Yet Not I But Christ Habbakuk 2:1-3, Galatians 2:20

Yet Not I But Christ Habbakuk 2:1-3, Galatians 2:20

Have you ever had a moment where an idea, a sense of reality, or the awareness of something just jumped out at you? Its like a light bulb just comes on. Sometimes for me its what I call a “Duh” moment. Some of you never have a “DUH” moment. But I have a lot of those. Those are the times when I am staring at something obvious. It might make sense to others, but not to me- I guess I’m a little slow like that. I’m the kind of guy that when somebody cracks a joke, I might not get it at first and then later on, after the joke teller has moved on to something else, I start snickering and giggling because I finally understood what it meant. This week I had one of those “Duh” moments. As I was in my devotional time this week, a Scripture leaped off the page and very nearly hit me right between the eyes. I mean, it wasn’t one of those obscure passages like you would find in Zephaniah, etc. It was in Galatians 2:20 where I was reading “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives within me.” Look at the last phrase of what I just read to you: “Yet not I, but Christ.”

I. Its Been an Exciting Year: “Yet Not I, But Christ” Galatians 2:20

Alright, let me bring you up to speed. I had been reflecting upon what God did in our church this past year. It was a fantastic year. You already saw some of the highlights in the slide presentation, and I know I can’t highlight everything. But for starters, God enabled us to baptized 19 people as a result of our VBS. We’ve been averaging in the 90s for Sunday School the last couple of months, God prepared us to do something great during the revival in September, and one person surrendered to the ministry. Then, the first part of November, this church launched off in one of the greatest acts of faith this church has done in probably 50 years. Build a new living quarters for your pastor, and then raise $50,000 (about $30 of that has already come in) on top of that- we surpassed the Lottie Moon Offering goal. Now here is where the Duh part comes in- who do you think did this? Did we do this? No- Christ did it. Yet not us, but Christ. That’s the point. Now friends when you think about it, all the church growth people said that what happened in the past year couldn’t happen. Think about it- we’re off a back road, 12 miles from any major population center- we are not even on a road where anyone else is going because it’s a dead end. Only God can do this. Now, God has showed us this for a reason. To show us that we had better fasten our seatbelts because I believe He is going to do something even greater in the next year. What if instead of 19 people saved, 40 or 50 people got saved? What would you think if instead of 95 in Sunday School, we started averaging 130? What if instead of 110 in worship it was 150? What if instead of $1500 it was $3000? Last year, we had 1 surrender to full time ministry. What if we had 5 do that this year? You say, that’s impossible. You are right, it would be impossible if we were doing it, but like Paul said before, yet not I, but Christ. Which is a theme I would like to propose as a theme for this calendar year. You see what is happening here is that God is multiplying His church.

First of all, let me say that I know there will always be those who do not like growth in the church. They may drive up and there’s no place to park except across the street. They come in and there’s no where to sit- at least not in the back where they like to sit. They try to get to the restroom between Sunday School and church and well, lets just say that they should have booked reservations! That’s because they treat the church as their church. They say, “This is my church!” I don’t think so. Last time I looked in Matthew 16, Jesus said, “And upon this rock I will build MY church.” Whose church is this anyway? We won’t have room for all these people- where are we going to put them? My friends, if this is Christ’s church, that’s up to Him where to put them. Ephesians 4 says that God has placed every member of the body into the church just as it has pleased Him. Acts 4:47 says “And the Lord added daily those who were being saved.” You have the idea. Philippians 4 tells us “It is God which works in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” You know this. He just tells us, if you get them here, I’ll find a place for them. Now I don’t know if by this time next year we have 40-50 saved- but if we saw half that amount it is still Christ doing it and not us. But at the same time, we must be available for God to use us and work in us. In other words, even though I said that it is Christ which works in us, that doesn’t mean that all we have to do is just show up here at church its all going to be done for us. That is the attitude of a lot of churches and then they wonder why their churches are crippled up and dying? Do you realize 30 out of 66 churches in this association did not baptize a single soul all last year? And many of those haven’t baptized anybody in several years. I actually went to a church a few months ago where they were using their baptistery to put fake flowers in! I didn’t say this, but I thought- if you fill this thing up with water instead of fake flowers you might get somebody in here.” And here we are, we don’t have the luxury of a baptistery and look what God is doing.

NOT I, BUT CHRIST! Those are powerful words that are going to guide our steps in this new year, focused us in our ministry endeavors, strengthened us when we felt like we couldn’t go on, and gave us hope when things seemed impossible. Those four simple words, from Galatians 2:20, are the words that will serve as our church motto. They will serve as rally cry as we seek to reach this community and the world with the Gospel.

II. If You Glorify Him, He will Come. John 12:32 We have just observed the fact that God has poured out into this church a lot of talent- especially in the way of worship resources. I mean, He has not only given us a lot of it, but He has given us the very best. May I ask you why is it do you suppose God has given us so many talented singer, musicians, choir members, music leaders, audio/visual and so on when there are some churches twice our size can’t even find somebody to play the piano every Sunday? We talked about this last Wednesday night. Because it is Christ that does it, and not we ourselves. Now, why is that. What makes Salem different? Because we have a group of people here at Salem Baptist Church who want to see God glorified, and Jesus Christ magnified. Jesus said, “And I even if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me.” It’s what this is all about. Glorify the Lord Jesus Christ and making Him known to people.

A movie that came out about ten years ago illustrates my point. It was called Field of Dreams. The main character, played by actor Kevin Costner, decided to buy a farm way out in the middle of Iowa somewhere, and when he did, he had a vision underscored by this one phrase which was used throughout the entire movie: if you build it, they will come!” What it was referring to was directing the main character to plow under his cornfield and erect a big baseball field right there in the middle of nowhere. It wasn’t even owned by a team. But when he did, despite the people around him questioning him and making fun of him about why he would spend so much money and time and effort doing such a thing, the ghosts of baseball players from decades past showed up and started playing- including the character’s own father.

When we give the Lord our best and act in faith, He will show up. He will come when we lift Him up. That’s why we don’t settle for being comfortable, because the more we do that, the more we lose our edge. We become complacent. We quit visiting, we stop witnessing, we let work and a thousand other things crowd out our service. Before long, we become mediocre- just rolling through the motions. And when we roll through the motions in our worship, it will reflect itself in the quality of our service to the Lord. When we don’t show people the Lord in our worship, and do not glorify Him, and don’t show a lot of enthusiasm to find Him- just get in, get through it, and get out fast, our worship becomes about as appetizing to Christ as a bucket of lukewarm saliva. That’s right. I know that doesn’t sound very appetizing, but that’s what Jesus said about a certain church in Revelation “I would that you were either cold or hot…I will spew thee out of my mouth!” Rev. 3:16

Friends let me tell you what, when we make it about Him, and not us, why its like moths drawn to a flame. It creates a passion, a burning fire within us! There is something about fire that gets people’s attention. If there’s a house burning down, or a field on fire, you will have more people there than the fire department, I can tell you that! People are curious. They want to know where’s the fire and who did it happen to? Now that’s not usually a nice thing to happen to somebody. But friends, when we are full of the fire of Jesus Christ, full of the fire of the holy spirit, full of the fire of God- people are going to come out to find out what’s going on! What’s more, they’re going to come out to watch us burn! fan into flame the gift of God that is in you" II Timothy 1:6. God has ignited a spark here in this church caused by His Holy Spirit. But its up to us to fan that spark into a flame of passion and enthusiasm. Passion is important. Do you have Christ’s passion in your blood, pulsing through your veins and coursing from your heart? You don’t have to be jumping over the pews and speaking in tongues to demonstrate that kind of passion, but on the other hand its not going to happen sitting there like a bump on a log, either. Vance Havner used to say that it would amaze him how the same bunch of people could go to a ball game on a Saturday and scream like a bunch of banshee Indians and then come to church on Sunday and sit like a bunch of wooden Indians!

However, the difficult route, the difficult choice, would have been to strengthen our resolve and decide that God is not done with us yet. To stand up, shoulder to shoulder, claiming the promises of Scripture and the protection of the Savior and march forward. That was the difficult choice, but it was the right choice, and it’s the one we all chose.

Not I, But Christ! Four words that have galvanized our spirits and have helped us to see the impact that each of us could make when we put our total dependence in Christ. That’s who is, that’s who we are, and that’s who we will continue to be in the years to come.

III. How to Start the Fire Hab. 2:1 -3 (read) In other words, these things I plan won’t happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed. IT will come, and in the coming year God will show us greater and more wonderful things than we have known in years past if we will keep focusing on Christ- keep Him the main thing. A fire doesn’t just happen. When you build a fire, one that you want to last a while you got to start out slowly. Because the quicker you build it, the quicker it will go out. When I was a teenager my grandmother asked to take her trash to the burn barrel and set fire to it, and dispose of it. The problem was, the barrel and some of the old trash in it was damp from rainfall the night. So I poured about 3 gallons of gasoline on it, stood back, and lit a match. The fumes from the gas ignited as soon as I touched off the flame, resulting in a huge explosion that caused the contents of the burn barrel to go roaring and flaming up to about 50 feet in the air. I don’t know how I kept from getting hurt. My baseball cap that I wore also went up in the torrent when the blast knocked me on my behind. And, almost as quickly, the fire was out, at least in the barrel. I was lucky nothing else caught fire. That’s not how to build a fire, friends. You build it a stick at a time, and then throw logs on and then bigger ones, etc.

We have an exciting year ahead of us. Let’s add to the fire God has sparked in us. We can’t add too much or we’ll burn it out, but we don’t want to douse it out with a bucket of water, either. Let’s continue to lift up and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s continue to remember ultimately that it is not us who is doing it, but Christ. God has sparked a flame here at Salem Baptist Church. Let’s do all we can, within His will, and by His grace, to fan that spark into a mighty flame that will draw all men unto Him.