When God takes a lot of paper and produces a person we've been looking for...sermon post too...Acts 4:23-37

 


This is the pile of paper and in the midst of those 94 resumes was the person that God wanted us to meet.  This stack represents a weekly meeting from late in February to last night, early in November.  It represents hours of listening to sermons, pouring over answers to doctrinal questions, and searching online connections.  Some moved on to different levels of engagement but one emerged to go through the whole process, #55.  His name is Zach Vaughn and he is the next pastor of the Machias Valley Baptist Church!

He will be arriving with his beautiful family in January and I will be leaving the great state of Maine.  His heart for God and the Bible is evident and his love for God's people displays that he has the heart of a pastor.  He is a team player and the relationships he has already built with the elders will go far to advance the progress that has already been implemented through the transition team, elder team, and the members of this church.  The IPM 5 stage process was followed and with a "boat load" of prayer, we see the finish line but also the starting line.


To go along with a new face in the pulpit is the new face to the front of the church.  This old structure needs continual attention but I am so thankful for the buildings that God gives us to gather to worship Him.  These four walls provide an established place in our community to hear the word of God.  

The sermon post covers Acts 4:23-37.  We see again the 4 pillars of the local church.  The church will gather for (1) prayer.  While praying to the Father, the focus is on praise or (2) worship of Him and all He has provided.  The gathered church is in unity or (3) fellowship with one another and the apostles are given more opportunities to testify or (4) teach the Word of God.  The by-product of these pillars is a service to one another so that "there was not a needy person among them."  These are the same 4 pillars we saw back in Acts 2:42-47.  In Acts 2 they came at the conclusion of Peter's great sermon of the risen Lord Jesus Christ on the Day of Pentecost.  This time these 4 pillars are coming on the heels of trials and persecutions.  The church doesn't divert away from them or modify them in some quieter fashion but rather embraces them all the more.  They do not pray for a place to bail but a voice of boldness.

Sermons like these make us question our reactions to trials and persecutions.  Do we draw nearer or fade away?  I ask some questions at the end about our commitment to this local body of believers.  How do we increase our commitment now while the trials are still just trials and have yet to turn into persecutions?  Will we pray to the Father, praise the Father, ponder the Father's words, proclaim the Father's redemption plan, and press forward with the Father's presence?  All is said by me with the encouragement to the church to see why God has put us together in His family.  Each brother and sister is to be known and loved so that they can flourish and use their gift in what we call the local church.  

Adam







A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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