Vision - Part 2

Pastor Matt expands on our church vision.

"To build a passionate, faith-filled church that glorifies God, equips everyday believers to live Bible-based, Spirit-led lives, and reaches the world by making Christ-centred, fully devoted disciples." 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Take a seat. Are you ready to hear from God's word? I have a question for you. A pastor's allowed to wear short on Sunday morning. Is that allowed? Some of you are not sure. I know it's only about half a foot higher up here, but um it feels like it's wob. It's wam. I've been saying that all week to the kids at school. In it wam! In it wam. Um I don't know why, but there you go. We're right in the middle of our vision series, our little mini series about a vision, of our hearts for God's house here in the northeast of England. And uh and we're just believing. The Lord's gonna speak this morning. Will you open your hearts this morning to his word, to what he's saying to you? Come on, open your hearts. Have good open ears for the spirits whispering this morning, I pray. Because you never know what he might say in Jesus' name. Um have you ever had a beehag? A beehag. You know, you don't know what a beehag is? Um if you've never alright, a beehag is a big, hairy, audacious ghoul. Alright, uh, the phrase was coined originally, I think it was in 1991 in a book by Gary Chapman, um, which name I've lost now, but his second follow-up book is better than the first one. So um I would read that one first. Um that's called From Good to Great. The original is called Um Building Something. Anyway, great book. But he talks about one of the key things. It's a it's a financial kind of a book that tells the story of um companies that have kind of built something awesome, built to last, that's what it's called. And it goes through principles that they've been through, and one of those principles is that they've all shared a big, hairy, audacious goal. That means something that makes people go, oh, okay, that's what we're aiming for. Um I don't know if you've ever had a B HAG or something similar. I have. Um well, we do, we do have a big, hairy, audacious goal. But uh in a different season of my life, um I was uh I was into music production and DJing, and a big part of uh my time and energy went into um kind of producing, practicing, making music tracks. One of my big goals was to release music on a particular DJ's label. Um in the dance music world, it was it's a pretty big deal. This this guy is from the North Face, actually. Um pray for him all the time that you know I'll have the opportunity to share my faith with him. But um, but I achieved it. It was awesome. I managed to no, it's all right. Like I said, it's a it's a bit of a different life now ago. Um, but I had an amazing B Hag. Um and part of that, it kind of consumed me. It was a big part, like any time not at work um or doing family stuff was spent kind of with my headphones on making music. Um not music like this. Maybe one day I'll play it for you. Maybe I won't. Um but um that was my b-hag. It was a big, audacious, hairy, wow, massive goal, and I actually achieved it. And then at the end of once I achieved it, it was like, oh, what do I do now? But anyway, that's a total different story. Um we have a B HAG. Um, we explained a little bit about it last week. Um, we have a vision. Um, and I'm gonna show it to you in just a second if you missed it, if you've forgotten it, which most of you probably have. Um I've spent a little bit of time this week trying to memorize it. Um, but um we have a massive, exciting, extravagant goal, dream, a vision, a calling. Um, I believe that as Christians, everyone does. Um, you know, so ours is not just a pipe dream. We talked about this last week, didn't we? You know, vision isn't about, oh, that'd be nice. Oh, ooh, yes, we're dreaming of doing this and achieving this. No, no, no. Our vision uh for our church is built, it's bought out of its, it's birthed out of a desire, a belief that God is calling us to something. Okay, um, it's nothing, it's nothing that you haven't heard of before, I promise. But you know, he's calling us to be a church that glorifies him, yeah, yeah, to be a church that builds people up, and to be a church that reaches the world and makes disciples. It's as simple as that. It's kind of it's born out of um the great commandment, love the Lord your God with all your heart. Yeah? The great commission, go into the world, make disciples, and also one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, which is Ephesians 4, which talks about um the saints being built up into maturity. Um, so that's kind of where we're actually. Do you want to maybe pop it up, Jess? Is that all right? Here we are. To build a passionate, faith-filled church that glorifies God, equips everyday believers to live Bible-based, spirit-led lives, and reaches the world by making Christ-centered, fully devoted disciples. There's our Bhag. That's our dream, that's our vision. Everything we are, everything we attain to be, is wrapped up within that. Okay? Um, there's a whole long list of stuff that's maybe not necessarily obvious, but it'll fit in there somewhere, I promise you that. Um, but you know, our expression of that is all about that passion, that excitement, the enthusiasm, our diligence, how our dream, our faith to just be an amazing group, a community, a gathering of Christ-centered believers. I hope that excites you. I hope that um I can help paint a picture a little bit of you know what that can look like in your life and us together every single time we gather. Last week we looked at Nehemiah, well, we talked about um in chapter one. He realizes that the walls of Jerusalem are in tatters. Okay? Um, and and he he his heart breaks. We said he was pained, his heart was breaking for the cause, and that we should, our hearts should break for the cause. We we said he was prayerful. His first response was to pray and fast, get down on his knees and consult the Lord uh about this stuff. We said he was positioned, wasn't a mistake that he was the cupbearer to the king. He was positioned, and I believe that we are positioned, everything we need, and everything we're gonna need in the future is right here in front of us, and also he was prepared, he was willing to make the sacrifice. We pick the story up today. Um, we're gonna kind of, I'm gonna talk about, well, Nehemiah 1 all the way through to six. So I don't really have time to read it all. Um, so please, all right, go away and read Nehemiah 1 to 6. Incredible what God does. But yeah, so this is where we're kind of at in the story. Like I said, he hears about the walls, he's heartbroken, he prays and fasts. He then, interestingly, bides his time and waits for the perfect moment, and he speaks to the king. He travels to Jerusalem with the king's blessing, scopes out the walls, the work begins, they face some opposition, they face some financial issues, a little bit of argument in the camp, some more opposition. That bit doesn't sound so good, does it? And then the walls to the glory of God are completed. Amen. So you'll agree with me once you've gone away and read it this week. For me, it's a really interesting moment in this story. See, Nehemiah feels God's calling to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. The walls of the city are in tatters, and that's the glory of the city, that's the safety. The walls were important in those days, okay? He feels called, he has a passion, it's stirred in his heart, he wants to achieve great things, right? But then there's this amazing group of people, everyday people, who get on board. It's not just Nehemiah who's excited about it. They jump on board with a dream, they jump on board with a vision. See, they're inspired, they take ownership, they take action, and then they see the results. Amazing. In chapter three, there's this amazing list of all the different people who get involved, and I just wonder to myself, how on earth did they achieve it? We'll talk about it in a moment. There's just a list of all sorts of different types of people, but how did it go from calling vision, a dream, a passion to completion? They went from this calling to completion. Get this in just 52 days, the walls were rebuilt. 52 days, and I wonder how in just 52 days did they go from calling? Are we called? Are we called? Yeah, we're called to completion, to the results, to achieving the goal, seeing the vision take place. See, I looked closely and I realized that we share loads with this amazing group of people. A seemingly randomly hodgepodge thrown together group of people united under a single goal, a B Hag. Sharing these common values, values that I believe we can get on board with, that we we are on board with them. Should we talk about the hallmarks that saw them achieve to see the completion of the walls? Cool, all right. You know I love a list, all right? These people valued unity. Unity. See, Nehemiah didn't just hire a workforce in. These were everyday people. Hands up if you're an everyday person. I promise I am just an everyday person. Well, I love that. Normal people joining together for a cause that's bigger than themselves to make an amazing difference in the world. Do you see it? That's us united in unity. And they worked out their differences. Um at one point there's there's quite a lot of financial difficulties going on. Um, we'll talk about it in a moment, but they work it out. A group of people kind of go, yeah, do you know what? I'm wrong. I'm sorry. I've got it wrong. And they work it out together. Let's read. You know where I'm going. Some of you know where I'm going at least. This, I love this scripture. Psalm 133. How good and pleasant. Good and pleasant is it when God's people live together in unity. I don't know if if you've ever seen um a flock of birds flowing beautifully together. It's incredible, isn't it?

unknown 13:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

It's beautiful. And I believe that could be us. It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard of Aaron. Sorry, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron's beard, down on the collar of his robe. It is like the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there, you know what's coming. The Lord bestows a blessing, even life evermore. See, unity, that blessing flows down from heaven. Imagine oil poured on me, heed, flowing down me beard. And and the Jew of Mount Hermon. See, Mount Hermon was high, Mount Zion was lower, but the the loftiness of Herman supplied the needs of the Jew. Beautiful. Fancy a blessing? Shall we get our unity right? See, I don't believe that this group of people accidentally stumbled into unity. Unity is hard work. Unity takes the difficult conversation sometimes. But it's easier. I was gonna say it's easy. It's made easier when we share that common goal, uniting us all. Amen? I'm ready for some blessings, some unity blessing. Amen. They valued discipleship. Hey, this is this is awesome. Uh, I'm gonna jump throughout chapter three here. So, um, and forgive me, the names are really hard to pronounce. Um, Jediah, son of Harumath, made repairs opposite his house. Verse 23, beyond them Benjamin and Hashub made repairs in front of their house. And next to them, Azariah, son of Masaiah, sorry, the son of Aniah, made repairs beside his house. Twenty-eight. Above the horse gate, the priests made repairs, each in front of his own house. Next to them, Meshalem, son of Berakia, made repairs opposite his living quarters. The work started opposite their house. The dream fulfilled in their own living quarters, right on their doorsteps. It started at home for them. And I believe that these people took responsibility for themselves in Acts 2. This is awesome as well. Acts 2.42, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship of breaking bread and to prayer. See, Nehemiah didn't devote them in Acts. It wasn't Paul, it wasn't Peter who devoted them. Who devoted them? themselves. And and there's this picture here of the building of the walls starting at home. And the achievement of the goal, the completion of the dream beginning at home. I can't devote you to the Lord. You've got to do that for yourself. You know, making that time to read the word, finding the moment to put the worship music on and just sit in his presence at 5 a.m. in the front room with your arms raised. Sometimes I sometimes I jump outside of myself for a moment and I'm like, ee lord, is this weird? It's not, but you know what? Do you ever get there? And I wonder let's be people who take responsibility for our own hearts that we're dedicated to building our own and cultivating our own relationship with Him because it's only you can fully dedicate yourself to this. It starts at home. They devoted themselves to discipleship. Amen. You with me? They devoted themselves to mission. See, in chapter two, Nehemiah's scoping out the walls. He's working out, oh, what's the job at hand? God, you've called me to it, but I'm not sure how to go about this. And then in chapter three, the work starts, and I'm like, Lord, you missed out a really important part of the story there for me. How do we do that? How do we go from knowing the job at hand to the work really starting and 52 days it's done? And I just prayed, I said, Lord, what's going on here? And it just, there's no way that Nehemiah went and knocked on everyone's door. There's no way I'm rebuilding the walls, you fancy joining. We need to rebuild the walls. And he wasn't the first. There's no way Nehemiah went and asked everyone. I just imagine this snowball effect out of control. Him just stood there going, Oh, you weren't here yesterday. Why? Because people took responsibility for the mission. Alright? So here I am again asking you to take responsibility for the mission. If you hate me banging on about our biblical mandate to go, Soz, it's going nowhere. Alright, that's our calling. That's the mission. Let's go. See, it's our responsibility to go and make it happen. I reckon each one said to their pals, have you seen what he's doing down the road? Should we jump on board? Come on, we can do this. And it burnt in their hearts. They caught the vision and they went for it. See, we want to reach the world by making disciples. But I can't reach Simon's world. If you've ever talked to Simon about what he does for a living, I mean it's above my level of thinking, but it's incredible. But I can't go down in a SETI. Imagine if I did. You'd be knocking at, you'd be going, oh, where's your safety hat? No. But I can't go into Rob's world. Only you can go. And I've talked about this, you know, the evangelism, the evangelist visits, the mission trips, the events, they're coming in time. But it starts with you. And I'm not making an apology for that. Yesterday. Like Judith said earlier, you stole my thunder. In about two hours of being out of the house, I think we we clocked about two and two, no, it was three to four conversations with people in Prada, where we live on our doorstep, where we were just either able to say, E man, I'm praying for you. Or what are you doing in the morning? I think the church would really help you out. And if we can do it, then we can all do it. Amen? But it's made easier when your heart is stirred and you've got a BHAG, you've got a vision burning in your heart. It just becomes easier. They valued servanthood. Chapter three lists all these different types of people involved. The priests, well, you'd think so, right? The politicians, skilled workers, traders, families, the perfume makers. The perfume makers got their hands dirty. Wow. Even the perfume makers. See, when I maybe I'm wrong, but when I think of perfume makers, I just think, oh, isn't that nice? But they got their hands dirty rebuilding the walls. It didn't really matter who they were. The politicians, the priests, they got stuck in. The goldsmiths got stuck in. Over the years, I've um I've served alongside some pretty awesome people. Um countless doctors. Sunday night stacking chairs, Monday morning. Surgery on babies inside the womb to save their lives. Um in a previous church, there was a a couple, he worked so far, maybe I shouldn't say this, in some sort of high-level MOD thing. Sunday night in church, Monday morning, centre of London. And his his wife was like some sort of um what's the word? Advisor to the government. Sunday morning in church, Monday morning in uh in Whitehall, making some big decisions, and and I say all of that, you know, these people got their hands dirty. Wall building is messy work, it's it's rubble work, yeah. Okay, and that's kind of what we're called to here. But when you catch the vision, you can't help but contribute. See, horse team, we've got an amazing horse team. It's not just about moving chairs around and welcoming people. That's an amazing part of the job, isn't it? But it's about building people, yeah. Jess and Fiona, who facilitate so much of what we do with our screens, it's not just about getting in early and putting screens up, it's glorifying God. I don't know about you, but without the lyrics, I'd be lost. Marissa doesn't just post on social media, that's her going into the world. Caroline's not just cleaning because she likes cleaning. Right? She's caught, she's got a heart devoted to a cause, and and having to do the stuff we don't want to do, it's made so much easier when we've caught the vision, when we've when we're on board. Um, I need to speed up. They valued generosity. In chapter five, there were these financial uh issues, okay? Essentially, a group of people were ripping off another group of people. They sorted it out. That takes unity, remember? But some of them were struggling financially. See, I can't help but think if you're busy building walls in Jerusalem, you can't be tending to your farm. If you're a perfume maker and you're building walls, you're not making money off the perfume that you're not making because you're not making it. These people made a financial sacrifice. They gave up their time, they gave up their skill sets for God's kingdom, for God's glory, to see the vision accomplished. Nehemiah gave up his, he just simply refused his food allowances. He was governor and just I don't need that. Hearts given over to a cause. It's so easy to make sacrifices. They took financial risk for the sake of seeing the vision accomplished. See, I want us to be a church that gives not because we have to, because we've always given, because someone gets up here and tugs on our heartstrings every week, but because we're sold out to see his kingdom built. That's that's the generosity I would love to see. And we do see they valued faith. See, there's one thing giving up your time, giving up the skills, giving up resources, even making that financial risk. But these people were risking their lives, all right? They were under threat of attack, working one-handedly with another hand on their weapon. See, you don't do that. Work under constant threat of attack unless you are sold-out big faith kind of people. I believe we can make this happen. I believe we're gonna see the walls rebuilt. I believe we're gonna see this. Do you know what? It's not no mistake. It's now. Nehemiah said it. Let's go. That takes faith. To do all of that knowing that at any moment you might be attacked by an enemy, by the opposition. That takes big faith. And we need to believe that he's called us. See, Judith and I have a firm belief that he's called us to this. And we're desperate to see you guys jump on board with that because that's what'll make you get out of bed on a Sunday morning for a seven, dare I say, six a.m. call time to lug things around, to put the effort in, to give financially above and beyond, to do the things that he's calling us to. It's gonna take big faith. Come on, there might be some stupid things that we're gonna do in the future, but let's do it in faith, believe in that God's got this, that he's with us, that it's his calling that we're signed up to here. Amen. Um, I always try um to give us a call to action, something that we can take away from each Sunday. All right, and you can go away and pray and think, or you can go away and put it into place. And today I've got two things just for you to think about. I want you afresh to ask God how you can play your part in this. See, there was an army of everyday believers sold out to see the walls rebuilt. I wonder if you've got a part to play. Lord, if we've got a part to play, and if you're just if you're speaking to people now, will you make it clear? Will you make it clear, Lord? Secondly, I want you to just think about, remember these things that these people valued? I want you to think about which one do you need to embrace? Or re-embrace? Which one just needs some attention? Because, like I said earlier, we share so much with this group of people. Um these were the things that made them who they are, right? They were devoted to a cause, united under common values. Would you like to see our common values, our hallmarks, the things that make us here at the Gate Church? We've got a list. Would you like another list? These are the things that we say we value. We value this stuff. Spoiler alert. It's exactly the same list. Let me read this to you. These are our hallmarks. We might call them our core values. These are the things that we share and we value. This is what shapes us to be who we are. Unity. We believe in a God-given bond that draws us together. We are a people united in mindset, purpose, expression, and love. We choose unity, togetherness over almost everything. Hard conversations happen, they are prioritized over the status quo, and we honor one another at all times. Gossip doesn't happen here. We hold up people's futures always. We live our lives in community and value the importance of fun. Discipleship. We are passionate followers of Christ first and foremost. Intimacy with Christ is a given. We make our habit to worship, pray, read his word, and grow in him a daily priority. We take responsibility to help people grow to be the best they can be in every area of their lives. We expectantly grow and relentlessly build each other. Generosity. Our default setting is to joyfully give. We count the cost and do it anywhere. We don't hoard what God has given us. We purposefully share our gifts, talents, time, and finance to further his kingdom. Servanthood. We enthusiastically and selflessly devote ourselves to the cause of Christ, his kingdom, and to the local church. Hard work is a privilege that we enjoy, not endure. In faith, we relish the sacrifice and always think of others first. We serve our local community out of love, seeking to build others up over our own platform. We ask, what can I bring rather than what's in it for me? We serve hard and Sabbath hard. Mission. We understand and prioritize our biblical mandate to go. Sharing the wonderful gift that God has given us is our daily motivation. Our everyday lives are our daily mission field. Our friends, family, and neighbors are the harvest we are called to, and we never miss an opportunity to share the gospel. We are devoted to global mission and strategically and generously give to mobilize the preaching of the gospel beyond our locality. Faith. We take risks, believe for more, expect a better future, look forward to God-given increase. We see the breakthrough before it happens and trust God, no matter what, when times get tough, we refuse to become stagnant in our belief that God can and will make a difference in the lives of the people in our community and those connected to it. See, we've got a mission, we've got a BHAG, we've got a vision, we've got a calling to glorify God, to build up people, and to go and make disciples. But this is the stuff that shapes us. That's who we are. And there's more to it. But that's the stuff I feel is on our hearts. That's the stuff that's gonna build us. That's the stuff that's gonna shape us. That's our values, that's the hallmarks, the core beliefs that we stand firm on that's gonna shape who we are in this community. I hope you can get on board with it. I hope you can get on board with it. Let's pray, God. We honor you. We bless you, God. We thank you, God, that you are shaping us, calling us to be uh your people. That we're growing, that you're building us up, God, that you've got big things planned ahead for this community, God, and we wanna we just want to play our part, Lord. Lord, we want to step into what it is you're calling us to, God. Lord, that we can glorify you, that we can build people up, that we can go and make disciples, Lord, that we can glorify you, that we can build each other up, that we can build people up, Lord, and we can go and make disciples, God. Father, I pray that you'll place it on our hearts. Holy Spirit, will you place the vision, the calling, the dream, the goal? Will you place it on our hearts? Let it burn. God, let it motivate our very beings to change, to grow, to develop, to sacrifice, to give, to go above and beyond, to realize that we are just everyday people. But when we unite under a common goal, God, that there's nothing you can't do. Lord, we recognize, God, that it's you building your church. And we, God, we ask, will you build your house? Will you grow your kingdom? Lord, will you use us? Father, and we dedicate our lives now to be people of unity, to be people that value discipleship, to be people of faith, of servanthood, missional people that generously give to see your kingdom built, God. We consecrate ourselves again in your presence, God. Set us apart for this. Stir it in our hearts, God. We pray. In Jesus' name.

unknown 38:54

Amen.