Sunday Night, January 28, 2018 PM

I have this on my desk and it goes back to, I started this a while back, like 2010, and I just take a note of something that may have happened that was church effective or it may have affected all of us and then I'm going to discuss a few other things and I want to share a little word from a guy named Oswald Chambers.

Anybody know who Oswald Chambers is? You do know? Those that don't, you'll get to learn about him. So in January, that was a month, a year ago, this month, we had a youth fellowship on the first and we're having one tonight, right?

Is that right? This is yes, this is no. We also had a men's breakfast on the third. We had flock groups on the 29th and then the pastor went to a conference for a guy named Steve Lawson. Anybody know who Steve Lawson is?

Okay.

Michael Desney will share that with you later. Then in February, we did something interesting in February and March. We had elder interviews. The elders remember that process where you got to sit up on the stage and get asked questions by Brother Michael and hopefully you didn't embarrass yourself too much.

It was on the 5th, the evening of the 5th and the 12th. We have an elders meeting every month. We try to do the trellis work, as we call it, the structure work of the church. You ladies had a Mugs and Muffins on the 21st of February.

It seems like it was cold, I don't, I just assumed that because it was February. Then it was a special event on the 3rd, an Embrace Grace baby shower. You remember that? And who was that lady?

Abena.

Seems like a long time ago, doesn't it, that you had that? Then Ken and Randy had their opportunity to visit the stage during their elder interviews. We had a work day on March 18th. Our work days usually involve, you know, fixing and removing and painting and tossing.

We had some more flock groups. Then I put in this. This was important. It probably wasn't a really joyous time for the Dearest family, but on the 30th of March, I put down The Plague. It seemed like you guys went into isolation and that kind of, you know, gave us a scare.

So it was a, I put The Plague. That's what I called it, The Plague. And I'm glad you're here tonight and there's no more plague. April 1st was Palm Sunday. The 14th was Good Friday service. I may remember the Good Friday service.

We celebrated Easter. And then on the 23rd, and you know, I'm going to first apologize as an elder representative. Our projects are ongoing and intentional. Timely is probably not a word you use when you talk to us about our projects, but we made a presentation about the lighting in the auditorium on April 23rd.

So we changed out those 50-some-year-old fixtures. And there was, we had some interesting things we found on top of those lights. I won't tell you what was up there. May 13th, we did the Walk for Hope.

Remember that? It was a very pleasant Saturday. We had a really good turnout. The folks from Hope Pregnancy were really, we kind of took a lead role. And Dennis, where'd Dennis go? Dennis took a real leadership role in that process and represented us well.

The Tillmans came all the way from Mongolia to visit us on the 13th and 14th, spent the weekend. Then there was a B .B. Warfield lecture.

Who went to that?

Wasn't there two of you guys?

Yeah, you went to that too.

If you don't know who B .B. Warfield is, Michael and birthday boy Dwight will tell you. Today's his birthday, by the way. The 14th, we did a graduate's recognition. We had some folks who were successful in graduating.

Joel, were you one of those? Yeah, I think there were some others in the room. Another Mugs and Muffins flock groups. Then we did VBS outreach on June 3rd. Then we had our VBS on June 11th through the 14th.

And then Children's Choir started, which we had a fun time with that.

We enjoyed that.

July 2nd was the 4th of July concert or a concert at Wilmot Place.

How many went to that?

You got to hear somebody we know play the piano. July 17th was the start of the auditorium project for the lights. Do you know what a snail says on the back of a turtle? We have a turtle organization, and we elders are the snails.

We think we're doing great. We think we're just moving right along.

Glad you laughed at that. I feel better about it. In the same month, July 22nd, we had a kitchen demo. We had a wonderful opportunity finding interesting things in the walls of our kitchen. Randy, this building was built.

That used to be the baptistry, wasn't it?

No, the baptistry was right here.

That's our office. We found some things we're not going to tell you about in there. Stuff fell on it. Christian, are you okay? The ceiling fell on Christian that day.

Not intentionally.

It just didn't stay up after we demoed everything around it. August 9th, we had a children's choir service. We had a summer children's choir. We had another work day on the 12th. We did some more kitchen demo.

I climbed up on a ladder and tore down that red curtain over the baptistry. I had some help holding the ladder steady. I wish there had been water in the baptistry. If I did fall, I would have at least landed in there.

Then we did a torchlighters video for the 16th as one of our children's choir post-choir times. The Welcomeths came to visit us on the 20th. They are related to Bernie Denny Johnson. We had a service on the 23rd where we prayed over the children.

Do you remember that? We brought the kids in instead of them going to their usual time. For those of you who weren't here, you missed a really special time. We got to pray with the kids and pray over them.

September 3rd was promotion Sunday. TAG started on the 6th. We had a Revive Our Hearts conference here on the 29th through the 30th. That was a remote samba cast. There was some variation of that kind of technology.

You know what I'm talking about.

October 22nd, the Ernst traveled down from that state called Alaska to come visit us. Celeste McGee came and visited us before she was heading back to Thailand. We had a church picnic at the Smoots. This year there were no horse apples.

In years past, Jeff Brown was hit in the head by one. They were about the size of a softball. That tree got cut down and turned firewood.

Is that correct?

That's correct. It kept us warm that winter.

Huh?

It was hard wood. A lot of work. November 1st, we had a really, really special event that happened here. It was well attended and well done. I appreciated it. The Reformation celebration of Martin Luther.

Folks, that was really for me the highlight of the year. That was really impactful is the word I'm looking for.

All right.

See, I'm still flipping pages.

November, this is the note I put. Kitchen's not available. So December 20th, we had a candlelight and carol service. That was a very sweet time. I appreciate all the choir effort and my wife's leading.

Kind of partial to her ability in that area. And on the 24th, we had a Christmas communion. If you remember that.

We went through.

And then this month, we've started new member classes. So we've had the three new member classes, right? And we've accomplished that.

And I don't know.

Oh, I was supposed to bring some forms tonight.

I forgot to do that.

I'm sorry.

But we have some folks that are considering prayerfully. Hopefully, we're going to join our ranks and become your brothers and sisters in Christ at Sunnyside. 2017 was not unlike many years in the past and probably won't be unlike this year.

We experienced the loss of loved ones. We experienced births. It's interesting to me how God takes someone home and within days, he brings someone new in. Consider that for a bit. We had weddings. We had baptisms.

We had salvations. We had some children come to the Lord. That was a wonderful thing. We had healings. I think of Miss Marsha. We thought we were going to lose her, but the Lord just kind of rebooted her.

If I could say that. There were job changes. New careers restarted for the Christian heritage. We had some retirements. We had some health challenges. We have those among us who have experienced challenges, and they're carrying into the new year.

And we're praying for healing. We're praying for fulfillment and completion. So the new year may not bring more or less of what it did in 2017 and 2018, but God.

I believe it was September.

We were given a lace or stitchery by Starley that we have in our home,.

And it says, but God.

You know, he knows what he's doing.

We don't know what he's doing all the time, but he knows what he's doing. I wanted to read something to you. This is, again, from Oswald Chambers. A little collection, a New Testament walk with him, but in the Gospels in John 17, 1 through 26, the verse says,.

They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctified them by the truth. Your word is truth. And then his commentary goes on to say this. Sanctification. Now, what is sanctification? Becoming more holy.

It's a big word.

It just means growing, maturing in this walk. Sanctification is the impartation to us of the holy qualities of Jesus Christ. It is his patience, his love, his holiness, his faith, his purity, his godliness, that are manifested in and through every sanctified soul.

That's y 'all. He didn't say y 'all. The presentation that God, by sanctification, plants within us his spirit, and then setting Jesus Christ before us, says,. There is your example. Follow him, and I will help you.

But you must do your best to follow him. And do what he did. It is not true to experience. And thank God it is not true to the wonderful gospel of the grace of God. The mystery of sanctification is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

The test of sanctification is not our talk about holiness and singing pious hymns, but what are we like when no one else sees us? We're those who know us best. We are all being sanctified. And in 2018, I pray that myself and you grow in our sanctification, have that wonderful experience of becoming more like Christ, that he perfects us, he takes the dross off of the top, and helps us to be freer in our obedience, more confidence in our hope, more trusting in his word, more patient and loving, more passionate about sharing the gospel.

Whatever we do in 2018, let us do it well.

Brian, keeping that journal and reminding us of some of those things, easy, easy to forget. Randy has often encouraged us to keep a Thanksgiving journal, to write down the things where God has answered prayer, what we're praying for, what we're praying for, and how God has answered those prayers to help remind us.

In many ways, you read some of the Psalms, and you can just sense that worshipful process of going back through and looking, God was faithful here. God was faithful here. God was faithful here. And that's a blessing.

The Church Calendar, Projects, and Ministry Milestones

I want to talk a little bit about the budget. And I want to just recognize that when I was teaching the new members class, the need to try to clarify a few things just so that everyone's on the same page.

If you would like a copy of the 2018 budget, you can contact Marcia, and she said she'd be willing to make you a copy, whoever wants one. She does tend to put a few of these things out in the paper holders there at the back of the auditorium.

Also, monthly financial statements to say, here's where we're at, here's what's going on, so that everybody can be on the same page, that kind of thing. I've talked about budget with Brother Gary before our meeting tonight.

One of the things I'd like to note is that as we have been, and so we continue to be, about 20 giving to missions. We're about 19 .8 particularly on our current budget, 2018. But we also, Jerry was pointing out that we have never spent the full budget in any given year that we're either anywhere from the 70s to the 80s.

I think there was one year we had to replace the HVAC system, and we got to 95 of the budget that year. But that we're continually underspending what we have projected. And so I say all that to point out that even though we're at 19 .8 for missions, we always give everything in the missions.

Everything in the missions column always gets sent out. One of the items is called extra missionary support, and we put that fund in to say, every once in a while, we get a letter from one of our missionaries that says, we have a particular challenge.

We have a particular issue that we need help with. And at Sunnyside, we can give love offerings to help with that. But we'd also like something planned to say, oh, you need help? We have help available.

We want to help you. And we always want to give all of that every year to our missionaries, whatever their special needs are. And we were able to do that this year. So that being said, any questions about missions and missionary support?

It's $2 ,000. So, for instance, we had spent $1 ,000 of it already, so we got near the end of the year and the house had taken in those four orphans because their parents were strung out on drugs and they were trying to take care of these four orphans in the village.

And so we said, well, let's help them. And so we sent the rest of the missionary fund to them, things like that. I talk about the budget only in the sense that it is a vehicle that directs our mission.

What we see is important. And so we want to definitely emphasize the missions. And also, over the last few years, especially between 2016 and 2017, we've spent a lot of our capital on facilities. We needed to replace the lights in the auditorium, and the kitchen was also long overdue for replacement.

And so we have gone from about $124 ,000 in total assets to about $63 ,000. Now, why are we investing in the facilities? We're investing in the facilities because we believe God has us here for a reason.

And if we're going to reach the block, if we're going to reach this neighborhood where there are many, many unreached people groups, then we need to make sure that our facilities are ready and available to be used.

So, you know, auditorium needs to be lit and the kitchen needs to be working. And we have many opportunities, I think, ahead of us to do ministry right here in our collective neighborhood. Now, of course, you all have your own neighborhoods wherever you are, and there's ministry opportunities there.

But I think that God has us here as a gospel outpost in a very unreached portion of Oklahoma City. Before we move on, I have something very important I want to share. But before we move on, do we have any questions about the kitchen other than what particular date will it be done, or the lighting, or the kinds of projects we've been trying to do to keep our facilities ship shape?

It's a little bit on hold. We do know that we need to close out the west end. There's some soffits that need to be closed up so we end the aviary, you know, inside. And the kitchen is working just fine.

The kitchen, there isn't really any leaks to speak of. All the light bulbs were burnt out. Yet we have a partnership now with Santa Fe South Charter School. They needed extra gym space. And so Mike Figueroa used to be the principal there, and so he's now kind of the community liaison.

And so we worked together to make sure that they can use that gymnasium for extra space. And so what they did, they replaced all the light bulbs and cleaned it up and are using it regularly. And also there's a basketball ministry from Christ Community Church that comes over every other Saturday to use it as well.

And Jared, who leads that, used to work for Mike Figueroa, so he makes sure it leaves it in a better state than when he came into it. So it's clean and being used. So good question about that. As far as prospect is concerned, you know, I remember it was May 31, 2014.

We had a Q &A session over in the auditorium when you all were thinking about whether or not to call me as pastor. And Norm, I think, asked the question that a lot of people were wondering is how do we reach the neighborhood, right?

How do we reach the community? That's a big question for Sunnyside Baptist Church, whose defining ministry of Christian Heritage Academy, you know, outgrew us and went beyond us. And truly, honestly, we are not the vital pillar of CHA anymore, are we?

It's good to be known as the founding church, and it's good to look back on all the good that God did through that partnership that still continues, just not in the same intensity as it once did. And for any church, moving forward into what God has next past the defining ministry of a church is vitally important.

What's next?

Well, where are we?

We are in the middle of I -35, I -44, I -240, and I -40. That's where we are. And our neighborhood has changed. This neighborhood has changed a long time since the year I was born, okay? And the people who live here are very much different than the people who usually live here, but we're still here.

This is a gospel outpost. We are here to be light and to be salt and to be purposeful in making connections. So we've been praying, haven't we? We've been praying. God help us. How can we, you know, we have an ESL class and we pray for the ESL class.

There's, above all, family counseling, Hispanic counseling services that meet in classrooms upstairs with Jose Solis and his counselors. We want the kitchen going so we can have the Wednesday night meal again because people from the community came in.

People from the Hispanic families that went to counseling came in. People from ESL came to the meals. We were reaching a whole lot of different people through the Wednesday night meal. That's why we want to get this kitchen back up and running.

And I think that we have been, as I said, we try to make this connection with Santa Fe South. But just praying, God, where can we really begin to make some traction, gain some traction here? Well, God bless Christopher Roberts, who went out and joined the gospel project last year.

And he came faithfully on Wednesday nights and shared with us a prayer request for apartment complexes all over our neighborhood where they were attempting to get the gospel into these places. Why would Christ Community Church, whose pastor is John Mark Hart and his co-pastors Chauncey and Jared, why are they interested in getting the gospel to multifamily housing, Section 8 apartment housing?

Why would they be interested in doing that? Because 43 percent of Oklahomans are churched. So 43 percent of Oklahomans say, yeah, I go to a church such and such. Who knows what kind of church it is? But, hey, they're church.

In these multifamily housing units, it's four percent. There's a whole lot of people crammed together in not so nice conditions, and four percent of them are churched. I asked Chauncey, I said, why? What's going on?

Is it because they don't have good transportation? He said, well, maybe sometimes. He said, but here's the thing. They don't know anything about the Bible. They probably have heard the name Jesus. And they may possibly have heard John 3 .16 if they got picked up by Southwest through bus ministry.

Maybe. They just don't know. That's where they're going. Now, Jesus told the Pharisees who were fond of throwing big parties and having the elite come to their party so the elite would invite them back over.

Jesus told them, invite people to your table and have people in your home that can do nothing for you. He said this after. But I think the point is that we need to think about the people who are in our neighborhood and be purposeful.

I'd like us to work in a partnership with Christ Community Church. I'm still meeting with the leadership. But we need to think about ways. As Jared pointed out, he said in many ways Christ Community Church, which is their offices are two miles from here as the crow flies.

They're a Southern Baptist church plant from 2010. And they are purposely trying to reach the people who actually live here. As Jared said, they're poor in many ways. They're poor in finances, poor in facilities.

But they've been rich in experience in being able to reach people that you and I have been praying for and wanting to reach. But don't know how and don't have the credibility, don't have the experience, don't have the inroad.

But Christ Community Church does. And come this summer, in June and July, they're going to have the gospel project again. And where they're going into these multifamily housing units and they're going to be putting on what looks to us like VVS.

But it's them getting the gospel to these kids who don't hear about Jesus, don't know anything about him, don't know anything about the gospel. Going to those who are most needy for the gospel. And I like VVS and we always rear back with a big swing at VVS.

But I feel that we foul the ball off. I mean, we make contact and we may meet a couple of new people, but boy, do we foul the ball off. And there's something to be said about going to where the people are.

And even if we have not had that inroad before, I think we have the opportunity now. And I'd like to see us be on mission and go learn some things this year. Maybe not do a VVS here, but do a VVS there.

Get involved with Gospel Project and Christ Community Church. Come alongside and say, how can we serve you? You guys are the tip of the spear in getting the gospel to these people. We'd like to help hold the end of the spear, if anything.

We would like to help somehow. Can we come alongside? Can we play a part? What can we do? What things can we do? Well, we have a kitchen. We're pretty good at cooking food. I noticed that in the last three and a half years.

We're pretty good at preparing food. They'll need some food prepared. They usually call in about anywhere from 20 to 30 college students from all over the nation to come help. And they need housing. Well, we've got housing, don't we, in our backyard that we're trying to keep up for missions purposes, right?

And there's a mission that happens in our neighborhood every summer for two months. Don't we want to be involved? These are things that I'm thinking about coming up. And I don't and Chauncey and Jared and John Mark will be the first to say they don't have it all figured out.

But they do need help. And I'd like us to get involved. I'd like to help. They're doing a variety of things. They're trying to, you know, a whole person kind of ministry. You notice that Jesus always had compassion as a platform for his evangelism.

People who were sick and hungry and tired and demon-possessed and so on. And he compassionately reached their needs and then preached the gospel to them. He showed them love and he preached them truth.

And this is something that Christ Community Church is doing. They have a health clinic. They're trying to help people eat healthier. I'll give you an example. At Will Rogers apartment complex, and that's where Christopher is helping out, and they were able to they started a Bible study there with Jared.

If you start out at that apartment complex and walk for three miles, if you walk for three miles, you can't find any grocery store. Now imagine somebody who doesn't have great transportation and how are you going to go find any kind of decent food to eat?

Okay, so you're talking about things like, well, how do you help these people? I don't know. I'd like to find out. I'd like to find out how to show compassion and do things that would actually reach people where they're at.

And I think that this church would love to be involved with that. I hear testimonies about you guys and your neighbors and your relatives and the ways that you're reaching out and your concern for the lost.

I hear that. I've heard it for three-and-a-half years, and I've also heard the desire to be on mission in our own context, in our own neighborhood. I'm praying to God this is one opportunity for us to take advantage of that in his good timing, in his good timing.

I don't have all the answers. I'm not yet met on every issue yet, but do you have any questions or thoughts about that prospect of what might be next for us?

We did vacation Bible school in a neighborhood, in a yard,.

In a backyard Bible school.

And we had, like, over here at the mission house, others had 19 different neighborhoods. It was the best vacation Bible school I've ever been to. Those children were so quiet. They were listening to stuff they'd never heard before.

It was such a blessing to me. I love doing that. So I'm excited about it. It reminds me of years ago when my mind is this country. I don't know where we're at.

You think about the parable of the talents. But, you know, as God gives us opportunities, we want to be as faithful as we can to make the most out of each opportunity that comes. Anything else? Oh, did you raise your hand?

Yeah, I did.

Okay, please go ahead. Okay, well, we're going to have a truth group following this, but let's close by singing the doxology. And then you can fellowship as long as you want.