Church Commitment Celebration

First Chronicles, I'll give you an extra 30 seconds. Dan, we asked for a little, there it is, great, thank you. Let's have a word of prayer together. Heavenly Father, as we look into your word, we pray right now, God, that beyond what words of men can say to encourage us, let the word of God breathe truth into our lives. Give us the grace to obey what you say to us, in Jesus' name, amen. What we're preparing to do here today has abundant precedent, not just in churches around the world, but in the word of God. And here in the scriptures, as we read in First Chronicles, I'm going to begin in chapter 29, we're going to see a similar occasion where David gathered with the leaders of the people to put forth the challenge of building the temple for God's presence. Here's what he says, First Chronicles 29 in verse 1, And then King David said to the whole assembly, My son Solomon, the one whom God has chosen, is young and inexperienced. Look at these next four, I believe they're very relevant to us. The task is great because this palatial structure, and that's not relevant to us, I want to say just for those of you who are newer, we're not building a palatial structure. This is not going to be a church that's going to be opulently adorned. In fact, we have done everything to make it functional and very user friendly, but at absolutely the minimum cost. By the way, I believe the purpose of the building we're about to construct is really a different purpose than Solomon's temple. In effect, though, it is a higher purpose because it is allowing for the temple of God's people to come together where the Holy Spirit would dwell. But look what he says in verse 1, For this structure is not for man, but for the Lord God. The background of this is that David is giving his retirement speech. He has been with the people for some 35 or 38 years. Solomon's been appointed to become the new king and take over the throne. David has gathered all the leaders together to impart both his passion and his priorities. And this is very important to David. He wants them to know through prayer, through exhortation, and through his example that he's serious about this temple. So much so that look at chapter 28, the other page in verse 2. Come on, look at your Bibles. That's why they're there. It says that King David rose to his feet. Now, how many of you know kings in those days gave their edicts and decrees from a seated position? And so when David rose up, he was saying, Folks, this is as important a declaration as I can possibly make. Here's what he says, verse 2, With all my resources I've provided for the temple of my God. And folks, David was a wealthy man. He paid cash. He had a lot of bucks. He gave gold for the gold work, silver for the silver, bronze for the bronze, and on down the list. Look at verse 3. Besides all of that, in my devotion to the temple of my God, I now give my personal treasures. David, as we heard last week, didn't just give out of his comfort zone. He gave even beyond his natural ability. He gave of his own resources personally. I'm going to look over at verse 5. And now who is willing to consecrate himself to the Lord today? David then went on and challenged the people. Verse 6, The leaders of the families and the officers of the tribes of Israel, the commanders of thousands and hundreds, and officials in charge of the king's work gave willingly. Everyone say willingly. Verse 9, The people rejoiced at the willing response of their leaders, for they had given freely and wholeheartedly to the Lord. And then David the king also rejoiced greatly. And then I want you to read these words as we put them up on the overhead. One of the most beautiful prayers in all of scripture. Read it with me, won't you? Read it out loud. David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly, saying, Praise be to you, O Lord, God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor. For everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom. You are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you. You are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. And now, our God, we give you thanks and praise your glorious name. And David is exalting the Lord. And then he says these words. Verse 14, But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to give as generously as this? David is overwhelmed by the greatness of God and the generosity of the people that he sees. And I want to ask you an honest question this morning. How do you feel right now? You know, as I look out over this auditorium today, I identify with David. And it would be inappropriate if we didn't pause for just a moment and ponder this truth, church. Listen. What has God done for us? What has God done for you? Remember that we deserve wrath. We were bound for eternal separation from God. We were on our way to spending eternity in the torment of hell. We were not just hostile and rebellious toward God. The Bible says that we hated Him. And we needed to be saved not just from our sin, but more importantly, we needed to be saved from the wrath of God that we deserve. And the one who righteously came to judge us allowed himself to be placed on a cross where he received upon himself the full fury of the wrath of God, experiencing in his own body the punishment of our sin, enduring the unimaginable physical torment and death of the cross. And an even greater pain than that followed when the Lord Jesus became sin for us and in His own presence experienced what you and I deserve to experience. And that was separation from God. And out of His own lips came the most painful and horrific words of all of human history when Jesus said, My God, my God, why dost thou forsake us? As the full expression of God's wrath came upon the holy, sinless Son of God, who willingly put Himself where you and I deserve to be, to intervene in our lives, to forgive us of our sins, to restore us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, and to declare us righteous by His sacrifice and to involve us in His persons. Lord, who am I? And who are we? God, we thank you today that we no longer hate you. God, we love you. Lord, we thank you today that we're not objects of wrath. We're objects of your love. Lord, we thank you that our name is not being called in judgment. It's being called as a member of the family. Lord, we thank you. And we identify with David when he says, Who am I? Who am I, God? And who are these people? Lord, we thank you for who you are. You know, this started when great as I faithfulness started. I'm sorry. Someone gave me some Kleenex, these kind with the stuff on them. I cleaned my glasses with them. I lost my vision a little bit. But let's go on. What did David say? Well, he's probably now maybe kneeling and he says this, Everything comes from you. And we have given you only what comes from your hand. We are aliens and strangers in your sight as were all of our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow. How many of you know that the older you get, the faster the days go by? And you'd say, yes, you know, life is just but a fleeting shadow. And then he says this in perspective, he says, As for all of this abundance that we've provided for the building, for building you a temple for your holy name, it comes from your hand and all of it belongs to you. And I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things I've given willingly and with honest intent. And now I've seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you. Oh, Lord, our God of God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Israel. You see, David's always reminding them of their history. Keep this desire in the hearts of your people forever and keep their hearts loyal to you. Dear ones, there is in me and in you and in every one of us the inclination to drift away from the purity of heart and generosity toward God. I came across this little thing in preparing for prayer meeting on Friday night that I wasn't going to share today, but the leader said this so impacted them that I should mention it. This is what happens. This is what's called the cycle of spiritual decline. We go from bondage in our sin to spiritual faith. Then we go from spiritual faith to great courage. We start doing exploits for God from courage to a great liberty where we enjoy the freedom of the spirit. We go from liberty to abundance as God pours out blessing. And dear ones, can I say that many of us have experienced the journey to this point, but we are at a crossroads. And can I say two days away from the national election, this is the same place our nation is because the next step in this sojourn is from abundance to selfishness. And then selfishness as we begin to focus on our own needs, our own desires, then leads to complacency because who cares about anybody else? And then complacency leads to apathy. And apathy then degenerates back to dependency and dependency back into bondage. And can I say unless something dramatic happens, that will be the course of the United States of America. And this isn't something I thought up. In fact, it's not even something that recently came about. This was written in 1803 by Alexander Teutler as he viewed the course of the journey of man and his relationship to God. Dear ones, how much more if David exalted the Lord in his fullness, should we in the new covenant be exalting him and be generously inclined to pour out our resources to God? He's the God that's called El Shaddai, not El Cheapo. He's the God that revealed himself as being more than enough. And David exalts him and exalts the people. And then verse 20, they praised God and offered sacrifices. How many of you know today we don't have to march bulls and rams and sheep up here and cut them up? Why? Because we've been given a sacrifice once and for all, the blood of Christ. And you can say, amen. Thank you, Lord, for what you've provided for us. I just want to quickly mention three things that I see here that motivate me to come to this point of commitment. Number one, David reminded the people of God's sovereign initiative. Chapter 28 and verse 4. Look back one page. Yet the Lord, the God of Israel, chose me and my whole family. Dear ones, make no mistake, God's initiative is always the issue. We are no different than David. We didn't volunteer for this. God chose us. We didn't go out there and discover God. He disclosed himself to us. We didn't earn this favor. God granted it to us. And we didn't determine our destiny. God decreed it. He has chosen us. You know, when I go through periods of struggle about what's happening in our church, and I do. And when I go through a heartache, and I have. And when I start to question and wonder, and I do. I always am drawn back to the beginning of this church. And many of you know this story, but some of you don't. How 12 years ago to the month, November 1980. I, just like Jonah, tried to get away from town. I didn't go to Nineveh. I went to New York. Pretty close, I guess. And God, in his mercy, shut doors there long after I had walked through them. He pulled me back. And I can tell you with full assurance of faith that I'm here today. And this church is here today because God initiated the work. And I believe that he who began this good work is able to bring it to completion in the day of Christ Jesus. That's what I believe. And that's where my strength comes from in those times. Just as God initiated our personal salvation, he initiated this church. And he initiated the blessing that brought us to the point of making a commitment today. You know, I was discussing this project with one of our newer families. And they were saying, well, why didn't we build behind us? And why did we have to go out and start over again? And I told them the story of how many roadblocks came along. How we had to go door to door in Forrest Oaks to get petitions. And how then there was still resistance. And then how the bank folded. And how the RTC got involved. And how person after person just kept getting in the way. Until we knew one day God was saying, wait a minute. This isn't the perfect place. I've got something better for you. And many of you know how God now has enabled us to take possession of a piece of ground that is more visible, more accessible, more usable. And has the potential of much more expandability than anything else we've ever seen around us. God is still initiating. He's still moving on our behalf. And I want to make an announcement today that very few of you know. Because of your prayers and your constant concern and intercession, as of tomorrow night, Monday night, I'm here to tell you that Pine Township and PennDOT and Oxford Development and North Way have agreed that we will have a break in the barrier. We will have an opening into our property. Hallelujah. You know, we will receive tomorrow conditional. Said to me this week right after they said, well, you must be an incredible group of people. And I said to him, you know, sir, with all due respect, we're just average people. We're not incredible people, but we serve an incredible God. That's what we do. And it's it's at times like that when I just need that little bit. I mean, when I'm just about like you to say, is this ever going to happen? God knows just when. How many of you know he knows just when to speak that encouragement? I want to remind you as a whole church today that God was in our beginning. God has been with us along the way. And he's the one that's going to provide for us in the future. We want to build this facility, dear ones, not so we can compete, not so we can flash, but so that we can expand and extend this ministry to thousands of more people. And the fastest growing community in the state of Pennsylvania, that's where we live. That's not by accident. That's by God's design. Number two, I see that David reaffirmed the place of integrity of heart. Look over in 1 Chronicles 29, 17. There David says very clearly, I know my God that you test the heart and you are pleased with integrity. And I want to say this morning, integrity is very important to everyone that you've seen on this platform and all of our elders. And every one of you. And I want to say that we have sought to walk in integrity, doctrinally and morally and physically. And with singleness of eye, we have one goal in mind, and that is to please God with everything that we do. And I know, listen, I know that we don't do it perfectly. And I know we have along the way made mistakes and we've sought your forgiveness for that. But I'm here to say our hearts are there and we desire to please God. That's why we brought in someone like Doug Anderson, so you could see from an objective source exactly what our financial history was and where we've come to. That's why we gave you these packets of information that I hope all of you have received. So you can see in print exactly where we've been and how we're proposing to proceed into the future so that you can know that we're seeking to act with integrity before God and man. And notice what it says. God tests the heart. I have a question for you today. Are you being honest with God about your heart in this matter? I appreciate it, Scott. He was honest. It's been a struggle. Folks, it's okay if it's a struggle. Just be honest and then let God speak to you and obey his voice. It doesn't matter how much as long as you obey God. One lady came out of the presentation and said, well, pastor, I think this is great, but I can't commit $20 a week. I don't have that much. I put my hand down and I said, I so appreciate your heart because I know that you're going to do just whatever you can. Didn't Jesus say something in Luke chapter 21 about a little widow who put her little mite in the box? What did he say about that widow? She gave more. Her two pennies were more than the wealthiest person because she gave all that she had. Integrity of heart. Number three, quickly. I see the David reignited the passion for the mission of his people. Chapter 29 in verse one. Once again, the task is great and dear ones here for us. It's not just the facility to me. The task that we're talking about is the building of the church of Jesus Christ. This is the task that North Way has committed itself to. It's not a building. It's the mission that's before us. We're not out here to build a monument to us. We're not out here to say, well, we have this big place. We're out to build a facility that will enable the mission of this church to proceed for its maximum fulfillment on every bit of literature that we gave you. We stated the mission. We wanted you to know what's really important. Johanna and her team did this beautiful brochure. The mission is right in the front. The vision statement to raise up a local body of disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, who will be loved, nurtured, and equipped to minister to who? God, one another, and the lost of the world in the power of the Holy Spirit. And David also set himself to remind his people about their mission, to demonstrate the glory of God to the nations around them. And I want to continue to say to your church, there is no higher mission than the one we've been given. I agree with Paul Bilheimer when he says, the center pin of all of human history is the church of Jesus Christ. This organization, organism that we're experiencing today is the only hope for the problems of this nation. And God has ordained that in the church, we can't accomplish His purposes alone. We need each other. Isolated and separated, we're ignored, ridiculed, mocked. But together, we can make an historic impact in this city. I believe that. It's not just hype. The God we serve is eager to reveal Himself. He's eager to show His power. He's eager to manifest Himself. Even as we gather together today to worship, I sensed Him, as I think it says in the Song of Songs, that He rejoices over us with joy. At the same moment, you know, God today feels pain. He feels pain about the thousands of people in our neighborhoods who awaken today, who are separated from their Heavenly Father, who don't know the love of God in Jesus, who don't have a clue about the will of God for their life, and who are drifting through life with no end in sight of the pain and hurt that they feel. God experiences very complex emotions today, and so should we. On the one hand, we should rejoice as we have and celebrate as we are, but we should also resolve that we will not become comfortable in that. But we will again devote ourselves to the mission of the church that Jesus put forth to make disciples. Whatever you're into, whatever your career, whatever it is that you pursue, dear ones, it is secondary to the purpose of God and the fulfillment of the mission of the church. And I want to say to you, you're here today as a people not to be sympathized with primarily, not to, you know, have a charismatic buzz. You're here, and I want to commend you as people who want to be challenged. Someone put a bug in my ear and struck some fear in my heart. Here's what they said yesterday. They said, well, only the people who are really committed will turn up. Well, I want to say, look around, praise the name of the Lord for the people who are really committed. And I want you to give yourself a hand for that. And it's not just in this church. I don't want to give that impression. There are churches around our city, other places in America that are devoted to making disciples, to changing lives, who aren't content with cosmetic Christianity or some kind of, you know, culturally conformed variety. But you're here to be an authentic disciple of Jesus. And that's really what this is all about. You know, someone said to me a couple of weeks ago, he said, Jay, I'm really kind of concerned for you. I mean, you're really getting into this. And I mean, and I thanked him for that. And I said, you know, thank you for your concern. But that's just my passion. The church is my passion. And I'm trying to infect you with the same bug. Because I have a question. As one Christian leader said, if the church of Jesus isn't your highest passion, then it's misplaced. What else is there? We're two days from a national election. I will not be a prophet up here today about this election. But I will say to you one thing I know for sure, no matter who gets elected, they do not have the answers to the root problems in America today. And no matter who gets elected, dear ones, this nation is still beginning to spiral out of control. And only a revival of the spirit of God will change that. Only a transformation of the spirit of people. That's my conviction today. We need to pray for this election with just sincere hearts. We need to ask God to be merciful on our leaders. We need to vote. We need to do all that. But just watch C-SPAN for 10 minutes or so, and you can get a real clear picture of what's going on in the government. It isn't going to fix the problem. It's going to take changed hearts. Why are we asking you to commit to this facility as I close? Just let me say this. Because I believe in the mission. I believe in it. I believe that you believe in it. It's changed lives like Gary and Diane Sabora and their family. And I really wanted to let many of you come forward. But time didn't allow it today. We need more space, church. As Ken said, look what we could be doing. And I want you to know, I was at the church building every evening last week just to see. I want you to know my heart was so touched by the young people worshiping Andrew and Tim, meeting the kids as they worship the Lord. And these men say to me, we need space, Jay. We need a place to reach out to kids. And I drifted over to the singles ministry as they were ministering to God. And they need space to do the ministry God's put before them. 99 generations. How many of you have been part of generations or are incompetent kids? Let me just see your hands. I want you to know that's one of the most exciting cutting-edge ministries in this whole city. Touching people at their point of need. They need more space. They use the whole building right now just to minister to the needs of the people that are coming. And we could go on and on and on. Folks, we need it for our kids, for our children, and for evangelism. We need to see doors that are going to open. Finally, David led the people by his example. And I don't want to be any different today. Notice what he gave. I want you to just be drawn to this again. Look at this, verse 3 of chapter 29. He gave 3,000 talents of gold and 7,000 talents of refined silver. I want you to know that I want to say publicly to you here today, I am not giving 3,000 talents of gold. That's like $10 million worth or something. David had a little more to give than I do. But I want you to know this. I'm committed to this. Carol and I agonized over the last weeks to see how much we could give. And I want you to know that these next three years, we're going to be giving over 20% of our income to the ministry, to the mission of this church, and to this building project. I'm not going to tell you what it is. It's irrelevant. I just want you to know that we're committed to it, not just in word. I'm not out here just pointing the way. I want you to know that we seek, by God's grace, to lead the way. And every elder and every pastor feels the same way. And they're searching their hearts to do the very best that they can, too. Now, look at this. I said conclude three times. I mean it this time, all right? Verse 5, I have this privilege. Who is willing to consecrate himself to the Lord? David didn't just lead by example in prayer and exhortation. He also said, what about you? What are you going to do? It's important to model. It's important, however, to motivate as well. And I want to compliment you. I see one brother up here in the bleachers right now who's looking at me, who stopped me in the hall the other day and said, you know, for the first time, I've been going to churches around America. For the first time, I feel committed to give because I understand the importance of it. I was down in Horn's department store about 10 days ago, a week ago, and a gal came up to me and she said, Pastor Jay said, thank you for teaching me that the building fund is over and above my tie. Thank you for teaching me that you give above your tie. I said, yeah, thank you. I didn't understand that. Another person said, you know, thanks for raising the bar a little higher because I feel challenged to jump over it. And I've doubled my pledge since you started this series. They also said thank you for ending this series because I might have gone nuts if you'd gone four times higher. One of the businessmen in our church said, Jay, I have people out in the community always challenging me to do my best in business, to make more, produce more. He said, I need someone that will challenge me to obey God. That's what I'm here to do today. And I want to say something very important right now. Listen very carefully. Don't miss this. No matter what you give today, what you pledge today, I will love you and accept you the same. And I want to say something else publicly today. I will not know what any single person in this church pledges or gives. I've resolved that I'm not to know that unless you run up and tell me. I'm not going to know what anyone gives because I want you to know that my acceptance of all of you has nothing to do with your response to this. I love you. I'm not a politician. I'm your pastor. And because I love you and I'm not going to know what you're going to do, I'm going to stay in your face and keep challenging you to give your very best to God because it's in your best interest that I do that. And that's my commitment to you. And then you'll hear stories like you heard mentioned up here on the platform in your own life. Why do I want to ask you to give? Because God was at the beginning. He initiated it because we sought to act with integrity and because I believe in the mission. David said these words, Is there not a cause? My answer is yes, there is a cause. The cause is the destiny of human souls. The mission of our church is to empower God's people for effective ministry through community groups, touching lives. And remember this, your investment today is your thanksgiving of tomorrow. Your investment of today is your thanksgiving of tomorrow. Let's stand for that. Lord, I thank you for David and I thank you for the testimony that he gave us recorded in these pages. To give our very best. And Lord, I'm stirred now and I believe you. Stirring your people now to give their very best. Speak to hearts, Lord, in Jesus' name. And everyone said.