Praising God for 140 Years Various Texts

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Yeah, it's once again, it's so great to be with you today and what a rich time
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This is to sing with you and to all be in this one place together Low and high as well to see everyone and as I mentioned at the intro
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We're here to celebrate God's grace over this church over the last 140 years
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And I want to focus on three areas We are to celebrate God's grace toward us and first is through our rich history
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When you walk into this building, you maybe saw the old sign today as you walked in that says
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Eureka Baptist Church established 1881 We are here 140 years later carrying on the legacy of the founders who loved
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God and Made it their mission to be and make disciples of Jesus Christ in this community 140 years ago in 1881.
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The world was much different as you might imagine There were no vehicles. There were no planes
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Most homes did not have underground plumbing At this point in history the
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Titanic sinking had not yet happened Both world wars were still yet to be fought
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All of us were many decades away from birth some of us were a century or more away from birth
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Now as we stand here in 2021, we know What it is like to go through wild times because of the season we just went through as a nation
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But when this church started in 1881, there was also turbulence in America Rutherford V.
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Hayes was the president to start that year James Garfield won the election in 1880 and assumed office
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The at this time in American history the inauguration was not in January it was in March and Less than four months into his presidency
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He was shot and then died less than three months later. So he was the president for only
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Seven months After he died the vice president Chester a
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Arthur took over What this means is that in 1881 the year this church was founded.
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There were three Presidents of our country as this turmoil was going on a bunch of Danish immigrants who wanted to start a church
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Started one near the St. Croix River in northwestern, Wisconsin in a place called
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Eureka Eureka means anybody know I found it and These immigrants knew they found a special place to live the rolling hills the river the lakes
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The ponds the trees the open fields the wildlife Can you tell
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I love this area and I know you do too and These Danes named the church
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Eureka Danish Baptist Church Okay, so we only dropped one word from the name since then as we stand here in 2021.
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We still have a close connection with the founding of this church We have a photo in the newly renovated
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Manson building the building right over there from 1893 in The photo there is a man worth noting in the bottom row on the right hand side who is three from the end
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The man in this photo is named Peter Madsen The father of Elvin Madsen and Elvin is right here.
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He rose back. I Remember Elvin telling me that his father had him when he was older.
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He was in his 50s when he had Elvin Peter was born in 1877 Elvin in 1929
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What this means is that Elvin's father was a little boy About four years old
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When this church got started We had many people in this church and in this area love history
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It's a very historical place and I find it incredibly Fascinating that we have a connection with our church's founding 140 years later through Elvin Madsen Everyone who knows
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Elvin knows what a steady Faithful Christian he is He has continued the legacy of his father and all of those founders to the present day
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And what a blessing it is that he is here I mean who could have imagined that we would have that connection 140 years later
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And we as a church continue that legacy also About a year ago in our newsletter
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Barb Trombley wrote about that picture in the Madsen building And she wrote this at the time.
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This photo was taken. These folks probably didn't think they were anyone special But they left behind a legacy of faith and faithfulness
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So can we? These are good words by Barb May we be faithful as many in our church's history have been faithful as you think about our church's history
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Let's give thanks and praise to our Lord as Psalm 100 verse 5 says the
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Lord is good His steadfast love endures forever and his faithfulness to all generations
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The Lord has been faithful to several generations in the history of this church. I Remember listening to a podcast where a famous pastor was once asked do saints in heaven
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See what is happening on earth? His answer I think was a good one
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He said that anything that contributes to the fullness of one's joy happens in heaven and this may include
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Saints in heaven seen things on earth that will bring joy to their heart in heaven
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There's a verse in the Bible that may indicate this Hebrews 12 1 Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us
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It may be that the founders of this church are able to see the work that God is doing through our church right now through It may be that the
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Lord is allowing them to watch this service as we look at the past it must be our aim
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To contribute to continue the strong legacy of all the Saints who belong to this church over the years
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So in this first point, we celebrate the rich history that God has written for Eureka Baptist going back to 1881
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Now in the second point we celebrate God's work in our church through our uniqueness our uniqueness
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Every church has unique attributes, but I think it's also true that some churches are more unique than others
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It's like seeing houses, right? You go to you go to neighborhoods and every house looks the same and then you go to some other neighborhoods where there's a lot
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Of variety and I know I'm biased because I love this church so much
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But let me point out a few ways that this church is different from so many others. I Tell my wife
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Rihanna often that this church is so different from any church I've ever seen and let me explain some things and what
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I want you to see is that this church is a special place to be I've heard this story from 2008 and Bob mentioned this that this church was near death
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During the Christmas service. They had a few more than a dozen people who met downstairs to save money on heating and Here we are today
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My how God has blessed us since then how faithful he has been But what kept this church alive?
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When answer is God, but but what did he use to keep this church alive? First we need to recognize the people who stayed through the tough times like the
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Mattson's the Trombley's the Clark's the Swanson's the Jorgensen's and maybe some others that I have forgotten and if I did forget
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I apologize The reason we are here right now is largely because of these faithful servants who stayed when others told them to close down and go somewhere else
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Even our own denomination told them to close down But they forgot something about God We worship a
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God who raises the dead So some stayed keeping the church going but others came back
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After college or after years of being away the kids who grew up in this church came back bringing their spouses and kids with them
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Amber Hansi Kyle Shayla Sean Derek Rachel Hall I Know that John Chouinard was involved in the
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VBS at this church and came a handful of years ago Over the last five to ten years the
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Lord used this young group to breathe life back into this church churches die
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When there are only middle -aged and older people with no younger and when these families came back all age groups were once again
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Represented from Levi to Elvin Five years ago when
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I was looking for a church to pastor. I wanted to be used by God to build something Not to be a captain just to keep a ship going but to build something
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So when I saw this church, I thought this is a wonderful group that I can build with for many years to come In both items.
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I just mentioned are very unique when we're talking about churches First people usually don't stay around in a church that is about to die.
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People want to go where things are happening, right? What's hip? What's what's what's lively?
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To go to a church where there's 15 people who wants to do that unless you're faithful and Want to keep it going
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These faithful folks staying around enduring when they were told not is very unique.
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What is also unique is that young people? Stay put As you know as some of you know,
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I'm from Mound, Minnesota It's the west side of Lake Winnetonka west of Minneapolis and my home church is
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Mound Evangelical free church that church has had many young people go through it over the last 40 years
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But since 1980 my brother Caleb is the only adult who is still left at Mound free who went there as a child
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Think about that and there's nothing wrong with the church Mound free The point
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I'm making is that it's pretty normal for churches, especially in a metropolitan area for that to happen People will come in they pass through they go somewhere else
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Not here By my count we have seven children that were here during their younger years and are still here today
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This is unique and this is something we should celebrate And this is a credit to their parents and the adults in this church who helped influence them
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Proverbs 22 6 comes to mind Train up a child in the way. He should go even when he is old.
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He will not depart from it It's neat to see when young people love
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Christ Stay committed to one place and raise their children in the same place where they grew to love
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Jesus a while back I asked Deb Swanson if she thought her children would move away after high school and plant their roots somewhere else
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She told me she knew they would stay And how wonderful it would be if the younger generation we now had
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Stayed around and continued the legacy of this church Now it may be that the Lord calls some away and we won't object to that.
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We won't stand in the way But I I think it very well could happen I could see that happening and I hear him talking and we want to live in Eureka when we get older The close proximity also to which people live to the church is also unique.
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It's common for people to pass by 20 churches Before they arrive at their church and so often their church is not in their community
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My old pastor once told me of the importance of going to church in your community And I don't
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I realize that sometimes it doesn't work out. But if you can do that, that's the best way to go It's a blessing to be able to go to a church the same place as your neighbors
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So that you can not only worship the Lord together in one place, but also you can do life together Hebrews 10 24 and 25 says let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works
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Not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drying near This is done best when you live close to one another and we have so many in this church who live just within a few miles not too far away
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And I could say more unique things but I have to stop there May we thank the Lord for our uniqueness and how this is a blessing to this church and to this community the third and final
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Thing I want to highlight here about the unique the the blessing of God's grace over the last hundred forty years is this
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And that is our common bond in Christ We are not a country club
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We are not a secular social gathering we are not a self -help group that meets a few times a week
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No, we are the body of Christ the
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Apostle Paul describes what the body looks like in Ephesians 4 verses 11 through 16 and Jesus gave the apostles the prophets the evangelists the shepherds and teachers to equip the
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Saints for the work of ministry For building up the body of Christ Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the
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Son of God to mature Manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and Carried about by every wind of doctrine by human cunning by craftiness and deceitful schemes rather Speaking the truth in love.
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We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ From whom the whole body
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Joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is working properly
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Makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love
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This is who we are this is our goal Ephesians chapter 4 verses 11 through 16 2nd
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Peter 3 18 tells us more specifically that we are to grow in the grace and knowledge of our
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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ This is the mission of our church to grow in Christ together
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This happens over the long haul I've mentioned in a previous in previous sermons that so many people
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I grew up with are not walking with the Lord today. I Don't want that to be our church
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You know the legitimacy of something through its fruit Does it last is it lively many years later
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The test is over the long haul and my prayer is that as a church We would be on this journey over the long haul growing together
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And one way the growth happens is when people follow Jesus for the very first time Some of you here today may identify as a
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Christian, but you have never truly given your life to Jesus Christ Others of you would not identify as a
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Christian at all But you came to celebrate the long anniversary of a church and as I say we are so glad That you have blocked out some time to celebrate this with us
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But my guess is here and most identify as a Christian Identifying as a
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Christian can be dangerous and I just want to give this warning as I have you here today We live in a
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Christianized area Where one can be a cultural Christian, but not a true biblical
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Christian We know what a Christian is through the Bible it.
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That's where we find that out Listen to these sobering words from Jesus in Matthew chapter 7 verses 21 through 23.
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He said Not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven But the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven on that day
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Many will say to me Lord Lord did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name and Then I will declare to them.
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I never knew you Depart from me you workers of lawlessness Very sobering words from the
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Lord Jesus Just because you call yourself a Christian doesn't mean you are a
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Christian and I say this in love And you might say pastor Seth I was baptized in the church
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I come to church on Christmas and Easter I'm a good neighbor. I'm a law -abiding citizen
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But this is what cultural Christianity is cultural Christianity is going through the motions, but not truly following Jesus Everyone here is either on the path to heaven or to hell
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Jesus says this very clearly. It's very black and white Matthew chapter 7 verses 7 or verses 13 and 14
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He says enter by the narrow gates for the gate is wide And the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many
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For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few
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So the question is how do you know you're on the narrow path that leads to heaven?
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Jesus tells us the answer the Bible tells us the answer The answer is very clear. Do you believe the gospel the gospel means good news?
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You are a sinner That's what There's only good news because there's first bad news
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The bad news is you are a sinner and the good news is what the Bible says about Jesus Christ and what he has done
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Things like there's many of you here. I don't know you very well as some of you I've never met before but I do know something about you
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You're a sinner, that's what we all have in common Romans 3 23 says for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and The due penalty for sin is eternal separation from God in hell.
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God is not only a loving God. He's also a just God Romans 6 23 says the wages of sin is death and that's referring to eternal death
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This is what we deserve as sinners But 2 ,000 years ago.
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This is the good news 2 ,000 years ago God Graciously graciously sent his son
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Jesus to die for our sins he took upon himself our sins and he faced hell for us and He endured the holy just wrath of God on the cross
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John 3 16 many of you know it for God So loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life
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So that's what you got to do believe You might say I prayed the sinners prayer
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But my question is does the biblical Jesus mean anything to you if Jesus means nothing to you
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Then then praying a magical prayer that just checks the box that doesn't do it
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The heart the heart of the matter is that the heart is the matter. Do you love him? That's what
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God calls for is a sincere heart You need to truly see the gravity of your sin and put your full trust in Jesus And if this happens, then you are forgiven.
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You will never pay for your sins because Jesus paid for them and If you are forgiven then you then you are a heaven -bound
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Person so that when you take your last breath, you will experience fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore in the presence of God One of my favorite verses and you see this verse as you walk in Psalm 16 11 in your presence
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There's fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore There's two there's two things that humans want we want to be fully happy and we want to be fully happy forever and You're only gonna find that in one place and that's through Jesus Christ And but how can you be sure that you're saved in heaven -bound?
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2nd Corinthians 5 17 says if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation The old has gone behold the new has come if you truly belong to Christ your life is going to look different than it once did
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You will love Christ more than anything you love him even more than good things
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More than family more than work more than hobbies More than life itself and it will show in the way you live
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So ask yourself this question today is God number one Can you say largely speaking that this is true or is he consistently on the back burner?
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To be a true disciple of Jesus to truly be heaven -bound at the end of the day
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Christ will be shown to be number one in your life The call of the
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Bible is clear X1631 says believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved
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But what this belief means is that obedience will accompany it now
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It is true. You're saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone
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But Paul wrote in 2nd Corinthians 517 that when you come to Christ when you when you believe and you trust his finished work 100 % for your salvation what's going to happen is that you will be different?
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Because the Holy Spirit comes into your life in John 3 36 This is this is what
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Jesus says whoever believes in the Son has eternal life But whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him
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So true belief will always lead to true obedience in Christ So do you sincerely believe for those who have never truly believed?
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I pray that you will because one day your heart will stop and one day Your eternal destiny will be determined and my plea is that you would know
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Christ That the Holy Spirit would be given to you as a deposit so that when you die
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You will be with God forever and this is why Eureka Baptist Church exists
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We don't just exist just to have a good time together We love doing that and we're gonna do that today But that's not the main reason we exist.
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The main reason we exist is the gospel We exist to grow Our mission statement as I mentioned is to grow in Christ together
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And the word grow is upon upon is when there's two meanings to the word We want to send as many people to heaven as we can and we want the people in this church to grow and Grow and grow in their relationship with Christ so that when this life is over many people from Eureka Baptist will stand before Christ holy and Blameless and Jesus will say the words.
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Well done good and faithful servant And there are many in the history of the church who have heard those words
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And may that be so For we who are here today So we have this common bond at this church.
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This common bond will keep this church going By God's grace till Christ returns
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So in this sermon what we have seen is that we must celebrate God's work at Eureka Baptist past present and future
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And during this time I've highlighted three areas our history our uniqueness and the bond the bond that holds us together, which is
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Jesus Christ Today is the celebration of God's work through this church over the last 140 years and over that period of time
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God has not just been growing crops among us. He's been growing disciples of Christ and He is going to continue that work as we trust him
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And may he continue to bless this church Until Christ comes through the sky and returns and gathers his people to be with him
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Let's bow our heads in prayer father in heaven you have been
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So gracious to this church You think about how many churches are 140 years old not many
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How many churches never made it to 140 years probably many? And yet you in your gracious will have decided to keep this ship going
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In this community and we say thank you today and may this church
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Lord continue the mission of Growing in Christ together
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And my prayer Lord is that if anyone is here who has never trusted in Christ for their salvation for the forgiveness of their sins
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My prayer is that they would do that this day and be with you forever in Jesus name
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Amen, and I say if you if you Would like to talk to someone that you can talk to me.
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You can talk to anybody else. We'd be glad to explain to you You know, it's believe in the gospel, but if you're if you're wondering how do
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I do that? How do I pray? How do I what does this look like? We'd love to talk to you And talk to me you can talk to someone sitting next to you who knows what it means to be a true follower of Christ So as you know
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We are Gonna be outside. It looks like the rain has stopped. Looks like it's drying out, which is a good thing, right?
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We needed the rain. So thank the Lord for that, but we'd love for you to stay around it.
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There is lunch. There's drinks There's a bouncy house There's a playground a new playground that we just got
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There's by the way, we have VBS coming up in two weeks Starting July 12 from 6 to 7 30 through July 15.
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So if you have any kids That's coming up and we'd love for you to join us for that. But as I say, thank you so much for coming today
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We'd love for you to stay around and enjoy the lunch and enjoy fellowship and enjoy hearing from glory bound so We have a lot of people in here.