New Hope Mortgage Burning Ceremony

Who is like you, LORD God Almighty?

You, LORD, are mighty in your love and power, and your faithfulness surrounds you.

Surely the LORD has brought us to this place in our church’s history. God has prospered us.

We have built on a foundation that others have laid. God has shown us the way.

“Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.”

Lord, we give you all the praise for the building we have done.

Our Church is your house. We are the work of your hands. We are your people, the sheep of your pasture.

We are in Christ, the living Cornerstone of God’s dwelling place.

We are the living stones being built into God’s dwelling place.

We give our future to you, God.

We place our church into your hands.

Use us to build a great church for the sake of the Good News of Jesus Christ, which you give us to tell and to live.

Without God’s help we could not have come this far. Without God’s intervention, we would not be where we are today.

We are debt free and ready to serve God with all of our might.

An Inventory of Things I Enjoy

I am grateful to God for things I enjoy in life. Here are a few.

Every morning I enjoy getting up when Fleda does. Since she works as a reading coach to teachers at two schools in Deltona she gets up at 5:15. I make her a cup of tea (after I make my first cup of coffee), a boiled egg to take for lunch and a bowl of oatmeal. I enjoy being at home with Fleda in the evening and watching our favorite TV show, Jeopardy.

I enjoy reading some books that don’t have directly to do with preparing sermons. Right now I am reading The Biography of Steve Jobs and The Biography of Benjamin Franklin, both by Walter Isaacson. I also read four periodicals: “Baptists Today,” “The Christian Century,” “Time Magazine,” and “Christian Ethics Today.”

As a pastor, I have always liked to make hospital visits. Counseling and pastoral conversations are also important to me. For a couple of years now I have been what the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship calls a convenor of a Peer Learning Group. A group of 13 mostly pastors (Dennis Bucher, Shane Gaster, and Ben Collins are in our group) meets every month except in the summer. We have lunch together and discuss books we have read, materials and ideas that have helped us to be better in serving our churches, and things that have helped us to grow spiritually.

The list runs on. I thank God for the many ways I enjoy living.

The Ten Commandments as Evidence of God's Love

The Ten Commandments are God’s new agreement with his people after he led them out of slavery in Egypt. They are God’s way of helping them to stay on the road to freedom. God gave the commandments for their good and for ours.

As much as they were for the Jewish people coming out of slavery and heading to the Promised Land, the Ten Commandments are for us, because God does not want us hurt. God wants to give us freedom from slavery and life in abundance. And freedom does not come from obeying a set of rules. Freedom comes when we have God’s guidance written on our hearts, as we know that God is with us and for us.

In many of the stories in the Hebrew Bible, we see that God appears as a God who defends us against our enemies, protects us against dangers, and guides us to freedom. God is God-for-us.

Henri Nouwen wrote, “ When Jesus comes, a new dimension of the covenant is revealed. In Jesus, God is born, grows to maturity, lives, suffers, and dies as we do. God is God-with-us. Finally, when Jesus leaves he promises the Holy Spirit. In the Holy Spirit, God reveals the full depth of the covenant. God wants to be as close to us as our breath. God wants to breathe in us, so that all we say, think and do is completely inspired by God. God is God-within-us. Thus God's covenant reveals to us to how much God loves us.”

Deacons at New Hope

· The New Testament Greek word for deacon (diakonos) means “servant.”

· Deacons at New Hope are assigned a group of church members to care for in a way that is very much like being an associate pastor. Pastor is a Latin word meaning “shepherd.” It helps if a deacon has the spiritual gift of shepherding. (This gift causes a person to care about individuals and be concerned to prevent them from wandering away from the whole flock of the church). The spiritual gift of mercy is also a good one for a deacon to have, since he or she is going to be called on to visit people when they are ill and when their bereaved.

· We need deacons who are willing to serve for three years, meeting monthly to pray together and train for pastoral ministry.

· On the whole, past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior.

· Here is what 1Timothy 3: 8-13 (Message) says about deacons. “… serious, not deceitful, not too free with the bottle, not in it for what they can get out of it. They must be reverent before the mystery of the faith, not using their position to try to run things. Let them prove themselves first. If they show they can do it, take them on. No exceptions are to be made for women—same qualifications: serious, dependable, not sharp-tongued, not overfond of wine. Servants in the church are to be committed to their spouses, attentive to their own children, and diligent in looking after their own affairs. Those who do this servant work will come to be highly respected, a real credit to this Jesus-faith.”

God's Love Flows Through Many Human Channels

I found an old notebook in which I had written some notes and personal reflections back in the 80s and 90s. This stood out to me, because it connected so directly with what we have been learning about Real Love. Dr. Bernie Seigel wrote a book called Love, Medicine, and Miracles back in the early 80s. In it he talked about the importance of faith, hope, and love to healing from life-threatening diseases like cancer. This is what I wrote in my notebook in 1989.

“Dr. Bernie Siegel describes his awareness of being loved and wanted as a child. His mother suffered from severe hyperthyroidism. She was so thin that her doctor told her she could have no children. She found another doctor who agreed to go through a pregnancy with her provided she gained 30 pounds. Her Jewish mother fed her constantly. She had a traumatic delivery. The baby’s face was damaged by the forceps. “My Grandmother stepped in, anointing and stroking my face until the damage healed, relieving my mother of the distress and continuing the unconditional love. So I received the message that I was loved unconditionally.” He goes on to talk about what a power that was in his life. Then he says it was hard for him to learn that about 80% of his patients had not received unconditional love.

Real Love, unconditional love is what we all need as much as we need air. And God makes it available to all of us in Christ. He pays the price to forgive us, shows us God’s love, and makes His love flow through many human channels.

A New Chapter for New Hope

It does feel to me like we at New Hope is entering into a new chapter in our history. We began 2012 with higher attendance and larger offerings than we had been seeing. As Boyd Frank told us at our business meeting, we continue to grow and if we continue at the same rate, our worship attendance by 2015 will average 175. We have some babies and toddlers with us every Sunday and Wednesday. We want to learn how to serve their families and reach more young families, as well.

Imitation Love

Without sufficient Real Love we use getting behaviors to try to fill our emptiness with imitation love.

Lying,

Attacking,

Acting Like a Victim,

Clinging

Without sufficient Real Love we become afraid and try to protect ourselves with the protecting behaviors. Lying, Attacking, Acting Like a Victim, Running

As Christians, we have the great challenge and wonderful gift of receiving God’s Real Love into ourselves so that we are not empty and afraid. Our calling is not only to admire Christ, but also to become like Christ.

The writer Paul compared the process of becoming like Jesus to killing off old behaviors and learning an whole new way of living. Using the Real Love language, I would say that as we grow in our ability to be filled with Real Love, we give up our getting and protecting behaviors, stop trying to fill ourselves with imitation love.

This is the way Paul wrote about it to the Christians in Colossae:

“Now you must quit being angry, hateful, and evil. You must no longer say insulting or cruel things about others. Don't be controlled by your body. Kill every desire for the wrong kind of sex. Don't be immoral or indecent or have evil thoughts. Don't be greedy, which is the same as worshiping idols. And stop lying to each other. You have given up your old way of life with its habits.

Each of you is now a new person. You are becoming more and more like your Creator, and you will understand him better.

It doesn't matter what your racial or national or religious background is, Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.

God loves you and has chosen you as his own special people. So be gentle, kind, humble, meek, and patient.

Put up with each other, and forgive anyone who does you wrong, just as Christ has forgiven you.”

Love is more important than anything else. It is what ties everything completely together.”