Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

This is the final sermon in an important series where we unveil the vision for our church moving forward.

That God would grant us vision for the future has been at the heart of much of the prayer in this church for the last year or two, and we believe that God has answered that prayer.

Review Mission

The first week we examined the mission of the church and unveiled our church’s new mission statement: to invite all people to life under a better King.

Our mission answers the question, why?

Why do we exist?

What is the reason God created our church for?

We do not exist to maintain property, to grow an organization, or form a social club.

We exist to make disciples.

We want to invite people to live underneath Jesus’ gracious rule and experience him as better than anything this world has to offer.

Review Values

The next four weeks we turned to examine four core values that will shape our church as we seek to fulfill our mission together.

Our values answer the question of what?

What will drive us and shape us as we fulfill our mission?

A Better Message.

We believe that we have the best message in the world, the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And that message is central to everything we do as followers of Jesus.

The gospel is not just the ABC’s of the Christian faith.

It is the A to Z of the Christian faith.

A Better Family.

We believe that God has saved us to be a part of his forever family, a community more significant and meaningful that even our blood relatives.

We believe that because of the Holy Spirit’s gifting, we are better together.

A Better Job.

We believe that each member of our church is an official representative of King Jesus and his agenda in the world.

Every member is a minister and the main job of our leaders is to equip us for ministry as Christ’s ambassadors.

A Better Party.

We believe that as Christians we have more reasons to party than anyone else.

We want to celebrate all that God has done for us and want to invite others to the party.

As such, Christians should be the life of every party.

What is a strategy?

The last question that we need to answer is how?

How will we carry out the mission that God has given us?

What is the game plan?

In other words, what is the strategy that we are going to follow as we carry out our mission to invite all people to life under a better King?

Some of us are strategizers and others are more of the fly by the seat of your pants in their approach to planning.

I don’t know if you know this, but it is quite the ordeal to fly with four kids across the country.

When we go on vacation, Jessica is in charge of all of the planning and packing.

She helps the kids remember to bring everything they need.

Me too!

She separates all of the stuff you have to pull out of your bag in security into little baggies to make the process go smoothly.

She ensures we have gum for adjusting our ears to the changes in cabin pressure.

She brings disinfectant wipes for the armrests and trays in our seats.

She has neck pillows and sweatshirts to keep us comfortable.

She packs snacks for the kids.

She has a system for our luggage that helps us identify them on the carousel.

Usually, we have a pretty smooth experience and we get where we want to go, in large part due to her planning.

Can you imagine what would happen if I was in charge of the planning?

I guarantee you that we wouldn’t have enough clothes, it would take us two days to get through security, my kids would be cold and hungry on the plane, and I am almost positive that I would lose at least one of them along the way.

When thinking about the mission of church we must have a strategy in place if we hope to be successful in fulfilling that mission.

Now, it is common for some Christians to balk at the idea of having an overall strategy for carrying out their mission.

There is the idea that if we make plans that we are somehow being unspiritual or not allowing the Spirit to work in our church.

Well here is the reality.

No one drifts into greater faithfulness.

No one stumbles into discipleship.

It is always the result of intentionality.

If you do not set a specific time aside to read your Bible or pray, you rarely will.

Similarly, if we never come up with a clear path for what discipleship looks like in our church, we can expect few disciples to be made.

So, when we talk about a strategy for our mission, what we are really talking about is a clear pathway for discipleship at WSBC.

We want to be able to identify the next step for every person we encounter.

A strategy is a clear pathway for discipleship at WSBC

We want to be able to identify the next step for every person we encounter

Our Strategy

In order to help unpack our strategy, I want to look at how Matthew’s Gospel presents Jesus as the Great Disciple Maker.

If our goal is to make disciples of Jesus, we would do well to look at how Jesus made disciples of Jesus!

Meet the King

Matthew 4.23-

One of the things you see in Jesus’ ministry, is his commitment to meet the needs of those outside of his immediate group of disciples and to invite them to consider the Kingdom of God.

Matthew sums up much of Jesus’ ministry here as a traveling preacher, going into synagogues and towns and performing miracles.

He has his disciples do the same later.

Jesus has a heart for those outside the Kingdom of God and so ministered to them to give them a taste of what life is like in his Kingdom.

Likewise, the first step of our strategy is called Meet the King.

We want to provide people outside our community of faith with an opportunity to be exposed to King Jesus and his people.

Part of what is challenging about reaching people in our region is that most people have zero interest in attending a church.

Some do, but they are the exception.

So, if we hope to invite all people to life under a better King, we are going to need to meet them where they are at.

So as a part of our strategy we will have events and other ministries whose main design is for people to be introduced to King Jesus.

For example, this summer we will be having a block party and inviting our community in to celebrate with us with free food and games and prizes.

I will be giving a brief message, explaining the gospel, and inviting people to take the next step in investigating the Kingdom of God.

The idea is to have a low bar of entry and commitment in such ministries.

We want to ease them in to life with King Jesus.

Ministries that fit this part of our strategy include ministries like the Gathering, Lights On, Halloween, and others.

We will be introducing more in the coming years.

For most of our friends and family who do not know God, this will be step one on the path for discipleship.

We aren’t looking for them to commit to anything at the beginning.

We just want to get them to come hang out with us at Lights On, or the Gathering, or a small group BBQ.

Once they get that introduction to us, we want to invite them to the next step.

Gather Under the King

Jesus would often take time to gather his disciples in the midst of the crowds and begin to teach them.

One such example is found here, right at the beginning of the sermon on the mount.

The sermon on the mount is addressed to Jesus’ disciples, however, as Jesus teaches, he keeps the crowds in mind.

He is doing official Kingdom business as he is gathered with his disciples, but he is giving the crowds a window in to life in the Kingdom.

Similarly, this is how the second step for our strategy will function.

Step two is Gather Under the King.

We are called to gather formally as Jesus’ disciples regularly.

That is what we are doing this morning.

Our worship service is an official court session of King Jesus, where his people gather to sing praises to God and sit underneath the teaching of his word.

But as we gather together as the church we are inviting those outside of the community of faith in for a peak into Kingdom life.

Once a person has had that first point of contact with King Jesus, we want to invite them to experience his people gathered underneath him.

Our hope in the process of gathering with us regularly under the regular preaching of the gospel that they will receive the gospel for themselves, turning from their sin to trust in the work of Christ.