Vision Sunday 1/06/2019

Today is Vision Sunday for 2019. I want to take some time to share with you what God has done this previous year and share what I feel God leading us to as a church family in 2019.

If you are a guest with us today? We are so very glad that you chose to be with us this Sunday.

We want to connect with you. If you did not receive one when you came in, we have a gift for you. Stop by the connect table in the back and one of our team members will be sure to get it to you.

Are you excited about this new year? Have you made big plans for the year? Maybe you have planned..

vacation

when to take days off from work

projects you are going to finish this year

Goals you are going to crush

Beginning of the year is a fantastic time. It is like the canvas has been cleared and now anything can be possible.

I want to preach to us today about three callings.

Branches Calling

My Calling as your Pastor

Your Calling

Branches Calling

Our Vision: Branches in every city, community, and neighborhood in Metro Atlanta.

Our Mission: Connect people to Jesus, make disciples, and bear fruit for His glory.

We are not a spiritually dead church built on ritual. We are not a church based on American consumerism pursuing consumer Christians looking for a shallow religious experience.

We are a Spirit filled, Spirit led church. We teach and preach a new birth experience as Jesus and the disciples who followed Him taught and preached.

Leading everyone to belief in Jesus Christ as the only Lord and savior, with repentance from sin and baptism in the name of Jesus Christ. To those who obey He has promised that He would fill them with the gift of the Holy Spirit speaking in tongues just as the first church did in the book of Acts.

Calling people to discipleship. Calling people to the work of sanctification and to a holy lifestyle.

We are striving toward being a book of Acts church in the 21st century. A healthy church that can make an impact in a world that needs God.

What makes us healthy? As a body our numbers continue to grow each year. Attendance grew, finances grew, the number of people baptized grew, the number of people who received the gift of the Holy Spirit speaking in tongues grew, the amount of hours we spent in prayer grew.

The signs of a healthy church! Praise God!

We should give the Lord a hand clap of praise for what he has done.

My Calling

To feed, lead, and tend.

Acts 20:28 NKJV

Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

John 21:15–17 NKJV

So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Feed My lambs.” He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.

Feeding, its easy to swallow.

But people can struggle with the leading and the tending. What do you mean?

There are going to be times this year when I am going to challenge you to rise higher in your consecration to God. There will be times when I warn you about snares that I see. There will be times when I pull us to do more for God and His kingdom. It may get uncomfortable.

I do it because I love you and because He has called me to lead you away from this world and toward righteousness according to His Word.

Ephesians 4:11–12 NKJV

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,

That word equipping means perfecting - an ongoing work.

Salvation is more than a past event. We say “I have been saved”. When what we really mean is I was justified. Jesus paid the price for my sins.

Romans 3:23–26 NKJV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

We don’t stop there. We are being sanctified.

Hebrews 10:14 NKJV

For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

Soon we will be glorified! Perfected for eternity!

1 Peter 5:10 KJV 1900

But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

Salvation starts in your spirit, works thru sanctifying your soul and mind and then glorifies your body. Justified, sanctified, and glorified.

Look at someone beside you and say “We are on this journey together!”

Your Calling

Ephesians 4:1–4 NKJV

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling;

Galatians 5:13–15 NKJV

For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!

To love one another as yourself. Not chewing each other up by talking about one another.

Galatians 5:16–18 NKJV

I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Galatians 5:19–21 NKJV

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Galatians 5:22–23 NKJV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

Everyone likes to stop reading right there.

Galatians 5:24–26 NKJV

And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Here is my question for you. What are you going to do this year to fulfill your calling?

What passion and desire of the flesh are you going to crucify so that you are closer to resembling Christ than last year?