Extra-Ordinary

There’s a stirring among God’s people. Winds of revival are beginning to blow. God is at work. Are we ready to receive what God has for us? Are you ready to be an instrument in God’s hands? When you begin to think about serving God on His mission to redeem a lost world, you may ask, “What can one ordinary person do?” Well, Scriptures are full of ordinary people used mightily by God. Elijah is a good example. He was one of the great Old Testament prophets used of God in the contest with the prophets of Baal. He was outnumbered 850 to 1. But one plus God equals a majority. You know the story. After the prophets of Baal had failed to call down fire, Elijah repaired the altar of the Lord and called upon God, and God answered by fire consuming the sacrifice just as Elijah had proposed. Did Elijah or God bring down the fire from heaven? God did. What was Elijah doing? Being obedient. And James 5:17 tells us “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours…” In other words, he put on his pants one leg at a time just like you and I do. He was ordinary just like us. But God looks for the obedient ordinary so He can do the extraordinary. Henry Varley said, “The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him.” He spoke those words a hundred plus years ago to a man named D. L. Moody who became the great evangelist in the late 19^th century. D. L. Moody was an ordinary man who sought to be fully and wholly consecrated to Christ, and God did the extraordinary through one obedient ordinary man. Will you be that one? You may protest, “but I’m not D. L. Moody or Elijah.” You don’t have to be. God wants you to be you. Remember, He’s the one that brought down the fire. Listen, when you believe that nothing significant can happen through you, you have said more about your belief in God than you have said about yourself! You are saying that God is not capable of doing anything significant through you. Truth is, He is able to anything He pleases with one ordinary person fully yielded to Him. Will you be that person?

                                                                                    In Christ,

 

                                                                                    Bro. Royce Hendry

New Year Challenge

Sargent Baptist,

We are moving into the second month of the New Year and what that usually means is our resolve to make changes in our lives tends to diminish. Many people start the New Year off with goals like losing weight and getting into shape. But by February the gyms tend to thin out. Our resolve begins to recede. Our determination diminishes. Our will power begins to wane. Let this not happen to us as a church. As we step into this New Year, let us step up to the New Year challenge everyday. Let us daily make a determined purpose, a determined commitment to step up to this challenge for God’s glory. Remember, this is the year of restoration, restoration of His glory in all that we do. We want to glorify God and see men, women, boys and girls come to know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of their lives…all for His glory!

Sargent Baptist New Year Challenge:

I.   Invite

• Invite people to Christ
• Invite them to Church

II.  Involve

• Worship at least an hour per week (corporate worship)
• Serve an hour (Nursery/ children’s church/ ushers/ living bread etc)
• Study an hour (small groups/ Sunday School)

III. Invest

• 10-10-10 challenge:
• 10 minutes a day in God’s Word
• 10 minutes in prayer
• 10 % of your earnings to the Lord

                                                                                    In Christ,

                                                                                    Bro. Royce Hendry

It's HIS Birthday!

    It’s a boy! Wow! I just joined the ‘grandpa’ class and Sandie and I are the proud grandparents of little (big) Brody Lee Myers. We thank each of you for your thoughts and prayers.

    As we move into December I think of another birth and it too was a baby boy. But his birth was different. He was born of a virgin. He was sinless and lived a sinless life. Joseph and Mary named Him Jesus just as the angel instructed them because “He will save His people from their sins.” (Matt.1:21). He lived a sinless life and then “became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness in God.” (2 Cor.5:21). His atoning death on the cross paid our sin debt. He took our sins and gave us His righteousness and rose from the dead on the third day to defeat death and give us eternal life.

    Brody was born on November 13, 2012. On that date, each year, we will celebrate his birthday. Poppy and Meme will shower him with gifts each birthday. As he grows older he’ll have friends to come to his birthday parties, as they too will bring him gifts.

    After Jesus’ birth, wise men from the east brought Jesus gifts as well, gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Now Jesus was most likely between 12 and 18 months old at this time, but it took that long for these wise men to make the long trek to Israel.

    And here we are, some 2000 years later, still celebrating our Savior’s birth. Now most likely it wasn’t December 25 for lots of reasons, but nonetheless that is the day universally recognized as the day of His birth. Why then, I must ask, do we give each other gifts on His birthday? The last time I checked, it’s not your birthday or my birthday. It’s HIS birthday! Why do we make out our wish list of what we want for Christmas? It’s not our birthday. It’s HIS!

    I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we give to Jesus on His birthday? Let’s give Him the glory due His name. And if we do give material gifts to others, let’s give to those in need. Jesus did say, “that inasmuch as you do it [give] to the least of these…you did it unto Me.” [Matt.25:40]. Let’s give to meet another’s need, not each other’s material greed. Happy Birthday Jesus! 

In Christ,

Bro. Royce 

What Are You 'Churching' For?

Sargent Baptist,

Before Sandie and I moved here, I divested myself of many books. My library needed downsizing so I gave away many books. Of the many I gave away most were in the “Church Growth” category. All of these were written from a “horizontal” premise. They all sought to explain, from a human centered, horizontal point of view, how to reach your community, how to influence them, how to win them, how to understand them, how to assimilate them and close the back door so they don’t leave church when we caught them. I believe all of these books were written with good intentions, but they all come from a man centered, human persuasion, human strategy, and horizontal point of view. They all fall short of the one true purpose for God’s church.

    That one true purpose is “Vertical”, to glorify God! That’s why God created us. The Bible says that everyone who is called by His name has been created for His glory! (See Isaiah 43:7). And Paul said, “to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever, Amen.” (Eph.3:21). And Paul also said, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Cor.10:31) The Westminster Shorter Catechism got it right: “Man’s chief end (purpose) is to glorify God, and enjoy Him forever.”

    We have just concluded a sermon series on “What Are You Living For?” Our next sermon series will be called “Vertical Church”. It will answer the question: “What are we ‘churching’ for?” My prayer is that we will be a Vertical Church. My prayer is that you will have the courage to lay down your assumptions of what church is supposed to be: “feeding people”, “reaching people” or whatever. My prayer is that you will lay aside the “ritual church”, “contemporary church”, “felt-needs church”, “purpose driven church”, “and relevant church”. All of these are horizontal substitutes for Vertical Church! Vertical Church is where God shows up, where He is glorified and where He manifests His presence in our midst. When we glorify Jesus Christ, everything else will fall in place. When we get the Vertical right, then the horizontal will fall in place. 

In Christ,

Bro. Royce 

What Are You Living For?

    On September 30th we began a new sermon series entitled, “What Are You Living For?” This series of messages comes from the Book of Ecclesiastes. This book of the Bible was written by King Solomon, the wisest person to ever live in all of Israel. In fact, Solomon wrote three books in the Old Testament that covered three phases in his life. When he was young and in love, he wrote the Song of Solomon: A Book of Romance. When he was middle aged he wrote Proverbs: A Book of Rules, with emphasis on the practical problems of life. And when Solomon was old he wrote Ecclesiastes: A Book of Regrets. This Book is his record for the search for meaning in life. And in the end, he concludes that apart from God, all of life is vanity, hopeless futility. Power, prestige, pleasure, wealth, wisdom, work, wild living—none of these, under the sun, can fill the God shaped void in the human heart. That’s the message of this book and the focus of this new series.

    “But wait a minute brother Royce, didn’t you say that he was the wisest man in all of Israel? How could this be? If he was so wise, why did he go off searching for meaning in all these hopeless things?” That’s a good question that brings me to a great truth we all need to know: The place of your greatest strength will often be the place of your greatest weakness. Think about it. Noah was a man of purity yet ended up getting drunk. Abraham was a man of great faith, yet he doubted God and went with Hagar to have a son. Moses was meek and mild, yet he got angry and struck the rock. Peter was bold and courageous, yet he ran like a coward. And here, Solomon was a man of great wisdom, yet he turned into a fool and did foolish things.

     Understand, where you are weak, you will keep your guard up. But where you are strong, you will tend to depend on your own abilities, and that’s where you will fall. To be continued, each and every Sunday morning throughout October. See you there!

                                                                                    In Christ,

                                                                                    Bro. Royce Hendry

Success

We all want our church to be successful. But that begs the question: what is success? Does being a successful church mean more people and a bigger budget? Does it mean more activities? More ministries? Success is not based on circumstances. From all appearances the church of Laodicia (Rev.3:14-20) seemed to be a very prosperous church. They had lots of chariots in the parking lot and lots of programs, but according to Jesus they were spiritually destitute. In essence, God says, “I don’t want all that. I want your love and your worship.”

    So from God’s perspective, success starts from within, not from without. It’s not about changing other people. It’s not about God changing my world, my community, my church or my family. It’s about God changing ME! And then the other changes will take place. Success isn’t about being a member of a large church with lots and lots of activities. Success isn’t being the greatest pastor, preacher, Sunday school teacher or soul winner. True success is God’s approval. True success is experiencing the miracle of the gospel so that I may become the person I was created to be. The key to your personal success is your relationship with Jesus Christ and your daily walk with Him.

   Thus, the key to your future is hidden in your daily routine. If you fail in the end, it’s because you failed daily to walk with Jesus. Men don’t decide their future; they decide their habits. And their daily habits decide their future. Something you are doing daily is creating your successes or failures. Successful men do daily what unsuccessful men do occasionally.

   Yes, we all want our church to be successful from God’s perspective. We want to see positive and eternal change in our families, church, community and world. But it starts with God changing me. We all need to pray, “Thy Kingdom come in my life!” It starts with me. How has your walk with Christ changed over the last year? When was the last time you had a quiet time with God on a consistent basis? What specifically are you going to work on in the coming weeks to become closer to God?

                                                                                    In Christ,

                                                                                    Bro. Royce Hendry

Vision

Sargent Baptist,

The new church year is upon us and the Bible says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish…” (Prov.29:18). Literally that means “where there is no revelation or prophetic vision…”. Where does the revelation come from? It comes from God. But that revelation comes with obedience because the rest of the verse states: “…but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” Revelation and obedience go hand in hand.

A couple of things we must ask ourselves are “what is the vision for our church?” and “what is the vision for my life?” Nearly a year ago, I preached a sermon on vision. In that message I defined vision. Webster says vision is something revealed or supernaturally revealed. It is unusual foresight. It’s the ability to perceive something not actually visible. Vision often begins with the inability to accept things the way they are. Over time that dissatisfaction matures into a clear picture of what could be. But it doesn’t stop there. Vision carries with it a sense of conviction. It is seeing what should be. Vision is preferred future. Vision demands change. It implies movement. Vision is the ability to see—that’s awareness. Vision is the faith to believe—that’s the attitude. And vision is the courage to do—that’s the action.

What’s the bottom line when it comes to Biblical vision? Vision is the ability to see where God is working and then join Him in that work. So as a church it is critical and crucial that we have vision in order to see where God is working. It’s not what could be—that’s a dream, but it’s what SHOULD be—that’s VISION! And what should be are lives changed, people saved and Sargent Baptist Church making a difference in people’s lives and making an impact in our community.

What is the vision for your life? Where do you want to be next year? In five years? In ten years? Remember, “The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight but has no vision.” [Helen Keller] And collectively as a church—the most pathetic church in the world is a church that has sight but no vision. Ouch! Let’s be a church of vision. Let us pray for God to give us vision for the new church year and let us obediently follow Him.

                                                                                    In Christ,

                                                                                   Bro. Royce Hendry