Love Loud Through The Great Commission

“Little children, we must not love in word or speech, but in deed and truth.” (I John 3:18)

This week we (Jerry, Zack, Jay and me) are attending the Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando, Florida. This year’s convention theme “Love Loud Through The Great Commission” will be what some are calling a watershed moment in the life of our Southern Baptist Convention as the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force final report is presented for adoption Tuesday afternoon by chairman Ronnie Floyd, pastor from Arkansas.

I know the report has given birth to more debate and opinion than perhaps anything else in Baptist life for about two decades. I also recognize that much is at stake. I must confess that I have never delved in convention politics over the years. The demands of both a growing home life and a busy pastorate have held me captive for many years. I do believe it is time for my church to step up to the plate, but not necessarily in terms of heavy convention activity. We already do that in many respects. I currently serve on the Alabama State Board of Missions and our church is a major financial contributor to Southern Baptist life.

It is time for our church to step up to the plate in terms of the greatest need facing Southern Baptists. The greatest thing at stake, more than any denominational change that may come as a result of the GCR task force vote of the messengers, is the lostness in our nation and in our world. The fact remains: we are not impacting lostness in a way that elevates the glory of God. The statistics reveal that we are in fact losing ground while having more resources and more missionaries than ever before.

For example, in 1972 we baptized 140,000 teenagers as compared to 75,000 in 2008. In 2008 we baptized 33,000 less than we did in 1950, and we have more churches, more people, and more resources than we did in 1950. Consider these facts:

• 7 billion human inhabitants living on planet earth.
• 1 billion are believing Christians.
• 6 billion people are lost.
• 3.5 billion have never heard the Gospel.

Is it hard for you to imagine that there are still some 6000 people groups around the world that have never heard the Gospel in their language? These facts have gripped my heart, and I want to lead my church to step to the plate in a way we never have before.

So, l will listen prayerfully as the report is shared and as the debate ensues. I ask you to pray fervently for God’s Spirit to fall over the messengers in Orlando. I ask you to pray that in the midst of our debate, these facts will not be lost in the crowd. In fact, I am praying that a great spiritual awakening will occur as we confess all things that we have allowed to divert our attention away from the Great Commission. May God be glorified as our beloved convention “Loves Loud Through The Great Commission!”

Derek

Stirring the Waters

“I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.” (Revelation 3: 8)

Last week I was blessed to observe my Aunt Leslie’s baptism at Newton Springs Baptist Church (my home church). What an incredible worship experience of worship and praise. My aunt came to faith in Christ about 10 days earlier when my brother had an opportunity to share his story and then walk my aunt through the gospel message of personal salvation in Jesus Christ. Last Wednesday that little country church was filled with family and friends visibly seeing the outward evidence of an inward transformation. Man it was mega-awesome!

I was reminded on the drive home from Kentucky just how significant that little church has been – and still is – to the Kingdom. The impact of Newton Springs’ ministry is felt every time I have the privilege to stand and declare the precious Gospel message. You see, Newton Springs Baptist Church, led by Pastor Eddie Harpole, is not simply a small building on a hill in the country. The church is a group of people with great faith in a BIG GOD. That’s why I am so thrilled to hear all that God is doing there.Those who believe in a big God are those who do great things for God. He delights in taking ordinary people and doing extraordinary things through them. Is there an ambition in your heart to know God and do something great for Him? Every Christian should want his or her life to count for eternity. The key is to possess a high view of God.

The size of our God determines the impact of our lives. Churches with a big God conduct extraordinary ministry. That’s the lesson of the church in Philadelphia. They ministered in one of the smallest of the seven cities, and yet the believers there had the greatest opportunity for ministry before them. Why? Because they had the biggest God. Possess great faith in a Big God! You never know what doors God may open…

One Sunday as they drove home from church, a little girl turned to her mother and said, "Mommy, there’s something about the preacher’s message this morning that I don’t understand." The mother said, "Oh? What is it?" The little girl replied, "Well, he said that God is bigger than we are. He said God is so big that He could hold the world in His hand. Is that true?" The mother replied, "Yes, that’s true, honey." "But Mommy, he also said that God comes to live inside of us when we believe in Jesus as our Savior. Is that true, too?" Again, the mother assured the little girl that what the pastor had said was true. With a puzzled look on her face the little girl then asked, "If God is bigger than us and He lives in us, wouldn’t He show through?"

The church at Philadelphia was faithful to God with what they had. And God opened doors for them which led to greater ministry opportunities. God is opening doors of greater ministry at Newton Springs Baptist Church – not because of their location or their size – but because of their faithfulness!

I Cor. 16: 9 “For a wide door for effective service was opened to me…”

II Cor. 2: 12 “Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ and a door was opened for me in the Lord.”

Col. 4: 3 “Praying at the same time for us as well, that God may open to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ.”

Blessed!

Derek

Saved and Livin' Loud

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” (Ezekiel 36: 26-27)

A little boy just got saved and sat on a bench next to an old man who looked upset. The little boy said to the man, “Sir, do you need to get saved?” The little boy’s question startled the old man for a moment. He abruptly said, “I’ll have you know that I have been a deacon in the church for over thirty years and chairman of the deacons for fifteen years.” The little boy responded, “Sir, it doesn’t matter what you have done, Jesus loves you and He will still save you!”

Salvation is God bringing humans into a right relationship with Him and with one another through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are then saved from the consequences of our sin and are given eternal life. Christian salvation comes by God’s free mercy and love for others. Biblical salvation is “by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, so that no man can boast” (Eph. 2:8-9).

So, if we are saved and we know it, then we should SHOW it! A.W. Tozer wrote years ago, “We can prove our faith by our commitment to it and in no other way. Any belief that does not command the one who holds it is not a real belief - it is only a pseudo-belief. It might shock some of us profoundly if we were suddenly brought face-to-face with our beliefs and forced to test them in the fires of practical living.”

Live loud by boldly, in both word and deed, declaring your allegiance to the “author and perfecter of your faith” (Heb. 12:2). Let the fruit of your faith be evident for all the world to see. Let the joy of the Lord radiate throughout your life. Let the worship of Jesus Christ captivate your every thought as you begin a new week. You have been saved, redeemed, purchased with precious blood. Live Loud! After all, James declares, “Faith, by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:17).

Livin’ Loud,

Dr. Derek