Preparing To Build - 1

Preparing to Build

Part 1

Today we begin a brand new series entitled, PREPARING TO BUILD, SEEING THE VISION, LIVING THE DREAM. Last week we talked about our vision as a church. We talked about where we are heading, what we are dreaming. What we are trusting God for in the days to come.

We firmly believe in the vision that God has set before us. Why? Because that vision results in people coming to know the Lord. People who have no hope…finding hope in the cross.

Remember this:

Churches that are not evangelistic, will eventually cease to be evangelical! Put another way: Churches that are not intentional about winning people to Jesus, will intentionally send people to hell! Our purpose must be our Priority.

That is our mission, our passion. This week, I’ve been reading John Maxwell’s book, TALENT IS NEVER ENOUGH. This is a powerful book that talks about what is really needed to accomplish all that God wants you to accomplish. In the 2nd chapter, there is a quote that is so true…

“A passionate person with limited talent will outperform a passive person who possesses far greater talent every time. Why? Because passionate people act with boundless enthusiasm, and they just keep on going! Talent plus passion energizes.”

How true those words are. How many times have you seen people with what seemed to be incredible talent, but they never fully realized their potential because they lacked passion?

You and I may not be the most talented people around, but if we have passion…boundless enthusiasm…we can accomplish unbelievable things for God. We must have passion!

That is what this sermon series is all about. Passion for building, passion for reaching, passion for helping. It’s all about passion!

Last week, I listed out some of the vision for our church in the next five years. This vision wasn’t something that I jotted down in a few minutes while preparing my sermon.

This vision is something that we’ve talked about for quite some time. Dad talked about it with me, and others on our staff, for quite some time.

You see, these goals that we talked about last Sunday, have been prayed about and prayed over. They’ve been dreamed about. They’ve been lifted up to God over the past year. Trusting Him to deliver them to us.

This vision is where God wants us to go as a church. And our passion, with God’s power, is what will make them happen!

Let me briefly share that vision with you again.

1) We have a dream of seeing 5000 local salvation decisions as a result of this local church!

2) We have a dream of seeing the attendance of this church double in the next 5 years!

3) We have a dream of adding 5000 additional people in our Sunday School programs!

4) We have a dream of baptizing 500 each year from now on!

5) We have a dream, in partnership with Liberty’s School of Religion and Liberty Seminary of planting 500 churches in the next five years!

6) We have a dream of sending 500 missionaries in the next five years!

7) We have a dream of sending 500 of our church members on various short term missions trips!

8) We have a dream of having 5000 of our members, of you, involved as lay ministers. Meeting the needs of our members, meeting the needs of our community, feeding the hungry, providing shelter to the homeless, helping the less fortunate, and letting the world see Christ within us!

This is the vision. And as I said last week, this is a God-sized vision, God-sized dreams. AND GOD SIZED DREAMS ALWAYS TAKES GOD SIZED FAITH WHICH ALWAYS PRODUCES GOD SIZED MIRACLES!

There is a biblical principle involved here: If a dream is not bigger than our ability…then we will attempt to do it in the flesh-- These goals are SO LARGE that it will take a people committed, and a God that promises to provide!

And so, we have our vision, we know we need to be passionate about it. We know we must pray over it. We know we must commit to it. But the question is…HOW DO WE DO IT? How do we take our passion, take our vision, and make it a reality? How do we put feet to our dreams?

You’ve probably been wondering in the past few minutes, WHY IN THE WORLD IS THERE A PILE OF DIRT ON THE STAGE? Are we planting a garden on the stage? Did someone sweep all of the dirt in the building to one spot and forget to take it out?

This pile of dirt is where we start our journey. This pile of soil represents our church today as we begin this five year journey into our vision. You see, SOIL IS A VALUABLE RESOURCE.