Deacon's Discourse

January 2004

Dear Fellow Christians

Welcome to the New Year. It is our hope and prayer that the New Year brings you happiness and success and mostly a renewed passionate closeness to our Lord and Savior. I feel I need to pause for a moment and apologize for my failure to contribute to the newsletter for the past couple of months. I have a hundred excuses none of which seem adequate now. Consequently, I feel I need to renew my commitments, revitalize my efforts and rededicate my life.

In the past year or so I believe that God has greatly blessed our Church. These blessings are quite evident with the increase in attendance, the decisions that are being made in almost every service, the success of the new rotation Sunday school format, the very touching Christmas programs, the Easter Cantata, and the other special service programs just to name a few. God has been very busy blessing our Church and us. I wonder how busy have we been worshipping Him. In several messages Preacher Phil has warned us to be aware of Satan’s power. In 1 Peter 5:8 (NIV) Peter tells us to "Be self controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." Our purpose for attending Church should be to Worship God. I believe that our enemy wants to keep us out of Church. We as a Church are the "called out" believers covered by the blood of Christ and saved by grace through faith. Our strength, our resistance, our vigilance, and our resolve come from the fellowship we have with each other and with Christ. As called out believers we acknowledge that Christ built the Church, that Christ is the head of the Church, and that our eternal purpose is to worship and glorify God. We, as Christians are to worship and glorify God continuously whether we are in a church building or not. It should be an integral part of our daily lives. It is not a part time job but rather a full time commitment. We must not fall prey to fallacies that church is not essential. It may not be absolutely essential to salvation but I personally cannot imagine what my Christian life would be like without my church family. I believe that it is essential to right living and obedience. For me it creates a medium for me to publicly worship, it creates for me an accountability and support group, and through church attendance it provides me an opportunity to learn more about God and through that hopefully an increased and more steadfast faith. Without our church family I believe we are more susceptible to associations with the wrong companions, people who tend to weaken our faith rather than strengthen it and I believe we become more accepting of false and misleading doctrines and more willing to condone and accept unrighteousness.

We may be very faithful in our church attendance, but is our church attendance a matter of routine, or out of a sense of obligation? Do we tend to find excuses to miss church services? Do we tend to compare our attendance and participation with that of others, and conclude that we are just as good? Do we have the attitude that we are doing enough to get by? I believe that these may be danger signs. I believe that if we do these things we may have a false sense of security. We risk being spiritually ignorant. We may become worthless in God’s service and the promotion of God’s purpose.

James 4:7-8 (NIV) "Submit yourselves, then, to God, Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you." New Year is often a time we make resolutions and set goals. Let us this New Year make a commitment to be faithful in our church attendance not out of a sense of obligation but out of a true desire to worship and glorify God. Make a commitment to participate in the services or renew your commitments. Let us truly and wholly and with passion submit our selves to God and to His will and purpose for our lives. Let us resolve to fill the gap Preacher Phil talked about during a recent service.

Prayerfully,

Sand Fork Baptist Church Deacon Board