Scripture: 1 Kings 8:61 – Preparing for 70^th Anniversary

In 1955 the Montgomery Bus Boycott took place after Rosa Parks’ arrest, Disneyland opened, the first televised presidential press conference was held. And in 1955 Bethel Baptist, which is now Grace Church began. A small group of about 30 believers in a Bible study felt led by God to begin a Bible-believing church in Burlington.

But it was 1955 not 2025. How do you feel when Jehovah’s Witnesses come to your door? Historically, Wisconsin has been predominately Catholic and Lutheran. Anything other than that in 1955 was viewed as a cult. Until recent days we had two funeral homes in Burlington with a partnership of Catholic and Lutheran owners so they could appeal to both denominations. To be part of anything other than Catholic or Lutheran, was a step of courage and commitment.

The ones who began our church went against the current. It took faith in and commitment to the Lord Jesus to do what they did.

Some years ago, we found that the name Baptist closed more doors to the gospel than it opened. Again, it took faith and commitment to change the name and become simply a conservative gospel believing church.

This morning you’re sitting in a miracle. Our original property on Kendall Street was donated to the church by an elderly lady, Mabel Buttles. But we were landlocked and locally there was no property for sale.

When we first asked about this property, we were told it wasn’t for sale at any price. Six months later the owner called and sold us this property. By God’s grace, we paid off the $400,000 for this property in seven years and began raising money for a building. God’s hand of blessing was on us!

Our budget was $1 million. The 1^st estimate came back at over $2 million. It’s why today you’re sitting in Phase #1. Lots of cuts were made. In about six months this building was finished.

But we still had to furnish it, and our church family gave again. Our brothers and sisters under Pastor Chip Bernhard at SpringCreek Church gave us $20,000 for our AV system. Our plumbing contractor and the owner of our general contractor, MSI, donated money for this building. But as soon as we were in this building, we had a problem, a wonderful problem – there wasn’t enough parking…and you gave again.

Grace Church is a miracle, and we don’t want to ever forget God’s blessing on us!. Many of you are new to Grace. We want you to know our story, really God’s story. This is His building. This is His church.

We’re celebrating our 70^th Anniversary. Next week is going to be a great Sunday. Our friend, Chip Bernhard, will be with us. He also preached for our building dedication Sunday. You don’t want to miss it.

Today though I want to take our time and ask a vital question: Will Grace Church be here in 70 years? Will Grace still be faithful to biblical truth? It’s rare for a church to stay true to God’s truth over time. If you check out most denominations and churches you’ll find that the majority of them don’t believe what we believe but they used to. They moved theologically and no longer believe the Bible.

Consider the shockingly transparent words of liberal, Kirsopp Lake who said that what we believe is [not] a new and strange form of thought…it is the…survival of a theology which was once universally held by all Christians. Lake was a liberal and believed we’re wrong. He was honest enough to admit that most churches have left biblical Christianity and churches like ours hold to the historical truth of Scripture.

We’re at a critical point for the Church. In the last few weeks, we’ve experienced the JFK assassination or 911 of this generation with the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Cultural violence has captivated the attention of the world, particularly Generation Z. People are looking for answers. They’re looking for truth. Are we ready?

What will it take for us to be ready? The same thing it has taken for God’s people throughout time – Trust in God’s Word & Commitment. God will only use those who trust Him and who are committed to Him. Only committed believers, only a committed church, makes a difference in this world. It’s a fact continually repeated in the Bible. 1 Kings 8:61 says, And may your hearts be fully committed to the Lord our God, to live by His decrees and obey His commands, as at this time (NIV).

1. God’s people trust Him and are committed to Him. 

Why do you know the names of certain Bible characters? Why do even pagans know their names? There were millions of others who lived at the same time. Trust and commitment. They trusted God. They believed His Word and were committed to Him.

Noah. Everyone knows the story of Noah. But when God told Noah to build the arkit had never rained before. Then, it took Noah 100 years to build it. Do you think Noah was mocked? “Noah, it’s going to rain. What’s rain?” Noah trusted God and was committed to Him.

Abraham. What if this afternoon God told you to take everything you have and move to Kazakhstan? Basically, that’s what happened to Abraham. God told him to leave his home, Ur of the Chaldees, and move to Canaanto a land that he’d never seen that God was going to give him.  Abraham believed God and was committed to Him.

Ruth. Ruth the Moabitess was a young widow from a hated nation, who after her Jewish husband’s death, chose to stay with her mother-in-law, Naomi, and return to Bethlehem. When Naomi tried to discourage her from going with her, Ruth said, Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go…Your people shall be my people, and your God my God (Ruth 1:17). She became the great-grandmother of King David, placing her in the lineage of Jesus. Ruth believed God and was committed to Him.

A Jewish Slave Girl– We don’t even know her name, but we know her story. It’s in 2 Kings 5. She was a slave, a young Israelite girl captured by Syrian raiders, who was a maid to General Naaman’s wife. She’s known for her faith and boldness, as she informed her mistress that a prophet in Israel, Elisha, could cure General Naaman’s leprosy. Her actions led to Naaman’s healing and his acknowledgment of the one true God.  That nameless slave girl believed God and was committed to Him.

A repentant hooker.In his book, What’s So Amazing About Grace, Philip Yancey writes of a hooker who came to a Christian leader in wretched straits. She was homeless, sick, unable to buy food for her two-year-old daughter. Through sobs, she admitted she’d been renting out her daughter—two years old—to men interested in kinky sex. She made more renting out her daughter for an hour than she could earn on her own in a night. She said she had to do it to support her drug habit. This Christian could hardly bear listening to her sordid story. He asked if she’d ever thought of going to a church for help. He said he’ll never forget the look of shock on her face. “Church!” she cried. “Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They’d just make me feel worse.”

In Luke 7, we find a woman, a prostitute, who washed Jesus’ feet demonstrating her love and repentance by washing His feet with her tears and then drying them with her hair. She trusted that no matter what she’d done, no matter who she was, Jesus would forgive her. That prostitute believed Jesus and was committed to Him.

Stephen the first Christian martyr.One of the first deacons was stoned to death for his defense of Christianity. His preaching incensed Jewish leaders. His last words included a prayer for forgiveness for his attackers. As they pelted him with stones, he said. Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God…And [Stephen} falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:56 & 60). Stephen believed God and was committed to Him…even though it cost him his life.

Maybe you know a few of these…but who were…Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Cyrus McCormick, Daniel Guggenheim, Calvin Coolidge, Bessie Smith, Paul Whiteman, F. Scott Fitzgerald? They were the rich, the famous, powerful and celebrities a hundred years ago, in 1925. Most people don’t know who they are.

If we trust God, if we’re committed to Jesus, He knows our name and will remember us for all eternity, even if we’re virtually anonymous in this world. Jesus promised, “Whoever receives you receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me…And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward” (Matthew 10:40 & 42).

Do you want to be remembered? Do you want significance? Do we want our church to make a difference for the next 70 years? This is how!

2. God’s people are always committed to His church. 

Every Packer fan knows this story. In July 1961, Vince Lombardi strode to the front of the meeting room, a football under his arm. Thirty-eight Green Bay Packers sat waiting to hear what he had to say. “Gentlemen,” he growled, gripping the football in front of him, “this is a football.”

Every Christ-follower knows they’re to trust God, that they’re to be committed to Him. It’s a “this is a football” moment. So, why do we struggle? Let me share some reasons.

First, though believers, we still have a sin nature. Read Romans 7. Every one of us has left a conversation and thought, “Lord, why did I say that? That was wrong. That was sin.”

Maybe we know commitment means giving up a pet sin. We’re holding out but we’re also missing out. We have some sin we don’t want to give up. For most, we don’t want to give up control of our lives.

Then, many grew up as adult children of addicts. They have a lack of trust. They’ve been lied to so often by the ones they should have been able to trust that trust and committing themselves, even to Jesus, is hard.

Today there don’t seem to be many that we can trust. Who do you trust? Politicians? Celebrities? Who do you believe is telling the truth?

To make it even worse, some have been betrayed even by church leaders or in the church. Every leader at Grace is a sinner saved by grace. I can’t promise you that we won’t hurt you but by God’s grace, if we’re wrong, I hope and pray that we’ll be honest, admit it and deal with it.

The bottom line is this. Each of us is personally responsible. God wants us to trust Him and be committed to Him. Romans 12:1 says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” We know that we can trust God. The bottom-line question is: Who does God want me to be? Who does God want our church to be? Trusting God and being totally committed is the only way to have a fulfilled life now and a fantastic eternity!

And you know this inherently. Not trusting Him or being surrendered to Him is why you don’t have peace and joy now. You’re holding out. You want Jesus and you want a piece of this world. That’s a recipe for misery.

And Grace Church will not be here in 70 years if we do not trust God and are not committed to Him as a church now. What does that mean?

We must be committed to Christ.We’re Christ-followers. If you saw me in a garage, you’d make a terrible mistake if you assumed I was a mechanic. In the same way, attending church doesn’t make you a Christian.

The most popular form of “Christianity” is not biblical Christianity. It’s churchianity. It’s what’s known as Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. Its adherents believe in God, but God isn’t really part of their life. Thus, it’s deistic. They believe God simply wants us to be good people for us to go to heaven. Thus, it’s moralistic. Finally, they believe the ultimate good is to feel happy. Good is defined by whatever makes you happy. Thus, it’s therapeutic.

But it’s not biblical. If Grace Church is here in 2095, it will not be because there were attendees or those who believed in God but didn’t let Him rule and transform their lives. Grace will be here because there were committed Christ-followers who trusted and obeyed Jesus Christ.  

We must be committed to God’s Word.My opinion doesn’t matter, nor does yours. It only matters what God’s Word says. We must be committed to God’s truth, even it’s not popular or even if it places us downstream from the culture. That’s been the Church throughout time.

People today are starving for truth and gravitating toward churches with a robust theology and church practice. Even secular intellectuals are interested in faith, ones like Tom Holland who though an atheist is very attracted in some ways to the Christian faith. He’s essentially said that if you want to attract me to church, don’t give me a warmed-over spiritualized version of secular humanism. I’m not looking for just a slightly more Christian version of what’s already out there. I’m looking for something very different. To use the phrase Tom Holland’s used a few times, keep Christianity weird. We must hold to God’s truth, the ethical challenge of Christianity and its doctrinal aspects. Truth seekers aren’t looking for the ten suggestions. They’re looking for the Ten Commandments, even if they don’t agree with or obey them.

There’s a new local campaign, “Be a good human.” But take the truth, the absolutes and ethics of the Bible out, what kind of human do you have? The only “good human” is imago Dei and lives according to God’s truth.

We must be committed to the Great Commission.All of the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, end in some version of the Great Commission. The book of Acts begins with a version of the Great Commission. The Lord intends to send us, to send His church, to the ends of the earth, making disciples until the end of the age.

The bottom line is that our goal is not a huge crowd. We’re also not trying to get Christians from other area gospel believing churches to leave their church and come to ours. We’re not in competition. We’re in cooperation. We want to reach people for Jesus. Our mission is the lost around us.

So, we must engage the culture to see lives transformed by the gospel. The Great Commission instructs us to make disciples while we GO throughout our world. We must meet them where they are at and seek to get them to come to Jesus as their Savior. We want them to go to heaven with us, not spend eternity in hell. That’s why we go with the gospel into our neighborhoods, workplaces, community and world.

Teaching them all things is simply that if you know Jesus, you want to be part of a church family. You want to be with God’s people, with the family. You want to know Jesus better. You want to grow in your faith. We are committed to being brothers and sisters in Christ. We are not consumers. We are family members.

This will shock you. I know that it shocks me. Jane likes beets. She even loves Michigan State University. But I hate beets. And everyone knows that all smart people are UGA fans (University of Georgia).

Church consumers say, “You love beets. You love MSU. I’m outta here.” Spiritual family members say, “You love Jesus. I love you even if we disagree.” It’s why the Homegoing of Dave Hughes hurts so badly? He was our brother. Lori is our sister. We’re family!

It’s why we problem-solve instead of bailing. Robert Redford died recently but some big Hollywood names refused to attend his funeral because of a tiff. Christ-followers problem-solve. It’s part of discipleship.

You don’t choose a church because they have a better “show.” You choose a church because they love Jesus, love God’s Word, love you and love their community! That’s all wrapped up in the Great Commission.

Some churches are cliques and care only about those within their four walls. That’s the great omission. The day we lose the Great Commission; we can begin to write our church’s obituary.

You see, we don’t care if you’re a Democrat, Republican or Libertarian. We don’t care if you’re Union or Non-Union. We just care that you know Jesus and that you’re going to heaven, and we’ll see you there.

If you’re a regular attender of Grace, then I try to pray for you every week. I also have a long list of lost people in our community, my friends that I love and I’m praying for too. I want them to know Jesus. Will you please love them and pray for them too?

But you don’t have to go out there. You can reach people right here who come enter our doors at Grace. Every Sunday we have newcomers. We have lost folk who check out our church. Do you know what service they usually try? Second service! Do you know what service a large percentage of our committed folk attend? First service. We need those who will give an hour and be Second Service Missionaries to connect with newcomers.

What’s one of the biggest problems today? Loneliness. The Bible has a cure, hospitality. Hospitality is vital in the Bible. It’s not enough to connect at church. Jesus connected with people over a meal some 20 times. It can be going to McDonald’s. Just ask someone that’s new or you don’t know well to join you. It can be having someone to your home for pie or to watch the Bears…I mean Packer’s game. It’s simple connection, not entertaining.  

Jot down Hebrews 13:2, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” Wow!

We must be committed to Cultural Adaptation.Please listen very carefully. We must never sacrifice God’s truth. Our culture is continually changing and we must adapt. The message never changes; the methods continually change. It’s why we can’t get stuck in methodology. The most dangerous words in a church are “We used to.” The second is as bad, You know in our old church. You can’t go forward using a rearview mirror.

Years ago, we had a guy who kept telling me, “You know in our old church.” I finally told him, “You know, they might take you back.”

Our mission is Burlington and the surrounding area. I’m an urban guy. I had to adapt. I’ve never lived in a small town. Where we are directs our mission. Our culture influences our ministry.

And our world is continually changing. For example, Baby Boomers and Millennials are distinct generations with contrasting characteristics and experiences. Baby Boomers grew with economic prosperity and witnessed significant historical events like the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. They tend to value hard work, loyalty, and stability, often staying with one company for their entire careers. Millennials came of age in a digital era with access to technology and the internet. They prioritize work-life balance, diversity, often seeking job flexibility and purposeful careers.

Then, we are not Milwaukee. We’re not even Racine. I’ve seen ministries learn that the hard way. Our area has the dynamics of a small Wisconsin town, though we’re becoming more and more a bedroom community of surrounding urban areas. It all affects how we do ministry.

Read the book of Acts and you’ll see that Paul adopted his ministry to the culture he was in. His approach in sharing the gospel in Athens was completely different from his approach in Jerusalem. God has called us to reach our world, this one. We must hold to His truth not our traditions.

Conclusion

We are blessed with so many committed believers at Grace. We need a church filled with them. If you’re a Christ-follower, God has gifted you. Don’t bury it, use it for His glory. Make a difference in eternity.

If we’re going to be here, faithfully serving the Lord in 2095, we must as a church family trust God and be committed to Him! It must be our entire church’s DNA, not just a few. You and I may not be here, but we want your children and grandchildren to be. It won’t happen without trusting God and commitment.

Maybe you’re wondering, what about you, Scott? Let me try to answer that. By God’s grace, I’m not done yet. I have no plans to retire because I love you and I love this community. If God allows me I have some goals that I want us to reach. First, I have a long list of local individuals I want to see come to Christ. Then I want to see us finish Phase 2.

The truth is we’re limping a bit as a church. We’re short-staffed and facility limited. To be ready generationally we need more full-time staff, and we need to add Phase 2, the children and education wing, to minister to the next generation.

So, let’s tie this up. The truth is that most of us would say that we’re willing to die for Jesus but that’s not what Jesus is asking – He wants to know, Will you live for Jesus?

People, particularly young people around the country and world are stepping up. The recent Charlie Kirk assassination was a wake-up call, while some are using it politically. Many, many others though have been caught up with the words of Erica Kirk, “I forgive you.” That’s who Jesus is. That’s who we are and it’s who we must be if we will still faithfully be serving King Jesus in 2095 but that starts today!

So, what does 2095 commitment mean?

It means coming to Christ if you haven’t trusted Him yet. It means we must be committed to Christ. It means we must be committed to God’s Word. It means we must be committed to the Great Commission. It means we must be committed to Cultural Adaptation.

Will Grace Church be here in 2095? We don’t know. Only God knows. I do know that the decisions that we make today and tomorrow to trust God and be committed will have a tremendous impact on whether we’re here or not. Basically, it’s that simple.

Will you join us? Will you trust the Lord? Will you choose to be committed to Him?