Celebrate - New Sanctuary Dedication Service

Dr. Alan Carter March 29, 2026 Faith Presbyterian Church Birmingham, AL

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Transcript

The Small Decision That Changed Everything

Celebrate As A Biblical Command

Exodus 15 And Dancing In The Desert

The Lord’s Supper As Weekly Celebration

Celebrating Jesus From Birth To Resurrection

Prodigal Son Joy And Praying For The Lost

Revelation And The End Of Death

Learn To Celebrate God Now

SPEAKER_00 0:24

It is good to be here. We've anticipated this. Sally and I have coming back for this service for a long time. When I uh retired at the end of 2016, I believed that this building would eventually be built, but I wasn't sure I would live to see it happen. But God is good all the time, and I have uh lived long enough to see it happen. If I make another few minutes, uh I'll get to the end of it. Um everybody's asking me, what do you think about this? Um it's surreal, you know? It's a bit surreal. Um if you go back as long as uh I do with this church, and longer Jeff goes back, it's unbelievable. Uh words are really inadequate, and I mean that sincerely. Uh I love the building. Uh people have been sending me pictures along, and and I'm glad for that because I don't think I would have been able to withstand the shock without a few pictures here and there. Uh, last Friday afternoon, we had a walkthrough, and when it started, I was handed a map and it said, in case you get separated and we and you're lost, you can find your you can find your way out. I thought, well, that might be needed. You can't ever tell. Um, if I thought churches, buildings were churches, I would say, well, I'm not at Faith Presbyterian Church. But as Jason said this morning in the sermon, and it's been said tonight in the liturgy, churches are people, and I see the people of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ here called Faith Presbyterian Church. So I know I am with Faith Presbyterian Church, not in Faith Presbyterian Church. My heartfelt thanks to Jason and Martin in the session uh for the invitation to come and to preach. Everybody has been extraordinarily warm and gracious. That's not surprising. I thank you uh very much. I really, really do. And while I'm giving thanks, some of you know that in the last 20 months or so, our family's had some pretty significant health trials. Sally had surgery for breast cancer, and our older son had a brain tumor removed. Uh, but they're both uh doing well and both have excellent prognoses, and we are thankful to God for that. And thank you, those of you that have known about that and prayed about that. Okay. Now, there's a danger on occasions like this for former pastors of age to reminisce too much. Um, but I've got to say a couple of things to let you know how the Spirit of God has been at work in the midst of this. And so I want to begin with uh a story from where we were uh we used to be about 150 yards that way, and uh in the place where Providence Park is, and we had grown 20 or 25 percent a year for four or five years and had maxed out our property. I was a little bit of a sleep at the wheel at as the senior pastor, and and and we had to do some building. So we were doing some site planning to try to develop that site, and and we uh in, I don't know how we made the connection with Roger Cartwright. Roger, you're here somewhere. Why don't you raise your hand or stand up? Because he's a newer member. Where is Roger? Stand up, I'll embarrass you like Jason. You Rod Roger's one of the older new members. Thank you very much. So I told Roger this story this morning, and I'll tell you in a minute why it's it why it's important. So Roger was working with us about site planning, and when we got to the end of the process, he said, you know, you guys are gonna be just a little bit short on your parking. If you could acquire a 50, 100-foot strip of land uh on the the west side on this property, uh that would really help you out a lot. And so uh in a session meeting, I reported that fact, and Hal Shepherd said, Well, I know the guy that owns it, I'll just call him up and and his history. Um but if Roger hadn't said that, and if Hal hadn't made that call, and if the session hadn't agreed for Hal to make that call, we might be over there rather than here. And when I said that to Roger, I told Roger that story this morning, I said, Do you remember that? He said, No, must have been the Holy Spirit. Do you think? Yes, okay. Wow, wow, the rest is history here, except this is the beginning. Um, God said, Do you have enough faith to want to glorify me that much? At one point in the process, I said to the church, what if God wants more for us than we want? That is a sobering question, brothers and sisters. And there's a corollary to that. And if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, if you name the name of Jesus Christ tonight, I'm gonna ask you this question: What if God wants more for your life than you want right now? And I hope you'll think about that sometime. It's a really important question. Because I think we know for sure from the scriptures that God is out for his own glory, and he glorifies himself when weak people like all of us step up in faith and say, God, will you help me? This is bigger than I can do. After phase one, this is my last reminiscence. I'm gonna get to the Bible in a minute. After phase one, if you look from Valley Dale Road and look over this and imagine the three phases are not there, and you see this building, the first phase tucked over there, and a man who was not a member of Faith Church, but which I knew, he said to me one day, why did you put your building over on the side of your property where it can't be seen very well? I said, Well, we've got this plan, we've got this road around, this circular road, and and and we are planning under faith to do other things. Brothers and sisters, nobody's asking that question today. Are they? They're not asking that question today. Something's happening here. Jesus didn't preach with one of these on, by the way. So my theme is celebrate. Celebrate. Ecclesiastes says, for everything there's a season and a time for every matter under heaven, a time to break down and a time to build up, a time to weep, and a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to dance. And brothers and sisters, this is a time to celebrate. Let me pray. Father, thank you for your word. And thank you that in that word that we're about to read and in many other places, you were celebrated. I pray that you would anoint the reading and the preaching of your word just now, and that you would teach us some things we need to know, and that you would use a wretchedly sinful, crooked stick to show Jesus. And Jesus, we pray in your name. Amen. I want to read a few verses from Exodus chapter 15. If I were preaching a sermon on a Sunday morning on this text, I would entitle it Dance in the Desert. Dance in the Desert, because I think that's exactly what was happening. Uh, God had brought his children out of Egypt at the time of the Passover. He had brought them through the sea, the Red Sea, parted, and they had gone through. And in chapter 15 of Exodus, I believe they're dancing in the desert. I want to read a few sentences, uh a few verses from this. Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying, I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider has he has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song, he has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exhort him, exalt him. The Lord is a man of war, the Lord is his name. And in verse 13, you have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed, you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode. The peoples have heard, they tremble, pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia. Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed, trembling seizes the leaders of Moab. All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away, terror and dread fall upon them because of the greatness of your arm. They are still as a stone. To your people, O Lord, pass by, to your people pass by whom you have purchased. You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain, the place, O Lord, which you have made for your abode, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established, the Lord will reign forever and forever. I want to begin my message in a very unlikely place, a wedding reception at the Vestavi Hills Country Club. Uh it had been a very uh wonderful wedding and an excellent reception. I was looking for somebody in the reception, so I made my way over to a wall so I could turn around and look out over all the group. And as I did that, the party that had been going so well just went flat as a pancake. Uh the band quit, and it was this as if everybody in the room got tired all at once. You could feel it, it was palpable. Standing a couple of feet from me was an African-American lady who I discerned for very in various ways was the boss or the supervisor of all the wait staff. And as the the party went flat, I leaned over to her and I said, you know, white people just don't know how to party. And she looked at me and she said, You said it, not me. Don't go tell my boss that I said that, you know. In a similar way, I could tell you that Christians don't know how to party, and perhaps especially Presbyterian Christians. Can I get an amen on that, brothers? Yes, okay. Thank you. Thank you. But if you read the Bible, celebration is a very significant theme. It was, it is, and it will be for all eternity future. So, briefly, what happened here? God said, Look, time after time after time, he said to Pharaoh, let my people go. Pharaoh won't let them go. There's this contest between the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the gods of Egypt, and God's winning every round. And finally, God says, Look, I'm gonna come through and kill all the firstborn of the land of Egypt. And he says to his people, kill a lamb, put blood on the doorpost, and I will pass by you, pass over you. And he did. Pharaoh let him go. Pharaoh had a change of heart. Pharaoh pursued them. Their backs are to the sea. Pharaoh's army's approaching. They don't know what they'll do. The sea parts. God's people go through. The sea comes back, and they're all drowned in the sea. And in chapter 50, that's at the end of chapter 14, and in chapter 15, they have the dance in the desert. On both occasions, it is death that is defeated. God will come through and destroy all the firstborn. They are about to die, their backs are to the sea, and twice God delivers them. Fast forward to 1 Corinthians 5. And God says, the Apostle Paul said, Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed. And so we know that the Lord's Supper is the New Testament version of the Passover. The next verse we're not as familiar with. The next verse says, Let us therefore celebrate the festival. Celebrate the festival. Why am I saying this? Every week you're going to come into this place, and Jason or Martin or some of the other staff or some guests preacher is going to preach Jesus. They're going to preach the gospel. They're going to call you to repentance and faith. And after that sermon, you're going to go at these stations where we have the Lord's Supper. There's one at each window. There are four along that wall. There are four along that wall. And there's one right over there. You see the little table, and there's one over there. And you're going to be offered the gospel made visible. You will have heard the gospel preached in word, and then the gospel will come to you in the sacrament. And my prayer is that you will be blessed as God is glorified as you come to the Lord's table week in and week out. It's a great thing to hear the gospel. Not everybody in this world has heard the gospel. That's the reason Johnny Johnson and others are leading a mission effort here. I remember way, way back in my time as pastor here, it was the early 90s at the latest, and it might have been in the late 80s, and I was observing all the elders seemed like they needed to frown when they served the Lord's Supper. You've been in churches like that. It's almost as if the sacrament was toxic. And I said to them, brothers, you don't have to frown when you serve the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. You are serving them Christ. You are serving them the gospel. Remember that as you come and as you celebrate the festival in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The next thing you would expect me to talk about is the temple being rebuilt in 515 and the wall around Jerusalem in 455. But Jason did such a great job of that in a sermon series that I'm just going to say, go online and listen to those sermons, okay? Martin preached an especially good one on the contrast between the reactions to that. You remember that sermon. You did you hit it out of the park on that one. You really did. It was a great sermon. When you believe that this Bible is not an this, excuse me, that this building is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. As Jason said in the sermon, the book is full of that too, by the way. Yes, take it, read it, think about it. All right, that. Thirdly, think of Jesus. Think of Jesus. So Jesus, think of his incarnation, his life, his death. I'm gonna just find a little place, a few places to celebrate here. So he's he's his birth is announced. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. They were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, Fear not. For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign to you. You will find the baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a major. Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. So they are filled with fear. And the angel said, Fear not, and they quit fearing. No, I don't think so at all. I don't think so at all. I think they were still filled with fear, and and that's the reason they said, Well, let's go check it out after the heavenly choir quits singing. But the heavenly hosts know what's happening. The heavenly hosts get it. If the shepherds don't get it, the angel choir in heaven gets it. Glory to God in the highest. At the end of Luke 2. Jesus is brought in. Simeon takes the child in his arms. And I really learned from Michael Card's song on this. Simeon took the child in his arms and he started to sing. I love that song. Singing, my eyes have seen your salvation. And he's rejoicing, he's celebrating, he sees it, he gets it. John 2, Jesus' first miracle in Cana, in Galilee. And he turns water into wine. Now we can't be sure why he chose that to be his first miracle. I think it says, and he revealed his glory to them, he revealed to them who he was. But I think a part of that is he's saying, the celebration has begun right here, right now, in my lifetime. By the way, you come to Carleton, Oregon, about an hour from my house, there's a vineyard called Cana's Feast. I can show you the way. Think of the resurrection. Jesus shows up in various places. And he shows up to the disciples, but Thomas isn't there. He shows them his hands in his side. They go to see Thomas. We have seen the Lord. A Presbyterian would have said, We've seen the Lord. We saw the Lord. We have seen the Lord. He's alive. Next Sunday is Easter Sunday. It's the big deal of the year. Right? I think it's bigger than Christmas. What's the big deal? The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the defeat of death. Right? Adam and Eve were told, in the day that you eat thereof, you will surely die. And death is the enemy, the ultimate enemy. And Easter is about the death of death. Fourthly, I've got to insert this one because it's so important. Again, Jason spoke about this this morning, but we both read the same book, you know what I mean? So um you didn't preach about this text, but you the principle that's here. You know the story of the prodigal son. God is Inheritance went off, squandered it. In a far country, he came to his senses, decided, I'll go back. He repented. He went back. And the father said to his servants when he got back, bring quickly the best robe, put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this, my son was dead and is now alive. He was lost and he's found. And they began to celebrate. The older brother came in, he got his nose all out of joint. You know, you know the story. What's going on here? You never gave me a calf to celebrate, all this kind of stuff. It was fitting, said the father, to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found. Brothers and sisters, my prayers at Faith Presbyterian Church will be a place where the spiritually dead become alive, the lost are found, and their salvation is celebrated among the believers. When it's 6 p.m. on Saturday in Oregon where I live, it's 10 a.m. Sunday in Tokyo. And maybe in Seoul, maybe Jakarta, maybe Hong Kong. I'm not sure where the time zone lines are over there. When it's 6 p.m. here in Alabama, it's only 8 a.m. in Sunday in Tokyo. And here's how Sally and I often pray. Okay? God, the gospel you tell us is your power unto salvation for everyone who believes. It's going out right now in other time zones, and it will go out in others soon. It will not, according to your word, return to you void. Tomorrow it will go out at Faith Presbyterian Church, and it will go out here in Portland, and it will go out in countless other places around this earth. Be with those who are finishing their preparation to preach. Be with them as they preach. Be with those who come and bring many to hear them. Lift the Lord Jesus up high and draw men and women and children to yourself. Glorify your name by the salvation of the lost and the sanctification of the saved. Lord, your glory is at stake. Act in power. Do you believe that the gospel is the power of God into salvation? Do you pray as if the gospel is the power of God unto salvation? Do you pray for Jason or Martin or whoever is preaching before you come that their words will be the power of the living God to bring people out of darkness into the light of the gospel? Do you do that? If you don't, why don't you? If you do, praise God for that because the Spirit of God has led you to do it. It's so important. You see, that's happening every Sunday. Do you believe it? The people are being gathered in all around this earth. Pray about it. Pray the promises. This younger brother got saved, and others can too. Very briefly, now the book of Revelation. Most lots of the book is about celebration. Three quick places. Chapter 19. Hallelujah. For the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb is come. Chapter 20. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. Chapter 21. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. That's the church coming to be married to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning or crying or pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. These are pictures of the end of history as we know it, and the beginning of the real rejoicing at the beginning of eternity future. Our rejoicing now is just prelude to rejoicing then. Brothers and sisters, get used to it. Get into it. Learn how to celebrate God. If you know Him, you will celebrate Him forever. It's not too early to start. Secondly, a significant part of the rejoicing is primed by the death of death. Maybe you've connected that theme in Exodus 12. God's people survived death when the God went through Egypt. God's people survived death at the sea. The younger brother survived death by repenting and believing. It's all a part of the same fabric. And we rejoice because the last enemy will be destroyed. Has been destroyed, will be destroyed. And yet the focus of our rejoicing will be on God Himself, not on the things given by God, but on God Himself. In the wonderful hymn by Anne Ross's cousin, based on some writings of Samuel Rutherford, the hymn, The Sands of Time Are Sinking, one of the stanzas goes like this The bride, Bride of Christ, the church, the bride eyes not her garment, but her dear bridegroom's face. I will not gaze at glory, but on my king of grace, not at the crown he gifteth, but on his pierced hand. The Lamb is all the glory of Emmanuel's Lamb. It is right and good for Christians to celebrate. Many of us need to celebrate more. Certainly I am one of them, and those of you who know me well know how true that really is. It's right to celebrate our blessings, deliverance from death, completed building programs, the coming of Jesus the first time, the salvation of the lost, and so many other things. But more than that, it's right and good that we should celebrate our God. If you will use this building to celebrate your God, he will be pleased, and you will be blessed. Let's pray. Lord our God, um, some of us are rookies at celebrating you. Others know a bit more about it. We pray that we'll be swift learners throughout this life and then eternal learners in the next life. Because you, Lord Jesus, the Lamb, is all the glory in Emmanuel's land. We pray in your name. Amen.