn Christian Church.
• I believe God is doing so many things through our church that should cause excitement within us as we think of our church. We had a WONDERFUL 2003 and I cannot wait to see what God is going to do in 2004!
• I want to you all to understand something. I fully believe God called me and my family to this community and to this church for a reason. From the first contact I had with Marc to the interview process to the vote I received I knew God was in the calling to come to the Auburn Christian Church.
• This is a great church; it is a church that is full of God’s Spirit within the people and God’s love. I love this church and I love being here and I love serving the Lord here.
• When we left our last church I had a vision of how I hoped things would go here. Things are going even better than I had hoped for. God is doing great things through our church and I believe He will continue doing so as long as we put Him and His mission before everything else and if we continue to seek Him in prayer.
• If you are here today looking for a place to call home, I believe you are in the right place!
• I want to draw your attention to Psalm 66:5 which says, “Come and see the works of God, Who is awesome in His deeds toward the sons of men.
• The idea is, “Come and see what God has done and is doing; come and learn from this what he is; and let your hearts in view of all this, be excited to gratitude and praise (Barnes Old Testament Commentary)
• This passage will be the theme for the day, Come and see the works of God. Today I want us to take some time to look at what God is doing with the Auburn Christian Church.
• I hope as we look at what God is doing with our people, ministry and future that your level of excitement about our church will rise even higher!
• The first area I would like us to reflect on is the people.
SERMON
I. LOOK AT WHAT GOD IS DOING WITH OUR PEOPLE
• Before we get into to specifics, I want to speak for a moment about numbers. I always want us to understand that numbers represent people and the church is about reaching people for Jesus and once we reach them, our job as a church just begins. We are then called to take those people and help them to mature in the faith.
• I have always said the mission of the church is to make one to make one. That is we are to make disciples so they can go out and make more disciples of Jesus.
• One of the things we need to look at to gage whether we are doing what God has called us to do is numbers, although they still only tell part of the story.
• When you look at the numbers, our church had a great year this year.
• From 1990-2002 the average weekly attendance for each month has been 90 people. In 2003 we are running over 110 per week.
• I take the weekly attendance during each month and divide that over the number Sundays in a given month to come up with an average weekly attendance for the month. (Example, 100 per week for a 5 Sunday month would equal an average of 100 per week for that month)
• During the 10 year period from 1992-2002 we had on 15 months where the average weekly attendance for the month was 100 plus. In 2003 in 11 of the 12 months we have averaged over 100. Only in January were we under 100 and then we are at 96.
• These numbers are so encouraging because it shows we are reaching more new people for Jesus and we are also seeing people we have reached become more consistent in their attendance.
• Thus far in 2003 we have immersed 12 people into Christ. Along with that we had 6 membership transfers in 2003. This is great! That means we immersed at least one person a month into the Kingdom of God! Can we do better? Yes we can, but I believe this is a cause to celebrate!
• Some of the people who we have won to Christ came because God is using you in the lives of other people. You are telling people about Jesus and you are living for Jesus and people are taking note.
• Another part of the equation for winning people has to do with the rest of us. If is great if I bring a person to church and tell them about Jesus, but what would happen to that person if when they came in the doors of the church they did not feel loved, welcomed, and accepted?
• This is where all of us play a part in the process. One of the hardest things for a person who is not a Christian yet to do is to walk through those front doors.
• Your love for people and the way you welcome them makes the transition much easier.
• When I look out in the congregation today and see how God is working in your lives it is tempting to name names, but I will not do that. (Now if you put a name to these situations that is alright) What I will tell you is I see people who we won this year taking an active part in the life of the church. I see some people whose lives were a total wreck, become NEW creations in Christ. I have seen tragedy turned into good for people.
• I see some of our people who when we came to this church were very sporadic in their attendance and not very involved in serving the church now becoming a part of the core group of the church. I see some of those people now heavily involved in the life if the church. I see them growing in Jesus! This is exciting!
• I have people call my office whom we have won to Christ telling me how much Jesus has changed their life! That is exciting! I see many of these new baby Christians with a passion and desire to follow and serve God. It is so wonderful to see that!
• I am encouraged as I see the growth and development of the people who have been Christians for a while. I am so impressed by the love we show to one another.
• I believe the leadership of the church has done a great job building on the heritage that has been handed to them! This church is blessed with good men with a heart for God in leadership. We are blessed by the examples from the past they were able to look up to.
• I am also excited to see how our senior members of the church have been so good with all the changes we have made over the last 3 plus years. It takes a lot of love and maturity to allow change to happen. It is easy to get comfortable.
• We have a wonderful group of senior saints who love Jesus and this church, who have and are sacrificing for this church and have a desire to see this church grow and be strong not only now but for the next generation.
• It is exciting to see the youth of the church. You can see the growth in them. This church loves and cares about the youth. This church understands that it is important to invest in them.
• It is exciting to see how God is using the people of the Auburn Christian Church. It is exciting to see the spiritual and numerical growth of the Auburn Christian Church!
• Now I want us to look at what God is doing with our ministry or programs of the church!
II. LOOK AT WHAT GOD IS DOING WITH OUR MINISTRY
• One of the things we need to remember when we think about the various ministries or programs of the church is our programs are designed to do a couple of things; to help connect people with Jesus, and to help people connect with the Auburn Christian Church family.
• We do not have programs and ministries just to have them, we have them to connect people to Jesus and to other Christians, if a program or ministry is not doing that, it is time to bury the program and replace it.
• Our various ministries are a great opportunity for a person to serve Jesus and the church He loves. One of the ways we grow in our faith is by service.
• It is so good to see so many people involved in so many of our programs.
• I see a lot of new people getting plugged into the various ministries of the church. I see people who have been a part of the church for a long time getting involved and taking ownership of the church.
• This church has been blessed with some people who have been serving for many years and they have been serving in MANY areas at the same time. Many times these faithful people have taken on so many areas of service out of necessity, there was no one else willing to do it so they took it upon themselves to serve.
• When you look around you now, we still have some people serving in many areas, but we also have a multitude of people serving also.
• One of the areas where we have many people serving is our youth programs. We have six or more people working in our after-school program every week during the school year. We are reaching around 20 young children each week with this ministry!
• I have dropped in on a couple of the Sunday evening youth groups; we have young people coming to those that I do not even know!
• God is working through our youth; I spoke to one of the High School girls whom will remain anonymous (Ashley) who after going to CIY wants to become a youth minister! That is great!
• We have special programs that open doors for people to come. We had over 175 people come to our Christmas program. How many of those who visited our church will return? I do not know, but I do know we got them in the door and they saw a WONDERFUL program and their experience with our church was a good one!
• You would be amazed at all the people who were involved in making that program happen! We had people from all ages groups involved in the program. Wow! I believe for a church our size, the youth department put on a GREAT program!
• If you have not been a part of one of the Bible Studies we have been having on Wednesday nights, you are missing out. We have a family who has been coming to our church now because of the marriage study. It has been great to not only see what is happening with the actual study, but also the bonding and fellowship that takes place in during the studies. I can see the light come on for people as we look at how to incorporate God’s Word into our lives!
• I believe we have an uplifting worship service that connects people with the Lord. It is a blessing to see someone come down the isle teary eyed because they have been convicted about needing Jesus as their savior. Our men are doing a great job with their meditations, they are moving and thought provoking!
• We have a program where we take fresh cookies to many of our first time guests. In 2003 35% of those called on have been coming to church on a pretty regular basis!
• If people come, we can expose them to God’s Word and God’s Word can change their lives!
• It is exciting to see how we support the 12 missions we have. This shows this church is committed to spreading the gospel worldwide!
• If you are not busy on the third Friday of each month at 11:30 a.m., you need to come and visit the Golden Achievers meeting. This is a great time of fellowship that our senior saints put on.
• One area of ministry we need to strengthen in my opinion is our Senior’s ministry. I hope in 2004 to be able to come up with some ideas to open up some more senior related ministry programs. We also need to strengthen our prayer ministry. Prayer is so important in our lives because that is how we communicate with God; it is how we receive His power and wisdom in our lives!
• John 16:24 (NASB) “Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.”
• Overall our ministries are a ministry to everyone, to those who are served by them and to those who are serving! I get chills when I think of what God is doing through the ministries of this church!
• Now let us:
III. LOOK AT WHAT GOD IS DOING WITH OUR FUTURE
• I must admit one of the things that excites me is the future. It has been exciting to see the progress and growth our church has made in the past three plus years.
• One of the great things about serving a great church such as this one is you never know what wonderful things God has in store. It is exciting to see how this church is building on the heritage of the past, but not living in the past.
• I see great things happening to this church in the future, I see this church growing beyond what we ever thought it could.
• It is exciting to see the need to add on to our current facility. It is exciting to see the nursery over flowing, to see our Jr. and Wee Worship doing so well. It is exciting to see the auditorium filling up more each week.
• I believe God will bless this church as long as continue we keep a kingdom focus. We cannot have personal agendas; our agenda must be God’s!
• When I came here I envisioned this church growing. We serve a GREAT God, we have great people and we have great leadership.
• I believe we need to dream big because we serve a big God with whom nothing is impossible!
• The only limit to the future is us.
• It is so good to serve a church where people are hungering for God! I cannot wait to see what God has in store for us in the coming year!
CONCLUSION
• I want to ask you today, is Jesus the Lord of your life? Are you looking for something in life and you just can’t put your finger on it? What you are looking for is Jesus. This morning we offer you the opportunity to make Jesus your Lord and Savior!
• Do you belong to Jesus, but you are looking for a place to call home? This is the place for you, we offer any immersed believers to opportunity to place membership with us and be a part of what God is going to do with this church!
• Finally for those who are a part of the ACC family, are you an active part of the life of the ACC family? If not, now is the time to change it, you will be glad you did!
• I want everyone to know this church is here to first and foremost to serve Jesus. We are here as a family trying to help each other grow in Christ.
• Come be apart of what God is doing at ACC!
