Vision - Part 3

Pastor Matt expands on our church vision, asking "are you passionate for Jesus?"

"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

This is sermon number three of our mini series, all about vision, the vision that we've got for this house. I asked you guys back in, I think it was back in December. It might have been back in January. Either way, it was super early on in Judith and I taking over, pastoring this house, and what a privilege it is and continues to be. We love being your pastors. We we asked that you give us just a bit of space and a bit of time to kind of work this stuff out. And a couple of weeks ago, yeah, I uh I kind of put it out there a stake in the ground. Um, this is our vision statement. Does anyone know it off by heart yet?

unknown 0:42

No.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Oh. That's okay. But did you notice there is a little expectation that this should be, even if we don't know it word for word, should be on our hearts. It should be on our lips. We should be, on some level, able to communicate who we are and what we're about as a church. Amen. So, um, you know, let this be something that we live for. Come on, I'm gonna read it to you again. Here we go. To build a passionate, everyone say a passionate, faith-filled church that's let's read it together now. Okay, one second. 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. Come on. Um, and I'll say this now. Um, some of this stuff and some of what I'm about to talk about, it's firmly established in this house. This house has got a wonderful, wonderful history. You know, we honor the past, but we're excited for the future, amen. So um, we also then last it wasn't last week because Judith preached, you should listen back, it was awesome. Um, but we also spoke about two weeks ago, we spoke about what I'm coining as our core values, the hallmarks, what makes us us. When the people of this part of the world meet someone from our church, I want them to, even if they can't put words to it, think this stuff. Okay? So, firstly, unity. Let me read this to you. This is just something that was on my heart as I thought about this a couple of weeks back. We believe in a God-given bond that draws us together. We are a people united in mindset, purpose, expression, and love. We choose together over almost everything. Hard conversations are prioritized over keeping the status quo, and we honor one another at all times. Gossip doesn't happen here, and we hold up people's futures always. We live our lives in community and in and value the importance of fun. Sounds good, that doesn't it? Number two, discipleship. We are passionate followers of Christ first. 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 grow people to be the best they can be in every area of their lives. We expectantly grow and relentlessly build each other. Number three is 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 a 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. Servanthood. We enthusiastically and helplessly devote ourselves to the cause of Christ, his kingdom, and the local church. Kingdom craft is a privilege we enjoy, not endure. I thought I'd throw a little northeast phrase in there, is that right? 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 we sabbath hard. Generosity. Our default setting is to joyfully give. I love that. Giving, overflowing as a life of worship. We count the cost and we do it anyway in faith. We don't hoard what God has given us. We purposely share our gifts, our talents, our time, and our finance to further His kingdom. Last one. Faith. Big faith. We take risks, we believe for more, we expect a better future and look forward to God-given increase. We see the breakthrough before it happens and trust in 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 we are connected to. Can you see it? Can you see it? I can't help but get excited. Um, and and this, like I said, some of this stuff is firmly established in our church, and I love that. But some of it is a bit like I can see it, it's coming, it's there, it's within reach. And that there, that belief, is faith, isn't it? So I want to talk to you this morning about passion, because we're a passionate church. So are you ready to be challenged? People say, How are you getting on with preaching now? You're a pastor, Matt. And I say, I say, um, the hardest things is that I can't, I can't not bring a challenge, and I feel a bit guilty sometimes, but then at the same time, I'm living in who I believe God has called me to be. So if you feel challenged this morning, uh don't hate me. Ask the Holy Spirit, is it a challenge from you? You know, seek God on this stuff. Amen. I hope you've not just come to hear just a nice word. Who wants to grow? I'm desperate. Hey, come on. So I have a question this morning for you to think about. What would you say? What would you do? What would you think if I told you that you're not passionate enough? Would you be shocked? Would you be offended? Maybe you'd storm off. Maybe you'd be calling for my resignation. I hope not. The truth is you are not passionate enough about Jesus, his kingdom, and his house. It's a bit like Thomas Tuchel last night when he got off, got uh the match finished and we won, and it was great. I didn't stay up late, I promise. But he said, you weren't good enough. They weren't good enough. Like our passion level isn't enough, church. The truth is, and some of you cotton onto this immediately. It never can be. Maybe maybe you're passionate about sport. Um, I heard that one of us stayed up and watched the other match that was on last night as well. That person is not here. Um, anyway. Maybe you're passionate about your favorite TV show, hobbies, maybe your family, maybe your home. You know, these are things that we can get passionate about, aren't they? They're all good things. I wonder who the most passionate person you know is. Maybe it's me. I hope so. They're not passionate enough either. Uh I had a friend called Stephen. Um, met him about 20 years ago now. He is the kindest person I know. He makes Angela look like normal. You know, like Angela's like, she's so kind, isn't she? Bless her. Stephen made Angela, Angela's got nothing on Stephen. He constantly spoke about Jesus and not just church, but Jesus. He led with gentleness. And if you walked away from a conversation with Stephen, you just knew that he loved the Lord. But even he wasn't passionate enough. I look around our church and I see passionate people. I see Annabelle singing with everything she's got, and I see Brian. Diligent in the way he serves. Um, but I'm not necessarily talking about loud over-the-top passion. Um, although I do believe we're called to that. Um it might be inward, it might be expressed in a different way, but and I don't mean offense when I say this, you're not passionate enough. You're not passionate enough when we think of what Christ has done for us, from what we have been saved, our hearts should burn in our chest with love for Jesus. Amen. Um, I am gonna read from the Bible, don't worry. Um, this is um Luke 7, 36 to 43. When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisees' house and reclined at a table. I love that. I love that. Just imagine Jesus chilling out. I love that. There's something in that for me. It's one of those ones that's jumped out at me. But I don't know if that's for you, so I'm gonna go back to that this week. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life. Anyone lived a sinful life? She learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisees' house. So she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. An alabaster jar is a fully sealed, precious, expensive jar. Um, they say it was worth an absolute fortune, a year's wage, of perfume. Nard. And uh and the thing about an alabaster jar is once it's broken, it's broken. It's poured out. You've got to do it in one go. There's no holding back with an alabaster jar. It's not just a little bit, ah, just a little bit. Just a little bit. That'll do. That'll do. Alabaster jars require all. As she stood behind him at his feet, weeping. Weeping. She meant business. Hey, there was no holding back here. Um don't ever be afraid to weep at his feet, guys. Come on. She began to wet his feet with her tears. Imagine how how passionate is that, how personal is that? How intimate is that? She wiped them with her hair. She kissed them. She kissed his feet and poured perfume on them. Get this. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, it's good when you have little thoughts in your own brain, isn't it? I don't know about you, but I do this quite a lot. I have a little think in my brain. I might I might think something controversial. I might think something that I definitely shouldn't say out loud. Unfortunately, me being me, sometimes I do say it out loud. But um what's interesting here is he was saying to himself, if this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is, that she is a sinner. See, he's questioning who Jesus is. He what he didn't know. He didn't know. If anything, he wasn't it wasn't even questioning that Jesus was a son of God, he was questioning that he even was a prophet. He said, I can't be a prophet, this guy, because he'd know. Everyone knows, everyone knows what she's done. And I just wonder how many times are we having those thoughts in our lives thinking of whether you know little chunters. My mum calls it a chunter. Do you know what I mean? Jesus said to him, Simon, I have something to tell you. Imagine Jesus saying that to you. How amazing would that be? Tell me, teacher, he said. Two people owed money to a certain money lender, one owed him five 500 denarii and another 50. Neither of them had money to pay him back. So he forgave the debts of both. Now, which of them will love him more? Simon replied, I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven. I wonder who you are in this story. Are you Simon the Pharisee? Or are you the woman with the jaw? See, Simon didn't give honour where it was due. He questioned motives. He was hung up on this woman's past and valued keeping up appearances. I think that's the main thing that Jesus had beef with, wasn't it, with the Pharisees was that they they were all about what people thought, keeping the status quo. Simon's focus was on the woman and what she was doing rather than Jesus. I wonder how often, and Jesus uh Judith spoke about this last week, didn't she? I wonder how often do we do that? Do we focus on something outward? Yeah, focus on what's going on rather than let's just give Jesus our full attention. See, the woman, she loved Jesus, she was completely focused. This is like it comes across as obsessional behavior, doesn't it? She honored him and passionately, extravagantly brought her personal worship to the feet of the King of Kings without a thought for the crowd, for the status quo, without a thought for rocking up at some important bloke's house and bringing her offering. She brought an expensive sacrifice that cost her an absolute fortune. Oh Lord, make us like the woman where we've been like Simon the Pharisee, Lord. Will you break our hearts to repent and move forward, God? See, part of my role as your pastor is to kind of assess the spiritual state of the flock. Sounds good that, doesn't it? It's pretty scary. We take it very seriously. Um, and I think that when we compare ourselves to the woman with the jaw, I think we've all got, and me too, we've got some work to do. Amen. When it comes to passionate expressions of worship, she's wiping Jesus' feet with her hair and her tears, probably his dirty feet, because it goes on to say that Simon didn't give him any water. She's passionately at his feet, wiping his feet, kissing his feet, using her hair, that personal overflowing of worship. And it takes us a couple of songs to get going sometimes on a Sunday morning. Do you know what I mean? Get the fast ones out of the way. We'll join in with the slow ones in a minute. I don't know. If that passion truly burnt in our heart, the same passion that the woman with the alabaster jaw hard, I don't know, I think we'd be good to go. You don't need us to crank you up. Not that we even try to, but we come ready to go. Just imagine for a session, second, close your eyes. Imagine a church overflowing with this kind of passion for Jesus. More than happy, ready, raring to go to express that passion, unable to hold back love and thankfulness to the one who saved them. See, I wonder what that church would look like. I wonder what we would see in that church. See, I reckon their times of corporate worship on a Sunday morning would be incredible. Not dependent on what songs are on the list, the size of the worship team, how good the worship team is in how good the worship leader is at encouraging, which worship leader it is, I don't know. But every single week there would be a loud, uncontrollably joyful celebration of God's goodness. It would be a powerful demonstration and declaration of praise to the creator of the universe. And an intense, just like the woman's seemingly over-the-top devotion and love for Jesus. Worship that focused on God, on Jesus. Nothing else. Not the songs, the volume, not our preferences, not whether we said it right or played the wrong chords, and we we played a few wrong chords this morning. That church would be they would they'd take the commandment to sing, to clap their hands, to raise their hands, to shout and to dance seriously. That is the sort of passionate church that I cannot wait to be part of. We're not there yet, are we? But we've got a little distance to go. See, a church overflowing with passion for Jesus, it would have a distinct lack of apathy. See, apathy exists when people become content with the status quo. Simon, he didn't give Jesus when he arrived at his house any water to wash his feet. See, that sounds like familiarity to me. He was happy to come into the presence of Jesus and not serve him. A church overflowing with passion wouldn't have to recruit people to get stuff done. A team would be fully stocked with willing, excited, servant-hearted volunteers desperate to build this house. I reckon people would arrive on time. Wouldn't they? I reckon they'd arrive early. To set the culture in the room. To see if there's anything any prayer needs. I reckon a church fully overflowing. Properly alabaster jar style, passionate church. I reckon attendance would be up. Not only is this church growing, but its members would prioritize being in the room. I'm reminded of Psalm 84. Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere. I'm not talking about coming to church religiously out of compulsion because I always have, or because that's what I should do, or what will people think? But coming into God's house because they cannot not be there because they love to be with Jesus. See it. I don't want to miss a gathering. Judith's gutted not to be here. She's heartbroken. I can't I don't want to miss a Sunday. I love being in God's house. Don't get me wrong. Holidays are lush. I love a holiday, right? In fact, they're necessary. Everyone go and have a holiday. Maybe not all at the same time. That would be tricky. But you know, and if you're ill, stay away, please. Like, stay away. But Hebrews 10 says, let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do. Some people do. Encourage one another. Hey, where we? We missed you Sunday. Especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. I think a church overflowing with passion, its groups would be full. Connect groups, house groups, life groups, whatever you want to call them. They'd be full. Because meeting together, gathering would be a priority. In Acts 2, they met together daily. See, we love groups. Groups are another opportunity to get together and worship. They're another opportunity to sit next to my brother and my sister and tell them about Jesus. It's to encourage them, it's to build them up. It's, you know, if someone's struggling with something, I can get my arm around them and say, come on, you've got this, I believe in you. You know, if someone does understand something in the scripture, I can go, hey, I I've looked at it this way. The togetherness that occurs in groups when people come passionately ready to say, What can I bring to the table? Not just what's in it for me. I think that the groups in that church would be overflowing. It would be full of new disciples. This church, full of passion, would be full of new disciples because the congregation, the people have taken their role of sharing the gospel seriously. Yesterday, I uh I met an amazing who who takes their rubbish to the tip down at Prada? Yeah? If you do, try and have a conversation with the two blokes. There's three of them, but try and have a little conversation because they're primed, because I was down there yesterday, looking them in the eye, going, Yeah, mate, Jesus loves you. And I don't say that to big me up, I promise you that. But I wonder, when was the last time you looked someone in the eye and told them the gospel, shared with them the good news? Maybe it was recently, maybe it was a little bit longer. We have a biblical mandate to go. Just imagine. Just imagine if those people you're praying for, if you were bold and you stepped out and you said, You went, you just went for it, and they turned round and said, Yeah, man, I'm up for that. And you brought them to church the next next week. But like three other people had done the same thing. How amazing would that be? Come on, I'm excited. Um, prayers would be answered, not just because Judith and I prayed, but because the hearts of the community break for their brothers and sisters' needs, and they respond in crying out to God, but not just in prayer. That passionate community responds practically, helping each other out. And I'm not just talking about cooking some meals either. Like, what can we do to help? Not just asking the question, but actually doing it, right? But all of that comes out of a passion for Jesus. Don't do any of that stuff because you feel compelled by me or because Matt preached a good message, but do it out of a love for Christ. See, when I talk about a passionate church, this is what I see. I always stand here and say, this is what I see, because I look at the door and I can imagine people just entering, just coming in. It's gonna happen. In Jesus' name. It's what God's God's calling us to, and in fact, dare I prophesy it, we will be that passionate church. Can you see it? A house filled with passion and love and excitement, a church that's desperate to please God and see people saved and grow in their relationship with Him. I think maybe, church, it's time to level up our passion. Because we're called to more than mediocre, we're called to more than lukewarm. Come on, close your eyes. Let's get serious with the Holy Spirit for a minute. Father, Holy Spirit, will you will you drop in our hearts now where we need to rededicate ourselves, consecrate ourselves, devote our hearts to you afresh. Holy Spirit, help us to understand and help us and empower us to fall down at your feet or kiss your feet, Jesus, to wipe away at your feet with our tears, with our hair, a passionate overflow of worship out of thankfulness for what you've done for us. Church, I wonder, what is your alabaster jaw? What is it that you are maybe holding on to that when you pour it out, when you break it, there ain't no going back. What is your alabaster jaw? Because I believe he's calling you to a next level of passion, a next level of pouring out in worship and glory to his name. I don't know. I don't know what yours is, but I know what mine is. And I'm gonna dedicate my heart this week and moving forward to working on that. Maybe your alabaster jar is raising your hands in worship because you've never done it before, or you used to do it, but you stopped for some reason. Maybe it's finding a little bit of time, making the sacrifice, and saying, Yeah, I want to serve in God's house. Maybe it's maybe it's joining that group. Maybe it's getting stuck in to reading the word again like you used to. Maybe your alabaster jar is confessing sin. Maybe it's asking someone for some help. It could just be as simple as repenting of sin. Repenting of the the attitude that Simon had. Because he would think in his heart, maybe you need to forgive someone. Maybe you need to change your attitude. Come on, let's pray. Holy Spirit, will you make us a passionate people? Stir it in our hearts. Put a fire in our belly, Lord. We don't just want to go through life being the type of Christians that go to church, do what they do through the week, and then go to church. We want to be sold out fully for your kingdom. We want to be passionate about what you're passionate about. We want to have hearts fully devoted to loving you and to building your kingdom. Will you help us, Lord? In Jesus' name. Amen.