What We Are All About ~ 20170924 ~ Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

09/24 What We Are All About; The Vision and Mission of ECB; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20170924_what-we-are-all-about.mp3


Today is an exciting day for us as a church. Ephraim Church of the Bible is multiplying ministry for the glory of Jesus!

About 26 years ago [1991], Pastor Dick Fellars and Immanuel Bible Church in Phoenix, AZ sent Chip and Jamie Thompson and their family to Ephraim Utah. They began a Bible study in their home, which God blessed and grew. And May 5, 1995 Ephraim Church of the Bible began. Around 2003/2004 the college house was purchased and the college ministry began. As the college ministry grew, Chip stepped down from his role as pastor in order to pour his energy into the college ministry, and in 2005 the church called us to come and serve the local body here.

In 2006 we remodeled the sanctuary and moved the baptistery to the back to gain some additional seating. In 2011, as the church continued to grow we added on to our sanctuary to enable us to serve more people, and we purchased the adjacent property to the North, and by the end of 2012 the new Fellowship Hall was in use.

As a church on a mission field, it is essential to keep an outward focus. We have had the great privilege and pleasure of seeing some of the young men and women who served in the college ministry go off to get training in bible college with their eyes on the mission field. In 2012 God granted us the honor of partnering with Jason and Jen Byers as they went to Thailand, and Brody and Liz Olson as they went to Colorado City. So a church on the mission field is now sending missionaries out into the mission field!

Ephraim Church of the Bible has always had a desire to reach our surrounding communities with the gospel, and over the years, we have had home groups in Ephraim, Manti, Gunnison, and Fairview. We have prayed about what it might look like to see a healthy sister church planted both to the north and to the south of us, and we have explored various options.

In 2015 Carl began a home bible study in Gunnison/Centerfield, with about 6 people attending regularly. Last summer, he prayed that if God would give them a bigger house, they would do everything they could to fill it for his glory. They did some door to door advertisement, and the study began to grow. Pastor Ryan Shaddix of Calvary Chapel Sevier Valley in Richfield, who also has a heart to see a gospel centered Jesus honoring healthy church planted in that area, encouraged his people who live in that area to be a part of what God is doing. That bible study has now grown to 40 + people, and next Sunday morning church services will begin in the Wimmer home.

What We Are All About

What I want to do today is simply lay out what we are all about. Who are we as a church? What are we passionate about? I want to keep who we are, what we are about in front of us as we launch into a new season of expanding ministry for the glory of Christ.

So what are we all about? What are we to be about as a church? What are we to be passionately pursuing as a local body of believers? I've broken this down into three main things. The local church exists to equip and enable the saints to glorify God, to enjoy God, and to engage in gospel ministry.

Equipping and the Mess Hall

First, I want you to see that the role of the church, and specifically the leadership of the local church is primarily a behind the scenes training and equipping role. Ephesians 4 says that '[Jesus] gave ...the pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body...” (Eph.4:11-12). Picture it this way. Think of the church as a military battalion stationed in a hostile country. The church is not a building; the church is made up of people. The goal is to engage culture, to set captives free, to effect change for good. Every person and every role is essential for the success of the mission. One necessary part of the base of operations is a mess hall and a medical wing. That is the church building. It can be a tent, a re-purposed store front, someone's living room. It doesn't matter. But the soldiers need to be fed; refueled. They need a place to be cared for, to be treated, to be healed. There needs to be a cook, and there needs to be medical staff. That's the church leadership. It's a behind the scenes thing, but it needs to happen. If the soldiers aren't fed and cared for, they can't do their job effectively. That's the picture I want you to have of the church. The church is a place to refuel, to recharge, to be equipped to go back out into the battle and accomplish the mission. Church services are not the main thing. The battalion is not stationed in a hostile country to have a great mess hall. The church is often a mess. But the church is stationed in the world to engage the culture and set captives free.

We see this in Jesus' statement;

Matthew 16:18 ...on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

The church is not stationary; gates are stationary. The church is on the move, on mission, taking ground from the enemy, battering down the gates of hell and setting captives free. When Jesus commissioned Peter, he told him

John 21:15 ... “Feed my lambs.” 16 ... “Tend my sheep.” 17 ... “Feed my sheep.

The church is made up of sheep. Sheep need to be tended, to be fed, cared for, to be refueled for the work of ministry. The church gathers for that. The church then goes out to accomplish the mission.

Take a moment to picture this, to put these two metaphors together. The church is sheep that need to be tended, and the church is to wage war on hell. Sheep, one of the most helpless, defenseless, clueless, needy animals, an animal that is not the natural predator of anything, except maybe grass, and this is the picture; sheep storming the gates of hell. This is a reminder that it is not about us. It is not about our skill, our ability, our gifts. It is all about God who has made us competent to be ministers of the gospel (2Cor.3:6).

The Mission: To Glorify God

So what is the mission? We see the primary thing in this illustration of sheep. It is 'to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us' (2Cor.4:7). Whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, we are to do it all to the glory of God (1Cor.10:31). It is all 'to the praise of his glorious grace; to the praise of his glory, to the praise of his glory' (Eph.1:6, 12, 14). 'You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body' (1Cor.6:19-20).

We are created for this; we are meant to glorify God in everything. We are meant to spread the fame of his name. We are meant to exult in him, to praise him, to worship him, to celebrate him. Our purpose is to magnify him, to make much of him in all things.

The Mission: To Enjoy God Together

So how do we glorify God in all things? What does that practically look like? To glorify anything is to show how much better that thing is than any other thing. That is what commercials seek to do; this product, this service is superior to all other products and services; this one will deliver. This one will bring peace, tranquility, satisfaction, fulfillment. It will do what you need. How do commercials glorify their product? They may list the ways that this one is superior to others, but often they show someone enjoying the product. Some amazingly perfect person cracks open an ice cold Mountain Dew on a hot day and is refreshed, renewed, transformed. The atmosphere changes. Suddenly everyone likes them. Everything is better. They glorify the product by enjoying it.

Believe it or not, this is biblical. This is exactly what we as followers of Jesus are called to do. Only we have the one thing that truly satisfies. Psalm 16 says things like:

Psalm 16:2 I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.”

Verse 4 contrasts this with the counterfeit product:

Psalm 16:4 The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply...

Then he turns back to the real thing:

Psalm 16:5 The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. 6 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. 7 I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. 8 I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. 9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. 10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. 11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Only in God's presence is there fullness of joy. Only at his right hand are there pleasures forevermore. I have no good apart from you.

In Psalm 34, David sets out to 'bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.' He sets out to boast in the Lord, to magnify the Lord, to exult his name. How does he go about this glorifying God at all times? Verse 4 says

Psalm 34:4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. 5 Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. 6 ​This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. 7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.

How does the Psalmist bless, praise, boast in, magnify, exult the Lord? By seeking him and being rescued by him, by looking to him for help, by crying out to him to be saved from troubles, by being protected and delivered by him. And then he says:

Psalm 34:8 Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

How do we glorify God in all things? We drink deeply of him, we run to him and cry out to him with all our brokenness and emptiness and longing and need and invite him to fill and heal and mend and rescue, to satisfy us with his own all sufficient goodness. We glorify him by enjoying him.

Notice there is a corporate aspect to this enjoying. He starts out this Psalm by saying 'I will bless the Lord at all times,' but by verse 3 he is saying 'Oh, magnify the LORD with me,and let us exalt his name together!' There is an enhancing of the enjoyment when we enjoy God together.

The Mission: To Spread Joy in God

This brings us to our last point. We have looked at the vertical dimension; the church exists to glorify God and to enjoy God. There is also a horizontal dimension; the church exists to spread this joy to others. The church equips the saints for the work of ministry. Ministry is service. We are equipped to serve others for their good, to call them into relationship with this all satisfying God.

2 Corinthians 4:15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

2 Corinthians 4 tells us that as God's amazing grace extends to more people, more people give God thanks for his amazing grace, thanksgiving increases to the glory of God. We glorify God by increasing the number of people who enjoy God.

We must be passionate about the centrality of the gospel of grace and the message of the cross.

It is all grace. Jesus died for sinners; we are broken and helpless and can contribute nothing. Jesus took our place, paying in full the penalty our sins deserve. He makes us alive with resurrection power and clothes us in his perfect righteousness. We live in total dependence on him for everything. It is all of grace.

Both salvation (the rescue from the penalty and power of sin) and sanctification (growth in godly character) are by grace alone through faith alone in Christ Jesus alone. Salvation is designed by God in this way to bring glory to him alone and not to us.

This good news of God's amazing grace is so good that it must be spread. We cannot keep it to ourselves. It must spill over to those around us. We must not be content until every person has heard this good news.

We are passionate about actively pursuing unity with other believers and keeping the main thing the main thing. There are plenty of secondary issues that Christians hold opinions about, and often these opinions are given undue importance, and these secondary issues often detract and distract our attention from the main thing. It really is all about Jesus. We must determine to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified (1Cor.2:2). The gospel message; the message of the cross is central. Jesus defines who we are. As we live gospel transformed lives, as we enjoy gospel shaped community, we are enabled to proclaim transforming gospel truth. We must keep the main thing the main thing as we glorify and enjoy God together, and seek to spread joy in him to all people.




Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org