My wife and I came on board full-time here last June, and we brought with us the vision of reaching the unsaved and training people up in the ministry to which God has called them to. I said from the very beginning that it was going to take some time. As I said a few weeks ago, we had to establish a lot of things before we could run full speed ahead with the vision for the church. We had to develop a solid children’s ministry, or we couldn’t very well call ourselves a “family church”, we had to figure out who was going to be in charge of that every Sunday, and at the time, we had very limited resources, so my wife Cindy stepped up and offered to teach it full-time every Sunday. There’s been days when she’s had 15 kids back there by herself, and that’s not an easy job, as you know, we don’t have very much space.
We had to tweak our service times a little bit, to make it more convenient for people to come. We had to post our service times; so we got a banner made, and built a website from scratch to help us advertise. We had to reinvent our youth group. My first night here, we started with 6. Now we have anywhere from 20-30 on any given night, that’s remarkable fro a small town church. We have had over 80 decisions for Christ in our youth since June. We had to get our messages onto CD to make them more available to people.
Another we did, was look at our budget, and we had to cut a few things, and trim back in a few areas so we could move forward.
Anyway, I said all that to say this, when your working towards a Big, god-given vision, it takes time. You have to build a solid foundation before you can build a structure on it.
Habakuk chapter 2 says that if a vision tarries, wait for it, for it will surely come. Good things come to those who wait.
Now, in this year, is when we are as a church shifting our focus to the growth part of our vision, in order to do what God has called us to do, we have to bring in more people. And we’re going to do just that.
Now, along the way, I’ve noticed, and I’m sure you have too, that we have lost a few people. Let me tell you what happens. People get excited when they see a new pastor come on board, and they hear about the plans for the church, and they receive it all with gladness, but then when they don’t see everything happen overnight like they think it should, they begin to lose interest, and they they begin to murmur amongst themselves, saying that we have no vision etc..... Listen, the bible warns about this kind of stuff, you can read all about it in your new testament. And eventually, the very people who were the most excited end up losing interest altogether. And because things don’t always go their way they get upset. The danger in this, is that these type of people try to drag others along with them so that they can feel better about themselves, and after a while sometimes they’re able to succeed. and that’s sad. People who had a bright future in the church and ministry end up doing nothing for God whatsoever. And allot of times they get bitter, and no church is ever good enough for them. There’s no such thing as a perfect church. a church is made up of people, and people aren’t perfect.
So, look, don’t let that happen to you, we’ve got a bright future ahead here at daystar, and the more of you guys we can bring with us, the brighter it will be. a new building (praise god) with plenty of room etc... Mission trips, evangelistic campaigns, community outreach etc...
And our Missionary friends, the Wagners have agreed to join our team here at the church, and help us pioneer a new service that we will be offering maybe on a Friday night. It’s and exciting time to be in on the ground level of what God is doing.
So, if you encounter these murmurers while you’re out and about, and they try to spread that stuff to you, just tell them you don’t want to hear it, don’t even listen to it. Let them know that you’re a loyal part of the team. Listen, every thing God does starts small and grows big, and that’s where we’re headed. If we all work together we can do it.
We’ll be holding some ministry planning meetings in the next few weeks, and we’d love for you all to be a part of them.
Introduce Robbie
all right, I finished my rant.
Open your bibles to Mark 10 :17-22 (offering envelope)
What I want you to see, is the reason this man was rich, is because he obeyed all God’s commandments. Deut 8:18 The Lord gives us power to get wealth in order to establish his covenant. This young man was obviously walking on this part of the covenant. Jesus was simply testing him, God had given him all his wealth, but if God asked him to give it all up, would he have enough faith to know that God would give it all back to him. (It’s like abraham and Isaac, abraham knew God would provide a lamb) God will never ask us to give up something that he hasn’t already given us. So when we see in his word that he asks us to tithe a 10% of our income to the local church, and to give offering to help support the work of the church, we can be assured it will come right back to us, we’re not losing a thing, because when we release our money into God’s hands, it comes back to us with interest.
Take your tithe and offerings in your hand and let’s pray.
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New Beginnings
“ This is what the LORD says— he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. ”- Isaiah 43:16, 18-19
God is all about new beginnings, if you’ve walked with god for any amount of time you know that he is always doing new things in your life
But, as with everything God does for us, we have a part to play. In this case, when God is going to do something new in our life, our part is to forget about the past. You can not move forward if you are stuck in the past. How many of you know people like this?
People who never get anywhere in life, because they can’t leave the past behind.
You know how the bible says not to be ignorant of satan’s devices?, well there’s one of them right there, getting people to dwell on the past, is the device he uses to keep Christians from receiving the new thing God is trying to do in their life.
I threw that little nugget in at no extra charge.
all right, let’s see what the new testament has to say about this business of forgetting.
Philippians 3:13-15
Paul said this one thing I do! In other words, this is crucial, if you don’t do anything else, do this. Forget the things that are behind.
See, we all have a mark of the high call of god, but we can’t press on towards it if we’re dwelling in the past. You have to forget about it! You have to. Don’t let satan beat you over the head with past failures, or sins, difficult circumstances.
So, what do we do when satan brings up the past to us (and rest assured, he will) he’s doesn’t want god to do a new thing in your life, he wants to keep you right where you are. Because if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always have what you’ve always had.
So what do we do about this?
2nd Cor 10:4-5
Cast those things down. Satan has always tried to exalt himself above God, and he’ll bring those thoughts to your mind as well, he’ll bring up negative things about the past, and these things, if we don’t cast them down, will exalt themselves above the positive new things God is trying to do in our life.
You wouldn’t accept a COD package that you didn’t order? Of course not, you don’t want to pay for something that you don’t want.
See, satan is like a wicked UPS driver. He’s constantly trying to get us to accept his negative COD packages, by bringing these thoughts to our mind. But don’t accept them, cast them down, you didn’t order them, you don’t want them, and you really don’t want to pay for them!!
Some people just accept and dwell on every thought that comes to their mind, and they end up paying for it, they never receive all the wonderful new things god has for them
But we’re not like that, Amen!! We cast those things down, don’t dwell on them, when they come to your mind, just say whatever satan , and forget about it.
If we’ll do that, we’ll constantly be pressing on into the new things God has for each and everyone of us!
Pray.
