Determining the Right Direction

The following is from the AM worship service at Highland View Baptist Church on March 14, 2010.

Have any of you ever been lost? Now, I’m not speaking in a spiritual sense…yet. But have you ever been physically lost?
One evening several months ago, when returning with supper from the nearest town, I passed an uncharacteristically large gathering at the local convenience store in Montrose.
Now, any gathering of more than approximately twelve or fifteen people is suspect in that area unless it is church or family related. However, that evening there were, what seemed to be, at least twenty trucks parked across the rear parking lot, and perhaps twice as many people standing outside the vehicles.
All of the people present were wearing camoflauge and every truck was trailed by some kind of ATV. It was obvious that those present were hunters, but given the lateness of the evening, it was very peculiar that they would be gathered.
Finally, after some questioning, I learned that the group was actually a search party. They were trying to organize before going into the national forest to look for a lost hunter and his young son.
Apparently, the missing man and his son were unfamiliar with their chosen hunting area and did not have a dependable means of determining the direction they were traveling. As the hour grew late, and the sun disappeared below the horizon, they were unable to see where they were headed and even to determine north or south.
After some searching, one member of the search party happily reported that he had located the boy and his father. They were only three or four miles in the opposite direction from where they should have been on a dirt road.
Because their course had not been set, and because they were unable to evaluate their direction, they wasted time and energy and endured unnecessary hardships.
That day, they learned the importance of dependable directions.
Now, as a church, I doubt that we will be scheduling any corporate hunting trips in the near future. However, we too can benefit from understanding the importance of dependable directions.
We must understand where we are heading, and the direction we need to travel to arrive at our desired destination.
As a church, we have a unique opportunity together. We are beginning a new journey. We are both given, in some sense, a fresh start and a chance to evaluate the direction that we are currently traveling.
Now, more than ever, we must seek God’s face in determining His will for us as a church.
I wish that I could stand here this morning with a grand plan of how to make this church into everything that we desire it to be. I wish that I could provide you with a failsafe design to ensure exponential growth. I wish that we could organize and plan every activity and ministry that God intends to do here. However, I cannot.
In fact, most of the details, the ministries, the programs are still very unclear. Those specific directions will come, in time. But I believe that there is still a challenge that I can give today.
While we don’t have all of the specifics, I believe that there are four things that we can do as a church to ensure that we are moving in the right direction.
While this does not answer all of the variables and questions we may have, I believe that it is the necessary first step.
If we are determined to go God’s direction, to be a church that is pleasing to Him, these are four things that we must do. As a church, we must resolve to first…

1.) Declare the Truth Unapologetically
“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” -2 Timothy 2:15
The traditional KJV rendering is "Study to shew thyself approved, a worman who needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."
In his second letter to Timothy, the young man in the ministry, Paul urges Timothy to do everything that He can to hold fast to the truth of Scripture. He is essentially charged with the task of teaching the totality of the Word of God. He is expected to rightly divide it- to accurately part of the instruction of God’s Word and command the truth that it contains.
Things have not changed. While this was initially a charge issued to Timothy, it is something that transcends time and continues to be applicable to the church today.
We must realize that the same Word of truth that Timothy was expected to teach and command is exactly the same today. The Word of God has not changed. It is still the infallible breath of God. It knows every person and has wisdom for every circumstance and situation.
One of my favorite passages is Hebrews 4:12. It says, “For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
The Word of God can be trusted. It is still authoritative. And it must be proclaimed without apology.
We must resolve to declare the truth unapologetically. We must rightly divide God’s Word.
Now, if God’s Word is authoritative, and if we must declare the truth it contains without compromise or apology, what must we stand on?
First and foremost, if we are going to declare the truth of Scripture without apology, we must resolve to declare Jesus alone as Savior. We must declare His death and resurrection. We must declare the hope that He gives. We must teach that salvation is by grace through faith.
More than anything else, we must teach Jesus.
In our modern society, it seems that people, and churches for that matter, are seeking to amend the truth of Scripture and teach that there are many ways to heaven. Oprah has declared that Jesus is just one way to eternal life and paradise. There are countless denominations, religions, and cults that teach self-realization, work-based salvation, and even just a cross your fingers and pray type possibility of salvation.
We must remain steadfast in the Word of God when it says that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and no man comes to the Father but through Him .
We must declare the truth of salvation and the sacrifice of Christ. We must also resolve to share the truth and standard of God for righteous living.
In short, we must determine to call sin by its name.
Contrary to popular belief, sin does exist. Sin grieves God. It separates us from Him and prohibits us from experiencing all that God intends for His creation.
We must continue to pronounce sin for what it is. I know that there are topics where the church and popular culture disagree about the detriment and harm caused by certain actions. Obvious inconsistencies are found between our views of abortion and homosexuality.
The Bible calls those sin, and we must remain steadfast to do the same.
However, there are other sins that are often deemed less important and so we don’t deal with those as much. We must return to the proclamation of the total counsel of God.
While we don’t endorse of support abortion as a method of birth control, or homosexuality as a lifestyle choice, we cannot ignore those other things that the Bible calls sin either. We harp on homosexuality and abortion, but when was the last time you heard a sermon on gluttony, pride, anger, or gossiping? We must be diligent in proclaiming the whole counsel of God without apology. We declare with truth unapologetically. We secondly…

2.) Live the Faith Unwaveringly
“What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” - James 2:14-17
We began this morning by insisting that we must be a people that declares the truth of God’s Word without apology. However, we must amend that first point.
We must recognize that it is not enough to simply speak the truth. In addition to speaking the truth, we must also be faithful to live the truth.
We must be found faithful in practicing what we preach. If we are going to insist that people yield to the teaching of Scripture, we better be yielding ourselves.
Listen, we need to understand the weight of our actions. In a postmodern culture like the one we are living in, people place a greater priority on what is done over what is said. And if we are not careful to practice what we preach, we actually alienate and hurt the message of Christ.
There is an old quote that says, “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”
If we declare the truth, we must be faithful to live the faith.
Now, with all of this talk about living the faith, the question is certainly brewing in someone’s mind about legalistic living. After all, Jesus came to set us free. We are told in Galatians, “It was for freedom that we were made free.”
Now, this may sound like double-speak, but I promise it is not. How is it that we are free, but we are still concerned about living properly and according to God’s standard?
I believe that our passage in James speaks to that question. You see, our righteous living is not done out of necessity for our salvation. Rather, it is done as a result of what God has done in our lives. We evidence the faith that we have through the way we live.
If we have a relationship with Jesus, we are going to be concerned with pleasing Him. We are not charged with compiling a list of rules to be followed. Rather, we are simply called to live our lives guided by the presence of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of God’s Word.
We must live our faith unwaveringly.
We proclaim the truth unapologetically. We live our faith unwaveringly. We thirdly must…

3.) Encourage One Another Unceasingly
“And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works, not staying away from our meetings, as some habitually do, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” - Hebrews 10:24-25
As a church, I believe that we have an enormous responsibility to encourage one another. We should be consistently lifting one another up.
If we are going to declare the truth of God’s Word with passion, if we are going to call sin by its true name, then we must also be ready and willing to offer the encouragement that people need to overcome those things.
I’m afraid that far too many churches have done their part in declaring the truth of God’s Word- especially the difficult parts, but they have done very little to encourage and help people to live the lives that God intended.
The fact is simple. People need encouragement. They need to see a smiling face and a helping hand. They need to hear a comforting and encouraging word.
Life is difficult. And whether or not Christian people want to admit it, living a life where we are continually dying to ourselves and putting the call of Christ first is tough. It is not the easy road to travel.
And the brothers and sisters in the faith will need encouragement to continue on in their journey to chase after Christ.
The Christian life is a difficult one- but let’s face it. Even for the person that has not completely surrendered, even for the person that has not determined to take up their cross, life is simply tough.
The economy makes managing money especially difficult. Parenthood always raises unique circumstances and crises. Careers and workplaces are often places where stress and pressure abounds, but encouragement does not.
Life is a series of ups and downs. It is a victory followed by a valley. It is a defeat when you think you’ve gone as low as possible. It is heartache and tragedy. It is victory and celebration. It is often a rollercoaster of emotions and challenges.
And the church ought to be the place where people can find help and encouragement for their journey.
After a hard week at work, after the challenges of life, shouldn’t the church be where people are eager to go because they know they have friends there that will encourage them and lift them up?
The church should be a house of help. It should be a place of mutual encouragement, support, and partnership. Rather than finding a condemning glance, those looking around the sanctuary should find a caring heart.
As a church, how do we ensure we are going the right direction? We declare the truth of God without apology. We live our faith unwaveringly. We encourage one another unceasingly. And last, but certainly not least, we…

4.) Love the Lost Unconditionally“Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all you mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” -Matthew 22:37-39
When Jesus was quizzed by the Sadducees and the Pharisees in an effort to trip Him up, they asked Him about the greatest commandment. An expert in the law wanted Him to essentially give an order of importance to the law in the Old Testament.
Now, if you put yourself in this situation, in the time that it was asked, this question was asked by a group of men that did not merely acknowledge the Ten Commandments. Rather, this was a group that regarded the Ten Commandments, the Levitical law, and the rabbinical tradition as well. By asking about the commandments, this could have referred to hundreds of laws and rules.
However, Jesus went beyond the rules and spoke to the underlying issues. He did not speak to the rules for outward actions, but He spoke to the necessary attitudes of the heart.
He said that the first commandment was to love God with ever fiber of their being. And secondly, they were to love others.
One of the ways of determining the godliness of a church is found by simply examining the love that they have for God, one another and their community.
We must be a church that is consumed by love.
We must love God with a passion and a fervor. Our Christianity must not simply be a part of our lives, it ought to be a consuming lifestyle. Worshipping God and serving Him should be a welcomed opportunity.
While we love God supremely, that love is evidenced through our love for one another as well.
Now, I don’t know how many of y’all are related. I’m still learning people and names and putting relationships together. But whether you are related by blood or marriage, or not related at all, this church is not an organization, it is a family. And we are called to love one another.
Certainly there will be times when we annoy one another, when you disagree with a decision that has been made, or that we may not even like what someone has done to us, but we are called to love unconditionally.
The word for love used in our call is not storge, eros, or even phileo, it is agape. We are called to love one another with God’s kind of unconditional love.
We must love God, one another, and lastly, the community around us.
Do you know the quickest way to get people involved in church? It is not to beat them over the head with a gospel tract. It is not to enlist some hotshot preacher (which if it was, you’ve already failed at that one). It is not even to merely develop a visitation program.
The quickest way to draw people to the church is simply this: love them the way Jesus loves them.
We must be a church that not only declares the truth with zeal and passion, but a church that offers God’s standard with God’s love.
God’s love must be the driving force behind us as a church in the coming years.
So what direction do we head? How do we know that we are going God’s direction?
We declare the truth unapologetically. We live our faith unwaveringly. We encourage one another unceasingly. And lastly, we love one another unconditionally.