Rev. Terence Gray: Happy birthday, Ward Church. Good to see you guys today. Today, you guys turned 70, and we're gonna spend some time in the word together. So before we go any further, let's pray. Oh, father, we come before you in the mighty name of Jesus.
God, thanking you for this privilege to be here for seventy years. God, every church doesn't have a seventieth birthday. Not every church makes makes it this far. And we know that we do so only because of your grace. Father God, we lift up this time to you.
I pray that you would move me out of the way. God, I pray that I would decrease and that you would increase and be made much of in the lives of your people. God, remind us of who you are and what you've done and the hope that we have to hold on to. Be with us at this time, oh God. For it's in the mighty name of Jesus Christ that we pray together.
Amen. I wanna share a little bit about our founder of Ward Church. Seventy years ago, in May 1956, doctor Bartlett Hess took a leap of faith and started Ward Church in Livonia. That's our founder there, Doctor Bart Hess. And here's an excerpt from a book about him.
I wanna share that excerpt today. This talks about the founding of Ward Church a little bit. It says, soon after Hess began his ministry in February 1956 at Ward Memorial Church, he sensed the Lord's leading to plant a new church in the Detroit suburbs. When he approached the session, which is our body of elders here, about his idea including the location of the land to be purchased, there was not much enthusiasm for spending $65,000 on eight acres of land. Some of you might be thinking, 65,000?
Those elders were some tight wives. What are you thinking? It's just $65,000. I did a little work with an inflation calculator earlier this week, $65,000 translates today into $795,000. So we're talking about a significant risk here when Bart Hess says that God give has given me this dream to start this church in Livonia and he's asking for $795,000 in our day, they weren't so enthusiastic about it.
But he was a man of resilience and tenacity. Some of you guys were around in in that era and I've read about it but this man was very tenacious and a man of both faith. Not giving up on the idea, Hess came back to the session with a plan for securing a significant portion of the funds. A promise had been made to build a new mans, which is a house for the pastor owned by the church. And since the existing one was very small, there was 30,000 in the man's fund.
Bart and his wife Margaret discussed the matter and agreed they would be willing to live in the small man's and asked if the funds could instead go towards the purchasing of the land for that church plant. The session agreed to this arrangement and borrowed the remaining funds from the church extension board which were repaid, make sure the historical historical record shares that they paid it back. Let's continue. The six members of the Hess household would live in the small man's with one bathroom for twelve years. In May 1956, Hess held the first worship service at at the Livonia branch of Elizabeth w Ward Memorial Church with 57 people.
By the time that Hess retired, Ward would have more than 5,000 members and 139 acres for a new facility in Northville, Michigan, and the rest is history. The rest is history. And here we are. Here we are seventy years later. When the Hessians were living in that small house with six people and one bathroom, some people probably looked at them and said, you're insane.
You're crazy. What are you doing? It doesn't make sense. Well sometimes faith makes you a little insane. Sometimes faith makes you look and feel a little crazy at first.
Some people saw crazy but the Hessus saw the kingdom. Some people saw crazy, but the Hessus saw you. They saw what God was gonna do and so they stepped out on faith. And I was thinking this week, man, imagine if the Hessus would have said, yeah, I just really want more square footage and I want a bigger bathroom and a bigger backyard and I just I want a pool. Imagine if that would have been their train of thought, but they weren't like that.
They wanted people to know Jesus and and nothing lit them up and excited them more than people coming to know Jesus. They were pioneers on an adventure with with God. They they weren't just coasting, but they were pioneers following their Lord wherever he sent them. And so the question I have for us today as we celebrate seventy is this, are we still those people of bold faith? Is that still us?
Ward Church, are we still on an adventure with God? Are we still rowing and keeping the adventure going like those who came before us? Or are we tempted to hang out in the boat and coast? Are we tempted are we tempted to coast? If you're new here to Ward Church, it might be tempted to tempting to say, that sure is a nice boat and I'm glad that people are rowing.
If you've been here for a while, you might be tempted to say, I've done my fair share of rowing, it's time for me to sit back, relax, and just enjoy the ride. Some of us might be tempted to row in different directions, that's how you get division. Some of us might be tempted to be tossed to and fro by the waves of culture and the waves of the world around us. But what does it look like for us to keep rolling, to stay faithful, to follow God wherever he might lead us? What does it look like for us to be that generation?
I I feel this this this responsibility as one who's only been here for five years, like someone got us this far, so what does it look like for us to keep rowing, to keep going? This is a privilege and an opportunity that we have. So are we still and somebody said earlier, Terence, was worried about you how you're gonna get out that boat. So bear with me. I'm gonna get out.
I'm gonna get out. Thank you. Thank you. If our founders could speak to us today, what would they say? I've been thinking about that too.
What would they say if they saw us today? I wanna share some words from them, from a book that was written about them. I wanna share this excerpt about this adventure that they took in 1939 right before World War two, by the way. They went on a four month trip to Europe just to explore, to seek God about what was next for their lives. It says in the in 1939, the adventuresome young couple took a four month trip to Europe, later Bart and Margaret recalled that the European trip gave them a unique opportunity to encounter believers in many nations and cultures.
Margaret wrote about the lasting impact of the trip. She said this, in the process of that experience, we discovered what was universal about Christianity or essential and what was local or non essential. We met devout Christians in Holland who smoked like chimneys and were very strict about the Sabbath, Sunday. We came back to The United States realizing what was essential was faith in Christ and acceptance of the Bible as the word of God. All other matters were non essentials.
So we made the motto of the early church our motto for ministry. An essentials unity, a non essentials liberty, and all things charity or love, and that became the basis on which we built our churches. And that is what Ward Church is built on today. Bart Hess would go on to pioneer an entire denomination, the EPC, which is the denomination that we're a part of today. And so as I've pondered about the history of our church and as I've read and heard about our founders, this is what I've come up with.
This is I have a little little rhyme that I've come up with as we head into year 70. Don't let differences drive you to division. Don't let comfort convince you to coast. Always anchor yourself in the Bible and keep the gospel first and foremost. That's what I think our founders would say to us today as we begin year 70.
Don't let differences drive you to division. Don't let comfort convince you to coast. Always anchor yourself in the Bible and keep the gospel first and foremost. That's what they were about, and that's what we've been about, and that's what we want to continue to be about. As we come to our text today, main text in the book of Hebrews, the author is addressing this Hebrew church who is under the pressure of persecution, who's tempted to walk away from Jesus that they've been following for a while now because the pressure's getting to be too intense.
You can say it this way, they are they're in the boat and they're trying to row but they're getting a lot of resistance, they're encountering a lot storms and some of them are tempted to walk away and some of them have walked away. And now the author is trying to course correct these believers who find themselves under intense pressure. So he he kinda first kinda talks to them like a football coach a little bit like get in the game, get back on the field, but then he switches his tone and begins to encourage them. Let's let's go to Hebrews here. It says, even though we speak like this, meaning he knows that he was being a little intense with them telling them to get back in the game, even though we speak like this, dear friends, we're convinced of better things in your case.
I mean, we've seen your life, we've seen your faithfulness, we know that some people have fallen away but we know you're not gonna be the ones that fall away. We're convinced of better things in your case, the things that have to do with salvation. I love this part. He says, God is not unjust. He will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.
He's talking to Christians who are tempted to give up, who are tempted to lose heart. They have been doing good work. They had been doing good things, but they don't know if that work has been acknowledged. They don't know if their work matters. They don't know if their work is in vain.
And the author encourages them by saying, God sees you. He he sees your love for him and and he sees your love for your people. And he's not unjust as to forget that. I wanna encourage somebody this morning who feels like you've been working behind the scenes. People don't see what you do.
They don't see your faithfulness. They don't see how you continue to show up. And maybe it's not something that you do on a platform or a stage or anything like that. You've just been faithful. I just wanna encourage you that God sees you.
He's not unjust to forget the work that you have done. He's faithful to you and he is your ultimate rewarder. And that's what the author is trying to get the Hebrew, church here to see. He says, we want each of you to show the same diligence to the very end. He he wants them to keep going to the very end.
It's good that you've been faithful. It's good that you've been doing good. I see your work. God sees your work. Now don't give up.
Don't quit. A lot of people have fallen away. A lot of people have quit. And he's encouraging them to keep going and stay diligent until the very end so that what you hope for may be fully realized. One day you're gonna come face to face with your savior.
One day you will finally experience the reward for the work that you've done on this earth. So do not give up now. Do not lose heart. War church, after seventy years of faithfulness, do not give up now. After seventy years of walking with the Lord and taking bold leaps of faith like we heard about this morning, keep going, keep rowing, now is not the time to coast.
He says, we do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. He says keep going, don't coast, keep rowing, keep taking risks, war church. Keep trying new things, church. Keep loving people when it's hard, war church. Keep praying for the miracle, war church.
Keep fighting for unity even when the devil tries everything to divide us, war church. Keep following Jesus as he leads us on an adventure of faith. Even when it gets scary, even when we go through the valleys and the dark points of the journey, even when it costs you something. And this is how the mission continues for another seventy years. That's how we got here, and that's how we keep going, And that's how we leave a legacy behind that outlives our own generation.
The Hesses have left behind a legacy that outlived their own generation. I know somebody in here probably knows the answer to this, but the land that we're on now, this church, this land got bought in like the eighties. I don't know the exact number. I know somebody knows the exact year, but like in the mid or early eighties, somebody doctor Hess bought this land and then we didn't open this building until 1998. And here we are in 2026.
That's the type of faith that this church body is built on, And that's how you create a legacy that outlives your generation. And doesn't that sound better and feel better than coasting? Isn't it more rewarding than just taking a seat on the boat and putting your hands behind your head or complaining because somebody else isn't as rowing as hard as you? Doesn't doesn't that sound better and more fulfilling? Hebrews chapter six, the author talks about a man of faith who didn't coast.
His name was Abraham. And the author in this in this book of Hebrews uses Abraham as a model example for us. He says this, when God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one great for him to swore swear by, he swore by himself saying, surely will bless you and give you many descendants. And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. When a person takes an oath in a court of law, they often place their hand on a Bible or some other symbolic means to say that I swear by this moral authority that what I'm saying is the truth.
And in doing so they are appealing to something that is greater than themselves. But when God makes his promise to Abraham, he didn't swear by a higher authority because there is no higher authority so he swore by his own name. Because he is the ultimate authority. His word is true, reliable, consistent, certain, and sure. So if he said it, you can believe it.
We can anchor our lives on his promises. Here's the promise that he made to Abraham. God had promised Abraham descendants as numerous as the stars. He was gonna have people that that came after him and they're gonna be descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. Yet at one point in Abraham's journey, God asked him to sacrifice his son Isaac.
This seems like a contradiction if you're Abraham. God, how are you gonna make me the father of many descendants but you're asking me to sacrifice Isaac, my only heir, my only son. This seems like a contradiction. But Abraham still believed God because he trusted in God's character. He trusted in God's word.
And he trusted him so much that even in this moment of testing, he was able and willing to at that moment, he was willing to part with that which he loved most. In the end of that story, Isaac is not sacrificed. God provided another sacrifice, a ram in the bush. And this all pointed to something so much greater, friends. See, God would not require Abraham to sacrifice his son because God would sacrifice Jesus, his own son.
And this is the character of our God. He demonstrates his love to us by giving his only son on our behalf. And this is where we can trust him and follow him by faith. The text continues. It says, people swear by someone greater than themselves.
And the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised. He confirmed it with an oath. There's an unchanging nature to the purposes of God. If he said it, it's gonna happen. What he wills will come to pass.
And if he said it in his word, we can anchor our lives to it. The text continues in verse 18 it says, God did this so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. Let's break this down a little bit. God wants us to understand this. He wants us to understand his purposes.
He wants us to be encouraged by his purposes. So he gives us two unchangeable things. The text says that God gives us two unchangeable things. What are those two unchangeable things? Number one, God makes a promise.
Then he takes it a step further and he confirms this promise with an oath. In other words, God says, I will do it and he doubles down on it and says you can stake everything on my word. So he gives us a promise and he gives us an oath. It's kinda like this, sometimes in the morning my my daughter Luca will say, daddy can I have ice cream after school? And sometimes I'll say, yes.
Yes, you can you can have ice cream after school. And then Luca will often come back to me and say, you promise? It's like, I promise. But imagine if I didn't just say, I promise I will give you ice cream after school. Imagine if I said, Luca, I promise I will give you ice cream after school and I'm gonna take this Bible, place my hand on it and swear by God that I'm gonna give you ice cream after school.
You might be wondering, do you need all that? Is it that big of a deal? Sometimes it's that big of a deal. Okay. Imagine if I did both of those things.
I give them a word, I promise, then I make an oath. She would have something to hang on to throughout the day. Throughout the day as she's going through school and she's wondering whether or not she's gonna get that ice cream or not after school, but she can remember that her dad gave her a promise and he even went so far as to make an oath. And and that's what God does for us. He he he he makes a promise that his purposes will come to pass, that he he's going to redeem this world, he's gonna make all of the wrong turn into right, He's gonna make all things good one day.
Just like he promised Abraham, you're gonna be the father of of many nations. He he gives them a promise, then he even makes an oath, and he does the same thing for us. And when we go through moments of uncertainty, as we go through challenges and difficulties, even as we encounter storms, we have that to hold on to. Just as assured as I'll get my daughter ice cream after school if I make the promise and the oath, God is faithful to you. So regardless of what you're going through and sometimes the it gets rocky.
You have that to hold on to because our God is faithful. He always follows through. And then he gives us this image, the image that we've clung to for this series, the image of an anchor. We see this in verse 19. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.
It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. We've been talking about anchored for several weeks now and I think we're pretty clear on what an anchor is. It's something that holds a boat in place, especially if that boat encounters any kind of turbulence or something like that. But we haven't talked as much about this idea of a soul. See, it's the soul that needs the anchor.
Having a soul is what separates a human from a goldfish. The soul is the soul is sensitive. It's sensitive to all kinds of things that it's exposed to as your soul has to navigate this fallen world. See your soul is the thing inside of you that longs for assurance and peace. And sometimes in this fallen world and in this fallen body, our souls find it hard to rest.
When we're on that boat and we're rocking and we're going different directions and if the storm hits, the soul gets a little anxious wondering how things are gonna work out. See that's once again, that's what separates us from the goldfish. The goldfish just swims around in his little bowl and forgets about what just happened five seconds later and keeps going. But you and I, we worry about the future, we worry about the past, we worry about right now, but we have an anchor for our souls in the person of Jesus. As a church this year, we took a hit.
We took a big hit when we lost our friend and beloved pastor, pastor Scott. That was hard on our souls. Our souls felt that. We felt it individually, some of us, and we felt it collectively. But I just want to encourage us that we have an anchor in Jesus.
Jesus is also the captain of the ship and he'll show us the way forward. Because we know we didn't get to where we are today because of how good we can row. Our confidence is not in our rowing ability. Our confidence is not in our navigation ability. But we got to seventy years because of the grace of God.
And that's what we hold on to now. That does not change now. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. So I just want to encourage us to keep rowing. And you are rowing, and you've been rowing good.
I wanna look at some of these pictures of you rowing. We're still rowing, serving our community, meeting needs, partnering with leaders in the city. We're still showing up. This is Unity Church by the way, the church that you've supported and partnered with. It started with just that guy right there, Micah, but it's starting to expand and they're doing cool things in the city.
We're still rowing, serving our community and showing up, showing the extra mile hospitality that mirrors the hospitality of Jesus. You're still rowing, Ward Church. You're still showing up, reaching the next generation in ways that that generation can connect with. You're still rowing. Serving our special needs community here, loving those who God brings through our doors, we're still rowing.
Pickleball, it happened and it's here. Still rowing. Even the little ones are signing up to get involved. He's ready to go. He's ready to start rowing already.
He's still showing up every week in in and out. He's still showing up. The little ones, still rowing. God is faithful. Thinking about ministry and missions here.
You see our missions team thinking about how to take the gospel to the nations, still rowing. The little ones jumping in because they see your example and they follow you. Sending gifts all around the world through your audacious generosity, still rowing, still showing up, being generous, being kind, helping provide clean water for kids all over the world, still rowing. Pastor Scott rode to the very end faithfully. He served as an example to us in that.
We're still rowing. So what would our founders say to us if they were here today? Don't let differences drive you to division. Don't let comfort convince you to coast. Always anchor yourself in the Bible and keep the gospel first and foremost.
Let's pray. Oh, God, we come before you in the mighty name of Jesus, thanking you for seventy years of seeing you work in and through this church. We're here by your grace. We got here by your grace, and we'll move forward by your grace. God, help us not to coast.
Help us not to row in different competing directions. God, help us to not be tossed to and fro by the waves of the culture around us, but help us to follow you. God, we
Dr. Scott McKee: thank you and we love you. We thank you for getting us to 70, We and trust you to give us even more. It's in the name of Jesus that we pray together. Amen.