25 Aug Recap | 20 Years | Looking Back

Posted at 13:19h in Sermon Recap by

This week, Grace Church took time to look back on its twenty year history. Matt Williams surveyed the history of the church and presented nine topics that demonstrated God’s great faithfulness, love, and mercy to Grace.

This idea of thanking God and celebrating his provision is reflected in the Old Testament, in Joshua chapter 4. After God had led the Israelites across the Jordan River and into the Promised Land, they set up a memorial of twelve stones to commemorate His faithfulness – in bringing them out of Egypt, in leading them through the desert, and in taking them to the Promised Land. This monument was meant to remind the people of what God had done, and to assure them that, if He chose to, He could do it again.

These are the nine ideas that Matt presented as monuments to God’s faithfulness to Grace Church:

1. God has blessed Grace with a unique group of people. The original members of Grace Church made huge sacrifices in less-than-ideal facilities and patiently grew alongside their inexperienced leaders. These people were content to sacrifice and produce rather than consume, and their selflessness blessed the future of Grace Church profoundly.

2. God has blessed Grace with clarity and direction in its leadership. Matt openly talked about a period in which he was humbled and his pastoral motives were purified. During this time, it became clear that the mission of Grace Church was to instruct disciples of Christ and to create a spiritual home for believers.

3. God has blessed Grace with a plurality of leadership, both in teaching and eldership. The corporate leadership of the church has been blessed with men who are willing to surrender themselves in humility and sacrifice for the good of God’s church.

4. Grace has been blessed to faithfully and effectively practice church discipline. It is a difficult and often controversial process, but it is necessary to adhere to biblical principles and to preserve the purity of the church of Christ.

5. God provided Grace Church with some of the land and buildings that currently make up part of the Pelham Campus. Through a series of unlikely events, a dwindling church decided to make a great sacrifice to give its facility to Grace, providing our first permanent location.

6. God has provided Grace with many counselors who have given guidance and direction. Matt listed many names of people who have given counsel to the leadership of Grace. Some made dramatic suggestions, and some gave more practical advice, but all of them provided godly direction to Grace Church.

7. God has challenged and blessed Grace to make tough decisions. For example, when the church had been established for a few years and things were going well, the leadership had a choice to either sustain the status quo, or to attempt to expand. This expansion was not easy or cheap – it required accumulating debt to buy additional land on Pelham Road. This decision required great faith and courage, but God was faithful in it to provide resources and direction in the process.

8. Grace has been blessed with a unique leadership culture. From the beginning, when volunteers were making sacrifices in temporary facilities, Grace has had leaders who were willing to compromise their ego, comfort, and time to be a part of God’s work through the local church.

9. God has blessed Grace with the emergence of its second generation of leaders. These leaders are both the physical and spiritual children of the first generation, who have received the benefit of teaching and training that God has provided through older leadership. This new generation has benefited from attention and resources that the first generation did not have, and they have worked to build from that foundation to expand God’s work at Grace Church and in the local community.

Grace has been uniquely blessed by God’s faithfulness. This has not been earned – God shows his favor not because we deserve it, but because He is good and because He loves His people. Let us trust in Him and thank Him for his many blessings. Let us look back on what He has done, not as a guarantee that He will do it again, but as assurance that He can.

Now all glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to Him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.     ̶  Ephesians 3:20-21

-Alexander Batson

To listen to, view, or download this sermon, visit our website here.

Worship Songs from the Weekend

  • You Reign: Psalm 146, Psalm 47:5-9, 1 Chronicles 29:10-20
  • Lamb of God: John 1:29, Hebrews 4:14-16, Romans 6:5-11
  • All Creatures of Our God and King: Psalm 66:1, Psalm 148, Luke 19:40
  • This Is Our God: 2 Corinthians 12:9, Titus 3:5, Psalm 48:14
  • Look and See: Revelation 1:4-8, Psalm 66:1-5, Revelation 4:11
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