VISION Staying the Course Intro: A little over 12 years ago, God set about 30 people on an adventure that would change our lives forever. God birthed a church called Foothills. We had our first Sunday service March 1998 in the Molalla Elementary cafeteria. The past 12 years have been the most amazing adventure of my life. God has set a course before us as a church. Our vision statement is a brief description of this course. (Vision statement slide) It is not enough for a few of us to embrace this. It has been entrusted to us all. We are a church on a mission. But, how do we stay the course? How do we keep running on this track God has placed before us and not waiver? How do we keep advancing forward year after year without getting satisfied and stagnant? Today we re going to answer these questions. Statistically, churches our age begin to slow down / get complacent / play it safe. Not us! Heb. 12:1-2 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith (NLT) Heb. 10:35-36 So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised. (NLT) The keys to successfully staying God s course for us as a church and for your life are found in these passages. 4 choices that ensure we stay the course and experience all that God promises. I. We Stay The Course By Discarding Excess Weight let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. A. We need to grow past our habitual sins 1. Everyone has those areas of their lives that they repeatedly fall victim to. Those areas of weakness / those behaviors or attitudes that we tolerate in our lives that continue to cling to us even after we give our lives to Jesus. 2. We hate the fact that these things still exist in us, but we have tolerated them for so long it s as if they are part of us. They ve tripped us up so many times it may even seem impossible to be free of them. 3. We feel the weight that these sins create. We feel the weight of guilt / we see how it slows us down spiritually / we know that they hinder us from being even more effective for the Kingdom of God. 4. Growing past sinful behavior that is engrained in us is making the decision to no longer entertain any more excuses for their existence in my life. We embrace a new mental and spiritual attitude not one of defeat not one that says I can t but one Page 1
of victory through Christ. (Can t live beyond what you believe!) 5. For some of you; you are more than aware of these issues in your life. For others, you need to get out of denial that you have them. I don t have any habitual sinful behaviors or attitudes in my life! Really? Do you habitually struggle with Gossip? / Being negative, critical, complaining? / Unforgiveness? / Materialism and unhappiness it brings? / Lust? / Pride? / Manipulation? / Fear? / Explosive anger? / It s not just drugs and alcohol that s habitual. 6. All these things add weight to our lives that keep us ineffective from running the course God has put before us. God is calling us to peel off these things so we can run a better race. (Have your backpack filled with weight put it on) The habitual issues may be more obvious, but Heb 12 goes one step more. B. We need to grow past weights that hinder (These are the weights that simply slow us down.) 1. What s a hindrance? These may not be sinful behaviors or attitudes, yet they slow down your progress and cause you to be ineffective. A hindrance can simply be anything that creates excess weight and impedes our spiritual progress. 2. For example, here recently the Lord shown me He wants me to watch less TV. What I was watching was not sinful (History Channel / Discovery / Outdoor / Sports), but I needed to spend more time reading. There are some areas I wanted to grow in. 3. Was I willing to lay aside a certain behavior / activity in order to grow in an area God was calling me to grow in? Not sin, yet there is something better. 4. Sometimes, something very good can actually hinder what God is wanting to do in your life. I remember when God wanted me to stop leading worship. (explain) 5. The more excess weight we shed as people, the better we can run the course God has for us as a church. How do we not become a hindered church? By each one of us being willing to shed excess weight. My excess weight will hinder the church so will yours! No more denial / No more excuses / Think correctly Embrace the next three truths. II. We Stay The Course By Keeping Our Eyes on Jesus We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. What does this mean? How do I watch someone I can t see? A. We keep our eyes on Jesus through His word 1. Remember a few years ago WWJD I want to expand on it. What would Jesus say? How would Jesus act? How would Jesus respond? We are able to answer these questions by knowing His word reading about Jesus life 2. The Bible gives us 4 books about the life of Jesus. (Matt / Mark / Luke / John) In these books we see Jesus responding to a host of real life situations. We get to read Page 2
about His responses / His emotions / His priorities / how He handled stressful situations / mean people / How He listened to His Father / etc 3. We will never be able to act and live like Jesus until we keep our eyes on Jesus. For example, I learned how to be a Pastor by watching other Pastors (explain). As I have brought on other staff here at Foothills, they learn by watching me. If you re a parent, your kids learn by watching you. 4. If we are so unfamiliar with Jesus life it is difficult to keep our eyes on Him. We need to hear Jesus saying to us; Watch Me and do what I do; live how I live. Here is an assignment for 2 months: Read through Matt / Mark / Luke / John Read with the mindset to understand Jesus better not looking for behavior. Notice how He handled life. The ask yourself Do I do these things? B. We keep our eyes on Jesus by prioritizing the relationship 1. Keeping my eyes on Jesus is a relational thing. Are we pursuing this relationship enough so that we see Him in our daily lives? AVATAR movie term I see you. Explain I see your heart / motives / thinking / needs / desires / - I see the person not simply the shell. 2. When we give priority to our relationship with Jesus we begin to see Jesus. We experience His heart / His desires / His truth / His priorities / His passion. Keeping my eyes on Jesus is pursuing the relationship with Jesus. 3. It works this way in our relationships with each other. The more I pursue a relationship with someone, the more I see them. I see who they are and what makes them tick. I see in to their lives. 4. It works this way in my marriage. If I don t make time with my wife a priority, I will not see her. I will not see her heart / her desires / her concerns / her needs. Works this way with your relationship with Jesus. 5. If you want to keep your eyes on Jesus you have to first READ about Jesus, then you have to learn to RELATE to Jesus. We give priority to this relationship by spending time with Jesus. Are you reading / relating / talking / processing your thoughts and feelings / are you asking questions / Seeing Jesus is a relational choice. If we consistently see Jesus, we will stay on the course. WHY? Because He s the one we re following! III. We Stay The Course By Remembering The Reward So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! A. Never forget God rewards obedience in this life 1. How can we stay the course if we don t believe it is rewarded? How can we stay the course if we doubt that obedience = blessing? How can we endure during the difficulties if we re not convinced it s worth it? Page 3
2. I can t tell you how many times over the years I ve reminded the Lord what He has Promised in His word. How many times in the dark circumstances of life I have clung to this truth that there are rewards in this life for obedience. It matters!!! 3. I believe this is one of the greatest places Satan attacks followers of Christ. He wants to erode our confident trust in the Lord. He wants to tell you it s not worth it it won t pay off obedience is a pipe dream God won t come through! 4. There is no way we will be able to stay on the course God has for us unless we are convinced this course is worth it. God rewards obedience in this life. It would be impossible for me to be the Pastor of Foothills unless I clung to this promise! 5. I will live to see the reality of the vision on Foothills. I have seen the foundations of it in the past 12 years. Look what God is doing! The lives that have been changed / the needs that have been met / a community that has been touched and impacted. Every sacrifice of my time / energy / resources / blood and sweat has been worth it. 6. When things get tough, what do you cling to? Do you allow the enemy to erode your trust and confidence in what you re doing? Do you think it doesn t matter? Do you start thinking it s worthless? OR, do you remember the great reward it brings you? 7. Following the vision God has given us is not an easy course. If it was, others would have already done it. BUT, God has called us to this. God has called us to be a part of something that has NEVER been done here before. May we not lose sight of the rewards of seeing this vision fulfilled and our own personal lives transformed in the process. B. Never forget God rewards obedience in the eternity 1. There are rewards in this life, but there will also be rewards in eternity for staying the course in this life. II Cor. 5:10 For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body. (NLT) Eph. 6:8 Remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do (NLT) 2. We must never forget that how we live our lives here matters in eternity. We will all stand before the Lord Jesus and give an account of how we lived our lives on planet earth. We will all be accountable to which course we followed. Did we run the race God set before us or did we do our own thing? 3. Please understand this has nothing to do with where we spend eternity. That decision is settled in this life when a person gives their life to Christ. This has to do with our faithfulness in this life resulting in rewards in the next. 4. We will stay the course as we realize there is accountability for our lives. No one does their best without accountability. Why do you maintain a good job performance? Page 4
Why do you obey the traffic laws? Why do you pay your taxes? Why do you work hard to get good grades in school? 5. God wants us to know there is accountability for our lives. He sees the hard work / the faithfulness / the sacrifice / the weariness / the trials / and He promises that it will not go unnoticed in eternity. What gets unnoticed in this life is celebrated and rewarded in the next! We stay the course as a church and as individuals as we remember the great reward obedience brings us. IV. We Stay The Course By Committing to God s Will so that you will continue to do God s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised. A. We must make up our minds whose will we will follow 1. If we want to experience all that God promises to us in His word, we must settle this issue. We must make up our minds whose will we will follow ours or God s. 2. What I continually see are people angry with God / angry with the results of their lives / angry because they believe God has let them down, yet they continue to live independently of God. 3. There is this belief that God should bless my life regardless what I do. We believe God exists to serve us make us happy meet my needs be at my beckon call rescue me from my poor choices protect me from all the bad things in this life THEN when He doesn t, we get angry with Him. 4. It will be impossible to stay on God s course consistently until we settle whose will we are going to follow God s or mine. We need to embrace the truth that God is not here to serve me. I am here to serve God. 5. In order to experience all that God has promised, I must embrace surrender. We need to understand that in God s Kingdom, the greater the surrender, the greater the power of God we experience in our lives. The more you empty yourself, the more of God fills the void. The more you give up your will, the more of God s will you live. THIS is how we stay the course as a church. Embrace a surrendered will. B. We must make up our minds to follow even when it s not convenient 1. Staying the course that God has called us to is not easy nor is it convenient. We can t allow ourselves to be fair-weather followers. Sometimes you have to embrace the difficulties that come with the journey. 2. A number of years ago we were elk hunting in Hells Canyon. (Saddle Creek drainage 2 miles up, 9 miles into Hells Canyon. Breaking trail in waste deep snow explain) We could have quit / turned back / went home / got discouraged / but we chose to embrace the hardships of the journey. WHY? Because it s worth it. 3 elk later! Page 5
3. In September at our Fall Kickoff, I challenged you with what it will take for us to keep following Jesus this year as a church. 4. Remember 3G? 3 key Commitments Going / Growing / Giving These commitments are certainly NOT convenient, yet they represent the will of God! They represent areas where we must make up our minds to follow even when it seems like we re breaking trail. WHY? Because it s worth it. It s His will! 5. It is God s will that you keep Going: God using your life to impact others It is God s will that you keep Growing: Growing up spiritually maturing It is God s will that you keep Giving: Embracing generosity 6. None of these are convenient at times, but the effort is worth it. I want to experience all that God has promised. If the past 12 years have been any indication of all that God has in store for us as a church, let s stay the course! Let s discard the excess weight / Let s keep our eyes on Jesus / Let s remember the reward / Let s stay committed to God s will no matter what! May we be a people that demonstrates to others what it looks like when a church stays on the course God has for us! May our lives encourage others to do the same! Page 6