The Biblical Foundations of EVBC, Part 3
Tom Shrader wraps up a three-week series on the biblical foundations and identity of East Valley Bible Church, revisiting core phrases like 'come, learn, and serve' and 'people grow best in a small group setting.' Drawing from 2 Timothy 3:16, Romans 5 and 8, and James 1, he grounds the church's commitment to Scripture in the conviction that God's Word reveals both who God is and who we are, and that what we know from Scripture must govern what we feel in suffering. He closes by naming key weaknesses in the church's DNA — including prayerlessness, lack of pastoral grace toward hurting people, and a failure to actively share faith with those who don't yet know Christ.
“The Bible tells me about the God who made me, so I'm going to ask Him to show me what to do with me and He'll do it.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: The Biblical Foundations of EVBC
Recorded: 2008 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 47 min
Themes: scripture, suffering, prayer, church identity, small groups, evangelism, serving, community, new to the church, struggling with suffering, feeling disconnected, pastor, small group leader, new believer, elder, seeking community
Scripture: Acts 2:42-47, Romans 12:2, Romans 5:1, Romans 5:3-6, Romans 8:28, Romans 8:31, Romans 8:35-39, James 1:2-5, 1 Peter 4:12, 2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Timothy 4:2, Revelation 22:18
Theological Themes: biblical authority, ecclesiology, sanctification, sufficiency of scripture, pastoral care, church DNA, soteriology, spiritual formation
Full Transcript
Introduction and Review
I want to read you a couple of emails I got this week. Why don't you open your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 3. We started two weeks ago, and it came out of a discussion we were having as a staff: What are some of the phrases, sentences, concepts, slogans, and mottos that you associate with East Valley Bible Church? It was really exciting to see all of them start to pile up on a whiteboard. When we completed that, we processed all that information, eliminated some repetition, condensed them, and organized them. We also noticed there were some things that were missing, and I have four or five of them.
What I want to do today is complete our discussion, and in the end take the last five or ten minutes to highlight maybe five or six things that we see need to be improved and dug deeper into the DNA of East Valley Bible Church. I got a bunch of emails this week, but two are pretty representative. One is from a young fellow who writes: "Thanks for taking the time the past two weeks to share with us the inner workings of East Valley Bible Church. Makes the little guy feel like a big part of the church. We appreciate the candor and the openness." The other came from a small group, and they basically said: "We've been talking about this. Here are the things that we see in the church that you might want to add to your list."
They wrote that they see a sincerity within the body, a humility in serving, and that people are not trying to draw attention to themselves. They see a single-mindedness of studying God's Word and then applying it to life. They see a warm and inclusive feeling, sound doctrine, and they sense health at a variety of levels — leadership, willingness to serve, finances, and a leadership that is really concerned about the people in the ministry. Those are obviously great things to hear, and those are things that we might not identify as easily as some who are out there observing.
I know there are some gaps in this process and I am sure you could add to our list. But what I hope you get out of these three weeks is a really clear understanding of who we are and what we are about. We see some of our weaknesses and we want you to climb on board with that too. It is really important to be able to say: this is who we are, this is our DNA, and this is what is important to us.
Recap of Previous Weeks
In week one we talked about the church universal, Acts 2:42 through 47 — the apostles' teaching, breaking of bread, fellowship, and prayer. Those are the general things, and we said: there is the church; now how does it play itself out at East Valley Bible Church? We took the last third of that Sunday and all of last Sunday to talk about that expression.
We said here is what God does: He transforms our hearts and then He informs our minds. The paraphrase of Romans 12:2 is: don't copy the behavior of the world, don't let the world squeeze you into its mold, but be different — live a radical life. By radical life, what we mean is a life that is supernatural, where we see the world differently and we serve God. When we serve God, we begin to understand — and we talked about this last week in the section on money — that we begin to look at our life and see it as God sees it, understanding that our life is a gift from God and that we are stewards of it, not owners. Therefore we are in the process of investing our time, energy, effort, and money not with our own agenda, but in line with His agenda.
After the first hour last week, there were six guys standing over to the side who are all part of a home group. They were laughing and saying, "That was great. It caused us to think about some of the days that reminded us of what we used to do." There is one part in here — I will point it out in a minute — and they said, "We have really lost that, though it is in us. We have kind of forgotten that ourselves." That is exactly what I hoped would happen in these three weeks. And for those of you for whom it is new material, I hope you said, "Oh yeah, that makes sense to me" — and perhaps even, "I see that around, I just didn't realize it was something being done in a conscious way."
Come, Learn, and Serve
Here is a phrase that caught those guys' attention, and it is something we used to talk about over and over and over again. It was so ingrained. In fact, I found an old bulletin the other day, and when you opened it, on the inside was the mission statement we looked at last week: to glorify God by helping one another learn God's truths and live biblically changed lives. Underneath it were three words. You know what they were? Come, learn, and serve — with a little expression of each one.
We have been talking about this in staff. Up until three or four years ago, that was in the bulletin every week. You could not even get away from it. And "come" was an invitation — come and join us, be with us. If you know Christ, great. If you don't, we are still glad you are here, and our prayer is that God would use us as the instruments to show you the expression of what that means.
Serving One Another
It is not just about learning who He is and studying the Bible. It is about helping one another. It is not just me in this setting, or even the person up front. It is the ins and outs and togetherness of helping one another learn how God works in lives. Not just His Word — that is important, obviously — but how He works in lives, how we come alongside, how He now uses you to minister to somebody else, and all the things that go with it.
Serving is a big component here, and I think we have probably lost that a little bit simply because the emphasis has not been there in the last two or three years. So let me remind or inform you: we have all sorts of places to serve. Take Sunday, for example. For those of you who want to get in and get out, what makes part of that flow is traffic in the parking lot. While we use officials and officers out on the street, all our internal traffic is overseen, organized, and managed by volunteers. That is a huge ministry, and it is a tough one — especially tough when it is 110 degrees.
You took communion. Did you ever wonder how that juice got into that little cup? It is not as though every week magical little elves come in during the week and fill them. There are people who are here early in the morning who fill those cups, then take them and fill them again, and again, and again. There are also people who greeted you and hopefully made your time on campus a little bit easier.
Probably by far the largest component is our children's ministry. We have about 900 children, and our standard is to maintain a very manageable teacher-to-student ratio, which means we need hundreds of volunteers on a Sunday. By way of serving, if you have a child from birth through sixth grade, our expectation is that you are serving in children's ministry somewhere in the course of the year. The only reason not to be is if you are serving somewhere else. You may not be the lead teacher — we have teachers who are prepared for that — but you can clearly be a meaningful force in what is moving and happening in those rooms.
The Expectation to Serve
This should be the norm. If somebody stops you tomorrow and asks where you go to church and you say East Valley Bible Church, they should be able to follow up with, "Where are you serving there?" And you should have an answer right away. If there is no answer to that question, then you are deficient in our expression here at East Valley Bible Church.
By far the most frequent thing I hear is, "I'm too busy." That really struck me this summer while I was on vacation and reading. I came across a snippet of an article — I want to get the date right — from June 16, published in the Atlantic Journal, evaluating the world we live in. It read:
> "The world is too big for us. Too much is going on. Too much crime, too much violence, too much excitement. Try as you will, you get behind in the race in spite of yourself. There is an incessant strain to keep pace and still you lose ground. Science empties all of its discoveries on us so fast that you stagger beneath them in hopeless bewilderment. The political world is news seen so rapidly that you are out of breath trying to keep pace with who is in and who is out. Everything is high pressure and human nature cannot endure much more."
That is pretty accurate, is it not? Here is the catch: that was June 16, 1833.
Here is my point. If you want to be too busy, you will be too busy. I understand there are exceptions and seasons of life — if you are in the jewelry business in mid-November through December, you are busy, and I get that. But that is the exception. If you are too busy, by and large it is your fault. You are the one who controls your schedule.
It makes me wonder why people would choose to live that way. It makes me wonder why you would run a child to Little League, then to music practice, then to band practice, then let him pick up a guitar, then he hears something in a store and now he wants to do gymnastics, and you are running and running and running. That is, in my humble opinion — and I may not fully understand your particular situation — foolish. You are the parent. Take control of that family.
I am not sure I have a verse for this, so feel free to email me the verses. But it makes no sense that God would give me something to do and not give me the time to do it. The problem is that life becomes busy with a lot of other things that do not matter, and you need to manage that. You are the one responsible for determining your schedule. There is no way that you are too busy to do all that God has given you to do, because He is not going to give you something to do and not give you the time to do it.
People Grow Best in a Small Group Setting
Here is another phrase that has been part of us from the very beginning: people grow best in a small group setting. I want to emphasize the word "setting," because it is not just about small groups — it is about a small group setting.
For example, last week I talked about money, and it struck a chord with many of you regarding debt and all that goes with it. What I did not do — and this is my fault — was point to the solutions available. For instance, here on campus we have Crown Ministry classes. The beauty of that format is that even though there is someone lecturing, you are in a small group environment at the same time. Most of you would say that the most significant moments of growth in your life came as a result of a one-on-one conversation or some sort of relational encounter that God was orchestrating in your life. For us, that happens through area ministry.
The Importance of Small Groups
Those small groups, those home groups, are so important. If you were to contact Steve Davis, who heads up the counseling ministry here at church, and ask him what the most common element is among the people who come to see him, I think he would say that one of the most frequently observable facts is that these people are not connected somewhere in the church. Even when someone comes to Steve and it is not a catastrophic moment — just some relational tweaking, something with the kids, or simply needing a few dings knocked out without being torn down and rebuilt — the way to live that out, so you are not back in his office, is through a small group.
In a small group, you are living life with one another. You have, hopefully, a trained leader who can observe what is happening and come alongside you. You can watch marriages work, see relationships function well, and see your own personality operate in an environment where people love and care for you. Because those relationships exist, someone can say, "You know what, pal, you are really off base here — but this part is really good, let's build on that." You need those kinds of expressions in your life.
People grow best in a small group setting. There are exceptions, because some of you may be serving in student ministries or other areas of the church. But by and large, the large majority of you should be in small groups within an area ministry. That is the best way for us to minister to you — and for you to minister to the people around you. You are going to grow deep in those relationships.
When I saw those guys over there laughing and kidding around, I noticed they have decided to go to church together. They cannot get enough of each other all week, so now they are going to church together and debriefing what they are learning. They were so excited because they are seeing these things work out in their lives. Several of them have tried to go it alone, and you simply cannot do it.
The Bible as a Foundation of Who We Are
In front of you is 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16. For us at East Valley Bible Church, even within our name, a key part of who we are is the Bible. When we sat down to name the church, we were not very creative, so we said: we are in the East Valley, we teach the Bible, and we are a fellowship — that is what we will call it. The Bible is not just something we put on a sign or a card. It is critical to us, because this is God's Word.
Phrases you would hear if you hang around here include these: a timeless God does not produce dated material. We study the Word of God so that we would know the God of the Word. Our heart's desire is to know Him, and the way to know Him is to study His Word. This Bible is not just another book. If you wandered over to Barnes and Noble today, there are thousands upon thousands of titles on those shelves, and among all of them, the unique book — because it is written not by some human being but by God Himself — is the Bible.
"All Scripture," this Word, is inspired by God. It is God-breathed. And it is profitable, as you see listed there: for teaching, which is the content and instruction we look at; for reproof, which is seeing what is wrong in our behavior, understanding, or belief; for correction, which is how to be restored — the only time that word appears in the New Testament, meaning to restore something to its right position; and for training, which is instruction. We have put it this way around here: the Bible tells us what is right — teaching. What is not right — reproof. How to get right — correction. How to stay right — training in righteousness.
Knowing God Through His Word
If I want to understand who God is, this is the only way I am possibly going to understand Him. R.C. Sproul writes, "If you wish to know God, you must know His Word. If you wish to perceive His power, you must see how He works by His Word. If you wish to know His purpose before it comes to pass, you can only discover it by His Word." It is His Word that allows us to understand God and who He is.
So we do not have to speculate what God is like. We do not have to wonder, we do not have to guess, we do not have to say, "I think." We understand that God is an objective, not a subject, of truth — that He simply is. This is the way God is, whether you believe it or not, and your belief does not change it. He is a God of grace and justice and mercy and wrath and judgment. He is a God who makes the deaf and the mute and the blind. He is the God who says, "I am the author of prosperity and I am the author of adversity." He is who He is, and we come to understand that by studying the Word.
I have not read from this particular book in a while, yet you can see all the tabs and markings as we pull quotes from it and work through it. The book is Louis Giglio's *I Am Not, But I Know I Am*. What he is saying is: I am not, but I do know the I Am. There is a wonderful section where he discusses Moses — the same idea we see in Isaiah 6 — reflecting on what happens after God reveals Himself to Moses. Giglio writes that God is telling Moses: I am the center of everything, I am running the show, I am the same every day forever, I am the owner of everything, I am the Lord, I am the creator and sustainer of life, I am more than enough, I am inexhaustible, immeasurable — I am God.
How do I know that? How do I know He holds it all together? How do I know He is not some distant, removed, disconnected God? Because this Bible tells me that He is intimately involved in every detail of our lives.
The Bible Tells Us About Ourselves
God is sovereign over every detail of every life. On this planet and in this universe, there is no maverick molecule that could usurp or upset His plan. He is in absolute control. So not only does the Bible tell me about God — and this is really important — but it tells me about me. Because the minute Moses understands "I AM," again from the pen of Louie Giglio, Moses understands that he himself is not. He is not the center of everything, not in control, not the solution, not all-powerful, not calling the shots, not the owner of anything, not the Lord.
Giglio goes to the next step and connects it to us, saying what was true for Moses is true for you and me. Our name is "I am not." I am not running anything, not the head of anything, not in charge of anything, not the maker, not the Savior, not holding it all together, not all-knowing, not God. The Bible is pretty clear: we are not much. But we who are nothing can be something when we know Him who is everything.
The Authority and Sufficiency of Scripture
How do we know all these things? How can anyone speak with such certainty about God and man and sin and salvation and heaven? Because the Bible says it. Over a hundred years ago, J.C. Ryle penned these words:
> "The Bible contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, the happiness of believers. Its doctrine is holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, its decisions immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler's map, the pilgrim's staff, the pilot's compass, the soldier's sword, the Christian's charter. Christ is its grand subject, our good its design, the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart, guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently, prayerfully. It is a mine of wealth, health to the soul, a river of pleasure."
And a little later, Ryle writes that anyone who comes to the Bible with a primary purpose of gaining knowledge about theology misses its message. We must come with the purpose of understanding ourselves better so that we know God better.
Life's Greatest Questions Answered
A way we would express this is that life for us is an open book test, and here is the book. We know the questions — they come to anyone. Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? What is the meaning of life? What is the purpose? Why is there suffering? All of these questions are answered right here. Why is the world the way it is?
Why would somebody subject themselves to the lure of drugs when they know it is going to cost them everything? Why would some athlete flush their career for this? Why would a movie star, a singer, a performer walk away and flush it all? Why would a man who appears so happy walk away from his whole family to the lure of sex? Why does somebody who has plenty of money risk it all to get more? Why do families fight in such a way that brothers and sisters who share a chain of DNA and a mom and a dad will not even talk to each other? Why do people indiscriminately kill? Why are people sick? Why do people die?
I will never be able to answer those questions without going to Genesis 3. Without it, I will always come up short. My conclusions will always be driven by a study from Stanford or Harvard or somewhere that tells me man is basically good and that our problem is socio-economic, political, educational, or monetary. I will never truly understand. Why do we continue to define the American dream — and therefore life itself — as the accumulation of stuff? Political candidates talk about the American dream and how everybody deserves a house and an education, but that is not the essence of life. The essence of life is knowing Christ. You never get there without Scripture.
That is why we study it — not just to know Him, though that is vitally important, but to know ourselves and to navigate our way through the world. In Revelation 22:18, Jesus gives a warning: do not add to or take away from this book.
The Danger of Adding To or Taking Away
Let me add this parenthetically, because there are a couple of things I really want to make sure we address here. We have the "adders to" pretty well figured out. If you are watching an advertisement and someone in some idyllic little setting says, "You have the Bible, but you need another testament of Jesus" — you cannot make it any simpler than that. Another testament. That is an adder to, and we recognize it.
The take-awayers, however, are a little more difficult. Here is how it can happen. You are sitting with someone and they say, "Why would a God of love create someone and then send him to hell?" I could counter by asking, "Why would a God of wrath and judgment send anybody to heaven?" In both instances, I have essentially edited who God is. He is not just a God of love — He is also a God of judgment and wrath. He is a righteous God who deals in judgment, but also in grace and mercy. If I edit Him down, if I take away part of who He is and fail to understand the whole counsel of God, I am going to be left with a distorted view of God and who He is. The full Word keeps us on track.
The Practical Power of Scripture
Here is one more thing — and it is wonderfully practical. This Word is so practical for living. Consider George Washington Carver. He was a man born around 1860 — the exact date is uncertain. He was born into a slave family, and because he was a sickly boy, they never put him out in the fields to work...
What You Know Trumps What You Feel
George Washington Carver was raised around the house by the family that had owned his mother, and he developed an incredible love for plants. He went on to become the first African-American to graduate from Iowa State University, a brilliant man whose life's work centered on a single plant: the peanut. Over his lifetime he developed 325 products from the peanut, something like another 180 from the sweet potato, and scores of others. He was so gifted as a chemist that both Thomas Edison and Henry Ford tried to hire him in the teens and early twenties, offering six-figure salaries back when six figures truly mattered.
In 1921 the government called him in to testify before a Senate subcommittee to pick his brain. Let me read you just a little bit of the transcript. A senator asked him, "How did you learn all these things?" Carver replied, "From an old book." The senator asked, "What book?" Carver answered, "The Bible." The senator pressed him: "Does the Bible teach about peanuts?" And Carver said, "No sir, but it tells me about the God who made the peanut, and I asked Him what to do with it, and He showed me, and I did."
If that was true of Carver and the peanut, how much more true is it of your life? I don't know what to do with this husband, wife, kid, or job. I don't know what to do with my life. The Bible tells me about the God who made me, so I am going to ask Him to show me what to do with me, and He will do it. The Bible gives me principles for this. This is why we study it — not so we become some arrogant pinhead who can go out and argue with all of our friends. That is not winsome, it puffs you up, and it wins no arguments. The Bible is clearly at the core of what we are about.
Exulting in Tribulation: Romans 5
Here is a phrase that runs deep into the waters of East Valley Bible Church, and it is a practical application of our study of God: what you know trumps what you feel. I was talking to a man this morning and he was describing a situation from this week. He said he cannot tell you how often he goes back to that phrase — what you know trumps what you feel. We did not simply make that up.
Turn to Romans chapter 5. Verse 1: "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." We have been justified — He has declared us righteous, we have peace with God, that relationship has been restored, we have been reconciled. Verse 3: "Not only all this, but we exalt in our tribulation." How can that be? We know that tribulation brings about perseverance, perseverance proven character, proven character hope. Verse 6: "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." We are saved. Christ demonstrates His love for us in that while we yet sinners, Christ died for us. That is how we know God loves us — while we hated God, God loved us and sent Jesus to die for us.
Now He places us into this life, and into this life comes all sorts of tribulation, suffering, pain, and hardship. You are not immune from these things.
Various Trials: James 1
Turn almost to the back of the book, to the book of James, chapter 1. James is writing to the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. There was probably a great deal of suffering in their lives — they were dispersed perhaps out of obedience in evangelism, because of persecution, or simply for survival. He greets them and then look at verse 2: "Consider it all joy when you encounter various trials." That is the opening salvo. Consider it all joy — and note that he says *when* you encounter these trials, not *if*. They are inevitable, multicolored, multishaped, and different for everybody.
Peter says it this way in 1 Peter 4:12: "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeals among you, which have come upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you." We say this all the time — just because I am a follower of Christ does not mean my path is going to be strewn with roses. But when adversity comes, somehow we ask, "Why is He doing that? God, I would have understood if You had done this five years ago, back when I wasn't so good. But look at how good I've been lately." He is loving you, and He has a purpose in this.
James 1:2-3: "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance." I know something. What do I know? I know the testing of my faith produces endurance. And then in verse 5 he says that if anyone lacks wisdom, all they have to do is ask.
We will say that all the time — we will be in some sort of meeting, talking about budget, talking about leadership, whatever it is, and we will say, "God, You tell us; if we ask wisdom, all we have to do is ask." That is true, but the context here is really wisdom in the midst of suffering and pain. God, I understand there is suffering and pain and hardship, and though I may not know exactly what You are doing, I know You are at work.
What We Know Trumps What We Feel
I know You didn't blink. I know this is part of Your plan. I know You are the cause that allowed it. I know You are in control, and I know that ultimately it will strengthen me. I saw a bumper sticker once that said the Christian life is not a sprint, it's a marathon. So I need endurance, and this is how you get it — spiritual aerobics. That is what suffering is. So, God, thank you.
What I know trumps what I feel. In the middle of hardship I can ask, "Where is God? Has He abandoned me? Has He left me? What is wrong?" It is profitable to examine my life in the midst of hardship and pain, but that does not necessarily mean God is dealing with some specific sin in my life. We know we can have suffering, pain, and sickness as a result of our sin — we make bad decisions, and God does not cancel the consequences even when He forgives us. But what Paul is talking about here is suffering, pain, and hardship in a broader sense: why exalt in tribulation, why rejoice in the midst of trials? Because I know He is working out His good pleasure.
Romans 8:28 — All of God, Not Just Part
Now back to Romans — I should have told you to mark that. Back to Romans chapter 8. I want to camp on this because it will be a key part of what we look at over the next however many weeks. Chapter 8, verse 28 is a verse that a whole bunch of you could quote, and I have done this in a thousand different settings. Before we turn there, I want to make sure you have it in front of you.
Most often when I do this, I will say, "Quote Romans 8:28," and somebody will say, "God causes all things to work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose." While that part of it is accurate, that is not what the verse says in its totality. If I read the verse that way — that He causes all things to work together for good — it seems to me the verse becomes more about me and Him working things together for good.
The verse actually says, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." This is a real fact, not speculation. We know God is at work. For that verse to be true, God must be all-knowing and all-powerful, or the verse cannot be true.
So in the midst of my life there is all this junk. Some of you have these situations, and the longer you lived apart from Christ before He saved you, the more likely it is that your life is filled with all this stuff. And yet God says, "I gave you that awful past — those broken relationships, maybe that divorce, maybe that abandonment by a parent, that excruciatingly unsettling economic situation — all for a reason, for your own good." He will cause it all to work together for good. That does not necessarily mean He will get you out of the circumstance, but it means He will climb in there with you, and when people look at you they are going to see something supernatural working in there with you.
What We Actually Need
I need to know this. I do not need another poster with a picture of a cat that says "Hang in there." I say "hang in there" to people all the time, and I walk away thinking, "Well, that was helpful." Their fingernails are weakening at that very moment, and that is all I had to offer.
The Unbreakable Chain of Romans 8
What begins this whole discussion is what Paul says about the chain God has established. God foreknew us, He predestined us, He called us, He justified us, and He glorified us. All along the way He continued it. He began this good work and He will not walk away from it. It is all of Him.
That leads Paul to this wonderful question in verse 31: "If God is for us, who can be against us?" The answer is that a whole bunch of people can be against us — but they cannot exert ultimate force on us, because He who is in us is stronger than they are. Then Paul asks in verse 35, "Who will separate us from the love of Christ?" You all know the answer from verses 36 through 39: nothing. No created thing. Nothing can separate me from His love, because He accomplished it.
The only way I am going to know that is from His Word. So I need a transformed heart and an informed mind in order to begin to live this radical life.
Honestly Addressing Our Weaknesses
I have kept the last few minutes for weaknesses, and you may think this is strange — given all the strengths we have discussed, surely we must not be taking the weaknesses seriously. We are taking them seriously, and we are in the process of trying to address them.
I have heard for a long time that if you are a hurting person, East Valley Bible Church might not be a place for you. I meet all sorts of people who would say that is not true, but those responses are anecdotal — and frankly, so is the criticism. By and large, though, I believe it has been a legitimate one: if you have it together, this is a great place to be.
If we take seriously the idea that the church is a hospital for the spiritually hurting, then what we need — staff, leaders, all of us — is to be doctors and nurses. More often, however, we have been judges and prosecuting attorneys: "Why are you this way? You are all screwed up." That imbalance is real.
Let me read it to you. In his last words to Timothy, Paul writes: "I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, preach the Word…"
The Weakness of Prayer
Here is a weakness I have heard identified, and I will tell you honestly — it is a weakness in my own life. It makes sense that it would be a weakness in the people around me who are looking to me for leadership, and therefore a weakness here as well. So I work consciously on that. Internally, at our staff meetings, for example, what used to be very much a business meeting is now a prayer meeting.
Our challenge right now is trying to bring that same element into our corporate gatherings here. I will tell you honestly, and I do not mean this harshly — you have made it very difficult. As we have tried to approach corporate prayer on many occasions, it lights up the emails. There is a lot of complaining: "I don't want to pray with somebody I don't know." That is interesting — you are going to spend eternity with them, but you do not want to pray with them. But it is not your fault; it is our fault, and we are addressing that.
Grace as a Journey
Grace is a journey — that is something of what I was touching on before. We need not just grace for salvation, but grace for living. What does His grace toward us look like, and what does our grace toward each other look like?
Community Influence and Evangelism
We need to be a really significant influence in our community. This is just my observation, and I am not saying it is definitive, but that desire seems to be driven more by the younger people in our church. They are saying, "Wait a minute — we have hungry people here, we have needy people here."
The most dangerous and needy zip code in all of Maricopa County is just a couple of drivers, a three-wood, and a wedge away from where we sit. God has placed us here — He is sovereign. He sovereignly put us here, and He sovereignly put that community there. I wonder if there is any connection. We took a significant step this summer in having the mayors on campus and talking about the city, and I have a meeting coming up with one of the mayors to discuss how we can work together. Don and Mayor Chandler have been wonderful to work with in exploring how we can be part of what is going on in that community.
The Indictment of Empty Paper
Lastly — and this is rather striking — there is the matter of evangelism. We talk about Changed Lives and we talk about evangelism in everyday life. I want to walk you through an exercise in your mind. Imagine pulling out a piece of paper and a pen, and writing down every person with whom you have an ongoing relationship and therefore ongoing discussion about Jesus Christ — people who do not yet share your faith.
My sense is that we would have a whole lot of empty paper. That is an indictment. I want to personalize it rather than speak of us collectively, not because I think there is no shared guilt, but because if I frame it that way, you will offload it onto someone else. This is an indictment of you. That is to your shame.
Consider this. If you go to a movie this afternoon and it is a great film, you cannot stop talking about it all week long with everyone you meet — even strangers. You will be standing in line at a coffee shop the next morning, and when someone asks what you did over the weekend, you will say, "I saw this movie. You should see this movie. It is the greatest movie I have ever seen." And it is just a movie.
Jesus Christ is the creator God of the universe who sent His Son to die so that you could have eternal life — life you did not deserve. In spite of you, He saved you. And you do not want to talk to people about that?
The Lesson of Susan's Cancer
Let me give you one more moment on this. When Susan got cancer, our email was filled and our house was filled with juices and juicers and all manner of things that had worked for people. I am not minimizing that at all — you love us, and we appreciate it deeply. People were reaching out because they had something that they believed had helped them, and they wanted to share it with us.
But think about what that illustrates. You have something infinitely greater than a remedy for cancer. And let us say God heals Susan completely — do you understand that she is still going to die from something one day? What you have in Jesus Christ addresses not just illness, but eternity. If people will eagerly share what worked for them physically, how much more should we be sharing the One who offers eternal life?
The Church's Greatest Weakness
If the cancer doesn't get her, something else is going to get her. So whatever remedy you give her, it only works temporarily. And yet, the permanent thing that Susan and everyone else needs is a new heart that comes only through Jesus. But I'll send someone information about a juicer when I don't even know them, and I won't tell them about Christ. There's a gap there somewhere, and you have to ask yourself why.
Here is what I think. I don't think we care about lost people. I don't think we care. Because if you cared, you couldn't keep it to yourself. Those are some of our weaknesses, and we have to look at them honestly, and build on the good things we have.
The Healthiest Season in Our Church's History
I will tell you this — and I've said it in the past, and people have taken issue with it. I've been around this place since it started, and I probably know as much about this place as any singular person. Beyond the shadow of a doubt, looking back across seventeen or eighteen years, this right now is the healthiest this church has ever been. It isn't even close.
The leadership team is the healthiest it's ever been. The staff is the healthiest it's ever been. The elder board is the healthiest it's ever been. I don't think we could have these conversations if there wasn't a health there.
I tell people all the time at Connect Classes: if you're coming to East Valley Bible Church, you've come at a great time, because we are getting healthy, healthier, and healthier still.
What God Is Preparing to Do
This is pure speculation on my part, but I believe the reason for this health is that God is getting ready to do something really special — because He's going to do something special in us first. If we want God to do something special out there, He isn't going to do anything special out there until He fixes you, me, we, us. But something is going on. Something is happening. That's the DNA. Something's happening.
Father, don't let it be theory. Get it in our hearts. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.