Philippians 1:3-6
3 I thank my God every time I remember you.4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now,6 being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
2 Peter 3:18
18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
Philippians 1:3-6; 2 Peter 3:18 “WHAT NEXT GOD”?
190th ANNIVERSARY of SPRINGFORD BAPTIST CHURCH
October 2, 2022.
Think with me this morning how many times the people who first formed this church 190 years ago back in 1832, a group of sincere believers in Jesus, asked the question, “What next”? As they felt the need to gather together to be encouraged and built up in their faith, they knew they needed God and they needed each other. They turned to God to guide them and to help them in living their every day lives. They looked to God in the hard times and in the times of blessing. Step by step, they kept asking, “WHAT NEXT GOD”? God led these believers to meet together and eventually to build a church.
When have you asked “What next”?
Sometimes it will be when one thing after another has gone wrong and in exasperation you wonder aloud, “What next”? What else could possibly happen that will add yet another complication and heartache to my life?
Sometimes it will be the natural question when you are working on something and wonder what to do next as you move toward completion. It could be a school project; something you are baking; something you are making or fixing; or it could be cleaning out a closet. We accomplish important tasks when we keep asking, What next”?
Hear with me this morning that the whole matter of asking “What next”? changes when we ask “WHAT NEXT GOD”?
Up until that point we are thinking about what we want to happen and we are focused on what we are trying to accomplish. It is certainly important and necessary for us to consider “What next”? It could be that asking “What next”? will lead to a significant life adjustment like changing a job or moving.
As long as we confine “What next”? to our plans and our hopes and dreams, we have not included God and what His plans could be.
We read in the Scripture from Philippians 1:6, “6 being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
This confirms that God has begun His work in each of us as individuals and as a church, a church family. It is a good work that God wants to see carried on until completion. This can happen as we keep turning to Him and asking, “WHAT NEXT GOD”?
We can learn from looking back, where those who have been part of this church over the years have been taken by asking, “WHAT NEXT GOD”? They prayed and God showed them the “WHAT NEXT”? He had for them.
We should not expect in the life of our church that God will take us back to the way things used to be. God needs us to be willing to keep moving forward in answering the question, “WHAT NEXT GOD”?
This requires our willingness as individuals and as a church to respond to what God guides us to be and to do for Him.
Obviously, if we ask the question but do nothing to move in the direction that God wants us to go, we are stalled. As the saying goes,“You can’t steer a parked car”. The work of God is not being carried on to completion when we do not act on His answers to, “WHAT NEXT GOD”?
Today, on the 190th Anniversary of Springford Baptist Church, we can be encouraged through the final verse of 2 Peter 3. In verse 18 as he sums up what needs to happen when Christians seek God and want to follow His way for them, when they want to know the answer to “WHAT NEXT GOD”?, Peter writes, 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever!
It will only be as we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that we will want to know the answer to “WHAT NEXT GOD”? It is only as we grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that we act on the answers that he gives us to the question, “WHAT NEXT GOD”?
God began a good work through this church 190 years ago. God continues His good work through us. What will this mean for us and the communities around us?
I came across something that someone has written reflecting the struggle to be God’s church today and to keep on with the work that He has for us to complete. Here it is:
“Sometimes I think a church is a bit like a gas station on a lonely country road. You can drive by for years and never notice it. Then one night, perhaps late, running out of gas or with something going wrong, you see the lights and pull in. It’s there when you need it because someone left the lights on and kept the door open…. There are a lot of small congregations out there and a lot of faithful people keeping the lights on and doing faithful ministry… and wondering if what they are doing matters. I want to say to them that their labour is not in vain. Hold on a bit, I want to say, and see what might happen….
“These are hard times for churches… And yet, every day, churches … get up and plot the resurrection. They help their neighbours. They comfort the grieving, they visit the sick, they laugh and rejoice together, and they pick one another up when they fall. They keep the faith when all seems lost. The question is, will churches choose to live? Or will they look at the numbers and say “Why bother”? I hope they choose the former. I fear they may choose the latter. But the time for a choice has come. Things can no longer go on the way they are. If people choose to give up, we will all be the poorer for it. Or they could choose a better way and open themselves up to whatever God might have in store.”
I want to say that the only way we will know what God has in store is to come to Him asking, “WHAT NEXT GOD”? And as God reveals what it means for us to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus, there is potential for people who are running on empty to see the lights on and to come to find for themselves what it means to discover Jesus as Saviour. They can then be filled with His everlasting love and grace.
PRAYER: Oh God, please give each of us courage to ask, “WHAT NEXT GOD”? and to act on whatever you say to us in reply!