Celebration Sunday

Signed the project, and I was asked to organize a fundraising campaign in order to pay for it. Of course, we were asked to be the, the people who would kind of head committees, and, of course, Dave went about finding other people to help him, and I went about finding people to help me. In the spring of this year, 1997, brother Roberts got final approval for the from the elders for his plans, and I launched a $500,000 fundraising drive that you see here to God build the glory. When I say I, myself, and the, the individuals on the finance committee yeah. You can give me that.

Individuals on the finance committee and the individuals who are team leaders and so on and so forth. Thank you. So on and so forth, we went ahead and began this this program. We are now 2 years after the first discussion. You realize 2 years ago, we had our first discussion, and we are now ready for 2 things to happen.

First of all, we are on the verge of assigning contracts to begin construction. There's still some things, paperwork to do and so on and so forth, but we're very close to begin assigning to subcontractors to begin the actual physical work. And the second thing is, today, I will be revealing to you the amount that the church has either pledged or given so far in our to god build the glory campaign, this campaign you see behind you. And all I can say at this time is this, brothers and sisters, we have a lot of things to celebrate today. A lot of things to celebrate.

And before I inform you of the amount of money, I know you wanna know. See, I don't even know. I'm not even gonna open this, because Peggy said, I'm not even gonna tell you. She's the one who was appointed by the elders to keep track of these funds and, you know, deposit the money in the bank account, so on and so forth. So I don't even know.

So I'm not even gonna peak. I'm not even gonna peak till till after. But before I peek at this and let you know, we'll get Steve up here to put the thermometer up, I'd like to review a few other reasons that we have to celebrate today. Today, August 17, 1997. First of all, we can celebrate our blessings.

You know, regardless of our personal circumstances, there is no denying that we are living through one of the most prosperous times in American history right now. I I mean, the economy is up, inflation and unemployment is down. There's plenty of whatever we need at reasonable prices. There is no war. I mean, there is no war.

Those of us, who are in my generation have not known a world war. Some of you have. Some of you have known war in the limited sense, Vietnam, for example, or the Gulf War, but we have not known a world war where we where our entire freedom and way of life was threatened. We've not known that. And as Christians, we also enjoy freedom to practice and promote our faith with very little restriction.

Compared to other nations and other periods in history, our generation is truly blessed. And I believe that even within this great nation, that we, right here in Oklahoma, are even more blessed because we live in a state where many other Christians live and many God fearers dwell, and this is reflected in our communities. This is reflected in our attitude. David the Psalmist said, blessed is the nation whose god is the lord. And even though America is becoming more secular and the Bible is being attacked from all sides, we need to remember that the USA is still the number one nation that produces and distributes bibles.

I mean, this is still the number one nation that cranks out more printed bibles than any other nation in the world in all of history, still today. The USA is still the number one nation that trains and sends missionaries to other parts of the country, other parts of the world and supports the work of the gospel in other nations. It is still the number one country that has Christians in government, where we have, congressmen and senators and high officials in every level of the government who confess their faith in Jesus Christ. You won't find that in Nigeria. You certainly won't find that in China or in Cambodia.

You won't find that in most countries in Europe, and still in America. You have the greatest concentration of people who call upon the name of the lord every lord's day right here in this country. It may not be all that we desire for it to be, Brothers and sisters, being a citizen and a Christian in America in the 20th century is still a blessing worth celebrating. Number 2, I believe that we can celebrate our own personal victory in Christ Jesus. That is something worth celebrating.

You know, in sports and in politics or any competitive endeavor, you celebrate the victory after you've won the game, after you've won the contest. I mean, you know, the hockey teams, they bring the champagne into the dressing room, but they don't actually open it until they've actually won the game. It's interesting that in Christianity, we gather every 1st day of the week to celebrate a victory over something which has not yet happened, and that is our own personal death. We celebrating a victory today over something that is gonna happen to us, but hasn't happened yet. I wanna read a passage to you that talks about this strange phenomenon, and that is in first Corinthians chapter 15 beginning in, verse, 55.

First Corinthians chapter 15 beginning in verse 55. Paul says, O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. In this passage, Paul is talking to death as if it were an enemy, as if it were an actual person, and he asks death, why does it not have any power anymore?' It's like a taunt.

It's like he's poking his finger in the chest of death, and he's saying, hey, where's your power now, big guy? You're not so tough anymore, are you? Come on, do something. Come on, let's go. Let's go at it.

You know, he's taunting death, and he explains that death's power was found in sin and law. And I need just to explain that to you for a minute. What does it mean, the power of death is in sin and law? Well, it means this, sin is disobedience to God, and when we disobey God, it causes us to die, to be separated from god. The only way I can explain that, and I've done it before, is to explain a tree and a branch.

You know, a fruit tree? You've got a fruit tree, and you've got branches with fruit on it. If you take a branch and cut that branch off and it falls to the ground, it's cut off from the tree. It's as good as dead. Now if you look at that cut off branch, you'll see the leaves are still green, the fruit is still on it.

It looks pretty much the same as the tree. But if you give it a little bit of time, you'll see that the fruit will begin to rot. The tree the the, the leaves will begin to turn brown, and with enough time, it'll just dry up and blow away because it's cut off for the from the tree. But the tree, however, will remain alive. The fruit will remain on the tree.

Well, we're like that. We are branches in the tree called god. And when we sin, we are cut off from god. Now, for a while, 70, 80, 90 years, whatever, we look like we're alive, we're walking around, we're producing, we're laughing, we're building, but we're really dead. We just don't know it yet.

And eventually, we begin, like that cut off branch, we begin to dry up and our fruit begins to rot and our leaves begin to grow, dry and stale, and eventually, we die. We dry up and we're gone. Paul says that sin causes death. That's how sin causes death, it cuts us off from God. Then he talks about the law, and he says that the power of death is sin and the law.

The law are the 10 commandments and the rules and regulations that are in the Bible, and God gave that law to expose sin in men's lives and to reveal what their punishment will be. In other words, God's written law explained what you were. God's written law said to you, you are cut off from God. That's your problem. You've been cut off.

You're a sinner, and you're gonna die. That's the law. That's what it does. Well, in this passage, Paul says that this one two punch of sin and law no longer has any power. And the question is, why?

Well, in verse 57, he gives the answer. He says, we have the victory over this power through Jesus Christ. Well, the next question is, how? How do we have power over sin and death through Jesus Christ? The gospel explains that briefly.

It says that Jesus comes to earth, and he lives a perfect life according to the law. He never sins. He never makes any mistakes. He gets everything right. And then he offers this perfect life to God in death in order to pay for our sins and our mistakes that we have made.

And since Jesus has no sin himself, death can't keep him. See, that's the law. If you have sin, you're cut off, but if you don't have sin, you remain. You can't die. And so Jesus offers his life to pay for our life, but he cannot die.

The grave can't keep him because he is perfect. And now, he has the right and the power to offer to everyone forgiveness for sin and resurrection from death by believing in him. You see, the old way of beating death was by living a perfect life. That's why nobody ever won the war. The new way of beating death was to believe in Jesus Christ for forgiveness of sins, And once you are sinless in this way, you no longer are subject to death.

Brothers and sisters, it's like a rule of gravity. If you don't have any sin in your life, you don't die. And it doesn't matter how you don't have any sin in your life. You can either be perfect and never make a mistake or be forgiven by Jesus. It doesn't matter.

The results are the same. You're perfect. You're perfect. And if you're perfect, you don't die. You have won over sin and the law.

You've won over death. Every Sunday, when we take communion, we not only remember Jesus' death and resurrection, we are also celebrating our own death and resurrection. We remember our death with Jesus and our resurrection with Jesus in the waters of baptism, Romans chapter 6 verse 34. And so today, as every Sunday, we celebrate a victory over a battle that is still in the future for all of us, and that's death. But we know ahead of time that we will be victorious in that battle in the same way that Christ was victorious, and we celebrate that fact today by taking the bread and the wine.

Well, before I reveal the amount given and pledged, I'd like to offer everyone an opportunity to celebrate something else this morning. Jesus says that there is rejoicing and celebrating in heaven when one sinner repents, Luke chapter 15 verse 7. I would say that there is the same celebration in the church when one comes forward to claim his or her victory over death in baptism. When you go down in the waters of baptism, you too can say as you come up, oh death, where is your state? Because you have won the victory over death by being buried and resurrected with Christ in the waters of baptism.

If you need to be baptized, if you need to be restored, if you need the prayers of the church, or if you'd like to identify with this congregation in Choctaw, we encourage you to come forward now and let us celebrate your coming forward as we stand and as we sing our song of invitation.