Today we enjoy our one day of "vacation" free of wedding or any ministry duties. We dearly wished that we could be with you all today, our last Sunday in our "old" facility.
One of the good things of being away is the ability to commit the leadership of our ministries today to Pastor Pete. He will do an excellent service today in preaching and leading our worship, as well as getting us ready to move tonight. I certainly am thankful for Pastor Pete’s earnest commit to Christ, our church and yes, to me!
Truly we are a pastoral team, having committed ourselves for the long haul to give spiritual leadership to our church for this moment and beyond.
I am so grateful for the faith and following of each of you, our church family. Change can be threatening and disconcerting. Some, me included, will out of habit make all the normal turns, arriving at 2842 SW Third Street for services, and then remember the need to travel to the FBBC Campus for church.
Together we have to work to understand the will of God! Together we labor not merely to build a building, but rather to love God with all our being, and to love our neighbors near and far, sharing the gospel of Christ. Though our venue changes for a time, our purpose does not: "To love God and our neighbors near and far."
And yes, today is Mothers Day. It has been a number of years since I’ve physically been with my mother on this day. Be assured that she will receive all the commensurate attention she rightly deserves.
Godly parents are such a wonderful gift from God! Beyond even a focus upon our mothers, it is important to encourage and extol the value of those presently parenting for God’s honor and purposes. Moms and Dads of our congregation, know of my joy in your desires to raise your children to know and honor Christ. You will survive all the hard times, and God will be faithful as you bring your children up "...in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4).
Monday evening a dad with three small children was out for a stroll, with one of his cherubs sharing significant "protest." I greeted him with a cheery "Hello," and then also remarked to him "Hang tough, this ‘squall’ will pass. Don’t give in!" He laughed and went on down the street. The hard moments with our children seem to last forever, but sooner than you realize, our children are grown and gone!
Endure the "hard" moments! Don’t exasperate your children by anger and inconsistency. Do train your children, creating a desire in them for life with Jesus Christ. That desire once gained will be a desire that grows and endures for all of life. That is the promise of the writer of wisdom: "Create the desire for the things of God in your child; do this according to his way, and when he is old, that desire for authentic life with Christ will yet endure!
Bible Message, February 17, 2008, David E. Strope
Our Central Focus @Ankeny Baptist Church
If God is central, then our response to God must be our first priority. That response is "…to love God wholly."
What then does it mean to love God?
"To love God does not mean to meet his needs, but rather to delight in him and to be captivated by his glorious power and grace, and to value him above all other things on earth. All the rest of the commands are the kinds of things that we will do from our hearts, if our hearts are truly delighted with and resulting in the glory of God’s grace" (John Piper, Desiring God, p. 259).
"I call [love to God] the motion of the soul toward the enjoyment of God for his own sake, and the enjoyment of one’s self and of one’s neighbor for the sake of God" (On Christian Doctrine, Augustine, iii, x, 16).
D. Martyn-Lloyd Jones wrote the following as ten indicators that that God loves us and we love God by…
1. A loss and absence of the sense that God is against us.
2. A loss of the fear of God while a sense of awe of God remains.
3. A sense that God is for us and that God loves us.
4. A sense of sins forgiven.
5. A sense of gratitude and thanksgiving to God.
6. An increasing hatred of sin.
7. A desire to please God and to live a good life because of what He has done for us.
8. A desire to know Him better and to draw closer to Him.
9. A conscious regret that our love to Him is so poor, along with a desire to love Him more.
10. A delight in hearing these things and in hearing about Him.
And what of the Second Command, to love our neighbor as ourselves, to seek for our neighbor what we seek for ourselves. Though later developed, this Second Command gives rise to the Great Commission, to bring others to follow Christ also, to lead the neighbor near and far to find in Jesus Christ "life, joy and peace." Loving our neighbor is not merely being nice to them or even meeting their temporary needs, but seeking their eternal good!
How then, do we love our neighbor?
1. In passionate, aggressive efforts to evangelize the lost near and far (Matthew 28:18-20).
2. In making disciples for Christ by teaching "all things" (Matthew 28:18-20).
3. By active involvement in God’s building program, the local church (Ephesians 4:11-17).
4. In "speaking the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15, "truthing in love").
5. In forbearing one another, forgiving one another (Ephesians 4:29-32).
6. In positive interaction where we provoke one another to love of God, involving loving confrontation of one another (Hebrews 10:24-25).
7. In bearing one another’s burdens, fulfilling the very law of Christ (Galatians 6:2).
