The Hills Church Live | September 12, 2021 | 10:00am

of jesus there is power in the name of jesus [Music] [Music] come on [Music] [Music] [Music] uh [Music] [Music] i feel [Music] [Music] i'm set free [Music] yes [Music] oh [Music] [Music] something happens [Music] i feel [Music] when i call you [Music] huh [Music] come on is [Music] let me hear yourself [Music] and he answered me [Music] and those who look on him are radiant [Music] this old man cried and the lord hurt me and save me from my enemies [Music] he will deliver them [Music] [Music] [Music] is foreign [Music] there's nothing that jesus can't do this [Music] god [Music] [Music] there's [Music] to the one inside of us oh praise him to the one who died [Music] oh praise him singing [Music] fill up the sky with your praises [Music] [Music] praise him praise god from whom our blessings foreign [Applause] fill up the sky we're singing [Music] [Applause] [Music] yo up [Music] fill up the sky [Applause] praise god praise him [Applause] we lift fill your this [Music] [Applause] [Music] fill up [Music] [Music] [Music] the sky [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] [Music] oh praise god [Music] we lift you up [Music] foreign [Music] come on jesus [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] wood [Music] this [Music] he's morning on the clouds kings and kingdoms will bow down [Music] and every chain will break his broken hearts declare his praise for who can stop the lord [Music] [Music] me [Music] make a way before the king of kings our god who comes to save is here to set the goddess free but who can stop the lord is [Music] is [Music] [Music] who can stop the lord [Music] is now god [Applause] me [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] glory foreign bright for all to see oh god i will praise you [Music] magnificent with grace [Music] god i will praise you who's like the lord who is [Music] [Music] jesus reigns [Music] i know that you are always [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] who is like the lord [Music] [Music] [Applause] who forever [Music] [Applause] [Music] you reign in all the earth you reign in all the heavens you're [Music] on holy throne nothing can stand against you is [Applause] who is like the lord mighty to say singing who is like the lord king forever [Music] is you [Applause] you'll see on the throne nothing can stand against you [Applause] [Music] [Music] for is in the presence of my enemies it's your body and you play your this is [Music] my enemies [Applause] [Music] this is [Music] [Music] this is how i find [Music] find my battles this is [Music] [Music] so my weapons are thanksgiving this is [Music] [Music] which is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] let me look like [Music] me [Music] my [Music] this is [Music] is give me [Music] this is [Music] this is [Applause] [Music] yes what a great song i just love that phrase when it says in there that uh when we go through those valleys that so praise and thanksgiving are my weapons how cool is that just the praise of god living thankfully like that is so great y'all go ahead and be seated please [Music] we're going to commune together this morning go ahead and take out your little communion packets if you're a guest here with us there's two tabs on there the top is to open up for the bread and then the next larger tab for the juice so we are talking about our vision that god has given us and specifically today about the nations and you know there are many nations that are even here at the hills already and we just love these different cultures that we get to celebrate and that god is the god of all the nations so in a moment we're going to hear some scriptures and usually we have the scripture on the screen that's not going to be there just for you to to listen so this is angelica and she's from costa rica and then next to her is bona from kotowa and then there is kevin kevin grew up here at church and he was a missionary in brazil for 15 years so let's listen to the word of god and then we'll commune together [Music] [Music] first john chapter one that which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked at and our hands have touched this we proclaim concerning the word of life the life appeared we have seen it and testified to it and we proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the father and has appeared to us [Music] [Music] oh father how not to worship you how not to honor you how not to praise you and give glory and honor to you you sacrificed yourself you came to earth and took the shape of a human and you shed your blood for our sins and now we can have communion with you in communion with brothers and sisters here in our city and all around the world we praise you for that in jesus name so [Music] [Music] [Music] um so when the season is we have been [Music] praying about this vision for a while um luke scott and i scott being at the west fort worth campus the worship minister there decided let's let's write a song about this new vision that we're going to hear about today so we're going to share that with you now just want to mention three things about it as we wrote this um the first verse especially comes from psalm 46 10 that says be still and know that i am god and then i will be honored throughout the nations and throughout the world and if you hear last week what a drew preached about that what a great declaration that all the other gods to be silent they are not they are not real we still know that he is god to be honored everywhere and in the course you're going to see some direct language from like from the lord's prayer for his kingdom to come and his will be done and to ask as you're we're going to do a lot is to pray to ask for this vision and then finally in the bridge there's going to be the the cry for every nation and generation to praise the name of jesus so let's let's sing this together [Music] be still be still and know that he is gone be still be still and know that he is god he will be honored in every nation he will be honored throughout the world so be still be still and know that he is gone [Music] your kingdom come your will be done here on the earth as it is never we ask in your name your kingdom to reign here on the earth as it is never [Music] is [Music] [Music] he [Music] throughout the world [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Music] let every nation generation praise your name we can see it we can see it let every nation generation praise your name we can see [Music] nature [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] that's amazing what's up how are you good to see you yeah good morning everybody welcome to the hills church my name is david this is ryan we're a couple of ministers here on staff we want to welcome all of you that are joining us online as well vander and i got to tell you i am overwhelmed this morning yeah it is vision weekend not just this weekend but the next two weeks as well this church you are going to get to just soak in what the lord's been up to for almost two years here starting with rick being commissioned by our elders and the vision that the holy spirit gave him and we are going to be asking for nations and generations yes and it's going to be it's uh it's it's going to be a moment it's going to be powerful i am i am overwhelmed and just i think back to what vision has done for this church historically and now what's going to happen in the next five years that it's amazing what's going to happen in the community yeah but it's amazing what's going to happen in each and every one of your hearts as well and so it is going to be beautiful and we tend to focus on objects nations and generations but don't lose the process because the process is ask we cannot do this without the lord we do not try to do this without the lord and so we're going to be seeking him in prayer through these years as well yeah well speaking of generations i just want to talk to our first before you dismiss the kids we got to take care of some family business now the lord in the script the lord asked us to wear the team uniform today and clearly you didn't get the memo and i know you're my boss but you need to start reading your emails bro i'm looking out i see rick carter i see you know valerie martin and becky hall and stevie stevenson we all have on the ampersand shirt for nations and generations our graphic team spent hours days months working on this graphic and you can't wear the shirt all right look actually i'll be out here in a moment all right he ain't gonna be in no t-shirt all right so it's gonna be two two one all right what are you willing to put on it huh what are you willing to put on that lunch for the staff who did wear the shirt ross kellner could not have lunch but for those of us that did wear our shirts no if rick comes out of the t-shirt you're buying lunch i'll buy your lunch okay come on i'll take it hey if i bought it for the staff it would have been cheaper okay so no i meant that and i mean he's telling the truth listen i will order enough to share with the staff so don't worry about it that's true that's true generations yeah church i want you to know the generation that's sitting in this room i'm about to dismiss the first through fifth graders but that generation is dependent upon us to pass on the truth and the love and the grace that jesus affords and we have an incredible opportunity to be able to do that in our kids ministry especially at the 10 o'clock hour it may be as such that the lord's putting something on your heart that says hey i want you to serve our kids at the 10 o'clock and you may need to come to a different service because this is where the most kids come but that also means this is where the greatest opportunity is to invest and you want to talk about getting an incredible return on investment when you get in on the ground floor you get to see it through a lifetime so be praying about that and the lord is moving on your heart in that way go to the kids welcome center and they would love to put you to work in serving our next generation of leaders but first through fifth graders let me ask you go ahead and stand up if you would and now you all get to head to the back of the room to our volunteers in their green t-shirts you're going to learn more about god's love and more about his promises for your life yeah and while they're being dismissed we're going to continue our time of worship with a time of giving we are a very generous church who believes that everything we have comes from god and so we use the resources that god blesses us with to bless of the people and we hope that you guys hear the generosity and god's acknowledgement of just how generous we are how we steward our resources through the components of the vision you'll hear today but there's multiple ways you can give you can give online you can give through the app or if you want you can drop off your giving at one of our generosity boxes located in the worship center and around the church and speaking of giving god is about to give our sisters an opportunity to gather as a community and experience his presence through our women's conference come on yo anybody excited come on well y'all need to get excited those of you that are not yeah come on women's conference is happening october 1st and 2nd right there's an online option but man we want to tell them to bring their one yeah yeah bring your one right uh david and i try to take our ones to certain places recently i was rejected by my one but david was uh started a fantasy football league my one said yes his one said no yeah that's right you can pray for him and there's one i told him the people i was playing with and he was like listen man i don't want anything to do with those folks but invite your one right god's gonna work through this conference but uh there's an online option as well as obviously the in-person option uh for you guys to join if you are interested in doing it online or virtually man we want to encourage you guys host a group at your home uh you know choose the virtual option and invite a bunch of people in you guys don't want to miss what god's going to do through our women's conference amen amen and as we talked about the vision that we are starting to unveil today as for nations and generations we'll focus on nations this week we'll focus on generations next week and then the third week september 26th we'll be focusing on the ask component that we will have a posture that we're saying lord please help us we cannot do this on our own when you guys hear what the lord is challenging us with you're going to be uncomfortable you're going to be uncertain but we serve a god of the possible in the face of impossibilities it's going to be great so on september 26th two weeks from today at five o'clock in this room we will re-gather in the evening at five o'clock to celebrate what god has revealed to us but then also to say lord please we are asking you to do this through each and every one of us you're going to see on-ramps for each and every one of you of how you can engage this vision and it's going to be a powerful evening together so hey i think it's time we get out of the way let's get out of there i got it where is it it's on my phone bro it's on your phone okay all right y'all go ahead and grab your bibles or open up your technology and let's get ready for what the lord wants to say through the words of rick ashley [Music] oh and generations [Applause] welcome to the hills and yes those of us who can make it look good we're the shirt if you're at our campuses in person south lake west fort worth north richmond hills or if you're watching online i'm so glad you're here today especially if you're a guest you picked an amazing day to learn more about the hills church the famous concert pianist arthur rubenstein was invited one time to attend a church and he said take me to a church that will challenge me to attempt the impossible now the implication of that request is that many churches aren't attempting anything spectacular many churches are like a cruise ship with no destination in mind imagine you're on a cruise ship and you ask someone where's this boat going i don't know but have you seen the pool well that's great but where's the boat going well i don't know but have you been to the buffet after a while if the boat is going nowhere i don't care how great the facilities are i want off we are a church that knows where we want to go i just finished a series called essential church and i made my case that i believe in the power of the local church to push back the gates of hell there's no community on earth that has a better story to tell a bolder hope to offer or a bigger mission to pursue and a big mission needs a big vision and so this week and next week i'm going to reveal the vision of the hills church for the next five years and church we are going to attempt the impossible now before we get going a lot of people use the word mission and vision interchangeably and i'm going to make an important distinction mission is non-negotiable because it is given by jesus himself making disciples is the church's one and only mission it doesn't matter what denomination the church is it doesn't matter what nation it is in it doesn't matter whether it's large or small the hills church exists to make and grow followers of jesus that's the mission and it never changes now vision is the way we're going to pursue the mission it's what's going to keep us focused on the mission it's how we're going to measure our impact regarding the mission see vision is anchored in mission but what vision recognizes is that god gives every person and god gives every church different gifts and resources and opportunities to steward as we make and grow followers of jesus see this is one of the unique things about being an image bearer of god we get to imagine what kind of future we want to see animals don't do this a dog doesn't sit around and say what kind of dog do i want to be in five years a proud of lions doesn't discuss what is our ideal future going to look like okay vision is our description of our desired future and it's a picture that we believe was imparted to us by god after much prayer it's going to be specific it's going to be measurable it's going to be a unique strategy for a particular church pursuing the mission of god and it's important to understand the goal of vision is clarity not certainty now let me explain it's football season if you're a football fan you know the team has only one mission win the game but for each game the coach is going to come up with a strategy he's going to come up with a game plan to win the game and what's going to happen in every game the opposition they're going to throw things at him he didn't expect and he's going to have to call some audibles he's going to have to make some changes so as we lay out our vision for the next five years is it going to be tweaked of course it is there are things we don't anticipate right now that we'll have to take into account but what this game plan is going to do is it's going to give us a shared understanding of what we're trying it's going to help us understand how we can do it together and it's going to help us know why it matters that we try you see we've seen in the past an enormous value to having a vision for a local church if you have been here very long you are familiar that for many years our church was guided by what we called our 2020 vision and several years before the end of that vision the leaders knew it was time to discern what is god calling our church to next and so i was tasked by our elders with the responsibility of leading a process that included a lot of reading a lot of reflecting a lot of listening to ministry groups to elders and their wives and other people in our church and then you might recall in the fall of 2019 i went on a retreat and i asked you to pray for me i was going to fast and pray and ask god to give us a new vision now i'm a prayer walker in six days i think i walked about 90 miles and that first day all i did was thank the lord thank you for what he had done at our church with our last vision and then the second day i started asking god for a new vision and i asked and i asked and i asked and i got nothing and i got nervous even fearful i thought am i going to go back and tell my church well thanks for sending me on that retreat i got nothing and i knew the spirit of fear was not from the lord and so immediately as i repented of that fear the holy spirit put a scripture in my mind where jesus said now if your child asks for a egg would you give him a scorpion if he asked for a piece of bread would you give him a snake if you know how to give good gifts to your children how much more does your father in heaven know how to give good gifts to you and so i repented i said lord i thank you in advance now i don't know what you're going to give me but you're a good good father and you're going to give me something it was about 20 minutes later a phrase just burst into my mind i hadn't been thinking about it and the phrase was ask for nations and generations now have i read that before have i heard that somewhere i don't know all i know it wasn't in my mind it came so powerfully into my mind i knew that when i got back to where i was staying i was gonna have to open up my bible and i looked up every verse in the bible with the word nations or generations it took me over four hours to read all of them and i knew i had heard from the lord and i came back and i shared with leadership and we began then to dream what it might look like for a church if we were to ask for nations and generations now i'm going to get to our nation's goal a little later in this message and next week i'm going to share with you our goals for generations but first we're going to do a bible study is that okay we're just going to look at the word of god for a little while and we've got a lot of scriptures you don't have time to turn to all of them so you can write them down and look at them later what i want to do is i want to walk you through literally the bible to discern what is god's heart for nations you see god launched this redemptive plan he called a man named abraham and all the way back in genesis 18 the lord said abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation and all nations on earth will be blessed through him so from the beginning god announced the plan is to bless the nations and he chose this man abraham who became the father of a nation israel now israel was not and has never been god's favorite nation israel was god's chosen nation to be a blessing to all the nations israel was to be a light to the nations pointing them to the worship of the one true god now this is a constant emphasis in their worship music there's a book in the old testament called the book of psalms and it's and fifty of the songs that the ancient israel people would sing when they worshiped god and all through those songs are calls to remember that god wants the nations let me show you examples psalm 47 clap your hands all your nations shout to god with cries of joy god reigns over the nations god is seated on his heavenly throne the nobles of the nations assemble as the people of the god of abraham for the kings of the earth belong to god he is greatly exalted psalm 57 i will praise you lord among the nations i will sing of you among the peoples psalm 72 may all kings bow down to him and all nations serve him may his name endure forever may it continue as long as the sun then all nations will be blessed through him and they will call him blessed you see they sang this all the time they sang the promise given to abraham god wants to bless all the nations look at two more psalm 86 all the nations you have made will come and worship before you lord they will bring glory to your name and psalm 102 the nations will fear the name of the lord all the kings of the earth will revere your glory that's just a handful of the many times they sang about god's heart for the nations here's the thing sadly israel sang a better song than it lived rather than being a light to the nations israel often became an obstacle to the nations discovering the light of god israel kept nations in darkness about the one true god but god was not going to give up on his desired future and so in the old testament god raises up these prophets who declare the coming of a messiah who would reclaim god's desire for the nations for example it's all over the book of isaiah chapter 2 he will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples they will beat their swords and the plow shares their spears into pruning the hooks nation will not take up sword against nation nor will they train for war anymore god's desire is the earth where nations don't fight anymore or in chapter 42 here is my servant whom i uphold my chosen one in whom i delight i will put my spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations you see the messiah's goal was not just the salvation of individuals the messiah's coming was so that god's heart for the nations could be realized in chapter 60 nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn or in chapter 66 and i because of what they had planned and done am about to come and gather the people of all nations and languages and they will come and see my glory so you have this theme through all the prophetic literature god wants the nations maybe the most powerful example is in the book of daniel the prophet as an old man has an amazing vision he says in my vision at night i looked and there before me was one like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven he approached the ancient of days and was led into his presence he was given authority glory and sovereign power all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him his dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed so jesus the messiah came to save individuals from their sins yes but also to reclaim the nations for the glory of god and you see it happening as soon as he's born people from other nations show up to worship the baby you see it at his death an african named simon carried his cross a roman centurion declared him as the son of god it says in matthew chapter 12 in his name the nations will put their hope jesus said just before he died in matthew 24 and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come so it's no coincidence then that when god is going to send the spirit to birth the church with his mission what day did he choose pentecost why pentecost because it says in acts 2 5 there in jerusalem where people gathered from every nation under heaven the very first sermon preached about the cross and the resurrection of jesus was preached to people from every nation and still after all the prophetic literature after three years with jesus the first christians didn't get it in the first few years of the church they kept the gospel to only one nation but god would not be frustrated you recall peter's on a roof he has a vision there's a sheep with a bunch of animals some of her unclean the spirit said rise and kill and eat he said no lord by the way that's a contradiction in terms you never say no lord and eventually he winds up in the house of a gentile named cornelius and he starts preaching and the holy spirit just comes down on the people before he's through preaching and he has this deduction he says i now realize how true it is that god does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right and so eventually the call to reach all the nations became the new narrative of the church which was really the old and only narrative the bible has ever had look at this song they would sing first timothy 3 beyond all question the mystery from which true godless springs is great he appeared in the flesh was vindicated by the spirit was seen by angels was preached among the nations was believed on in the world was taken up in glory and by the way it's real significant when the bible uses the word nations the literal greek word is tie ethno ethnic groups when you hear the word nation in the bible don't think land mass with the boundary think people groups that's why for example the land mass of canaan could have the nations of the perizzites and the amorites and the hittites inside one country you could have many nations when god says i want to reach the nations what god says i want to reach every culture on the earth every people with their own language of their own culture and it's interesting how does the bible close it closes with john's vision of god's promise to abraham being fulfilled in chapter 7 of the revelation after this i looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count from every nation tribe people and language standing before the throne and before the lamb at the end of revelation when the new heaven and the new earth are revealed it says in chapter 21 the glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it and the very last chapter of the bible says on the east side of the river stood the tree of life bearing 12 crops of fruit yielding this fruit every month and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations how does the bible end it ends with the vision that god is going to get what he longs for a new earth filled with obedient children from every nation and it is the responsibility of the church to give the world a glimpse of what's coming we are to be a foretaste of heaven we are to bring heaven to earth and so before he left to go to heaven jesus again made the mission clear matthew 28 all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me therefore go and make disciples of all nations of all ethnicities of every people group baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit and teaching them to obey everything i've commanded you and surely i am with you to the very end of the age the mission is non-negotiable we are to seek to make followers of jesus among every ethnic group on the earth the vision is how we as a church are going to ask god for the nations at the hills for the next five years so we're going to unveil seven goals for the next five years and trust me we're asking for the impossible here's number one we want to see 1825 people surrender to christ and be baptized we want to lead with a goal that is absolutely mission centric to see people make intentional decisions to become followers of jesus why 1825 simple this is a five-year vision that's got 1825 days it says in the book of acts people were added to the kingdom daily we want to see that at our church we want to see people come to christ every single day now here's the thing baptism is not the destination of discipleship baptism is the launching path of discipleship jesus said baptize in every nation and then teach them how to live my way but here's the undeniable reality jesus clearly said i want to see people baptized from every nation we do too so that's where you can start asking for your one in the next several years who's that one person that you know god is seeking and god wants to use you to bring them to christ here's goal number two we want to become a multi-ethnic church now what does that mean there's a lot of literature out there right now and the current definition of a church that is considered to be multi-ethnic as a church where no one ethnic group in that church comprises more than 80 percent of the population of that church you say that seems like a pretty low bar yes it is and yet there's only a small percentage of churches in america that even meet that bar we want to meet that bar in the next five years and we want to go well past it for two reasons number one obedience we want to be obedient to god's mandate revealed in the scriptures god wants a family made up of the nations that is why the new testament never once endorses the monoethnic church that's why nobody in the new testament ever went and started a mono ethnic church from the beginning they understood what god wanted so number one out of obedience but number two out of expedience here's what i mean we live in tarrant county there is not one single ethnic group in tarrant county that makes up more than 50 of this county we are a beautifully diverse county now in the book of acts the bible says god put you where he puts you when he puts you for your purpose for his purpose you live right here right now where you do around who you do for the purposes of god and what god is doing is bringing the nations to tarrant county and mission faithfulness demands that we respond to what god is doing and that means by the way embracing ethnic diversity at every level of leadership in our church and that's something else to be praying about goal number three we want to be a church of at least five campuses by the end of 2026. we believe god is calling our church to have a greater imprint across the dallas fort worth area now this could take the form of brand new faith communities it can take the form of existing faith communities that want to join our vision i truly believe that in five years our church will be an outpost of this area that we cannot even imagine right now we are going to ask and god is going to reveal goal number four in the next five years we want to engage members as advocates for 25 asylum seeking families or individuals in our community what do i mean by that well our government currently receives people seeking asylum because the place where they live is threatening to them because of their race or because of their religion or because of their politics so our government welcomes these people because it is literally dangerous for them to stay in their home land here's the thing they come to our country and for two to three years they have to go through processing before they get a work permit and in that time they get no government assistance what we're going to do is partner with a christ-centered organization called dash network to advocate with these families to come alongside them to give them the physical needs they need the cultural education so they can thrive in their new country now let's be clear some of these families are going to be christians in fact that's why they're here they've been persecuted where they are some of these families are not christians but they are going to meet the love of christ through our church we already have at every one of our campuses one couple in training with dash network to be advocates for these families that might be where god is going to call you to join our vision it might be you as a family it might be that your community group wants to be uh an advocate for one of these families dash network is having a gala at the west fort worth campus thursday night seven o'clock you ought to go and learn more about this if this is something god is calling you to do goal number five we want to help launch and or support 15 new multi-ethnic church plants one of the most popular parts of our last vision was the churches that we helped plant when the first disciples pursued jesus mission they went into all the world and they started churches and we're going to assume and pursue the same strategy and these churches are going to have our strategy they are going to be churches that are intentional to reach the nations where they're planted just like we want to do here goal number six we want to support livingstone international university community through prayer and by sending 20 members of our church in the next five years to teach equip and encourage maybe no part of our last vision was more audacious than this to start a liberal arts university in east africa in imbala uganda we planted and started livingstone international university i've been there several times the potential is absolutely incredible i'm going to be totally honest the challenge created by the pandemic has been formidable livingstone international university has struggled because they've not been able to have students on their campus for the last year we believe in the potential of this vision and so we're going to continue to support liu with prayer with people with finances and we want you to come alongside especially with your prayers and pray for l-i-u it is an amazing thing when you see a young person who thought they had no chance to get a college education get one get a good job and learn about jesus so pray for liu number seven we want to reach the unreached by launching and supporting five church planting movements and by supporting bible translation efforts in five new languages now we have always been a mission mighty church but what we want to do in the next five years is shift our focus a bit and give more attention to that part of the world that has almost no access to the gospel do you understand that 29 of the world can't go down the street and buy bible or just walk into a church building safely and yet currently churches in the west are only giving one percent of their mission resources to the 29 of the world that has no access to the gospel we feel god is calling us into that work watch this video please there are 7 407 unreached people groups in the world that is over 3 billion men women and children who have never even heard of jesus meanwhile 180 million people in more than 2 000 languages are without the bible church we have work to do so we are committing to reaching the unreached like never before 95 of all unreached people groups are located in a part of the world between 10 degrees latitude and 40 degrees longitude stretching from north africa to southeast asia this is known as the 10 40 window we feel called to invest significant resources in this part of the world to reach the unreached through church planting and bible translation so over the next five years we will partner with bible translators to see god's word translated into five new languages communities will be transformed as they finally hear the story of jesus in their own tongue and over the next five years we will launch five church planting movements notice the goal is not five new churches but five church planting movements we are asking god to raise up disciples who will plant churches who plant churches and who can't help but multiply because of the power of jesus that is going to come alive in them church the work ahead is beyond our abilities but it is not beyond god's will so we ask in jesus name for the unreached to be reached and you might be aware in the last couple of years we've already begun doing some of this that's why some of the missionaries we support are not on our website they're in places where we really can't say what they're doing i want to show you a picture one of them sent me last spring i can't show you the faces because i can't tell you where they are or the people they're working with but they wanted to send us that picture those men if you could see their faces are beaming because they helped translate the gospel of matthew into a language that had never had the scripture before and for the first time this people group can read about jesus themselves and they took that picture and said send it to the hills church to say thank you for giving us a chance to read about jesus and i'm telling you when i got that picture i jumped up and spiked my bible i was so excited this is what just started to thrill our soul here's the thing we don't have to wonder when we pray to god for the nations if we're asking for his will a lot of times we say prayers lord if it's your will we don't have to say that god has made it clear from the call of abraham i want to be known among the nations and he can be there's no people group on earth where disciples cannot be made that can make more disciples because all authority over all nations has been given to jesus and so lioness goes out to the mountain bases are loaded charlie brown says lightness we're doomed he says no charlie brown we're just surrounded by insurmountable opportunities yes we are we're a church that's going to attempt the impossible because nothing is impossible for god the first word god gave me was not nations the first word god gave me was ask jesus said you go into all the world all authority has been given to me wherever you go i'll be with you and so we're going to ask two of the greats of the last century a b f b meyer and a b simpson meyer stayed in simpson home for a weekend he gets up early to go downstairs for his devotion just still dark he didn't want to wake anybody up but he gets down and the light on simpson's study is on he's already there he's on his knees in front of a globe he's got his finger on a place on that globe and he's praying he turns that globe puts his finger somewhere else and prays then meyer watched as a.b simpson put his arms around that whole globe and bent over and he wept he wept for the nations i want you to bow your head please here's what i'm going to ask you to do i'm going to ask you to pray for a nation right now ask the holy spirit to put on your heart right now a people group it might be some immigrants at your school it might be some refugees in a different part of the world it might be a nation where you were born before you came to this country it might be a place you visited or a place where you served in the military but right now ask the holy spirit to put on your heart specifically one people group and ask god to bless them oh god help us want what you want and help us become a church that gives the world a vision of what the future is going to look like pray in jesus name amen let me ask you all to stand one of the gifts we offer each week is prayer we have people taking their places along the wall to my right there's a prayer room we'd love to pray with you today if there's a burden you're carrying we can lift it to the father with you we always offer a chance to get baptized let me be very clear jesus wants people in every nation to be baptized baptism is not the end of your journey it's the beginning of your journey of becoming like jesus if you haven't done that today is the day we're going to worship the lord of the nations while you come [Music] holy holy holy [Music] our songs shall rise [Music] blessed [Music] holy [Music] the darkness [Music] see [Music] perfect [Music] oh [Music] jesus christ [Music] here we go [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] me god [Music] [Applause] yes [Music] [Music] jesus hallelujah friday yes [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] you are [Music] is [Music] amen hey man man what a powerful morning bro good morning when you prayed about nations what did god give you what the holy spirit gave you yeah uh nation i've been to sedan before and so it took me back to that trip and just some of those people that i met and hoping that i'll see them in heaven someday come on i got iran i have no reason why the holy spirit pointed me to iran but man i'm gonna pray for that nation and i trust what the holy spirit's doing in that moment it's going to do through this vision and i trust what the holy spirit has given our community has given our pastor our senior teaching pastor our leader rick ashley in regards to our vision and so if you are a guest with us and there's something that you heard today that makes you want to connect deeper with a church with such a powerful vision man we want to encourage you to um pull out your phones and text the word new to the number on the screen behind us also if you if you've been around this community for a while and you haven't found yourself uh embedded in the mission right of making and growing followers of jesus christ man we're praying that you will pray to god pray to the holy spirit and help him find you as a follower of jesus christ help you find yourselves as a part of our mission and then once you are there and you become a part of the mission you see yourselves embedded because it's for everybody right it's for all people all of creation then we want to ask you guys to pray about being connected to our new vision and finding ourselves in that vision so if you guys want more information about the new vision and its goals go to nations and generations.org and you guys can fill out an information interest form and again find out more of what god's doing through our new vision and something you can do here this morning is you exit the worship center and head to the left down on the first level pioneer bible translator translators one of our partners in bible translation you'll go and you'll see a bunch of different people groups that do not have scripture in their language or you can see a partial work that's being done or even some that it's near completion the amazing thing is is that pbt is part of a cohort that these groups are going after all of those languages and they believe that by the year 2050 there will not be a single language on the face of the earth including sign language that scriptures will not have been started we will we will be a part of starting works so that every people group will know and that is an amazing thing church so hey man yes as you hear about these goals not only this week and next things are going to jump out at you and god's going to god's going to pull you towards the pacific one and you know us 1825 yes yeah one thousand eight hundred that's more people that are in this room right now come on that's some of your spouses yeah some of your grandkids some of your neighbors some of your co-workers those are some people that you don't even know yet but god knows and he's already got a plan in place where you're going to meet that individual and church are you going to be obedient or are you going to be ready in that moment to not just tell them how good god is but the difference that he's made in your life because here's the thing if people are going to be coming to christ daily it means that we're going to be investing in people daily to see that happen so as you go this week be asking the lord who's your one and who is it that he wants you to share jesus with we love you god bless you we'll see you next week [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign

Channel: The Hills Church

Views: 1,023

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: XgnRP10pNPc

Length: 95min 0sec (5700 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021