Hello, my name is Fred Lodge and I'm pastor emeritus here at Ebenezer. I was here in the '80s and '90s when this was originally built, and my joy to come back and be with you now as well. The legacy of Ebenezer is that of a soul-winning, disciple-making, sending organism, and I freely admit that I am getting a little bit older now, but contrary to popular opinion, I was not here when the church was formed in 1849.

However, we've had some great historians over the years who have given a great deal of attention to logging in our history. This is not our original location here, for some of you who don't know. We were actually down Oak Valley Road out here some ways, and the old church, uh, when it was first built, was a log cabin. It served for a season, but it was way too small and they needed a bigger place. But this was during the time of the Civil War and afterwards in Reconstruction and materials and things cost just so much.

They were able to build what we would call a clapboard building at that time, a little closer to the road. It actually had glass windows in it. That was a big, big, big improvement back then. However, they didn't have enough money to really finish it well, to have it well braced. Or ceiling, they're well-trussed, and in a good wind it would kind of do some of this.

And the pastor at the time, G.J. Davis, he wasn't satisfied with that at all, and he said, "You know, this place is going to blow down one day." So back then they just had quarter-time preachers. He was here one Sunday out of a month, and so he said, "Now between now and the time I come back again, I'm I want y'all to begin the process of getting some money together to where we can have this building well secured and well prepared to where we can continue to use it safely. Well, he came back a month later and they had not raised a dime, not a bit. They said, "We just don't have any money to give." Well, he said this at that time, he said, "Well, one of these days this whole house of God is gonna blow down and I don't care if it does." We'll go out on Big A Road and we'll build a church that is much more accessible to the community we're trying to reach.

Well, it didn't happen right then, but you know that cyclone that came through here just a few weeks ago? We had one back then, and it laid that building down on the ground. One of the deacons at the time, Bob Duvall, came to Reverend Davis and he said, "Ebenezer is now laying on the ground." "Wow!" And the pastor's response was, "Well, praise the Lord!" He came back on his next Sunday here preaching out of Nehemiah, about what all God's people were able to do when they had a mind to work. And I want you to know that day he raised $900. They moved up here then on Big A Road, not right here, but close to this area where they built the next building in our long history of buildings, being in and out of them and renovating them and tearing them down and making a new one and all of the rest of this.

Our church has a rich history that's not tied to a building. It's tied to the people who are the church and have a mind to work and a mind to see people come to faith in Christ, grow in their faith, and then be used where God wants them to be. One of our historians, her name was actually Daisy, and she— Daisy Ligon— and she wrote a history, I think it was in the mid-'70s if I'm remembering right. Uh, somebody have to remind me there. But she was talking about a particular period of time when Pastor W.A.

Trotman was here as pastor, and during that period of time there were so many people coming to faith in Christ, growing in the Lord, and then feeling called into some some kind of ministry, just, you know, all over the place. 10 of them she recorded. There were more, but 10 she recorded in that 10-year period of time. One of those was a man named John Mark Carpenter. John Mark Carpenter felt called to be a missionary in Liberia.

He went and served there faithfully for many years, not only as a missionary, but then being the greatly educated man that he was, he built the Liberian Seminary, which to this day still stands and still is taking native Liberians and training them to be pastors all over the world. If that name is familiar, that is the great uncle of Josh Carpenter, who serves now as a missionary in Italy. The names kind of keep flowing, and they mean a lot to some who've been around here a long time. During that period of time, there was a A missionary called to Peru, another one called to Guatemala, and then pastors called. One particular man's name was Charles Carter, and he served our state for many, many years, and we're just so proud that he's had so much of his roots right here with us.

Fast forward then to the '80s, Valeria and I had a wonderful time being here the first time, and it was our joy to serve this church. But again, God was moving in wonderful ways. We saw many people come to faith in Christ, be baptized as you saw this morning, but then grow in their faith and say, "God, where do you want me to be and to serve?" I had the privilege, Valeria and I did, of sitting with Wanda Carpenter here just a few, a couple years ago, and we started thinking about the generation of our kids, and we totaled 30 of those kids that grew up in that period of time, most of them right here in this community, though a couple of them were from outside, that were called then to go into full-time ministry or go into missions, all the way around the world. We have 3 sons, they're all 3 in ministry. And by the way, just a little fun fact, Michael, our middle son, will be here next Sunday morning.

He's come— he works out in Washington State as a pastor of a thriving church out there. We're excited to have him here. But Josh, I mentioned, Tim and Mary Jo's children are all in ministry. John Crumpleton, Amy Jones Cotton. Amy married a minister of music.

Dwayne Dawson grew up in this, Heather and Andy Duke who serve us even still today, so many others. It's not an exhaustive list. And then many felt called of God to minister right here, right where we are, some in the room today. I mean, Jeremy Ware is over here, Brian Hartzog is over on this side, Jason Scott, so many are right here. Caleb, that was playing earlier, was in that same era of time growing up and sensing God's calling to ministry.

But what God has done in the past, he's continuing to do today, calling tomorrow's ministers, tomorrow's missionaries even now to be about serving. And some of them are with us right here today. Again, Grant Ware is here, Duane Cannon is here, others whom God is calling into ministry even now. God called our former pastor away to a different area of ministry. Brother Andy served us here for some 17 years, and then he was called to our Georgia Baptist Mission Board.

There he would serve as a pastor to pastors, but now he is serving as the number 2 person in our mission board, the executive assistant of our executive director, and he wanted to say something to you this morning. Guys, play his video, please. Good morning, Ebenezer. Melissa and I are excited as you are for you to be back in the worship center after the renovations. We're so thrilled that through Pastor Jamie's leadership, Ebenezer continues to reach and send the next generation.

Enjoy your day of worship today and know that Melissa and I continue to pray and encourage. We're so grateful for the legacy and the future that God has through Ebenezer.

What excites me so much is not the fresh coat of paint on the walls or the carpet. Or the things that we've done to renovate here and over in our Family Life Center. That's not what excites me. This has always been a launching pad, a platform where we see men and women, boys and girls come to faith in Christ, grow and be nurtured in what our faith really, really means, and then feel called to service here or down the block or in another city, right here in the United States and around the world. It's not about the building.

It's always been about the people who, when they had a mind to work, God does some amazing, amazing things. Will you pray with me? Father, we want to thank you for where we've been, but we understand it's just a glimpse of where we're going, because you have laid on our heart to be a church that extends hope to the broken, and people come here finding you and finding healing and finding hope and finding purpose and growing in your faith. And then, Lord, you call them to serve right here in this church or here in our community or across the state or around the world. And Lord, I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart that I get to see it happen and be a small part of it.

Lord, thank you for your people who are Ebenezer Baptist Church. The buildings have changed over the years. Some of 'em you've had to blow down to make 'em change. The buildings have changed over the years, but your people have the same heart to love you and to follow you. And I thank you for the anointing you've placed on this people.

In your name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, I'm Randy. I'm the missions pastor here at Ebenezer.

And, and literally last week when people were all over this room, uh, redoing our, our, uh, worship center, I had the privilege of being part of a team that we built a church in Brazil. And I I don't know if that like really sinks in, but think about that. Ebenezer built an entire church in Brazil. This was the second year in a row we got to do that. And just from a financial standpoint alone, to put that in perspective, I talked to a pastor of a— what they call the mother church, the sponsoring church there in Brazil.

And he said for their church to be able to plant that location would take them somewhere between 10 to 20 years to save up the money to do so. And because of you— and so you might be thinking, well, yeah, you only had 8 or 9 people down there. That was the team. No, everybody in this room was part of that team that built that church. You were praying for us.

You were giving money, whether that was to send us or to help pay for that building. And so What a privilege it was to build that building. And again, I don't know if that sinks in. I mean, we built a church. I've had the privilege of going to Brazil many times.

I love Brazil. I love the Brazilian people. This was the first time of all the times I've gone that I remember we built in the middle of a bunch of apartments. Normally it's houses. It's just a little small community.

But these were apartments. And at first I thought, well, that's a little bit weird. I'm used to being in this really poor neighborhood. And this, I would say it was closer to a middle class, maybe, maybe lower middle class neighborhood. And I thought, well, man, this is different.

And then I started hearing the stories in the community of how, how they're struggling with drug problems in the community, how they're struggling with gang activity in the community, how they're struggling with just some horrific crimes towards children in the community. And it— and I realized that no matter where we build, no matter where we help plant, there are lost people that need to hear about Jesus and so that they can, they can be saved and that that neighborhood can be transformed. And I'll tell you, the congregation that we got to build for The first morning that we got there, they were there ready to greet us and so excited about what they were going to have because again, here's a church plant who had been meeting, actually they were meeting in a little one room of an apartment and now all of a sudden they have a building and they were excited the second day as we got there and they were getting ready to go out in the neighborhood inviting people to church. There was an excitement there. And, you know, as we do missions around the world, there are a couple of things we try to focus on.

One is helping plant churches, and the second is helping to strengthen churches that are already there. And God's given us a great opportunity over the— yes, the last several years, but for many, many, many, many years to do that. You know, Fred talked some about the legacy of sending out vocational missionaries, vocational ministers out of this building. And again, it's just a building. It's these people that are sending it out.

But this particular trip, one of our middle schoolers went with us. And I didn't really know the full story till this past week in Brazil, but I remember literally standing right over here several months ago. A few weeks ago when he came to ask me if it was okay for him to go. He wanted to make sure age-wise that was fine, and his dad went with us too. But as I heard more of the story, turns out some time back he had watched a movie, and the movie had one small part that was in Brazil.

So he just felt like he needed to learn Portuguese. Now, I personally have never watched a movie and felt like I needed to learn another language. But he did, and he started learning it. And then when, when one Sunday, I don't know, 7 or 8 months ago, when we were sharing the opportunities for 2026 mission projects, he heard Brazil and he started talking to his, his family about, I feel like that's where I'm called to go. That right there, a middle schooler who in this room was hearing about opportunities around the world, and that's the legacy not only that Ebenezer has had, but we want to see continue.

Last Tuesday morning, we were kind of wrapping up our trip and we had the opportunity to go speak to the State Baptist Convention there in the state we were in, in Brazil. And as often happens when I'm in Brazil, I found out literally a few moments before we got there that I was going to be speaking. All right. And so little time to prepare. So those of you who know me well know that I'm probably going to go to Acts 1:8 and share about how Jesus told us to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.

Actually got up and did the entire talk and then turned around and looked. They had a banner up in their state convention office about their theme for the year, which was Acts chapter 1, verse 8. Even gave us all t-shirts with Acts chapter 1, verse 8. I can't read it because it's in Portuguese, but I can get Max to translate it for me, and I actually know the verse anyway, so I don't have to necessarily have a translation there. But again, an opportunity to continue sharing about Acts chapter 1:8, because the other part of that, if you listen closely, it starts with, we're going to be his witnesses in Jerusalem.

And if you put that in our modern-day terms, that's talking about our Jerusalem, which is Tekoa in Stephens County. Again, a long legacy of missions being done right here in Tekoa in Stephens County. But I'm seeing that even today, and, and we know that's going to continue into the future. But today, as, as we've had opportunities, just a couple of weeks ago, I saw so many of you out on projects during our Love Tekoa Day as we focused all over the community in one day. But a week or so ahead of that, I never heard whether it was truly a tornado or just really high winds that struck, but within an hour of that storm, there were people from Ebenezer out putting blue tarps on roofs and getting trees off of roofs because you have made it possible for us to have equipment and the trailers to go do that.

Our Impact Center is so close to being complete, uh, and, and already we have people all over the community who've, who've booked days to use that for community activities. Our, our Christian Learning Center is going to be moving in there hopefully extremely soon when we finish, but we've been able to open our doors right here in this building for them until we can complete that. So thank you. Uh, I, I wish I could take credit for what goes on in missions at Ebenezer, but I can't. God's been doing it for years and years and years, and I believe he's going to continue doing it for years and years and years.

And as our, our young people come in this room and they experience this, this nice-looking new room, but they're hearing about what God's doing not just here, but around the world. That's how we continue to get people excited about missions and sending them out to be vocational ministers, vocational missionaries around the world. Thank you for being a part of it. Yesterday when I came by, we moved Caroline into Athens yesterday to her new apartment. I had to rush home and take a real quick shower because I was in Athens.

But I missed the part where the chairs got put out. And so when I got here, um, I knew how many chairs were in a stack. There were 8 chairs per stack. And I walked down this little side hallway and I look where we had, we had put the chairs, and this chair was sitting all by its lonesome. And, and I, um, I, Shannon, I'm like, somewhere in the room, surely we can I was going to put this at the end of a row or something, and then I decided to hold it, and I hid it back here behind the stage.

It was just kind of left alone, disenfranchised, lonely.

Seats made for people to sit in.

You know, before our renovations, we had the pews in here, and it was easy to say on a Sunday morning there were no empty. But right now, even looking across this room, there's chairs that are.

And though the work looks fantastic, you know, we wanted something you'd be proud of. Something you'd want to invite your friend to, your neighbor, coworker.

When you come in starting next week, whether it's for Bible study, whether it's something during the week or on Sunday morning, You're gonna look and you're gonna see these empty chairs. And what I wanted to prompt you to think about is there's somebody in this community who's also disenfranchised, marginalized, left on the edge, overlooked.

And I want it to prick your heart to pray that God would draw them to himself. Every time you see an empty chair, and even up here looking at this one, I want you to think. There's somebody that needs to be in that chair. You know, I'm sitting there thinking as I look at our students. And I look at this space.

And this altar. This altar isn't different. I mean, think of the number of people that have come to this altar bearing a burden. And their life is now on a different trajectory. Think about the number of kids that have come down to this altar.

Not that there's anything special about this space. But this is consecrated space.

And accepted Jesus. Wouldn't it have been wonderful to have been here when Josh Carpenter might have come down to this altar and said, "Lord, I surrender my ministry to you. Where will you send me?" Who knows that that middle school student or even the elementary student that we know that has voiced the same thing. I think God's calling me to another country.

What if the person walking up the sidewalk that you don't even know yet finds their way in here to an empty chair and takes that seat, gives their life to Jesus, and 20 years from now they're the ones standing at this desk delivering the word of God. You ever think about that? The sweet sound of babies crying, Patrick, that in 20 years she may be the one leading in Bible school and taking those groups, taking those groups around.

Those of you ladies in this room that, that soon have kids coming into this world, to know that they in 20 years may be the ones leading those Bible school groups and those Sunday morning Connect groups. That's legacy.

Not the paint on the wall, not the new carpet, because I can tell you in 20 years from now it'll probably be a different color, and these chairs will wear out just like your bodies are wearing out. And who knows? Who knows? Does that not excite you to not know? It excites me where our church may be around this world, the mission partners that may come along, the, the other churches, Randy, that may get built or may be planted.

I think about John Tellis in Scotland as we talk regularly and we hear about the church planting initiative. God, that excites me. I hope it excites you to think that Ebenezer might have a part a small part in that.

And who knows that that empty chair beside you might be the one. It could be you.

Folks, today as we wrap up this service, I just think it's very fitting that we're not dedicating this space. It's already been dedicated.

And we're not giving this back to the Lord. Lord gave it to us. What are we going to do with it? How are we going to use it? Will we be a good steward of our space and our time and our services and our ministry?

We talk about being good stewards of our money, but there's a lot more things we steward. What are we going to do with it? I'm going to ask our pastors to come and come Come and join me right now on the stage. In the Old Testament, when something was consecrated, they would anoint it with oil.

And who knows? I mean, we, we know the reality. There's been faithful men of God that have stood in this space to preach the Word of God with the intent for it to change lives. Not the words, not the philosophies, not the outlines. No, it's God's Word.

And we want this to remain a dedicated space for Him to use. Don't y'all have a good-looking pastoral group right up here? Even if they were here in 1849.

Folks, I'm gonna tell you, I mean, I may be chasing a few rabbits and that's okay, but when I tell people about this They ask, "How does it work? You got two former pastors.

How does that work?" And I said, "God." And a whole lot of humility. No, I'm not joking. These are some of the most humble men on the face of this planet, and we are blessed as a church to have them leading here.

So men, would y'all come and each of you lay hands on this desk. There's nothing special about this oil. But we anoint it in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Invite you to pray with us now. Father, we consecrate this space to you again.

Afresh and anew. That whatever is delivered from here comes from your word. Not the world's philosophies.

Not fallen psychology. But the Word of God. Let your Word go forth and not return void. So whoever it is, Father, we ask that it would be delivered in the demonstration of the Holy Spirit. And if it's not from your Word, that you would stop it.

That's what we're asking today as we rededicate this space and the time to you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. And now I'm gonna ask them to stay up here with me.

But I want to ask you to stand because What we need to rededicate to the Lord isn't this room, it's you.

Bible says you are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Some of you came in here today and I bet you're even questioning, should I keep following this Jesus? That may be you today. Maybe some of you've been so discouraged, you're just like, you know what, I can't do anything else for the Lord. I don't know how I'm going to be able to go forward.

Well, what if today you said, "You know what, Lord? I know you've saved me. I know you've called me. What is it that you want me to do? Give me a fresh vision of where you're leading me." Because collectively together, the little toe and the big ear.

You know what I'm saying? All of us together. We're the body of Christ. So would you pray with me? Father, that we dedicate our hearts to you.

Father, we walk in that foyer and there's a verse that some people have seen. They may not have seen. But we want to pray that to you today. That you, the God of hope, would fill us with all joy and all peace in faith, in believing, so that we wouldn't just know it, that we would abound in it, in that joy, in that peace, in the hope of Christ And in the power of the Holy Spirit, we dedicate and surrender our lives to you afresh and anew. That you would use us in our Jerusalem.

That you would use us in our Judea. And you would use us to the utmost parts of this world. We— this space you've given to us, God. We surrender it to you. We don't just give it back to you.

We surrender it to you. You use it. However You see fit. And may it bring glory and honor to You. In Jesus' name.

Now lastly, before you go. I know we can't do this because of the size of the room. But I'm going to ask some of you that are sitting close. I want every inch of this altar railing covered by hands. Not all of you can come.

But I just want every— I want every part. Just come and lay hands on this altar. Again, you can accept Jesus in your bedroom. I get that. But we're consecrating this space to be used of God.

Let me lead you as we pray. Father, we consecrate this space to you. Those of us in this room. Those of us laying hands on it today. God, that you would use this space.

God, it excites me to think about the people who will surrender their lives. Surrender their ministry. Surrender their call. In a few square inches right here.

So Lord, I pray that you speak to our people and you draw those that wouldn't even know yet. That's so exciting to me. That, that Lord, that you would let us cross paths with people we don't even know their names. But in 20 years may make a big impact. So Lord, we surrender this space to you.

Take it and use it. But before you do, Take us, mold us, break us, and remake us, and use us to glorify you. We love you. In Jesus' name, amen. Guys, we love you.

We're so glad you were here today. Thank you for this rededication, this regathering. God bless you guys. Have a great Sunday.