Download 2017 02 05 Gods Vision for His Church

God’s Vison for the Church
“Finding Our Future” Message Series
February 5, 2017
Pastor Mike Clark
Over the last 5 Sundays, we have been seeking anew the wisdom from God and His plans for COV in
2017 and beyond. Our key Bible verses in Jeremiah 29:11-13 tell us, 11”For I know the plans I have
for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and
a future. 12Then you will call on Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13You will seek
Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.” We ask everyone to call on the Lord to
discover His plans for our prosperity. We desire to come and pray to Him for our hopeful future. We
seek Him with all our hearts so that we can find Him. If we will do this here at COV, we will bring
glory to the Lord and joy in all our lives.
Essential to seeking the Lord’s plans for COV is understanding God’s vision for His Church as found in
the Bible. We don’t have to guess at the Lord’s commands for His followers. Jesus revealed His game
plan for His Church to His disciples. Today is Super Bowl Sunday and the team with the best game
plan carried out most effectively will win this game. They will win because of their planning and
practice to be the victors. So also today, we will examine key Scriptures that reveal the Lord’s game
plan to give us victory. This game plan will work if we follow and practice it. We realize that the Lord
leads COV toward a bright future by gathering all generations together in Him.
Jesus clearly explained His vision for His Church. He issued 2 “Great” proclamations to His Apostles
for His Church to obey and follow for success. The first is known as the Great Commandment. Jesus
repeated this command frequently so His disciples would remember how important it was. One place
He stated this Great Command is Luke 10:27, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with
all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
From this Great Commandment, COV gets its mission statement to be the “Heart of the Valley” to
“Love the Lord, each other and our neighbors in Christ’s love.” We know we need more love than we
possess to fulfill this command. We need Jesus’ heart beating in ours; His love flowing through us so
that we can truly love God, each other and ourselves. It is too easy to get upset with each other. It is
far too predictable to revert to our fallen human nature to bicker, argue and divide. To counter our
human weakness, the Lord gave us the Holy Spirit to strengthen us to carry out the Great
Commandment. I urge everyone to spend more time praying for the love of Christ to flow through
our relationships here at COV and in our homes and neighborhoods. Our success begins with the
unity we find together in the love of Christ.
Jesus stated His 2nd great command in what we know as the Great Commission found in Matthew
28:19-20, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded
you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” I find it a bit strange that our
English translations of the Bible, including this NIV version, render the phrase as “go and make
disciples of all nations,” The Greek original clearly gives us the word for nation as ‘ethne’. You don’t
need to be a Greek scholar to know the meaning of that word. We speak about ethnic groups all the
time. Therefore, a much better translation is to hear Jesus saying “go and make disciples of all ethnic
groups,” Jesus tells His disciples, to go out and make new disciples of all ethnic groups; all races, all
peoples, no matter the color of their skin, the heritage they celebrate, or their nation of origin. Jesus’
Church overcomes external human distinctions and is the only truly inclusive group of humans. We
unite, not in the traditions we embrace, but in our hearts embracing each other in Christ’s love.
A mark of the true Church is the presence of many ethnic groups as invited by our Lord. The good
message we share with our neighbors includes all, but how will they hear and join us unless we go
out to share that message with them? We go out, as our Lord tells us, because they often don’t know
we are here among them. We are invisible to many around us. Go ahead and ask your neighbors
what they know about COV. I am certain you will find many have heard little if anything about COV.
Many do not know where our church buildings are even though we are located at the center of Apple
Valley. If we go out and share, we will see people responding positively to our message and more will
join us in being the people of Christ of all ethnic groups.
After Jesus’ death and resurrection, His Disciples and followers started the Church of Jesus. They
loved and went out, following His great commands and enjoying miraculous success. We hear about
the first church group in Jerusalem in Acts 2:42-47 “They devoted themselves to the apostles’
teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe at
the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had
everything in common. 45They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.
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Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes
and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.
And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
Faithful to the Lord by obeying His commands, this first church grew in love and Holy Spirit power.
Examine the record of their accomplishments:
 They devoted themselves to the Word of the Lord - His truth given directly to His Apostles about
how to live with the Lord and each other in this world.
 They devoted themselves to fellowship – to the practice of caring for each other and developing
the bonds of love in Christ.
 They were filled with awe at what the Lord did among them as they opened their hearts and
minds to His ministry through the Apostles. Bodies were healed. Minds were restored.
Relationships were resurrected.
 They cared for each other’s needs, using their belongings and resources for the good of all.
 They worshipped every day in the temple courts – praising the Lord in thanksgiving.
 They enjoyed meals together, opening their homes to each other in hospitality with glad and
sincere hearts. Opening their homes symbolized opening their lives to each other in acceptance
and mutual affirmation of their bond as one family in Christ.
 They broke bread together, celebrating communion with Jesus, who broke bread with His
disciples and commanded them to do this in remembrance of His life given for their life and His
blood shed for the forgiveness of their sins.
 They enjoyed the favor of the people around them who saw their love for each other and for their
neighbors. Their works of love shone out like a city set high upon a hill cannot hide its light.
 Because of this, the Lord added to their number daily many who were being saved from death to
life, from darkness to light, and from despair to hope.
All these things happen when followers of Jesus obey His great commands. They happened in
Jerusalem. They happened wherever the Apostles and disciples went out throughout the Roman
Empire to spread the great news of Jesus. They have happened in times of great renewal through
human history ever since. Here in America there have been several times of national renewal when
many turned to follow Jesus. The Great Awakening of the 1730s and 40s led by John Wesley in
England and by George Whitfield and John Edwards in America led to the birth of the USA as a nation
in the 1760s. Hundreds of thousands in both England and America became followers of Jesus. A 2nd
Great Awakening with a half million more turning to Jesus swept over the country in the early 1800s
led by Charles Finney. The great prayer meeting revival of 1857 gathered a million more saved souls.
In the 1870s, Dwight Moody led another great revival.
I experience such a revival in the late 1960’s. Known to some as the “Charismatic Renewal” and to
others as the “Jesus Movement”, this revival spread among millions of the nation’s youth.
Overshadowed by the social unrest of that time, this revival brought long lasting, healthy
consequences here in America. At the time, we became aware of the amazing power and work of the
Holy Spirit to transform our lives and churches. My life changed forever as I became a follower of
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Jesus. I personally helped lead a coffee house when I was a Senior in High School where over 300
youth from our community gathered every Sunday night to worship and hear the good news of Jesus.
From my own church youth group, over 50 became pastors with many more becoming leaders in
their churches. This has encouraged me from that time on to share about the amazing power of the
Holy Spirit to transform our lives and churches. That is why I wrote my new book Keep In Step With
The Holy Spirit to share how this happens. Renewal has happened often and I pray it will happen
again among us here at COV. If we seek the Lord together, this can happen.
What can happen? The Holy Spirit raises up His Church to become the place where believers of all
ethnic groups, all social and economic status, and all ages come together in Jesus. The Apostle Paul
expressed this breaking down of human barriers to create the true Family in Christ in Galatians 3:2629, “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27for all of you who were baptized
into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor
free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29If you belong to Christ, then
you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” In the Family of Jesus Christ, He
removes the barriers that divided from past religious affiliations. The caste system of our social strata
is torn down. The divide between rich and poor is bridged in generous love. Even the battle between
the sexes ends in peace in the Family of Jesus. Here at COV, Jesus call us to be a place where all
generations gather together to love the Lord, each other and our neighbors in Christ’s love.
Imagine the possibilities and opportunities before us in 2017 and beyond. We can be a place where
children grow in wisdom, in stature, in favor with God and others. Our youth group helps our
teenagers become mature in faith (some call it a ‘sticky faith’) that stays with them through college
against the temptations of the crazy culture around us. Our young adults in their 20s find God’s truth
for their identity, sexuality, purpose and right values for everyday living. Our worship services can
become an experience of personal and corporate involvement reaching up to Jesus as He reaches
down to us in visible expressions of love for each other. We can display in our membership a place
where ethnic backgrounds, skin color, age and gender as male and female bring us together and not
separate us. We can become a family in Christ where disciples for Jesus discover their unique
personality, talents, abilities, strengths and gifts to lift up all called together as COV. We can become
a church where people are drawn to Jesus in all we do and say.
What is it going to take to get there? What must we do to gather the generations in Christ? Well, let’s
go back to the words of Jesus to understand that as found in Matthew 16:13- 19
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, “Who do people say the
Son of Man is?”
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They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the
prophets.”
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But what about you?” He asked. “Who do you say I am?”
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Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
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Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and
blood, but by My Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My
church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of
heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will
be loosed in heaven.”
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Jesus pointed out to Peter, and thus to all disciples, the key to being successful in His Church. We
build on the foundation rock of trustful obedience to Jesus. Whenever Peter affirmed that Jesus was
the Messiah, the Son of the living God, Peter would be the rock. He would stand strong and succeed
as he followed Jesus every day, trusting in Jesus to live and love through him. Whenever Peter did
not follow the Lord, but tried to tell Jesus what to do, remember what Jesus called him? He said to
Peter “get behind me Satan.” When we obey Jesus, we find success as His Church. When we try to
do things without Jesus even in church, we become people led by the evil one, whose sole aim is to
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keep us from following Jesus. I don’t think Jesus could have made this any clearer. If we don’t follow
Jesus, we follow the way of Satan. If we follow Jesus, we become the rock of the church and we find
great success. Obeying Jesus, we discover the keys of the kingdom of heaven by which human lives
are loosed from the bindings of hell to enjoy the bounties of heaven. That is what the true church of
Jesus does, frees souls to live eternally snatching them out of their slavery to hell.
John Ortberg gave one of the most stirring message I have ever heard called “A Vision for Ministry
and Introducing ECO” - a talk given at The Fellowship of Presbyterians Covenanting Conference in
Orlando, FL, January 19, 2012. Listen to some of his words.
When Jesus said, “Who do you say I am?” Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus said, “Blessed are you, Peter. Flesh and blood have not revealed this. There is something
deeper, bigger going on. The Spirit is starting something. I say you are Peter the rock, and on this
rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”
Jesus says he is building his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail. Our problem is hell, and hell
is at work wherever the will of God is defiled out there or in here. Every time a little child is left
unloved, unwanted, uneducated, unnoticed; every time a marriage ends; every time racial differences
divide a street or a city or a church; every time money gets worshiped or hoarded; every time a lie
gets told; every time generations get separated, get divided, get suspicious, get standoffish; every
time a workplace becomes dehumanizing or fear-based; when families get broken down; when virtue
gets torn down; when sinful habits create a life of shame or a culture of shamelessness; when faith
gets undermined, hope gets lost, and people get trashed, hell is prevailing.
It is not acceptable to Jesus that hell prevails. It is not okay. People will ask sometimes, “How is your
church doing?” Real important to think about, What does it mean for our church to be doing okay?
Our job is not to do okay. Our job is not to meet a budget or run a program or fill a building or
maintain the status quo. Our job is not to do pretty good compared with other churches in the
denomination.
Jesus did not say, “On this rock I will build my church, and it’ll do pretty good compared to other
churches in the denomination.” He said, “I’m going to build my church, and the gates of hell will not
prevail against it.” Our job is to put hell out of business, and that’s why Jesus went to the cross on a
Friday, lay in a tomb on Saturday, and was raised to life on Sunday.
Every day counts for many of us here at COV, especially those of us who realize we do not have a lot
of time left. What will be our legacy? What will be leave behind? Will we be about the Lord’s work of
setting souls free? Will we be about His resurrection business? Will we set a firm foundation for a
greater glorious future in Christ here at COV? Will we seek His renewal and revival among us and go
out into our neighborhoods in obedience to Him? Will we gather all generations in Christ so His
church will remain strong well after we leave this earth? The Lord’s plan to prosper us in His vision for
us is to fulfill our purpose as the “Heart of the Valley – Gathering the Generations in Christ.” And the
vital question to each of us here at COV is will we devote our lives to be part of such a church?
I will close with a last quote from John Ortberg: I wonder who here would say, “I want to be a
servant, a brother, a sister, and a fellow soldier in an army of Spirit-breathed compassion that is
rolling back a tide of secularism and fear and doubt and cynicism”? Once there was a day when the
Holy Spirit fell on a group of people with so much power that all divisions melted away. Ethnic groups
and other folks who had always been divided came together and became like family, like brothers and
sisters. People devoted themselves to God and to each other. Masks came off. They got real. Sin got
confessed. The rich gave away their money to help people who didn’t have it. Everybody served.
They changed the world. God has done it before; can God not do it again? Has the Holy Spirit lost his
power? Will you devote the rest of your life to be part of such a church?
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