Generational Drift

1:30 pm – Opening Welcome – Pastor Jon Hayashi

Welcome:

Good afternoon. Thanks for coming and/or staying for our 20th anniversary celebration service. To all of our guests here, thank you for traveling from wherever you were to come and join us to share and celebrate with us. And to the Lighthouse: Happy Birthday!

While I open us with a Word from the Lord and an introduction, would the youth praise team please come and get ready.

1 Corinthians 3:5–7 NASB95

What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.

1 Corinthians 3:8–10 NASB95

Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it.

1 Corinthians 3:11–13 NASB95

For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.

We are here this afternoon for 5 purposes:

To acknowledge many of those who had a part in the process of building this church.

To celebrate God’s faithfulness to this church over the last 20 years.

To give glory to God for the growth He has caused, because we can’t really take any credit for it.

To encourage us to continue to pursue Him and His purposes for this church for the next 20 years and beyond, so that we might build Christ’s church with gold, silver, and precious stones.

Finally, so that the generations present and the ones to come will put their confidence in God and not forget what He has done, so that we might avoid the generational drift that so often occurs.

Psalm 78:4 NASB95

We will not conceal them from their children, But tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.

Psalm 78:6–7 NASB95

That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, That they may arise and tell them to their children, That they should put their confidence in God And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments,

As we celebrate what God has done through the Lighthouse we are reminded that no matter what God calls us to do, we don’t have to fear because the Lord Almighty, the Lord of Hosts, the General of the all the angel armies of heaven is here.

And no matter how crazy of a thing it is that God asks us to do, when we go forth in faith, there is nothing that can stand against us.

Let’s sing: Whom Shall I Fear?

1:35 – Opening Song: The God of Angel Armies (Whom Shall I Fear) – Youth Worship Team

1:39 – Founding Elders – Aaron Timmermans and Scott Menning

We’re going to honor Scott and Aaron now.

I know they don’t want to attention or praise, but I think it’s appropriate to at least acknowledge the men that God used to start up this church.

Questions for Scott and Aaron:

If they don’t mention any of these:

When did you know God was calling you to plant The Lighthouse Fellowship?

How and why did you come up with that name?

What was the hardest part of getting started with it?

How many people were at your first service/meeting?

Take us through the process of how it all came to be from when you knew God was calling you to do this and your first meeting?

What was one obvious way to you that God was blessing the church plant?

Transition: Video Testimony 1: Geofrey (Pastor Ken to come on stage during)

1:53 – Pastor Ken Dalke

Transition: Video Testimony 2: Titus (Rachel to come up during while Pastor Ken leaves stage)

2:04 – Song: Great Is Thy Faithfulness – Rachel (Jesse and Bishnu come on stage during song)

2:07 – Jesse Boyd and Bishnu Shrestha

Transition: Video Testimony 3: Thang (Youth Team to come up during)

2:28 – Song: Good, Good Father - Youth Worship Team (Ashley to share after)

2:39 – Open Mic (about 4-5) – (Steve V. to take around the microphone)

2:55 – Pastor Jon – Exhortation

We Want To Rejoice In What God’s Going To Do

Why 20 year celebration?

We’re talking generations.

20 years was a generations dividing line.

Numbers 14:29–31 NASB95

your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me. ‘Surely you shall not come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. ‘Your children, however, whom you said would become a prey—I will bring them in, and they will know the land which you have rejected.

Most social scientists say generations are around 15-20 years.

Exhortation 1: Don’t Dwell on The Past

Isaiah 43:16–19 NASB95

Thus says the Lord, Who makes a way through the sea And a path through the mighty waters, Who brings forth the chariot and the horse, The army and the mighty man (They will lie down together and not rise again; They have been quenched and extinguished like a wick): “Do not call to mind the former things, Or ponder things of the past. “Behold, I will do something new, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert.

Compares the Exodus to the Exiles return.

Remember what God has done - reinvigorate faith that He can move today.

God says, “Just like I brought you out of slavery to Egypt, so I will bring you out of exile in Babylon.”

I brought victory then, I will bring victory now.

I redeemed you then, I’ll redeem you now.

I provided them, I will provide now.

Just like I brought Lighthouse Fellowship to the place it is now, I will continue to build it and grow it.

Celebrate what God has done, but don’t live in the past. - Don’t get stuck in the past - positively or negatively

Do not call to mind the former things. Do not ponder the things of the past.

Don’t just reminisce and ponder what I did then.

For I am actively doing something similar, but new.

You have to let go of the past.

Don’t rely on yesterday’s faith.

Sometimes we survive on past victories.

We reminisce the “good ole days”.

We need to appreciate the past and remember the lessons learned, but we can’t live there.

God says, “I’ve got something new for you today.”

Exhortation 2: God wants to do a new thing...

God is going to do something new - ignites hope and anticipation. Vision for the future.

My mission hasn’t changed.

I will bring you safely back to the Promised Land.

But I’m going to bring it about a little differently than how I brought to the Promised Land the first time.

A new Exodus.

Through the sea before

Through the desert this time.

We must reflect on the past with gratitude and with stimulated faith, but we must not allow that to stereotype our expectations from God.

God wants to do a new thing with a new generation.

It might look the same, it might not.

But that generation must take ownership of it and pursue God and His purposes for it, just like David.

Acts 13:36 NASB95

“For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay;

Exhortation 3: God has started a great thing, but we can’t ride the coattails of the founders or their faith.

The next generation has to take ownership of God’s purposes for them.

Judges 2:7–10 NASB95

The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord which He had done for Israel. Then Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of one hundred and ten. And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.

We don’t want to be like the previous generation that fell in the wilderness.

Psalm 78:8 NASB95

And not be like their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation that did not prepare its heart And whose spirit was not faithful to God.

Exhortation 4: Be A Generation of Solomons, Joshuas, Elishas, and Timothies.

Pick up Elijah’s mantle - the calling and power of God. Double portion.

March with the Ark of Moses - the presence of God (Show me your glory) strong and courageous? The Ark split the Jordan river. Signifying God’s blessing on Joshua and a reminder of what God did at the Red Sea.

Take up Paul’s courage - God has not given us a spirit of fear...the boldness of God. Maybe truth...

Embrace Jesus’ commission - Go and make disciples of all nations. The provision of God - He will supply. Holy Spirit - God will do greater things...

Solomon - took up the plan and desire of David to build a temple and completed it. Commitment to and fulfillment of the plan of God.

Exhortation 5: Don’t be afraid of failure, or think you can’t do it.

Remember, God’s plan will work out in the end perfectly, even if we do it imperfectly.

God will always strengthen, provide, and supply what He calls us to do.

So Let’s Rejoice In What God’s Going To Do Through You, The Next Generation.

3:10 – Closing Song: Victory In Jesus – Rachel (Jon Lane to come up during last refrain of song)

3:13 – Closing Comments and Prayer – Pastor Jon Lane

3:15 pm – Dismissal – Pastor Jon Hayashi