Annual Founder’s Day Sermon — Sermon by Rev. Craig Stephans

let us

pray father I pray that you would preach

the gospel through me to all of us help

us to receive it with ears that hear and

with hearts that understand and with the

power and conviction of the holy spirit

that we would be transformed into the

image of Christ and the people that you

desire us to be amen please be seated

today as we celebrate the founding of

Christ Church that happened in

1733 I was reminded of the Temple of

Solomon from the Old Testament when the

people of Israel contributed so much

gold and silver and they had so many

Craftsmen working with Blood Sweat and

Tears to build this

Temple but when the temple was

established it wasn't because of what

the people had done only

in 2 Chronicles verse 7:1 we read this

about after all the people had gathered

together and Solomon had prayed and they

offered sacrifices and then in verse one

it says as soon as Solomon finished his

prayer fire came down from heaven and

consumed the burnt offering and the

sacrifices and the glory of the Lord

filled the temple and the priests could

not enter the house of the Lord because

the glory of the Lord filled the Lord's

House when all the people of Israel saw

the fire come down and the glory on the

of the Lord on the temple they bowed

with their faces to the ground on the

pavement and worshiped and gave thanks

to the Lord saying for he is good for

his steadfast love endures

forever so many people have worked

tirelessly and contributed so much to

Christ Church Anglican since its

founding in 1733 both in the old

buildings and then coming here there was

a renewed Vigor and effort that created

this space but anyone can build a

building and contribute effort and

offerings but to make a church last

almost 300 years it requires the same

presence of God that came when the

temple was consecrated in Israel the

glory of the Lord came and filled that

Temple and fire came

down we need the same fire of the Holy

SP Spirit we need the same Glory of

God's presence in his kingdom perhaps

not seen at all but experienced and

present and real Among Us and while they

offered sacrifices of burnt offerings

lambs and goats and Bulls we are

privileged to come consistently and

always into the presence of God through

the one sacrifice that was made once and

for all the sacrifice of Jesus Christ

and as we come and as we experience the

presence of the Lord we respond as they

did with humility and awe and wonder

bowing down and worshiping the one true

God who is at the center of our lives

together and declaring his wonders and

his goodness for he is good and his

steadfast love endures forever if we

Sway and swerve from any of those

elements from working and contributing

by God's grace to his church by

welcoming and seeking his presence with

the fire and power of the Holy Spirit if

we cease to come through the sacrifice

and in the name of Jesus the center of

our lives together and if we fail to

respond with humility and worship and

dependence on the goodness and love of

God then we will s swerve away from the

true calling of God

and we may miss and lose his presence

and the longevity and future of our

church isn't

guaranteed this past week our son jack

being a senior at Island high school he

had the opportunity to come up with the

quote his senior quote to have the

yearbook by his picture and so we are

discussing that and of course you want

to have something really PR profound

that resonates but is also kind of cool

so yeah we were talking about that and

he came up up with something so you can

ask him when you see him he loves when I

mention him at church

and so he'll tell you what the quote is

but I thought about that in terms of our

Founders Day in this annual time when we

celebrate our founding what would be the

perfect scriptures to to choose for this

day and the ones that I have that were

read I think are the perfect scriptures

and what's so wonderful about God is

these are the scriptures from our

lectionary

there the lectionary speaks to what God

has done and is doing among us and what

he requires of us and so I'm going to go

through and mention each of these

readings that we had briefly but the

first one from Corinthians 1 Corinthians

15 is key to our life together in the

Health and Longevity of our church and

it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ Paul

declares it and emphasizes it in verse

one he says now I would remind you

Brothers and Sisters of the Gospel I

preach to you which you received in

which you stand and by which you are

saved if you hold fast to the word I

preach to you we must hold fast to the

Gospel of Jesus Christ The Gospel that

Paul preached the gospel that has been

handed down to us from the time of Jesus

and the apostles the apostolic message

and teaching Paul warns the church in

galatia in chapter 1 twice he says if

anyone even an angel of God comes to you

preaching a message other than the

gospel or the message that I preach to

you let them be ACC cursed I will say it

again if anyone comes to you preaching a

gospel other than the gospel I preach

let them be accursed that's how Ser it

serious it is to preach the Gospel of

Jesus Christ Paul elabor Ates a little

bit in verse three he said I deliver to

you as of first importance what I also

received that Christ died for our sins

in accordance with the scriptures that

he was buried that he was raised on the

third day in accordance with the

scriptures the Gospel of Jesus Christ

based on the scriptures flowing from the

scriptures flowing from the Holy Spirit

and the traditions of generations of

people who have preached the gospel must

be held on to and we must stand fast in

it as a church for our sake and for the

sake of those who come after us and for

the sake of those in the world who are

not yet saved and in the Kingdom of

Heaven Paul concludes our reading for

today in verse 10 when he says by the

grace of God I am what I am his grace

toward me was not in vain on the

contrary I worked harder than any of

them though it was not I but the grace

of God that is with me whether then it

was I or they so we preach and so you

believed by the grace of God we preach

the gospel by the grace of God we hear

believe and receive and stand firmly on

it we need the Gospel of Jesus we need

the grace of God and the spirit of God

and we need each other for

accountability to keep us on that track

many of you attended a few weeks ago the

event that was led by Steve Danton and

Michael mle contending for the faith why

we left the Episcopal church and Steve

narrated that story and as he

did the emphasis the theme of that was

that we discerned that the Episcopal

Church as a whole was swerving and

swaying from the biblical Authority from

the Gospel of Jesus

Christ that that had been established in

and so many folks left and joined the

Anglican Church in North America

established us right here by God's grace

but toward the end of that session

someone asked how can we keep this from

happening again and there were a couple

who had experienced it including Steve

and John Albert who emphasized a key to

maintaining the biblical Authority on

which we are established and the Gospel

of Jesus Christ is that the lay people

of the congregation remain invested in

scripture and devoted to learning and

growing in scripture and not just rely

on the clergy to do

it Father Brian and I father Joe all who

preach here all who lead we are

committed to scripture we're committed

to preaching the gospel but we're

fallible We're Men we need all of us to

be committed together to scripture and

to the gospel to the Holy Spirit and his

grace how many fans do we have of 80s

music all right all right like to see

the younger people father Joe like that

so that was that was my vibe and my

playlist is filled with 80s music and

I've heard him hundreds and hundreds of

times and sometimes you know i' have to

have music instead of a podcast and

yesterday was one of those times and

driving home I just got a few minutes I

got to pick the right song so I'm going

through it and then one of my favorite

from back in the day came on it was

Modern englishes I'll melt with you I

I'll stop the world and melt with

you heard it a thousand

times but this time there was a line in

it that just stood out like I'd never

heard it before and it was God speaking

to me and someone mentioned how God does

that today in Sunday school um dreams of

Better Lives the kind which never hate

trapped in a state of imaginary

Grace so yeah

so yeah maybe we need an open mic

night so trapped in a state of imaginary

Grace have any of you ever thought about

that line I never have in my entire life

since I heard that song trapped in a

state of imaginary Grace and it was like

God saying you need to think about that

what is imaginary Grace how could we get

trapped in it and God I believe

impressed upon me two ways that even as

we focus on the gospel and live

according to scripture and life together

we can get trapped in some Heirs of

imaginary Grace and there's two sides of

that coin that I think that we are

vulnerable to one side of imaginary

Grace is to think that Grace is not

enough we're saved by grace but it's not

enough for

me imaginary Grace says you've messed up

you have failed too many

times Grace isn't enough for

you you've taken too many steps

backward you're not good enough you're

too broken Grace isn't enough for you

despite what Paul says his grace is

sufficient for me in our weakness he is

made strong his strength is made perfect

his grace is sufficient for us to save

us and to keep us it is imaginary Grace

and we get trapped in the idea that we

must combine Grace with being good

enough and with making no mistakes with

pleasing everyone with being what the

world decides we should be or living

according to some arbitrary laws grace

is sufficient to save us and to keep us

by God's grace we are saved by his grace

we are his workmanship as we believe and

we receive we can stand fast in his

grace Paul writes in Romans 51 therefore

I since we have been justified by faith

we have peace with God through our Lord

Jesus Christ through him we have also

obtained access by faith into this grace

in which we stand and we rejoice in the

hope of the glory of God stand in his

grace and don't believe the imaginary

gospel that says it's not enough for you

the other side of that

coin is to think that not only are we

Justified by faith through Grace and we

are born again and members of the body

of Christ but that Grace also justifies

our sinful behavior and so we can keep

doing what we

want that is also a trapping of

imaginary Grace that we think we would

be justified and healthy and okay and

continuing in sinful Behavior

unrepentantly there is a truth in the

gospel and that is that sin leads to

death the wages of sin is death sin is

injurious to our souls and our spirits

to our lives and those around us it

doesn't mean we will be perfect but it

is a trapping of imaginary Grace that

says you're justified by grace through

faith so you can continue in sin and

your sin is

Justified our sinful behavior is not

justified our souls are and cleanse from

sin so that we can die to sin and live

unto God so that we can put to death the

Deeds of the Flesh and live according to

the Deeds of the Holy Spirit Paul

answers this question in Romans 6 verse1

what shall we say then are we to

continue in sin that Grace May abound by

no means how can we who died to sin

still live in

it now we see in the gospel this Dynamic

of I think receiving the grace of God

and coming to Jesus and living in it and

this is from Luke 5 1 through 11 I I see

some of you with your fans and I think

our air conditioner is not working this

morning so we're not trying to torture

you I'm sorry just fan away go for it so

Luke 51 Jesus is teaching the people

from the boat they're hearing about the

kingdom of God just like like we need to

hear about the kingdom of God Paul says

faith comes by hearing and then they've

been there all day after the fishermen

have been out there all night fishing

Jesus says hey put

out into the sea cast out your nets for

a catch and they're like we've been

doing this all night there's nothing but

then we read that Peter says but at your

word we'll let down our Nets how are we

responding to that word are we saying to

God at your word I will humble myself

and repent at your word I will worship

you at your word I will seek the

fullness of the spirit at your word I

will serve

others and when they do that they find

an experience of God's power and Majesty

in the miraculous catch of fish and it's

such an experience an epiphany that Jes

that um Peter jumps back into the water

comes and throws himself at Jesus's feet

and says to him depart from me for I am

a sinful man

we need that experience of God's glory

and in it we recognize our own

sinfulness but if we confess if we come

to him with humility and say I a sinful

person we can receive that forgiveness

we can receive the assuring word of

Jesus that sayso not be

afraid from now on you'll be catching

men Jesus accepts Peter transforms him

and Promises A New Path for him with

Jesus and so they left everything and

followed

Jesus the Same Dynamic we need to repeat

over and over hearing God's word

responding with obedience experiencing

his presence humbling ourselves before

him being lifted up and being set on a

path and as a

church we're not going to be here

forever we need new generations of

Believers new generations of those who

are being saved we need to become

Fishers of Men that has to be part of

who we are as a church going forward

somebody caught us for the gospel

somebody caught us for the body of

Christ we need to catch others by God's

grace now I would love to go through the

story of

Gideon but I want to highlight just what

the angel of the Lord says to

him because I want you to hear the

promises of God because what God speaks

to us he will fulfill God comes to the

man in

hiding a weak man fearful man and in

verse 12 the angel of the Lord appeared

to him and said the Lord is with you oh

mighty man of Valor today the Lord is

with you he's got a plan and purpose for

your life that is beyond what you could

ask or

imagine Gideon

protests the Lord turns to him and

confirms what he said before in verse 14

the Lord turned to him and said go in

this might of yours go in this might of

yours if you are a child of God you have

the might of the Holy Spirit living in

you go in that might of yours and

fulfill God's plan and purpose for you

be courageous and strong in that might

of yours he protests again and in verse

16 the Lord says but I will be with

you I will be with you the Lord says we

come together as Christ's body to be

assured that the Lord is here and he

will be with us he will be with you even

as you go forth in his grace and fail to

be perfect he will be with you even as

you try things that are too hard and

maybe fail at some things he will be

with you he will be with you to bless

the work of your hands to bless the

words of your mouth to direct and

determine your steps he will be with you

so go in this might of the Lord you

mighty person of God

and finally the angel of the Lord says

to him peace be to you do not

fear that's the Assurance we declare at

the blessing the end of our service

every time peace be to you so do not

fear

friends God is with you his grace is

sufficient that you can stand in it and

it's sufficient to transform you into a

mighty person of God whom he will be

with now and forever so as we close I'm

going to pray a prayer from our Psalm

today Psalm 85 veres

6-9 It's a Wonderful prayer for Founders

Day and for a

church will you not revive us again oh

Lord that your people may rejoice in you

show us your steadfast love oh Lord and

grant us your salvation let us hear what

God you the Lord will speak for you will

speak peace to your people to your SA

Saints but let us not turn back to our

Folly surely your salvation is near to

us who fear you that Glory May dwell in

our land amen amen