Vision 2022 Worldview

I wanted to lay out a little more vision this morning and then share worldview and how our worldview influences vision.

Worldview:

A worldview is a collection of attitudes, values, stories and expectations about the world around us, which inform our every thought and action.

A Biblical worldview is essential to our vision both personally and as a church body.

Vision

Recently Bridge of Faith Community Church was able to purchase this building (Show Picture)

Our plans for this building are still developing.

Our hope is to use this space to create side hustles for local people. Our vision for it is to be a retail space that brings in income for the church but also helps local people create side income to help them through the month.

This building is in good condition and we will use upcoming mission teams to do some work on it to get is ready to open. Plans are developing on this one.

This building was donated to us on Good Friday (Show picture)

We believe the Lord has plans for this building. This building is in pretty rough condition. We hope to improve the curb appeal of this building until the plans are fully finished as to what it will be used for.

Jesus Prayed in the Lord’s prayer...

Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Our heart as a church is to welcome Children in the name of Jesus Christ and in so doing we welcome Christ.

In doing this, we believe that God is transforming generations that transform communities.

Our idea of a transformed community is to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth. We believe the Kingdom of Heaven is so good. We want Kingdom relationships, Kingdom of Heaven marriages, Kingdom of Heaven Economics, Kingdom land, Kingdom government, Kingdom food, and if it is about the Kingdom then we want to be about it.

I wanted to share about how all this happens at Bridge of Faith and specifically financially.

Several of you have asked about the number in the bulletin for Bridge of Faith finances. How does everything happen with that amount of weekly finances. God provides each week but let me tell you a little more about how he does.

Church finances

Tithes and offerings (This is what comes in on Sunday mornings)

Outside Church support

Thrift Stores and Village

Outside donor support

Bridgefit Memberships

Grants

As you discover what God’s vision is for you, it is important to also think about the finances that it takes too carry out that vision.

Matthew 6:21 HCSB

21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

I wanted to share one more piece of our vision this morning.

El Salvador

The Lord has put together a unique opportunity for us here at Bridge of Faith to partner with churches in El Salvador.

My sister spent a Summer with us as a college mentor. She then followed the Lord’s call on her life for missions and went to El Salvador.

She met her husband there Alexis. They were married in El Salvador. They served with Christ for the cities in San Salvador.

Last June, they felt God calling them to Citala, a rural town near the boarder of Honduras and El Salvador.

They left their support from Christ for the Cities and followed where God was calling them. They started working with us here at Bridge of Faith to help them in El Salvador.

The leadership team affirmed that we want to strengthen our partnership with them and their work in El Salvador. Their desire it to take some of what we are doing here in Rockaway Beach and do the same for the people of El Salvador.

I wanted to invite them up this morning to share a little with you and then we are planning a future Sunday to hear more about El Salvador.

Welcome Alexis and JoHana this morning.

Share with us a few updates about El Salvador.

What does the church look like in El Salvador?

What are some things you are learning from the people here at Bridge of Faith that you want to take back to El Salvador?

(Show image)Share with us this image

WorldView

Worldview:

A worldview is a collection of attitudes, values, stories and expectations about the world around us, which inform our every thought and action.

Specifically I want to look at Salvation this morning. What are your attitudes, values, stories and expectations when it comes to salvation?

The answer to this question will inform your every thought and action.

When does salvation happen for you?

Some believe salvation happens after you die.

This then is for the future. Means that it happens only at a later date.

The goal then becomes to die if that is when Salvation happens.

This impacts how we live our life. If Salvation is future, then we will focus on future only. Our goal then to make disciples is for future purposes only. We get people to pray prayers for the sake of insurance for after they die.

Jesus says in Matthew 28:19

Matthew 28:18–19 HCSB

18 Then Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

All authority has been given to me. We see God’s sovereign reign in heaven and on earth.

Making disciples is present now and not just the future.

Let me give you an example. Flip over to Mark 5.

Think about this question

When did Salvation happen for this man they called Legion?

Mark 5:1–5 HCSB

1 Then they came to the other side of the sea, to the region of the Gerasenes. 2 As soon as He got out of the boat, a man with an unclean spirit came out of the tombs and met Him. 3 He lived in the tombs. No one was able to restrain him anymore—even with chains — 4 because he often had been bound with shackles and chains, but had snapped off the chains and smashed the shackles. No one was strong enough to subdue him. 5 And always, night and day, he was crying out among the tombs and in the mountains and cutting himself with stones.

Love what Warren Wiersby says about this

Satan is a thief whose ultimate purpose is to destroy. We are not told how the demons entered these men and took control, but possibly it was the result of their yielding to sin. Demons are “unclean spirits” and can easily get a foothold in the lives of people who cultivate sinful practices.

Because they yielded to Satan, the thief, these two men lost everything! They lost their homes and the fellowship of their families and friends. They lost their decency as they ran around in the tombs naked. They lost their self-control and lived like wild animals, screaming, cutting themselves, and frightening the citizens. They lost their peace and their purpose for living, and they would have remained in that plight had Jesus not come through a storm to rescue them

Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 125.

Never underestimate the destructive power of Satan. He is our enemy and would destroy all of us if he could.

This is an extreme example of what Satan can do to people.

Mark 5:6–13 HCSB

6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and knelt down before Him. 7 And he cried out with a loud voice, “What do You have to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You before God, don’t torment me!” 8 For He had told him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” 9 “What is your name?” He asked him. “My name is Legion,” he answered Him, “because we are many.” 10 And he kept begging Him not to send them out of the region. 11 Now a large herd of pigs was there, feeding on the hillside. 12 The demons begged Him, “Send us to the pigs, so we may enter them.” 13 And He gave them permission. Then the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs, and the herd of about 2,000 rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned there.

Romans 8:19–21 HCSB

19 For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility —not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it —in the hope 21 that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of corruption into the glorious freedom of God’s children.

Mark 5:14–20 HCSB

14 The men who tended them ran off and reported it in the town and the countryside, and people went to see what had happened. 15 They came to Jesus and saw the man who had been demon-possessed by the legion, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. 16 The eyewitnesses described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and told about the pigs. 17 Then they began to beg Him to leave their region. 18 As He was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed kept begging Him to be with Him. 19 But He would not let him; instead, He told him, “Go back home to your own people, and report to them how much the Lord has done for you and how He has had mercy on you.” 20 So he went out and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and they were all amazed.

If Salvation is to be with Jesus only in the end, then Jesus would have told the man to come with him now.

Jesus tells him he will not let him go but instead to Go back home to your own people and report to them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you.

Immediately this demon possessed man is transformed and Jesus says you go back and tell the people closes to you what the Lord has done for you and how the Lord has had Mercy on you.

N.T. Wright in his book Surprised by Hope describes three purposes of Salvation

About being whole as human beings

Salvation is Present and not just the future

What God does through us not just in us.

This worldview of Salvation influences the way we live our lives. We believe that Salvation is present and not just future then it starts to put our vision for our personal life in perspective.

God is working through us not just in us. Scripture over and over speaks about we are ambassadors for Christ and how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!

Tim Tebow (Slide)

Salvation is now. The Gospel brings hope now

1 Corinthians 15:57–58 HCSB

57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! 58 Therefore, my dear brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.