The Hills Church Live | September 19, 2021 | 8:30am

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] good morning everybody let's all stand up together and sing come thou found come thou fount of every blessing to my heart to sing thy grace streams of mercy never ceasing call for songs of loudest praise teach me [Music] while the hope of endless glory fills my heart with joy and love i was lost in utter darkness till you came and rescued me i was found by all my sin when your love came and set me free now my soul can't sing a new song now my heart has found a home now your grace is always with me and i'll never be alone come thou found come now king and thou precious prince of peace hear your bride to you we see come thou fount of our blessing here's my heart lord take and seal it seal it for thy quartz above come thou found come now king come now fresh [Music] come out [Music] [Applause] [Music] of our blessing shout hallelujah shall hallelujah unto the lord shall hallelujah [Music] unto the lord sing aloud to god that the people shout before [Music] make a joyful noise unto the lord shall hallelujah unto the lord shall hallelujah shalt hallelujah shalt hallelujah unto the lord from the ends of the earth [Music] [Music] let all creation praise his name is [Music] shout hallelujah unto the [Music] lord hallelujah amen it is a joy to be here with you today and we're going to be looking further at our our new vision god gave us ask for nations and generations last week was about nations this week as generations so in our time of worship i thought we'd do something a little bit different i asked people from five different generations of some songs they loved when they were younger and we're gonna do those five songs right now so first i asked fred and janice slough they gave me a lot of good songs to choose from but we're going to sing i'll fly away just a good song a good joyful song let's sing that together i'll fly away is fly away [Music] [Applause] when the shadows of this life is [Applause] i fly away when i die hallelujah buy a bike just a few more weary days [Applause] [Music] oh when i die [Applause] hallelujah an encouraging song that is right now when we go through these songs we're going to see some different styles some different melodies different song structures but they're all the same that they praise the lord they encourage us from truth that we glean from scripture so the next person i asked was kurt parsons he mentioned sweet hour prayer and i know what a what a good song that is he he mentioned the reminder of having that dedicated time each day where we go in prayer to the father and how how good and healthy that is for us let's sing sweet hour of prayer sweet hour of [Music] known in seasons of distress and grief my soul [Music] [Music] thy wing shall my petition pair to him whose truth and faithfulness engage the waiting soul and since he pissed me seek his face believe his worth and trust his grace i'll cast on him every [Music] such a good song of comfort just love that song next i asked tammy jaffet and she mentioned a song that we used to sing all the time it's a song that praises god because of the gospel it says the gospel really succinctly and in a powerful way so let's sing this lord i lift your name on high lord i lift your name lord [Music] i'm so glad you're in my life [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] lord i lift your name lord i love to sing your praises [Applause] i'm so glad you're in my life [Music] [Applause] you came from heaven to earth to show the way from the earth to the cross my death from the cross to the grave from the grave to the sky lord i lift your name on high lord i lift your name on amen beautiful song and if you can't tell we're going uh when i've asked these people we're going from let's say the most experienced to the lesser experienced next i asked brianna stone brianna and kadestone and they said they had a good time just thinking through some of those songs from from a while back and one that you all mentioned was you were my all in all i love this for a lot of reasons and the beauty of the song is there when we sing it in the rounds too it's just such a beautiful song of praise let's sing that together you are my strength when i am weak you are the treasure that i seek you are my all in all seeking you as a precious [Music] jesus lamb of god worthy is your name jesus [Music] is [Music] me [Music] you are my strength [Music] seeing you as a precious [Music] jesus is your name oh my jesus god world is your name [Music] worthy is your amen and then one more song i asked luke vanderveer who is one of our high school students who also sings on the praise team he'll be singing next weekend and he said his favorite new song is one thing remains it's just a beautiful description of the love of god so we'll sing that higher than the mountains that i face and is stronger than the power of the grave constant in the trial and the change this one thing remains [Music] your love never fails and never gives up it never runs out on me your love never fails and never gives up it never runs out on me your love never fails it never gives up it never runs out on me your love your love and on and on and on and and on my soul and i'll never ever have to be afraid this one thing remains [Applause] this one thing remains your love never fails it never gives up it never runs out on me your love never fails and never gives up it never runs out on me your love never fails and never gives up it never runs out on me your love your love in dead in life i'm confident and covered by the power of your grey love my dead is paid there's nothing that can separate my heart from your great love your love never fails and never gives up sing it out [Music] your love never fails and never gives up it never runs out on me your love never fails it never gives up it never runs out on me no your love never fails and never gives up it never runs out on me your love your love amen thanks for worshiping together be seated please good morning as we now focus our minds on the cross we would like to lead you in some communion thoughts i'm going to be reading from joshua 4. this is where joshua and the children of israel are crossing the jordan to finally enter the promised land when the whole nation had finished crossing the jordan the lord said to joshua choose 12 men from among the people one from each tribe and tell them to take up 12 stones from the middle of the jordan from right where the priests are standing and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight on the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the jordan and camped at gilgal on the eastern border of jericho and joshua set up at gilgal the 12 stones they had taken out from the jordan he said to the israelites in the future when your descendants ask their parents what do these stones mean tell them israel crossed the jordan on dry ground for the lord your god dried up the jordan before you until you had crossed over the lord your god did to the jordan what he had done to the red sea when he had dried it up before us until we had crossed over he did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the lord your god so the story uh caleb just read is a picture about what we're going to do here this morning you see joshua had them set up a memorial a monument of stones there at gilgal so that future generations would never forget the goodness and the power of god that had allowed israel to cross on dry ground into the promised land and now we as believers each sunday share in this communion a much greater memorial instituted by our savior we do this so that we don't forget the goodness and the power of jesus to save us from our sins and cross from death to life because of his sacrifice at calvary so let's do that now let's remember that sacrifice by sharing the bread that represents his body broken for us and the juice that represents his atoning blood that washes our sins away will you pray with us dear god you are perfectly faithful and you are a promise keeper to all generations thank you for sending your son jesus to die on the cross for our sins because he loves us so much as we take the bread and the juice may we remember his great sacrifice for us in his name amen there is love that came for us [Music] you rose again faithfulness through the storm and through the fire there is truth that sets me free jesus christ who lives in me you are stronger you are stronger sin is broken you have saved me it is written christ is risen jesus you [Music] you came to seek and save the lost you paid it all upon the cross you are stronger you are stronger sin is broken you have saved me it is written christ is risen jesus you are lord of all you are stronger you are stronger sin is broken you are saved me it is written christ is risen jesus [Music] good morning church good morning good morning it's good to be in the house of the lord together this is the day that the lord has made and so we can rejoice and be glad in it regardless of what's happening in our circumstances regardless of what you came in carrying there is power there's something that happens when we worship and rejoice the god whose day this is this is the day that the lord has made and so we can rejoice and be glad in it we're so glad that you're here this morning my name is alexandra hey good morning fam i'm chris good to see y'all this morning good to see you alexandra i gotcha absolutely sister welcome welcome we're glad that you're here yes yeah yeah we are so blessed because as we enter into this vision season we're talking about asking for nations and generations and there are generations present with us that i'm about to dismiss to your bible study groups so kids first through fifth graders i'm about to dismiss you but i got a word for you this morning and i first threw fifth graders if you're here i want your eyes look at me real quick i want to say thank you for helping our church know what it looks like to be a follower of jesus because jesus said if you want to enter into his kingdom he said you need to become like you like you first through fifth graders so thank you for giving us a picture of what it's like to follow jesus i want you to know that your church is crazy about you and we love you and we are so so blessed by you and so now yeah we can thank you first and fifth graders we love you very very much such an important part of what god is doing here so we want to dismiss you now first through fifth graders to go to your bible study groups uh we've got our our kids ministry volunteers at the back and they will take you to your groups have a blessed time first to fifth graders okay ladies hey come on now whoa there was we got a few woos we have women's conference coming up in just a few weekends and i personally am so excited and expectant for what god is going to do this theme get up and walk i've been thinking about that what god is going to call each of us too as we come to women's conference and the thing that god keeps bringing to my mind is that in order to get up and walk you have to be in a lowly state or you have to be on your knees right and i've been thinking about this women's conference that we're going to be at together and how i believe this is going to be a space where we collectively will get on our knees before the father and worship him and so on the heels of that from a state of worship and praise god is gonna call us to get up and to walk and to head out into the world and be a light in this world and so if you're in a season of feeling down if you're in a season of feeling distant from others if you're in a season of heartache if you're in a season of joy if you're in a season of more god is giving you more in this season this women's conference is for you i believe every single one of us are going to come in one way and leave a different because we will have encountered the presence of god so if you've been on the fence about women's conference would you sign up would you get registered would you come i believe god has something for you at women's conference you can sign up tickets are live and we also have options virtually so if you need to worship at home and gather women in your home if you're out of town that weekend and still want to join us you can do that online so join us in person online get your tickets yeah absolutely want to let you know about another exciting gathering that we're going to have coming up next sunday september 26th at 5 00 pm at each of our campuses we are going to have a time for prayer and worship as god leads us into this vision season as we ask for nations and generations you'll hear you'll hear rick say a lot you'll probably hear him say it again today that the first word that the lord gave him was not generations or nations it was ask and so we're going to gather together as a people next sunday at five o'clock and we are going to ask god for nations and generations because that is the appropriate place for the church to be postured as we live into what god is doing in the world we assume the posture on our knees church we assume a group of people who say god we can't do this without you and you know what we don't want to do this without you we want you to lead us into what the next five years is going to be so church we ask that you will come and join us for a time of prayer and worship as we call out to the god who wants to see nations and generations come back to him you can go to our website if you need child care that evening you can go to our website sign up for child care that night we really would love for you to join us next sunday as we pray together and as we worship our god who's excited to hear about generations this morning come on church yes let's go god is doing something at this place he has given his vision to this place and we want to partner with him and so this morning get your bibles out get your tablets out get your pens out note takers are history makers so get ready we believe that god has a word for you this morning through pastor rick as we see what god is doing in generations in this place join us this morning [Music] oh and generations welcome to the hills uh my name is rick ashley i'm the senior teaching minister here at this church and if you're a guest in person on north richmond hills west fort worth south lake campus or online you've picked an incredible day to be with us because we're unveiling the vision of our church for the next five years and we're calling it ask for nations and generations so last week we unveiled our seven goals for reaching the nations and all the different ethnic groups around the world and right here in our community and we saw that god's heart for the nations is huge he cares not just for one people but for all people and his rejective agenda is not just for one time it is for all times so we shouldn't be surprised that he would give the church today a vision for the church tomorrow because god is just as passionate about generations as he is about nations so last time i unpacked for you what the scripture says about god hearts for nations in a moment i'm going to do the same thing about god's heart for generations but first i want to deal with a couple of legitimate questions people might have about our next vision and one might be why are we unveiling it now in this season that we're in the truth of the matter is we wanted to unveil it a year ago if you're a member of our church for a few years you've heard the phrase the 2020 vision it guided our church for many years it served us well it concluded in december of 2020 and so it was our plan this time last year to unveil the next vision and it would begin in january of 2021 and then of course the pandemic arrived and for six months we couldn't meet in person we couldn't get together to do some of the things that we had to do to build the next vision so leadership made the decision we will put off the unveiling of the next vision for one year so this vision will start being tracked in january of 2022 and it'll go through december of 2026. now here's what we know the future is still uncertain we don't have any idea how long we're going to deal with this pandemic but we affirm god is in control and that the mission of making and growing followers of jesus is always in season god has a pretty good track record of advancing his kingdom even when circumstances aren't ideal and so we decided instead of waiting for the future that we want we want to start creating the future that we want and that's going to mean pursuing some very specific measurable goals with regard to nations and generations and that's the second question someone might have i don't feel comfortable with numbers we ought to be focusing on quality and not quantity let's think about that a moment you're at a state park with your mate you've got five kids they all get lost you frantically search you find three of them do you say to your mate honey we can go home we've got the three quality kids now if you care about how many of your lost children you find why shouldn't the father in heaven feel the same way here's the truth if it cannot be measured what you have is a slogan you don't have a strategy many churches are uh frankly kind of floundering because all they have is a slogan you look on the website we exist to invest and include and invite what does that mean and how do you know if you're doing that here's the truth you count what you think counts how did the shepherd know one of his sheep was missing well he knew he had 100 and he counted 99. when the master came back in jesus parables how did he determine if his stewards had been faithful he counted how much he gave them and he counted how much they returned in the book of acts you have several times where the numbers of new disciples is counted and reported now we recognize our goals may have to be tweaked in the future but we also recognize that goals that cannot be measured will not be met you say oh i want to lose weight okay how much do you weigh i don't know i don't ever get on the scale you don't want to lose weight you want to talk about losing weight if you don't measure it you're not going to meet it and so we have goals we're going to measure we know something else too if the goals aren't daunting then they are not god honoring this vision is not from god if we don't need god to do it that's why the first word is ask so next week taylor and i are going to launch a series called building the future we're going to use the book of nehemiah as a platform for how do we build the kind of future we think god wants the first thing nehemiah did when he found out the walls of jerusalem were down is he prayed the first step to any realization of the future you'll want is to ask and that's why next sunday night at five o'clock at every campus we are gonna have a prayer service and we will know how invested we are and how serious we are about this vision by how serious we are about prayer and so i hope you intend to join us because it will help us own this vision and there are so many benefits when a church owns a vision when a church owns a vision then it can align its ministries and its monies it helps you know this is what we're going to say yes to and this is what we're going to say no to because we're going to stay true to our vision a church vision will help members get on the same page help new members get on board a church vision will help a church uh eliminate jealousy of other churches think about it we're not in competition with any church in our community any church is lifting up christ we are for they can do the things god has called them to do and we're going to be excited about the thing god has called us to do i tell you another blessing when a church has a vision she'll stop fussing about unimportant things when a church does not have a vision she will fight over issues we don't want to be an issue-oriented church we want to be a the issue-oriented church we want to make and grow followers of jesus and maybe most of all the power of vision is that it creates on-ramps for the people of god to do the work of god slogans don't do that measurable vision does that you know one of the things i love about this next vision and you're going to see this especially when i roll out the next set of goals is there are more ways than ever for you to be engaged in the last vision as good as it was the primary way we asked you to engage besides funding was to go on a mission trip there are going to be so many ways for all of us right here in our city to engage this mission because god wants engagement not just affirmation when my son michael my oldest were just three years old we took him up to chicago where my parents lived at that time my father was wrapping up a long career with sears and my mother and father collected antique clocks now michael was your typical three-year-old he was all over the place somehow he bumped into one of those clocks and fell off the wall and it broke this is a teaching moment and so we use it as an opportunity to teach our son to say to papa i'm sorry that i broke your clock now later in the week michael found a few coins on the ground he was so excited jamie thought another teaching moment she said michael do you think you should take the money and give it to papa to help him fix his broken clock michael said nah i'm pretty sure i've done enough already that is the motto of the stagnant church i will assent to a good idea i don't intend to invest in it god is calling us to do more than agree with his passion for the world he is calling us to invest especially in the next generation you see our god is always thinking ahead often accompanying his commands and his promises in the bible with the phrase for generations to come so go back to abraham where he launched his redemptive agenda to bless all the nations and god said in genesis 17 i will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come to be your god and the god of your descendants after you and then god said to abraham as for you you must keep my covenant you and your descendants after you for the generations to come god is always thinking ahead in the exodus when they commemorate the passover the event that is the greatest metaphor in scripture of our salvation where god delivers through the blood of a lamb this is what god said this is a day you're to commemorate for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the lord god wants the fruit of obedience to bless the generations to come but god also warns disobedience will impact generations to come we live in a culture where i said let me just do my own thing as long as it doesn't hurt anybody the scripture is clear what you're doing now is affecting somebody whether you want to recognize it or not the scripture says exodus 20 when god gave the ten commandments i the lord your god i'm a jealous god punishing the children for the sin of the parents through the third and fourth generation of those who hate me but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments let's be clear we are having an impact on the generations to come so we might as well own it and decide what that impact is going to be when you read the old testament the story of israel is this sad circle of revival and then decline and revival and decline because of their inability to pass on faith to the next generation judges chapter 2 after that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors another generation grew up who knew neither the lord nor what he had done for israel and so what you have is this theme of impacting the next generation for good and it's a two-way street for example look at deuteronomy 32 remember the days of old consider the generations long past ask your father and he will tell you your elders and they will explain to you so in this verse the scripture is saying you young people you need to lean into the wisdom of the older generation and learn from them the ways of the lord but most of the emphasis in the bible is on the old people taking the initiative psalm 22 posterity will serve him future generations will be told about the lord they will proclaim his righteousness declaring to a people yet unborn he has done it psalm 71 even when i am old and gray do not forsake me my god till i declare your power to the next generation your mighty acts to all who are to come i love that spirit of this older man saying god let me live long enough to make sure the next generation has heard my faith story in psalm 145. excuse me psalm 78 we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the lord his power and the wonders he has done psalm 145 one generation commends your works to another they tell of your mighty acts they speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty and i will meditate on your wonderful works you have this all through the prophets like in joel tell it to your children and that your children tell it to their children and their children to the next generation god's mission is for all people god's mission is for all times and churches that want the kingdom to come are going to have a passion and a burden for the generations still to come now when i was a boy back in the 1960s i heard about a church in tennessee that had over 3 000 people back then that was unheard of it may have been the largest church in america it was called the madison church of christ and the preacher was named ira north and i'm going to tell you why i think god blessed that church ira north had a passion for kids nobody else cared about so one sunday he comes in front of his church and he brings a 10-year-old boy named eddie he says eddie have you ever been in this church before no sir well i want you to know something eddie you're as welcome here as the president of the united states and then he sent eddie out of the room then he turned to his church he said eddie has no home and i was talking to the district judge last week and they're going to send eddie to a reform school to get him off the street and his only crime is he is unwanted and then he went off you people have your big houses and your fancy cars and i'm not against big houses and fancy cars but who cares about eddie and he started preaching and there was this man in the church leaned over to his wife named perry underwood in the middle of the sermon he stood up and said brother north eddie has a home until you can get that children's home built and i believe with all my heart god specifically showed favor on that church because their heart was for kids nobody cared about we want to be that kind of church a church that cares about the generation still to come we're going to invest in faith development of the next generation like never before that's one reason why i am thrilled to share with you today at every campus we are hiring jill shelby for a new position called the next generation minister next gen minister jill is going to oversee from the cradle to high school the things we're doing as a church to instill faith in the next generation you know jill missionary in rwanda principal of a christian school in africa principal of a middle school here in our city and she is uniquely qualified to help us let me be clear our goal for the next generation is not a lot of decisions for christ our goal is to raise up a lot of disciples of christ our vision is not a room full of young people our vision is a generation of young people that are full of jesus by the way 95 of all christians in america made their commitment to christ before they were 25 years old now the church cannot replace the home but the church can help the home everything we're doing is we're trying to help you moms and dads instill faith in the next generation you can help too for example our primary programming night for student ministry is wednesday night you need to make that a priority moms and dads your teenager needs to be at every one of our campuses on wednesday night on september 29th they're starting a new series in the book of proverbs called gold mine they're going to read a chapter of proverbs a day proverb 16 time says my child the book of proverbs is wisdom from an older generation to a younger generation our student team has created this book called gold mine i read it let me tell you it is so good it needs to be in every christian bookstore in the country it's that stellar we want your student to get one of these books and it costs seven dollars to print if you can give us seven dollars that's great if you can't you just get one for your student but we want them going through god's word and we need them to have parents who think this is a priority proverbs 1 4 these proverbs will give the insight to the simple knowledge and discernment to the young we want to care for the next generation you know jesus it's good to remember this jesus was once a child our savior was once a child and it's also important to remember jesus always made time and space for children and we will too so with all that said here are our seven goals to be a church that impacts generations for the next five years number one we want to launch and sell and lead celebrate recovery in a freedom ministry for the redemption of broken generations the reality is one generation is not guilty for the sins of another but certainly can be impacted and we know how many families and how many children are affected by generational sin that just keeps getting passed down and it keeps them from knowing nothing but bondage as normal we believe the gospel offers freedom on both sides of the grave and the gospel has the power to create a new normal for future generations and so at the nrh campus we launched celebrate recovery this past summer led by ryan young uh they're already meeting on thursday nights they're having an amazing time and would you know this already in just two or three months we've had at least six people give their lives to christ and be baptized to celebrate recovery and we can certainly rejoice in that okay goal number two we want to raise up 25 new foster families in our church in the next five years we want to train a hundred members to be respite workers to serve foster families when you read the scriptures you cannot help but know that god has a heart for the fatherless and the family less now currently in the communities around our three campuses we have over 900 children temporarily placed in foster care due to abuse or neglect the truth is there are more children who need placement than there are families available now we know some of you have already engaged in this wonderful ministry would you tell us at any of our three campuses if you are currently fostering would you contact a leader and just let us know because we want to support you what we're going to do is we're going to partner with local agencies we're going to try to raise up 25 families who will be trained and they will consider fostering we've got to raise up a hundred respite workers who have to get trained to do this to help take care of these kids at times we need people who are going to be volunteers and parents night out we need community groups that will adopt a foster family and give them the support that they need here's what i know especially in the book of james if your faith doesn't care about neglected kids your faith is fake and so we're going to become more involved in fostering as a church the next five years goal number three we want to see 2 000 members a year serving ministry to kids and students in our church and community you've heard me say over and over studies are showing that what seems to cause kids to stick with faith when they leave home is their memories of all the intergenerational experiences they had we need to get the generations together we want every member to be intentional about blessing a child every year there's so many ways you can do that think about our renew partners you you can work with academy for one hour a month you can be a mentor to a fourth grader you can work a pregnancy help for you you can work with teen life line you can work for our father's children and take some kids to camp think about inside our church we have uh upward sports ministries we have people that lead our student groups and the most significant way so many of us can help is our bible classes for our kids we want the culture to be that you'll come one hour and worship and you'll also serve in our kindness classes for an hour ideally with your teenagers there is no reason a single person listening to me could not every year have at least one experience where they intentionally blessed the next generation and so that's one of our goals number four we want to launch a ministry resident program that trains at least 10 people for future service in the church i'm grateful for colleges and seminaries and all the ways that people can train for a future in ministry but the church needs to take the leadiness i'm talking not about summer internships i'm talking about bringing in young people who would stay at our church for at least a year and they would be trained as they consider a future in ministry we hope to start that with our first resident next spring goal number five we want to guide 3 000 people to connect to god church and purpose through rooted which is a small group discipleship experience rooted was actually created in africa by some pastors in kenya and it had such an impact and now it's blessing churches in america it's an opportunity it's a 10-week experience for people to practice the disciplines and the commitments that form them into the image of christ it's not a class it's a communal experience that introduces people to the ways of jesus so the senior leadership we've been through rooted and then all of the staff has been through rooted right now the elders at every campus are going through rooted this fall we're going to train our facilitators they will go through rooted so that next spring we can offer this and in a couple of years we're going to have a few thousand people who've been to rooted students and adults and it's going to transform our church goal number six we want to strengthen marriages by providing relationship champions to impact and encourage 250 couples now we already have a lot of ministries at our church that are blessing marriages but we want to be more proactive you recall at the very beginning of the pandemic when we were not able to meet in person we sent out a survey to all the people in our church how are you doing and 20 reported their marriages were struggling what we want to do is train some godly veteran christian couples to walk alongside marriages imagine every newlywed in our church getting a godly older couple to coach and mentor them the first year they're married or any couple needing some help having someone come alongside them as a trained coach and champion because nothing impacts the faith engagement of the next generation more than growing up in a home with a stable marriage now let me take a moment there the studies are unassailable the single factor for the thriving of a young adult emotionally financially educationally and spiritually is this did the child grow up in a home with a mother and father that stayed together there's nothing else that comes close to that one factor now please hear me because i know i'm talking right now to some single parents the last thing i want to do is make you feel bad you are heroes and yet you would be probably the first to admit god's ideal is best you see when we build a strong marriage we're laying the foundation for the next generation and so that's going to be one of our goals to do all we can to bless marriages and then number seven we want to create an intergenerational mentoring experience for men and women on every campus with the goal of maturing 300 kingdom influencers we don't need to hope we can find the next generation of church leaders we need to form them and so we want our leadership culture at the hills to get younger and more diverse and so at every campus we're launching groups where we're taking mature older christians who are going to pour into men and women that we believe are going to be the next generation of leaders in our church we don't want to just wish for the next generation we want to raise them now that is so much to absorb and i understand that we've created a website nationsgeneration.org all 14 of our goals are on that website i would encourage you to go to get more acquainted there's also a form you can fill out where you can say i want to learn more about this you're not committing to anything you're just saying someone get told of me and tell me how i might be able to help with this and i would encourage all of you to pray and look at that a memory came back to me as i worked on this message that i hadn't retained for a while most of you know when i was a little boy i announced to the world i was going to be a preacher but i didn't know what that meant so our little church was down the street from a nursing home and once a month it was our church's assignment to go to that nursing home on sunday afternoon and bring communion to the residents who wanted to participate my father signed up one sunday afternoon for to go and announce that i would be bringing the message i was sixth or seventh grade i had never given a talk in my life i was scared and i'll be totally honest my audience of about 25 people and about half of them were asleep with their mouths open and i powered through that talk i'm sure it was awful and we prayed and we passed out the communion and then when we were through there was an older woman in a wheelchair and she did like this and i came and i stood next to her and she said you need to go to seminary i did not know what that word was i had no idea what she was telling me to do and then she said i think god's hand is on you and he wants you to preach his word and she was the first person to ever tell me that i ought to be a preacher i don't know her name i'll meet her in heaven but decades later i cherish that memory of a woman who thought you're never too old or weak to bless the next generation we are here because somebody in the previous generation remained faithful we must be faithful for the next generation our goals are huge i know that but our god is bigger and so we ask in the spirit of the prayer of the apostle paul now all glory to god who was able through his mighty power at work within us to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think glory to him in the church and in christ jesus through all generations forever and ever amen so would you take a moment and bow your head i'll finish the prayer i want you to start it i want you to take a moment and thank god for some of the people in the previous generation that poured into you your parents school teachers coaches counselors youth ministers take a moment and thank god for the people in the previous generation that poured into you name them specifically so and so god we praise your name for those who were before us for their faithfulness and their impact the wake of their life is still being felt and god we want to have an impact too for generations to come we want the things that we do with this short time of life that we have to be a blessing so god help us to think about generations the way you do for jesus sake amen amen please stand we're going to sing a song of praise to my right we have a prayer room we would love to pray with anyone today about anything going on in your life that could be a blessing and we'll receive anyone who wants to be baptized into jesus while we worship lord bless you and keep you make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you the lord turn his face toward you and give you peace oh [Music] the lord bless you and keep you make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you the lord [Music] give you peace [Music] [Music] and your family and your children and their children and their children may his favor be upon you and a thousand generations and your family and your children and their children and their children may his favor be upon you and a thousand generations and your family and your children and their children and their children may his presence go before you and behind you and beside you all around you and within you he is with you he is with you in the morning in the evening and you're coming and you're going and you're weeping and rejoicing he is for you he is for you he is for you he is for you he is for you he is for you he is for you he is for you he is for you he is for your man [Music] [Music] [Music] i was standing over there thinking about the people in the older generation as i was just thanking god for them by name and god brought this couple to mind who are like grandparents to me now but they were people still are to this day who remind me that god is for me in a season when my family hit rock bottom when i was 16 years old this couple showed up we did not know them they went to church with us and it seemed like we just looked up from the chaos and here they were herman and yvette these grandparents that just loved us and came alongside us and reminded us who god was in that season and what he was doing and who he would always be they've marked me forever and sitting over there i was just getting emotional thanking god for them thanking god for their obedience that they were just obedient to show up and remind me who god was and this morning as we heard about generations and what god is doing he's just calling us to be obedient to where he's leading us to partner with this vision and part of obedience the other side of obedience right is blessing we know this to be true that when we step into obedience and to where god is calling us there is blessing on the other side of that and so part of being obedient i think is giving it's saying god here's this money that you've entrusted to me here's these resources that you've given me and my family and here it is back god because i trust you and i just want to be obedient and so there's a bunch of ways you can give you can see it on the screen behind me and if you're new here if this is your first sunday with us or maybe you've come a bit you're just testing out the water dipping a toe and backing up a little bit would this be your first sunday that you text new here to the number on the screen we want to get to know you you matter to us and so we want to learn your name and know your face and welcome you into this place yes that's right uh family we wanted to let you know uh that we received news that jim williamson a member of our church has passed away survived by his wife ruth and we ask that you will lift up ruth and the family as they mourn his passing and as they celebrate his life and we will celebrate jim's life together wednesday at two o'clock here in this room and so we invite you to be a part of that if you knew that family and i want to bless them and remember jim also want to make sure that as this is our vision season that you go to that website nationsandgenerations.org is live you've heard all of the goals now the things that god is leading us into as a church and you have the opportunity to go to the website to explore ways that that can be a way you can get involved each of the goals has an interest form if one of those piqued your interest fill out that interest form and one of the leaders of those areas will reach out to you and tell you ways that you can be involved in what god is going to use our church to do in the next five years family i hope that you are excited about the things that you've heard because what god is doing for us right now is he is giving us a gift he is giving us a gift of holy site of giving us a picture of how he desires the world to be in five years through our church we're not just talking about some goals we are talking about heaven coming to earth brothers and sisters we are not talking about just taking some things off we are talking about the world fundamentally changing in five years through the life of god through the life of this church and so we're not just listening to goals we are receiving a gift of vision and our world is counting on us to live into the things god is putting before you and before me a lot is at stake our friends our co-workers the people that we see in the grocery stores they are depending on us to be able to see things the way that nobody else can to be able to imagine how things can be that nobody else can and for us to live into these moments as a church and in five years church imagine five years how this room is going to look different how our communities are going to look different and how the world is going to look different let's take our place in the story that god is going to write and let's live into it we love you may the lord bless you may the lord keep you and we will see you next time we are together have a great week friends thank you holy spirit guide my speaking words of grace and truth abound let my lips be filled with stories the mercy that i found you're the light you're my path [Music] you're the shepherd of my soul all i am holy spirit lead me on holy spirit guide my [Music] let your voice your be [Music]

Channel: The Hills Church

Views: 998

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: v_BlUXmbahw

Length: 74min 42sec (4482 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021