1 Timothy 3:16-17

Well, very good morning to you. If you will, please take your copy of God's Word and turn to 2 Timothy 3.

! On this, the first Lord's Day of the Year, we are going to do something rather dramatically different.

If you're a guest today, we want you to know that our regular practice for preaching is verse-by-verse exposition.

And if you're not a first-time guest this morning, it's been a little while since we've done a verse-by-verse,

through-a-book exposition as we've just come through Advent season and then kind of did the traditional sermon that we do at the end of the year,

kind of charging you to make good resolutions for change. But this is even a little more dramatically different,

because today I'm going to take our time together to talk about plans for the upcoming year.

And I struggled a little bit with this idea. If you hate it, it's all my fault.

But it's difficult, as we're thinking about doing new things together, to communicate that really clearly,

to kind of help give you the thought process to undergird it the way we would like for that to happen.

And as I'm just looking around the room, it seems that we have a lot of people out sick today.

I know that we've heard both croup and RSV, and there's this, like, recycling stomach bug that I really hope is not the ronavirus.

We'll see. But there's a lot of people out, so you may need to even help me to communicate some of this to others.

But I have three goals this morning. I want to inform you of some of these plans for the year.

I hope to excite you a bit about them and to involve you, both in those things that you can attend,

those things that are for you, those things that you have time for,

and to be praying for those things that you cannot attend, that you would understand why they're important and what we're up to.

But I do want to first develop some biblical framework for how we ought to think about planning for the church.

What should guide the process of that?

And we're going to start here in 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17,

2 Timothy 3:16

because the simple answer is the Scripture.

The Scripture should be guiding the process for everything that the church does.

So, Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17,

2 Timothy 3:16

all Scripture is breathed out by God.

He exhaled it is the actual word that could be translated there.

He is its very source.

All Scripture breathed out by God and profitable

for teaching, for reproof, for correction,

and for training in righteousness.

That the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Certainly, the doctrine of the sufficiency of the Scripture, which we derive from this,

means that the Bible has everything in it that we need for life and godliness.

It's not going to tell us how to design an electrical circuit,

but for those things concerning righteousness,

it is a sufficient text.

So, it goes broader than just what we do together as a church,

but it most certainly includes what we do together as a church.

And I'm very grateful that early in my life,

through many influences and by the great grace of God,

this doctrine got, what I like to say, concreted in my heart.

It's immovable, I believe, that the Bible is sufficient.

And you have church leadership that believes that the Bible is sufficient.

And frankly, I think our entire church believes that the Bible is sufficient.

And I'm so very, very glad for this.

So, we want to think biblically about what we do together as a church.

Are we serving one another the way the Bible would ask us to serve one another?

It's at the core of what we're doing, the instruction that God has given us.

And we believe that this is the case.

It doesn't mean we'll always get it right or perfect,

but we want to.

We need to keep going back to the text, back to the text, back to the text.

Semper Reformande, right?

The cry of the Reformation.

Always reforming.

Always looking back to the text.

Making sure that we don't err.

Making plans that the Lord will bless,

because they come from, they're derived from His commands for us.

So, we want to start there as we think about what we ought to be doing together as a church.

The sufficient, God-breathed word that we have.

Secondly, we should think about kind of the nature of the church and its leadership.

What those leaders are to do and what those leaders are not to do.

So, if you'll join me in Ephesians chapter 4,

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

I'm going to speak to this briefly.

And while you're getting there,

I'm going to read to you Acts chapter 6 and verse 4.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

Now, I don't for a moment want to suggest that the elders of a church are synonymous with the apostles.

But we believe that the elders of a church pick up certain elements of the apostolic ministry.

The apostles were receiving revelation, right?

They're writing much of the New Testament.

We don't do that.

We don't receive new revelation.

But we do see them doing in Acts chapter 6 and verse 4.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

In Acts 6, they're calling men to serve.

Calling men to serve to unencumber them.

So that verse 4 says they can devote themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.

So the simplest job description you could possibly come up with for the elders of a church is to pray and to minister the Word.

Let me show you this a little further in Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

This is verses 11 through 16.

Paul has just talked about Christ ascending,

which then is implied, he says, that he also descended and he gave gifts.

He gave gifts to the church for its function.

And he says, starting in verse 11,

and he gave the apostles, the prophets.

There's much debate about what he means here.

I'm going to suggest to you that he's talking about the Scripture in this place.

We have now the Bible that serves this role.

The evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry.

So he's given to us leadership to the church.

We've got the Scripture and we have leaders in the church, evangelists, shepherd, teachers,

to equip the church, to equip us, all of us, for the work of ministry.

And I think this is one of the most important texts that's often not referred to

when we think about congregationalism.

What is congregationalism?

I want to say it's so much more than just showing up to a members meeting of the church

and voting on stuff.

It is that.

But it's so much more than that.

We as the total congregation, myself and our other elders included,

are to be doing this work of ministry.

So you're to be equipped to love and serve one another.

Look what the text goes on to say.

For building up the body of Christ.

Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.

To mature manhood to the measure of the statue of the fullness of Christ.

So there's the goal and the positive.

And then in the negative he says in verse 14,

So we want to be mature.

We want to be growing up into Christlikeness and not staying immature.

This is the ministry work of the church together.

And he tells us how it's accomplished in verse 15.

Rather, speaking the truth in love.

We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.

From whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped,

when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Right?

So we are to be speaking the truth in love to one another.

And doing all of the various things that God has gifted us to do.

So if you're a member of this church, or another church for that matter.

If you go on and you're a member of another church.

It's right and proper.

And it's safe to assume that God has brought you to that church.

That you might function in some way in that body.

You have a part to play in the life of that church.

And that includes all kinds of things.

And I'm not about to recruit you to take out trash.

Although you're welcome to be recruited for that.

Because we have to do it.

What's the focus here?

Speaking the truth in love to one another.

Which happens in informal, casual ways.

It should be going on all the time.

You should hit the ground here on a Sunday morning thinking,

How am I to love and serve others this morning?

How am I meant to walk into the building and greet people and speak the truth in love to them?

And I think you'll find as you do this, others will speak the truth in love to you.

And will press at each other and will grow in holiness together.

This is what's supposed to be going on when each part, verse 16, is working properly.

And I fear that often we don't function properly.

Because every part is not doing its part in this work.

So, the leaders of our church need to be thinking in these terms.

If we're to be praying and doing the ministry of the word.

That ministry of the word has this extension.

It's part of the ministry of the word.

To be equipping the saints to minister the word, the truth in love to one another.

We're going to have to think about the best ways to do that.

We're going to have to be rational.

Perhaps a little bit practical at times.

How is this accomplished?

For a lot of years, and no dramatic change here, but for a lot of years, we have really, really pushed back.

And tried to keep ourselves from becoming highly problematic.

And the reason for that is that very often in the lives of churches, programs begin to exist for the sake of the program to exist.

And you push people into them and you burn people out.

And it must go on because we've always done it this way.

And we lose sight of why we would even start to do something particular at all.

But we're not entirely anti-programs.

What we're doing right now is, in some sense, a program.

We've decided that we should gather together at certain times.

We kind of start at that time.

There are certain things that ought to be done during this time.

There's goals in mind as we gather together and do this.

There's a great little book called The Trellis and the Vine.

I'd love for all of you to read it at some point.

Although it's really written for church leaders.

And in that book, they work out this analogy of a trellis and the vine.

And the author talks about how he has on the side of his garage this really beautiful hand-built trellis.

And nothing seems to grow on it.

And it's just put in a bad spot.

A side of the house that just nothing seems to grow on.

But then on his fence, he has another trellis that he can't see because there's a jasmine vine growing on it.

And that jasmine vine has outgrown the trellis.

And it threatens to pull the trellis off the fence.

And he has to go in and get up underneath it and pin it back onto the fence to keep it held up.

And what they suggest in the book is that there are, of course, those necessary things we should do together as a church.

The plans that we should make.

The structures we should build that are trellis.

But that that trellis is meant to hold up the vine, which is the people work.

The gospel proclamation.

The speaking the truth in love to one another.

And it's easy to get those two things out of priority.

Right?

Let's do some things.

Let's put some things in place.

Let's structure stuff and program things so that the vine can flourish.

And for a lot of years, we've been able to do it with very, very little trellis.

We've always tried it minimally.

We want to do so little trellis.

We want to focus everybody's attention on vine.

We want to be so clear about this.

But I think we find ourselves, as we've been growing, that we just need a bit more trellis.

We need to put a little more structure into place.

That is to say, in order to free you all to do this precious and most important vine work,

we just need some plans to do so.

We need to be deliberate about doing these things.

I find for myself, I want to be a person who is so clearly prioritized in my mind that it's just natural.

It just runs around in me.

That there's no doubt in my mind what the next right thing to do is.

It just bubbles up out of me.

But if there's anything important that needs to happen in my life,

I find that I have to make a plan for it.

I've just got to be really deliberate.

I've got to write it down.

I've got to think about when it's going to happen.

If you happen to have a child sitting next to you that has the coloring sheet,

it's a drawing of the mind that America has ever produced.

And many will say he's the greatest mind that America has ever produced.

And he had to write down notes and pin them on his jacket in order to remember things.

This encourages me.

Important things, I think, need to be planned for.

If you're not like me, that's a wonderful gift to you.

But I've got to structure.

I've got to think about those most important things.

Otherwise, they tend to get put back.

They tend to get chased away by the tyranny of the urgent,

the crisis that often seems to be right in front of us.

So we're going to add a few things this year.

And I just want you to understand the why behind some of these things.

Again, hopefully to inform you, to excite you, and to involve you.

So in your bulletin that you were handed, there was an insert.

You're welcome to, this might serve you to pull this out and take a look at it.

This was just a temporary thing that I can't pull together.

I'm really hoping that we have some graphic artists, and I know that we do,

who are looking at this and saying, this is terrible.

It could be so much better.

I agree with you that it could be so much better.

And I would love for you to volunteer to make it prettier for us.

I would even gladly turn this into a magnet that we could stick on our fridges.

So there's some thoughts for you.

You're going to notice firstly at the top, it says Providence Baptist Church.

And if you're unaware, I want you to know that our church has voted to change our name.

So that's not taken place yet.

There's a lot of details that have to be sorted out to make that possible.

But as I sat down and typed this up this week, I just thought,

this is going to go perhaps in the front of somebody's Bible,

maybe up on the fridge, and we're going to change our name, I hope, very soon, formally,

and I just didn't want it to be confusing.

So that's what's happening.

Be confused for a moment this morning so that you don't have to be confused in the future.

These are some plans for this upcoming year.

So it's a save the dates, you know, kind of like a wedding save the date,

but this is multiple dates, some things to be thinking about,

some things to be looking forward to,

to go ahead and put on your digital calendar,

to have it up in a visible place,

to stick it in the front or back of your Bible,

to be able to reference the things we're planning on doing this year.

And I will tell you that the years that we've done more good things together

are years that we tend to plan this early,

because if it goes on the calendar, it's most likely going to get done.

And if it doesn't, then, oh man, it's Christmas again,

and we're off on into the next year.

So I want to talk through some of these things.

Probably the most significant change is that we're going to add

a Sunday evening litany of things to do together.

I want to be really clear.

The church, the church as a total, only gathers,

as a total, only gathers on Sunday mornings.

This is what we've decided as a church.

We have two what we call gatherings.

We have a members gathering at 10, it goes till 1030,

we take a little break,

and then we have this gathering, which we call the public gathering.

If you're a member of our church, I've said to you,

you ought to think of that as a singular event.

Come Sunday morning, when we say to you,

Hebrews chapter 10, do not neglect to meet with the saints,

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

that's what we're talking about, right?

That time that we have all decided to come together.

So everything I'm about to talk to you about is optional, but good.

I want you to really seriously consider

if these things are worth spending your time on.

So Sunday evenings from 6 to 730,

beginning January 19th,

and that is just a couple of weeks away, I know.

We're going to do some things together.

Now, those things together will be interrupted at times

by members' meetings.

It's when we typically have had those meetings.

That's going to happen next Sunday evening,

January 12th, and then April 13th,

and July 13th, and October 12th.

So that's when you can anticipate those members' meetings.

things happening,

and those will interject on top of

and take the place of the things that I'm about to mention.

The first thing that we'll do on Sunday evenings together

is a men's prayer meeting.

So we're going to ask that the men of the church

come together and pray.

It's good that the church prays together.

And we do this already.

We do this on Sunday mornings, right?

When you're led in a prayer in the morning,

this morning, it wasn't just Gary that was praying,

and you were listening to him pray, right?

He was leading us in prayer.

So we do this corporately,

but we think it would be helpful

if we set aside an additional time for prayer.

Paul writes in 1 Timothy 2, verse 8,

1 Timothy 2:8

I desire then that in every place the men should pray.

There's a little story about the ministry of Charles Spurgeon

you may be familiar with,

but it always encourages me to encourage the church to pray.

It goes like this.

Five college students visited London one Sunday

to hear Charles Spurgeon preach

at the Metropolitan Tabernacle.

They arrived early and were met by a kind gentleman

who offered to give them a tour.

At one point, he asked them

if they would like to see the furnace room in the basement.

If you're very young,

you may not know what a furnace room is,

but it heats up water,

and it circulates it all throughout the building

so that the building can be warmed.

So the furnace room in the basement.

It was a hot July,

and the students were not interested,

but not wanting to appear rude,

they consented.

Their guide quietly opened the door,

and there in the basement

of the Metropolitan Tabernacle,

there were several hundred people

fervently praying for the service

that was about to begin.

It was then that their guide introduced himself.

He was none other than Charles Spurgeon,

and he wanted those college students

to understand that prayer

was the power source of his ministry.

Prayer matters incredibly.

I too readily rush off into things

thinking that I've got it handled,

but I have nothing handled

without God's help.

Prayer is that thing

without which nothing happens.

Sine qua non.

Without which nothing.

We need to pray.

We need to pray for God's blessing

on the things that we are about doing.

And we need to be praying

more broadly as well.

We need to be praying for area churches.

Churches in our area.

Those that are like-minded,

that are preaching the gospel,

that we can praise God for,

that God would give them great courage

and spur them on.

We need to be praying for churches

that we might not agree with so much.

That they would see the truth

of the gospel

and perhaps come to conviction

and change.

It's a good thing for us to do.

We need to be praying for our ministry partners.

We need to be doing this regularly,

which we often do on Sundays,

but we need to be doing so

in more detail and more carefully.

They're on the back of your bulletin

this morning, right?

The Andersons were serving

in Southeast Asia.

They're learning language right now.

They're working towards being sent

to an unreached people group.

They need a great deal of prayer.

The Hamores,

Josh is serving as the director

of the UNG FCA.

You may have opinions about FCA,

but I can tell you

that Josh is doing a good work

on that campus.

And we need to be thinking about

how to partner

and how to be praying for him.

Matthew Carnegie,

who's going to actually come

and share with us this evening,

talking about the state

of Bible translation in the world.

He's in Texas right now

at Bible translation school

and preparing very soon

to go with a team.

We don't know where to just yet,

but to be going and doing

translation work.

Emma Zwimpke,

we need to add her

to the back of this.

She also is going to be going

and doing a very similar work

in the coming year-ish,

doing Bible translation work.

The Walkers,

also in Southeast Asia,

they're there with the IMB.

And the Zwimpkes in Germany

who are coming back to us

this summer, praise God.

We're very thankful for that.

But we need to be praying

for these,

for Great Commission work.

We need to be praying

that the Gospel would go

to all peoples.

And perhaps in the process of that,

the Lord may raise up people

in our midst

that would go to those very places.

We need to be paying

for people in positions of power,

for governmental leaders,

local and state

and certainly federal.

We need to be praying

for the future of our church,

that God will give us wisdom,

what things ought we do

and what things ought we not do.

We need to be praying

for our church leadership.

We desperately need your prayers.

We are feeble men

and we need your prayers.

We need to be praying

about the possible future

of a biblical counseling center.

We've talked about this for years.

What might it look like?

You may not be aware of this,

but this past semester

on the University of North Georgia's campus,

there were three suicides.

And I sat with Josh,

just him absolutely heartbroken

over that.

And there's currently a president

at the University of North Georgia

who wants biblical counseling

to be available

to students on that campus.

He said,

I'm going to say this

on a recording,

he said

that the services

the college provides

are not ample

for what those students need.

There's a door of opportunity.

At least in some small way,

we could help.

What a chance.

What a chance

to be on the leading edge

of sharing the gospel

on that campus.

So we need to be praying

about that.

Without which nothing,

how are we to accomplish

such a task?

I have no idea

we need God's power.

So there's some things

that we're going to be asking

that the men would come together

and that they would pray.

We also are going to add

a men's morning meeting.

So this is just kind of men,

men on the side

I'm just talking about

for a moment.

We did this some time ago,

a Saturday morning meeting

once a month.

It's going to be

a little bit longer form

this time

and we're not just going to talk

about man issues

all the time,

but we're going to

in advance

let you know

what topics may be covered.

I think this will give us

the opportunity

to have some kind of

longer form teaching

about some issues.

The first one

will be February 1st.

I will tell you

just off the cuff,

I can't guarantee this,

but I think when I'm

going to be

and let's think together

biblically

about whether we should

or shouldn't

take up this kind

of teaching.

We shouldn't.

But February 1st,

if I can manage

to prepare for that.

So in advance,

I'll let you know

what we're going to do.

We're going to come together.

We're going to have

some breakfast.

We're going to really

get into the Word

together around

some particular topics.

And a men's retreat

every year.

We can check that one off.

We did it this weekend

and I'm really grateful

for those guys

that could come

and sad if you weren't

able to be with us.

Genuinely,

wish you could have

joined us

over these past

two days.

Also on Sunday evening,

we're going to have

a women's Bible study.

So my sweet

and wonderful wife

has been pressing

at me for quite some time

that the women

need a consistent time

to connect together

without little ones

distracting them.

Boy,

do we have a lot

of beautiful

little distractions

right now,

don't we?

So she's been

encouraging this

and pressing this

and I said,

you're absolutely right.

We should be thinking

about how to do this

and so we're going to

try to accomplish this

on Sunday evenings.

Sam is going to begin

that by leading

through a book

called Women of the Word

and then beyond that

it will be an inductive

Bible study.

So we'll select a book

and the women will

get together

and discuss those texts

together.

We'll also have

a women's retreat

and that will be

April 4th and 5th

of this year.

We've got the

center booked.

It is happening.

It's going down

April 4th

and 5th.

And then to support,

kind of the broader needs

of the men and women

of our church,

this year we're going

to do two one-day retreats.

The first will be

on parenting.

That will be February 8th.

Many of you are

in the trenches

right in those early years.

Right now,

including unborn children,

the members of our church

have 84 kids,

four and under.

Really,

that's a staggering number.

And then I think

when you add the

five and up kids in,

we're like at 128 children.

It's a wonderful blessing

and a need

that we should be

thinking about together.

And then in September

on the 27th,

we're going to do

one on marriage.

And I think,

I think we may do these

every single year.

Do a parenting one day

and a marriage one day

every single year.

Also on Sunday evening,

we're going to start a,

what I'm currently calling,

and this is just me,

so it may take

a different shape.

Somebody may tell me

they hate it.

That's okay.

But I'm framing it this way

for our thinking.

A young adult class.

And by that,

I mean youth.

So I just don't like

that term very much.

Young adult class.

And we think this is important

because this age

is a difficult age.

I'm so really glad

that I'm not that age

in this age.

Does that make sense?

Like, oh,

the pressures

that they're experiencing

are immense.

And parents,

you're doing a wonderful job.

So we're in no way saying,

oh gosh,

we've got to come in

and rescue these

poor teenagers

from their parents.

And we don't want to suggest

that at all.

But we do think

it's an age

that needs a lot of support.

Very tragically,

Hillary Clinton

has co-opted the term

that takes a village.

So maybe we can just

turn it into,

it takes a church.

We need to be helping

and supporting one another.

Our young men

need the wisdom

of their fathers.

And then they need

a bunch of other fathers

saying the same stuff

to them.

Right?

Their heads are thick.

My head was very thick.

It still is.

But I think it's thinning

as I get older.

But very thick.

And they need a lot

of input into their lives.

And they need that

age group friendships.

They need to be able

to talk to one another

through the challenges

that they're going through.

And so,

we intend to do this.

I'll have a meeting

with parents.

We'll talk out

what this might look like.

We need your help.

We need your help

pulling this off.

Church,

we need your prayers.

We suddenly have

a bunch of teenagers.

And I will tell you

right now,

myself included,

all of those parents

are trembling

with the challenges

that are ahead of us

with these young people.

And yeah,

we need your input.

We need your partnership.

We need your help.

So we're going to have

a class for them.

That'll be on Sunday evenings.

And I'll tell you,

just in case,

it's going to be a shocker

to you,

we're going to have

some fun.

And we're going to

feed them some food

they probably shouldn't eat.

but we are going to

open the Bible together.

We're going to get

their noses in the text.

We're going to

help them learn

how to study the Bible

well,

understand the gospel,

get the church

and what the church is

and the great blessing

that it is.

Yeah.

We've also put

on the calendar

a retreat for them

in June.

I just blocked out

the entire week.

I can't promise

it'll be the entire week.

We'll talk more

with parents

and see what might work

for us.

But we want to take

those young people away

and with their parents

to be clear.

We're not going to

steal your children

but we'll take them away

and teach them.

And then in addition to that

on Sunday evening

we're going to do

children's classes

for all the other age groups

as well.

And I'm excited about

what we may be doing

with them,

developing some curriculum

for them.

So that's the big one,

Sunday evening.

And I think there's

a lot,

a lot of good.

And again,

think of it as trellis

for us to step into

together and do

a lot of really good

vine work.

Speak the truth

and love to one another

in all of these various ways

and around these

different issues

and topics.

I think this will be

a very good thing

if we can lean

heavy into it.

And once again,

Sunday evenings may be

the worst time for you.

You might be hearing

all of this

and you might be saying

this all sounds so great

but I just don't think

I'm going to be able

to make Sunday evening work.

But when else

would we do it?

That would be my

retort to you.

And I think these things

are important enough

to make the effort

if it's at all

possible for you.

A couple of other

opportunities

to connect

and to serve.

There are some

50 commandments

in the Bible

that end in

one another

and those things

can be happening.

All those one another's

can be happening

in everything

that I've mentioned

so far.

Some examples,

love one another,

welcome one another,

bear with one another,

care for one another.

To do that,

you need to be

connected with people

and it's really easy

to show up

on a Sunday morning,

the last minute,

get up when it's time

to go and get out of here

and not ever really

get to know anybody

or to be known

by anybody.

We're not a terribly

large church

but the way this building

is set up,

you kind of get

funneled in and funneled out

and it creates

some difficulty.

It's hard to connect

with people

if that's all you're doing.

So we're going to

continue to do

community groups,

no changes to that.

Those groups,

if you're not familiar

with them,

are led by an elder.

Often, not always,

but they're hosted

in an elder's home.

They're on the second

and fourth Tuesday

or Wednesday

of each month.

It's very light.

You can bring

your children to it.

We're going to open

the text for just

a few minutes,

perhaps sing a song,

a prayer.

I think just about

everybody eats food

in some measure

or another.

Our group,

not because I'm

a great leader of it,

but our group

does a dinner

and it's always

a really,

really wonderful

time to get it.

So it's a chance

to come and connect

with people,

get to know people,

and hopefully this

flows into other

discipling relationships

beyond just that

time together.

And then some

service days.

So we have some

property work days

on the calendar.

Beloved,

we need to steward

this building well.

It's a gift to us.

You've benefited from it,

whether you think

you have or not.

You're benefiting

from it right now.

And we can't pull

this off on our own.

We need your help.

Unclogging toilets

does not fit in the

prayer and ministry

of the word job

description.

Although I'm happy

to do it,

but we're finding

ourselves so busy

that something else

is getting neglected

if I'm doing that.

If I'm unclogging

a toilet,

there's something

prayer and ministry

of the word

that I probably

should be doing

and I'm not able

to do it.

Not above any

of that kind of work,

but we need to be

able to pitch in

and help out.

And so we're going

to schedule some work days

both to clean

on the inside

of the building,

those things that are

difficult to do

like dusting

the lights in here

and also working

on the outside

of the building

as well.

And then in some

other months,

we've been calling

them barn raisings,

but I dropped the G

and did an apostrophe S

which makes it look

really hilarious.

It says barn raisins.

And I'm seeing it

now that I'm looking

at it written down.

But it doesn't

really matter.

So if you're not

familiar,

the Amish are

incredible people.

From a lack

of technology,

they get together

when they have to

raise a huge structure

and the whole community

comes together

and raises the walls

of a barn.

It's called a barn

raising.

And so we've been

doing this now

for this past year.

Opportunities to come

together and serve

those people in our

church that especially

need help with big

projects as kind

of the priority.

But it's just a good

time to get together

and make some stuff

happen.

So y'all have helped

me on my property.

I had to hand dig

a ditch to run

power in.

And I am so grateful

that I didn't hand

dig the ditch.

A bunch of you guys

came and made that

happen.

We tore up a deck

and we've done

some pressure washing.

So it's a good

opportunity to come

together, love and

serve one another.

Men especially,

but I don't want to

exclude the women

of the church,

but men especially.

Put those on the

calendar and just

consider if you might

be able to take some

time to come together

in that way.

So there's a lot of

good opportunity here

and it may seem like

too much, like it's a

whole bunch.

But we really want to

be careful not to

overpack anyone's

schedule.

We want you to have

time for work and

family and your

unbelieving neighbors

and friends.

we want you to have

time outside of these

plans for Christian

fellowship and service,

that informal stuff

that you all do so

well.

So I just think a

little bit of

perspective may help

at this point.

I did a little math

and if I did it

correctly.

If you're a member

of the church who

were involved with

everything I have

mentioned, and no

one's saying that you

have to be, but if

you just said,

all right, I'm doing

it, every single

thing I'm showing up

to, if you availed

yourself of

everything, you'd

only be giving

about 30 hours of

your month.

About 30 hours of

your month to all

of these good works.

It's a little

perspective.

It's not a terrible

ask of you.

And I think you'll

find, in whatever

measure you decide

to engage, that

you'll find yourself

being served by it.

So, for 2025, just

ask yourself, how

would God have you

spend your time?

And I don't presume

to answer that

question for you.

I don't know how

God would have you

spend your time.

The only expectation

that this church can

and does lay upon

you, if you are a

member, is that you

join us for the

times when the whole

church gathers, or

should be gathered,

which is that Sunday

morning, those meetings

that I mentioned.

I think that's the

only moral obligation

that you have.

But I hope that you

will, with what I

presented, see these

opportunities, and

you'll find some

measure of excitement

for and some

involvement in, if

in nothing else, that

you would help us by

praying that those

efforts would be

fruitful.

In closing, I want

to read Psalm 127

and verse 1, which

says,

Unless the Lord

builds a house, those

who build it labor

in vain.

Unless the Lord

watches over the

city, the watchman

stays awake in vain.

Our efforts to

build and to

protect are of no

value unless God

blesses our efforts.

So let's pray to the

end that he would

use our plan in

mighty ways in this

coming year.

Let's pray together.

Let's pray together.