Building on the Foundations: Re-envisioning the Dream

Building on the Foundations: Re-envisioning the Dream.

Welcome to the New Year!  I wonder what 2016 is going to hold for us?  Last year we went through a series of teaching what we believe and why, called Foundational Truths.  This year we will be going though essential things that we build upon those foundations.  I would not normally announce a theme for the year, but we will be looking at Building on the Foundations throughout the year.  If last year was exegetical, this year will be practical.

To begin this new series and theme this morning I want to reiterate some things about our vision, or dream as a church.

Our vision and purposes are displayed around the walls here:

Our vision statement, Serving God in Our World, reminds us that we are not here to live for ourselves but to accomplish God’s purposes in and through our lives. We seek to do this in the following five ways, based on the acrostic, S.E.R.V.E:

Sacrificial Living

We are not here to serve our own purposes but to live our lives in a way that gives out willingly to those around us. We are a people of conviction not of convenience!

Extending the Kingdom

We are a missional church who believe in the power of the message of Jesus to change lives. We seek to reach out with this message of hope locally and internationally.

Relationships with God and to each other

We seek to grow in our love for God and show that love to all around us, within the church and the city.

Vibrant in worship!

We are a Pentecostal church and unashamedly praise God with all our being.

Empowering people

We believe in the command of Jesus to make disciples. We focus on helping every believer grow in maturity and service of God.

All this is very neat and tidy, but what does that look like?  It is a dream of more than numbers who attend.  It is a dream about who we are in Christ, a tangibly different kind of people to the culture that surrounds us.  

It is messy at times too.  We are all one a journey in our salvation (Phil 2:12).  We have found the truth, or the Truth has found us (John 15:16), and we are now living for a cause bigger than ourselves.

1. Sacrificial living:

John 13: 1-17, esp.12-17: 12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

• No messenger is greater than the one who sent them:  Sacrificial living is not concerned with our greatness, our abilities, our pronouncements.  Sacrificial living is wholly concerned with representing faithfully the One who sends us.  That means being like Him. Imitating Him.  

I have been privileged to speak overseas on occasions.  In those times I had an interpreter.  One guy sticks in my mind on a trip to Ethiopia.  I was preaching in a large church and the interpreter copied every step, hand gesture, intonation, to the point where I thought he was doing a better job of being me than I was doing.  

Sacrificial living means imitating Christ.

• Do as I have done for you: sacrificial living means showing the same love to others that we have been shown.  Even when they don't deserve it!  None of us actually earned or deserved the love that Jesus shows us!  We cannot be the arbiters of who gets God's love and who does not.

At times this may mean that people will think that we are gullible.  They may call us names.  Remember this, Jesus washed the feet of Peter and Judas with the same water!

It is down to a free choice of the person whether the they accept the love of God or not; we just love and serve sacrificially all the same. 

Sacrificial living then means we put others before ourselves.  This is hard and most foreign to us for it strikes at the selfishness of our human and sinful nature.

• You will be blessed if you do them: we will get something out of serving others.  The NIV says "blessed."  That's OK if we understand the wider meaning of being blessed.  We tend to think of this as getting some material blessing.  We do not serve to get something back.  That's serving for self gain which is an oxymoron.

The Greek word is makarios, which does mean blessed, but it is an inner blessing of happiness.  In other words, you want to be truly happy in life, live for others, not yourself.

2. Extending the Kingdom.

Sacrificial living is to do with living the gospel.  Extending the kingdom is telling the gospel by any means possible.

1 Corinthians 9:19-23: Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

• All things to all people: anything goes.  Most of us get hung up on style and forget the substance of what is being done. We all tend to choose a church that suits our preferences and needs.  That's OK but it's not OK when it comes to sharing the gospel.

That's why in this church you will see a number of ways we seek to declare the gospel. Over Christmas we used a carol service, fun days, wrapping presents, a pantomime (oh yes we did), Carols at Costa.  We will be using a Passion Play at Easter.  There are numerous ways in which we corporately will share the gospel.

The last thing I want to think about as Senior Pastor is will a certain outreach upset the faithful.  I am determined to share to gospel.  Crack me open and two things will flow out: the gospel and worship in response to the gospel.

The message of Jesus is still the most earth shattering news that the world's yet to hear.

If that means I am foolish - good.  I'd rather be a fool for Christ any day than someone else's fool (1 Cor. 4:10; 1 Cor. 1:27).

• Anything can happen: the gospel is powerful.  It has to be taken outside of the four walls of the church.  

Each Sunday it is taken out of the four walls of the church.  Every time we leave this place we enter into our mission field.  We leave here sent forth as assassins against the kingdom of darkness armed with light and love to win the lost!

Romans 1:16: For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.

• Most things won't happen: because it depends upon us.  Us with our failings.  Us with our hang ups.  Us with our fear of rejection.  Paul said he was not ashamed of the gospel (Rom. 1:16).  Jesus said if we acknowledge Him before man He would do the same for us to the Father (Matthew 10:32).

So what's the problem?

Our fear of losing friends.  We think they will reject us as being religious freaks.  You're here aren't you?  so admit you are a Jesus Freak and live it.

Our fear that our lives don't tell the story. None of are perfect.  None of us are the finished article.  But the testimony of how God is changing you is the most powerful thing you can share.

Our oneplusone initiative is still the simplest way of doing this: pray for a friend once a day, talk with them once a week, meet them once a month, bring them to church once a year.  Don't wait for permission to share the gospel, don't wait for a church event, share and share and share!

Every church will have seasons of sowing and reaping.  We have to keep sowing, all the time though.

3. Relationships.

We serve God through our relationships, our fellowship, with each other.

Church is full of different kinds of people.  We're all a bit weird to be honest.  In fact the Bible tells us that too:

1 Peter 2:9:  But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;

The KJV says we are peculiar.  Other translations try to use another word because peculiar is not that common a word anymore.  The NKJV says, "special." we all know that word can be misinterpreted today.  The NIV says, "special possession."  

The actual word is peripoiēsis meaning an "obtaining through acquisition."  In short you're at odds with the world because you belong to God.  This means:

• In all our interactions we treat each other with love because we are dealing with God's possessions.  This is more than a generic human respect because all people are made in His image and therefore have value.  Everyone is created in the image of God.  Some are children of God too, and therefore, are to be treated with the love that the other child of God has received.

• We prefer one another in love. Romans 12:10: Be devoted to one another in love. Honour one another above yourselves.  One hurts we all all hurt.  One rejoices, we all rejoice (1 Cor. 12: 12-27).  In all our relationships we need to remember that the person is precious.

• We forgive quickly.  We keep short accounts. we do. OT harbour bitterness towards others.  Unforgiveness will kill our Christian lives as surely as a bullet to our souls.

Hebrews 12:15:  See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

4. Vibrant in worship

I love worship and praise Jesus.  Of all the Christian disciplines this is the one that comes easiest to me.

Psalm 122:1: I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

• Life Church aims to be a place of joy. In God's presence there is fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11).  We do not aim to stir up emotionalism, but worship at times can be an emotional experience for we encounter God.

• Life Church aims to be a place of God's presence (Ps. 22:3).  When we praise Him he draws nearer.  we know He is everywhere all the time (Ps. 139) but when we hit a sweet spot in praise and worship God seems to release more of His love amongst us.

• Life Church is becoming more diverse and multicultural in our worship.  This is a good thing.  It means church culture is changing.  Everyone can join in without fear of upsetting anyone else.

1 Cor. 14:26: What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.

Things have to be done in an orderly way, that does not mean a certain way.  I've lost count of the number of times people have said to me something like, "I just wanted to shout amen, or stand on my feet in support etc, in the sermon.  I didn't because the culture here is different."  Friends, we are a multicultural church, so express yourselves.

5. Empowering people.  

Your discipleship and developing your ministry is important to the pastors here.  At times it is more important to us than it is to you.  

Ephesians 4:11-13: So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

• Equipping you for something bigger than yourself.  Our role is to equip the church for works of service.  Works of service are things that are bigger than ourselves, even if they feel small at the time.  A work of service may go viral, affecting many beyond our immediate circle for friends.

• Maturing you beyond where you are currently.  Christian growth is not optional but many seem to treat it as such.  This is why we endeavour to teach well from the pulpit/platform.  Maturity has to do with what we believe and how we act.  I have come across too many over the years who purport to be mature by act immaturely.

• Nurturing your relationship with Jesus. The goal will only fully be realised when we meet Jesus face to face, but the direction we head in is to attain the full measure of the fullness of Christ.  What does this mean?  None of us are as full of christlikeness as we could be.  We want to help you adjust your lives, your directions, your goals to represent Jesus more fully in your lives.

Wrapping This Up:

This is a 'slow burning' church.  What I mean by that is that we take our time over things.  We develop things carefully.  Sometimes that is good, as with our TLG centre for you don't just open up a school overnight.  It is great that some things take us time to arrive at for they tend to be the things that will stick in our church life for longer.

The weakness of a slow burning church is that things that should happen rapidly, don't.  They do happen, just that they take for longer.  

I believe that this year will be a year, in some areas, where God accelerates our burn, our brightness in the darkness.  Not that we burn out.  But there are things that we should have incorporated into our Christian lives, and life as a church, that we have not yet (Hebrews 5:11-14).

We need to catch more of God's heart.  As we progress through the year and look at Building Upon the Foundations let us determine to build quickly and efficiently.