Mitch and I celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary a few weeks ago. We were privileged to have a night away from kids, work and home. It was marvelous. We don’t want to be away from our children all the time, but every once in a while it is nice to step away from the vigilance of raising children to rest. Mitch and I have been raising children for 25 years. All eight live at home. Two adults in the “bunch” who have jobs, but for whom rent in Vermont is not an option. We are still raising children even when some of them are adults because they are our children and because we are a family. Mitch and I consider the chance to help grow children as a gift we have not taken for granted. We do not outsource that to anyone else – not even the church. We understand that their discipleship (helping our children to become spiritually mature adults) is the calling of a parent. We are not “done” at birth. It would be crazy if Mitch and I congratulated ourselves after Marin was born that we “did it” and followed that up with “now we are done”. People would laugh at us because birth is the beginning. You still need to help them grow. Babies are put in a family because they need help. So do toddlers, children, teenagers, young adults and grown children.  

 

Evangelism which leads us to salvation is our “birth”;

discipleship that leads to growth is our “maturing”.  

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Last year (2024), we focused as a church on spiritual maturity. My lav pesach for the year was Ephesians 4:14-17. I never know what verse God will use to minister, stretch, grow and challenge me in my own spiritual growth. God used Ephesians 4 to open us up as a church to the issues concerning spiritual immaturity. It was a year where God revealed, made low and raised up. We grew, we had conflict, we cried, laughed and loved God and each other. We had babies born, new members come in and we said goodbye to those we needed to bless to other locations. The Holy Spirit was on the move within MBC in 2024. 

 

15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect
the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 

(Ephesians 4:15) 

 

The movement of the Body of Christ is one of growth. Not linear growth. Not everyone is growing at the same rate and at the same pace. We had a surge in college students last year where many had never walked into a church before. Our podcast (weekly sermon) hit fifty countries it is downloaded in weekly. You read that right, 50 countries all over the world listen to the message of the Gospel from MBC. We have visitors that came on Easter who walked into our church for the first time looking for a new church. We walked beside a few spiritual "teenagers" going through the growth of adolescence. We also had some who had been in our church for a very long time, but for whom spiritual growth was past tense. And we were, at times, challenged to continue to grow.  The Holy Spirit was on the move. 

 

In Acts 2:42-47, you see a glimpse of what it looks like when the Holy Spirit is moving. He is not linear. He is not predictable. There is no book you can read to come up with a system of operation for the Spirit. We can’t “human” the Spirit. We can’t push, prod or move into action the Spirit. We can, however ignore the Holy Spirit. We can use words like “discernment” to mean a human problem- solving method and not once stop to consult God. Humans are really good at identifying and solving problems. But the Holy Spirit knows where and when to move long before we have even identified an issue: especially within ourselves. That is where passages such as Hebrews 4:12-13 remind us that the role of humans is to surrender to the will of the Father and work alongside the movement of the Spirit. But how? This is the part where our brains start working overtime and we want to come up with a system, a rubric, a plan, an argument or even a way out. This is the part in leadership when we are tempted to move the Spirit along or remove the Spirit altogether.

 

• Who needs to wait on discernment?  

• Who needs to be reminded that we should seek wisdom in the “what and when”?  

• Who needs to know that none of the world is where we go to for direction and guidance? 

 

A disciple.  

Consumers go where it is comfortable. Consumers decide what is the best option. Consumers go for the better job opportunity, they weigh options as if they are studying for an exam, they wait for deals and strike will the iron is hot. Consumers are always “right” and demand to be heard. Consumers leave when something no longer “serves” them. Disciples discern. Disciples wait on the Spirit. Disciples seek the direction of Christ. Disciples know that the movement of God is often unseen to the naked eye and involves trust.  

Enter my lav pesach for 2025 – Hebrews 4:12-13. 

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12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. 

(Hebrews 4:12-13) 

 

I preached last summer (2024) on the book of Hebrews. I also taught it twice in discipleship classes throughout 2024 and into 2025. Over and over again, God used these words to remind me and our leadership of the movement unseen of the Spirit and to direct the movement of our church. Here is where we as the church and as disciples join in with Hebrews 4:12-13. 

 

12 For the word of God is alive and active. There is never a time when the Word of God is not relevant. In thirty years of pastoring, one fact remains, many in America do not know the Word of God. It is not dead. The Word of God corrects, convicts and directs. One of the books I am reading now is entitled Experiencing Scripture as a Disciple of Jesus (reading the Bible like Dallas Willard). Over and over again, the book directs us to “experience” alongside our study of the Word of God. Church history is great. Knowing the origins of major movements in Christianity is great as well.

However: 

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• Do you know the Word of God?  

• Do you make decisions guided by God’s Word? 

• Do you delight in reading God’s Word? 

 

Disciples do.

Over and over again, not as experts, but as people of God marked by a willingness to know Him through His Word. 

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Sharper than any double-edged sword, There is no place where God’s Word can’t penetrate. It never grows old. It is not outdated or irrelevant. It is able to cut through the lies we are told. The misinformation. The incorrect theology. The pain. The confusion. The language. The culture. Gender. Age. Ethnicity. Economic differences and suppression. Nothing in this world will stop the movement of meaning carried in God’s Word. 

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it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, The Word of God can get between the spirit of despair and our own soul. It can get between the messiness of our relationships. It can direct us when we are walking in voids. It can speak when we don’t have the words to speak or the inclination to hear. 

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joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. God knows even when we refuse to discern, God still knows what our motivation is when we act. He knows when we are manipulative. When we sow seeds of discord. When we lie. When we pull people away. In other words, God knows our secret thoughts even when we do not know ourselves. And as disciples, we can trust that the Holy Spirit is moving even when we attempt to hide or disrupt. We can’t stop God.  

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Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Even in the depths, God can find us. Even when we think there is no way He knows what is happening because we feel stuck. Even when evil seems to be taking the lead. Even when people get away with things. Even when we act out. Even when we hide from Him. God knows and sees all. What a promise we can cling to and live into in peace. 

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Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. God is working and moving even in the dark. In the silence. In the places that feel unreachable.  

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What is it then, that we can say about God after 2024? Allow me to paraphrase Hebrews 4:12-13. 

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We are not consumers 

We are disciples 

God is on the throne 

The Spirit is moving 

Christ died and rose again

and we are His fingerprints out into the world.  

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Gospel living as disciples means we prioritize discipleship in our lives and in our church. In a world of consumerism, we can be drawn to the choices that appeal to us. As disciples, we seek God's wisdom in order to prioritize God in our lives. The discipleship and koinonia (fellowship) opportunities we prayerfully put forth at MBC are not to add "one more thing" to our busy lives. They are the center of a disciple's life: we gather with one another to study God's Word, worship, pray and share life. They are meant to grow us.  

 

As your pastor, I pray over you, I care that you love God, I care that you follow Christ and I care how we treat one another. I care that we know His Word. I pray daily for us to delight in His Word. For God’s Word to be what binds us, motivates and moves us. In our maturity, we are not expected to be perfect, but to be holy. You may already have noticed changes take place last year.  One of which, is our church is now elder-led. Elder-led added leadership AND voices to our church.  Discipleship is a priority at MBC. It is not “if” we are involved but “where”. May I challenge you to consider the following questions this year as we look forward to a new year of Gospel-living.

 

• Where is God leading you to be in His Word?  

• Where is God moving you in prayer with brothers and sisters in Christ? 

• What is God leading you to do in your “world” (home, school, job, relationships, etc.)? 

• Who can I disciple and who should be discipling me? 

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We are excited for the ways that God is using MBC to spread the Gospel in “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth”. We are also excited for the ways we can grow as a family at MBC. Last year, I joined the Thursday afternoon bible study at MBC. We met every Thursday (with rare exception) and we study God’s Word. We are in the book of James currently. We study, some write poetry, we ask questions, we pray for each other, we sometimes eat really yummy treats, and we grow. Week-by-week, bit-by-bit, with the help of our family, we grow. May we all find our own “Thursday” bible study. A place to share, learn, grow, and live out the Word of God. 

 

Pastor Stephanie