“The Road Ahead”
January 20, 2008
One of the things I used to like about living in Hawthorne, Nevada, was the view. You could see for miles and miles in any direction. Most days, even in the winter, were clear and the air was without pollutants, so when you were 30 or forty miles from home – you could see the lights of the town. Way off there in the distance – the lights came into view – and you knew you were almost home. Sometimes we would be coming back from Reno, 135 miles from Hawthorne, and the kids would be tired and wanting to get home. They would ask, “Are we there yet?” And when we were 35 mile from home, and dipping down into the little community of Schurz, I would point out the lights and say, “See? There are the lights of home. We are almost there.”
It’s kind of like that in our world, isn’t it? We can see up ahead. It’s pretty clear that we don’t have a lot of time left. Jesus was asked a very important question concerning the end times by the disciples. They asked,
"Tell us," they said, "… what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" Matthew 24:3
Jesus begins to tell them what the end times will be like, then says:
"Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door.” Matthew 24:32-33
Jesus said that no man knows the day or the hour – but He also said we can know the season. We can see up ahead and see the lights of glory coming. As you read any newspaper or watch the nightly news, it becomes pretty apparent that we are in the end times. We are in the season. I don’t know about you – but I want to be ready. A lot of people don’t want to know when the end is coming. Even in old age, they ignore the certainty of their death. At my age, I figure, if I am blessed, I might have 20 more years of ministry left in me. Or I might have only this day. Whatever the case may be – I want to end well, don’t you? I want the best to be last. I don’t want to falter or fail at the end. I can see up ahead – and I can see the lights of glory.
That is true of this church, too. Some people believe the end of time will be in 2012. Some place the end before that – some a little later. Most people can see the light off in the distance. They just haven’t figured out how far away it is yet.
So what are we to do? I remember one of my professors in college saying, “Live like Jesus is coming today. Prepare as if He isn’t coming in your lifetime”. What that means is that we need to be spiritually ready for Jesus to come today. Our hearts needs to be pure and our actions holy. On the other hand, don’t sell everything you have and go wait on a hill for Him – like some people have done. We may have the time frame wrong –so we need to make wise decisions for the future. We need to be prepared if He doesn’t come right away and we need to be prepared if He does come. Plan for retirement. Prepare for the future. Act as if we have a lot of time when it comes to decision making.
The Church board and I have to consider those things. If Christ is coming today or tomorrow or next week – we don’t need to worry about getting that furnace for the fellowship hall. We don’t have to have a plan of action for ministry or for maintaining our church. But if we are just at the beginning of the season – we will be in trouble if we aren’t prepared for a long season.
So what can we do? We see the lights of glory off there in the distance. How should we live? How should we act? Let me tell you some things we are doing to prepare.
First of all, we have a purpose. How many know what that purpose is? Our purpose is to “Bring CHRIST to the community.” I love our purpose statement. It is so simple anyone can understand it. Even a child can comprehend bringing Christ to the community and have a part in fulfilling it. But WAIT! There’s more. CHRIST is an acrostic.
C – Church purpose is:
H – Help others come to Christ
R – Rejoice in worship
I – Inspire & encourage in fellowship
S – Serve and equip to minister
T – Teach Christlikeness
Do you understand that our purpose is five fold? Every healthy church needs to be doing all five of these things – not just one or two. In the past, we have done well at one or two or even three of these things. But to be a healthy, vibrant, growing church we need to be evangelistic, worshippers of Christ, have great fellowship with one another, equip each member to find and fulfill his own ministry in the body and we need to teach everyone to become more and more Christlike. If we can do these things we will accomplish our purpose and fulfill the reason we are here. When Christ comes, whether it’s 2008 or 3008, I hope He finds us accomplishing our purpose of being here. And if we accomplish our purpose, (if the Lord tarries) we will still be here in 3008. You and I won’t – but our church will and our spiritual grandchildren will.
The wise man said,
“Where there is no vision, the people perish…” Proverbs 29:18
It is important to have a purpose. Without purpose life is aimless and empty and meaningless. You have to have a purpose. But you also need a vision. Our church has a vision for the future. It is:
Vision Statement: “We dream of hundreds of members who have committed themselves to the MATURITY COVENANT: “having a daily time with God, giving a weekly tithe to God, and participating in a weekly small group for God”.
We dream of a network of small groups within our church providing support, encouragement, and accountability to our members as they seek to grow in Christ likeness. These groups will continue to be led by trained lay pastors and leaders who lovingly lead, feed, and care for them.
We dream of our midweek believers’ service involving adults, children and youth who are involved in a small-group fellowship that offers a balanced program for building character, knowledge, perspective, conviction, and life development skills such as parenting classes, anger management, breaking destructive habits, etc.
We dream of a team of gifted lay teachers who are equipped with the vision, character, knowledge, and expertise to feed our flock.
We dream of a life development process that leads our children and youth to love Jesus and His Church, grow spiritually, discover their ministry and understand their life mission in the world.
We dream of Abundant Life as a model of Christian Education that focuses on life change, not just knowledge. We dream of a family of God loving each other and enjoying live together as they effectively build His Kingdom.
The goal of this vision is to bring glory to God by presenting Jesus with as many Christ like disciples as we possibly can before He returns. (Col. 1:28)
Have we accomplished this vision? No. Not yet. But we see what we need to do and where we need to go. We have dreams. And why not dream big? Why not pray for these things and work toward them. Any activity or anything that doesn’t help us accomplish out vision we need to eliminate. Any thing that detracts or discourages or hinders our vision – we need to toss. But those things that help us accomplish or that bring us closer to our vision for this church – we need to promote and encourage.
We have a purpose. We have a vision. And (3) we have a plan. I call the plan “Take that Mountain”! Remember when the children of Israel were entering the Promised Land? Caleb and Joshua were the only two of the twelve in the recon patrol that had the faith to believe they could go and take the land. After all the rest had died, because of their lack of faith, they were given the choice of the land. The New International Version records Caleb’s words like this:
“Now give me this hill country that the LORD promised me that day.” Joshua 14:12
But I like the Old King James Version. It says, “Now therefore give me this mountain…”
That’s our prayer, too. Give us this mountain. We want Mount Shasta and all the surrounding communities for the Lord. But how do you take a mountain? You climb one peak at a time, don’t you? And our plan to take this mountain is divided into peaks. Peak one; Peak two; Peak Three, and Peak four. I don’t have the time to go into them very much, but Peak one is an introduction to our church. It explains our history, our purpose, our beliefs, our values, and our vision, and offers an invitation to join our team.
Peak two explains how to mature as a Christian. What does it mean to be Christlike? How do you become a mature Christian. We can teach that.
Peak three helps people find their gifts and talents. God created each of us for a purpose and we all have a special blend of gifts and talents. We help you discover yours.
Peak four helps you to put your ministry to use in the church. In our church, every member is a minister. In our church, everyone has a ministry. We just need to discover it and then use it. We need to get at it! This is our plan to help us accomplish our purpose and vision.
But only a team on the same page can accomplish much. We need to be in agreement of what we believe. Don’t be like one basketball team I was on in college. The first game we played, I scored 15 points in the first half. The Second half I scored 3 points. The second half I hardly got the ball. Everyone else wanted to score. Winning was secondary. We weren’t in agreement.
We need to be in agreement in what we believe. There are a lot of belief’s out there. People are entitled to them. But this is what we believe:
Agreed Statement of Belief
These are the beliefs Nazarenes hold to be true:
We believe in one God-the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We believe that the Old and New Testament Scriptures, given by plenary inspiration, contain all truth necessary to faith and Christian living.
We believe that man is born with a fallen nature, and is, therefore, inclined to evil, and that continually.
We believe that the finally impenitent are hopelessly and eternally lost.
We believe that the atonement through Jesus Christ is for the whole human race; and that whosoever repents and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ is justified and regenerated and saved from the dominion of sin.
We believe that believers are to be sanctified wholly, subsequent to regeneration, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We believe that the Holy Spirit bears witness to the new birth, and also to the entire sanctification of believers.
We believe that our Lord will return, the dead will be raised, and the final judgment will take place.
Nazarenes are free to disagree about a lot of things. You can be “post –trib”, “pre-trib”, “Mid- trib” or “pan-trib” when it comes to the second coming of Christ. Personally, I’m a pan – trib. I believe it will all “pan” out in the end.
It’s okay to have differences of opinion. You can be a democrat or a republic or a libertarian and still be a Nazarene. But when it comes to spiritual beliefs – we have to agree of these things. We also have to agree on our values. Here are our values:
Our Values Statement
(What we Practice)
We Are a Christian People
As members of the Church Universal, we join with all true believers in proclaiming the Lordship of Jesus Christ and in embracing the historic Trinitarian creedal statements of Christian faith. We value our Wesleyan-Holiness heritage and believe it to be a way of understanding the faith that is true to Scripture, reason, tradition, and experience.
We Are a Holiness People
God, who is holy, calls us to a life of holiness. We believe that the Holy Spirit seeks to do in us a second work of grace, called by various terms including "entire sanctification" and "baptism with the Holy Spirit"-cleansing us from all sin, renewing us in the image of God, empowering us to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves, and producing in us the character of Christ. Holiness in the life of believers is most clearly understood as Christlikeness.
We Are a Missional People
We are a sent people, responding to the call of Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit to go into all the world, witnessing to the Lordship of Christ and participating with God in the building of the Church and the extension of His kingdom (Matthew 28:19-20; 2 Corinthians 6:1). Our mission (a) begins in worship, (b) ministers to the world in evangelism and compassion, (c) encourages believers toward Christian maturity through discipleship, and (d) prepares women and men for Christian service through Christian higher education.
These are the things we value as a church. These are the things we believe. This is who we are. Are you with me? Can we join hearts and hands and heads and work together to accomplish these things? Together we can accomplish that which could not otherwise be done. Together we can make a difference for Christ. Whether we have one day or a life time – let’s make the most of it. As we see the lights of Glory off in the distance, let’s accomplish as much as we can for His glory.
“Bond of Love”
