The Future of Our Church

Introduction and Opening Prayer

Worship Leader: Good morning, church! Well, we are here to celebrate not only our church anniversary, but we are going to celebrate the faithfulness of our Lord, right? Amen! All right. So now, we are going to pray about that. At the same time, we are going to bless the Lord today as we celebrate our church’s 75th anniversary. It is not something that we should forget, but it is something that we are here to celebrate because we have seen the goodness of God and His faithfulness in the life of His church. I am sure you have been blessed by our church, and so we welcome everyone—members, visitors, and former members who are celebrating with us today. I am sure you will be blessed by what we do today. Let us pray.

Father, our God, we thank You not only that You are the Giver of life, but also that You are the Builder of the church. As You have promised in Your Word, You will build Your church and nothing can destroy that. And so we pray, O Lord, right now that as You brought us here to celebrate 75 years of Your goodness and faithfulness, we will see and we will glorify You. Father Lord, help us to give You the glory that You deserve, because this is for You, Father. This is Your celebration and this is Your faithfulness.

Father, we ask that You will continue to speak into our hearts as we sing, as we hear Your preaching, as we remember what lies behind, and as we look to the future today. O Lord, I pray that You will open our hearts also for Your goodness and Your faithfulness. Father, bless each one today. For this we pray in Jesus’ name, amen and amen.

May we all stand up for our praise and worship.

Congregation: Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father, There is no shadow of turning with Thee; Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be.

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; All I have needed Thy hand hath provided— Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest, Sun, moon and stars in their courses above, Join with all nature in manifold witness To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; All I have needed Thy hand hath provided— Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth, Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide; Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; All I have needed Thy hand hath provided— Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; All I have needed Thy hand hath provided— Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Hear our prayer, we are Your children, And we've gathered here today; We've gathered here to pray. Hear our cry, O Lord, we need Your mercy, And we need Your grace today; Hear us as we pray.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Our Father, hear us from heaven, forgive our sins, we pray.

Hear our song as it rises to heaven, May Your glory fill the earth as waters over the sea. See our hearts and remove anything That is standing in the way of coming to You today.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Our Father, hear us from heaven, forgive our sins, we pray.

Though we are surrounded by many who have crossed that river, This is the song we'll be singing forever: Holy is the Lord! Holy is the Lord! Holy is the Lord! Holy is the Lord! Holy is the Lord! Holy is the Lord! Holy is the Lord! Holy is the Lord!

Hear our prayer, we are Your children, And we've gathered here today; We've gathered here to pray. Hear our cry, O Lord, we need Your mercy, And we need Your grace today; Hear us as we pray.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Our Father, hear us from heaven, forgive our sins, we pray. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Our Father, hear us from heaven, forgive our sins, we pray. Forgive our sins, we pray. Forgive our sins, we pray.

The Lord Builds the House

Pastor Steve: You may be seated. Praise the Lord! Can someone praise the Lord? Amen. Praise God! God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good. Amen. Well, thank you for joining us this morning. We are in a celebration mode—75 years of First Baptist Church of Artesia. It is nice to celebrate something that is older than I am!

Thanks for being here. It is a celebration, but we also want to do a couple of things today. We want to talk about how we got here, we want to talk about what we are doing, and then we want to show you the future of where we are going in this church. There is a lot of history here, but there is also a lot of progress made and a lot of things moving forward that we are going to be doing. I just want to let you be aware of what our program is this morning. At this time, if any of the children want to be dismissed for children’s church, we can do that.

You are going to witness a miracle this morning. The miracle is that a pastor is going to get up and preach a sermon that has only one verse in it, probably only use half of that one verse, and probably finish the sermon in about 15 minutes. That is the miracle, so you will be witnesses to that! Let us go before the Lord in prayer.

Lord God, we thank You for this day. We thank You for bringing us together here. Lord, we thank You for those who have traveled a distance to be here with us today. Lord, we thank You for those who are on their way, and those who could not make it, who are at home recuperating or watching via livestream. Lord, we just thank You for the opportunity to give You praise, honor, and glory. And so, Lord, I ask that You would open our eyes to see what it is You want us to see, open our ears to hear what it is You have for us to hear, and open our hearts to receive what it is You have for us. Father, we just give You thanks, praise, glory, and honor. And all those in agreement in Jesus’ name say, amen.

Praise God. My text this morning will be Psalm 127:1, and I think most of us are familiar with this particular passage:

Unless the Lord builds a house, its builders labor over it in vain; unless the Lord watches over a city, the watchman stays alert in vain.

— Psalm 127:1 (CSB)

May the Lord add a blessing to the reading and hearing of His most precious and holy Word. The title of the message this morning is "The Lord Builds the House."

What I want us to look at is the first part of this particular passage. Notice that this psalm is called a "Psalm of Ascents." What that means in Hebrew is Aliyah—you are going up to worship. And so, it was something that you would sing on the way going up to the temple. Whenever you see a Psalm of Ascents, it is something that was sung as people were on their way to go worship God. It is attributed to Solomon. Now, we do not know if Solomon wrote it or if he was just wise enough to compile it. Either way, it is inspired by the Holy Spirit. "Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it."

We are here today to celebrate "the house." But I want us to look at three words in this particular passage, and those words are: builds, house, and vain.

Understanding "Builds," "House," and "Vain"

The first word, builds, is the Hebrew word banah. What it means is to build, to develop buildings, and to rebuild. This is like the lifespan of a church; you build, you expand, you rebuild, you remodel, and you continue doing this. In a little while, when I am done, Billy Thornton is going to come up and give you a little bit of history of the church. Obviously, all of this building was not here in the beginning 75 years ago. There was a lot of development that happened. There was banah going on here; they were developing. What happened was God called people to develop this church, and we are here today because they answered the call.

Think about this: as people of God, God calls us. The only reason we are in this room together is because we all know Jesus Christ. God has called us together for a reason, for a purpose, and to celebrate. My job this morning is to show us why we are celebrating and to whom we should truly give recognition. God calls people to plant churches, start churches, and develop these churches. Many times in the course of history, some churches do not always succeed, while other times they flourish. What is the reason behind all of this?

This church started from humble beginnings, and through prayer, people began to assemble. When you begin to assemble, what are you assembling around? Obviously, we are centering around God. We are centering around Christ, our Lord and our Savior. Their focus and our focus cannot be on the building, but on God, because it is God who builds the building. He called people together over the course of 75 years to do a work. As they worshiped Him and focused on Him, God began to build the house. He began to build what we refer to nowadays as a campus, with three buildings, a parking lot, and room to expand.

Again, the focus cannot be on celebrating a building. We are here to celebrate the One who built the building, and that is our Lord, Almighty God. That is where our focus is this morning, because the Scripture says, "Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it." Notice it says "unless the Lord builds the house" before "they labor." In other words, in coming together, planting a church, and starting a church, there has to be recognition of Almighty God. There needs to be recognition of who God is and why we are doing what we are doing, and then we build. We do not build a structure and then invite God into that structure; God calls us to assemble, and as we assemble and worship Him, then He calls us to build.

God brings forth growth according to His plan. I remember years ago reading the Book of Numbers. By the way, if you suffer from insomnia, the Book of Numbers is a good place to go! There is a lot of stuff in there that makes you wonder why it is there and why you are reading it. It just kind of goes on and on, numbering the tribes of Israel, and so-and-so begot so-and-so. But it also gives instructions for the building of the Tabernacle. One of the things that I came away with when I was reading that and asking questions was an understanding of God's precision. When you read Scripture, always ask: Why is this passage here? What does God want me to know? What am I supposed to see and understand?

In Numbers, God tells Moses to tell the people to build the Tabernacle in a very specific way, utilizing brass, bronze, wood, cedar, and so on. They had to put it together and then bring it to Moses so Moses could verify that they did it according to the plan. If they did not, he would push it back and say, "No, that is not ready yet. You have to build it according to God’s plan." This is why sometimes we labor in vain—because we are not building according to God’s plan. This applies not just to a church building, but also to the temple that is on the inside of us. We labor in vain if God is not first and foremost, and if we do not realize that God is building us up as well into a royal, holy priesthood.

God brings growth according to His plan. God does not cosign for our plans. Sometimes we take a long journey away from God when we think God will honor whatever we want to do. God is the Alpha and the Omega; He has a definite plan, a definite beginning, and a definite end. But when we want God to do things our way, we take a magical mystery tour out on our own, asking God to cosign for it. Once we get far enough away and realize God is not going to cosign for it, what do we do? We come back to the Alpha and the Omega, because that is where God is, that is where the plan is, and that is where we move forward. This is why the integrity of Scripture is so important—following Scripture, knowing Scripture, teaching it, learning it, and applying it correctly, because it is God’s plan.

The second word is house, which is the Hebrew word bayith. It means house, but it also means palace and temple. In other words, "unless the Lord builds the house," but that house also has the element of a palace and a temple. Our church gathering and our building is, in a sense, a royal house of worship. It should be a temple, because we are coming to worship Almighty God.

When we say, "I am going to church this morning," or when someone says, "I belong to a church," what is in our minds? What are we thinking of when we get up in the morning and prepare to go to church? Are we thinking about a temple? Are we thinking about a palace? Are we thinking about a place of royal, holy worship? It changes the way we present ourselves when we consider the value we place on where we are going. In other words, what value do you place on it? Sometimes people have relatives they do not really want to visit, so they do not place a whole lot of value on the visit. They might say, "Well, I'll go, but let's make it short because I have better things to do." But when it is your favorite aunt, your favorite uncle, your grandmother, or your parents, it is a whole different story. You place a high value there; you want to go there, and you want it to be special.

It is the same way with church. What value are we placing on assembling together? Is it because we have a bunch of plans and programs, or is it because we are coming to worship Almighty God? Is it because we understand the majesty behind this? We sing, "Lord of lords and King of kings." What does that mean? We sing, "He reigns and rules on high." What does that mean? It means He is the ultimate King, He is the source, He is the One we worship. When we come together, there should be this sense of not just a building that looks cool and is functional, but a building that is palatial—a temple, a place of worship where we hold ourselves to a higher standard because it is a holy place.

In effect, when you go to God’s house, you are going to a palatial temple, and we should present ourselves that way. A lot of times, we might come to church with the idea of, "Well, I've got to put my time in, and I hope the sermon is short because there is a game on," or, "We have to get out early because the restaurant gets really full by 11:30." What if we set all of that aside and prepared our hearts to meet the King of kings and Lord of lords, worshiping Him in the fullness of His glory and who He is?

Unless the Lord builds the house, we labor in vain. And if it is His house, He has built it. When we are saved, what happens? We enter the kingdom of God. A kingdom means we have a King; that means royalty, majesty, temple, worship, submission, and humility on our part to understand that it is God who builds the house, and it is God who is doing all of these things.

Knowing who God is informs our presentation of who we are. It changes how we present ourselves before God and how we do things as a church. We invite people to church because, first of all, we want them to be saved. We want them to come and worship and experience Him. But knowing who God is informs that presentation. It dictates what God expects of us, and we have a responsibility to project that image. If we are following God, we should project His image—not the image of the world. In other words, are we loving? Are we kind? Are we also theologically sound? Are we doing things according to Scripture?

Do you think God will build the house if we do not honor Scripture, if we do not honor what He said, or if we do not do what He asked us to do? When the tragedy of 9/11 happened, some people asked the question, "Where was God?" I believe it was Billy Graham’s daughter who was on one of the networks, and she said, "Well, first you kicked Him out of the schools, then you kicked Him out of the government, then you kicked Him out of public spaces..." We have to honor God. We have to give God the recognition that He created all of this, and we are to be caretakers of it. We are to worship Him, come together, teach His Word, and go out and preach that Word. We are to build disciples based on knowing who God is. So when we come into the sanctuary, or do whatever we do as Christians, how are we presenting ourselves? Are we theologically sound, and are we here to worship the King?

The third word is vain, which is the Hebrew word shav. It means worthless, false, empty, or vanity. Sometimes you might ask why it translates to so many words. Hebrew and Greek are much more expressive languages than English. To understand it simply, in classical Hebrew there are certain nuances; in modern English, we use a much smaller vocabulary to cover many concepts. In Hebrew, shav translates as worthless, false, or empty.

In this particular passage, "Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it." Right away, if you have read Ecclesiastes, this brings that book to mind. Ecclesiastes is also attributed to Solomon, where the author says that it is worthless to attempt to do things without God. Think about that for a second. Whatever we do is going to be worthless if God is not in it. That should change our whole scope and our whole thinking. I do not need to ask God to cosign my plans; I need to get on board with what God has already said. I need to follow God instead of trying to tell God what to do. God tells me what to do, and my job is to follow Him. Who am I to do otherwise?

In Matthew 6:33, the Scripture says:

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.

— Matthew 6:33 (CSB)

It is talking about how God will supply your needs, but what does He say first? "Seek first the kingdom of God." Unless God builds the house, we labor in vain. Seek God first in all that we do.

How do you seek God first? How do you seek the kingdom of God? It is by knowing and understanding the Gospel. The Gospel is that we are sinners, and that sin separates us from God. There is no good work that we can do to bridge that gap. We are lost, and the Bible says we are destined for death. But if we are willing to acknowledge the sins we have committed before Almighty God, if we are willing to repent—which means to turn and go in a different direction—and believe that God so loved us that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to take those sins upon Himself on the cross, and if we believe that to the point that we are willing to confess it, the result is salvation. We enter the kingdom of God.

Matthew translates it as the "kingdom of heaven," while the other Gospels refer to it as the "kingdom of God." Sometimes people ask, "What is the difference?" There is no difference. You cannot take God out of heaven any more than you can take heaven out of God. But the reason Matthew refers to it as the kingdom of heaven is that his initial audience was believing Jews who did not pronounce the sacred name of God out of reverence. They held it in such high esteem that they would not say the name of God; they would not say Yahweh or Elohim. Even today, some devout Jews will write "G-d," leaving the "o" out. Out of reverence and respect for them, Matthew wrote "kingdom of heaven." The other authors were not writing primarily to a Jewish audience, so they referred to it as the "kingdom of God."

Today, we are here to celebrate 75 years. Do you realize that 75 years is a biblical lifetime? The Bible points to 70 or 80 years as a lifespan. You might say, "Wait a minute, Pastor, is it over?" No, it is not over! It is just that what has happened up to now has taken a biblical lifespan of people to bring us to this point. That is why we are celebrating, because a lot of people realized that they would labor in vain if they did not put God first. That informs us as we move forward. As we move forward, we must put God first. We must put Christ first in all that we do. We follow Him because we are preparing now for the next 75 years.

You and I this morning are footnotes. We are footnotes in somebody’s story down the road, just like the people who gathered together in the beginning to start this church are footnotes in our story. They came together and they built it; we came together, we prepared, we remodeled, we fixed it up, we paid it off, and we got it ready for the next generation, for the next 75 years of what God is doing. The development of any church is never complete until Jesus returns, because we are always moving forward. We are always seeking God, looking to move closer to Him, and following what He is doing.

Let us not labor in vain as we look to the future. Let us focus on Christ and the Gospel: confession, repentance, and salvation through Him who is worthy. Let us give praise, honor, and glory to Almighty God, who builds this house of worship, as we follow Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen. Somebody praise the Lord!

At this time, I am going to call up Billy Thornton, who is going to come up and give us some history on our church.

A Heritage of Faithfulness: 75 Years of History

Billy Thornton: This church has an amazing history, and I would like to share some of that with you today, along with how far this church has come in the last 75 years.

First Baptist Church of Artesia started as a mission on June 27, 1948, and was organized as a church on October 17, 1948. They moved from a garage to a tent on May 15, 1949, and then they went to the infamous "chicken coop." In all of the historical writings, they call it the "chicken house," but somehow or another, the church people started calling it the "chicken coop," and that is what it was eventually!

On October 16, 1949, they celebrated their first anniversary in a new building. On October 28, 1951, on their second anniversary, they broke ground for an educational building. On January 4, 1953, ground was broken for the two-story educational building that is behind us. In November 1964, a new worship center was built, and then this current building we are in now was dedicated on May 1st, 1983. Can you imagine coming from a chicken coop to this? Praise the Lord!

When it first started on June 27, 1948, the first record we have shows they had 11 members, and the offering was $4.10. A year later, that had increased significantly, and by 1987, the budget was $36,000. It was first organized as Pioneer Baptist Church, but the name was changed after 60 days. There were ten charter members, and I would like to name those ten members because some of the people here might remember these names. Reverend F.M. Box was called as pastor, and the members were:

• Mrs. F.M. Box
• Reverend J.R. Burke
• Mrs. J.R. Burke
• A.V. Burke
• Mrs. A.V. Burke
• Lee Burke (who joined for baptism that same day)
• A.J. Hill
• Mrs. A.J. Hill
• Arthur Hill
• Robert Earl Hill

Later on, if you would like, we have a historical booklet. I will lay it out in the foyer so you can look at it. It has pictures of all the buildings from where they started all the way up to this one. It is very interesting to look at those pictures and actually see what they had and what they did.

Once they started, they grew very fast. They quickly outgrew the garage, and on May 15, 1949, they moved to a large tent, and a smaller tent was purchased for Sunday school classes. With the Sunday school growing, they formed separate departments. A successful Vacation Bible School was held from June 20th to July 1st, 1949, with an average attendance of 103 children. That school was held in the large rumpus room of Mr. and Mrs. A.J. Hill. After that, they moved to the chicken coop and celebrated their first anniversary with lots of food. Baptists certainly know how to do that! We like to eat.

As I was looking through the archives, I found this list of what was offered here after a few years:

• Sunday School at 10:00 AM
• Worship Service at 11:00 AM
• Training Union for all ages at 6:30 PM
• Evening Worship at 7:30 PM
• Prayer Meeting on Wednesday at 7:30 PM
• Women’s Missionary Union on Wednesday at 1:00 PM
• Choir Practice on Thursday at 7:30 PM

Their slogan was: "This is a new church with an old gospel; everyone is invited to join." That is how it was when my husband and I became members here in 1959, and we have been members here ever since. It is a wonderful church, and I feel we are very blessed to have it. Thank you.

The Future of Our Church: Five Pillars of Faith

Pastor John: I think we are going to do a little mic swap. Let me know if you can hear me all right. Can you guys hear me okay?

I have been asked to speak on the future of the church, which can be a challenging topic. Some folks like to come into churches and flip things upside down, but that is just not the way I am wired. There was a humbler day when people used to just call themselves "the next pastor." And so, I want to talk about five things—not new things that we are not currently doing, but things that I want us to continue to do as we seek to be faithful. The Lord has been so kind to us for 75 years, and I pray that He continues to be kind to us in the future.

First, we must be a Christ-centered people. In 1 Corinthians 1, Paul says that God had called him to preach Christ, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ would not be emptied of its effect. We are not here to talk about just therapizing life. We are not here to talk about how God can improve our week-to-week lives. We believe in an eternal God, a real hell, and that everlasting life is possible in Jesus. We are sinners deserving of judgment because of our rebellion against God, but God in His kindness sent His Son, Jesus Christ—truly God and truly man—to live the perfect life that we could never live, and to die for our sins. If we turn from our sins and trust in Him, we can be forgiven and have everlasting life. We want to be a church centered on Christ. When Jesus asked the disciples who they said the Son of Man was, Peter looked at Jesus and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." We have professed that together for 75 years, and we will continue to confess that together. There is no other rock on which this church should be built than on the rock of Christ.

Second, we want to be a mere church. By "mere," I mean simple. I do not mean that we are full of simpletons! What I mean is that we want to be a church that focuses on the main things. As Alistair Begg says, "The main things are the plain things, and the plain things are the main things." You are never going to see me ride a motorcycle on the stage. There are going to be no smoke machines in this building. The reason is because what builds this church is not going to be novelty, entertainment, or humor, but the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You can clap for that! Thank you.

Third, I want us to be an intentional church. If you want this church to be beautiful, to stand out, and to reveal the glory of Jesus Christ, it does not happen primarily by what happens here on this stage. It happens by the words that we hear and the encouragement that we share with one another. I remember speaking with one pastor about his church, which was relatively small. He looked at me and said, "Small church, eternal souls." All of us are valuable. The value of the church of Jesus Christ is not primarily in the programs we offer, or in how presentable our church building is—even though it looks beautiful, and thank you to everyone who helped prepare it for the 75th anniversary. The value is in the relationships we share. In Hebrews, the Bible says:

And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.

— Hebrews 10:24-25 (CSB)

You are the most precious thing that God has given me. The people who make up this church are the most precious earthly gift God has given us. For as long as we are here on this earth, let us be intentional in provoking love and good works in one another, and encouraging one another.

Fourth, we want to be a sending church. Did you know that within one mile of this church building, there are over 30,000 people? Our church building cannot fit that many folks, which means that what we are going to have to do is not just look inward, but look outward. We want to be a church known as a place where people are trained for gospel ministry. I would love for this church to be known for training missionaries and sending them overseas to share the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I would love for First Baptist Church of Artesia to be a church that raises up more pastors than we need, so we can send out church plants and help other churches receive the good news of Jesus Christ, and also send out church members to those church plants to encourage them.

Lastly, we want to be a biblical church. I love this pulpit. I was amazed when it was moved down here. From what I hear, it was made around the same time this building was constructed. At the time of the Reformation, one of the things the Protestant reformers did was move the pulpit from the side corner to the center. They did this because, prior to that, people were taught that salvation was received primarily through the sacraments. They deliberately moved the pulpit to the center so people would understand that Romans 10 was true, that:

So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.

— Romans 10:17 (CSB)

It is not about a physical ritual, but about hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ—that the God who said, "Let light shine in darkness," shines into the darkness of our hearts, and we turn from death to everlasting life. We want to be a church centered on the Word.

Another reason why I love this pulpit is because it is big! The reformers deliberately built gargantuan pulpits and set them at the center on purpose, so that the preacher would look small and be swallowed up by the Word. This was so the people would know that the church should never be built on a man or an institution, but on the everlasting Word of Jesus Christ. We have been built on this Word for 75 years. We started as a church that advertised itself as "a new church with the old gospel," and we are now "an older church with the same gospel." This church building can disappear in centuries to come, but God’s Word will last forever. Amen. Let us pray together.

Lord, we thank You for Your kindness to this church. We thank You for Your faithfulness to this church. We pray, Lord, that as we look to the years ahead, we will be a church marked by faithfulness to You, trusting You in all the work we do. We pray that we would be able to do this, knowing that we can only do this by Your help and the power of Your Spirit. So, we ask that Your Holy Spirit would help us to be Christ-centered, to focus on the main things, to be intentional with one another, to send people out, and to be centered, reliant, and built upon Your Word. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.

At this point, I would like to call up some visitors from the city who would like to congratulate us on our anniversary. You are welcome to come up to the stage.

Civic and Community Recognition

Mayor Monica Manalo: Good morning, everybody! My name is Monica Manalo, and I am the Mayor of the City of Artesia. Along with me is Councilmember Ali Taj. We are honored to be here to share in this celebration with you, and it is lovely to see folks I know, like Rich and Clara Gillan, and Billy Thornton, who is one of my neighbors. We are just very grateful to have been invited to celebrate with you.

To Pastor Steve, Pastor John, and the entire congregation: as I was listening this morning to the music, I was reminded of the saying that "singing is praying twice." This house of the Lord has been showered in prayer this morning, and we are honored to be surrounded by that as well. A church is not only a place where we come to praise and worship, but it is a safe and courageous space where we can find faith and hope. Especially in a world right now that is going through a lot of trouble, pain, and distress, it is a comfort to have a space like this for folks to come to, especially for our residents in Artesia. We hope that you can come here, be surrounded by people who love you, find comfort, and connect.

With that, the City of Artesia would like to present Pastor Steve, Pastor John, and the entire congregation with this certificate of recognition for the First Baptist Church of Artesia:

"In celebration of the First Baptist Church of Artesia, and on behalf of the people of Artesia, we, the City Council, thank you for taking part in our community for 75 years. We hereby recognize your continued service to the city's community during your many years, and we wish you many more years of service to the residents of the City of Artesia. Signed and sealed this day, the Artesia City Council."

Thank you, everybody! We wish you 75-plus more years.

Pastor John: Thank you very much. As you know, Pastor Steve is the senior pastor of this church, and I am the lead pastor. I am going to ask Pastor Steve to swap his hats and come up to present some certificates to us as a church.

Pastor Steve: Can you hear me okay? I am presenting this certificate from the California Southern Baptist Convention: "Proudly presents a certificate to First Baptist Church of Artesia on 75 years." This comes from our State Association, of which we are members, so I am going to present this to John.

This next one is a "Historical Milestone Award," presented to First Baptist Church of Artesia as you celebrate your 75th year of Christian ministry in the City of Artesia as a member of the Los Angeles Southern Baptist Association, on this day, October 17th, 2023. This one is real special because it has my name written on it! Thank you.

Pastor John: Thank you. Director Steve, you may resume your senior pastor duties!

I was told that there is a pastor appreciation presentation, which I did not know about, and I believe I am supposed to ask Sister Janette to come up.

Sister Janette: Good morning, church! My name is Janette, from the First Baptist Church of Artesia Women’s Ministry. As everybody knows, October is Pastor Appreciation Month. We at Artesia Church would like to acknowledge and appreciate our pastors, and from our prayer corner fellowship group, we have come up with a special token to express our appreciation to all our pastors. We would like to call them up: Pastor Steve, Pastor John, Pastor Irwin, and Pastor Gigi (who is serving in the Philippines). Thank you, Pastor Steve, Pastor John, and Pastor Irwin! A round of applause for our pastors.

A Collaborative Vision for the Kingdom

Pastor John: Thank you for that. And now for some announcements. The 75th anniversary took a lot of work, and we are so grateful. If you took the time at any point in the last few weeks to help out with the 75th anniversary, can you just stand so we can thank you for your work? Anyone who helped out—I know there were more folks who helped. Yes, thank you so much!

Regarding giving, we know that the Lord has everything He needs to accomplish His mission, but our church exists to help glorify God through worshiping Him, discipling others, and evangelizing the world. When you give to this church, you are helping our church accomplish that mission as we seek to serve the Lord together. You can give online, and there is also an offering plate in the back. Let me go ahead and pray and give thanks to God for our offering.

Lord, we thank You for Your faithfulness to us. We thank You that You have given us resources to glorify You, whether that is in providing for our own needs, being generous with others, or contributing to the needs of this ministry. We pray, Lord, that You would help us to be able to glorify You with this offering, and to be able to use it to advance Your kingdom. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.

We also have some other classes going on every Sunday morning. Irwin teaches a class on the Book of Mark at 8:45 AM in the library; all are welcome to come to that. We also have a "Church Matters" class if you are interested in becoming a member of this church, or if you are interested in learning more about what it looks like to be part of a local church. I will be teaching that class every single Sunday morning at 9:00 AM right down the hallway in the Bible study room, and you are more than welcome to come.

We also have Wednesday night Bible studies. On your bulletin, it says 7:30 PM; that is incorrect, as you would be walking in halfway through our study. It is actually at 7:00 PM. We are currently going through the Pastoral Epistles with Pastor Steve, so all are welcome to attend that as well.

Lastly, we would like to have a few words from the pastors who serve at the Spanish church and the Korean church that meet here. Starting with Pastor Fernando, would you like to come up and say a few words?

Pastor Fernando: I am not going to preach! I just want to say some words from our church, because we have been here for 14 years out of those 75 years. It is just a few years compared to the whole journey that this church has had. Gracias, thank you for all your help and for all your support for our church. Congratulations!

Pastor John: Thank you, Pastor Fernando. And next, we have Pastor Quan.

Pastor Quan: Well, good morning, everyone! I was so surprised when Pastor Steve was fellowshiping in the educational building one day, and he said, "Pastor Quan, come here," and he introduced me to this young fellow. He said, "This is our new lead pastor." I was surprised because he was so young, and second, because he was Korean! When he speaks in Korean, it is fluent, and then he speaks English even better than Korean, I know. I am so glad about it. Since I heard his message today, I can see he has a passion in his heart. He looked out and noted that there are 30,000 people surrounding this area. You may have trouble, because you are going to have to expand this church! Well, anyway, I am so glad that Pastor John is here, and Pastor Steve is still guiding as the senior pastor. It is a good time to set up the young pastor. I think you have a good vision at First Baptist Church. We will keep praying for the church and for your pastors. Thank you.

Pastor John: Thank you, Pastor Quan. One more announcement before our benediction: we have lunch provided for you outside in the tent after our closing song. So, feel free to spend time in here looking at the history. We also have binders out in the foyer and in the library with pictures of our church throughout the decades. If you would like to see little snapshots of God’s faithfulness, feel free to peruse your way through that, and then we will be serving lunch outside under the tents. We would love to spend time with you and thank you for coming.

I was asked to give the benediction at the end from 2 Corinthians 13:14:

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen.

Let us stand and sing together. You can open your hymnals to number 460.

Congregation: All the way my Savior leads me; What have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy, Who through life has been my guide? Heavenly peace, divinest comfort, Here by faith in Him to dwell! For I know, whate'er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well; For I know, whate'er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well.

All the way my Savior leads me, Cheers each winding path I tread, Gives me grace for every trial, Feeds me with the living bread. Though my weary steps may falter, And my soul athirst may be, Gushing from the Rock before me, Lo! A spring of joy I see; Gushing from the Rock before me, Lo! A spring of joy I see.

Pastor John: You may be dismissed as we sing the last verse.

Congregation: All the way my Savior leads me; Oh, the fullness of His love! Perfect rest to me is promised In my Father's house above. When my spirit, clothed immortal, Wings its flight to realms of day, This my song through endless ages: Jesus led me all the way; This my song through endless ages: Jesus led me all the way.

Pastor John: Have a blessed afternoon!