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Reverend Daniel Sanders, Pastor |
The Church: Raising Our Standards For God
As we have entered into this second month of this New Year, we are aware that there need to be some sense of direction and purpose to our efforts as a church family. I have chosen as the theme for our church for this year; “The Church: Raising Our Standards For God.”
In our 2008 Youth Retreat, we set for our theme “Raising The Standard.” This was in hope that we could motivate our young people to a better way for their lives. To challenge them not to settle for the norm, but lift themselves up to a place where they can be proud and encouraged about who they were and what they could yet become. It dawned upon me that asking our youth to raise their standards, though appropriate, was not the right order. Before we can truly challenge the youth or any one group among us to raise their standard, we (the church) as a whole must first raise our standards.
The church which is the representative of God on earth, has been given a great responsibility by God through Jesus Christ, to do Kingdom work. Our efforts are to win people to Christ and to care for the many that He has left in our hands. We as the people of God are challenged to work the good works of God. We are to minister to the needy, to touch the lives of all people for the glory and purposes of God. To do this we “must be about our Father’s business.” Our efforts for the Kingdom must be focused and efficient. We have no time to lose in entertaining the usual and customary things that have become all too common in many of our churches. We must seek to raise our standards for God. God has given to us so very much, and of whom much is given, much is required.
We raise our standards by not settling, under any circumstance, for anything less than our best. We cannot look at the work and responsibility that God has charged to our hands and think that it is okay to keep doing things the same old way that we have always done things. New challenges face us on every hand and we must come up with new ways and better ways to confront these issues.
Not only must we raise the standard of our church efforts, we must raise the standards of our individual lives. We canot compromise to the ways of our world. We are to be "transformed by the renewing of our minds," and understand that God has expectations of how we walk, how we talk, how we live, and how we represent Him. We must raise our standards above the "convenient sin" that is so dominant in our society today. We cannot do and be and act like the rest of the world and think God is pleased with us. Our standards must be higher, better and stronger than those we see being acted out all around us. We are God's people, "a royal priesthood, a peculiar people" unto God. We must have a strong conviction to do right and seek to do better. Our standards must be those that please God so that we can receive blessings of God.
All that we do we should do as unto the Lord, for truly it is all to His glory. We must fight the good fight of faith, knowing that God will be glorified in what we do. We cannot allow ourselves to become weary in our well doing, understanding that in due season we will reap, if we faint not.
Springfield, as we journey further into 2009, let us reexamine our efforts, and purpose in our hearts that we are not going to be satisfied with just “okay,” but rather we are going to take our efforts to a new level and face the challenges of this hour with more faith and more determination, knowing that our God will give us the strength that we need to do all things but fail.
Let us as a church family raise our standard of love and fellowship with one another. Let us find a renewed spirit to go the extra mile to help our brothers and sisters. Let us raise our standards for God by learning more and more through His Word that we might be workmen that rightly divide the Word of God and so that our lights might shine and glorify the Father which is in heaven.
Your Pastor,
Rev. Daniel Sanders