INTRODUCTION
We have begun a new phase of our Christian journey together as was evident in last week’s worship service in which many of us witnessed the culmination of one ministry and the inception of another. We received a word of encouragement that challenged us to remember where we have been; to reflect upon just how far the Lord has brought us. I could not help but imagine the enormous growth that has taken place in your lives as you surrendered your lives to God. Over the past several months God has miraculously moved, awakened, transformed, and empowered Christ’s Body here at Warrior Gospel. This is undoubtedly both a bitter sweet occasion. Bitter because our brother-in-the-Lord and God’s servant Chaplain Kehmes Lands is no longer physically present with us. I see that tear in your eye, but I know that the transformation that has begun in you is still reverberating throughout your lives, this church, Camp Liberty and the entire Victory Base Complex. I can sense the fire in your heart; in fact, so can others. During my first six weeks here there is one common report that I have heard wherever I went it seemed about Christ’s Body here at WG. I hear that God’s word is being faithfully preached and peoples’ lives are being dramatically changed. I am not naïve to believe that we all behave as saints or have arrived at full Christian-maturity inside or outside this church. God still has work to do in all our lives, mine included. I’m thankful for last week’s message because there is more to this Christian life than just being born-again, as wonderful as that is. I believe the “Message” translation of Colossians 2:6-7 “captures the intent of God’s desire for us.
My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you’ve
been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You’re deeply rooted in him. You’re well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.
The Lord has given me, long before I came here, a vision, mission and ministry for the Body of Christ here at Warrior Gospel Chapel that goes along with and builds upon the groundwork of what has already been started.
Today’s Message has three parts but we’re only covering parts 1 & 2 today and 3 next week:
1. God’s Vision for Us
2. God’s Mission for Us
3. God’s Ministry for Us
Read: Habakkuk 2:2-3; 1 Peter 1:18-21; and Philippians 1:3-6
Pray:
Title: Keep it Fresh!
The dictionary defines fresh as that which is newly made or obtained; that which does retain the original properties without any degradation. Conversely, staleness is defined as: having lost the freshness, effervescence, or palatability; lacking originality or spontaneity; impaired in efficacy, vigor, or spirit, as from inactivity or boredom; having lost effectiveness or force through lack of exercise or action. Spiritually speaking a fresh faith is that which is active, alive, and meaningful today. It has a sense of newness, recentness, not yesterday and not tomorrow. Presentness: a moment or period in time perceptible as intermediate between past and future: now. Therefore a fresh gospel means a fresh faith and as a stale gospel means a stale faith.
Big Idea: God’s provision for fresh faith is fresh gospel.
God’s New Vision for Us: (This answers the question, “Why do we exist?”)
“We exist to glorify God by knowing, applying, and proclaiming
the life-changing Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Childlike Faith
There’s nothing more overpowering than to climb Calvary’s hill in childlike attentiveness and wonder, with all our distractions and wrong assumptions cleared away. The intent of this vision is that we might be gripped by gratitude and enflamed in passion for the Savior, Christ our Mediator, who suffered the Father’s righteous wrath for us.
What Really Matters
Have the peripherals, the things that are less important, taken over and left the core of your faith forgotten? There is a critical difference between snacking on the benefits of the cross and surveying the wonders of the cross. Although it seems almost too obvious, the center of our faith is surprisingly easy to forget. Remember Jesus Christ?
The Secret to Sustaining Joy
Do you desire more passion for Christ? Do you get confused by what you feel versus what is real? The answer is to look at the death of Christ not from our point of view, but from God’s. Our human tendency is to look at the Savior’s death (and at everything else!) through our own subjective feelings and impressions, rather than from the standpoint of objective truth. By nature we always begin with ourselves rather than with God. But by following the God-first "Divine Order" in how we think—and by asking "What do I believe?" instead of "How do I feel?"—we’re freed up to embrace the right truth in the right way. The right feelings quickly follow, and they’re reliable because they’re anchored in truth. Return to the very essence of your faith—the cross of Christ. Here, the deepest truths of Calvary will stir your passion for Him into an unquenchable fire. As you better understand the true nature of His struggle, you’ll grasp more than ever the staggering significance of why Jesus died…and fully experience His sacrifice as a personal act of love for you. Allow the deepest truths of Calvary to stir your passion for Christ our mediator into a flame that burns your whole life long.
One Center, Countless Radical Changes
The servant leaders of Warrior Gospel want to show you how to center every day around the life-giving reality of the gospel and how to escape the pitfalls of legalism, condemnation, and feelings-driven faith. The powerful truth of the gospel can grip your heart, clear your mind, and invigorate your soul. Get ready to behold a breathtaking view of what God intends to accomplish in and through you every day. You’ll discover how embracing this cross centered life is both our highest privilege and greatest responsibility.
Two Images to Keep it Fresh: Wedding/Cross & Heaven/2nd Coming
There are two images that a Christian husband needs to keep in mind in order to keep his relationship with his wife fresh. The first is the picture of his bride coming down the aisle and the second is when he is presenting her to the Lord. On the one hand, the further these two images are out of focus the more likely their relationship will grow stale. On the other hand, the more immediate these two events are thought of today the more likely that the relationship will remain fresh. Similarly, there are two images that a Christian needs to keep in mind in order to keep his or her relationship with God fresh. The first is the picture of the cross where he or she first saw the Lord and the second is when we go to meet the Lord face-to-face. The further these two images become disconnected from today living the more likely that faith will grow stale if not repugnant. Conversely, the more recent these two events seem the more likely that the relationship will remain fresh.
We’ll introduce God’s Mission for Us with a poem I just wrote following the poetry of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, I call “The Midnight Cheers of Glory Starts Here!”
“The Midnight Cheers of Glory Starts Here”
Listen my children and, soon you shall hear
not of the midnight ride, of Paul Revere
In the summer of, two thousand and nine;
How most of you, in this line
Are here due to, the revival that year.
Step right over, here for your class;
The angels are, about to sing.
Of your expectations, they will surpass;
How WGC, ushered in the King.
One by one, they surrendered their lives;
Then they gave, up their drives.
Ready to run, and spread the good news
Through every VBC, camp and CHUs;
That they no longer need, to sing the blues.
So through the day, and through the night,
And out of the desert, and through the earth,
Went the notice of, Jesus’ Great Worth,
With a shout of delight, and not of fright.
A still small voice, and a knock at the heart,
And a word that did, echo from the start!
For borne on the, hot-breeze of the past,
Through all of our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness, and peril and need,
The people did waken, and sins confessed
For they did hear, why Christ had to bleed
We of all people, are truly blessed.
They sung it loud, and sung it clear
At first they did not, believe it true
That Jesus Christ, would soon appear
They could not dispute, their lives anew
For they were never, again the same
Jesus Christ had, taken their blame
They had a faith, that was sincere
Since the Gospel, had grown so dear
The midnight cheers, of glory starts here!
Our New Mission: (This answers the question, “Where are we going from here?”)
1. “God will use the work He has done to revive our hearts in this place to usher in Christ’s second coming.
a. This is our now but it is heaven’s history that the angels are singing about our role we played in preparing the world for Christ’s return.
b. The revival that God has sprung up in our souls will overflow and flood all of creation with His life cleansing, heart melting, and mind transforming matchless grace and unstoppable power.
2. We were on our own agenda but now we are following His agenda.
a. We once were trying to get our own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community.
b. But thanks be to God for His glorious grace that reached down and picked us up from the deep miry clay and set our feet on the straight narrow way.
3. We are going to focus upon that which is ahead and not that which is behind.
a. We are going to dive into the fathomless depths of God’s Word.
b. We are going to cling to the immeasurable victories of Christ’s Cross.
c. We are going to soar with the eagles to new heavenly heights by the enabling power of the Holy Spirit.
d. We are going to know ourselves as good as we are truly known so as to both eradicate our sins and live to our full potential in Christ.
4. This world is not our home. We are just visitors here, going further than we ever thought possible.
a. We are going without some things. We are going without…
i. Reservations,
ii. Resentment,
iii. Inhibitions,
iv. Excuses,
v. Compromises,
vi. Condemnation,
vii. Giving-up,
viii. Hypocrisy,
ix. Complaints, and
x. Self-sufficiency.
b. But, we are also going forward with some things God HAS already given us. We are going with…
i. Resolve,
ii. Honesty,
iii. Repentance,
iv. Humility,
v. Boldness,
vi. Grace,
vii. Truth,
viii. Gratefulness,
ix. Wisdom,
x. Godliness, and
xi. Power.
5. We are committed to being more and more the person God…
a. Created us to be,
b. Saved us to be,
c. Sanctified us to be, and will
d. Glorify us to be, so that on that day when we enter into heaven, on that day when we hear our Heavenly Father say, ‘Well done my good and faithful servant enter into the joy of the Lord’, there will be no big change.
e. From this day until that day we are cooperating with the Holy Spirit to…
i. Convict us,
ii. Fill us,
iii. Change us,
iv. Mold us,
v. Clean us,
vi. Refine us,
vii. Transform us,
viii. Teach us,
ix. Encourage us,
x. Empower us,
xi. Lead us, and
xii. Use us for God’s glory alone.
6. We will apply and experience all the transformational power of the gospel to every area of our lives to include our…
a. Thoughts,
b. Emotions,
c. Desires,
d. Speech,
e. Relationships,
f. Circumstances,
g. Finances,
h. Dreams,
i. Possessions,
j. Vocations,
k. Entertainments,
l. Observations,
m. Ministries,
n. Behaviors,
o. Hearts,
p. Motivations,
q. Talents,
r. Time, and
s. On and on to infinity until we spread throughout the whole earth a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ our Lord, Savior, and King.
t. Because of the power of the gospel applied to our lives our past, present, and future sins no longer disqualify us from our destiny.
u. Because of God’s sovereign grace we’re free from sin’s…
i. Stronghold over us,
ii. Punishment for us, and finally
iii. Gradually moment by moment for now and then in heaven we will be completely free from sin’s Presence in and around us.
7. Our walk with the Lord, as well as our sanctification, may be a race but we know that it is a marathon not a sprint.
a. We will have a sense of urgency but we will also be patient.
b. We will have some setbacks but we will be encouraged.
c. We will fall down but we will get back up.
8. We will experience testing, trails, temptations, tribulations, and even persecutions, but we will do even more than survive we will thrive.
a. When life gets tough, we’ll remember ‘I am His and He is mine.’
b. We will go through the valley of the shadow of death and even the pits of despair but God will bring the mountaintop to us if not left us up to the mountaintops altogether.
c. Although, we may be surrounded by certain desolate geographic features and certain traumatic circumstances, our strength to endure as victors comes from someplace else from someone else from something completely other than ourselves or that which is natural.
i. It is as if, majestic mountains are soaring all around us with an awesome display of stars above us, and a lush green and flowery ground beneath us.
ii. In these moments, we are left breathless with an unquenchable sense of God’s worthiness outside of and inside of us, with an unquenchable sense of gratitude for God’s kindness toward us, and with an unstoppable sense of God’s power within us.
iii. When we are able to speak the only words that come close to expressing what we have experienced and how we feel are, ‘hallelujah’ and ‘for me.’
9. Since we are polished, purified, and potent diamonds in God’s sight, let’s reflect His glorious righteousness for all to see.
a. Since we have a clean record, a fresh start on life, a clear conscience, by the life and works of Jesus Christ we’re destined for greatness and citizens of heavenly places.
b. Since we are God’s sons and daughters let’s live like the royal princes and princesses we really are.
c. Because we are His armor bearers filled with the Spirit of the Living God we will throw down the attacks of our toothless enemy and his futile tactics.
10. In our future, as well as our now, as we walk in the power of His light and His truth there are no…
a. Limits,
b. Boundaries, and
c. Obstacles that can stop us now.
11. We are convinced that nothing…
a. Living or Dead,
b. Angelic or Demonic,
c. Today or Tomorrow,
d. High or Low,
e. Thinkable or Unthinkable
f. Absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.
12. We are not saved because we’re excited but we are living on the overflow of that reality.
a. Our faith informs our feelings not the other way around.
b. From the outside looking in, it may appear to be just some emotional footwork but if you could see inside our hearts the way God sees us than you would know why we’re rejoicing.
c. All of creation attests to the glory of God but we refuse to let any rocks cry out in our place. As long as we are alive and well we are going to praise His holy name.
13. We not only have a faith that saves but we have a faith that works.
a. Both faiths are gifts from our Heavenly Father.
b. Saving faith is what brought us in and keeps us in the Family of God.
c. Because we are saved we also walk in faith, for without it is impossible to please God.
i. It is God who causes us to will and to do His good pleasure.
ii. Because we are saved we will live by faith and not by sight.
d. One day faith will not be needed for we will see Him face-to-face.
14. So when you ask us, ‘Where are we going?’ We’ll say along with a great host of angels, saints, and sinners saved by grace, ‘We’re going…
a. Deeper and Higher,
b. Closer and Further,
c. Straighter, and Wider
d. Than anyone ever thought possible; for with God all things are possible for those who are called to His purposes.
e. Because He created me, I am His creation.
f. Because He called me, I know His voice.
g. Because He saved me, I am a new creation.
h. Because He touched me, I will never be the same.
i. Because He knows my name, I know His name.
j. Because He holds my hand, I will never be alone.
k. Because He wrote my story, I will play my role.
l. Because He planned my future, I have a glorious destiny.
15. We will go through the fire but we will be fit for the Master’s use.
a. That’s where we’re going, so come along or get out of the way.
b. We’re not saying that we have this all together, that we have it made.
c. But we are well on our way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for us.
d. Friends, don’t get us wrong: By no means do we count ourselves an expert in all of this, but we’ve got our eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus.
e. We’re off and running and we’re not turning back.
f. We’re in this thing together.
g. We’ll finish this thing together.
h. We’ll encourage one another as long as the Lord gives us breath.
i. The time is now, so let’s get ‘er done.
j. Let’s live the reality that’s already been won!”
Celebration:
Conclusion:
Prayer:
