Main Idea: Our focus for the future requires our church to do its job while we trust God to do his.

This past Wednesday night the No. 3 ranked Oklahoma Sooners and the 11^th ranked West Virginia Mountaineers played each other in the Fiesta Bowl. The Sooners were heavily favored over the much less talented and less experienced Mountaineers. The Mountaineers had much to distract them as they prepared. Their coach, Rich Rodriquez, had left after the end of the season to become the head coach at Michigan, which left Assistant Coach Bill Stewart as the interim head coach. They were considered tremendous underdogs to Oklahoma. They lost their star tailback, Steve Slaton, in the first quarter to a leg injury. It seemed that it was only a matter of time before Oklahoma would rise up and dominate the game as expected.

Yet it didn’t happen. For four quarters West Virginia maintained their poise, fought hard and, as Coach Stewart said, his players "never quit believing." The result was a stunning romp over the Sooners with the final score: West Virginia 48, Oklahoma 28. Stewart’s ability to keep the team focused in spite of all the distractions and challenges led West Virginia to their second Bowl Championship Series win while Oklahoma has lost four straight. (Source: Yahoo.com, Jan. 3, 2006)

Focus in the face of tremendous challenges is never easy. Focus is that unique ability to block out distractions and disappointments, challenges and conflicts and keep doing what has to be done in spite of all that would seek to defeat you. It is what makes anyone or any organization effective, and it applies to believers and churches that choose to achieve their maximum potential.

This morning I want us to talk about our focus for the future—not so much for two or five years ahead of us but just for this next year. This past year has been a year of accomplishment, transition and challenge. We have accomplished the completion of our wonderful LIFE Center and the newly remodeled office expansion, added two new ministers in Richard Crawford and JR Baker and so much more. We have much, so much, for which to be grateful as a church family.

While this past year has been one of transition, this next year will provide us with some excellent opportunities that will challenge our focus. You will soon receive information regarding our Stewardship Committee’s plan to retire our remaining building debt through a new capital campaign. Our Long Range Planning Committee and ministerial staff are developing a fresh focus for our church in the next three to five years. Each of these could be our singular focus for the year yet neither one of them can be eliminated.

So what do we do? My answer is that we focus on doing what we know to be our job and we trust God to do his! Some parts of this sermon may create some tension for you. Yet there are things, though, that as pastor and leader of this church that do not need a lot of discussion, just direction. What I am asking us to do doesn’t require high levels of change, just clear focus. We can’t wait until after we finish a capital campaign or a new three-five year plan to do what we already know to do as a church. We just need focus! We need to focus on what we know to do and trust God to do what only he can do.

That’s exactly what Paul addresses when he is writing the Corinthian Christians. The Christians at Corinth had lost their focus or their purpose as a church, which resulted in tremendous problems. One of their many problems was that they began to elevate one minister as more important than another. Some in the church were fans of Paul, who was a hard-nosed, straight-talking ex-Pharisee. The others were fans of Apollos, who was a young, flashy, eloquent Christian from North Africa. As a result, the church was splitting over personalities and losing their focus on their purpose. Paul’s point was that they were on the same team, working for the same purpose and were just tools in God’s hands. He tells them, "We did our part and trusted God to do his and the church grew!" What I want us to see today is that our focus for the future requires our church to do what we know to do, give God room to do what he alone can do, and watch our church grow into all that he desires. We do our job and trust God to do his!

First, I am challenging us to focus this year on a consistent purpose (I Cor. 3:8). Paul said in verse 8, "The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose." Paul saw himself as doing the planting of God’s word and Apollos as doing the watering of what Paul planted. Regardless of the different roles, they both had the same purpose—seeing God’s church become all that God desired. Earlier Paul recalled in I Cor. 2:2 the clear purpose he had when he came to the city of Corinth. He was determined to focus on Christ and Christ alone. When Apollos got there he did the same by preaching that Jesus was the Christ (Acts 18:28). They both had one purpose: Teach and preach Jesus.

As far as our church is concerned, we need to take a fresh look at the "DNA" of our church. What is our unique purpose as we face the future in our community? What does God want us to do to fulfill our purpose? That’s not a question that you answer quickly or easily. It needs a tremendous amount of prayer and study of both our church and community.

At the same time, we really don’t have to wonder about the overarching purpose of our church or any church. Jesus clearly stated what his disciples were to do in two places. He said "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength" and "Love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these."(Mark 12:30-31) and "Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you." (Matt.28:19-20) Those two passages tell us our purpose as a church regardless of the date, circumstances or challenges that we face. Our purpose will always be to love God, love, people, and serve the world! That’s pretty simple, very clear and carries with it absolute authority from Jesus himself. How we do that is where the adventure begins as God’s church. So today, for the remaining days of this year we need to focus our attention on one consistent purpose in all we do as a church: love God, love people and serve the world. The reason we walk in and out of these doors is simple: love God, love people and serve the world. Our job is to keep that purpose as our consistent focus.

There’s something else that’s our job and that is to maintain this focus with inspired passion (I Cor. 3:5) Paul said in verse 5, "We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us." The word that Paul uses for "servants" is really a picture word of someone who is so active that they stir up dust. He is describing the heart and passion that he and Apollos had for the work to which God had called them. For Paul, his passion for serving Christ never faltered regardless of his challenges. Apollos was the same when he preached and taught. They were different people, with different personalities but one passion: They were servants of God.

If we are going to focus on a consistent purpose of loving God, loving people and serving the world then we are going to need to be passionate about it. Maintaining passion, intensity, is never easy but it is what allows you to keep coming back again and again in spite of the obstacles and struggles. For a believer the source of our passion for our purpose comes from our connection to God’s Holy Spirit. When that connection is broken or diminished, it won’t be long before your passion meter is registering "empty." The best way to stay connected to the Holy Spirit’s passion is by time alone with God’s word and time in prayer.

A few weeks ago my wife Kathy was having some cell phone problems with her battery not charging. Each night she would connect it to the charger but the next morning there were fewer bars indicating a charged battery. I suggested she might need a new battery. One day she came in laughing and told me that while she was plugging the phone into the charger, the charger wasn’t plugged into the wall! When she plugged the charger into the wall and the phone in the charger, then "bingo!" the phone worked as it should.

I believe more than ever that you will gauge the passion of our church by the passion of our praying. Whether you do that individually or as a group, your passion is determined by your connection to the source of power found in the Holy Spirit. That connection is most effectively maintained by our praying. Passion is contagious but passion has to be renewed or it will lose its intensity. Our job is to focus on our future with an inspired passion!

One last area that is our job is to focus on a clear process (I Cor. 3:6). Paul said in verse 6, "I planted the seed in your hearts and Apollos watered it…." The words Paul uses for "planted" and "watered" describe clear, deliberate actions or process. Both were essential for success and one without the other would fail. Paul "planted" in them the word of God for over 18 months. (Acts 18:11) Apollos expanded on what Paul did by his strong teaching.

What is the process we need to focus on this year to fulfill our purpose? It involves doing what we know to do and utilizing the tools we already have. What are those tools? There are three of them that I believe are essential:

• We must chose to focus on relationships with people we know or want to know who are lost in their relationship to Christ and those who are lost in their relationship to Christ’s church. It really doesn’t matter how much money we could spend on marketing our church if we do not build personal relationships with people. People may attend or be attracted to a church for a variety of reasons but they will stay because of the relationships.

• We must focus on revitalizing our Sunday School as the most readily available and effective Bible teaching and reaching process for our church. This church always been based on a solid foundation of Sunday School. I have been convinced about Sunday School all of my ministry. I have allowed myself to be distracted by a whole world of new methods for accomplishing the same thing that Sunday School is designed to do. I want us to get back to some "old school" basics in Sunday School: organizing our classes for growth and ministry, teaching the Bible effectively, having regular workers meetings and aggressively reaching out to those who need the connection a Sunday School class can bring!

• We must focus on developing believers spiritually. I am so grateful for the success and effectiveness of our small groups. Yet I believe that there are still more opportunities that are available to provide deeper spiritual growth for our church family. Doing this will require creativity and flexibility but our church family needs and deserves our very best efforts to develop believers spiritually.

Our job is to focus on a consistent purpose, do that with passion and involve ourselves in a clear process for effectively fulfilling God’s desires for us. That is our job: purpose, passion and process!

II. What is God’s job? (I Cor. 3:6, 7). Paul said, "…but it was God who made it grow. It’s not important who does the planting or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow." Jesus said something similar in Mark 4:27, "Night and day, while he’s asleep or awake, the seed sprouts and grows, but he does not understand how it happens." Paul knew that God’s task was the most important one, for he was the one who creates and causes what people do to make any difference. Paul could look on all his efforts and know that he was a tool in God’s hands to do his work yet God was the one and the only one who made it all happen!

I am unapologetically excited about the opportunity our church has to grow in the years ahead. I dream of us being so compelled by a vision of growth that we are determined to not allow our debt to hinder what God can do through us. God is the only one who can take what we do and create results, cause our prayers to be effective, bring words to life, change hearts, transform lives and cause a church to grow! I want us to say, "God is the one who made it happen!"

In the last weeks of December, Bruce Raley, a consultant with Lifeway (the old Sunday School Board of the SBC), met with our Long Range Planning Committee and our ministerial leadership. He helped us get focused on the things that we need to do to establish a solid plan for the future of our church. He pointed out that there is a deep need to ask the question, "Where does God want us to be?" He mentioned that at any one time we would have forces blowing against us and forces blowing with us. He encouraged us to find God’s strategy for what he wants us to be. Then he said this about our church: "You have everybody you need to do what God wants you to do right now!"

That means that we don’t need to wait for future growth to come our way. It means that we are the tools that God desires to use to build the future of this church. We are responsible to do our job and focus on our purpose, do that with passion and use a clear process to get there. God’s job is to create the growth! If we do our job God has no problem doing his!

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org