Steve Gentry
[0:00] Well, go ahead and have a seat. Welcome to Village Church. [0:02] If this is your first time here, my name’s Steve. [0:04] I’m one of the pastors here at Village Church. [0:06] And as always, I’m grateful to see each and every one of you. [0:10] If you have your Bibles, go ahead and open them to 2 Corinthians, chapter 5. [0:14] It may be a familiar passage for many of you.
[0:18] But this morning, what I want to do is we’re taking just a one-week break [0:23] from the book of Philippians to talk about the vision of Village Church, [0:30] the vision of where God is working and where God desires to work. [0:36] And if you’ve been with us for an extended period of time, [0:40] you’ve certainly heard us speak of 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, [0:44] because it’s really in that passage that years ago, God began to work in my life
[0:51] and in the lives of everybody that started this church. [0:53] It was on that team of what type of church we wanted to be [0:58] and what type of church God wanted to help us to become [1:04] and the types of churches that we wanted to start by the power of God. [1:10] And we’re actually going to further this discussion tonight at 5 p.m. [1:15] as we’re going to have an interest meeting in the church
[1:18] that we’re going to plant this fall in Chester. [1:22] And so if you want to hear about that, come back tonight at 5 o’clock. [1:27] Even if you’re like, well, I don’t live in Chester, [1:30] your church is doing something, so it’s probably something that you need to know about. [1:35] And so whatever you need to do to be here to hear about that, [1:38] you probably should, as people who are Village Church,
[1:43] whatever you’ve got planned, just cancel it. [1:45] It wasn’t going to be as good as you thought it was going to be anyway. [1:49] I mean, I’ll be honest, I know what it was and that’s just lame, cancel it. [1:53] You say, but Grandma.
[1:58] The mission of Village Church is that we exist to worship God.
[2:08] And then it goes on and it says, we exist to worship God by helping [2:12] as many people as possible to become fully devoted followers of Jesus. [2:21] And so if you’ve heard over the past few weeks, [2:23] I mean, there are possibly some of you here that didn’t know [2:27] that we were a church plant at some time, [2:30] that didn’t know that we used to set up and tear down every single Sunday.
[2:34] You didn’t know that we were in an elementary school [2:37] and then we were in a middle school [2:39] and then we leased a small church building that was in terrible shape [2:44] and we had to make it look decent. [2:46] And then by God’s grace, a few years ago, we were able to purchase this property. [2:51] And some of you have been here since then.
[2:53] And so you didn’t know all of that stuff.
[2:59] But the key that I want you to hone in on today is that where we started [3:06] is where we need to go over and over and over and over again [3:13] if we are going to call ourselves disciples of Jesus Christ. [3:19] See, there are many things that can captivate our attention. [3:22] There are many things that can captivate my attention. [3:26] There are many things that will convince me
[3:30] that I need to drift into a different mission [3:34] than the one that God has actually given me [3:37] through the Gospel of Jesus Christ [3:40] so that my needs are met, so that I can do what I need, [3:44] so that I can dig deeper right here. [3:46] Well, I’ve got this problem and that problem
[3:47] and I’ve got to fix this problem. [3:49] I’ve got to fix that problem before we can ever move on to something else. [3:52] But my thesis to you today is that it is only in advancing the Gospel of Jesus Christ [4:00] into more and more lives that we will ever find health, [4:05] that we will ever fix the issues that we may have or we may not have, [4:10] that those issues that are even in your life,
[4:14] that if you spend all of your time trying to fix this and that [4:18] before you ever get to advancing the Gospel, [4:21] you will lay on your deathbed and you will say, [4:25] I’ve wasted it!
[4:32] Because God invested something in you [4:34] that He is not satisfied with just staying in you.
[4:42] But for so many of you, [4:46] the mission of Jesus is terminating on you.
[4:53] Why do we settle for less than the vision of God?
[5:01] You might be thinking to yourself that, man, [5:05] that mission statement is one sentence. [5:08] Isn’t it kind of audacious to sum up the entire purpose of a church in one sentence? [5:17] I mean, how did you come upon that one sentence? [5:21] How did you decide that you were going to sum up the purpose of all of these people, [5:27] the hundreds of people that will gather today?
[5:30] Are you sure that you can tell all of those people what the mission of their churches in one sentence? [5:38] Doesn’t it need to be more exhaustive? [5:40] Doesn’t it need to add more to it? [5:44] I mean, how did you get there? [5:47] Well, quite frankly, the purpose of a mission statement, [5:50] they teach you this in what they kind of call church planting boot camp, all right?
[5:56] The purpose of a mission statement is actually to keep you from ruining it.
[6:03] Because by nature, we would add sentences, wouldn’t we? [6:07] We say, oh, but what about, but you forgot, [6:11] MOPs needs to be sentence five, right?
[6:17] See, the mission statement is actually to put guardrails around the vision of God [6:23] because our default mode is to take the mission of God and ruin it. [6:29] Because we take the mission of God and we make it about ourselves. [6:32] We make it about our pet projects. [6:34] We make it about our passions. [6:35] We make it about those hobbies that we are more interested in than,
[6:39] I mean, come on, I’ve got more going on in my life than church planting.
[6:46] My thought is that if you’ve got more going on in your life, [6:50] then you’ve got too much going on in your life.
[6:55] You see, the mission of Jesus does not slow down for any one of us. [6:59] It keeps going on. [7:00] Now, I know that throughout this room and definitely throughout the world, [7:03] the purposes, definitions, and hope of the church, [7:06] even more specifically, the church that you want to be a part of [7:11] can have a lot of range.
[7:13] And that’s why it would actually be pretty unhelpful [7:16] if we actually polled the crowd to make a mission statement [7:21] because it would end up being a hundred pages.
[7:25] And it would be so confusing and diluted, [7:28] nobody could figure out what we actually needed to do. [7:31] And so that’s why in the Bible, [7:33] the Lord gives the pastors the responsibility to shepherd the flock. [7:43] You ever thought about that? [7:43] I mean, that’s kind of offensive.
[7:46] Nobody likes to be called a sheep because sheep are stupid. [7:52] They really are. [7:52] They have no sense.
[7:55] And so in the Bible, [8:00] the pastors are kind of equated to shepherds to put guardrails, [8:05] to put a pin around the flock of God [8:08] because we actually have this default mode [8:11] that we try to get in to areas of unhealth. [8:16] And the Father says, no, you actually lead the sheep.
[8:20] You make it simpler. [8:22] You make it attainable. [8:23] You make it something that they can wrap their arms around [8:26] but never actually evolve into what would center upon them [8:31] because what we, even me included, [8:34] what we are tempted to do is take the mission of Jesus
[8:38] and make it about ourselves. [8:41] The shepherd must plot the course to healthy fields and streams [8:46] so that the sheep can be nourished. [8:50] And so today specifically, [8:51] what I want to talk about is just Village Church. [8:54] We specifically want to talk about our hope of where we are going
[8:58] and where we will go, [9:00] of what we believe will actually help us to be a healthy church. [9:04] But quite frankly, it’s past that. [9:06] What will help you to be a healthy disciple of Jesus Christ? [9:12] There are many places that we could go, [9:15] but there are very few places that God wants us to go.
[9:19] And specifically, I want you to understand [9:21] that there are very few places where God calls us to go. [9:25] There are many places that we will call ourselves to go. [9:29] But I don’t really care about that.
[9:33] What I care about and what I want my life to be defined by [9:37] is that which will give me the most potential, [9:41] that which will give me the most joy, [9:43] that which will give me a front row seat [9:46] to see God move in amazing ways in the lives of people.
[9:53] And that’s why our mission statement is what it is, [9:55] because that is where God is working. [9:58] I want to be there. [9:59] And so what I want to do is I just want to break down [10:01] our mission statement into three parts this morning [10:03] because it has three parts.
[10:05] Kind of like all my sermons have three parts. [10:08] Number one, we exist to worship God. [10:10] We exist to worship God. [10:14] In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, the apostle Paul puts it this way, [10:19] starting in verse 14. [10:21] This is for the love of Christ controls us
[10:24] because we’ve concluded this, [10:27] that one has died for all, therefore all have died. [10:30] And he died for all that those who live [10:32] might no longer live for themselves, [10:34] but for him who for their sake died and was raised. [10:39] From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh,
[10:44] even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, [10:48] we regard him thus no longer. [10:53] What is worship?
[10:56] I can tell you that worship is not a feeling.
[11:01] Worship is not a song.
[11:04] Worship is obeying God.
[11:08] Worship is living the life, [11:11] pursuing the things that God has defined and designed [11:15] for you to pursue. [11:16] The simplest definition of worship is to ascribe worth. [11:21] I mean, to live in such a way [11:23] that I show the worthiness of God.
[11:26] And that is why obedience is so vital in the life of worship. [11:30] In 2 Corinthians 5, 14 begins this train of thought [11:33] that reveals why we specifically worship Jesus, [11:37] why we ascribe more worth to Jesus [11:40] than we ascribe to anyone or anything else. [11:44] See, it’s about what you’re living for.
[11:47] You see, if you look at the cross of Jesus and think of it [11:50] and the way that Paul writes in this text, [11:53] you will worship him. [11:56] And the reason for that is the scripture tells us [11:58] that you were designed to worship the God that created you. [12:02] Now, this is specifically about knowing Jesus.
[12:05] Notice the way he says, [12:07] my knowing of Jesus changes. [12:10] My relationship with Jesus changes. [12:12] He becomes more than a man. [12:16] He becomes God because of what he’s done, [12:19] because he died for all.
[12:21] And his love actually controls our lives. [12:25] Knowing Jesus is amazing. [12:27] Notice that I didn’t say knowing about Jesus is amazing. [12:32] Knowing Jesus is what I mean. [12:36] You have to know him. [12:38] It is knowing what is lost in life apart from God
[12:42] and the amazing understanding of what is gained [12:45] because of what Jesus has done. [12:50] And so you live your life with this view of who Jesus actually is, [12:56] and you’re in awe of what he’s done. [12:58] And you say, I cannot regard him according to the flesh anymore. [13:03] I have to regard him in another way because he died for all.
[13:09] And so my knowledge of knowing about Jesus is dead, [13:14] and my life of knowing Jesus relationally is a lie. [13:20] You see, it is knowing Jesus that sets Christianity apart [13:25] from anything else in the world. [13:27] Because a lot of people have a knowledge of Jesus, [13:29] but they don’t know Jesus.
[13:33] I have the privilege of assessing church planters [13:35] for a few different networks.
[13:38] And I have a front row seat to talk about something [13:42] that quite frankly usually surprises them [13:44] where I don’t necessarily ask them about their strategy, [13:47] I don’t necessarily ask them about their systems. [13:49] I start out saying, hey, I just want to talk about your walk with Jesus.
[13:53] I just want to talk about what Jesus is, who he is to you. [13:59] Because spiritual vitality is what sets the follower of Jesus apart from anyone else. [14:05] Because you can know everything about Jesus, and you should, by the way.
[14:12] But you can do that and never know him. [14:16] And that’s not something that I want to be true of us. [14:18] So we exist to worship God. [14:22] And in worshiping God, it calls us to live a bigger life [14:26] that actually requires God to work. [14:29] Have you ever looked at what some people are capable of enduring
[14:33] and not know Jesus? [14:35] I’ve seen that in some people’s lives. [14:36] They don’t know Jesus, but I see them endure incredible lives. [14:40] I see some people accomplish incredible things. [14:43] And I see some people endure very hard things apart from Jesus. [14:47] And we see that, and we have to ask, how do they do that?
[14:50] See, but that doesn’t disprove God.
[14:54] Nor does it disprove faith. [14:57] It actually shows us, but what if we could tap into the life of God?
[15:05] See, if you can accomplish things apart from God, [15:07] imagine what you can accomplish with God. [15:10] Imagine the potential that our lives would have [15:13] if we spent all of our time pursuing God’s vision for our lives, [15:19] partnering with him on his mission. [15:22] It shows how quickly we are tempted to settle for lives
[15:27] that are small enough for us to handle.
[15:32] The problem that most of you have is that you are settling [15:35] for a life that you can handle. [15:37] God isn’t interested in what you can handle. [15:40] God hasn’t called you to a life that you can handle. [15:44] God has called you into a life that only he can handle, [15:49] and you can only accomplish it if he is actually working,
[15:53] if he is actually moving. [15:55] And actually, the problems with your life is that you are living [15:59] under the potential that God has given you, [16:02] under the design that God has given into your life. [16:05] And what God wants you to understand is that he is calling you [16:09] to be a part of something that is so much bigger than you,
[16:13] that it will require you stepping out of your design [16:16] and actually stepping into his design. [16:20] But that’s going to be very hard for most of you, [16:23] because you are addicted to yourself. [16:26] You are addicted to your design.
[16:30] That’s why it is only a gospel vision that can create real worship.
[16:37] That gospel vision is this fact that we were created, [16:41] we were designed to find all of our satisfaction, [16:48] all of our worship, all of our fulfillment, [16:51] hopes, joys, dreams, visions. [16:54] We were designed by God to find all of that in him.
[17:00] You see it in the book of Genesis, [17:02] that very quickly we are tempted not to just disobey God, [17:07] but to disobey God and find all of those things in something else, [17:12] to seek all of those things in something else, [17:15] to actually attempt to turn life around [17:18] so that we can make it something that is by my design,
[17:22] a vision that I can stomach, a vision that I can accomplish, [17:28] because isn’t life about me?
[17:32] And so we actually divorce ourselves from the life of God, [17:35] because we believe the lie that life is found within ourselves.
[17:40] And it’s an amazing moment of rebellion, [17:43] and it’s an amazing moment where we look to the God who created us, [17:47] and we actually have the audacity to say, [17:49] you are not enough.
[17:52] I want something that’s different than you, [17:55] because I want to be you.
[18:01] God could have justly condemned every one of us, [18:05] and that’s an option, by the way. [18:09] That’s what sobers us to the reality of the Gospel.
[18:14] Condemnation is an option, [18:17] but instead God set out on a mission to redeem those people [18:21] who were rebellious against him, [18:23] and Jesus, God the Son, actually stepped out of eternity, [18:27] became part of creation, served us, [18:32] died on the cross taking the penalty for our sins,
[18:35] rising from the dead three days later, [18:37] so that we could be reconnected to the life of God. [18:41] And God actually looks to sinners in rebellion against him, [18:45] and he says, I love you to the extent [18:47] that I will pay the penalty for your sin against him. [18:52] And then he says, now you can be reconnected to my life.
[18:55] All of the barrier, all of the offense, [18:58] all of the things that would separate us from the life of God [19:01] have been taken away, [19:02] and I can actually come into the design of God once again, [19:06] and I can come into and have life that is lost [19:10] if I’m only about me.
[19:13] But God says, come back and be about God. [19:17] And he says, you can have life, and you can have it abundantly. [19:23] You see, it is only when you are overwhelmed by that vision, [19:27] it is only when you are overwhelmed by that life [19:32] that your life can actually change. [19:36] You see, most of us are trying to fix every area of our lives
[19:42] so that we can then focus on catching the vision of the Gospel. [19:47] But that isn’t how it works. [19:49] You can’t tidy up your idols so you can serve the Lord.
[19:55] Only serving the Lord can rid you of your false gods.
[20:01] So when 2 Corinthians says, the love of Christ controls us, [20:05] if you read that and think, I want to control myself, [20:09] then you can’t worship. [20:11] You aren’t worshiping. [20:14] If you read that and think, love controlling has to be something [20:18] I can be in charge of.
[20:20] That’s not worshiping. [20:23] See, you have to see the vision of God through the lens of the love of Jesus [20:27] and then realize, what great love! [20:31] I want that God. [20:33] I want that to be what defines my life. [20:36] I want whatever God has for my life,
[20:38] because His love is bigger than mine and His vision is bigger than my vision. [20:44] You have to want to worship God more than you want anything else. [20:50] But do you? [20:53] Do you?
[20:58] Number 2, God wants us to reach people.
[21:02] God wants us to reach people. [21:04] See, we start thinking about that and we’re caught up into this gospel vision [21:08] and we’re like, oh, that’s wonderful! [21:10] God’s love is controlling me! [21:12] And that’s where we get into this place where we’re like, I want to feel it!
[21:31] But when the scripture says the love of Christ controls us,
[21:39] He’s feeding into the reality. [21:42] He wants to move you.
[21:45] He wants to move you. [21:46] [21:46] [21:46] He doesn’t control you so you can sit still. [21:50] He doesn’t control you so you can just marinate the rest of your life in His goodness. [21:55] Some of you all are trying that.
[21:58] And when we try to move you, you’re like, but the marinade smells so good! [22:02] I’m not ready for the grill.
[22:06] You will never know the move of God then.
[22:12] You will never know it. [22:15] You will never have your life changed. [22:18] You will never see someone else’s life changed. [22:20] God saves us to move us. [22:23] That’s why He says it’s the love of Christ that controls us. [22:27] Look at what He says in verse 16.
[22:28] He says, from now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh, [22:32] even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh. [22:34] And He writes that because He’s like, could you imagine only thinking Jesus is a good guy?
[22:42] He says, now that the love of Christ controls you, doesn’t that sound preposterous?
[22:48] Doesn’t that sound insane? [22:50] That we once regarded Christ according to the flesh. [22:53] And then He says, we regard Him thus no longer. [22:56] Therefore, He’s saying in light of that, if anyone is in Christ, He’s a new creation. [23:02] The old is passed away, behold, the new has come. [23:05] A new life with new rules, with new standards, with new purpose, with new mission.
[23:11] God’s going to try to move you. [23:15] And He says all this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself [23:20] and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. [23:24] He’s saying, God fixed your relationship with Him. [23:27] He reconciled your relationship. [23:29] He brought you back in.
[23:30] And you get to know who God is in all of His holiness, and all of His splendor, [23:35] and all of His glory. [23:36] You get God. [23:37] And then God says, and when you view My splendor, when you view My holiness, [23:42] when you view My glory, you get to tap into My love.
[23:48] And that love is something that has to go beyond you, if it’s God’s love.
[23:54] See, a lot of us have fooled ourselves into thinking that we believe the love of God. [23:58] But we actually believe the love of God only for ourselves.
[24:03] That’s not the love of God. [24:05] That’s the love of you.
[24:09] But God says that He’s given you the ministry of reconciliation. [24:14] That’s the work of God going into the lives of others. [24:20] Now that you’ve been changed by the ministry of reconciliation, [24:23] you have the message that God wants to take into the world, because the world needs it. [24:29] You have the good news of Jesus. [24:32] And God says, when you have the good news of Jesus, He gives you a ministry.
[24:37] Ministry means He turns you into a servant. [24:40] And you serve the world by taking reconciliation to everyone around you, [24:47] because you’ve been reconciled to God, therefore your desire is to love like God, [24:52] so you can give reconciliation of God into the lives of other people. [24:57] Do you live like that? [24:59] Do you live for that?
[25:00] Do people look to your life and say, that is a reconciled person seeking to give love to other people [25:07] so that they can be reconciled to God? [25:10] Are you on that mission? [25:13] Because if you don’t want to reach people, then you don’t want the life God has for you.
[25:22] And so when I read that, I have to check myself sometimes.
[25:29] Because I can’t get too far from the worship of God, and that’s where we’re tempted to go. [25:34] So sometimes we’ll read the ministry of reconciliation, [25:37] and we will turn that into a host of things that it’s not.
[25:42] So we have to understand what is reconciliation by God’s standards. [25:46] You see, when God brings us into a relationship with Jesus Christ, [25:50] when that reconciliation is applied to our lives, [25:53] he gives us the ministry of reconciliation, but he puts it into certain environments that he’s designed. [25:59] So it’s not up to me. [26:01] We want it to be.
[26:02] And that’s why mission statements need to be 100 pages long, according to most of us. [26:06] Because we want to define what the ministry of reconciliation is. [26:10] Well, God doesn’t let you do that. [26:12] That’s the point of the New Testament, by the way. [26:15] That’s God saying, slow your roll.
[26:22] See, God puts the ministry of reconciliation into the life of the church.
[26:29] And so he calls us in. [26:30] We’ve been reconciled to God, and he gives us this people, the church, and he says, live reconciled to those people. [26:39] And it gets messy, doesn’t it? [26:41] Y’all are an offensive bunch. [26:43] You offend each other, you get offended, you set your, you know, it’s like on Star Trek when you’re in a meeting, [26:48] and everyone set your tasers to stun, you set your personality to ultra sensitive.
[26:54] So everything offends you and you offend everybody. [26:56] I mean, the church is a mess. [27:00] God says all those default practices, you got to work them out. [27:04] You got to work them out. [27:05] You got to be more like Jesus. [27:07] You got to be more like Jesus.
[27:08] And he says, form a people so that the vision of Matthew, Chapter five comes into play in the life of God’s people. [27:18] He says, I want you to be a light to the world. [27:23] I want you to be a city that is set on a hill.
[27:28] Because you wouldn’t take a light that’s meant to guide a path and put a basket over it. [27:33] And you can’t hide a city that is set on a hill. [27:36] Do you know what he’s talking about right there? [27:38] He’s not just talking about you solo individual. [27:42] He’s talking about the church. [27:45] And he’s saying you build the church so that the world can see how reconciliation looks according to God’s design.
[27:55] And that’s why church planting is the best strategy for the ministry of reconciliation. [28:03] See, the church is an interesting thing. [28:05] You know, in the New Testament, every gospel movement that you see happens through and starts new churches.
[28:17] Read the book of Acts. [28:19] It’s undeniable. [28:21] Every gospel movement is about the local church. [28:24] Every single one.
[28:26] Everywhere Paul goes, what does he do? [28:29] Starts a church. [28:31] That’s their mission. [28:32] That’s what they’re about. [28:33] You look through the history of the church. [28:35] Every gospel movement is defined by the planting and starting of new churches.
[28:39] I mean, every single gospel movement that has ever happened in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ has been about starting churches. [28:48] But when I ask so many people around here, what is the gospel movement in your life defined by?
[28:55] I get 35 answers.
[29:01] Because we cannot think about a life that’s bigger than ourselves. [29:05] But God says every gospel movement starts churches in the current life of the Church of Jesus Christ. [29:12] If you look at the biggest gospel movements in the world, all of them are about starting new churches. [29:22] Every single one of them. [29:24] I mean, just this week I had the privilege to assess church plants in Norfolk, to assess church plants in Baltimore, to assess church plants in Williamsburg. [29:35] Over the past few weeks, I was able to assess two church planters from Ethiopia who have come to this country specifically to reach the 400,000 Ethiopian immigrants that are in northern Virginia and Washington, D.C.
[29:50] And we’ve got three church plants going all along the 95 corridor to reach them. [29:58] We’ve partnered with church plants in Boston. [30:00] We’ve partnered with church plants in Charlotte. [30:02] We’ve partnered with church plants that don’t even speak English.
[30:08] And God says gospel movement.
[30:13] He’s bringing the nations to himself. [30:15] The gospel is bigger than you.
[30:20] And God says, be a part of it. [30:22] And it’s the greatest life that you will ever have. [30:26] And I tell you, nothing encourages me more to keep going than to sit down with these men and women who are sacrificing so much to go and start new churches because they have no guarantees. [30:40] They have no paychecks. [30:41] They don’t know how it’s going to turn out. [30:43] But they say, God has called me.
[30:45] We’re going.
[30:52] The message of reconciliation goes out most effectively through starting churches. [30:59] Because that’s God’s design. [31:01] I mean, there are a hundred pragmatic reasons for it, too. [31:05] I’ll talk about a few of those tonight. [31:06] Wink, wink.
[31:11] But here’s what I’m trying to say. [31:13] I’m trying to make this as simple as possible. [31:17] To reach people, we need you to help us plant a church. [31:22] We need you to become church planners. [31:25] I mean, when you look at our mission statement, if you read it and you say as many people as possible, that’s bold. [31:30] Some of y’all might have used the word other than bold.
[31:32] That wasn’t very nice.
[31:35] But in First Corinthians 9, 19, the apostle writes this. [31:40] He says, though I’m free from all because he’s been talking about the liberty that the gospel gives him. [31:45] I mean, the freedom that the gospel gives you. [31:47] Don’t you just love spare ribs?
[31:50] Some of you Bible scholars got that. [31:53] But in chapter 9, verse 19, he says, for though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all. [32:00] Why? [32:01] Why would you do that, Paul? [32:02] So that I might win more of them. [32:05] You see, Paul never put a cap on the number of people that God was going to reach through him.
[32:14] Paul just said, how many do you want to reach? [32:17] His answer, more. [32:19] I want to win more of them. [32:21] More. [32:22] Every area, every city I go to. [32:24] I don’t care what happens, but I want to start a church where people are coming to faith in Jesus Christ.
[32:30] Friends, here’s what I want you to understand about your life. [32:33] The only path to spiritual growth for you. [32:38] This is what I want you to understand. [32:39] You can read every book. [32:42] Most of them are unhelpful. [32:45] The only path to spiritual growth is multiplication.
[32:52] You seeking to see your faith multiplied in the lives of others. [32:57] That’s what it means to make disciples. [33:00] God is more concerned. [33:03] I want to sober you up right here. [33:05] So pay attention. [33:06] God is more concerned with saving the lost than he is with what you think your needs are.
[33:19] Did you know that?
[33:21] Did you know that? [33:23] Do you want to know why that’s the case?
[33:27] Because your needs, where God is concerned, will be met when you are used to seek and save the lost.
[33:39] But so long as you’re just fiddling over here, fiddling over there, God fix this, God fix this, I’ll get on mission later, [33:45] you will never grow past the problems that consume you because they’re about you.
[33:55] Somehow you ended up here. [33:59] That’s a fact. [34:00] You’re sitting here. [34:02] Somehow you’re here. [34:05] Somehow many of you have built relationships here. [34:09] That’s a beautiful thing.
[34:10] That’s reconciliation. [34:11] It’s a wonderful thing. [34:12] I praise God for that. [34:15] Somehow you’ve experienced varying degrees of discipleship here. [34:23] Somehow we want other people to have that opportunity that you’ve had.
[34:31] Wouldn’t it be wonderful if other people had that opportunity?
[34:36] Wouldn’t it be wonderful that people who don’t know Jesus, [34:40] because of the opportunities that you’ve had here, because of the relationships that you’ve built here, [34:44] because of the discipleship that you’ve experienced here, because of the friendship and the gospel that you’ve had with people here, [34:51] wouldn’t it be wonderful if people who don’t know Jesus, because you say, I want other people to have that, could get that.
[35:00] See, you heard the good news of Jesus and you said, yes, I want to follow Jesus. [35:04] I mean, if you’re a follower of Jesus, you heard the good news and your response was, uh-huh, I like that. [35:09] I want that.
[35:12] On that day, you may not have realized it, but you became a part of something that is bigger than you. [35:22] And the vision of God is calling you to live for it.
[35:28] Number three, reaching people means making disciples. [35:31] Reaching people means making disciples. [35:35] Look at verse 18. He says, all of this is from God. [35:40] And I love he says that because we like to pump the brakes and say, well, what about suppose it’s no. [35:47] All of this is from God. That is like the ultimate shut up. [35:52] Just stop questioning it. It’s from God.
[35:58] Who? Through Christ reconciled us to himself. [36:01] He’s repeating himself because we forget.
[36:07] And gave us again the ministry of reconciliation. [36:10] That is in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself. [36:14] It’s like Paul, this is getting redundant.
[36:17] But he knows that we’re going to have that inner lawyer telling us, but it needs to be about something else. [36:23] And so Paul keeps saying reconciliation, reconciliation, reconciliation. [36:27] He’s gospeling you, gospeling you, gospeling you, because he’s saying, do not move past the gospel.
[36:36] He’s reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. [36:45] Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. [36:48] God making his appeal through us. [36:50] We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
[37:00] Paul seems like he’s committed to something here.
[37:05] He seems like he’s trying to prove a point to us.
[37:09] And that point is, stop trying to rewrite the playbook.
[37:15] God designed one that’s good enough. [37:17] God designed one that is sufficient. [37:20] God has designed one that will change your life. [37:23] And God has designed one that will change the lives of every single person around you. [37:28] If you will buy into his vision more than you’ve bought into your own vision. [37:34] I mean, we get to bring people into the life of discipleship.
[37:41] So how do you define reaching people? [37:44] It doesn’t just mean coming to a Sunday service. [37:47] The goal is a person becoming a disciple. [37:50] And this is about connecting people to the life of God. [37:54] In Mark chapter 1 verse 17, I learned this in children’s church a long time ago. [38:00] Jesus told his disciples something that would transform the way they looked at their lives and their practices.
[38:06] He says, I will make you become fishers of men.
[38:18] Are you there? [38:19]
[38:22] Because that was day one of discipleship for the disciples.
[38:27] It was day one.
[38:31] Notice Jesus never said, all right, now that you figured out this fishers of men part, let’s move on to the bigger stuff.
[38:41] Now, because Jesus closed his message of what it meant to be fishers of men in Matthew 28, he says, go make disciples of all nations. [38:53] You know what that is? [38:55] That was Jesus’s way of saying, keep fishing.
[38:58] Keep fishing. [39:00] Keep fishing. [39:01] Never ever stop fishing. [39:04] Jesus told the disciples that they would become this, and that is our mission. [39:08] What are you bringing those people into, though, when you catch them, when you bring them in? [39:14] You must answer that vital question of how are you connecting those people to the life of God?
[39:20] And therefore we want people to become the final part, fully devoted followers of Jesus. [39:26] And my prayer is that when they come into this place, they would find devoted followers of Jesus. [39:33] I mean, this text in St. Corinthians five speaks of the reconciliation and then changes us into ambassadors for Christ. [39:41] That means we represent him to the world. [39:44] God speaking through a saying, be reconciled to God. [39:51] This isn’t just a message that comes once and then we’re done with it.
[39:55] No, this is something that comes into our life. [39:57] It invades our lives and it takes our entire lives captive to the gospel of Jesus Christ. [40:03] We disciple people to submit their lives to the worship of God and to serve him with their all.
[40:11] You will not have as much joy. [40:15] If you are not serving God as an ambassador of reconciliation, you just simply won’t. [40:21] A life lived through faith in Jesus is where joy is. [40:25] We were meant to live for God. [40:30] And understand that to make disciples, we must ourselves be disciples. [40:35] Our focus will be on the vision that God has for our lives.
[40:39] People who aren’t disciples, here’s what I want you to understand, don’t reach people.
[40:46] People who aren’t disciples don’t reach people. [40:48] People who are disciples reach people.
[40:51] You won’t find any alternative to that in the Bible. [40:55] You’ll find any alternative. [40:58] That’s how God defines what happens, what the outcome of real discipleship is. [41:03] And so we need to become more of disciples in order to reach people. [41:08] And discipleship begins with that term ministry. [41:12] It begins with service in the mission of God, in this ministry of reconciliation.
[41:18] You gotta look back, man. Some of y’all weren’t around. It was crazy. [41:22] When we started Village Church, we had a huge commitment from about 20 people. [41:30] From about 20 people. We were rubbing pennies together, man.
[41:36] And from a huge commitment, a high commitment. [41:40] I mean, people weren’t allowed back then to be like, man, that’s pretty early in the morning on Sundays. [41:45] I don’t know.
[41:47] You’re just like, you’re off the team, bro.
[41:51] There were no options. [41:53] We’re all we got.
[41:56] And so I was giving people talks. Everybody had a supervisory position back then. [42:01] They didn’t have anybody that was supervising. [42:04] But they were directors, man. [42:06] They were directors.
[42:08] Directors. I’m looking at one right there. He’s a director.
[42:16] Could you imagine? But here’s the thing. [42:18] 20 people. [42:20] And we’ll have hundreds here today.
[42:24] Could you imagine what God would do if there was a high commitment level from 400 people?
[42:32] Look at what God did with 20.
[42:35] What could he do with 400? [42:37] What could he do if my yes was on the table? [42:40] Instead of my sleepy is on the pillow.
[42:49] We… [42:50] That wasn’t in my notes.
[42:53] Sometimes I tell a joke and it gets me. [42:57] I’m a funny guy.
[43:01] If we have a location in Chester, here’s what I want you to understand. [43:05] It will greatly aid our members currently living in Chester to live the mission with a base closer to their neighbors. [43:14] It will. It will. [43:16] We need to plant a gospel witness through strategic outposts in more locations in this area. [43:23] It will spread out and be more convenient to more people to gather and hear the gospel. [43:30] It will be streamlined. It will be simple.
[43:32] It will be no bureaucratic tape to go through. [43:36] We can just reach people who will reach people. [43:39] And here’s the big key. [43:41] We are purposefully sending our best serve team members to Chester because we believe in church planting. [43:50] Therefore, understand we need more best serve team members in Midlothian. [43:57] Because we’re sending. We want to be a sending church.
[44:01] The most effective form of reaching people is church planting. [44:05] And that’s where discipleship is at. [44:07] And you need to catch a vision for your life as a disciple of Jesus Christ. [44:13] We are going to have to be creative and more fast-paced with our Sunday corporate gatherings [44:20] if we are going to get the gospel into the lives of more and more people.
[44:27] Whatever keeps you from serving here. [44:30] I want you to ask yourself the question. [44:33] Is the thing that keeps you from serving more something that gives God glory and helps you worship Jesus more?
[44:41] Is it?
[44:45] Healthy DNA replicates itself. [44:48] I’m not a doctor, but I’ve been to a doctor’s appointment before.
[44:53] And I think that’s true.
[44:56] Healthy DNA replicates itself. [44:58] That’s multiplication. [45:01] God designed the church to do the same thing. [45:06] It’s that simple. [45:07] If we are not replicating ourselves, we are not healthy.
[45:16] Just so there’s no confusion. [45:18] What I’m trying to say is that you need to be involved in this.
[45:23] I’m trying to make this so simple that there can be no confusion.
[45:27] I want you to help us plan a church in Chester by either getting more involved here
[45:35] or if you live close to Chester, becoming part of that and serving and giving your all there. [45:45] That is how Jesus will be worshiped in your life. [45:49] And there is not another way.
[45:56] As we transition into a time of communion,
[46:06] the plate represents the broken body of Jesus and the cup represents his shed blood.
[46:15] That’s the price that Jesus paid to establish his church.
[46:19] That’s the price.
[46:22] And so when we come, if you believe that we eat and we drink and we say, [46:29] Yes, Lord, the love of Christ controls me.
[46:35] When we walk out that door, it needs to control every moment of our lives.
[46:43] So maybe you’re in here and you might be saying, man, this is all new to me. [46:47] I just wanted to hear about Jesus this morning.
[46:51] Here’s what I want to tell you. [46:54] I want you to place your faith in Jesus Christ. [46:56] I do want you to turn from your sin. [46:58] I want you to believe the vision of the gospel of Jesus Christ so that it can save your life. [47:03] But full disclosure, you are entering into a new life of reconciliation. [47:08] And God wants you to obey him in Christ.
[47:13] If that’s you, turn from your wickedness, turn from your sin and trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. [47:18] But if you’re in here and you’ve trusted in Jesus Christ today, he’s calling you to stop playing around. [47:24] He’s calling you to put your yes on the table. [47:27] And he’s calling you to commit to a vision that is bigger than your own vision. [47:32] And he wants you to be a part of planting churches. [47:35] And we’re going to do it.
[47:38] Be a part of it.
[47:42] We exist to worship God. [47:45] That’s the table.
[47:48] When you come and you eat and drink, lay your yes on the table. [47:54] When you’re ready, come.