When I went to Bible college, they taught us how to put together 3 and 4 point sermons. They taught us how to teach the Bible and Christian principles. It was a great starting point.
However, I discovered later in life that 3 point outlines, bullet points, and sermon notes were not the only way to communicate God’s truths. Some people are great at remembering an outline and bullet points, but others will forget the outline but they will remember a story.
I had to learn that sharing a story is sometimes just as important as a sermon outline. I am not always good about sharing stories but I am trying and today’s article is one of those attempts.
Part Of Our Ongoing “God Story”
Last night I was struck by the sovereignty of God in what we are doing here at Mesquite Worship Center. I was listening to a video for pastors who have a Celebrate Recovery group in their church.
Rick Warren was sharing how his Celebrate Recovery group is a breeding ground for his best leaders. In fact, he has a personal policy not to put a person into leadership who has not suffered a major failure in their life that needed God’s grace and that they have received that grace for that problem. It makes them gracious and forgiving leaders.
I thought “Wow! That fits so well with what God has put in our hearts for this church and what we believe God wants to do in this community.”
I then thought back to when Jade Lyon walked through our front door, fresh out of jail, and on parole. Instantly he was part of our core group of people starting this church.
It wasn’t long before he started talking about Celebrate Recovery and I told him that if he wanted to start a group, we would help in whatever way we could.
You see it is our belief that our job is to enable others to do the works of Jesus in our community. It is not our ministry or idea, it is the person who needs to be enabled that God is calling to do a ministry.
10 months later it is now becoming a reality. And God is meeting a need through the people of our church that was not being met prior to us arriving.
But that is not all of the sovereignty of God I am seeing in our church. Last Sunday, I had a lady ask me when we were going to have another baptismal service. I told her if she wanted to get baptized then we would schedule one. Then on Wednesday, I had 2 more people tell me that the next time I scheduled a baptismal service that they wanted to get baptized. Then just this last Sunday I had 2 more people tell me they wanted to be baptized!
I had not even announced that we were going to have a baptismal service for the first lady, so right away we had 5 more people wanting to get baptized. Now understand, we have had people who are new believers get baptized, those that have rededicated their life to Jesus get baptized, and those who have just never been given the opportunity or seen the need for baptism since becoming believers.
All of this happening even though I have never once preached on baptism or made a call for people to be baptized. It has been a sovereign move of God’s spirit on the hearts of people.
So very soon, we will have baptized at least 10 people, probably more in our first year as a church. For me, that is so refreshing after spending 5 years at my last assignment with none.
Last Sunday I looked out at our congregation and thought, “what a ragtag bunch of misfits we are.” and I smiled. I heard the Lord speak to my spirit and say “You’re nothing but a bunch of garbage collectors.” Reminding me of what the first church I was a part of was accused of. They called Easthill Church “nothing but a bunch of garbage collectors.” Then I remembered one of the first trucking jobs I had in Portland. I collected recycled bottles from grocery stores and took them to a recycling plant. Do you know what they made at that recycling plant? Playground equipment!
We are picking up discarded and used vessels and recycling them to be those equipped to play in the Kingdom of God! Bring us more of the used and discarded Lord!
We didn’t set out to target a certain group of people but God had a plan and knew this group of people needed a group of believers like us. He sovereignly moved to send us to the broken, to the hungry, to the outcast, to the weary.
And in all of this, I see the sovereign hand of God moving.
Psalm 127:1
Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain.
- Our Celebrate Recovery Group meets on Tuesday Nights at 6:00 PM.
If you would like to know more about water baptism, please give us a call or come see us on Sunday. We will be having our next baptismal service on Sunday September 27th.
Pastor Duke
Pastor Duke Taber and his wife Sue pastor Mesquite Worship Center located at 140 Riverside Rd. Ste D. in the Sherwin Williams Building. You can join them Sunday’s at 10:00 AM and Wednesday’s at 7:00. Absolutely everyone is welcome and you can come as you are.
Teri Nehrenz says
Hey Pastor Duke,
This is so true! Funny how God works. I didn’t read this until now but had just experienced this very conversation with a friend recently. We are a great church family. Hey folks, if you want to experience the Lord and worship him with others – If you feel that you don’t fit in anywhere else, we already love you, come see us!
Duke Taber says
Teri you are awesome. Really! I asked God himself!
Love you!