Vision Sunday

The New King James Version Chapter 31

20 Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah, and he did what was good and right and true before the LORD his God. 21 And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, in the law and in the commandment, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart. So he prospered.

. King Hezekiah become king in a dangerous time for Judah as a nation, their had been a lot going on and the people had once again walked away from their God, they were worshiping idols.

. and he was charged by God with an important task. To re-establish the temple worship, even the priest and the levitates ( God temple servants ) had stopped doing their jobs, and nothing was functioning as God had instructed the people to do.

. So through a few chapters in Chronicles we see how this happens, and the structures that need to be put in place/ we see Hezekiah have great wisdom in how to prepare the people for proper temple worship, and even just teach them to once again behave like children of God.

. He once again consecrates ans establishes the priests and all who would work in the temple.

. Hezekiah even at one point prayed for the protection/ atonement of the people in his kingdom who had sinned against God.

The New King James Version Chapter 30

17 For there were many in the assembly who had not sanctified themselves; therefore the Levites had charge of the slaughter of the Passover lambs for everyone who was not clean, to sanctify them to the LORD. 18 For a multitude of the people, many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the good LORD provide atonement for everyone 19 who prepares his heart to seek God, the LORD God of his fathers, though he is not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary.” 20 And the LORD listened to Hezekiah and healed the people.

. There is honestly so much in this chapters i encourage you to go and read for yourself chronicles chapters 29,30 & 31 its phenomenal watching how it all unfolded!

. but for the purpose of today “Vision Sunday” i want to focus on the first scripture i shared

The New King James Version Chapter 31

20 Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah, and he did what was good and right and true before the LORD his God. 21 And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, in the law and in the commandment, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart. So he prospered.

. This is what i see for us as a church this year, i see us prospering in all the things that God has for us, because we will be doing it all with faithful hearts.

. and in a similar sense as King Hezekiah was to rebuild and re-establish true worship to the one true God, that is our calling and our purpose as a church to invite people into this place so that they can encounter the presence of God for themselves, and then they begin to truly worship God the same as we do.

. and just as everything that King Hezekiah did was prosperous, so will everything that you and i do this year that is done in service to the kingdom of God and done with all of our heart!

. So to go along with this we will be doing a few new things this year, and doing some other things a little differently.

. and the first focus that we have this year is to become embedded in our community, in the old testament God's house/the temple/ the place of worship was were everything happened, all the people would come and it is where they gathered, and were people came to seek God.

. it was an incredible important place in the culture and everyone know where it was and what it was for, so our aim this year is to become embedded in the community in the same way, that the people in the community, know who we are, they know where we are, and they know what we do and what we aim to do.

. To do this we are aiming at running 3 community events this year! with the first one being a “Garden Party” like what was done last year at Viv’s place but this time in a community setting.

. then following on later in the year we would like to do run an event that caters to young families and have some sort of family fun day. and the third is undecided at them moment.

. at the same time we want to show the community that we also care about things outside of us, so we will be aiming to become involved in other events that are run within the community, such as harmony day, Christmas carols, the show, and perhaps other shire events, so that we have a presence in the community and people can begin to see that we care!

. another aim that we have is to get more life groups started so that there will be something that suits everybody, so last year we started a life group at Deborah and James house which is now back up and running again.

. We are starting a new life group this coming week for young adults/young families which will be at Jevin and Amanda's place which i will be running.

. unfortunately at the moment the mens group that we had running will be on hiatuses, with Geoff being unwell we have no one able to commit to running it, but we will be looking to get it up and running again when we are able.

. now as a lot of you would be aware last year every Wednesday morning here at church we were having a life group, we have made a decision to use this time for something else, another way of being in and providing something for the community.

. Susie and Joy came up with the brilliant idea to run an open coffee and cake morning on Wednesdays, so from 9:30am until 12pm the ladies will be here and they will have a free cake or scone or slice (depending who makes it) as well as free coffee ( will will use the pod machine coffee)

.

. its an opportunity to give something out for free to the community and a great way to get people into the building in a nice relaxed atmosphere ( who doesn't like free coffee??)

. this will run fortnightly to begin with, but with more people getting on board to help we would love to offer this every week in the future!

. Something that i really felt God speak to me about is providing something that no other church does, and provide some sort of help/care for people in our community.

. so we also wish to start what i think we will call “Community Connection/Compassion” and what we want to do and i need all your help for this, is to identify people who need some help around the home, and on every second Wednesday (when we have a job) myself and Bruce and whoever else would like to help will go around the persons house an commit to 3 hours of helping them around the house.

. to clean up to fix the garden/ lawns and to do very basic fix it jobs! this is something that nobody else offers and something that we can do again to meet people and show the genuine love of God to them.

. to finish i want to share with you what im believing for and praying for within the church for all of you!

. I believe that we will need to buy more chairs this year to have enough seats for all the people who will be coming here!

. I believe that God is going to give some of you hear right now the anointing and he will call you to begin to do what he has prepared for you! my desire is to see all us and everyone else who will be hear to begin to work and move in the things of God.

. im believing God to raise up more leaders in this place as he prepares for the future of ignite life Cobram.

. and i believe that we will become such an integral part of this community that all will know we are hear and what we do, and we will be able to provide the help that people need.

. but most importantly i believe that everybody we comes into this building for any reason is going to have an encounter with Jesus that will change their life!

The New King James Version Chapter 5

14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

. If we just like King Hezekiah do everything in service to God with all our heart just as he prospered we to will prosper, and you in your own life will prosper!