Forward March Week 3 - “Strife in Vision”

 For the last two weeks we’ve been talking about God’s vision. First, we talked about how God gives his vision to people letting them know what his purpose is in creating and sending them. Then last week, we talked about how, as people embrace God’s vision, he builds on it to bring about his purposes. This week we’ll be looking at the inevitable strife that comes with sinful humans implementing a perfect God’s vision.

I want to share with you two mini chapters of strife in the Christian and Missionary Alliance. As that group of eight people who walked in the vision God gave them to reach out to immigrants was built into an Alliance of believers from different denominations sending out missionaries around the world, the movement continued to grow and spread throughout the continental United States. With local church ministries and even a Bible college on the west coast to facilitate the sending of missionaries from coast to coast by the early 1920s.

But as the Alliance expanded nationally and worldwide, another movement began and a revival broke out on the streets of Californian. This movement would later be known as the Azusa Street Revival. From 1906 to 1915, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit became evident, and like he had done to the Alliance in the early 1880s, God was moving again. Alliance leaders came to experience this outpouring of God, as did denominational leaders from many different backgrounds. The strife that followed was never one of denial of the Holy Spirit’s work, but rather on the belief that the gift of tongues was necessary as evidence to one’s salvation. As the discussion and debate on this issue ensued, the Alliance took the stand that the gift of tongues, though a gift that was for today, was not evidence of the salvation of the believer. It was here that the first split of that missionary sending alliance occurred, with those that disagreed leaving. Denominations like the Assemblies of God and Foursquare sprung out of this moment and though it was a heartbreaking split, God has done good. 

Today the Alliance is facing another such moment that could lead to the splitting of the group on a level that the denomination hasn’t experienced. Women have always been a key to the Alliance movement. They have partnered in starting local church ministries and colleges. They have led ministries in the U.S. and across borders. Single women have been sent as missionaries and never once has their role been diminished as image bears and servants of God in his work. 

Yet in the the Alliance, there was a strong difference in how women were treated when in came to titles. For a man to become an ordained minister in the Alliance, you spent about three years writing, reading, and memorizing; you then would have that knowledge tested, and when you passed the oral exam, you would be given the title Reverend. In the 1990s, women began the same track of writing, reading, and memorizing; they too would then have their knowledge tested, and when they passed their oral exam they would receive the title Consecrated License Worker. In the last decade, this led to a discussion about equality and how culturally this has been a hindrance to women serving in places as Chaplins. This past June, the Alliance denomination voted that all elders of local church ministries would continue to be male, but not all those that hold the title pastor are. In other words, the Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination in the U.S. now allows local ministries to determine the title of both men and women; therefore women may have the title Pastor, with the only restriction that of the Lead/Senior Pastor title, as it was deemed equivalent to the elder role. 

This has already led several local church ministries to leave the Alliance and the repercussions and strife from this situation are still yet to be fully seen. I’ll be addressing this particular issue more at our annual meeting this week, and have written a very brief paper on my stance on the whole issue, that can be picked up in the foyer of the building. 

But strife within God’s vision is nothing new. When we walk through what follows God’s vision, strife is always a part of that story.

In God’s vision for Noah’s family in Genesis 9:1 of, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth…”, it was immediately followed by Genesis 9:12-23, where the covering of Noah’s nakedness, which possibly has to do with sexual issues and not merely drunkenness, and his grandson son Canaan being cursed.

Then the vision that God gave of blessing the nation through Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3, was then immediately followed by Genesis 12:5, where Abraham brings Lot along, which he wasn’t supposed to, and then follows that up by referring to his wife as his sister while in Egypt, which led to another man trying to take her as his wife. 

This cycle of vision followed by strife occurs again and again. With Jospeh being given a dream of the future of his family, followed by him being sold as a slave in Genesis 37. Or in Exodus chapters 20-31, where Moses is given God’s vision for the people of Israel to enter into a covenant relationship with him on Mt. Sinai, just for Moses to return and see them worshiping a golden calf. The list goes on and on and on, I had so many examples as I looked deeper into this that we could spend the next hour talking about them all. And it doesn’t stop with the Old Testament.

In the Gospel of Mark we get three examples that just role one after the other. In Mark 8:27-31, Peter confesses Jesus as Messiah, confirming God’s vision for Jesus’ ministry. Jesus then follows that confession by building on it by pointing to his death and resurrection. This is then immediately followed by Peter rebuking Jesus’ vision in verse 32, which Jesus has to correct.

A chapter later, in Mark 9:30-32, Jesus again shares God’s vision of his death and resurrection, this is then immediately followed by, the disciples quarrel over who’s the greatest in verses 33-37, which Jesus has to correct. Then immediately after this correction in Mark 9:38-41, the disciples complain about a person outside their group performing miracles, which Jesus has to again correct.

Strife following vision is what happens when God’s people, who still struggle with sin, do not check that struggle in the grace of God. When we do not take responsibility for our own sin and do not extend grace to others, God’s vision meets the speed bumps of humanity’s sinful desires.

In our local ministry, we’ve had a few of these. I’ll share the two I best know. When Pastor Jeff, the minister before me, came to this vision of God in the early 2000s, it was organized much in the vain of a Baptist model, where the governing board was a group of about twelve people. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with this style of governing, but it is not how the Alliance organizes it’s local ministries. When Jeff came in, he was told by our District Superintendent at the time, that he had to get the ministry to conform to the Alliance style. This lead to a heated meeting, that last hours upon hours, with the District Superintendent overseeing and telling the people that they would be there all night until they voted to change the bylaws to reflect their decision to be an Alliance Church which they had made twenty years prior. Though the district had shown leniency for about two decades, some in the group felt like they were being pushed out of their positions; the repercussions of which led to years of strife for Jeff as he ministered here.

The next moment of strife came about five years after I got here. In the fall of 2012, and into 2013, we were going through a transition of bookkeepers. The new one, though he worked hard, was dealing with some health issues and allowed some of the books to slack. Some bills were not getting paid, and checks were not being deposited. So a committee was called together and an audit was commenced, and something that only a few people knew about was brought to everyone’s attention. 

See in the finances of this ministry we have a tidal wave of giving in the months between October and April, I wonder what would cause that, but then from May to September, we squeak by. What people didn’t know is when this ministry stepped out in faith and hired a youth pastor back in 2004, Jeff tended to miss at least one paycheck per summer, and sometimes more. Now the ministry would always make it up, but this lasted for eight years without anyone really being privy to it. Only the elders, the pastors and their wives, and the bookkeeper knew. But through the audit, everyone found out. The response was anger. Not at Jeff for not getting a paycheck, but that at the whole ministry for not curbing spending which  led to such a situation in the first place.

So the financial committee put forth their recommendation as to how to fix it. They took a business approach and looked to the biggest expense, which was the youth ministry. On youth alone, with food, vans, camp trips, and the youth pastor’s salary, the ministry was spending over half it’s yearly monies. So the thought was, get rid of the expense. We don’t need vans to pick up kids and teens, their parents can drop them off. We don’t need to feed them, their parents can do that. They can raise their own money for camps, which we had been doing for several years anyway, and we don’t need a youth pastor we can have a volunteer do the job. By cutting these expenses, the ministry would no longer be in a position of not paying their pastor. But, the thought continued, because Jeff allowed this situation in the first place, he should also be replaced. 

This was a hard time for the ministry and the finance committee said that if we didn’t make these changes, the church would be closed by the end of summer 2013. 

Human caused strife always follows God’s vision. It’s unavoidable. But that’s not the end. Through that strife God brings good. This is why Paul states in Romans 8:28, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Do you see that, God works all things for good, for those called to his purpose. We could say it like this, God works out the strife that we cause, for good, when we follow his vision.

God worked out good for Noah and they multiplied. God worked out good for Abraham, and he was a blessing to the nations. God worked out good for Jospeh and Moses, that through them the nation of Israel survived and brought the Messiah. God worked out good through the disciples as they walked in Jesus’ death and resurrection, and because of that we are here today.

God worked out good from the split of the Alliance over gift of tongues, with groups like the Assemblies of God and Foursquare reaching people with the Gospel. And we’ll see what he works out for good for the Alliance’s current strife in regards to women in ministry.

God worked out good for this ministry, because we are impacting more unreached people today, being more financially stable while doing it, then any other time in this ministry’s history.  

We do not have to be afraid of strife, because our Savior told us this in John 16:33, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” Strife is a part of the journey when sinful, yet redeemed, humans walk in the vision of a holy God. We can have peace in tribulation, because it doesn’t matter what we go through, or what comes at us, Jesus has overcome it, and when he returns all the issues we’ve dealt with will melt away in his glory and grace.

So what is God calling us to today? To be grace filled people. Colossians 3, starting in verse 12 states, “12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

The first thing we should look for in combating strife within God’s Church, is to extend grace to one another, giving room to allow each other to mess up, and to forgive each other when it happens. God is dealing with all of us as we are, so let’s give each other a little room for God to work. So when strife comes, and it will, we role gracefully with it, knowing God will bring about good in his time. 

My challenge for you this week, is this, seek God asking him this question, “Lord, where have I aided strife? Please forgive me. Where can I extend grace? Please empower me. Where can I be of service? Please guide me.”

Let us be a people who are guided by grace, forgiving quicker that we’re offended, all for the glory of God, who works out his purposes for our good. Amen.

Forward March Week 2 - “Building on Vision”

 Last week we began our celebration of what God has done through this particular ministry in Quartzsite. In the first step of that celebration, we talked about how God desires his people to be in his vision as the Church, individual ministries, and as individuals, so that his work of bringing the Gospel to all nations will be done. Vision always proceeds building, but once God’s people start on the path of his vision, he begins to build upon their work.

The story continues of that early group of eight vision motivated people, who left the comfort of their upper middle class congregation to reach the immigrants flooding into New York City in the 1880s. The small group rented a hall and put an ad out in the paper for their first service. Come Sunday morning, nine people showed up, the original eight, plus one. THEY WERE GROWING! Soon it was seventeen people on fire for the ministry, and by 1882, two years after that pastor came to New York, the Gospel Tabernacle was established, and a Bible training school, that would eventually be called Nyack Bible College, began.

In 1887, a preacher from Chicago, came and spoke at a summer conference in Main, the theme was the Second Coming of Jesus, and the focus was Matthew 24:14, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” It became the mantra of the people, bring back the King and another piece of the puzzle to the vision that God had given to those eight individuals just a few years earlier.  Two groups were then established: the Christian Alliance, who would promote fellowship between believers of different denominations and seek the deeper life of Christ at home in America. The other group was the Evangelical Missionary Alliance, who would train those called to the missions field and send them all over the world. 

Stories of Christians coming together during conferences, worship times, and small groups, giving whatever they had on them to the ministry. Rings, watches, tie pens, in addition to cash, gold, and silver, were placed in offering baskets to train and send missionaries. And these early missionaries would gather their things together in a pine rectangular box, which served as their luggage and their coffin. 

Those early missionaries led the way to the modern Alliance funding over 700 missionaries in 70 countries. Not to mention local missionary sites in places like Watts, CA and the Navajo nation.  

God blesses those who are about his work, who walk in the vision that he has for his kingdom. 

In Genesis 6:14, as God calls Noah to vision to build the ark, Noah walks in that vision, and for 120 years, God builds on his vision. Then in Genesis 7:1, God again speaks to Noah saying, “The Lord then said to Noah, ‘Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.’” After this, when all the animals and his family were inside the ark, the rains came, the earth faced judgment, but Noah was saved. And to him and his family, God reiterated his great vision for humanity in Genesis 9:1, “Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.”

To Abraham, God’s vision of making a great nation through him which God spoke in Genesis 12:1-3, arrives nine chapters later, or 25 years after the initial promise. It comes through the boy Issac, who is given to Abraham when he’s 100 years old. Issac, then has two children, Jacob and Esau. Esau would go on to be the ancestor of the Edomites, while Jacob would go on to be the ancestor to the Israelites. The Israelites would continue to grow, and roughly 800 years later, they would establish the Davidic dynasty and the first God ordained monarch of the nation.

It is through the Davidic dynasty that Messiah Jesus would be born, and it was the continuation of that promise that he speaks about in Mark 12:35-37, “While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he asked, ‘Why do the teachers of the law say that the Messiah is the son of David? 36 David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared:

“‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”’ 37 David himself calls him ‘Lord.’ How then can he be his son?’” Jesus was building upon their understanding of God’s vision for Abraham, that not only would the Messiah, the Savior, be of David’s line, but that he would be God himself come down to take on human flesh. 

Jesus connected all the strings in the promise of Israel, from the first hope in Genesis 3:15, to the vision God gave every person along the way, of arks, of promised children, and of suffering servants. So in John 12:27-28, as Jesus speaks of his coming death he says these words, “27 “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!” The fulfillment of so much work that was built on the vision of God, for thousands of years, comes in the moment of the death and resurrection of Jesus. 

Th Apostle Paul then connects Jesus’ death and resurrection back to Abraham when he states this in Galatians 3:6-9, “6 So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 7 Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. 8 Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you. 9 So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”

The work that was started with Noah in the ark, and continued through Abraham, was to establish a pathway for Jesus to descend from his throne in heaven, wrap himself in flesh, walk this earth in perfect obedience, be crucified though he didn’t deserve it, and rises from the dead, so that anyone who puts their trust in Jesus as their Savior, repenting of their sin and moving forward in following him, will be a part of the blessing that was promised to Abraham.

They are what God has built upon that vision roughly 4,000 years ago. And which God is still building on today.

That small group of young believers meeting for a Bible study in the late 1970s, who then grew to organize as a congregation, who then partnered with the Christian and Missionary Alliance, went on to impact the teens and young families of this town with the Gospel. A few years after my wife and I arrived in 2007, we were invited to a meeting with other groups in the town. There, in the presence of other town leaders, the town manger singled us out and told everyone how the Alliance Church had done so much with the young people, that since the ministry hired a youth pastor in 2004, teen crime had dropped to almost nothing. In the time I was allowed to be the youth pastor, we saw an 80% Gospel saturation of teens in this town. A ministry that began to reach teens in Bouse, Ehrenburg, and Salome. 

This vision of God for this group of people continues today. You and I are a part of this vision of God as he builds upon it. Not in brick or mortar, not in wood and sheetrock, but in transformed lives of seeds planted, disciples trained, believers baptized, and the Gospel proclaimed. God builds upon his vision and he calls his people to be a part of that building process. 

This is what God calls each of us to. Its why Paul speaks of the Church as a body in 1 Corinthians 12, starting in verse 12, “12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15 Now if the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

“21 The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’ 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

“27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28 And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31 Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. And yet I will show you the most excellent way.”

The Church is built to be a unit that is diverse in role, but united in purpose. The Alliance Church in Quartzsite is seeking to walk and build upon the vision that God has given us, that we might be united with our brothers and sisters across Gospel proclaiming denominations as the body of Christ united in his purpose. Because God is achieving his great vision of blessing the nations through Abraham with Jesus in salvation. 

 

My challenge for you this week is to seek God in how he is using you to build his Church and his Kingdom. What are the gifts you have that facilitate this building? What has God done in your life, that you might minster from both your strength and weaknesses? What is God teaching you about him, that would be beneficial for others? Take this week to be steeped in prayer, seeking the Holy Spirit’s move, that you might be better utilized in God’s work, for the next faze of God’s vision building.

We are a people that follow a Carpenter, our God is a builder by trade, and we are called to that same construction site, so let us be utilized for his work, in whatever way he desires. Amen.

Forward March Week 1 - “Vision Kickoff”

  It was the early 1880s, and the western world was in the second industrial revolution. Railroads connected the eastern U.S. to the western. The west hadn’t been tamed, but the law was coming to the territories. Gunslingers still ruled, the hazardous west, and stories of events like the shootout at the OK Coral, were sent back to the more civilized easterners. 

It was in one of the most important ports on the eastern seaboard that a pastor walked the streets of New York City and saw the hordes of immigrants walking off the boats and felt God’s push to reach these masses with the Gospel. But his congregation rejected this move of God, and so, with seven others from his upper middle class congregation, the pastor set out to minister and provide a place where “people of all ethnicities and social classes” could come together as Christ’s Church (https://cmalliance.org/who-we-are/our-story/).

This is the beginning of what the Christian and Missionary Alliance is today. The ministry that we are a part of began with the vision that God gave to A.B. Simpson and those seven children of God to reach the unreached people of New York. Since then, the worldwide Alliance family spans six million believers, in over 25,000 churches, speaking over 180 languages and dialects. And it seeks to reach those who have never heard the Gospel.

This movement of God only happened, because the people of God followed the vision of God. 

Proverbs 29:18 states, “Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.”

This verse lands in the middle of a passage on discipline within the book of Proverbs, hinting at the connection between the vision of God and the obedience of God’s people; which is something we can see throughout Scripture.

In the first book of the Bible, Genesis, we see how God lays out vision time after time for people, and their response to that vision.

In Genesis 1:28, God lays out the vision he has for humans as a whole. We read, “And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” God’s vision for humanity was to be caretakers and explores of this new world he had created.

Five chapters later in Genesis 6, we find out that, not only did humans fail in achieving God’s vision, the humans become so corrupt, that God has to bring judgment upon everything. Yet, God sees one man that still seeks him, so God gives vision to Noah, Genesis 6:14, which reads, “Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.” God’s vision was that ark would hold the animals and people that would repopulate the land, so giving his original vision another opportunity. 

But sin will continue and God’s plan to bring about the path to salvation for humanity, would be started with Abraham in chapter 12 of Genesis, where God states, beginning in verse 1, “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’” God’s vision for Abraham would lead to the nation of Israel. It would lead to the events in Egypt, to the conquering of Canaan, to the time of the Judges, the monarchy of David, the exile and return to the land. And at each step God would give a vision on how that step should be done.

But the vision of God for the path of salvation was never the nation of Israel solely. It was through one individual that God’s vision to Abraham would come to its flourishing. To a man named Jospeh we read in the Gospel of Matthew 1:21, of how an angel comes to him in a dream in saying of his betrothed wife, “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” God gives Jospeh the vision of his plan for the pathway of salvation, and it will be through his adopted son, born from his virgin wife. 

And Jesus would give the vision for his work, when he stated this in Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” 

It was after his death and resurrection, which opened the pathway to God’s salvation, that Jesus then gave his people, his Church, the vision in which they were to walk. In Matthew 28:19 we begin to read, “19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” And in Acts 1:8, Jesus states, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

And it’s in Jesus’ vision for the Church that we find ourselves today.

It’s the late 1970s in a small rock town in western Arizona. Quartzsite is the rockhound’s destination. It’s a cheap place to live in the winter and a lot warmer than those northern states, so people flood the sleepy town for six months out of the year. People say the population grows from a few thousand to over a million. It becomes known as the Rock and RV capital, and the biggest flea market in the world. 

Retirees flock to the town, and to support them, young families begin to arrive in droves. As they do, those who are Christians begin to congregate at the only church in town. On an average Sunday in the winter, over 500 people can be found attending this small desert church. But as we have seen throughout the history of God’s vision and humanity’s sin, a falling away from that vision occurs. 

Conflict over what to do with the children erupts and some of the young families leave the congregation and begin to meet together for a Bible study. This Bible study grows, and in the early 80s a congregation begins to meet for worship. One of the founders of the Bible study gives the fledgling ministry his home and it’s transformed into a meeting place. The focus of this new ministry is to reach and give a place for the young families of Quartzsite and their children to fellowship together. Then in 1984, the ministry enters into partnership with the Christian and Missionary Alliance, partly due to a chance meeting between that same founder, and a future pastor of the church. 

It was then that the Quartzsite Alliance Church was launched. Today, we sit in the aftermath of that early group, like the those eight who began the Alliance so long ago, who saw the vision that God had, and began to walk as he led. 

None of this to say that the Alliance has the monopoly on God’s vision, nor to say that it is the only church in town who is doing the work of God. God gives his people vision, and when they walk in that vision, God brings about his great work, and his people experience mighty things as he achieves them.

It’s God’s vision that we must continually be connected to, because if we are not, as the writer of Proverbs says, we loose restraint, or as the King James puts it, “Where there is no vision, the people perish…”

Why do so many local churches fail? Why do both large and small ministries fall to scandals and abuse? It’s from a move away from the vision that God sets out for both the group and the individual. 

God’s vision is what gives us reason to move forward in his work, and it’s our turning away from his vision that leads to destruction. It’s why knowing what God has set before us to accomplish is so important. For us as the Alliance Church in Quartzsite that means we have a job to reach the young families and their children in our town. That is our primary ministry and if we move beyond that without holding that at our core, we will be moving away from the vision that God set out for us. That doesn’t mean that God doesn’t have more for us, but we cannot move away from that core vision or this ministry will perish. 

But it’s not just the vision of the Church in the spreading of the Gospel or of a single ministry like ours here, that we must not move away from. As individuals God has give us his vision as well. In Paul’s great theological work in the book of Romans, and in the middle of talking about the great work of the Spirit and great love of God for his people, Paul pens these words in Romans 8:29, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”

Each of us are to seek after the work of God in our own lives, that we might be ever increasingly conformed to the image of Jesus. These are the fruits that Jesus spoke about in places like John 15:5, when he tells us, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” And these fruit are what Paul mentions in Galatians 5:22-25, “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.”

This is where God desires his people and his Church as a whole to be, in his vision. For the Church, it is to bring the Gospel to the world, and each individual ministry is given a vision to achieve this purpose. For the individual, God’s vision is to conform to the image of Jesus and produce the fruit of the Spirit in every increasing ways.

As we march forward into this 40 years of celebration of what God has done through this particular ministry, we must abide in the vision of God that we may be a people who do not perish, but grow and flourish.

My challenge this week is to take the three visions that we’ve talked about today and between you and God, ask the question, “am I fulfilling my part in the vision?” Are you engaged in God’s work of sharing the Gospel in word and deed? Are you engaging in a local ministry vision, ours or another one that God has placed you in? Are you engaging in God’s vision for you to be continually conformed to Jesus, producing his fruit in your life? Wrestle with these visions this week.

Let us be a people who are moving forward in our relationship with God, because we are found in the vision of God. Amen.

“Ready for the Return” A New Years Sermon

  In an interview with Fox Business, Economist Harry Dent remarked about the economy, “Since 2009, this has been 100% artificial, unprecedented money printing and deficits; $27 trillion over 15 years, to be exact. This is off the charts, 100% artificial, which means we're in a dangerous state…I think 2024 is going to be the biggest single crash year we'll see in our lifetimes.…If I'm right, it is going to be the biggest crash of our lifetime, most of it happening in 2024 (https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/us-economist-predicts-2024-bring-biggest-single-crash-lifetime).” 

This is how our world works. Highs and lows. Takeoffs and crashes. War and peace. Poverty and prosperity. Every civilization that has impacted history has gone through the cycle of nations. As Scottish historian and writer Alexander Fraser Tytler puts it, nations go through a cycle of beginnings to endings. A popular quote going around right now is, “Hard times create strong men, and strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.”

It seems like our society has passed from the strong men creating good times to the weak men era. Everywhere we look, things like inflation, economic uncertainty, upheavals of social normality, and civil war are surrounding us. And it’s easy to fall into a state of worry, or tribalistic thinking as things spiral in ever worsening situations.

Yet as things worsen around us, as believers, we are called to endure such things, as we look forward to the full victory of Jesus at his return. And as we face a new year, the approximately 2,029th year since Jesus arrived that first Christmas Day, the call on our lives to endure is ever more present.

So as we look to another year of uncertainty, let us stand firm on God’s word as it direct our lives. Today we’re going to look at Jesus’ words from Luke chapter 21, starting in verse 25. And as we look to Luke 21:25, we’re beginning in a section of Scripture that has overlaps in both Matthew and Mark’s Gospels. This moment we’ll be looking at, comes on the eve of Jesus’ trial and crucifixion.

Jesus has been teaching everyday at the temple and when asked about the end, his words point back to Daniel’s vision in chapter 9 of that Old Testament book. Jesus tells those who are gathered that the future Church will be persecuted, the temple will be destroyed, and the Gentiles will trample Jerusalem under their feet for an unknown time.

It’s after this that we pick up Jesus’ words in chapter 21, verse 25. Let’s read it together. 

“25 And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, 26 people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

In the time following the destruction of the temple, which is the fulfillment of Daniel’s vision in chapter 9:26 of his writing, the world will be in distress until the arrival of the Son of Man. 

In Luke’s recording of Jesus’ words about the end, the focus isn’t on the details. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, who uses the uniqueness of individuals to craft purposeful retellings of the events of Jesus’ life. Matthew gives us an abundance of detail in what to expect before Jesus’ return. In that Gospel account, a reiteration of Daniel’s vision is relayed to the people. 

But Luke’s account strips it down to the idea that there will be distress, fear, and foreboding, before Jesus’ return. This fear and foreboding will sweep over the whole world, and all creation will be affected, from the earth itself to the heavens. Yet to the believer, Jesus first gives encouragement to know that these things will take place. The turmoil of the world, should never astound us, it should never take us by surprise, because our Lord, who knows all things, has already informed us that these things will occur. So following this encouragement, Jesus also issues a command to hold our heads up and straighten up our posture. This is a sign of confidence and victory. Those who look down or slink back, do so because they are defeated, but the follower of Jesus is not defeated, because their King is returning and his full salvation is on the horizon.

So Jesus calls his people, in the midst of fear and foreboding, to have postures of preparedness and victory, which is the antithesis of the non-believer, who has no option but to fear. It’s here that Luke places the Fig Tree lesson. Let’s read it, starting in verse 29.

“29 And he told them a parable: ‘Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. 30 As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. 31 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 32 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.’”

The lesson focuses in on the believer paying attention to the world around them and being knowledgeable of what events must occur before the return of Jesus. God desires us to have the knowledge to help us endure our circumstances. This is why God’s prophetic word is so important. It let’s us know before something happens, that it will happen. It let’s us know looking back on events, that God had spoke of these things. God’s prophetic word gives us trust in what he has previously done, and assurance in his future work.

So for the believer, as we await the return of Jesus, we must seek to have an understanding of the basic biblical prophetic framework of the events that surround Jesus’ return. These can be found in the book of Daniel chapter 9, verses 24-27, and Matthew chapters 24-25. 

These prophetic words of God are then emphasized by Jesus to be trustworthy. In fact they are more secured than heaven and earth itself. Whereas the current state of heaven and earth will pass away, Jesus’ words will stand secure.

It’s here that Luke gives us one more moment of teaching from Jesus before moving on to the lead up of the crucifixion. Let’s read starting in verse 34.

“34 But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. 35 For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Luke ends Jesus’ teaching with Jesus calling on the believer to seek holy living. This is done by rejecting the trappings of the world that lull us into a stupor. Momentary fame, fortune, and pleasures, lead us to a place where we cannot hope to be ready for the signs of Jesus’ return. So instead, Jesus calls us to be awake and seek God’s strengthening that we would be ready for his return. We are to have the same mindset as Luke told us Jesus had early in his book. When Jesus is about twelve years old, he stays behind in Jerusalem to speak with the religious leaders. When his family realizes he isn’t with them, they return, find him, and ask him why he has put them in such distress. Jesus’ reply is one we ought to have when others around us are in distress. Jesus replied to his earthy parents, as the New King James Version puts it, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business (Luke 2:29b NKJV)?” 

Jesus is calling us to be about our Heavenly Father’s business, which in not worrying, not fretting, but watching, waiting, and pointing others to the return of our Lord and Savior.

Beloved of God this is how we should usher in the new year, with calm and comfort. There maybe a crash the likes none of us have ever seen. There may be a social upheaval, that turns over the traditions of our forefathers. There may be a political rift so large, that civil war breaks out. But in all of it, our God reigns. He stands from eternity past to eternity future fully in control of the history of humanity. Nothing is out of his control and nothings surprisers him.

2024, like every year since the dawn of creation has been known to God, so we can trust that he is working things out for his return.

As we sing our next song, my challenge for you is to take the blank piece of paper in your bulletin, and list all the things that desire you to be fearful as we enter into the new year. Medical issues that call you to wonder if you’ll make it another year. Social issues that make you wonder what is going on with our youth. Political issues that make you think everything’s rigged. Financial issues that make you think you won’t be able to provide. Or maybe family issues, where there’s broken relationships that need to be mended or people who you know don’t know the Lord. All of it could await us in the new year, so write those things down that are weighing on your mind, God knows what troubles us, let’s be honest with those troubles with him.

Then as you leave today, wad up that list and toss it in the trash can. God’s got it, we don’t need that kind of stress, because our God’s in control. Leave it behind as you exit here and enter a new year.

Let us be a people who’s posture is of victory, because Jesus has already won the war and he is assuredly returning. Amen.