How Do We Fit In?

Awesome. Hey, we doing all right today? Good. Well, good morning. Awesome. It was great to have everybody here with us today. For our guest in the room, I just want to say thank you so much for being here. We really appreciate it. I think you’ll find this is a good spot to hang out for a while. So thank you all for being here.

Hey, what do we think about the young blood taking care of the offering for us? We like that or what? Yeah? Okay. Very good. There we go. All right. Don’t make any bets with Cody. That’s what I’m hearing.

You know, I got a question, though. Why are you here? There we go. Rick answers questions. Why are you here? If I could sit down with everybody in the room this morning and have a personal conversation with you, why are you here? You know, I think that there’d be a number of answers you might give. Some of us are here because of heritage. You were raised in church. Your family’s always been at church. Maybe you’re related to somebody that once donated something to our church. And you’re here to kind of maintain some heritage. Or maybe you’re here out of personal habit. It’s just what you do. Sunday mornings, you just get up and you get gussied up and you come to church. You’re just here to maintain a habit.

Some of us are here, I think, because we feel like it helps us. You know, just getting out of bed in the morning. It’s just, it’s nice to see people. Or maybe you’re here because you’re hoping to get help in some way. It certainly does all these things. When I was young, I went to church and I participated in church because I thought it got me out of hell. And that might be somebody else in the room. You might be here because you think that doing things for God makes you right with God and one day you’ll be accepted by God. Why are you here?

You know, church is a product of something. I would say it’s a product of God’s kingdom. Church, it is a sign of God’s people in a particular community bound together for a mission. And Sauldam Baptist Church has been here as a light for Christ for almost 200 years. Amen. And I wonder if back in 1841, if somebody would have asked those folks, why are you here? What they might have said. We’ll talk a little bit about that in the morning or as we progress.

But, you know, I’ve got a question, though. If Sauldam Baptist Church is a product of the kingdom of God working in the low country, when did that kingdom start? I take you all the way back to the very beginning of the Bible where God makes the entire world. He makes it good, too. It was really good. God makes everything, and He orders it just right. Everybody hits their cues. Everything makes sense. It’s all harmonious. And the land is flourishing. It always gives forth fruit. It is good. And God says, I’m starting something here. And He plants the very first people in that garden along with all the other stuff. And it’s good for a while until it’s not. And Adam and Eve disobey God, and they get kicked out of the garden.

You progress a few generations, and God looks at a man named Abram. And He calls Abram. He says, hey, I’m going to use you to make an incredible, mighty nation. Not mighty because of your numbers. Not mighty because of your strength or your wealth. But mighty because I am blessing you, and I am with you. So God calls Abram, Abraham. And He makes this nation Israel out of Him. God has formed Israel to be a nation and a kingdom. You see, God sets Israel apart as His chosen people to reach the world with His message of repentance from sin and faith in Him. God starts this kingdom. And He starts this movement in the world. And He says, hey, I’m going to be a man named Abram. And I’m going to be a man named Abram. And they killed that one. He also sent many others. Some they beat. And others they killed. That’s zero to 60, right? What in the world is happening? Verse 7. Or verse 6, he still had one to send, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, they will respect my son. So the tenant farmers seized Him, killed Him, and threw Him out of the vineyard. What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill the Farmers and give the vineyard to others haven’t you read the scripture the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone this came about from the lord and is wonderful in our eyes they were looking for a way to arrest jesus but feared the crowd because they knew he had spoken this parable against them so they left him and went away what in the world what a story for jesus to tell remember he’s in the very middle of the temple in the center of jerusalem surrounded by people that he knows does not like him that he knows will kill him and he teaches this parable what in the world is jesus after let’s cover a couple of the details first there’s five different types or groups of people in this parable first you have this wealthy owner in verse 1. this man he’s able to plant this vineyard to build everything to dig this wine press to lease it out to physically leave it and then just to send some more servants come to it that man must have been incredibly wealthy but that situation was very normal in israel incredibly fertile lands that a lot of it would have been rented or leased out to farmers that other people would come and work so that the owners could go live on the coast or something and enjoy life easy and the owners would send these servants say hey give me some of my produce give me the earnings and we’re going to take care of business we’re going to enjoy what to do with any of the things that we have to do and we are going to get to do with our own people and we are going to do with our own people and we are going to live with our own people so we are going to do a lot of things that we are going to do with our own people and we are going to do a lot of things that we are going to do with our own people and we are going to do a lot of things that we are going to do with our own people and we are going to do with our own people and we are going to do with our own people and we are going to do with our own people and we are going to do with our own people and we are going to do with our own people and we are going to do with our own people and we are going to do with our own people and we are going to do with our own people and we are going to do with our own people and we are going to do with our own people and we are going to do with our own people and we are going to do we are going to do with our own people and we are going to do with our own people and we are going to do with our own people and we are going to do with our own people and we are going to do with our own people and we are going to do with our own people and we are going to do with our own people and we are going to do with our own people and we are going to do with our own people and we are going to do with our own people I’m just going to get you right? And I’m just going to hear that. I know you’re going to hear that. I’m just going to hear that. I don’t know. I’m just going to hear that. So, you know, I’ve got to hear that. I’m just going to hear that. Now, I’m just going to hear that. I’m just going to hear that. And you’re going to hear that. So, you’re going to hear that. I’m going to hear that. And I’m just going to hear that. And I am incredibly struck by the patience and the grace of the owner. Five times. I guess four times. Four times he sends more people to give these tenants another chance. He says, you know what? They didn’t respond the first time. I’m going to send somebody else. Okay, they didn’t respond the second time. I’ll send somebody else. Whoa, that got out of hand. They killed a guy. I’ll send somebody else. Man, okay, they’re destroying everything. I’ll send my son. The incredible grace and patience of the owner to continue to send the to the Lord. And I’m going to hear that. the vineyard the owner and the book of acts details this because in acts 1 jesus himself promises to the apostles that The gospel is going to go to all of the ends of the world. He promises that in Acts 8, persecution happens on the church, and the church finally spreads not just to the Jews, but also gets to the Samaritans, and it gets to an Ethiopian eunuch. And then in Acts 13, that’s when things really start picking up. That’s when the gospel spreads to Gentiles and Antioch, and everything shifts, everything changes, because finally what God has set forth in motion is starting to pick up steam.

Which means what started in 1841 here at Sauldam Baptist Church was a group of people accepting the stewardship that God was trying to handle. There’s a group of people that were responding to God’s proactive grace and His kindness and His mercy to say, “Yes, I will take the baton, and I will run with it for however long I’ve got a chance to run with it.” God is doing the same thing for us today. God has handed the baton to us from a previous generation, saying, “How long will you run with this? Will you run the race with me and for me in this community or not?” We have been entrusted with the stewardship. That is who we are. That is what’s most true about us.

And I, as your pastor, feel an enormous thing. That’s right. That’s right. And I will tell you that you’re not going to have to be a pastor that’s in the church, and I’m not going to have to be a pastor that’s in the church, and I will give you a pastor that’s in the church, and I’ll give you a pastor to the church, and I’ll give you a pastor, and I’ll give you a pastor. I’ll stand before the Lord, and I’ll give an account for the phone calls, for the lunches, the yeses, the noes, the things we gave our finances to, the things we withheld our money from. I’ll give an answer for how I reconfigured the office. Whenever we get the wasps out of the steeple, God will say, “Good job, buddy.” Yeah, I’ll give an answer for that.

God has called us to something. He wants us to embrace the Son. You don’t have to be a theologian to figure that one out, right? Who’s the Son? Jesus, exactly. Jesus Christ, the one that was sent for us. In fact, John 3:16 and 17 say these words. They’re going to be on our screen for us. God has sent His Son. For God so loved the world in this way, He gave us His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish. No, but they will have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world.

You see, when God had one more to send. When God’s people had rejected all others, He said, “I’ve got one more. I’ve got a beloved Son. Maybe they will respect Him.” Jesus Christ steps off the throne of heaven and into time and space as a child. And He was sent here. He was sent as a man. He stubbed his toe. He worked in a carpenter shop, which meant he hit his thumb with a mallet every now and then. I’ve got no idea what he said. Me! I don’t know what he said. You know? He lived and breathed among us. God lived. He was sent for us. He sent His Son to come to His people so that the people would embrace Him. The people would say, “Yes, you’re right. We repent. We have been abusing this place. Help us, Son.” But the people rejected Him.

And in a scandal of God’s grace, the rejection of Christ actually means the forgiveness of us. You see, verse 10, it says, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. And this came about from the Lord, and it is wonderful in our eyes.” As terrible as the cross was, as terrible as the trial and the pain and the crucifixion, as terrible as all those things were, the reality is if Christ was not rejected and if He was not crucified, then we are not forgiven.

The craziest thing of it all is that the wealthy owner knew what the tenants would do with his son. He knew. God knew. He knew when He sent His Son that He, the Son, would be rejected, crucified for us. Hebrews 12:2 says that Jesus came with joy. Jesus came knowing what would happen to Him with joy. He knew.

So today I ask, why are you here? Maybe I’ll say it a different way. Have You embraced the Son? Romans 10:9 and 10 say these incredibly beautiful words. Because I think that we make embracing Jesus harder than it’s got to be. We want to make ourselves cleaner than we have to be. We want to make our effort harder, more stringent than it has to be. But Romans 10:9 and 10 has this incredibly beautiful and simple message. Paul says this: If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and if you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Not might be saved. Not maybe one day could possibly be saved. Not earning your way. You’re working your way to being saved. You will be saved. Be saved. One believes with the heart resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth resulting in salvation. Paul on the name of the Son. Embrace the Son and accept the grace that God has for you. Oh, how God wants you to do that. How God, the wealthy owner, just wants you to embrace the Son. And just say, “Yes, I need You. I need You. Save me, please.”

Here’s the deal. God’s offer of grace will not last forever. One day, you’ll close your eyes for the final time, or Christ will come back, and your opportunity to respond to God’s grace is done. This is a decision and a profession that’ll change your life here and for forever. But you have to make it. A day will come for all of us to answer to God for either embracing or rejecting Christ. Which means if there’s any hesitation in your heart today about, “Am I saved? Do I really know Jesus? Have I actually embraced Him?” Now’s the time when I want you to tune me out and have some time with God. Do some business with the Lord in your pew. And just pray to Him and say, “Lord, I don’t know that I know You. But Your Word says if I call on You and if I believe in You, that means I’m saved. So God, let’s walk through this together right now.” Seriously, I would be honored if you’d stop listening to me and you make that prayer happen. Because that’s what we’re here for. The fact that people would embrace Jesus Christ. That’s why we are here.

And for those of us who have embraced Jesus, I just want you to accept the stewardship. Accept the baton that’s being handed to you. For those of us who have embraced Christ, we are given a stewardship to care for God’s kingdom. Which we see here at Sauldam Baptist Church. You see, the church is not simply a club to be a member of. It’s not a gathering simply to attend. It’s not simply an institution to fund. It is not simply a building to sweep. It is more than all of this together. The church is a sign of God’s kingdom on earth. It’s a sign of God’s work here in Ravenel or wherever you normally go to church. The church is bigger than all those things. That’s why you become a member of church. To commit to a body. That’s why you attend services. To be built up and to build up others. That’s why you give financially. To fuel the mission and trust God with your money. That’s why you engage in discipleship. So that you can make disciples and be disciples. That’s why you serve. To strengthen ministries and employ your gifts. The Bible says that every person in the room has something unique and special and spiritual to contribute to the life of our church. And I would hate for you to miss out on that. God would hate for you to miss out on that. Accept it. Step under it. Step into it. Christ says that His burden is, and that yoke, it’s easy. Accept the stewardship.

We serve a really, really good owner. One that does not exact from us what He doesn’t deserve, but one that would never place weight on us that He’s not going to help us walk in. He’s going to help us fulfill these things. There’s just two steps. Embrace Jesus and accept the responsibility, accept the stewardship. You know, this text calls Jesus the cornerstone. I think our generation has gotten away from what a cornerstone may be. You know, when I was growing up, I learned that a cornerstone was the most important piece because it held everything else together. Go to some of those old churches downtown, you see those beautiful archways, and in the center of that arch, you got a cornerstone. Without that cornerstone, everything else is falling apart. That cornerstone keeps everything aligned.

It keeps everything straight. It keeps everything beautiful. And when Christ becomes the cornerstone of your life, that means your life becomes aligned. It keeps everything in the center of your life. It keeps everything in the center of the center of your life. It keeps everything in the center of your life. And it keeps everything in the center of your life. It keeps everything in the center of your life.

God, I hope my words have honored You. God, I hope that it was clear that for somebody, God, it was the right word. Lord, I pray for those of us that don’t know You, we would just embrace the Son. We would call on His name and be saved in our lives, be transformed for it. And for those of us that do know You, God, that we would accept the responsibility and the stewardship and that we would come into that yoke and we would rest in the work that You have for us.

God, I pray for the next 200 years of the life of our church. God, that we would, at the end of our day, pass the baton well. God, that the low country would be different for it. Lord, start in my own heart. Help me continue to step into the responsibility and the stewardship You have for me. I love You, Lord.