Untitled Sermon (3)

It is the end of the year, and the beginning of new one.

The New Year is a time of unbridled hope and possibility as Americans everywhere begin making the lists of all the things they are going to quit before the new year is complete.

And just like how 2018 will turn into 2019 on our calendars, so will our season at Valley Bristol give way to a new one.

Today, we are going to preview what our new season will include.

And as with anything new, there comes accompanying questions and fear of the unknown.

We will do our best today to see how we are supposed to deal with the fears and questions that we will have as we enter into a brand new season of ministry.

We just sang about our Great God of Wonders.

It is my prayer, and I pray that this can be a prayer that we all share, that we don’t turn from seeing our God of Wonders and become a people of grumbling as we enter this season.

Its easy to do. It happens over and over again to God’s people.

We come to the precipice of a new era, and we never enter in because we are afraid, or because we don’t like the view from our current position.

But don’t we forget that our current position is not the position in which God intends to leave us.

If we obey God, and follow Him into our new season, He will put us in a new position and that will change our view, won’t it?

But we have to follow. We have to obey. And we have to move forward in the footsteps of Christ.

So, we are going to see a glimpse of what is in store for us a church.

We are going to parallel the experience we are embarking upon with that of the Israelites as they prepared to enter the Promised Land.

We will draw an all-important caution and warning from the first generation, who would not enter the Promised Land, and hopefully, we will draw inspiration and encouragement from the second generation of Israelites who did enter the Promised Land.

We are going to read from , and you can turn there now, as we will read it together in just a moment.

While you are turning there, this message is called, How Not to Be A Christian Pawn Star.

Explain premise.

This is a watershed moment in our young history as Valley Bristol. This is one of the moments wherein we either press toward God’s future for us, or we remain in a familiar past. Yes, God gave us our past, but He didn’t stay there, He is moving ahead. He has new days in store for us.

Now, I want to be sure, that if we start this message now, we are turning the page, we are entering our new era and season of ministry. There is no turning back. So if we’re not ready, let’s speak up now and we can just watch an episode of Teletubbies or something for the rest of our time together today.

Pray

We are going back to the time of God’s freeing of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.

At this point, God tells Moses to send a team of spies to check out the land of Canaan, which is the Promised Land.

Of course, the Israelites have been complaining the whole time, and they are beginning to give up. And as we will read, their report reflects their deflating morale and lack of confidence in the Lord.

Numbers 13:25–14:9 ESV

25 At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. 26 And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.” 30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” 31 Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” 32 So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. 33 And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.” 1 Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. 2 And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! 3 Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” 4 And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.” 5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel. 6 And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes 7 and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. 8 If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. 9 Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.”

There are 4 basic sections in this portion of Scripture.

is the spies returning with their report.

13:30-33 is the rebuttal by Caleb and further lamenting by the other spies.

14:1-4 we see that the Israelites are siding with the other spies and sharing their fear, grumbling, and rebellion

14:5-9 is a warning not to give way to such fear and lament

Let’s look at each section briefly and then we will be able to see where we are in this process, and we can then also know how to deal with the fears and excitement that may be coming our way as we start this new chapter of Valley Bristol ministry together.

In , the spies start out with an honest report, saying that the land is quite desirable and beautiful.

But then, the report takes an ultimately deadly turn. The spies described the city as inaccessible and impossible to win. Their gaze was not on the plenty that God had promised, but on the people who were currently occupying the land. Furthermore, they focused not on the joy of their deliverance from Egypt and potential entry into Canaan, and instead they were captivated by their own fears.

The spies then sought to justify their fears by building up the opposition to appear mightier than God. They listed all the peoples who lived in the land as insurmountable obstacles that meant their certain doom.

, Caleb addresses this report, and silences the people. Caleb’s remarks are brief, but led by faith in God as he says that they can surely win the land. Of course, this encouragement was soon drowned out be louder fears, yells and shouts, and further embellishments by the spies as they said that descendents of the Nephilim were among the peoples in Canaan.

The Nephilim are a mysteriously large group of beings that is mentioned in , and that the spies said were in Canaan now. This is most likely an exaggeration meant to support their own fears and unwillingness to follow God’s direction and leading any further.

These 10 spies were in an absolute state of denial when it came to God’s truth about the situation. They went so far as to say that God would not be sufficient to achieve the task at hand. They were in denial of the presence, the power, the promises, and the assurances of God.

How do we know this?

Well, obviously, we know that God had already promised Canaan to the Israelites. But God repeats Himself in

Numbers 13:1–2 ESV

1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them.”

Send men to the land of Canaan, which I am giving to you.

That’s what God said.

God didn’t say He might give it to them. God didn’t say that they would win it in a brawl for it all. God said He was giving it to them.

And their fears prove that they simply didn’t believe God was telling the truth.

And isn’t that what we do too?

God can say things clear as day to us, and still our fears can eclipse His favor about our lives.

In , we see fear at its unchecked, truth denying worst.

The lies of the spies spread like wildfire among the Israelites. The God-affirming, faith-driven words of Joshua and Caleb went unheard. No one mentioned the Grace of God. No one remembered His miracles that He had done among them. They had forgotten that God had thwarted the advances of the greatest army in the world in order to preserve the lives of the Israelites. The plagues that God had sent as warnings to Pharoah were ignored.

Fear has a way of becoming its own fuel, doesn’t it? And fear grows in force that expands as it expends. The more fear is used, the more it spreads. And this was the rebellion that expelled the Israelites from the Promised Land before they even got there. And from here, Miriam, Aaron, and Moses all die in the wilderness, along with the entire first generation Israelites. Only their children, the second generation, would enter into Canaan.

Have you truly thought about how much God hates the sin of grumbling, complaining, and gossip?

He hates it so much that He will exclude you from His preferred future for you as a way of discipline. Yes, you are still His child, but you will not enter the Promised Land that He has in store for you.

And why does God hate this kind of sin so much?

Because it accuses God of being a liar, and it conspires against His appointed leaders.

You can see it in the text, the Israelites were ready to commission new leaders to replace Moses and Aaron.

And its so easy to fall into this trap of sin. Especially in a culture that is hyper-individualistic, in a culture that teaches you almost from nursery school that you shouldn’t ever experience a hardship or trial, and if you do, its someone else’s fault.

And of course, what do you think Satan will want to do to us if we start reaching Bristol and seeing people come to faith in Jesus Christ?

Don’t you think that Satan will try to divide us from within?

Try to make us doubt, deny, complain, scheme, gossip, and grumble?

Part of being ready for our new season is not just being excited, its also about being wise and being on guard and expecting to be attacked because we are obeying God.

Lastly, in , we see that a few voices still spoke of the grace and faithfulness of God. Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and Caleb would mourn this display of disobedience by throwing themselves to the ground, and tearing their clothing, which is symbolic mourning ritual that was practiced in that day.

And then, right at the last moment, Joshua and Caleb hit on what matters most:

Numbers 15:7–9 ESV

7 And for the drink offering you shall offer a third of a hin of wine, a pleasing aroma to the Lord. 8 And when you offer a bull as a burnt offering or sacrifice, to fulfill a vow or for peace offerings to the Lord, 9 then one shall offer with the bull a grain offering of three tenths of an ephah of fine flour, mixed with half a hin of oil.

Numbers 15:8 ESV

8 And when you offer a bull as a burnt offering or sacrifice, to fulfill a vow or for peace offerings to the Lord,

Numbers 14:8 ESV

8 If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey.

In other words, if the Lord is pleased with us, if we are obedient, and not grumbling, He will include us and bring us into the Promised Land.

And so we come to this moment in our history, in God’s story of Valley Bristol.

Will we be an obedient and pleasing people to the Lord?

Will we get to participate in God’s future for us, or will God have to give us a timeout that could mean that we do not get to enjoy the blessings to come in this life with respect to our journey as a church family together?

I am going to tell you something now that God showed me in vivid technicolor as I prayed and studied for today’s message.

And I think what I am about to tell you is the point of every sermon ever.

Once we hear this, we really will have the ultimate spoiler for every sermon we will ever hear from this point forward.

And I’m not building this up because I am saying it, I am trying to illustrate how impactful it was for me to learn this, and I hope it will be for you as well.

And here it is:

As people, we tend to evaluate our future based on what we think it looks like from our current point of view.

But God, evaluates the future much differently. God is not looking at what the future looks like, but who His children love like.

Its not about what our future looks like, its about who we love like.

In our flesh and lack of trust, we want a future that looks good for us.

But God wants a future where His Children love each other, and the world like He does.

Its not about what the future looks like, its about who we love like.

So let’s take a quick peek at the future that God is laying out before us.

In our new season of ministry, we have three primary ministry goals that we want to accomplish. Here they are in no particular order:

We need to be better stewards of our financial and relational resources.

Now, off the bat, Valley has fantastic money people, and fantastic ministry leaders throughout our 3 campuses. So this is not taking something that is bad and making it good, we are taking a good thing, and trying to make even better.

This facility, which is a blessing from God that we have had a place to meet, but nonetheless its very expensive to meet here, especially when you consider the fact that we only use the grounds for 4 hours a week, 16 hours a month.

We can do better with our facility dollars, and our facility search has included such a factor. Even if we spent the same amount per month, why can’t we spend that money on a place, any place, wherein we could have 24/7 access and use the facility to its fullest as a tool of ministry to reach the lost and the broken and the needy in Bristol?

We will also be closely examining how our current ministry servants are balanced, and we will reorganize our ministry commitment terms so that people can have breaks at times, and so that we are not over burdening each other with a ministry menu that might be too big, or too small.

Additionally, there are some administrative functions that we can streamline, digitize, and better use the funds and financial resources that God has blessed us with.

Make no mistake, I am not saying that we need to not spend, I am saying that we are going to take steps, initiatives, and ministry strategy decisions to spend more wisely, efficiently, and effectively.

2. We Need to Increase our Intentionality in Our Discipleship Process

One of the challenges of multi-site ministry is discipleship. The fact of the matter is that once you become a campus, or satellite location, your discipleship needs change because you are in a different community.

It not longer works as well to send everything through a central hub, and so site specific ministries need to happen.

As we go forward, our primary route of discipleship will be new small groups, through which you will be able to not only experience life together, lean on one another for care and support, but you will know how to measure your spiritual growth so that you can stay healthy as a whole person. Furthermore, our small groups will be our primary community missionaries, as our community service will be accomplished largely through our small groups.

Its important that each ministry effort we have understand its role in our discipleship process, so I have been meeting with ministry leaders, and will continue to do so through January and February so that we are well trained and initially equipped for our new season.

What we don’t want is to do Christian activities just because we have always done them. We want our efforts to produce spiritual fruit at every turn, and we want no wasted motion or energy. So every ministry from our welcome team to our small groups will know and understand their roles in our discipleship process, and that will enable and empower you to know how you are growing spiritually, and what you might to do or grow in as you go forward.

I have been meeting with some of our small group leaders that want to lead groups after the new year, and they will help you not only to plug into life as a member of the Valley Bristol, but also to grow in your life in Christ Jesus.

One of the most felt changes that we will experience right away with respect to the teaching aspect of discipleship is that we are going to all live and in person teaching immediately.

At each Valley campus, the message series will be determined based on the spiritual needs and ministry directions of said campuses. This is so that our local ministry can be more effectively contextualized and applicable in the communities in which we live and serve.

About once per quarter, all Valley will unite around a common teaching theme, and the Lead Pastors of each campus will rotate between campuses, but again, all teaching will be live. This rotation is meant to help us experience our one-ness and unity as one church in a visible and tangible way, and it helps each campus get a flavor of what our fellow campuses are like, and are doing.

After the New Year, we are going to go through two five-week message series as a primer and vision casting effort in our new season.

The first series is called

Soul Activity

And it is a detailed walk-through of our discipleship process, and the biblical principles that guide said discipleship. We will look at what it means to be an active part of the body of Christ, not bogged down in Christian themed busy-ness, but engaged in God’s Work in our lives, our homes, and our city.

The next series is called

Outcasts

And it is about the outcasts of the world, and how the church is a whole group of outcasts whose mission it is to reach other outcasts. The marginalized, the broken, the forgotten, the needy, the hurting, the lost, and the found. If we are going to reach Bristol in the Name of Jesus, we need to get ready for those who we are about to meet, don’t we?

Now, these series will take us up to our World Outreach Week, wherein we will praise God for all the ways that Valley is reaching around the world through sponsored missionaries, and short-term missions, in the work of sharing the Gospel of Christ.

One new piece of ministry that we are working on is the adoption of missionary family that is specific to Valley Bristol. A missionary family who we would support from our own tithes and offerings, through Valley’s larger missions system, but nonetheless, a Valley Bristol missionary. The goal here is not just to own a part of our world outreach efforts directly and personally, but also to send two teams per year on short-terms missions to this missionary family.

I can’t say who they are yet, but they serving in South Africa and their ministry there has grown over the past 10 years to encompass a wealth of evangelistic opportunity in reaching the lost in South Africa. The missionary family is currently in Valley’s application process for new missionaries, but the hope is that we can make an exception in terms of the timing of taking on a new missionary, because I believe, and our leaders believe, that it is critically important that we own the ministry that we are responsible for. And the more direct our ownership, the better.

This would not mean that we wouldn’t send short-term teams on other Valley wide mission trips, it would simply mean that we have a missionary family that we directly support both financially, and in terms of in -person mission help. I don’t know if the application process will be done in time for them to visit us at World Outreach Week, but we will see.

3. We Need to Be More Intentional About Reaching the City of Bristol with the Love and Life of Jesus Christ.

God has planted us in Bristol. Valley Community Baptist Church has determined through prayerful consideration and counsel that Bristol is where one of our locations needs to be. Therefore, we need to see families from Bristol receive Jesus, be baptized, and become disciples of Jesus. We need to extend the love and generosity that we share with each other, with the families in Bristol.

And we go to do that a couple weeks ago, didn’t we?

This is why our small groups will be challenged and expected to, at least once a quarter, serve in some kind of face to face way in Bristol. As we go forward, we will talk more about what that means, show examples, and be trained to do it.

But for now, this is what is on our horizon ministry-wise and organizationally.

And last but not least, we do need to move into a more permanent facility.

I have been working with our leadership team at Valley Bristol, as well as the Valley elders to determine what our boundaries are, and what the priorities need to be in finding a space.

As it has turned out, we are down to effectively two possible options:

In getting to these options, we looked at every option. From the most expensive, to the most immediate.

We determined a budget that would be used for our move-in equipment and expenses, and the facility and/or neighborhood options that we would need in order to accomplish the ministry that we have just talked about.

With that, we are praying over the following two facilities:

A shared space with The Bridge Community Church. They are a small congregation, but with a heart for Bristol just like us. The Bridge is where we have held a small group in the fall, and our Living Room Christmas service.

The terms for the Bridge are being negotiated, but, instead of paying rent, we would use our resource to upgrade the entire facility, including sound system, ministry equipment, signage both for the street and the building itself, along with other improvements. This hits at the heart of our Grace and Mercy mission, which is the ministry that brought Valley Bristol into existence. Our mission is to reach all of Hartford and Litchfield counties with the Gospel, and that’s going to take more than just new church congregations. We need to partner with other area ministries and expand our reach beyond our membership rolls.

2. We may have an opportunity to have a building gifted to us. I can’t say much more about this, but it is a matter for prayer that I invite you all to participate in. We should have word about the viability of this option before the end of January 2019. If the word is affirmative, we will move to this location. There is some work to be done there, but we could meet there while that’s happening. If God does not see fit to give us this building, then we will look to partner with The Bridge Church, to share the meeting space, and execute the ministry steps that God has laid before us.

Additionally, should either building work out, it is likely that we can be in our new space before or by Easter.

Again, God has every right to change that, but that’s what we are aiming for.

And everyone involved is seeking God’s Will and direction for these steps, and so this information is not announced lightly. It comes after much prayer, fasting, counsel, and search.

Church, your leaders are doing the best they can, I hope you see that.

Bring Uly up here.

And there we have it. Just like the Israelites did, we saw a glimpse of the land ahead of us.

I don’t know if that’s what everybody has imagined. It probably isn’t.

Its not even what I had imagined.

But here’s the thing, its what God has planned.

And God is going to direct our steps as we learn which of these facilities we will move to.

And we have a choice.

We can grumble and complain that the future doesn’t look like what we want it to, or we learn how love each other and the people of Bristol the way Jesus would, and the way He wants us to. And we can praise Him for making a way for us through this desert land, and into a new tomorrow.

We can be like the Pawn Stars, and try to trade our future in for a different plan.

But God doesn’t work that way. And if we try to obey God like that, our plans won’t work at all.

Its not what our future looks like to our eyes, its who we love like to the eyes of God and the world.

Its not what we will grow to look like, its who we will grow to love like.

And don’t you want to grow to love like Jesus?

Don’t you want to be loved the way that Jesus loves you?

We can do it. We can take this land.

God is with us. He is guiding us.

Let’s stand together now and praise His Name because our new season is upon us.