VISION 2023 - MOVING ON UP / GROWING IN CHRIST
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Big Idea:
Big Idea:
It’s time for The River Church to “grow up.”
Intro:
Intro:
Happy New Year River Church family!
You know, I love the New Year. If we’re friends on social media, you likely know this. For the past couple of years, I’ve been all about setting new goals each year. Some call them New Year resolutions.
While many can jokingly mock the idea of “new year, new me,” I like the idea. I think it’s biblical! I think it’s an idea you find all throughout the Scriptures.
In the Old Testament, the prophet Jeremiah writes...
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
In the New Testament, the apostle Paul writes...
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
And for the follower of Jesus, even our future hope embraces the idea of all things being made new...
But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.
To me, New Year’s Day is a strategic rhythm we have built into our calendar that can help remind us of the newness of life available to us in Christ. And we need that!
In a culture that always seems ready to cancel you because of your mistakes, we need the reminder that because of the forgiveness of Christ, there’s always a fresh start around the corner.
And at The River Church, something we do at the New Year is share a new vision. Now, I don’t mean to say that the vision (or purpose) statement of our church changes every year. Our church’s vision statement is...
Loving Jesus as we build community and bring joy.
By the way, if you call The River Church your home church, let me encourage you to memorize that, because it speaks to our purpose - it defines who we are as a church.
…but when I say we share a new vision, I don’t mean that “vision” changes. But each year, our leadership team prays and seeks God for a theme (if you will, a vision) to focus on for the year. Last year, the Vision was Jesus. We believed God was calling us as a church to focus on Jesus. It’s why we spent most of the year in the Book of Mark!
Now you might be thinking, shouldn’t we always be focusing on Jesus? Absolutely! And although I’m gonna share a new vision - a new theme to focus on - you can be confident that we will remain focused on Jesus, amen?
But today, on what we call “Vision Sunday,” here’s the new vision… here’s the them I believe God would have us (as a church family) focus on for 2023… “River Church, it’s time to grow up.”
I know… that sounds kinda harsh… well, too bad… GROW UP. Just kidding. I’m gonna explain the vision a little more in a second, but because I KNOW it sounds kinda harsh, my team helped me think of a better way to communicate this theme. And so, the 2023 Vision is officially titled, “Moving on up.”
Last summer, God began to plant the seeds of this vision in my heart. The River Church is still a relatively new church, especially considering our town, which has a church that was established in 1692. Our church is barely six years old!
I can still vividly remember our first service… on October 15th, 2016.
I can remember using another church’s building and meeting on Saturday nights.
I can remember those first winter nights when 9 of us (including my family of 5) met in an empty sanctuary.
I can remember wondering if we were gonna financially survive.
But last year, God began to open my eyes to something NEW… we’re not that baby-church any more. By God’s grace, we’re past the season of wondering if we’ll survive. We’re not a vulnerable toddler-church anymore. God has established our church!
I don’t say that in a prideful or arrogant way. I say that to boast about the work God has done. And when God began to show me this, He also began to speak to me about a new season in our church’s life - that it’s time for us to grow up.
And so, today, I’m excited to share with you the plan to grow (to Move on Up) in 2023 - at least what it’ll look like on Sunday mornings.
…Growing up, my family moved all over the place. As a kid, I constantly changed schools. But in middle school, my mom finally settled down in the Lemon Grove-Encanto area of San Diego. I remember Lemon Grove Middle School being one of my first experiences having the same group of friends, for multiple school years, in a row.
Some people hate middle school. I understand that. It’s an awkward season of life. But I loved middle school. It’s when I first started playing basketball, which would be a sport I’d fall in love with and play into high school. It’s when I received my first hug from a girl or held a girl’s hand rollerskating. And like I said, it’s when I finally had a solidified group of friends to grow up with.
I remember after school, my friends would do one of three things...
We’d play pickup basketball at the Rec Center next door.
We’d walk down to Da Boyz pizza, eat pizza, and play Street Fighter 2.
We’d go to the comic book store down the street.
Middle school is when I first fell in love with Marvel Comics. And decades later, when Marvel became a movie empire, it was that early comic book experience that helped me fall in love with the movies. And today, that love also helps me share our 2023 Vision.
In the same way Marvel reveals its upcoming projects, we’ve broken up our 2023 sermon series into phases - four phases to be exact. Here they are...
Phase 1 is titled Growing in Christ.
Phase 2 will be study in the book of Jonah.
Phase 3 is two-parts, involving both the book of Acts and the gifts of the Spirit.
And Phase 4 will be on Heaven.
And I don’t know about you, but I’m excited about these sermon series! Each phase plays a specific part in helping us grow… helping us “Move on up!” And to start, over the next four weeks, I’m going to give you a preview of each phase.
So today, we’re gonna talk about Growing in Christ, which also sets the stage, and summarize, our vision for “Moving on Up.”
This year, we’re going to spend a lot weaving in and out of the book of Ephesians. This letter by the apostle Paul is one of the most powerful parts of the Bible. And it connects to the questions many of us ask during the New Year. Just as we can ask...
Who do I want to be this year?
And, how can I accomplish this goal?
The letter to the Ephesians is all about identity:
Who we used to be without Christ.
Who we are now in Christ.
And how we should live according to our new life in Christ.
You can even break up the 6 chapters of Ephesians this way...
In chapters 1-3, Paul talks about our new identity in Christ. Who we used to be apart from Him and what Jesus did for us to make us new, so we can be the person God created us to be.
In chapters 4-6, Paul gets very practical. If the first 3 chapters are about who we are, the next 3 chapters tell us how to live as new creations in Christ.
And it’s in chapter 4, where we find the Scriptural basis for both our 2023 Vision and Phase 1 of that Vision. Starting in verse 1, Paul has just finished writing about our new identity… then, chapter 4, verse 1...
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
In other words, as new creations in Christ, it’s time to live like Jesus. It’s time to do things differently - the way Jesus did them. To live in a worthy way. To be humble, gentle, patient, and loving.
eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
We’re gonna spend some time really digging into this passage later on in the year, but let’s summarize it this way… your new life in Christ has brought you into a NEW FAMILY. God hasn’t called you to isolation, He’s called you to a family. And understanding this truth is part of growing up. When we “move on up,” we do it TOGETHER.
But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says,
“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”
(In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)
Though we are a family, you are ALSO uniquely special. I wonder WHO needS to hear that today? You are special to God.
King David wrote about this truth...
For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.
You know what that means? It means you are ridiculously special to God. That He was intimately involved in the design and creation of you. And more than that, for the Christian (for those who have repented of their sins and put their faith in Jesus as their Lord and Savior), Ephesians 4 tells us He’s given each one of us spiritual gifts.
The NLT puts it this way...
However, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ.
If you belong to Jesus, God has given you a gift. A special gift. Think about that. God has PERSONALLY given you SOMETHING SPECIAL. That being the case, how important is it that we prioritize growing up so we can be all that God has created, designed, and gifted us to be?
We are not mistakes. We are not accidents. We are not random or purposeless. We are special. Therefore, your life matters! God has a special purpose for your life. He’s given you special gifts. Therefore, don’t waste your life. Instead, make every effort to “move on up!”
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,
Some of us have been gifted with greater responsibilities. This doesn’t mean these people do the greater amount of work or are greater in status. Rather, Paul says the purpose of these “greater” gifts are...
to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
The purpose of the gifts are not to make people greater than others, but rather (and more importantly) to help other people grow. And this important because God’s purpose is for His entire family to grow.
When Paul writes, “for building up the body,” it’s a picture of a currently incomplete building. God’s not done adding to His family. His house is not full yet. His building is not finished. He is still inviting people home, and He has chosen us to help complete the building project. Which is why it’s critical that we are growing - we are maturing in our faith. Because our personal growth in Christ results in others growing too.
But here’s the alternative...
so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
While middle school was fun, not everything about that time was good for me. In fact, for much of my life (including middle school), I grew up without a lot of guidance. While my mom was a strict disciplinarian, and did the best she could as a single parent working 3 jobs... growing up… I had to figure out life on my own. There was simply no one home to help answer questions I had about life.
Now, in some ways, I’m thankful for this experience. I think it built grit and endurance into my character. But as I’ve continued to grow up into the person I am now, I realize how unhealthy my younger years were. One reason being… I’m convinced God did not design children to figure out life on their own.
They don’t have the mental, emotional, and spiritual capacity to do that in healthy ways. Like this verse mentions, children are often tossed to and fro by every new way of thinking. They are vulnerable to manipulation - easy victims to lies, especially the lies of the devil who’s goal is to destroy them. And because our childhood are formational years, what we learn then impact the rest of our lives.
For example, I have often found myself (at 42 years old) reacting unreasonably to circumstances because of immature coping mechanisms I developed when I was 12. That’s middle school age. The years your hormones are going crazy and life rarely makes sense. When you’re still figuring things out. When you’re still searching for answers.
Now, imagine being in this season and having no answers - at least no wise, loving answers. So… the only option is to make stuff up… just to survive. Many times, when I start processing why I react irrationally at 42, I can often trace those responses to a scared, alone, confused 12 year old who had to come up with something just to survive.
But hear this… God doesn’t want us to just survive. He wants us to thrive. Jesus said, “I came that [you] may have life and have it abundantly!” But in order to have abundant life, we must grow up… and grow up in Christ. So that we are no longer tossed around like children tricked by the lies of this world.
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
There it is… God wants us to grow up. It’s important that we grow up. Which is why for 2023, The River Church’s vision is “Moving on up.”
Response:
Response:
So as we close, I want to invite you to “move on up” with me in 2023. And I truly mean it when I say I’m inviting you to do this together with me. Because although I get to be the one up here on stage communicating the vision of growing up, doesn’t mean I’ve already grown up and you guys need to catch up. No, I want to… I need to… GROW WITH YOU.
It’s very similar to what we read in verse 1 when Paul wrote...
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
The word “urge” is translated from the Greek word “parakaleo.” It means to call (kaleo) alongside (para). In this verse, the superhero of our faith - the apostle Paul - is saying, “I’m inviting you to walk alongside me because we both need to grow in our ability to live lives worthy of the calling Jesus has given us.” And that’s the same thing I’m inviting you to this first church service of 2023. Let’s grow together!
Because, as we’ve seen in our short time in Ephesians 4...
1) There’s a good life God created us for.
2) But many of us aren’t living that life yet because we haven’t grown up. We’ve just been surviving when God wants us to thrive.
3) Our commitment to GROW matters because our life matters. We are special and play a unique, purposeful role in the Kingdom of God and God’s plan to help others GROW.
Therefore, let’s move on up. It’s time to grow up. It’s time to become the people God has created and called us to be. Amen?
Let’s pray…
[Actually, before we do, let me say one more thing. One of my goals this year is to read through the Bible. It’s something I’ve done multiple times and it’s greatly helped me grow. And one of the things I love to do is give you resources that will help you grow too. Remember, Eph 4:11 says that part of my responsibilities as a pastor is to equip you to GROW!
Now, I’m a huge fan of the YouVersion Bible App. It’s a free app that gives you the Bible in multiple translations. But it also has a ton of free devotional plans, including multiple “read through the Bible plans.” And so, let me encourage you to pray about committing to one of those plans.
However… I’m one of those people who thinks there’s just something about physical books. And though I have, love, and use YouVersion… this year, I wanted a physical One-Year Bible to help me accomplish my goal and grow in Christ. And I’ve been loving it.
And I’ve also purchased 10 extras for anyone who is interested in joining me in reading through the Bible in 2023 (although 3 are on backorder). They are all NLT, which is an extremely readable translation. And each day includes an OT passage, NT passage, part of a Psalm and Proverb. And each day is approximately 15 mins of reading. So… 15 mins a day, every day, will get you through the entire Bible. More than that, YOU WILL GROW IN CHRIST.
One more stipulation… only take one if you’re gonna commit to it. They are gonna be at the connect table. And if you get there, you’re committed, and there’s none left… let me know. We will purchase one for you. Deal?
Let’s pray…]
Father, we thank you for this New Year. We thank you that You are a God of new beginnings. We thank you for Jesus who gives us new life. And we pray, that by the power of Your Holy Spirit, we would “move on up” this year - that we would grow in Christ. So we can be everything You have called and created us to be. In Jesus name, amen.
Thanks for joining us for Church Online. If this was your first time joining us, fill out a Connect Card. We’d love to say hi and send you a gift. Also, if you have prayer requests, would like to know more about TRC, or you decided to follow Jesus today - we want to hear from you. And there’s an easy way to do that on our website (riverchurchct.com), or follow the links in the comments below, or you can text TRCConnect to 94000.