This article was originally published in Israel My Glory magazine in the May/June 2020 issue.

John was the lead pastor of a medium-sized church for 10 years. Things had been running relatively smoothly until the news broke that John’s daughter had been physically abused by her husband, a young man who grew up in the church.

Many sided with the young man’s family, and soon John and his wife felt the pain of rejection. Suddenly they were jobless, with no church, no money, and no hospital insurance. John and his family were in the middle of a crisis.

Yet John clung to the promises of God’s Word, particularly God’s commitment to provide for and protect His children. Consequently, divine peace guarded his heart and mind through Christ (Phil. 4:6–7).

Not surprisingly, the Lord showed Himself faithful. All the bills got paid, including John’s daughter’s tuition for Bible college; and eventually the Lord brought the family to the vibrant church John pastors today.

John’s story is one of millions over the years that testify of the faithfulness of God. Scripture overflows with similar accounts of how God keeps the promises He has made to His people. Although He made many to Israel, He also has made many to the church. Two big ones are the promise of His presence and the promise of redemption.

The Promise of His Presence
Throughout the Old Testament, the Spirit of God came upon individuals temporarily (1 Sam. 10:10; 11:6; 16:14). A unique promise God made to the church, however, was that His presence not only would dwell with Christ’s followers, but that it would be in them: “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27).

The Lord promised His disciples that, after His death, the Father would give them “another Helper, that He may abide with you forever” (Jn. 14:16).

The reality of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit runs throughout the New Testament (Rom. 5:5; 1 Cor. 2:12; 6:19; 2 Cor. 5:5). In fact, God seals believers “with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory” (Eph. 1:13–14). If we have placed our faith in Christ alone, not in our good deeds, for the forgiveness of our sins—if we sincerely believe Jesus took the punishment we deserve, died in our place because He loves us, and arose from the grave—God seals us with the Holy Spirit. Everywhere we go, the Lord is with us because He lives in us. This means there is no doctor’s visit, no job interview, no tragedy, and no graveside where the Lord will leave us alone.

But wait, there’s more!

Not only is He always with us, but He also ministers to us continually. The Holy Spirit bears witness to us of our salvation (Rom. 8:16); teaches us the Bible (Jn. 16:13); intercedes for us in prayer (Rom. 8:26); comforts us in time of need (2 Cor. 1:3–4); empowers us to serve Him (Eph. 3:16); and even lovingly chastens us when we sin, as a father chastens his children (Heb. 12:6).

God’s commitment never to leave true believers is a precious promise that should encourage us to live holy lives for Him.

The Promise of Redemption
The term redemption intimately relates to the imagery of slavery. We are in bondage to the Evil One until we are born again, when He delivers us from the power of darkness and places us “into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:13–14).

The apostle Paul reminded his protégé Titus that Jesus “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works” (Ti. 2:14). Using His own blood as payment, Jesus bought us off the auction block of sin—He redeemed us—to be a special people for Himself.

Not only can we look back at our redemption from slavery and our insertion into the family of God, but we also can look forward to a future redemption.

We have been sealed “until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory” (Eph. 1:14).

The word guarantee refers to a down payment someone would make when purchasing land or another commodity. The Holy Spirit constitutes that down payment. He guarantees that one day we will be fully redeemed—body and soul/spirit. The final redemption of our bodies will occur when Christ returns for His church (1 Cor. 15:51–52).

Even though believers are free from bondage to sin, we still possess old natures that are susceptible to temptation and sinful behaviors (Jas. 1:14–15). We still live in a world where cancer and heart disease and dementia exist, and chances are good that at least one of these ailments or others eventually will afflict us.

But this world is not all there is. One day the trumpet will sound, calling us home to be with Him:

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord (1 Th. 4:16–17).

In a split second, the graves of believers around the globe will burst open and release the dead in Christ, and those living will be caught up with them in the air. Clothed in the righteousness of Christ, they will have new, glorious bodies that will be eternally free from sickness, disease, and sin. Best of all, we will be physically with the Lord forever (v. 17).

The Promise Keeper
Most promises are plentiful, cheap, and often broken. Mercifully, we have a God who always keeps His promises. Time does not fog His memory or diminish His faithfulness. He is the same “yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8). He has been faithful to His promises to the nation of Israel, and He will be faithful to His church.

Regardless of the hardships we suffer, as John and his family did, we know we have a God who keeps His Word. He has promised the Holy Spirit and redemption to those who call on His name, and those are promises worth building our lives on.

This article was originally published in the May/June 2020 issue of  Israel My Glory magazine.

Relevant preaching. Authentic worship music. A community atmosphere. Many American churches today use those phrases to advertise the uniqueness of their “worship experience.” We didn’t use that terminology at the small Baptist church in Michigan where I grew up; but for a little boy, it was certainly a memorable experience to go there.

First, there was the Hammond organ. It was about the same size as my mom’s piano, but somehow it had enough sound packed inside to shake the auditorium. I was fascinated watching the organist as he played with both his hands and his feet, manipulating the deep tones into music offered up to the Lord.

There was also the tank at the front of the building where, every so often, the pastor would don his maroon robe and dunk people underneath the water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For a boy who couldn’t swim, baptism was scary stuff.

Then, there were the giants. The giants are what I remember most.

They were farmers, businessmen, and factory workers. Some were wealthy, others were not. But all of them were giants in my eyes, not because of their height or social status, but because of their moral stature and the strong stance they took for the Word of God.

Qualities of Leaders
Like the deacons the apostle Paul described, these men were “reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience” (1 Tim. 3:8–9). Though possessing feet of clay like everyone else, each one had an impeccable testimony for Christ in his home, workplace, and community.

These were leaders—not bombastic or authoritarian—but men who knew God’s Word and sought passionately to edify the congregation and reach the community with the gospel. They served, they taught Sunday school, they drove the church bus, they set up for Vacation Bible School, and they helped children in the youth program learn their memory verses. They strove to rightly divide the Scriptures and help others do the same.

Moody Bible Institute professor Dr. Rosalie de Rosset wrote of similar giants in her church when she was growing up in the 1960s:

In my home church there were historians, keepers of the gate, guardians of my soul—those who understood that people my age should not run the format of a church or be the measure of what is important. These were the people who understood that when adolescent heat and trendiness pass, we must retain in our memories something bigger and better, something not adolescent to have in our keeping as treasures for when we grew up. They made sure our inheritance was not swallowed up by what seemed important in the sixties or at sixteen. These guardians of our souls knew that popular trends and teenage moods come and go, and that they must give us a solid memory and understanding of what was better, more mature, classic.1

Giants, historians, keepers of the gate, guardians of our souls, pillars. Whatever we call them, the church needs them. It has always needed them. And today it needs them desperately.

Assaults on truth abound. The dense, cultural fog of skepticism and doubt has crept through the church walls in the West. People are questioning the inerrancy of Scripture, the deity and sufficiency of Christ, sexual identity, the need for marriage, the value of human life, man’s purpose, and the very nature of what it means to be human.

We need men and women of substance who know the Lord intimately—and who know His Word and how to rightly divide it—to guide a generation floundering in a sea of moral relativism.

Building Leadership
How do we develop these giants in our local churches? How do we grow to become them ourselves?

1. We devote ourselves to God’s Word.
American Christians have no lack of books about the Bible. Bookstores and online retailers offer thousands of titles, many of which cater to a niche audience within the Christian community.

Let’s not forget, though, that the Scriptures alone are God’s means of instruction for His church (1 Pet. 2:2). I’m always inspired and, yes, convicted when I read how the Bereans analyzed what Paul and Silas were teaching in the synagogue, daily searching the Scriptures “to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11).

We must remember that the authority of Scripture is not merely an item we include in our church doctrinal statements; it’s a life-or-death belief for the body of Christ. As individuals and congregations, we need to devote ourselves to the Scriptures, letting the Spirit of God freely apply them to every area of our lives.

2. We serve in our local churches with purpose.
It’s easy to serve aimlessly in ministries! The work at hand—what we do—can quickly blind us to why we’re doing it. Parking cars, passing out bulletins, playing our instruments, teaching a class, baking cookies. None of these things, in themselves, are bad; to the contrary, they are all good (especially the cookie-baking!). But we must not do them simply to be doing something. We need purpose.

Before engaging in any act of service, we should ask ourselves why we are there and then ask the Lord to use us for His glory (Col. 3:17). The Lord equips willing, not necessarily talented, people to accomplish His will.

3. We disciple other believers.
When I was 19, the pastor of our small church, one of the “giants,” began discipling me. Originally, we met every Tuesday for an hour or so to go through a lesson from a book. That formal discipleship, however, quickly developed into an organic, honest relationship. We went to lunch and talked over doctrinal questions I had. He took me to visit sick members of our congregation and to pray with them. We attended a men’s conference together, and I think I learned more from him during the drive than I did attending the conference.

Paul charged Pastor Timothy not to keep the things he had taught him to himself, but to “commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2). As well-known Bible teacher Warren Wiersbe wrote, “We are stewards of the spiritual treasure God has given us. It is our responsibility to guard the deposit and then invest it in the lives of others. They, in turn, are to share the Word with the next generation of believers.”2

Discipleship is a lot of work; but it’s how the Lord develops spiritual giants for His church.

4. We teach apologetics to our congregations.
Skepticism and agnosticism seem to be the gods of our age. Certainly, our culture’s incessant scoffing at the notion of absolute truth and the church’s seeming emphasis on style over doctrine have contributed to this problem.

It’s difficult to imagine when apologetics have been more crucial. So we should “be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks [us] a reason for the hope that is in [us], with meekness and fear” (1 Pet. 3:15).

In my opinion, we need to put more of our time and financial resources into equipping the saints, rather than entertaining them. To be sure, there are many grounded churches that are faithfully equipping their young people, and we thank God for them; but we need more. A generation of believers who cannot articulate what they believe and why will set the church afloat in perilous waters.

Developing giants requires the power of the Holy Spirit. But if we commit ourselves to the Lord, His Word, and His will, I’m convinced He will use us to accomplish His purposes for the good of His church and for His glory.

ENDNOTES
Rosalie de Rosset, Unseduced and Unshaken: The Place of Dignity in a Young Woman’s Choices (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2012), 120.
Warren W. Wiersbe, The Wiersbe Bible Commentary: New Testament (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2007), 775.