On this 16th Sunday after Pentecost, Sept. 8th, 2024, Rev. Matt Sapp guides us as we embark on a new challenge, encouraging our community to engage deeply with our faith and each other. We discuss the importance of attending church, making friends, and participating in mission work, emphasizing the value of shared experiences and spiritual growth.
Our scripture reading from 1 Peter 1 calls us to live holy lives, grounded in the imperishable word of God. We reflect on the enduring impact of Jesus Christ, whose influence has grown over centuries, shaping art, education, and societal values. We are reminded of our responsibility to uphold the good name of Christ and Central Baptist Church through humility, generosity, and unity.
As we launch our 48-hour challenge, we encourage everyone to participate in worship and Bible study, fostering a strong group identity and connection. We explore the significance of maintaining a good name, both individually and collectively, as we strive to be faithful representatives of our faith and community.
Join us in this journey of faith, identity, and community, as we seek to honor our shared names and live out our calling as followers of Christ.
Chapters
(00:00) Introduction and Welcome
(00:39) The Impact of Jesus on History
(05:07) Keeping a Good Name
(08:42) Identity and Responsibility at Central Baptist Church
(11:21) Youth Ministry and Group Identity
(15:03) The Importance of Shared Experience
(17:32) Family Identity and Personal Values
(20:38) Conclusion
(20:53) Benediction
1 Peter 1:13-23
Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23
A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold. Rich and poor have this in common: The Lord is the Maker of them all.
Whoever sows injustice reaps calamity, and the rod they wield in fury will be broken. The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor.
Do not exploit the poor because they are poor and do not crush the needy in court, for the Lord will take up their case and will exact life for life.
Central is proud to be a place
- where all generations worship, grow, and serve together.
- where women and men have equal opportunities for leadership.
- where traditional worship is engaged with excellence.
- and where diverse approaches to Christian faith and theology all find themselves at home under the lordship of Christ.
Want to learn more about Central? Visit our website at centralbaptistnewnan.org or give us a call at 770-683-0610.
[00:00:00]
Matt Sapp:
This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Good morning and welcome to worship at Central Baptist Church. I'm glad each of you has chosen to join us on this 2nd Sunday in September. We gather for worship every week at central because we believe that the shared experience of God in worship, the shared experience of God in this particular place, set apart for this particular purpose, in this particular hour, that that shared experience has the power to transform us all. So my prayer for you and my prayer for me is this morning as it is every week that God might use these next few minutes to change our lives. In his book, Who is This Man? Pastor John Ortberg explains the world changing impact of the life of Jesus. And over the years, Ortberg's first chapter of that book describing the impact of Jesus over the centuries has become a little iconic.
Now Ortberg writes, on the day after Jesus death it looked like whatever small mark he might have left on the world would rapidly disappear. Instead, his impact upon history has been unparalleled. Normally when someone dies their influence on the world immediately begins to recede, but Jesus inverted this normal human trajectory. Jesus impact was greater a 100 years after his death than during his life. It was greater still after 500 years. After a 1000 years, his legacy laid the foundation for much of Europe. And after 2000 years, he has more followers in more places than ever.
Jesus is now history's most familiar figure. John Ortberg says, great men sometimes seek to submit their immortality by having great cities named after them. Think Alexandria for Alexander the great or or Caesarsia for the Caesars. More recently maybe Leningrad or Stalingrad. In the United States we have our own cities, Washington DC or Lincoln, Nebraska. Wertberg writes, while Jesus was alive he had no place to live, yet now cities all over the world are named after him and his followers. John Wartburg living in San Francisco at the time he was writing, notes that San Francisco is named after Saint Francis, a follower of Jesus. Sacramento, the capital city in California, sacrament.
We could add all the Santiago's and Santo Domingo's and Monte Cristo's and Christ's churches of the world to the list and the list would just go on and on. John Ortberg notes that powerful regimes have often tried to submit their importance by dating the calendar around their existence. A whole succession of roman emperors tried to do it. The French revolution attempted to reset the western calendar, starting it anew at the age of reason. The USSR dated time from the fall of the czar. And Ortberg says, the idea of Jesus, a crucified Jewish peasant even trying to impose a calendar on the world would be laughable.
Even in Jesus' own gospels, his ministry is carefully dated according to the Roman calendar. Every Christmas, we all have to learn how to pronounce Quirinius in Luke chapter 2. Right? Caesar Augustus issued a decree while Quirinius was governor of Syria. That's how Jesus' birth is dated in the bible. And yet, and yet today, the year 2024 marks the number of years since Jesus was born. Not the number of years since Quirinius was governor of Syria, even though they're approximately the same. Right? Christ's impact on art and music is inarguably greater than that of any other single person.
Schools and universities and hospitals and charities, the greatest of them in the world, think Oxford and Cambridge and Harvard and Yale and Mercer and Emery, closer to home, were all founded to further the mission of 1 man, Jesus Christ. Children and women still overlooked and undervalued in much of the non western world have more equal status in Christian societies because of how Jesus treated them and because of the inherent worth and dignity that his followers believe comes from being made in the image of God. Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote that, Jesus name was not so much written as it was plowed into the history of the world.
And John Ortberg writes an entire book to ask how did this happen. Today we're talking about keeping a good name and specifically about keeping a good name as those who bear Christ's name, that most important name. We're reading this morning from the book of Proverbs. Open your bibles with me, please, to to Proverbs 22. You'll notice we're jumping around a little bit inside that chapter, inside Proverbs 22. We'll read some parts out loud and and we'll skip some other parts. But with your bibles open, you can see the parts we'll skip too. I'm reading from Proverbs 22 beginning with the first verse.
A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches and favor is better than silver or gold. The rich and the poor have this in common, the lord is the maker of them all. Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity and the rod of anger will fail. Those who are generous are blessed for they share their bread with the poor. Do not rob the poor because they are poor or crush the afflicted at the gate for the Lord pleads their cause and spoils of life those who despoil them. A good name is to be valued above riches, our passage begins. Favor is better than silver or gold. We've already seen this in our first few words this morning. Right? Jesus name, Jesus good name endures in history while the names and legacies of the wealthy and powerful fade from our maps and memories.
And Jesus' good name doesn't just endure. If history is our guide, it continues and will continue to grow and to grow in influence. And to grow today even the most in parts of the world we rarely consider. We sometimes look at our own little corner of the globe and seek say that Christianity is on the decline, but look to Africa and Asia and the Pacific and South America where Christianity is growing and growing and growing by leaps and bounds. All of this is happening. All of this is happening today despite our best efforts sometimes to sully the good name of Christ. That's how strong that good name is. Even when we tie the name of Jesus to fallen kingdoms and little agendas and pet projects and small minded initiatives as all of us are from time to time wants to do, even when we shrink the name of Christ by seeking to tie it to rulers and would be rulers of this world, even when throughout history we have waged wars and subjugated people groups and subordinated women and failed to lift up children, even then, Despite all of our wrong headedness, all of our small mindedness, the strong name of Christ continues to stand for faith and hope and love and peace and life all over the world.
And so even today we proudly bear it. Christians, the name of Christ. But we're not just Christians here together this morning, are we? That's not the only name we bear. We're also members, most of us in this room, of Central Baptist Church. That's another piece of our identity. We don't just have a responsibility to Christ as Christians, we have a responsibility to one another as those who together bear the name and carry the identity of Central Baptist Church. Yesterday I was at I was at Banning Mills on our back to school, middle school retreat. All day while I was there I wore a a blue t shirt with the Central Baptist logo on it all day long.
That comes with some responsibility, right, to keep our shared name at central strong and well respected. Every Sunday before we leave church, I'll say it again this morning before you leave, I say, I hope we leave this hour of worship encouraged and emboldened to do what? To be faithful representatives both of this church, Central Baptist Church and our Lord Jesus Christ. It's about identity. Right? Katie will send me pictures, she has for years years, she sends me pictures all the time of you guys smiling and having fun gathered around dinner tables from literally all over the world. Sometimes Katie will send me a text message of you gathered in Paris or in Boston or in Glacier National Park or in Romania or sometimes even closer to home at at Serembi or Chateau Alain.
All of you gathered on senior adult trips and women's retreats and you're all smiling and sitting around dinner tables and having such a good time And every time Katie sends me one of those pictures, I send her the same response, the same half joking response. I say, make sure Katie you tell them all, tell every last person in that picture that I said remember faithful representatives. Faithful representatives. Right? I say it jokingly. It's usually good for a laugh but I'm only half joking. Right? It's about identity. It's about keeping a good name both as Christians and as members of Central Baptist Church. Proverbs 22, the verses we read and and some of the ones we skipped, Proverbs 22 identifies some things that help us keep that good name.
Humility and generosity and sincerity and purity and grace in how we speak about one another, all listed as important characteristics in keeping a good name. Don't don't mock each other scripture says. Don't poke at differences and exploit them. That only produces strife and quarrel and insults. Drive out the mocker, the writer of Proverbs says, and quarrels and insults are ended. Internal unity, the kind of shared identity we're seeking, is characterized by grace and humility and sincerity and generosity. That's how we keep a good name together here.
We happen to talk a lot about identity over the weekend at this middle school retreat I just mentioned. That's one of the themes of our youth ministry this fall, creating an identity is. So I had a chance to speak to about 40 of our middle schoolers for just a few minutes on Friday night about group identity. As we continue our search for a for a new youth minister, we conducted a church wide email survey just a few weeks ago. I'm sure lots of you saw it. I know lots of you responded to it. We asked you as part of that survey, what's most important to all of you with respect to our youth ministry as we engage in this search? We got more than 220 responses to the survey from a great cross section of our congregation.
And you said, in response to that question, what's most important to you with respect to our youth ministry? You said, collectively and appropriately and overwhelmingly, you said that what is most important to you as we think about our youth ministry is that we want to provide a place for spiritual growth and faith development for teenagers. We want to provide a great place at Central for spiritual growth and faith development for our teenagers. We want kids to make great friends here. We want them to have a lot of fun. We want them to have some great experiences. But what's most important to us is that our teenagers learn to be like Jesus and graduate with a faith that is their own.
That's our number one priority for teenagers. But in our church wide survey, guess what came up not too far behind as a youth ministry priority. And it's my clear number too, close group identity. Close group identity, bonding and real connection among our students. So as I talked to a room full of 6th and 7th and 8th graders on Friday night, that's what we talked about. I told them my prayer for them was that they develop a real group identity. I said I wanted them to think of themselves as a team or a gang or a squad or a family. I told them I want other people who aren't inside our circle.
I said, I want them to know who you are and to know that maybe you've got something inside your group that they wanna be a part of. So that when people see you together as a youth group, I said, the first thing they think is who are they and where are they from? And I I told our kids that's not because I want us to be conceited or selfish or self centered. Hey look at us. I want that for them because we all deserve to be part of something larger than ourselves that brings out the best in us. I want that for them because we all deserve to be part of something larger than ourselves that brings out the best in us. And when you're a part of a group like that, it naturally attracts attention.
Because everybody wants that. We all need that. We're all seeking that. And I told our middle schoolers, I want our youth group to be that for you. We looked at the first four verses of Philippians chapter 2 to see what Paul says about group identity like that. I won't read that for you here but you can go home and look it up. The truth is, of course, I want that for our whole church. I want all of you to think of yourselves as a as a team or a gang or a squad or a or a family. When people see all of us together, I want them to immediately ask who are they and where are they from because it's obvious we've got something as a group that they want too. I told I told our middle schoolers, that doesn't mean that we all have to be best friends, although I hope we all do become better friends over time.
What I'm talking about is deeper than that. It's more than friendship. We all have different interests. We all have different backgrounds. We all have different talents. Group identity and bonding is about more than friendship. It's about shared experience. Real connection with one another is about sharing experience and having a history together. It's about a commitment to look out for one another and to have each other's backs. It is like family. Right? You might pick on your little brother or your little sister. You might get into fights with them sometimes.
But if anybody else does, watch out. Right? That kind of bonding and group identity comes from shared experiences and that means we have to spend time together. You all got those bookmarks in your worship folders this morning. Right? Most of you got a bookmark in the mail during the week. You didn't think you were gonna get out of the sermon this Sunday without talking about the bookmark. Did you? How many of you brought your bibles today so you could stick your bookmark in it? I've already started filling my bookmark out. I've I've showed the early service. I've got 2 boxes checked already. September 8, 8 45 worship. I've already gone ahead and filled out September 8, 10 55 worship. I filled that 10 55 worship out in faith that I would successfully survive the hour. Right? Our 48 hour challenge starts today.
2 hours on Sunday. 1 hour for worship. 1 hour for bible study for at least 24 Sundays over the next calendar year. So bring your bibles. Bring your bookmarks. Keep track of it yourselves. Why? Because the key to group identity is shared experience. It's time together. Real connection, bonding, group identity comes from us being here together. And it fosters a commitment to look out for one another and to have each other's backs. And time spent together inspires that Proverbs 22 kind of internal unity, characterized by grace and humility and sincerity and generosity.
And that's how we keep a good name at Central Baptist Church. Of course, the last part of our identity is our our individual identities. When most of you in this room think about your identity, you think first about your families. You think about your family identities. Lots of us think about our last names. Saps and Smiths and Joneses and Faizans and Van Drews and Griffiths and Griffins and Headleys over there. We've got a little document at home. I've I've got a I've got a document at home. Julie makes fun of it sometimes. It's called the SAP family identity. That's what it says right at the top in big bold capital letters. SAP family identity.
It lists the virtues and practices that are most important to us or to me. The values we hope will guide how we live and who we are mostly just for me because our kids are still a little too young, but I hope one day it's for them too. It's it's not set in stone. It's not the 10 commandments. It can change as we discovered improved ways to think about what we're aiming for. But what's the goal included on that sheet for us? It'd be the same goals for all of you. It's to be people of substance and integrity. To live in ways that honor who we are and where we come from.
It's to give the next generation an even better shot at life than you have. Whatever that might mean in your individual context, it's about keeping and developing a good name. Shakespeare famously asked, what's in a name? A lot. There's a lot in a name. As Christians, as members of this church, as families, we've got a lot tied up in our names. A good name is to be valued far above riches and favor is better than silver and gold. Let's pray together. Heavenly father, we're grateful for the chance together here this morning as people who share the good and strong name of Jesus Christ.
It's people united as Christians. It's people united here in purpose as members of Central Baptist Church. It's people who seek to strengthen and improve and and honor our family names. To be good stewards of all that we've been blessed with. Remind us as we think about identity and names, of one of the scriptures we've we've mentioned recently. Remind us that even as we talk about identity, it's not we who have chosen you, but you have chosen us to be bearers of that name. Make us faithful in our work together. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Thank you all for being present in worship this morning. I do hope all of us leave this hour of worship encouraged and emboldened to be faithful representatives both of this church, Central Baptist Church, and our Lord Jesus Christ. Katie, meet us.
[00:20:54] Katie Faison:
As God's people, we are called to bring God's story to the world using our good names as individuals, as members of Central Baptist Church, and as promised disciples of Jesus. May we tell God's story through our words and actions so that others may hear and join the story too. Amen.
This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Good morning and welcome to worship at Central Baptist Church. I'm glad each of you has chosen to join us on this 2nd Sunday in September. We gather for worship every week at central because we believe that the shared experience of God in worship, the shared experience of God in this particular place, set apart for this particular purpose, in this particular hour, that that shared experience has the power to transform us all. So my prayer for you and my prayer for me is this morning as it is every week that God might use these next few minutes to change our lives. In his book, Who is This Man? Pastor John Ortberg explains the world changing impact of the life of Jesus. And over the years, Ortberg's first chapter of that book describing the impact of Jesus over the centuries has become a little iconic.
Now Ortberg writes, on the day after Jesus death it looked like whatever small mark he might have left on the world would rapidly disappear. Instead, his impact upon history has been unparalleled. Normally when someone dies their influence on the world immediately begins to recede, but Jesus inverted this normal human trajectory. Jesus impact was greater a 100 years after his death than during his life. It was greater still after 500 years. After a 1000 years, his legacy laid the foundation for much of Europe. And after 2000 years, he has more followers in more places than ever.
Jesus is now history's most familiar figure. John Ortberg says, great men sometimes seek to submit their immortality by having great cities named after them. Think Alexandria for Alexander the great or or Caesarsia for the Caesars. More recently maybe Leningrad or Stalingrad. In the United States we have our own cities, Washington DC or Lincoln, Nebraska. Wertberg writes, while Jesus was alive he had no place to live, yet now cities all over the world are named after him and his followers. John Wartburg living in San Francisco at the time he was writing, notes that San Francisco is named after Saint Francis, a follower of Jesus. Sacramento, the capital city in California, sacrament.
We could add all the Santiago's and Santo Domingo's and Monte Cristo's and Christ's churches of the world to the list and the list would just go on and on. John Ortberg notes that powerful regimes have often tried to submit their importance by dating the calendar around their existence. A whole succession of roman emperors tried to do it. The French revolution attempted to reset the western calendar, starting it anew at the age of reason. The USSR dated time from the fall of the czar. And Ortberg says, the idea of Jesus, a crucified Jewish peasant even trying to impose a calendar on the world would be laughable.
Even in Jesus' own gospels, his ministry is carefully dated according to the Roman calendar. Every Christmas, we all have to learn how to pronounce Quirinius in Luke chapter 2. Right? Caesar Augustus issued a decree while Quirinius was governor of Syria. That's how Jesus' birth is dated in the bible. And yet, and yet today, the year 2024 marks the number of years since Jesus was born. Not the number of years since Quirinius was governor of Syria, even though they're approximately the same. Right? Christ's impact on art and music is inarguably greater than that of any other single person.
Schools and universities and hospitals and charities, the greatest of them in the world, think Oxford and Cambridge and Harvard and Yale and Mercer and Emery, closer to home, were all founded to further the mission of 1 man, Jesus Christ. Children and women still overlooked and undervalued in much of the non western world have more equal status in Christian societies because of how Jesus treated them and because of the inherent worth and dignity that his followers believe comes from being made in the image of God. Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote that, Jesus name was not so much written as it was plowed into the history of the world.
And John Ortberg writes an entire book to ask how did this happen. Today we're talking about keeping a good name and specifically about keeping a good name as those who bear Christ's name, that most important name. We're reading this morning from the book of Proverbs. Open your bibles with me, please, to to Proverbs 22. You'll notice we're jumping around a little bit inside that chapter, inside Proverbs 22. We'll read some parts out loud and and we'll skip some other parts. But with your bibles open, you can see the parts we'll skip too. I'm reading from Proverbs 22 beginning with the first verse.
A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches and favor is better than silver or gold. The rich and the poor have this in common, the lord is the maker of them all. Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity and the rod of anger will fail. Those who are generous are blessed for they share their bread with the poor. Do not rob the poor because they are poor or crush the afflicted at the gate for the Lord pleads their cause and spoils of life those who despoil them. A good name is to be valued above riches, our passage begins. Favor is better than silver or gold. We've already seen this in our first few words this morning. Right? Jesus name, Jesus good name endures in history while the names and legacies of the wealthy and powerful fade from our maps and memories.
And Jesus' good name doesn't just endure. If history is our guide, it continues and will continue to grow and to grow in influence. And to grow today even the most in parts of the world we rarely consider. We sometimes look at our own little corner of the globe and seek say that Christianity is on the decline, but look to Africa and Asia and the Pacific and South America where Christianity is growing and growing and growing by leaps and bounds. All of this is happening. All of this is happening today despite our best efforts sometimes to sully the good name of Christ. That's how strong that good name is. Even when we tie the name of Jesus to fallen kingdoms and little agendas and pet projects and small minded initiatives as all of us are from time to time wants to do, even when we shrink the name of Christ by seeking to tie it to rulers and would be rulers of this world, even when throughout history we have waged wars and subjugated people groups and subordinated women and failed to lift up children, even then, Despite all of our wrong headedness, all of our small mindedness, the strong name of Christ continues to stand for faith and hope and love and peace and life all over the world.
And so even today we proudly bear it. Christians, the name of Christ. But we're not just Christians here together this morning, are we? That's not the only name we bear. We're also members, most of us in this room, of Central Baptist Church. That's another piece of our identity. We don't just have a responsibility to Christ as Christians, we have a responsibility to one another as those who together bear the name and carry the identity of Central Baptist Church. Yesterday I was at I was at Banning Mills on our back to school, middle school retreat. All day while I was there I wore a a blue t shirt with the Central Baptist logo on it all day long.
That comes with some responsibility, right, to keep our shared name at central strong and well respected. Every Sunday before we leave church, I'll say it again this morning before you leave, I say, I hope we leave this hour of worship encouraged and emboldened to do what? To be faithful representatives both of this church, Central Baptist Church and our Lord Jesus Christ. It's about identity. Right? Katie will send me pictures, she has for years years, she sends me pictures all the time of you guys smiling and having fun gathered around dinner tables from literally all over the world. Sometimes Katie will send me a text message of you gathered in Paris or in Boston or in Glacier National Park or in Romania or sometimes even closer to home at at Serembi or Chateau Alain.
All of you gathered on senior adult trips and women's retreats and you're all smiling and sitting around dinner tables and having such a good time And every time Katie sends me one of those pictures, I send her the same response, the same half joking response. I say, make sure Katie you tell them all, tell every last person in that picture that I said remember faithful representatives. Faithful representatives. Right? I say it jokingly. It's usually good for a laugh but I'm only half joking. Right? It's about identity. It's about keeping a good name both as Christians and as members of Central Baptist Church. Proverbs 22, the verses we read and and some of the ones we skipped, Proverbs 22 identifies some things that help us keep that good name.
Humility and generosity and sincerity and purity and grace in how we speak about one another, all listed as important characteristics in keeping a good name. Don't don't mock each other scripture says. Don't poke at differences and exploit them. That only produces strife and quarrel and insults. Drive out the mocker, the writer of Proverbs says, and quarrels and insults are ended. Internal unity, the kind of shared identity we're seeking, is characterized by grace and humility and sincerity and generosity. That's how we keep a good name together here.
We happen to talk a lot about identity over the weekend at this middle school retreat I just mentioned. That's one of the themes of our youth ministry this fall, creating an identity is. So I had a chance to speak to about 40 of our middle schoolers for just a few minutes on Friday night about group identity. As we continue our search for a for a new youth minister, we conducted a church wide email survey just a few weeks ago. I'm sure lots of you saw it. I know lots of you responded to it. We asked you as part of that survey, what's most important to all of you with respect to our youth ministry as we engage in this search? We got more than 220 responses to the survey from a great cross section of our congregation.
And you said, in response to that question, what's most important to you with respect to our youth ministry? You said, collectively and appropriately and overwhelmingly, you said that what is most important to you as we think about our youth ministry is that we want to provide a place for spiritual growth and faith development for teenagers. We want to provide a great place at Central for spiritual growth and faith development for our teenagers. We want kids to make great friends here. We want them to have a lot of fun. We want them to have some great experiences. But what's most important to us is that our teenagers learn to be like Jesus and graduate with a faith that is their own.
That's our number one priority for teenagers. But in our church wide survey, guess what came up not too far behind as a youth ministry priority. And it's my clear number too, close group identity. Close group identity, bonding and real connection among our students. So as I talked to a room full of 6th and 7th and 8th graders on Friday night, that's what we talked about. I told them my prayer for them was that they develop a real group identity. I said I wanted them to think of themselves as a team or a gang or a squad or a family. I told them I want other people who aren't inside our circle.
I said, I want them to know who you are and to know that maybe you've got something inside your group that they wanna be a part of. So that when people see you together as a youth group, I said, the first thing they think is who are they and where are they from? And I I told our kids that's not because I want us to be conceited or selfish or self centered. Hey look at us. I want that for them because we all deserve to be part of something larger than ourselves that brings out the best in us. I want that for them because we all deserve to be part of something larger than ourselves that brings out the best in us. And when you're a part of a group like that, it naturally attracts attention.
Because everybody wants that. We all need that. We're all seeking that. And I told our middle schoolers, I want our youth group to be that for you. We looked at the first four verses of Philippians chapter 2 to see what Paul says about group identity like that. I won't read that for you here but you can go home and look it up. The truth is, of course, I want that for our whole church. I want all of you to think of yourselves as a as a team or a gang or a squad or a or a family. When people see all of us together, I want them to immediately ask who are they and where are they from because it's obvious we've got something as a group that they want too. I told I told our middle schoolers, that doesn't mean that we all have to be best friends, although I hope we all do become better friends over time.
What I'm talking about is deeper than that. It's more than friendship. We all have different interests. We all have different backgrounds. We all have different talents. Group identity and bonding is about more than friendship. It's about shared experience. Real connection with one another is about sharing experience and having a history together. It's about a commitment to look out for one another and to have each other's backs. It is like family. Right? You might pick on your little brother or your little sister. You might get into fights with them sometimes.
But if anybody else does, watch out. Right? That kind of bonding and group identity comes from shared experiences and that means we have to spend time together. You all got those bookmarks in your worship folders this morning. Right? Most of you got a bookmark in the mail during the week. You didn't think you were gonna get out of the sermon this Sunday without talking about the bookmark. Did you? How many of you brought your bibles today so you could stick your bookmark in it? I've already started filling my bookmark out. I've I've showed the early service. I've got 2 boxes checked already. September 8, 8 45 worship. I've already gone ahead and filled out September 8, 10 55 worship. I filled that 10 55 worship out in faith that I would successfully survive the hour. Right? Our 48 hour challenge starts today.
2 hours on Sunday. 1 hour for worship. 1 hour for bible study for at least 24 Sundays over the next calendar year. So bring your bibles. Bring your bookmarks. Keep track of it yourselves. Why? Because the key to group identity is shared experience. It's time together. Real connection, bonding, group identity comes from us being here together. And it fosters a commitment to look out for one another and to have each other's backs. And time spent together inspires that Proverbs 22 kind of internal unity, characterized by grace and humility and sincerity and generosity.
And that's how we keep a good name at Central Baptist Church. Of course, the last part of our identity is our our individual identities. When most of you in this room think about your identity, you think first about your families. You think about your family identities. Lots of us think about our last names. Saps and Smiths and Joneses and Faizans and Van Drews and Griffiths and Griffins and Headleys over there. We've got a little document at home. I've I've got a I've got a document at home. Julie makes fun of it sometimes. It's called the SAP family identity. That's what it says right at the top in big bold capital letters. SAP family identity.
It lists the virtues and practices that are most important to us or to me. The values we hope will guide how we live and who we are mostly just for me because our kids are still a little too young, but I hope one day it's for them too. It's it's not set in stone. It's not the 10 commandments. It can change as we discovered improved ways to think about what we're aiming for. But what's the goal included on that sheet for us? It'd be the same goals for all of you. It's to be people of substance and integrity. To live in ways that honor who we are and where we come from.
It's to give the next generation an even better shot at life than you have. Whatever that might mean in your individual context, it's about keeping and developing a good name. Shakespeare famously asked, what's in a name? A lot. There's a lot in a name. As Christians, as members of this church, as families, we've got a lot tied up in our names. A good name is to be valued far above riches and favor is better than silver and gold. Let's pray together. Heavenly father, we're grateful for the chance together here this morning as people who share the good and strong name of Jesus Christ.
It's people united as Christians. It's people united here in purpose as members of Central Baptist Church. It's people who seek to strengthen and improve and and honor our family names. To be good stewards of all that we've been blessed with. Remind us as we think about identity and names, of one of the scriptures we've we've mentioned recently. Remind us that even as we talk about identity, it's not we who have chosen you, but you have chosen us to be bearers of that name. Make us faithful in our work together. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Thank you all for being present in worship this morning. I do hope all of us leave this hour of worship encouraged and emboldened to be faithful representatives both of this church, Central Baptist Church, and our Lord Jesus Christ. Katie, meet us.
[00:20:54] Katie Faison:
As God's people, we are called to bring God's story to the world using our good names as individuals, as members of Central Baptist Church, and as promised disciples of Jesus. May we tell God's story through our words and actions so that others may hear and join the story too. Amen.
The Impact of Jesus on History
Keeping a Good Name
