Wednesday, October 12, 2011

28 YEARS OF GOSPEL MINISTRY

This Sunday, June 5, will mark my 28th Anniversary in the ministry. After completing a degree in Business Administration at the University of Illinois in 1980, I graduated from CHRIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY on the last Sunday of May 1983. 

The very next day I reported for work as a full-time associate Pastor at Crusaders Church in Urbana, Illinois. My great Father was the Senior Pastor and my boss. (Truthfully that was no different than the day before!) Because I had the privilege of growing up in the parsonage and have always enjoyed the work of the Lord, I loved my new assignment.

Our Sunday School Bus ministry grew to average over 300 riders on 7 routes. Our record attendance shot above 800. We began a Saturday Afternoon Bible Club that grew to nearly 50. We started a ministry in the Illinois Department of Corrections Facility near the church. We edited and expanded FAITH IN THE FUTURE, our monthly publication read by over 2,000 families in 30 states. We began a radio ministry called THE CRUSADERS PULPIT that was aired on 4 radio stations and heard internationally in Latin America. We went Door to Door calling every week, preached outdoors on the campus of the University of Illinois, and organized Open Forum Ministries at the University of Illinois, Purdue University in Lafayette, IN, and at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, IL. We met with the Teens on Fridays. I taught at KINGSWOOD SCHOOL, a K-12 Christian School led by my Brother Marsh. I helped my brother with the Citizens For Decency, a grassroots effort against pornography, and then was co-founder of the Coalition for Traditional Values in Champaign County. Those were great days.


In 1996 my new bride and I (Vickie and I were married on June 21 of that year), moved to St. Louis to launch a Crusaders Church in St. Louis. We called the new church FAITH COMMUNITY CHURCH. Our first Sunday, September 15, we were thrilled when 27 from St. Louis attended services in the Knights of Columbus Hall on Adie Road in St. Ann, MO.


From that humble beginning, FCC has grown into a thriving ministry touching hundreds of souls each week with the message of full salvation. Often we have to go where the people are, but that’s our calling! There are people in heaven today because FCC reached them with the Gospel. The Gospel Truth is preached in love without compromise. Our altars are not barren. Those hungry for salvation, seeking sanctification, and longing for God’s touch have prayed their way through to victory here. Young people have met, couples have married, and children have been born and dedicated to the Lord. Time and time again the family of God known as FCC has reached out to help one another. 
We are strategically located along a major St. Louis thoroughfare (25,000 cars pass our church each day), on 2 acres of land with a lovely colonial building that seats 250 and has nearly 100 parking spaces. Our congregation is growing. Our record attendance of 282 will not stand long. The Lord has provided for our financial needs. We have a mortgage of just under $550,000 on this great 11,700 square foot building. And though we seldom have had any extra, we have had enough, month after month. PRAISE GOD!

I’ve taken this trip down memory lane for a reason:

I WANT TO PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW! 
I WANT TO GIVE GOD ALL THE GLORY FOR HELPING ME FULFILL MY CALLING. Looking back over the past 28 years I’ve said so many stupid things, acted without thinking, and been distracted when I should have been paying attention, that I am absolutely sure that any good that’s been accomplished has been because GOD IS FAITHFUL!  
I WANT TO THANK GOD FOR HIS SAVING AND SANCTIFYING GRACE! Though I have failed, He has never failed. Hallelujah! I’m so glad that Mercy’s door is wide open. I like the Apostle’s creed, “Forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forth to the things that are before, I press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus!” In Jesus’ name we press on!

I WANT TO THANK GOD FOR HIS GOOD PEOPLE WHO HAVE STOOD WITH ME! Without the prayers and support and help of God’s people no minister can persist. You have loved, cared, given, supported, lifted, encouraged, and been there when the burdens were greatest. You have prayed for me. I will be eternally grateful for God’s good people.

I WANT TO PRAISE THE LORD FOR A WONDERFUL WIFE AND A LOVING FAMILY. Many a minister has been discouraged from the work of the Lord by a critical and unwilling wife. I have been blessed with a loving, supportive, and faithful wife. She and her family have been a great blessing throughout these 28 years. And Tressa, our precious girl, is growing in grace. I am so thankful that she is saved and seeking to do God’s will.

I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT I FULLY EXPECT THAT OUR JOB WILL GET TOUGHER BUT THAT GOD’S GRACE WILL ALWAYS BE SUFFICIENT! He has never failed us! Though professing Christian pretenders are preaching “another Gospel” that is not pure—GOD’S WORD WILL NOT FAIL! Though the church world is filled with compromise with the flesh, accommodation with the world, and the deceptions of the devil—GOD’S TRUTH IS MARCHING ON! Though wicked men will grow worse and worse, though evil men will try to strangle God’s messengers, and though the enemy will incite fierce persecution against us—WE WILL NOT BEND, WE WILL NOT BOW, AND LIKE THE HEBREW CHILDREN, WE WILL NOT BURN!

As the 87 year old John Wesley lay dying in London, surrounded by his friends and family, he rallied one last time and proclaimed in an unusually strong voice, “BEST OF ALL GOD IS WITH US!” Praise God! FINALLY I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT OUR FAITH IN THE FUTURE IS NOT FOUNDED ON THE EMPTY PROMISES OF MEN, BUT ON HIM WHO GAVE US THE EMPTY TOMB! We rejoice that indeed the wrong will fail, and the right will prevail! GOD IS WITH US.

Crowns and thrones may perish, kingdoms rise and wane,
But the church of Jesus constant will remain.
Gates of hell can never ‘gainst that church prevail;
We have Christ's own promise, that can never fail.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

OH LORD, HOW LONG?

Until 9/11 America seemed impregnable. No longer. 

Who could have imagined that Islamic Jihadists huddled in an Afghan cave, could have been so successful at shattering our sense of safety, and challenging our world-class military complex? 

Peggy Noonan writes in today’s Wall Street Journal, “It marked the end of ‘we are protected,’ and the beginning of something else.”

It was a wake-up call that should have driven our nation to her knees in prayer to the God of our Fathers—but tolerance, now our foremost virtue, demanded we pray to the God of the Bible, and to the Great Spirit, and to the deities of the Hindus, and to the god’s of our own making, and even to Allah—the God who supposedly ordered this attack. Church attendance climbed for a few weeks after the attack, but it wasn’t long until football, fun-times, and family outings, were again our Sunday priorities.

It was a wake-up call that should have awakened us to our moral deficits—but we are more concerned with fiscal woes and government spending deficits. Immorality and irresponsibility are expensive. We must somehow find the funds to continue the party.

When a few ministers suggested that America’s immorality—abortion, sodomy, the breakup of the family, and unbridled greed—had lifted God’s hand of protection from our nation, they were quickly scorned into retractions.

It was a wake-up call that should have strengthened the resolve of America’s 350,000 ministers to call our nation to repentance, moral rectitude, and Biblical truth—but tragically there are fewer Men of God, who will prophetically and unapologetically stand for Scriptural holiness and righteousness. On a per capita basis there are fewer than at any other time in our nation’s history. (Barna)

It was a wake-up call that should have, and could have, been the beginning of a national revival of Scriptural Christianity, but it was not.

The attack of 9/11 was not a wake up call. But that’s not all!
The hurricanes were not.
The earthquakes were not.
The sunamis were not.
The tornadoes were not.
The fires were not.
The epidemics were not.
The great recession was not.
It seems that nothing will drive us to repent.

How long then should we continue to preach the truth of God’s Word?

How long then should we persist in our efforts to reach the lost of this nation?

How long then should we open the doors of our churches for services? (If they will not come should we keep opening the doors, turning on the lights, and preaching to empty pews?)

It was a question that Isaiah asked in His day. And the answer God gave him is our answer to the question.
“Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, And the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.” Isaiah 6:11,12.

WHEN THE CAPTAIN TURNS THE "FASTEN YOUR SEATBELT" SIGN ON

With all the troubles in our world, our nation, and in the churches today, I sometimes feel like I'm on an airplane going through the ups and downs and turns of severe turbulence. As I was thinking about our plight, it occurred to me that if we were actually flying, the captain of the plane would be turning on the FASTEN YOUR SEATBELT sign right about now. 
 
I got really excited about preaching an original sermon, "WHEN THE CAPTAIN TURNS ON THE 'FASTEN YOUR SEATBELT' sign. Then I was more than a bit deflated to Google that title and discover that several other preachers had beat me to the punch. Oh well. Wasn't it Solomon who said, "There's nothing new under the sun."
 
Yet the concept is still something worth considering. And it seems to that Psalm 37 was written to passengers facing circumstances like we are facing.
 
FRET NOT thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.
 
TRUST IN THE LORD AND DO GOOD so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed...
 
DELIGHT THYSELF IN THE LORD and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
 
COMMIT THY WAY UNTO THE LORD; TRUST also in him; and he shall bring it to pass...
 
REST IN THE LORD and wait patiently for him: ...
 
CEASE FROM ANGER and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil...
 
The STEPS OF A GOOD MAN ARE ORDERED by the LORD; and he delighteth in his way.
Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand...
 
WAIT ON THE LORD, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: ...
 
Remember the story of the lad who was a passenger on a plane heading into turbulence. The older passenger seated next to him was anxious and fearful, while the lad was calm and assured. When finally the older man asked why the lad was so confident the boy replied, "THE PILOT IS MY DAD!"
 
What a great comfort and joy it is know that we can trust the Pilot of our Souls! Nothing we face will come as a surprise to Him. No question we face is greater than His wisdom. No enemy we face is stronger than His power. 
 
Actually the only question we must answer is this: Will we let HIM be our pilot? Those who take the controls into their own hands are destined to defeat and destruction. Those who yield to Him, will testify,
 
I have found a deep peace that I never had known
And a joy this world could not afford -
Since I yielded control of my body and soul
To my wonderful, wonderful Lord.

    Chorus My wonderful Lord, my wonderful Lord By angels and seraphs in Heaven adored! I know Thou art mine, my Savior divine My wonderful, wonderful Lord.
I desire that my life shall be ordered by Thee
That my will be in perfect accord -
With Thine own sov'reign will
Thy desires to fulfill




All the talents I have I have laid at Thy Feet
Thy approval shall be my reward.
Be my store great or small
I surrender it all
To my wonderful, wonderful Lord.

 
PASTOR RICK JONES
FAITH COMMUNITY CHURCH of ST. LOUIS - CRUSADERS CHURCH USA
2969 N. Lindbergh Blvd, St. Ann, MO 63047
Tel. (314) 298-5840; Cell. (314) 607-1424

E-mail: PastorRick@FCCToday.org
Web Page: www.FCCToday.org
Blog: www.PastorRickJones.blogspot.com

7 MAXIMS YOU SHOULDN'T LIVE BY

The songwriter declared, "Like a mighty Army moves the Church of God!"  But in too many quarters, the Church today is not mighty, it is not an Army, and we are not moving anywhere but backwards.

It is our conviction that so long so long as we are retreating from our Biblical mandate and pursuing after cultural relevance, rather than Spiritual excellence, we will never be the Church prevailing against the gates of hell.  We need a Gideon's band, a select force chosen by God and choosing God, who will take up the Cross and battle for the right.

In our series of messages ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS we are urging God's people to put on the whole armor of God.  It was not by accident that the Lord inspired the Apostle to urge God's people to first put on the belt of Truth.  Like wars between nations, in the war between Christ and satan, truth is often the first casualty.

We live our lives by "Maxims"--concise statements of what we think are basic truths, or laws of life.  Some are true. For example: "Don't count your chickens before they hatch," "Deeds speak louder than words," and "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

BUT THE TRAGEDY OF OUR TIMES IS THAT SO MANY ARE FOLLOWING MAXIMS WE SHOULDN'T LIVE BY.  Here are 7:

1. BELIEVE IN YOURSELF.
I like the way G. K. Chesterton reacted to this popular maxim.  "Thoroughly worldly people never understand even the world; they rely altogether on a few cynical maxims which are not true.  Once I remember walking with a prosperous publisher who made a remark which I had often heard before; it is indeed a motto of the modern world.  Yet I had heard it once too often, and I saw suddenly that there was nothing in it.  The publisher said, “That man will get on (be successful); he believes in himself.  …”Shall I tell you where the men are who believe most in themselves?  Asylums are filled with men who truly believe in themselves...  If you consulted your business experience rather than your ugly individualistic philosophy you would know that believing in yourself is one of the commonest signs of a rotter."  ORTHODOXY 1908.

How sad that people are convinced to believe in their frail, carnal, wicked selves, rather than in the One who can justify, sanctify, and empower us to be "more than conquerors!"

2. YOU CAN'T LEGISLATE MORALITY
Oh really? Every law is an expression of moral principal. 

God Himself certainly thought that morality could be specifically legislated, “Thou shalt have no other Gods before me.” 

You cannot legislate compliance with the law, but you can legislate morality.  History proves that civilizations that align themselves with God's law will prosper.  Those who refuse God's Law, are actually refusing God himself. 

The reason men hate God's law is that they are carnal.  But the blood of Christ is not only sufficient to wash away the guilt of sin, but to "cleanse us from all unrighteousness," and sanctify the rebel out of our hearts.

3. IF IT FEELS GOOD, DO IT!
We have brought this maxim to bear on everything from how we treat one another, to what we do recreationally, to how we express ourselves sexually. 

Underlying this maxim is the assumption that feelings, not facts, are the arbiter of right and wrong.

When feeling is the foundation for moral principle, then the person who says “I feel that it is wrong for a man to marry 7 wives,” is no more wrong than the man who says “I feel like marrying a man.” 

4. GOD WANTS ME TO BE HAPPY!
Here is a partial truth that has led many into terrible tragedy.  When Jesus taught us how to Be Happy HE gave us the Beattitudes:  Mt 5:3-12

3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called sons of God.
10 Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are ye when (men) shall reproach you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you.
You will note that this does say you will be happy by doing your will, having everything your way, or doing what feels right at the moment. 

Happiness is inextricable from Holiness! 

5. ALL ROADS LEAD TO HEAVEN (ALL RELIGIONS ARE THE SAME)
What fallacy.  There is a world of difference between religions that urge their followers to board planes, slash the throats of pilots, and slam aircraft into skyscrapers, and the religion of the One who said, "love your enemies."  There is a vast difference between a religion that teaches a mother to toss her infant into the Ganges River, and one that is led by Him who said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not."

In our day, sincerity trumps veracity.  Sadly many are sincere, but they are sincerely wrong. 

Those say that their religious views seem right, would do well to remember the Scripture, "there is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."

6.BECAUSE GOD LOVES ME -- HE WOULD NEVER SEND ME TO HELL
It is a wonderful truth!  "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son..."

But the fact of God's unconditional love for us, is not what determines our eternal destiny. If God's love was all that mattered, then all would go to heaven!  God loves the world.  God is not willing that any should perish. etc.

What determines our destiny is our love for God. 

People get all excited talking about God's unconditional love for them.  But when we talk about God's requirement that we love Him unconditionally, and they are not so enthusiastic.

Unless we love Him without reservation He cannot welcome us into the Holy City.  Everyone in heaven does the will of God, all the time.

7. I'M FREE TO CHOOSE!
Indeed God has made us free moral agents.  We can choose whether or not we will serve Him.  But we are not free to choose the outcome of our choice. 

We are kidding ourselves if we believe that we are free to live our lives as we choose and then free to choose our destiny. The inspired Apostle Paul wrote:

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
Galatians 6:7-8 KJV

So DON'T BELIEVE IN YOURSELF... BELIEVE IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST!

DON'T RUN FROM GOD'S LAW... SEEK TO KNOW AND FOLLOW GOD'S LAW!  It's perfect.

DON'T DO WHAT FEELS GOOD... DO WHAT IS GOOD!

DON'T SEEK AFTER HAPPINESS... PURSUE AFTER HOLINESS!

DON'T MISTAKE SINCERITY FOR VERACITY... SEEK TO KNOW HIM WHO IS "THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE!"

DON'T REST IN GOD'S UNCONDITIONAL LOVE FOR YOU ...GIVE HIM YOUR UNCONDITIONAL LOVE!

And DON'T BE DECEIVED INTO THINKING THAT YOU WILL ESCAPE THE LAW OF SOWING AND REAPING.

Onward Christian Soldiers!

PASTOR RICK JONES
FAITH COMMUNITY CHURCH - A CRUSADERS CHURCH OF AMERICA
2969 N. Lindbergh Blvd, St. Ann, MO 63074
Cell Phone (314) 607-1424
Facebook: Pastor Rick Jones (I would love to be your friend!)
Blog: www.PastorRickJones.blogspot.com
Web: www.FCCToday.org

Preaching Services: Sundays 11:00 AM & 6:30 PM