Vision: Seeing the Distance
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Things change! Appearance, design, methodology --- most of us have different furniture and styles in our houses than we may have 20-30 years ago --- in our current day things change even faster than ever before, and an eclectic mix of things has become a norm.
There are different events in life that also cause things to change - loss of family members, friends that move away and friends that move in and family members that are added in through marriage and birth!
These events cause NEW NORMS - NEW REALITIES of existence. They are scary sometimes in the moment, but without them we would not have progress and growth.
The church is no different. We cannot see clearly now what is in the far off distance! That does not mean that the reality of that distance when discovered is bad!
People fight against changes in the church (which is the slowest organization around to change) - however, those churches that have allowed for progress and change have discovered great benefit in reaching their communities for Christ. Why?? Because culture changes and morphs… we must be adaptable in doing the same —
Think of the world before space exploration - in the 60’s it was a race to see which country could discover the moon first. With telescopes they could see the moon more clearly, we all can see it in the super distance, but until someone landed there, no one would have first hand knowledge of what was there.
Greater than the discovery of the moon was the discovery of space! Today, much of our world has become closer together because of space exploration. One great example of this is the SMART PHONE!!!
These little buzzards deemed by some to be evil, time consuming, and presenting a world of problems - ALSO present a world of solutions, safety, connection, and convenience!!! (there are always 2 sides of a coin)
- The Smart Phone functions because of satellite technology.
- Satellite technology exists because of space exploration.
- Space exploration exists because man had a dream to go the distance.
It has now created a new altered reality — a different existence than what was some years ago — an enhanced difference.
Yes, we can bemoan the old days, and simpler ways of life, and yet we also can embrace the positives of change.
What we cannot do? — Alter our MISSION and our TRUTH as methods and means and new norms take place.
As a church - things SHOULD always be morphing and changing. New ministries, methods, styles — because society and people change.
However,
Our message to be a:
Christ Honoring
Hope Giving
Community of Faith
DOES NOT CHANGE!
This morning as we endeavor to see in the distance of WHAT God might have in store for Destiny - realize this is not tomorrow, or next year, or probably even the next five, but maybe… let us look like the pioneers of space exploration with starry eyes to see what might become if we keep our eyes FOCUSED on the VISION — as we endeavor to do our part in being that Christ Honoring, Hope Giving, Community of Faith!!!
As our people begin to dream dreams of how God can use them to touch the lives of the lost… (last week I had several people come to me with things God has placed in their hearts to do for him… we have already begun to endeavor how individually and with the support of the church those dreams can become NEW NORMS… DO NOT GIVE UP ON THEM — MAKE THE DREAM BECOME A REALITY… it creates a new norm that continues to progress and grow!
9 That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”
How true this was for the Patriarchs when God gave a vision…
How true this was for the early church when they endeavored to be faithful to the mission
How true in the lives of every Christian today...
12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
1 cor 13
As we endeavor to be the church - we will not see all things clearly until we get to heaven, but then we will see all that God had planned and in store for OUR LIVES, OUR FAMILIES, OUR COMMUNITY and CHURCH!
However, if we look forward into the distance with LOVE for one another and the lost in our hearts, and we endeavor to be who Christ has called us to be… we will see HIS PLANS UNFOLD.
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
1. Don’t Limit God
1. Don’t Limit God
In Scripture we see a principle — God is bigger than we are and does not want to be limited.
That being said - God has boundaries that He has revealed to us in HIS WORD…
17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” Let anyone who hears this say, “Come.” Let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life.
18 And I solemnly declare to everyone who hears the words of prophecy written in this book: If anyone adds anything to what is written here, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book.
19 And if anyone removes any of the words from this book of prophecy, God will remove that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city that are described in this book.
The Lord calls people to come and know Christ, and the WORD does not change! We cannot add to it...
He says this at the close of our last book in the Bible, however, think to do the day when Jesus was sent into the earth --
Rev
There will NOT BE ANOTHER MESSIAH ---
When Christ came - He fulfilled the law, and changed the era to one of grace and mercy empowering us to live a righteous life… (BUT IT CHANGED)
9 The next day as Cornelius’s messengers were nearing the town, Peter went up on the flat roof to pray. It was about noon,
10 and he was hungry. But while a meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance.
11 He saw the sky open, and something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners.
12 In the sheet were all sorts of animals, reptiles, and birds.
13 Then a voice said to him, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.”
14 “No, Lord,” Peter declared. “I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure and unclean.”
15 But the voice spoke again: “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.”
16 The same vision was repeated three times. Then the sheet was suddenly pulled up to heaven.
17 Peter was very perplexed. What could the vision mean? Just then the men sent by Cornelius found Simon’s house. Standing outside the gate,
18 they asked if a man named Simon Peter was staying there.
19 Meanwhile, as Peter was puzzling over the vision, the Holy Spirit said to him, “Three men have come looking for you.
20 Get up, go downstairs, and go with them without hesitation. Don’t worry, for I have sent them.”
21 So Peter went down and said, “I’m the man you are looking for. Why have you come?”
22 They said, “We were sent by Cornelius, a Roman officer. He is a devout and God-fearing man, well respected by all the Jews. A holy angel instructed him to summon you to his house so that he can hear your message.”
23 So Peter invited the men to stay for the night. The next day he went with them, accompanied by some of the brothers from Joppa.
24 They arrived in Caesarea the following day. Cornelius was waiting for them and had called together his relatives and close friends.
25 As Peter entered his home, Cornelius fell at his feet and worshiped him.
26 But Peter pulled him up and said, “Stand up! I’m a human being just like you!”
27 So they talked together and went inside, where many others were assembled.
28 Peter told them, “You know it is against our laws for a Jewish man to enter a Gentile home like this or to associate with you. But God has shown me that I should no longer think of anyone as impure or unclean.
29 So I came without objection as soon as I was sent for. Now tell me why you sent for me.”
30 Cornelius replied, “Four days ago I was praying in my house about this same time, three o’clock in the afternoon. Suddenly, a man in dazzling clothes was standing in front of me.
31 He told me, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your gifts to the poor have been noticed by God!
32 Now send messengers to Joppa, and summon a man named Simon Peter. He is staying in the home of Simon, a tanner who lives near the seashore.’
33 So I sent for you at once, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here, waiting before God to hear the message the Lord has given you.”
What would have happened had Peter limited God!!! ????
God was calling the GENTILES into HIS KINGDOM — something probably 99% of us here are! THAT MEANT CHANGE!
Letting go of what was considered unclean --- I am not talking about moral standards of righteousness — but sometimes God has to change our thoughts on things (not altering HIS WORD) so we can see the lost!!!
For years the church began to shut itself up from the world to protect it from the sin that existed — we still need to stay clear of the sin --- but we cannot be shut off from those we are trying to reach...
We need to refocus our mission to be in the world, but not of it so
15 Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.
2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
That does not change the fact that if we have hidden from the lost, how shall they see???? We are sent to the lost not to other Christians.
19 Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you.
10 For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”
The example of Christ was to be with sinners — not to participate in sin - but to show them NEW LIFE!
2. Accept New Landscapes
2. Accept New Landscapes
As we reach out into the future realize things are going to look different!
New people in a church, alters the feel of that church...
People run to the mega churches for what they offer, convenience, and a quick place to be fed...
Those churches had to go through change with a group of people willing to accept the landscape forever changing around them! As new people come in and become involved, and as ministries morph, grow, and change — things look different.
Buildings are altered, music changes, methods and means all altered for the purpose of reaching the lost and ministering to new generations.
I remember my generation in church doing things much differently than the one above us, and I see the generations below doing the same… those accepting new landscapes are succeeding.
(Brandon and his church — the almost 70 year old pastor looking to adjust to meet needs of a new generation - a church that declined from over well over 1000 to 600 or so.)
When we go to a second service --- the landscape will feel different!
When and if we alter the building to meet needs --- the landscape will feel different!
As we continue to grow — addition to building will feel different!
OUR church currently reaches out to 10 different communities! 10 Communities without an A/G church in them, many without any SPIRIT FILLED church in them…
What if God leads us to create SATELLITE CAMPUSES?? What if God raises up leaders from within our church to serve as campus pastors in their communities — still connected to Destiny - still a part of our ministry, but local in each of these communities!!! The landscape in Fort Lupton would change, and the landscape in those communities would change - but we would be impacting more lives for Christ!
5 Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”
6 And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.
7 Then the Lord told him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as your possession.”
8 But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, how can I be sure that I will actually possess it?”
Abram had to step out into the unknown — you don’t think that the land God gave him looked different than where he came from....
Through the years that land changed — the landscaped changed...
Somethings Abram never realized in his lifetime, but his descendants did...
When Moses led the people out of Egypt - they had to be willing to accept the change!
Wilderness journey… they could have entered almost directly into God’s promises - but the people could not see past the giants in the new landscape - it scared them and thus they wondered for 40 years until that generation past...
25 After exploring the land for forty days, the men returned
26 to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. They reported to the whole community what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had taken from the land.
27 This was their report to Moses: “We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country—a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces.
28 But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak!
29 The Amalekites live in the Negev, and the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan Valley.”
30 But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!”
31 But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!”
32 So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge.
33 We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!”
numbers
There was a new landscape to take hold of…
God wants our church to be that regional church reaching out well beyond Fort Lupton to touch the communities surrounding us…
some here will see this fulfilled and some will not ---
We still need to progress toward that purpose!
Whether that be a new facility on more space in the “distant future” or be campuses in the regions around us rooted to this location
The means of music, ministries and style, the appearances of buildings and location will change - will we accept the NEW LANDSCAPES???
3. Hold Fast to PURPOSE
3. Hold Fast to PURPOSE
REMEMBER - the MISSION DOES NOT CHANGE --- the MISSION IS OUR PURPOSE!!!!
God has called us to be a CHRIST HONORING, HOPE GIVING, COMMUNITY OF FAITH...
The moment the vision tries to take us away from being Christ Honoring, Hope Giving, and a Community of Faith is when the vision has lost sight of calling...
The moment we become a church that is no longer giving people DIRECTION FOR LIFE - HELPING THEM FIND THAT ROAD - we need to get back to the basics!!!
Change and progress does not mean changing our PURPOSE!
The Lord has given us a Biblically based PURPOSE in being a Christ Honoring, Hope Giving, Community of Faith.
23 Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.
rev
25 except that you hold tightly to what you have until I come.
24 “But I also have a message for the rest of you in Thyatira who have not followed this false teaching (‘deeper truths,’ as they call them—depths of Satan, actually). I will ask nothing more of you
25 except that you hold tightly to what you have until I come.
God wants us to hold fast to the truth of the Gospel as we allow for things to continuously change to new norms and realities as we do His work. Let us not lose sight of our PURPOSE AND MISSION in CHRIST!
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
As we look to the distant future, that which is not right in front of us or around the corner, may we realize that as God moves so does the church!!!
I believe the Lord wants us to stay relevant to our culture and the changing generations, and effective for the sake of the Gospel.
I believe growth will cause change naturally as well---
9 So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.
I believe this applies when things are happening not just when we don’t see results.
Progress can be exhausting, but God has called us as the church to be ADVANCING THE KINGDOM OF GOD!!!
When Christ was on earth he said...
12 And from the time John the Baptist began preaching until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has been forcefully advancing, and violent people are attacking it.
His Kingdom still advances forcefully, and is under constant attack, but may we of the household of faith see the advancement of the Kingdom in our communities and say Lord, we are willing!!!
Don’t give up, don’t get discouraged, don’t say - I hate change I want to go be stagnate somewhere (like Israel when confronted with God’s promiseland!)
Let us hold fast and steady, and be open to NEW NORMS AND REALITIES as God brings us closer to the moon!!!