2020 Vision: Mission Part 1

Mission Part 1

Spencer Cary

Transcript

Good morning. My name is Spencer. I'm one of the pastors here. And just a quick announcement before we jump in. So, one of the things that we've been doing the last few months is joining our Kid City program and memorizing scripture. As a whole church family, we thought this would be a good idea to join together with them.

So, we have, over the next three years, 36 verses. One verse a month that we are, if you want to participate in, that we will recite together. It'll be on the announcements that scroll on the screen before and after gathering. It's also the top of group content. We want to grow in knowing the Word of God, have it hidden deep in our hearts. So, if you want to participate in that, just look for that every month as we look to growing that as a church.

Alright. So, we are in the last week of our 2020 Vision Series. The goal of this series was to show who we are as a church. That we are a gospel-centered community on mission. So, the first week, Chet walked us through what it means to be gospel-centered. That Jesus is central to everything that we do.

The gospel, that it's life, death, and resurrection. What that means for us is the center of everything we do. And then last week, Dr. Ken walked us through what it means to be a community. What it means to be a church family together. Which is a beautiful, man, last week was a beautiful celebration.

As two churches together as one. Learning about what it means to be church family together. And this week, we get a look at what it means to be on mission. That God has called His church, but He's also sent His church to go and make disciples. So, in doing that, we're actually going to jump back into Matthew. Alright, we're going to be in chapter 9, verses 35-38.

So, you can go ahead and flip there. But we're going to be walking through that. Which means, also, as we close out our 2020 Vision Series, we're jumping back into the Gospel of Matthew. So, we were in Matthew in the fall. And we're going to be in it for the next little bit. So, we're actually jumping back into Matthew as well.

And we'll continue that next week. As we close out chapter 9 and go into chapter 10. Okay. So, a couple of weeks ago, I read this article. It was on DesiringGod.org, which is just a website that has a ton of resources. Good teaching.

They have good writers. If you're looking forward to growing and knowing more of Jesus, we recommend DesiringGod. That's a good source. And I read this article from one of the younger staff writers. And he was critiquing masculinity in America. But honestly, as I read it, you could broaden that out as a critique for American culture and the church.

So, here's how he opened up his article. He said, So, that's a lot of big words and poetic phrases. But here's what he said. He said, When we spend so much of our time and our focus and our energy on things that will not last. On frivolous, empty pursuits. When that becomes all that we look upon, we become a shadow of the men, and I would say women of great density, that God has called us to be.

Something light. As opposed to something solid and weighty. He goes on, he says, Our society often promotes a silly, light, and airy moron of a man and its sitcoms and movies. He stands for nothing. Weeps for nothing. Lives for nothing but the next punchline or comedic blunder.

It's insulting on screen, but tragic in real life when we meet similar men who lack any gravity because they put off thoughts of eternity. Now, the rest of the article kind of flows out of that tone. And part of me when I first read it was like, Okay, you seem fun at parties. That was really heavy handed. But when you wrestle with what he is saying, he's not off.

That's exactly what our culture does. We spend so much of our time, our energy on things that will not matter in days, weeks, months, or years. They lack any really internal significance. We'll binge watch a show in a few days. We'll watch sports for hours on end. We'll put so much focus and energy on those things that do not last.

And listen, I love those things. I do. If you know me, like I love sports. I love watching my teams disappoint me regularly every season. I love culture, media, music, film. We could talk about it on and off.

Those are good gifts that God has given us. But the problem is, is that we elevate those to the status of worship, affection, time, energy. We get consumed by it and we become a shadow of what we're supposed to be. Men and women of great density that dwell on the eternal things and understand the eternal significance of this life. So, that is what the Bible is going to confront us on this morning. That's what the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 9 is going to confront us on as we look at the mission that God has called His church into.

So, as we walk through this, we're going to see three very simple, clear things that we need to see, we need to pray, and we need to go. So let me read it and then we'll pray and jump in. Verse 35, And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every affliction. When He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the labors are few.

Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of harvest to send out labors into His harvest. Let me pray and then we'll jump in. Father, I thank You. I thank You for everything You're doing in the life of our two churches that have become one in this season. Amen. I'm so thankful for where we get to go, but God, I pray that You would confront us this morning, and that You would teach us and mold us and shape us into the church that You want us to be.

We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, so, in order for us to understand the mission that God has called us to, we need to see. We need to have the vision, the eyes of Christ, and see the world the way that He sees it. So, verse 35, And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in the synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and every disease, and healing every disease and every affliction. So, this is where we left Matthew in the fall.

Jesus traveling around the region of Galilee, healing the sick, performing miracles, casting out demons, flexing His divinity, showing this is someone different, a great prophet even more so. Someone has risen amongst us. He, this is the Lord. So, this is who He reveals Himself to be, and how He heals, and how He does these miracles. But then we get a glimpse of how He actually sees the world.

In verse 36, He says, When He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were harassed, and helpless sheep, like sheep without a shepherd. That's the first thing we need to see, and how we are looking to see the way Jesus sees the world. He sees harassed and helpless sheep. Now, sheep are cute. They're lovable. But they're not very bright.

They're not. It's kind of universally understood. They're like the Joey Tribbiani of the animal world. Or Patsy from Happy Days. Whatever is your flavor, right? They're cute.

They're lovable. But they're not very bright. I mean, they'll wander into terrain where it is dangerous. They'll get picked off by wolves and coyotes. They'll eat whatever's in front of them. So they'll starve if they're not led by a good shepherd.

That's sheep. And what Jesus just did was He compared the crowds, and by extension, humanity, to sheep. All of humans. I mean, we have value and worth. We're made in the image of God. We're cute.

We're lovable. Because of sin, and because of the fall, we have been marred in such a way that we are not very spiritually bright. We are easily picked off by the enemy. Led in temptation by the evil one. That we wander into dangerous spiritual terrain. We will eat whatever's in front of us spiritually when it is bad for us, when it starves us.

We are all like sheep. And this is why this is incredibly important for us to understand. In order for us to see the lost and see the way that Jesus needs us to see it, we have to clearly understand this. Everyone is at one point lost, harassed, and helpless. And if you don't understand that, what will end up happening is that you will see the lost as an opponent or as an enemy. And this happens in, goodness, in politics.

This is a political year, which means it's going to be so much fun. But what happens is you'll see lost, the lost in a different political party, and what you'll do is instead of seeing them the way that Jesus does, you'll see them as an opponent, as a threat, as someone that needs to be taken down. You've got to own the lives. That's what they say online. Right? Like it's, you'll see them as an opponent.

This happened with morality in the last 50 years in our culture. Back in the 60s and the 70s and the 80s as a kind of a moral shift happened. Sex, drugs, rock and roll. What happened with the church is they saw it as a threat. As a threat. And they saw the lost and helpless sheep amongst the people that were pushing that.

They saw them as a threat, as an opponent, and not actually who they are. This happens culturally today. And the cultural shifts that have happened on sexuality, on gender identity, and everything down the line, they are seen as opponents and not lost, harassed. Helpless. In need of a good shepherd. They're not seeing the way that Jesus sees them.

And this is why this is so incredibly important. Because all of us were once lost and harassed and helpless. All of us. Which means that none of us has a moral high ground to stand on. We were all once enemies of God. We were all once harassed and helpless.

Colossians 1 says, we were alienated and hostile in mind. Easily picked off by the enemy. Wandering in dangerous terrain. Not knowing the good spiritual food that a good shepherd brings. That was all of us. There's a song that we sing called In Tenderness.

It's by a band called Citizens. It is based off the hymn, In Tenderness, He Sought Me, by W. Spencer Walton. Which, with a name like that, you know it's good. But I love this song that we sing for three different reasons.

I love it because it's probably one of the loudest songs we sing as a church. And every time we sing it, the whole church collectively amps up a little bit. I love it also because we usually have a cajon with it. And Isaac usually plays it. And Isaac, if you've ever seen, he leads our Kid City stuff. If you've ever seen his hands, they're abnormally large and strong.

And he, like, abuses the cajon in such a poetic, beautiful way. But the real, honestly, the real deep down reason I love this song is because of the message that it brings. And it applies so much to what we're talking about this morning. It says, this is how the song goes, In tenderness, He sought me, weary and sick with sin. And on His shoulders, brought me back to His fold again. That's us.

We were all once harassed and helpless sheep. We were sick and weary with sin. But Jesus in His love, the Good Shepherd, comes from heaven and He seeks us. He finds us in our lostness. He picks us up as a lost and wavered sheep. He puts us on His shoulder and He brings us back into the fold of God through faith in Him.

It goes on, While angels in His presence sang, Until the courts of heaven rang, Oh, the love that sought me. Oh, the blood that bought me. Oh, the grace that brought me to the fold of God. Grace that brought me to the fold of God. That's the gospel. That His love, out of His deep love, because He loved us, He seeks us, because of His blood, He brings us into the family of God.

And by His grace, nothing good in us of ourselves, but because of His grace, He brings us into the family of God. And we get to dwell with a good shepherd for eternity. Which means, there was nothing good in us that He came for us. He came for us because He is a God of infinite love and compassion and mercy. That is why He saves us. And He brings us into the family of God.

Which means, we don't have a moral leg to stand on. You cannot look at the lost and think anything other than the way that Jesus calls us to. That they are harassed. That they are helpless. That should lead us to an intense urgency and compassion that we would go and take the gospel that they might come into the fold of God. You know who gets this?

New conference. People who just recently placed their faith in Jesus. I've seen this over the years. Someone places their faith in Jesus and they start following God and here's what happens. They're the closest to this vivid reality of what they were just redeemed out of. And they see the lost.

They see friends and family members who were lost. And they remember how bad that was. How hopeless that was. They're like, no, no, no. You have to understand. He's a good shepherd.

He is better than everything else. They're the ones that get it the most because they were so... It wasn't just that long ago that that's exactly where they were. May we as a church never lose sight of the vivid reality of what we were redeemed out of. That we were lost, that we were helpless and we were harassed. That God in His great mercy, this good shepherd, He came for us.

That is the first thing we need to clearly see. Here's the next thing. Verse 37. Then He said to His disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. So He shifts metaphors on us.

He moves from sheep herding to farming. The harvest is plentiful. So if in South Carolina we have a harvest of peaches and there's a lot of peaches on the trees and we don't have enough workers to harvest them, that's a problem. That's what He's trying to help them picture. The harvest is plentiful. I mean, He's picking our eyes up.

Look, do you see the crowds? Do you see how harassed and helpless they are? Do you see how plentiful they are? This shows us that our God is generous to redeem. Our God is generous to save. There's a harvest waiting for us.

And He wants to see that. And I thought this morning I would pause and I would try to help us see the harvest that is right before us. specifically, I want to start here with Casey. There's a group called Insight. They're a ministry that does demographic studies, extensive surveying all across the country. They want churches to help see the mission field that is right before them. So, I spent some time studying a bunch of reports this week.

I got really excited and I brought all my information to our teaching team which Chet and Dr. Kent sit on and I spewed it all and their eyes glazed over and they died inside. So, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to give you the highlights for the five of you that would have gotten really excited about that. Come to my office this week. We'll geek out about missiology.

It's great. Alright, so here's Casey. The population in Casey is a little over 14,000 people. Alright, it's about 68% white, 25% African American, 4% Hispanic. The highest age status demographic for this area is young and single. So, young professionals and that's a growing demographic for this area and this part of the city.

The next couple are young families and aging community. We have a lot of young professionals that have moved in this area. Alright, so they do some demo studies like that but then they also do a ton of surveying. A couple years ago they asked, they sent a ton of surveys out, they asked questions about people's beliefs, their practices, their opinions on the church, their opinions on religion, a whole wide spectrum of responses and I read through all the data and as to summarize it for us, here's what I found. About half of Casey does not believe in Jesus by their own responses in these surveys.

Either they're atheist, they're agnostic, they don't care, or they're just non-religious, that's the biggest growing denomination in America, it's just non-religious, no affiliation, or they have a different belief system altogether that doesn't line up with the gospel at all. About half of the people that responded, that's 7,000 people in the immediate area. 7,000 right around our church. Now, if you dig a little deeper, you look at some more statistics, here's what you will find. In Lexington County, about 44% of people either have membership somewhere or say they're actively involved in a gospel-centered church.

About 44%. Now, I think that is an incredibly optimistic number because there are plenty of people that have church membership somewhere but do not know who Jesus is and are actively involved in any gospel-centered church. And just because you say something like, yeah, I'm evangelical, I go to a church regularly, doesn't actually mean you understand the gospel and you have an active relationship with Jesus and you're actively involved in a gospel-centered church. So, in order to just be a little bit optimistic, let's just say that 40% of Casey is actively involved in a gospel-centered church and believes the gospel.

That means there are about 8,000 to 9,000 people right around here that are harassed and helpless and do not know the Good Shepherd. We have to see this. I want to actually visualize this. I have some people, you'll bring these tables up. I want to help us see and understand how many 8,000 to 9,000 people are in this area. I chose Skittles because they're like the best candy and our group leader is going to take these home because we're going to, as we walk through mission over the next few weeks, I want these Skittles to be out as a snack but also a visual reminder of what we face.

Now, each one of these represents someone down the street, someone in our neighborhoods right around here that currently does not know Jesus, doesn't even have Him Him on their radar. That is the people that live on the avenues, that is in the surrounding neighborhoods right around our church, that is all the people that live near the river walk, that is single moms that do not have the hope of Christ, that is people that are struggling with addiction, that is University of South Carolina students, we have student housing right down the street that currently are enjoying the world but actually don't know who Jesus is. That is people battling depression, that is people battling mental illness, that is people that we see if you're out here during the week at places like Peace Wise Coffee, there's a street, there's a restaurant down the street I love, Reggae Grill, that is people all over the city of Casey that do not believe in Jesus, that do not have the hope of Christ, that are currently walking into an eternity of destruction apart from God, from our Good Shepherd. That's the harvest in Casey and here's the deal.

If you looked at all the places that our church touches, downtown, West Columbia, Irmo, Red Bank, Lexington, Gilbert, there are at least 28 more of these that need to come up here. at least. That's the optimistic view. That is the harvest. That is the people that Jesus looks on our area with a broken heart because they currently don't know Him. That is the harvest that we need to clearly see. The incredible amount of harassed and helpless sheep that do not know this Good Shepherd, that have not tasted and seen how good He is.

We have to see the harvest. and we've got to see it clearly. And once we've seen that, we need to see the next part. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. The laborers are few. This is why we exist as a church, as a gospel-centered community on mission. Not to be just Christians, but to be laborers.

I did a Greek word study so I could further understand what the Greek means for that word. And here's what I found this week. It means laborer. It means worker. Shocking. Our English translations are great.

It means someone who labors, who actively works, not just someone who believes, but that belief takes the form of action and goes and labors to see the lost come and taste and see that He is good. That is what we're called to be. We're called to labor for the harassed and helpless sheep. I've got a buddy of mine. He's a buddy. He's also a mentor.

His name is Matt Friend. And I texted him the morning that we all got to worship together a couple weeks ago. We all got to... If you're new here, two churches came to emerge as one and two weeks ago was our first time worshiping together. And I got here early as I do every morning ready to set stuff up and there wasn't a whole lot to do. We've been set up and tearing down for years.

I mean, as a church and even before I was a part of Mill City since 2011 as a part of another church back when I was in seminary that was also a meeting in a school that also had to set up and tear down. So for the last eight, nine years this is what I've done. Got here early. Set up. And I texted my buddy Matt because he was a part of the church in Louisville as well. And I said, man, I'm here early at seven o'clock and I ain't got nothing to do. man, this is great.

And he texted back and he said, that's awesome, man. I'm so happy for you guys. He said, but don't get fat. And I knew exactly what he was getting at. I knew exactly what he was getting at because he left the church that I was a part of and he went to be the pastor of a pretty sizable church in West Virginia with a big old building. and he said, don't get fat because the reality is is that we can have kind of a field of dreams kind of mindset. If we build it, they will come.

And that is not the case. We cannot lose our hustle. I get it. It's exciting. We should absolutely be excited about what happened. For those of us who have been set up and tearing down every week in, week out to have a permanent place where we can mobilize mission from, that's incredible.

We should be happy. And I know that some of you that have been worshiping in this building for years are so happy to see it filled up again. We should be ever joyed. But we ain't getting fat. We got work to do. We got stuff that we need to do.

We got to gain our hustle. We have to go out and make disciples. We are called to be laborers. Now, this insight group did a specific survey and I'll share with you. They surveyed and asked, what are the three top things, just asking the area of cases, what are the three top things that you're looking for in a church? If you're going to visit, what are you actually looking for?

You need the three top responses. The first was warm and friendly encounters. That was the top thing. They're looking to be welcomed, to be a part of something, to be warm and inviting. That is why so often we have talked about as a church to get here on time, to get here early and to welcome people. That's why our host team is so important.

Do you know how much nerve you got to build up to actually visit a church if you haven't been a part of a church in years? Do you know how much nerve you got to build up if you've never been to a church before? It's scary. I remember when I was in high school when I wasn't a Christian, my life really was going downhill and I knew that something had to change and I felt like maybe I needed to check out a church, maybe I needed to check out a specific youth group. It took me like three or four or five months to actually gain up the nerve to go and that was kind of because somebody forced me to. It takes a lot of nerve to get here on a Sunday morning for someone to show up and no one to talk to them, no one to welcome them, no one to experience the familiness and the love that we get to experience week in, week out, in groups and on Sundays.

That's a huge miss, guys. I know we got friends and church family here that we love dearly, but you can see them other times in the first ten minutes. Welcome somebody. Get to know them. Invite them. Show them the love that we have so much in our church family.

That is hugely important. Second thing they're looking for is quality sermons. Check. Like half the time, which in baseball that's a 500 batting average. All right.

Third, adult social activities. Translation, community groups. Y'all, do you see what just happened there? We are primed and set up to reach the people of this area, to be warm and inviting, to preach quality sermons, to have community groups planted all over Casey in the city of Columbia. That's it. We are primed and ready.

And the reality is is that we have about a hundred ish members. Committed members of our church. But do we have a hundred plus committed laborers? That's the reality. The reality is the laborers are few. And we need to respond.

We need to grow in what it means to be a laborer. Which means doing the things that we've consistently talked about for years and actually laboring. It means being an everyday missionary. We talk about that in our church. Being an everyday missionary means being a missionary where you live, where you work, where you enjoy and live life. It means being an everyday missionary in your neighborhood, being a good neighbor, getting to know your neighbors, having parties, inviting people over, being a good neighbor and inviting them in to experience who Jesus is.

It means being a good co-worker, a good employee, a good employer, to spend time getting to know your co-workers, to take them out to lunch, to intentionally get to know them, to listen to them when they vomit all of their life problems instead of getting annoyed. To love your co-workers and to get to know them and share the gospel with them and invite them in to know who Jesus is in community groups and here on Sunday. It means being an everyday missionary in the parts of life that we enjoy. Maybe you've got kids that play sports or do dance competitions or whatever. It's a mission field. All their parents, that's a mission field.

A lot of them don't know Jesus. Maybe some of the ones that scream at umps. I'm just kidding. Christians are pretty bad at that too. If you don't have kids, whatever you do, bowling leagues, I haven't had a social life for years, so whatever the things extensively that you would fill in the blank that you do, wherever you live and enjoy life, you're called to be an everyday missionary right there. To invite them into knowing who Jesus is.

We need to labor as groups on mission. That's one of the things we talk about. That our community groups are not just for family and loving one another. They are and caring for one another. But they are groups on mission.

We are sent out as groups in the city every single week. And here's the reality. I think we've only had one group multiply in the last three years. And I'm so thankful for what Jesus is doing in our church. I'm so thankful for all the ways that He's working. But the reality is is that our groups are meant to multiply because more groups means more opportunities across the city for people to taste and see that our Good Shepherd is actually good.

So we've got to regain our hustle here and we've got to multiply some groups so that we can be groups on mission in this city. And it means laboring here on Sundays. It means coming here with a missional mindset that there are people that are going to come through this door that do not know Him. It means serving in different areas like host team where we need top-notch hospitality as we welcome people in. It means serving and volunteering in Kid City. Y'all, there's a harvest down there in the basement right now.

And they need the gospel. We need volunteers because they are thin and they are killing it with smaller Numbers. But how beautiful would it be if you committed yourself to volunteer once a month to be in Kid City and for the next three months, the next six months, the next two years to walk our kids through the gospel. I love seeing stories in our church when the baptism waters are filled with a child, their parent, and somebody else who's serving Kid City. Man, the harvest is plentiful even downstairs. It means doing the things that we need to do to be a gospel-centered community on mission on Sundays to see the loss be found.

So let's not get fat. Let's work. Let's labor. Let's be the laborers that God has called us to be. We need to see the loss is harassed and helpless. We need to see the harvest is plentiful.

We need to see that we are called to be laborers and then we need to respond and pray. That is the next thing that Jesus teaches. We are called to pray. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly, earnestly, vigorously, consistently, unendingly. Pray earnestly to the Lord of harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.

The reason we pray is because God is the one who ultimately goes and works in our lives and the lives of unbelievers. God is the one who ultimately brings people to faith. We need to pray. We need to be a church that prays earnestly for the lost. There was a French Quaker pastor in the 19th century named Stephen Grellett. He was considering some of the things that we are talking about this morning and he was praying.

He was like, Lord, who do you want me to reach? And a French Quaker, God put on his heart American woodcutters. Now, woodcutters is a 19th century term for lumberjacks. And basically, back then, they were like people who worked on oil rigs. I mean, it's blue-collar workers isolated from the rest of the world. Pretty rowdy crew.

So God put American woodcutters on his heart. So he prayed and he planned and then he got on a ship and he crossed the Atlantic and he showed up in America. And he's a French Quaker, so there's one site where these American woodcutters are known to be found. So he travels his way through the wilderness and he shows up and there's been months of anticipation and buildup and he shows up at this site where they were known to be and it's empty. It was just recently deserted. And again, he's a French Quaker.

He's not a tracker. It's not Bear Grylls. He's not about to go find where these guys are. So he's there and it's empty. Imagine the amount of disappointment after all this time that God prays, he responds, he goes and there's no one there and he prays. He said, God, what do you want?

He says, it's my message. You came here. I want you to preach it. So he finds this shanty. It's a temporary housing setup. He goes inside.

He opens his Bible and he preaches the gospel. He just obeys Jesus. He preaches the gospel. He preaches the message that our Lord came from heaven and he sought us. He preaches of his blood and how we need covering for sin and forgiveness for sins. He preaches of the hope of new life in him, of the resurrection.

He preaches the gospel and then he shuts his Bible and he packs up his stuff and he goes home. And I can imagine that that trip home was a very frustrating one, was a very disappointing one. What was the point? God, why did you bring me all this way to preach to the empty, open air? I know I'm being obedient, but what was the point of what actually happened? Fast forward a few years.

A few years later, he runs into an American. The American sees him, hears him and recognizes him and he says, you don't know me, but I was an American woodcutter and years ago, we left our site, but I left some tools behind and when I came back to the site, I heard someone preaching from a shanty and I caught a glimpse of you preaching a message that absolutely confronted me in my sin. And it cut him to his core and he placed his faith in Jesus and he gathered his tools and he went on to the new campsite of where they were at and he said, I led a few more to Christ with that message who led a few more and by the time it was all said and done, over a thousand people tasted and saw that God was good. Now, I love that story for a few different reasons.

I love what it illustrates. I love that it illustrates that God is sovereign in salvation. He's the one who saves. He just was being obedient, but God had it all set up. God is the one that goes to work and brings people in to faith. I love it because of what it illustrates, the danger and the power of prayer.

That when you pray and you pray for the harvest and you pray for laborers to go out, what will often happen is God will raise you up and send you out. That might be across the Atlantic, that might be across the street. Both can be unnerving for different reasons. But when you pray, God goes to work and I love that it illustrates what it means to be a laborer. I think we should dream big. I think we should absolutely see the loss.

I think we should think about mission in such a big picture that is so big and so bold that Jesus calls us to. But oftentimes, it's the very simple making of disciples. Jesus called a few, 12, to impact the world. And he went across the Atlantic to impact one and through one, a thousand plus and a legacy of faith came out of it. We are called to labor. Once we see the need, the harassed and helpless sheep, once we see the harvest is plentiful, once we see the need for laboring, once we pray, ultimately, we need to go.

Verse 38 says, Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. To send, which means we need to go. We need to get on our knees. We need to pray. But man, we need to absolutely own this and go.

We will focus so much of our time and so much of our energy and so much wasted time and affection on frivolous pursuits that do not matter in a million years. This is the grand scheme of eternity. It does not matter. And if we do that, we will be a shadow of the men and women of great density that God has called us to be. We need to go. What would 2021 look like in the life of our church if we actually said, no, this year, I'm going to go.

I'm actually going to labor for the lost. What would it look like if we committed in 2020 to actually do this? What would the city of Casey look like in just a few years? If we said, no, we're going to intentionally reach this part of the city. We're going to plant community groups all across Casey so that people can experience who God is. What would our city look like?

What would downtown in Oralwood? What would, in West Columbia where our Riverbanks group meets, what would Irmo in Lexington in Gilbert, what would all of Columbia look like if we owned this mission and we actually went? we need to go. We got work to do. We got people to reach. We need to go. And for some of you, that may mean across the street.

That may mean across the cubicle. But for others, cubicle, but for others, that means across the world. We want to be a church that has everyday missionaries here that intentionally reaches this area. But we want to be a church that sends laborers across the world into the harvest. Into places like Egypt that we have been partnering in. In places like Columbia, South America that we have been partnering in.

And reaching unreached people groups all across the world. Some of you need to finally respond to that calling and you need to go. Here's what I love as we are going to walk through Matthew in the next few weeks. And really the rest of our time in this wonderful gospel. Next week, He is going to raise up the disciples, Peter, James, John, Bartholomew, Thaddeus, Lot. He is going to send them out to get a taste of what mission looks like, what He is calling to.

But ultimately, as the gospel of Matthew closes out, He says, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. The way it ends is, Behold, I will be with you always to the end of the age. Which means, as we go out into Casey, as we go out into Columbia, as we go out into the world, we are not alone. The God of the universe is in His church working inside of us. And we get the thrill of laboring with God to see a harvest happen in this city. But we got to go.

We got to go across the cubicle. We got to go into our neighborhoods. We got to go into Kid City. We got to go and have tough conversations with our skeptic friends. And here is the picture of what it could be. If you committed to this, if we committed to this, how beautiful it would be if later this year, someone who doesn't have Jesus even on their radar steps in the baptism waters because you declared the goodness of our God.

And they say that Jesus is Lord. That's the picture. But we got to go out and get Him. Lindsay's going to come up and she's going to play. And in lieu of taking the Lord's Supper, instead of taking the Lord's Supper, I want us to pray. If you're new here, we're so glad you're here this morning.

This may feel a little bit different. We've got a few moments where we can silently pray together for the things that God is calling us into. If you do not believe in Jesus, if you've not experienced how good this gospel is, our hope this morning is that you would, that you would actually place your faith in Him. He's worth your life. He's such a good shepherd. You're harassed and you're helpless.

But He will bring you into the family of God. He's worth it. Would you believe? So right now, our hope is that you would pray, that you would ask Jesus to be the Lord of your life. But for everyone else, I want to take a few moments and pray for three things.

I want to pray for Casey, all the parts of this city that need the gospel. Pray for Casey, that we're going to pray for Columbia and the greater Columbia area. I want you to think of people that you know, that need Jesus. I want you to think of people in your work, in your neighborhood. And then lastly, we're going to pray for the ends of the earth. So let's pray.

First for Casey. Jos hablar. Pai. vec giga close chasekel si escuch si se pedals si se, Lord, may you go to work in this city. May our church be a beacon of light and salt all across Casey. That they would experience how good you are. Amen.

I want to pray for Columbia. Lord, may you send our church out all across this city. May you send us back into our neighborhoods, into our places of work. May we labor for the lost all over Columbia, all over Lexington, all over Red Bank, all over West Columbia, all over Irma. May we go. Amen.

Lastly, let's pray for the ends of the earth. Pray for unreached people groups. Pray for places that you would love to see the Lord's sin labors into that harvest. Lord, would you raise up men and women in our church that would fearlessly go to the ends of the earth, that would make disciples in the darkest corners of the globe. May you reap a harvest amongst unreached people groups, amongst nations that desperately need the gospel. May we sin and may we go.

In Jesus' name, amen. May we as laborers go into the harvest. Amen.

2020 Vision: Community

2020 Vision: Community

Ken Harmon

Download

Transcript

Good to see each of you here today. It's so wonderful to look out and see this congregation, so many people here. I was talking to one of the ladies from Casey First before this started. Fall a year ago, fall of 18, our church spent 100 days in prayer and we had different prayer groups. She was telling me that her prayer group came over here and prayer walked this building and came in the sanctuary and prayed that God would fill it. And she came in this morning and looked around and said, my prayer's been answered.

Isn't that fantastic? Fantastic. Thank you. Greenville, when I was only about the eighth grade, felt like that God was calling me to be a pastor. And I worked toward that, went to North Greenville, to Furman and the Southern Seminary. And I got married.

My wife's Joy, see here at the front. We've been married for 49 years. We have two grown children. We have a son and a daughter. Our daughter has three sons. I mean, our son has three sons and our daughter has two girls.

And so we've got five grandchildren. And I had my first church. I started my first church when I was in seminary, and that was in 1971. So I've been a pastor for a little while. And keep learning. And it's just been exciting to serve God all these years.

Of course, there's been ups and downs and lean times and blessed times. Let me share with you how I ended up here at Casey First. After I retired full-time, I'd been at First Baptist Church at Newberry for 30 years. I retired full-time from there and wasn't ready to quit completely preaching. So I'd taken transitional pastor training.

And I'd done a couple of transitional pastor churches. One of them was Holland Avenue over here. And then after two, I was out for several months, and I began to like being out. You know, not having to get up and work and do all the things you've got to do. And we were attending church one Sunday morning. It was in August of 2018.

And the preacher that morning preached on what do you need to sacrifice to God? What do you just need to turn over to him and let him be in control of it? And you surrender that to him. And I thought to myself, or really the Spirit said to me, You're a retirement. You let God decide about that. And I said, Okay, Lord, I'll turn that over to you.

And committed to that in prayer during that service. The next morning, I got a call from Johnny Rumbaugh, our director of missions here in this association. He said that Dr. Pete Cassidy, who had been at this church for six years, had died suddenly. And would I come and fill in for him? And so I came the next Sunday, and the Sunday after that, and the Sunday after that, and after three or four Sundays, they called me to be their interim pastor.

And so I was here, you know, during that time, or since that time. And we began working on, Okay, what does God want us to do now? Considering what our resources are, and we've got tons of building resources. Considering our people resources, and we didn't have many, we began praying, Lord, what do you want us to do? And then we began looking at the options. And to make a long story short, in the process, we got connected with Mill City Church.

And Mill City Church had been praying, Lord, show us where you want us to, you know, buy land, pay for a building, whatever. Guess what? God has answered both of our prayers. He brought you to us, and we opened our arms to you. And one of the most exciting things in my ministry since 1971 has been the opportunity to see two churches come together and begin to get to know one another and work together and plan together and serve God together in this building and in this community. And I've just seen in so many ways something amazing happen.

This doesn't happen often for two churches to come together like this. And it's just so evident to me that God is in the midst of this. And I am just real excited to get to work with your pastors and with you and with our people who have been here at what we call Casey First. And it's just been a really exciting thing for me. And I'm glad that God gave me the chance to be a part of this. It's been a real blessing for me personally.

We are seeking to work together now. And Chet preached last Sunday on the gospel. And what that means is we begin to work together here in this community. Next week, Spencer will come and tell us some of the hows that we can work to carry out the mission he's given us. This morning, I want to speak about how we can better come together as one church family. And the purpose of all of these sermons is to give us some idea.

OK, what does it mean for us to be a gospel centered community on mission? And that's what we're all working toward. So we're going to think about that a little bit this morning. Now, have you ever noticed how humanity easily divides itself into different groups? We do that with nations. We do that with races.

We do that along economic lines. We do that with religions. We can even do that with trying to worship God. When I was in Newberry, Lewis Rich, the big turkey processing plant there, began hiring a lot of Hispanic people. And so the population grew very much in Newberry. And we thought they need a gospel witness.

And so our church started a Hispanic church. And they began to grow. And they started meeting in our church. And then just completely by the grace of God, they were given a church building. The congregation had completely died out. And they were just given this nice church building.

And they continued to grow. They had their own pastor. It was going really well. And then they split. They split over the different worship styles between the Mexican Christians and the Guatemalan Christians that were in that church. It's easy for us to divide ourselves into different groups.

That was true in New Testament times. In New Testament times, the Jewish people knew that they were the chosen people of God, that God had a special mission for them. They just kind of didn't grasp all of the ramifications of that. And so they looked at themselves as God's special people, the Jews. And everybody else, everybody else in the whole world was a Gentile. And they thought that they were pretty special.

And the Gentiles looked at the Jews and thought, these people are a bunch of prideful nobodies. And so there was a lot of contention between the two. Let me give you an illustration of that contention. The temple that was there in Jerusalem. By this time, it had been built into an elaborate structure. And there was the place, the building proper, where only the priests could go in.

Outside of that was the court of the Jewish men. And outside of that was the court of the Jewish women. And outside of that was the court for the Gentiles. They could come and worship God, just not real close. They had to keep their distance. Now, there were walls dividing these open areas.

And on the walls between the court of the Gentiles and the court of the women, there were signs on the gates in those walls. And they're mainly more like fences. And the sign said, if you're a Gentile and come any further, you'll be responsible for your own death, which will result. In other words, they couldn't come close to God. They had to keep their distance. Now, think about that and that scripture that we read a little earlier from Ephesians 2.

And you might want to look in your Bibles. Some of you can look at Ephesians 2 and find that all right. In the Pew Bibles, that's page 568. And this passage begins to tell some of the things that how the Gentiles were in reality before they became Christians. And the reason this is being addressed is because as the gospel began to spread after Jesus' death and resurrection, then the gospel went to the Jews and then it spread beyond the Jews and Gentiles began to be Christians. And so you had a whole lot of Gentiles coming into the church.

And Jews were in the church. And, oh, how were they going to get together? There had been such a divide there. So this letter of Ephesians was written primarily to Gentile Christians to help them understand, you know, what could be done to help them accept the Jews and as a corollary of what Jews could do to accept the Gentiles. So we're going to look at some of these verses that were read a little bit earlier first before we get down to the actual verses that I'm going to read a little bit later.

But if you would look at verse 12 of Ephesians chapter 2, it says this, Remember, and he's primarily addressing Gentiles here, Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Now, look at this, separated from Christ. It's hard to be separated from Christ. If you don't have Jesus, you don't have a Savior. If you don't have Jesus, you don't have a Lord who can rule your life and give you the assurance that he's the one that's going to be in charge for all of eternity.

And if you belong to him, then you're going to be taken care of. If you don't have Jesus, you don't have the one that called himself the good shepherd who watches over his people and keeps them in his care and laid down his life for them. And no one can snatch them out of his hand. They were without Christ. And then it says they were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. In other words, Israel was the people of God.

And they weren't part of the people of God. They were alienated from them. When this was written, if you could have Roman citizenship, then it meant something. Some people were born into Roman citizenship. Some people bought it. But if you had it for whatever reason, and most people didn't, you had certain privileges and response.

You had certain privileges and things that came to you that the normal person didn't have. And when we're a part of God's people, there are certain things that are a blessing to us. And we have those things, but the Gentiles didn't have those things. They were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. And then strangers from the covenants of promise. God gave his people in the Old Testament several different covenants.

One of the ones was with Moses. Remember when Moses led the children of Israel out of slavery in the land of Egypt? And on the way to the promised land, they went to Sinai. And God gave them the Ten Commandments and his laws. And he said, you let me be your God and follow my laws. And I will be your God and let you be my people.

That was the covenant that he made with them. There was the covenant with David. God went to David and said, I am going to make of your offspring one who will have an eternal kingdom. And of course, that was fulfilled in Jesus. Remember when the angel went to Mary and was announcing that she was going to bear the Messiah? And the angel said to her, of his kingdom there will be no end.

That's God's promise. God's covenant. In the book of Hebrews, the writer picks up on something that Jeremiah said from the Old Testament. And listen to this. Man, that's a neat sounding covenant, isn't it? Our sins to be remembered by God himself no more.

So many blessings for being part of the people of God. And yet the Gentiles were away from that. But it goes on. And it says, having no hope. No hope. They probably hoped in some things.

A lot of people hope in things today. A lot of our hope is, in essence, just wishful thinking. We hope something will come true. But we have no guarantee that that will happen. But biblical hope is different.

It's based on the promises of God. And we know they're going to happen. When he made those promises, they happened. When he makes the promise that he'll forgive us our sin. When he'll give us eternal life. When he'll take us to heaven when we die.

We know. Because it's based on the promise of our faithful God. But the Gentiles didn't have that kind of hope. Their hope was just wishful thinking. And then, without God in the world. Man, that's hard.

Now, they didn't design the existence of God. In fact, the Gentiles worshipped a whole lot of different gods. If you ever read Greek or Roman mythology. You read about all of those gods that they worshipped. Nothing like the true and living God. The eternal God.

The creator God. If you're without that God. Then you are without hope. They had no knowledge of the one true God. They had religion. But they didn't have a relationship with the living God.

Isn't this one of the saddest verses in the Bible? You were at that time. Separated from Christ. Alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. Strangers to the covenants of promise. Having no hope.

And without God in the world. Guess what? That wasn't just the Gentiles then. That's us today. Before we had Jesus. That's the way we were.

So. Praise the Lord. In that kind of state. God came to us. He said Jesus. And we're going to see what Jesus did.

He did some amazing things for us. Look at verse 13. It says, but now. I like it when the Bible says, but now. It usually means that, you know. There's something in bed.

But God's doing something. This is going to be better. So he says, but now in Christ Jesus. You who were once far off. Have been brought near by the blood of Christ. We were far off from God.

We were separated from God because of our sins. And we have been brought near. Because Jesus died on the cross. Because he was willing to hang there. And shed his blood. So that our sins might be forgiven.

So that we might be given eternal life. Jesus did that. He opened the way for us to have forgiveness. He brought us near. You know, Jesus was always bringing people near. When you think about Jesus' ministry.

You realize that he was always bringing people near. You think in John chapter 4. About the woman at the well. She was a pretty immoral woman. She was a woman who was confused about religion. She was a woman who was evidently shunned.

By most of the people in her little town. And yet Jesus came to her. Talked to her. Told her the truth. He changed the whole trajectory of her life. He brought her near to God.

And she was living for a new purpose from then on. Jesus is bringing people near. Jesus brought Zacchaeus near. Zacchaeus in Luke chapter 19. Zacchaeus was a short man. And he was a tax collector.

Don't you hate April the 15th coming? Oh no. Oh goodness. We still don't much like tax collectors. Did you hear about the man that walked into a restaurant. With an alligator on a leash.

And he went over and sat out at a table. And the waitress came. And he said. Will you serve tax collectors here? And she said. Oh yes sir.

We'll do that. He said. Good. I'll have a steak. And bring my gator a tax collector. Well.

Back in New Testament times. Where Zacchaeus lived. In Palestine. They hated tax collectors more than we did. Because see. That tax collector.

Was. Collecting taxes. For the Roman government. Not the Jewish people. They were paying taxes. To a foreign nation.

And for him. As a Jewish man. To collect taxes. For the invaders. He was considered to be a traitor. And the way that system was set up.

It was easy to be a tax collector. Who cheated people. And got rich yourself. And so. Zacchaeus. Was away from his people.

And probably because of that. He was away from God too. And when he heard that Jesus. Was coming to town. Because he was such a short guy. And couldn't see what was going on.

Because of the press. He climbed up in a tree. So we could see Jesus. And Jesus saw him up in the tree. Told him to come down. And somewhere.

Beside the time. That he was up in those branches. By the time he hit the ground. Jesus had changed him. And he said. Lord.

That's a pretty good title. To call it for Jesus. If I have cheated anybody. I will pay it back. And Jesus said. This one too.

Has become a son of Abraham. A son of the people of God. He was one. That Jesus brought near. The man who read this scripture. We were reading this morning.

Was the. Apostle Paul. And Paul. Was once. A very religious man. A Jewish man.

Who kept the law. And was zealous for God. To the point of persecuting Christians. Because he thought they were completely wrong. And yet Jesus appeared to him. On the road to Damascus.

When he was going to have Christians. Arrested and persecuted. And changed him. And brought him near. Jesus is in the business. Of bringing people near.

We were separated. But Jesus. Brings us. Near. We've been brought near. By his.

Cross. By his shedding. His blood. Blood. Jesus. Also.

Is the one. Who brings us peace. Jesus comes. And preaches. Peace. I believe it's here.

In. Verse 17. It says. And he came. And preached. Peace.

To you who are far off. And peace. To those who were near. Jesus brings peace. Scripture says. That we who have been justified.

That we who have been justified. By faith. Have peace with God. Through the Lord Jesus Christ. Before we accept Jesus. It's like we're at war with God.

You know. We don't want to submit to him. We don't want to. Don't want to. Obey his commands. We want.

We don't want to. Accept the fact. That we are sinners. And don't deserve. Really anything good. And yet.

When we accept Jesus. Then Jesus. Makes us at peace. With God. And. We don't look at God.

As an enemy anymore. As a tyrant. As somebody. Who's out to get us. We see God. As a heavenly father.

As one who loves us. Who cares for us. Who's going to help us. Who's going to guide us. In the right way. And this is not something.

We earn by ourselves. Or. Or make up by ourselves. Or search for peace. Or finding it another way. It comes through Jesus.

If you. Look at the. Part in verse 14. He says. For he himself. Is our peace.

And. In the. Last part of verse 15. He said. That he might create it himself. One new man.

In place of the two. So making peace. In other words. He gives us peace with God. And he gives us peace. With all.

Other believers. If you've accepted Jesus. And accepted the peace. That he's given. Then. Not only do you have peace.

With God. But you're going to do your best. To stay at peace. With other believers. He brings us together. That way.

Reconciling us. To those. And then. He does one other thing. He gives us. Access.

To God. In verse. 18. He says. For through him. We both have access.

In one spirit. To the father. In. Verse 12. Of chapter 3. He says.

In whom. We have boldness. And access. With confidence. Through our faith. In him.

Because Jesus. Has become our high priest. Then. We are able. To go into the presence of God. That's what Chet preached on.

Last Sunday. That. That we have access. To God. Because. Of Jesus.

And we can go to God. In prayer. We can go to God. For help. We can go to God. For direction.

We can go for God. For power. To live the Christian life. We have access. To him. And he blesses us.

In these ways. Makes tremendous difference. In our lives. One of the churches. Where my wife and I. Were attending.

When I was. In between. Some of these transitional. Churches. There was a young woman there. Who was a vibrant Christian.

Outgoing. Fully accepted. By the congregation. Just. Just a. A.

B. A. A. A. A. A.

A. A. A. herself and then was in a bad car wreck. And she was in the hospital for several days. And while she was in the hospital, her house was burglarized. And it was just like her whole world was falling apart.

And she remembered a little bit of what she'd learned when she was a little girl about Jesus. And she called out to him and invited him into her life. And she became that Christian who was, I described her as so vibrant and excited about the faith and was fully accepted by that church. You know, she had been brought near, given peace and had access to God and other believers as well. Jesus does these things for us. He brings us near.

He gives us peace. He gives us access to God. Now, on the basis of that, what are we supposed to be as his people? What are we supposed to be as a church? Let's look and see what the scripture says that we are so that we can begin to leave it out.

Ephesians chapter two, beginning with verse 19. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by his spirit. So what are we now? First part of verse 19, no longer strangers, but you are fellow citizens with the saints. Saints means Christians.

You're a fellow citizen. You have citizenship in the kingdom of God. And remember, that's an everlasting kingdom. Now, I imagine that most of you are probably citizens of the United States. And because you're a citizen of the United States, then you have certain privileges. You have freedom of speech.

You have freedom of religion. You have freedom of assembly and a whole bunch of other freedoms as well. You also have some responsibilities. You have the responsibility to pay those taxes we were talking about earlier. You have the responsibility to obey the law. You should vote and be involved in the political process.

Those should be, you know, responsibilities we gladly accept because we are so blessed to be citizens of our country. Kingdom of God works the same way because we who are believers are part of the kingdom of God. Then we have certain privileges. We have the privilege to go to God. We have the privilege to have our sins forgiven. We have the privilege of God's direction.

We have the privilege in the church of having people, people who care for us and who work with us and help us in ways when we need help. And we have responsibilities. You know, we care for one another. We were concerned for one another. We help one another. We, we build each other up.

We keep each other going in the right direction in the faith. We, we bring the encouragement that people need. Amen. Now, let me speak to those of you who were members of Casey first before. Yeah. We have got a lot of young people in here.

They are so enthusiastic. They do so much work around this place. Isn't it amazing how it's been transformed in such a short time? Just the building itself. It just, I can't get over it. It's just fantastic.

But let me tell you something, just because they're here doing this kind of work doesn't mean you can kick your feet up and do nothing from now on. Okay. You still need to give your encouragement. You've got wisdom. You've got skill. You've got experience.

That's going to be a blessing for them. You can still volunteer to do things. You, you can volunteer to help. You could, you could volunteer to help maybe with childcare sometime, give some parents. I guess I got a lot amens on that, huh? We're glad to do that.

But remember, most of us are old. Not too many at once, please. But you get the idea, you know, we're together. Yeah, we, we, we could share one another with these responsibilities because you see verse 19, he says, you're members of the household of God. In other words, we are part of the same family. We all belong to the same God.

We all have the same Jesus as our savior. God is our father. If you're a Christian, God is your father. You know, he said that in verse 18, he said, for we have our access in one spirit to the father. When Jesus gave us the model prayer, he taught us to pray our father. So if we've got one father, what are we?

We're brothers and sisters of the Lord. God's our father. We're related to one another. We're brothers and sisters of the Lord in a good family, in a good family, there's acceptance. There's affirmation. There's the, the imparting of values.

There's correction. There's encouragement and guidance and all of those things. And you know, we value one another. We support one another. We encourage one another. That's part of being a family.

And as the church, we're a family and we ought to be doing those things for each other. Give me a personal illustration of how valuable a family can, a church family can be. 1997, my wife had breast cancer, did the surgery, found out that it had spread. It was in the lymph nodes. She was going to need regular treatment. She was also going to need a stem cell transplant.

They were doing those over at Richland at the time. So through the summer, she had the regular treatments, you know, that knocks your immune system down. So she was in the hospital a couple of times from that. Then she went in from the stem cell transplant. Basically what they do is they harvest your stem cells out of your blood, put them aside, and then zap you with so much chemotherapy, you know, kills all the cancer supposedly, but you know, it wipes out your whole immune system. So you have no resistance to anything.

So she was in the hospital in isolation for five and a half weeks. So, you know, then they, you know, they re-infuse your stem cells and you get your immune system back, but it takes a while. So even after she got home, she couldn't be around people and she certainly couldn't get out and go to church. And so on Sunday morning when I would go to preach, she would sit down in front of the TV, get on her hymnal, turn on First Baptist Church of Columbia and worship with them. And when they would sing, she would sing the hymns with them with tears, gorsing down her cheeks. Because she missed her church family and couldn't worship with them.

You get that close in a family. And then she had to have 30 radiation treatments. And the church had let me be out while she was in the hospital. And so I needed to be at work every day. Somebody from the church would come by, pick her up, bring her to Columbia for a radiation treatment. You can get them Newberry now, but you couldn't then.

And so every day there was somebody helping, supporting. And in the meantime, so many people praying. And such a blessing our church family was to us that it's hard to put it into words. That's our dream. That's our dream. That's our dream that all of us together, all ages, all backgrounds, all of us together will become that kind of family.

And as we become that kind of family, what are we? That's what Jesus is seeking to do. Let's look at verse 20. Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him, you also are being built together as a dwelling place, Christ Jesus, the spirit. We're the temple of God.

And Jesus is the cornerstone. Now today, when we have a cornerstone, you know, in a building, it's kind of a decorative stone. It may have a cavity in it and you place, you know, mementos in it or something historical in it or something like that. New Testament times, that wasn't the cornerstone. Cornerstone was the main foundational stone is the building. It carried a lot of its weight, supported the way the building was going to be built and grow and shaped.

You know, the cornerstone was the very foundation. Jesus is the very foundation of our lives together as a congregation. He's the cornerstone. We are being built on him. And we become God's temple. You know, you ask the average person today and you say to them, what's the meaning of the word church?

And most people are going to say to you a building. That's not the way it is. You who were members of the former Mill City were a church before you had a building. When I was a boy, he used to have this little thing that get us to do as children. You know, they'd say, here is the church and here is the steeple. Open the door and there's all the people.

Well, guess what? That's not right. This is not the church. This is the church. The people are the church. You are the church.

And God is building us into a holy temple. He puts us together. Each one of us of stone. And God's purpose is not to have a lot of individual stones laying around on the ground, not associating with one another. He builds us together in the church to make a building for his purposes, a building for his glory. It's God's work.

I guess most of you probably, you know, it's all about Notre Dame burning this past summer, that great cathedral in Paris, you know, hundreds of years old, took decades and decades to build, you know, and then saw a report the other day that there's probably only a 50-50 chance that thing can be restored. Well, it's kind of sad to lose a building with that historical importance and to lose a cathedral in that sense. But, you know, the greatest cathedral doesn't compare with a group of people who have turned from their sins, accepted Jesus as their Savior, have come together in faith and worship and serve Him together. That's the church.

That's what makes a difference. Man can build pyramids. Man can build the Parthenon. Man can build skyscrapers. But God builds the church and He builds it out of people just like you and I.

He's the one that builds the church. He makes a difference. And, you know, we are being built together to a dwelling place for God by His Spirit. We're being joined together in a holy temple. Now, one of the reasons that they made those old cathedrals so great, and one of the reasons people for hundreds of years have built church buildings with steeples and things all the time, was to give God glory so that people would recognize there is a God and glorify Him. Well, guess what?

That thought was right. But the idea, biblically, is that we, the people who make up the church, have a purpose, and our purpose is to glorify God. We glorify Him through working with one another, through accepting one another, through serving together, through ministering together, through impacting our community together, through loving one another. That's what we're supposed to be about. That's what we're supposed to be doing. When we do that, we will set an example for this community so that people will look and say, hey, what's going on over there?

Maybe we need to check that out. And they'll have the opportunity to come to find out about Jesus. You know, something else. If we make this work, and I think God's already shown us that this is going to work, this bringing of ourselves together, that provides an example for a lot of other churches in our state who are dying, or a lot of other new starts who need some method to move forward. Now, I'm not saying that's what every one of those needs. Everybody doesn't need to do the same thing.

But there's some that can look at what's been done here and think, hey, it's possible. God did it there. Maybe He can do it with us. We have a chance to bring glory to God as we come together. Let God bring us near. Give us His peace.

Give us access to God and we use it. And then turn us into a family, a temple of people who bring glory and honor to God. Isn't it great to be part of a church family? Our dream this coming year for 2020 is that all of us together will use this opportunity to become one family who glorifies the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.

Amen.

2020 Vision: Gospel

Gospel

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We have both our church been studying the Gospel of Matthew. We'll pick that up in a few weeks, but we're going to start this year doing a series we've called 2020 Vision. And when it's the year 2020, you have to.

You have to call it 2020 Vision. We don't make the rules. We're just following up. But we're going to spend a few weeks talking through prayers and some hopes for our church family as we join together this year. Try to be gospel-centered, community on mission in Casey. Learning to love one another, learning to love this area of the city, learning to grow together in our love for Jesus.

We just want to take a few weeks to say, hey, let's look at some things that we're praying God will be at work in for us as we try to follow Him together. This is an exciting morning. It's exciting that we get to come together. There were a lot of reasons to say no to doing this. The biggest one being, I don't like change. I mean, you could sum up most of the reasons under that heading.

Change is annoying. No, thank you. But we prayed about it. Our congregations kept seeking the Lord on it, and we kept coming back until we felt like this is something the Lord would want us to do, that He would work in this. And even in the midst of things that will be difficult, isn't it good to be a part of something that God's doing? Isn't it good to be involved in something that He's leading in?

And doesn't He usually lead us in things that cause us to see our own sin, to see our need for repentance, that cause us to see our need for Him? And won't it be a joy and a blessing as we get to walk together in this? So I'm excited. I'm going to pray. We'll pray together, and then we'll go to the text we're going to be in this morning. God, we thank you for the grace that brought every one of us here, and we ask for grace to carry us forward.

And we pray that your name will be praised, and that we would enjoy the glory of the name of Jesus, that you would empower us through your Spirit to love and follow you. In Jesus' name, amen. Grab your Bibles, go to Hebrews chapter 10. Can you turn me down a little bit? Because I'm afraid to get excited at this point. Grab your Bibles, go to Hebrews chapter 10, verse 11.

If you have a blue Bible, you're on page 584. If you have one of the black Bibles, you'll be able to read the words, but we're not going to tell you what page it's on. We are going to start in verse 11. And what the author of Hebrews is doing is been walking through and explaining to a largely Jewish audience how Jesus is the fulfillment of much of what happened in the Old Testament. Much of what God had set and established in the Old Testament. And that he's not just the fulfillment, that he's better.

That he's better than the angels. He's higher than the angels. He's a better priest. He's a better sacrifice. That he is to be exalted above everything. And so we're picking up in Hebrews 10 where we're looking at that kind of a pattern where he's been lifting Jesus up.

And then he's been saying, OK, because of that, here's how we respond. And because of that, here's what we look like. And so as we kind of culturally. Am I cutting in and out? OK. Hello.

OK, I will do my best with a handheld mic. Sometimes I do. And then it comes back. And that's all you needed to know to follow Jesus and be happy. So I will try.

I'll try to keep my arm here. I've worked on it because my wife mocked me incessantly. She's like, you know which end picks up sound, right? You know how microphones work. All right.

This time of year. We're trained to start setting up some goals. Most of us kind of look into the beginning of the year. We're coming out of the Christmas season where I don't know if you're like me. You were like, you know what? It's cold.

I'm going to eat 5,000 calories a day and just sit in my house. And then you hit January and you're like, you know what? Why don't we arbitrarily decide it's January and let's get our act together again. And so some of us, that's kind of what you do. But there's this pursuit of I want to get better.

I want to work towards something. I want to achieve something. And so we as a church are just saying, hey, let's look at what the Bible says. Let's set some hopes and dreams and prayers for our church family. And let's set them in a way that mirrors what is good in the gospel. Hebrews 11 and every Hebrews 10 verse 11.

And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. So they had high priests. They had this priestly service and they had the high priest and they had other priests that would offer sacrifices for your sins. So you would sin and then you would need to go get atoned for by the blood of a sacrificial animal, your sin. And they did this daily, which was good because we sin daily. I don't know about y'all.

I'm not just like nights and weekends. Like I need, you know, need atonement all the time. And so people would constantly have to come and have sacrifices for their sins. So they, but it says it never actually took it away. It would atone for it, but it was all short term. It never took it away.

And then it says this, but when Christ had offered for all time, a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. So he said a priest stands daily, but Christ offered one sacrifice. And then he went and sat down that he died on the cross to atone for sin, a full sacrifice that would, that would work for all time. And he's a, the high priest who did not come back the next day to stand up at his service again, but he went and sat down because it has been covered forever. It says he sat down at the right hand of God. Verse 13, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.

Could you imagine that? Going to meeting someone in power and they kick back in a really big chair and they put their feet on top of someone. And maybe you work up the courage to say, what is that? And they go, someone who opposed me. I would become real agreeable. I would just be like, whatever you say, but that's what Jesus is going to do.

He's going to crush his enemies so that they are his footstool. Verse 14, for by a single offering, he has perfected for all time. Those who are being sanctified. Now you may be the type of person who really has some good goals for this year. And there are some good goals to set. And maybe you're actively working to try to grow and be better.

There's some habits and some sin that you're trying to kill and grow into. And that's beautiful and good. And the Bible is for growth and it's for diligence. But let me explain something to you. If you are trying to atone for your sin, you will do that daily. You will fail constantly and you will not be made perfect.

If your goal with this year is I'm going to fix myself, I'll finally feel okay. I won't have shame and guilt anymore. I'm going to make sure that I'm all right. If you're working from this place of I've got to accomplish this, you will fail. But if you belong to Jesus, you get to start this year perfected for all time.

Sure. Set some goals. It's fine to exercise. You can quit smoking or cut down from two packs to one or whatever. Go back from vaping to smoking. Whatever.

You can set your goal. That's fine. But know that in Christ you have been perfected for all time. And that is what is at work in your soul and where it matters you are perfect. And that is our starting place in Christ. That if you belong to him, that is what he has done.

That's what it says. That by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. That means those who are being set apart to belong to Jesus. Those who have placed faith in him and those who he has at work in to change. He keeps going. Verse 15.

Do you know how good that is? You see he wrote them on stone and he proclaimed them. And they were supposed to put them on their hand and their forehead in little boxes that they would remember the law so that they might behave. But it was all outside in. So that's the way most of us approach life.

And that's the way many of us approach Jesus. Let me learn your rules and then I'll start to behave. Just tell me what I'm supposed to do. What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to not to do? Is there a certain way I'm supposed to dress?

Is there a certain way I'm supposed to talk? Let me learn the rules. And we go to war on ourselves to make ourselves better. And it is exhausting for anyone who's ever tried. But he says that's not how it works.

That he's going to redeem those. He's going to forgive. He's going to make perfect all those that would come to him. And then he's going to work from your mind and your heart. He's going to work inside out. And for those of you who have met Jesus.

Some of you maybe it's the last year. Maybe it's the last six months. Maybe it's 10, 15, 20 years ago. Isn't that how that worked? You placed your faith in Jesus. And then suddenly you started changing.

And it wasn't this insane amount of effort. It was just coming out of you. And yes, it hurt. And yes, there were times where you were having to struggle to grow. But in so many ways it was at work.

Almost like a force that was coming inside out. That was not something you were going to be able to control one way or the other. And that's good news. And this is where we begin. As we start this year. And as we start together as a church.

And then he says this. Which blessed my soul this week as I was thinking about it. Verse 17. Then he adds. I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. The reason that blessed my soul was that I fail to remember things constantly.

The more you're around me and the closer you are to me, the more frustrating this is. So my wife's at the front of the line and then everybody else can follow in behind her. She could have me wrap my own Christmas gifts. I'd still be surprised on Christmas. Like. I just.

If I don't work real hard to put it in my brain, it's not going to stay there. I could never be a waiter. Like it just wouldn't work. I would. There's no way to do it. And it's not that when you remind me, I'm like, oh yeah, I remember.

It's people will talk to me about things and I'm like, nope. I got nothing. Matt Freeman figured this out. We worked together. As we started this church a couple years ago. The Mill City Church.

And we. Working together. He started realizing that I didn't remember stuff. Which I think he's taking advantage of. Because sometimes I'm pretty sure he's just made up that he told me something. But that's fine.

I forgive him. But there are times where he would mess with me. Like I would say, hey, where are you? And he'd be like, I'm Elizabeth Siddiquet meeting this person. And I'd be like, oh, okay. And then he'd text.

Are you not coming? Sheer panic. What am I supposed to be? And he's like, I'm just messing with you. And I was like, why would you do that? But like, I mean, I've shown up to high school before about to walk into class.

And everybody's carrying a giant poster board. And I'm like, what are those? They're like, our project that's due. And I'm like, okay. I'm going to go see the school nurse. Suddenly got real sick.

He remembers them no more. It's not that when he looks at you in Christ, he looks past your sin. It's not that when he looks at you in Christ, he sees your sin, but he's willing to let it go. It's not that he remembers it no more. That you have been perfected for all time in Christ. And he does not remember your sin and your lawless deeds.

Now, I don't know about you, but that makes me want to take a praise lap because I got some sin and some lawless deeds. And I'm glad that when he looks at me, he sees Christ and nothing else. I'm glad that he sees the blood of Jesus who sacrificed himself once and then went and sat down. The reason Jesus is sitting is because there's no more work to be done. That if you were in Christ, you have been made perfect. He sees your sin no more.

Verse 18. Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. So we've been forgiven. There was an offering through Christ once for all. And those of us who are in Christ, this is our reality. And what's beautiful is that if you're in Christ, you're going to sin tomorrow.

And you're going to sin again later this month. And you're going to fail and you're going to fall. And at no point did you take it back from him. You've been made perfect for all time. And he has set you aside. That's what sanctified means.

He set you aside. If you place faith in Jesus, he set you aside. His law is in your mind. It's in your heart. He will remember your sins no more. Verse 19 starts with therefore.

And then over the next few verses, it's going to say since, since. What he's saying is because of this reality, because the gospel is true and it is good, let's work from there. Let's have that be our foundation. Let that be the starting blocks for us. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh. All right.

When he says holy places and he says curtain, he's referring to something he's been talking about. And he's referring to something that the Jewish people would have understood very well. See, they had the tabernacle and then they had the temple. And the way it worked was there was a holy place where only priests could go. And then there was a big curtain that separated the holy place from the holy of holies. Separated the holy place from the most holy place.

And the most holy place, only one person could enter and only one time a year. The high priest could enter the holy of holies once. There was separation. That was where the presence of God was. That was where his footstool was. That's where the Ark of the Covenant was.

When you entered in there, you were entering the very presence of God. And so one person could do it once a year. And only if they had had a certain number of sacrifices on their behalf and only if they had done everything correct, could they go in there. Jewish history is sitting in the Bible, but Jewish history tells us they started tying a rope to the high priest. Because if he went into the presence of God and God killed him, will we draw on straws to see who goes and gets him out? So they came up with the idea, we'll just tie a rope to you.

You don't come out after a while, we'll just pull you out. That was their plan. A little grotesque, maybe functional though. But we're separate from God. He's holy. We sang that a minute ago.

Holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy. Which means you're set apart. You're glorious. You're big. You're beyond us.

But then it says that curtain was torn. See, when Jesus died on the cross, that veil was torn from top to bottom. And the holy of holies is now open. That the presence of God is now open. That those who place faith in Jesus get to enter into. That's what he says.

Since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus. By the new and living way that has been opened to us through the curtain. That is, through his flesh. And since we have a great high priest over the house of God. Okay. So if you are making some, if we're making some New Year's resolutions.

Some prayers. Some hopes for our church family. That's what we're writing at the top. Since we have confidence to draw near to God by the blood of Jesus. And since we have a great high priest. Now.

Let's make some plans. Because that's who we are in Christ. Boldness, confidence, forgiveness. Let's make some plans to follow Jesus. First one. We're going to do three.

He gives us three. He says, let us, let us, let us. And then let us not. Let us draw near with a true heart. Full of assurance of faith. With our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience.

And our bodies washed with pure water. Let us draw near to God. That's the first one. That's our prayer. That we would draw near to God. That through our hope in him.

That through our hope in him. Because we have access. Because we have confidence to walk in. Being made perfect by Jesus. Let us take advantage of that. And enjoy the glorious and good presence of God.

Do you know how wonderful he is? How beautiful and terrifying and glorious. And we have access to him. We think about silly things. Like wouldn't it be nice to have access to the mayor? Wouldn't it be nice to have access to the person who owned Best Buy?

And then maybe they could just give us some stuff. Like if I was friends with Jeff Bezos. Maybe he would make it where I didn't have to pay my Amazon yearly fee or whatever. Like we think about silly things. We have access to the glorious God of the universe. Through the blood of Jesus.

For this year. As we grow together. Let's grow in our love for Jesus. Let's enjoy him together. If we don't do anything else this year as a church family. Let's draw near to God.

Let that be what happens when we gather here. Let that be what happens anywhere on this facility. Let that be what happens when we are in our community groups. Let it be that we draw near to God. Because he has opened a way for us to do that. Let's be people of prayer.

This is why we talk about being gospel centered community on mission. There's a reason why gospel centered comes first. Because if we don't. If we're not centered around the gospel. If we're not enjoying Jesus. If we're not engulfed and enraptured by the glory of God.

I don't really want to be a part of your community. And I think your mission is stupid. So we want to be people who draw near. Who enjoy and are overwhelmed by the glory of God. And we get to because Jesus has paid the way for us to walk in. So sometime this year.

You're going to fail. Sometime this year you're going to fall short. And the natural sinful inclination of our heart. Is to run. But we've been washed.

We've been perfected. Let's draw near. There are times where my son. Has done something he ought not to do. And you can see it on him. His face looks different.

He looks. And he just. There are times where I'll pick him up. Hug him. He gets disciplined. Because I care about him.

But I'll pick him up. And I'll hug him. And I'll hold him. I'll tell him I love him. And you can feel after a while. He just relaxes.

What if this year when you failed. And fell short. And you felt shame and guilt creeping up your neck. And you felt overwhelmed by it. You ran to God. And let him wrap you up in the perfection of Christ.

You just got to rest. In the fact that. You are not in charge. Of receiving and earning glory on your own. You are not in charge of saving yourself. You are not in charge of earning this.

You cannot. And if you try. You will fail. And my prayer is you'll fail quickly. And run to Jesus. Because the gospel is good news.

So let us be people who draw near to God. The next one. Let us. Verse 23. Hold fast the confession of our hope. Without wavering.

For he who promised is faithful. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope. Without wavering. So what's the confession of our hope? Well our hope. Is Jesus.

And his work on our behalf. The confession of our hope. Is us saying out loud. Jesus and his work on our behalf. Like I've trusted in Jesus. The confession.

I'm making the confession. That Jesus Christ paid for my sin. That I am not good. That he is. That I am not holy. That he is.

That I didn't save myself. That he did. That's our confession. That we believe in our heart. And we confess with our mouth. So he says hold fast to that.

Let that be something that you do not let go of. Your belief and trust and hope in the gospel. When I grew up in church. I would have people say sometimes. That you couldn't do certain behaviors. Because you would ruin your witness.

Can't act like that. Can't talk like that. Can't do that. You will ruin your witness. Meaning that you won't be able to then tell people about Jesus. Because you will be acting just like the world.

Now. They were right. In a lot of the behaviors they said we shouldn't do. But the reason we shouldn't do them is obedience. And joy. But I want to step in here and fix something.

My witness is not that I am well behaved. My witness is not. Hey look at Chet. He is great. That's terrible. My witness is Jesus saves sinners.

So when I mess up I get to repent. I get to say hey guys. I shouldn't have acted like that. I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry. And then I get to say I trust Jesus who forgives sinners.

My hope. My confession is him. Then it says let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. For he who promised is faithful. He pushes it again to Jesus. Because he's the one who promised.

He's the one who said this is going to work. He's the one who's faithful. Our hope is in him. I grew up playing sports. I remember I was playing little league baseball. And I had a coach that yelled at me a lot.

And I was afraid of him. Because he was an adult. And I figured if it came down to it he could take me. So I told my dad. He keeps yelling at me. I'm scared.

I don't like this. So my dad sat me down. He said okay. I said I'll tell you what. He said he's just fussing. And some coaches are like that.

They're a little more stern. They're going to be loud. They're going to play sports. This is going to happen. They're going to yell at you. Some of them are trying to motivate you.

He can yell at you. And we're okay. And you're okay. But I'll make a deal with you. If he touches you trying to harm you. I'll break every bone in his body.

And I said yes sir. Fair deal. And I went to practice. No longer afraid. Because he who promised was faithful. He meant it.

And how much more beautiful. Are the promises of God. And how much more faithful is he. To be our defender. And to be our hope. So that when we fall into sin.

And we fall into guilt. And we fall into shame. And we fail. And we set our mind to do something good. And we fall short of it. That we can run to him.

And we can hold fast. To the confession of our hope. Which was not. That we would be able to do this well. And if you became a Christian. In the hope.

That you would be able to do this well. And if you became a Christian. Because you are going to be moral. And behave. You are not a Christian. But I have really good news for you.

That was never going to work. But Jesus Christ. Saves. All who hope in him. And none who hope in his name. Will be put to shame.

And I have to say that to myself sometimes. When I feel very down. And like I haven't done what I'm supposed to do. And I'm not doing what I'm supposed to do. And the outlook doesn't look bright. It doesn't look like I'm about to turn it around tomorrow.

I will remind myself. None who hope in Jesus will be put to shame. We have been made perfect for all time. So hold on to that. As we go through this year. Let us end the year.

Being people who drew near to God. And held firmly to the gospel. 2020 will be a good year if we do that. If you're holding firmly and unwaveringly to the gospel. At the end of this year. And we drew near to God.

Because the way has been opened to us through Christ. This is a good year. And God has blessed this church. Here's the third one. Let us consider. How to stir up one another.

To love. And good works. I love that. So he starts with the gospel. He says. This is what's real.

And since that's real. And since Jesus has saved us. Let us draw near to God. Let us hold firmly to the gospel. Let's hold firmly to our confession of our hope.

And. Let us consider how to stir up one another. Towards love. And good works. I like the phrase stir up. Because you usually think about stirring up trouble.

Some of you. Became very adept at this. Probably around middle school. You started your mouth early enough in the day. You could have two people broken up. Or two people fighting behind the gym by the end of the day.

Some of you had friends like this. You know what I'm talking about. You could stir something up. You could just whisper something over here. You could whisper something over there. You learned how to phrase it.

You learned how to walk over and say. You know. I don't think you look funny. I don't know why they said that. See that sounded kind of nice. It was sneaky.

Like. We know how to stir trouble up. We've seen it happen. But he says. Let us consider. Meaning plot on.

How we might stir up one another to love. And good works. The reality is. Many of us will stir people up. Towards negative things. Without having to consider.

Isn't it easier to talk about stuff you don't like. Than stuff you do like. Isn't it easier to tear something down. Than it is to build something up. Isn't it easier to say something cutting to someone. Than to compliment someone.

Some of us don't have to consider how to do that. And let me tell you something. Church family. If you want to find something to be upset about. If you want to find something to be frustrated about. This is a wonderful church to be a part of right now.

We could all leave here today. With things that we want to talk about. And chew on. You could leave here today. Saying. Why was the volume turned all the way up.

You could leave here today. Saying. Why were all the lights on. Some of you could leave here. And say. I didn't know that song.

And other of you could leave. After singing. Holy. Holy. Holy. And say.

What does thou wert and art mean. Art. I know. Like I took that in school. But what is wert.

There is going to be plenty of things for you to be frustrated about. For you to have questions about. Plenty of things that are changing around you. The hope being at the end of the year. We are holding on to the gospel. And some other things we are going to have to have let go of.

But let us consider. How to stir one another up. Towards love. Plot on it. What if you started showing up here next week. And you were like.

I am about to stir up some love. What if when you got to know something good about somebody. Or got to know somebody. You helped them introduce them to somebody else. You started whispering good things about people. Do you know who has been serving here like crazy.

What if you went over and said kind things. Not flattery. Real things. Real encouragement. What if when you were going to hang out with your community group. Or when you were showing up to Sunday school.

You were thinking. How can I stir up love. How can I stir up good works. How blessed would we be. And at the end of this year. What if you spent all the time.

That might would have normally been spent. Stirring up something that was negative. Pointing out something negative. And actually considered. How to stir people up towards love. And good works.

How much more blessed is our church. How much more joy is there. Oh let us do that. Let us consider how. Let's plot on each other.

If you know somebody. Ask them to go get lunch. And then invite someone else to show up. It's a secret friendship date. And then help them get to know each other. That's one of the most beautiful things.

That happens in churches. Is you invite one of your friends to come hang out. And they become better friends with somebody else. Isn't that good? That's a real thing. You're like.

Bye. See you in heaven. Bye. Let us consider how to do this. Let us fight for this.

Now he's going to say not. So he says let us, let us, let us, and then he's going to say not. He's giving a caveat to this last one that I think is very helpful. Let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some. Now, he's saying that some people in the early church, when the church was getting together, just wouldn't come. Cephas would be like, hey, we're having a board game night.

Somebody would be like, hey, we're going to do a meal at my house. And Tychicus would just be like, not coming. We were going to make a list and read out the people in our church family who do this, but they're not here, so it wouldn't help. Y'all can tell them when you see them. Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another. Here's the thing.

We're meant to stir one another up, and you have been gifted by the Holy Spirit for the edification of the church. If you're not around the church, you can't do that. And if you're not around the church, you can't stir up and you can't be stirred up. Not to love and good works. Not to something that's helpful. Not to something that's long-lasting.

Not to something that's eternal. How often do non-believers stir you up? Church, fear? Criticalness? Depression? And how often do we need to gather and make it a point to gather together and not neglect gathering together that we might be stirred up towards things that matter and towards things that are good and towards things that are valuable?

I didn't tell them I was going to do this, but I'm going to talk a little bit about the people in my group. I mentioned earlier that I forget things. So if I don't mention you, it's just because my brain doesn't work. But I was thinking about my group and how they stir me up towards love and good works. How I love other people more because of my community group. I was thinking about Dawn and how she encourages me to obey and to follow Jesus even when I don't understand why or why I'm frustrated.

I get around her for a little while. We talk about Jesus for a little while and I just want to follow Jesus more. Emily Teagle makes me want to be considerate. She remembers everybody, cares about everybody, is so thoughtful. And it's like, man, I want to do that. Around John and Faye and this desire to obey Jesus and to just do what he says because that's what he said to do.

And the simpleness to it and this helpfulness to it. It's like, it's right, do it. It's like, that's true. I wanted to argue it out, but you're right. I probably should just follow. Brad and Jackie who helped me believe and trust in grace.

There's so many times our group's talking about stuff and they're just like, hey guys, calm down. We're okay. Jesus loves us. And it's like, that's a good point. Mary Beth makes me want to follow Jesus in real life and get to know real people, be a genuine Christian. The Toast, Chris Rocky, make me want to serve people.

Danielle Rocky makes us hang out together. And that's good. Russ makes me want to genuinely be family. And every time we get together, this is what happens. Scott Montgomery makes me want to be diligent, follow Jesus. Like every time.

Sean Carey makes me want to continue to hope in Jesus. To look forward to my happiness. They stir me up. And there's joy and there's hope in it. And we have to be together to do it. There's so many times.

I got a four-year-old and a two-year-old. The two-year-old usually goes to bed around seven, which has been wonderful. When the time changed, it was amazing at my house. It was like, it's dark, bedtime. Jesus put the sun down, you better go to sleep. Our community group meets at seven.

So there are times where my little one is grabbing his blanket and telling people goodnight. And we're like, no, Bo, put your shoes on. We've got to get in the truck. Like, we're about to go hang out with people. You're not going to sleep yet. There are times when we're all riding over there and everybody in the car is crying.

And frustrated. We're going to go hang out with our group. And we show up. And then we're stirred up for love and good works. In simple ways. It's good.

Same thing with Sundays. One of the biggest blessings of my life was God calling me to be a pastor so that I don't have to wake up on Sundays and decide whether or not I want to be here. It's been so good for me. Because this is so good. So don't neglect it.

Don't miss out. There are times where you're going to be around somebody and they're going to be hurting and they're going to be in need. And the Holy Spirit is going to work through you to bless them. And it's going to bless you in the process. Where he's going to call out of you something you didn't know was there. There are going to be some time that you're going to be around church family and suddenly you're going to be sending money every month to somebody to help them out with something.

And you haven't planned on that, but you're doing it because it's helpful. There are going to be times where you suddenly help somebody who's depressed or something. You're going over there and spending time with them and you're sharing some of your happiness with them. And you're buoying them. And it's draining you, but you're believing and trusting in the gospel and Jesus is at work. And there are going to be times where you need to be stirred up, where you need to be reminded and someone else is going to do it.

And God blesses us when we gather together. Don't neglect that. This year. Let's bring glory to God. Let's draw near to him for he is good and glorious and beautiful and beyond compare.

Let's hold fast to the gospel. And let's not neglect to gather to do that so that we might stir one another up towards things that matter. He says this. But encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. One year closer. A decade closer.

To the day. When Jesus Christ. Makes his enemy his footstool. And calls his church home. When the God of creation. Settles accounts.

Ushers in his kingdom. Where there is joy and delight beyond compare. And fear and misery. That's incomprehensible. We're one year closer. We're one year closer to the day.

And all of us have a day when we'll meet Jesus. Some of you are a year closer. From the time you met Jesus you're a year closer. Some of you are five years. Some of you are 20. Some of you are 30.

Some of you are 50, 60 years closer to the day. All the more. Let's encourage one another. All the more let's run the race that he's putting forth in front of us. All the more let us encourage one another to be about and to care about and to fight for things that ultimately eternally matter. May Jesus bless his church and may he bless this church.

Let's pray. God we ask that you would receive glory. That we would be people who draw near to you this year. That we would hold fast to the gospel. And every time we have the opportunity to stir up something. Let it be love and good works.

May you bless this church for the glory of your name. And the delight of your people. In Jesus name. Amen.