The Kingdom Now

hi Pastor Matt listen thank you for downloading or streaming this sermon pray that it blesses your heart two quick things that I want to lay before you before we get started in the proclamation of God's Word the first is and I love that you're dialing in to hear what the Lord's put on our heart here at TVC but I ask that you would only consume these messages as supplemental and in no way replacing your commitment and your listening to your local church pastor these are good gifts of God's grace for the people of God to grow in and yet they are not to replace ever meant to replace our belonging to a covenant community of faith where we are the the second thing want to lay before you is is that there are a lot of man-hours that men and women here at the village church put behind not just the creation of this but the creation of all kinds of resources that are meant to help you grow and develop as a disciple of Jesus Christ and so if this blesses you or the other resources that have been created have blessed you would you consider giving back to the village church to support not just these things but the creation of even more resources for you and really for anyone who wants to indulge in them now I pray that God stirs your affections for Jesus Christ as you listen now to the proclamation of God's Word [Music] the kingdom of God is as multifaceted and mysterious as our Creator a kingdom we only see now through a glass darkly though we can't picture it fully God's kingdom is the story told in Scripture from the garden to the city and in the middle of the story God chose to reveal his kingdom in a new way the gospel is not only Jesus coming and dying to save us from our sins it's also the story of God establishing his dwelling Dominion and dynasty in the world we live as both citizens and strangers prisoners of hope in this shadow kingdom all while knowing it's not our true home that something better is coming that God's perfect Kingdom is come [Music] well good morning it's good to see you if you have your Bibles go ahead and grab those are gonna be an Acts chapter two we will be finishing our series on the kingdom of God today it's been the last 12 weeks it's what we've been talking about looking at diving into it also is Pentecost Sunday that's Sunday that the church has historically celebrated the coming of the Holy Spirit and the expanding of the kingdom of God to the ends of the earth and so I thought that we could finish the series by going back to the very first weekend of the series when we defined what the kingdom was and so we use Steve Tim is's definition of the kingdom Steve is the CEO of the acts 29 church planning network we are heavily involved in that Network 700 churches 30 languages something like that on all of the world's pretty cool and and here was his definition the kingdom of God is where the father's rule is exercised through the son by the power of the Spirit so there's your triune nature of God playing itself out in this way where the reign and rule of that God is willingly obeyed gloriously displayed and happily enjoyed among his people now one of the reasons I loved Steve's definition is because both biblically as well as experientially this is how we have learned to submit to the God of the Bible and so he starts with kind of that stage one of sanctification where we willingly obey the Word of God and so you can't usually start with happily enjoy and the reason why I happily enjoyed isn't the starting point is for many of us we have to grow in a trust of God as our Lord and Savior and so many of you will remember what it's like to become a Christian and for there to be these spaces where it was really really easy for us to say yes to God and follow him but then there were these other places that required faith like there were these other places that really had us wrestling with ourselves and saying no no I'm gonna trust the God of the Bible more than I trust my own intuition and then that willful obedience to the Word of God then led to the glorious display of God's goodness and grace because all the bow shouts and thou shalt not in the Bible or about your joy in his glory and so every time we submit our compulsion to the Word of God and orient our lives through the power of the Spirit to God's revealed will we gloriously display his wisdom and mercy to the rest of the world and then finally upon those two things it can be happily enjoyed among his people right but you don't start with happily enjoyed you start with willful obedience I'm gonna submit my life to God as king and that's very very different than I'm a social conservative right now that's a very very different thing then I grew up in the south that's a very different thing then you fill in the blank the submission to King Jesus as Lord of our lives is willful obedience it shows and proves and this is the thing I want to continue to harp on because I believe it's a confusion of our day that Christianity is not primarily about personal comfort or human happiness you with me all right that Christianity is not primarily about personal comfort and human happiness that's not what the kingdom is about that's not what the gospel is about in fact you and I find ourselves as Christians in the tension of human flourishing and the cross and self-denial right that's where we find ourselves that God has made known to us the path of life all the bow shouts and thou shalt nots about our joy but we live in a fallen world and so we find ourselves in the tension between human flourishing and the cross of Jesus Christ and it makes us weirdos because if there's any unforgivable sin in 2018 it's not giving in to your personal impulses right I mean that cannot be forgiven because that's who you really are those impulses you have sexually those impulses you have financially those impulses you you should never subject those things those are who you are give yourself over to those things because if it's one thing thousands of years of human history has taught us is that we know what's best for us that if anyone anyone can lead us into our own personal happiness it's us like a making a little joke there because if history shows us anything it's that we break everything and every philosopher and every culture has had to try to get to the bottom of why we can't get ourselves into our own happiness right I mean the Greeks tried it the Romans tried it they all had these ideas about okay why can't we get to where we want to get CS Lewis says it this way it's probably my favorite way I ever read this idea I didn't go to religion to make me happy I always knew that a bottle of pork would do that if you want a religion to make you really comfortable I certainly don't recommend Christianity right now nothing about mr. stop think about how foreign that sentence is to large swaths of American evangelicals if what you want is to feel really really comfortable then I certainly don't recommend Christianity what did Lewis say could bring him that a bottle of port you want to be happy for a few moments and then be overcome by guilt and shame there's a way to do that but coming to Christ as king asurs you into the kingdom not of personal comfort and and human happiness but what I would argue is a joy of soul that transcends circumstances in fact where Christianity becomes about personal comfort and personal individual happiness it tends to die and where it becomes about self-sacrifice in the kingdom it flourishes and so I wanted to end our time on the kingdom talking about the kingdom here and now so we've been talking about what the kingdom is what it looks like what citizens look like in that Kingdom and then last week we looked at the kingdom when when it's consummated new heavens new earth and where we're moving towards and now here we are in the space in-between so what does it look like for us to be a part of the kingdom of God that is ever expanding in all directions well I'll give you my line if that would be helpful to you what I want to show you from acts 2 1 through 13 is that the unwelcomed are now welcomed and the outright rejection of force or withdrawal that's what the kingdom looks like now the unwelcomed welcomed and the outright rejection of force or withdrawal there's my outline let's dive in to Acts chapter 2 by the way just if you're new don't think number of points have anything to do with length of sermon just to prepare your heart right you're like oh thank God only two points doesn't matter let's dive in Acts chapter 2 starting in verse 1 when the day of Pentecost arrived by the way if you don't Pentecost is when the Jews would celebrate the giving of the law at Mount Sinai right it was one of three Jewish festivals that required a pill mert pilgrimage to Jerusalem if he had the means to do so and so if you add the means you would pack up your family and you would travel to Jerusalem to be in Jerusalem where the temple was to celebrate that God gave you the law as his people he gave you the way of life and so that's what Pentecost is when the day of Pentecost arrived they were all together in one place that that means the disciples of an ascended Jesus and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting and divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews devout men from every nation under heaven and as this sound the multitude came together and they were bewildered because each one was hurt hearing them speak in his own language and they were amazed and astonished saying are not all these who are speaking Galileans and how is it that we here each of us in his own native language Partha nians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia Judea Judea and Cappadocia Pontus and Asia Phrygia and Pamphylia Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene and visitors from Rome both Jews and proselytes cretins and Arabians we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God and all were amazed and perplexed saying to one another what does this mean but others mocking said they are filled with new wine they were saying they're drunk that's what's going on right these brothers got Pentecost party last night and they've still got a bit of it in their system now this isn't in my notes but it is for free today wherever the Spirit of God does profound things you will always find among the religious mockery wherever the Holy Ghost does profound things you will oftentimes find even the religious Mock the outpouring of the Holy Spirit you see it here you see it in other parts of the New Testament you see it certainly throughout human history in the 1st and 2nd Great Awakenings you see it in the Welsh revival you see it as oozy Street so you've got these revivals that have breaking out the Holy Spirit really pouring himself out and you'll always find this group of religious people mocking it when it comes out in Pentecost is not different than the human experience right it's where we get a clearer picture of how religious folk who try to control what God does will then in turn mock an out point of God's Spirit the dismantles maybe their framework of understanding right and so that's what we see here but but I think the bigger thing that we're seeing in this moment we're talking about living for the kingdom is is you've got this radical invitation into the kingdom of God at the coming of the Holy Spirit and so the the disciples of Jesus are praying and they're seeking they're worshiping and they're fasting and the Bible says that the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Jesus was sent and and welt' them and when it indwelt them when it was sealed in their heart which Christian is what happened to you at conversion regeneration the indwelling of the Holy Spirit right when that happened these men who by the way most of which were cowards all a sudden are crazy and Bolden and go out and proclaim the good news but who do they proclaim it to write the unwelcomed they go out into this crowd and the Bible it literally reads like a list of who's who am NOT welcomed he walks out and he begins to preach the good news of the kingdom of God in different languages to different nations where what's being communicated as hey this isn't a nation of Israel thing this is a world thing and I'm calling the nations into the kingdom and it's important to note especially that the Cretans and the Arabians are there why those two in particular well the Cretans in particular were a despicable group of people and if you're like how dare you say that I'm telling you what they said about themselves right if you read in Titus the in Titus chapter 1 Paul quotes one of the Christian prophets and they the chrétien prophet said about Crete about what their culture was like we're all liars evil beasts and lazy gluttons I like that's a weird thing to go here's how we culturally identify you know like this ethnic culture has these things that can be celebrated and are all and you kind of like oh that's amazing and this culture has this and here's what the cretins hat wheel I just you got to know you're getting into that we're cretins we lie all of us every one of us that could be a lie right now I don't know right we're liars but we're also evil beasts and then you know and I'd fight you in my evil be story I'm also lazy and feel like eating something right this is and they're there and by every metric excluded from the kingdom but who did the message go to the cretins and the Arabians that if the coming of the Holy Spirit and the indwelling of the holy spirit in the followers of Jesus Christ that there wasn't a wall that was built up but rather a welcome that was issued to the unwelcomed this was the way of Jesus and became the way of the people of Jesus moving forward what was Jesus most despised for loving sinners eating with sinners men it drove the Pharisees and Sadducees insane that he would humanize them love them show compassion to them empathize with them weep with them serve them like their they would put him on blast constantly for his affection for sinners John chapter 4 Jesus runs into the woman at the well a woman had been married five times is currently exchanging sex for rent and reveals himself to be the Son of God first to this Samaritan woman the woman caught in adultery what does he do he extends welcome and asks her to send no more the woman of the city which does not mean that she had a loft downtown who came in and washed his feet with her tears he used as an example to rebuke the disciples and the more religious clean-looking men and women who couldn't see the beauty and what she was doing never excusing sin but always welcomed you hear me don't confuse that he's not saying hey keep sleeping around that's great he loves her too much for that he wants her to understand how you've been made in the image of God you're worth far more than being consumed by foolish men who wouldn't see your personhood don't treat yourself cheaply come into the kingdom not how dare you treat yourself so cheaply there's no place for you in the kingdom no no this is about the Welcome of the unwelcomed we see this when Jesus eats with Zacchaeus the wee little man right tax collector no moral equivalent that I am aware of a despicable human being and Jesus says hey come down I'm having dinner at your house and it infuriated the most conservative clean group around and so Jesus lives his life this way and then the followers of Jesus filled with the Holy Spirit carry this welcome out and this is what you're seeing in the book of Acts you're seeing the Samaritans invited in in Acts chapter 8 you're seeing the Ethiopian eunuch come in in Acts chapter 8 and then head off back to Ethiopia where the Ethiopian church becomes a catalyst of the great Reformation when Luther actually gets to know a deacon in the Ethiopian Church and leads the reform in the 1500s that was all birthed out of what the Holy Spirit of God indwelling his people and expanding the kingdom as they went we see this in Acts chapter 10 when the Italians came in and praise God that the Italians came in love the Italians the Italians and Brazil for everywhere having got in trouble the Italians and Brazilians they're my people they're loud they talk with their hands the touchers they hug they write they're my people now I'm a little too pasty for them you might be looking at my pigment going no brother you are not you are English which is fine I don't hate that either I just just feel like those are my people anyways so the Italians come in there and and then all it's not a mistake that all of this is happening in Jerusalem why because Jerusalem where the temple is it is the one place that the Jews said this is where the presence and power of God is which is why all these Jews that have the ability are making this pilgrimage into where the presence of God is well what is the Spirit of God do when it comes it in dwells the believer so that the Temple now goes out and is not fixed this is why you and I will be with Christ forever regardless of whether we ever make a pilgrimage and see Jerusalem it's why Jerusalem as a location is not the epicentre of the kingdom of God we are and wherever we are the presence and power of God goes because we have been sealed with the Spirit of the Living God right so this is where you can't get confused we have been indwelt we are the Temple of the Living God God is expanding his kingdom through us wherever we are and wherever we go and we see in this the rejection of force and withdrawal about how the kingdom will expand and grow look there in acts 2 starting in verse 42 Holy Spirit of God comes kingdoms established it's aggressively moving forward but how is it moving forward Jesus addressed some of these ideologies during his day and we're gonna see when the Spirit of God comes those ideologies further rejected and a new way of Kingdom living established let's look at this acts 2 starting verse 42 and they devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching and to fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers and awe came upon every soul and many wanders and signs were being done through the apostles and all who believed were together and had all things in common and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need and day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes they received their food with glad and generous hearts praising God and having favor with all people and the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved so there's some ideologies here that are being rejected they were already rejected by Christ and then when the Spirit of God came and God formed his people those ideologies were rejected the first was the ideology of the zealots that the kingdom of God would come through force and violence and the spilling of blood so Jesus rejects that in his earthly ministry even going so far as to rebuke Peter who started a fight with one of the high priests guards that tried to arrest Jesus if you remember that story pulled a sword struck at the servant of the high priest cut off his ear Jesus put the guy's ear back on and rebuked Peter not the man illegally arresting him but Peter for thinking that the kingdom could be brought about by violence we don't take we don't overthrow it's not how the kingdom works what happens when God forms his people what happens when the kingdom breaks forth through the Holy Spirit fellowship care love dinner happens love for the poor love for one another service to one another submission to teaching worship and joy among the people of God serves as the subversive kingdom that rots out the tyranny and power of Rome underneath it in it leading to its demise 400 something years later the Holy Spirit of God coming at Pentecost filling and indwelling believers leads to a fellowship among the believers that rejects force and violence as the way of the kingdom but it also rejects the ideology of the Essenes which is all about withdrawal right which is all about withdrawal so the Essenes set up basically a compound out and Qumran where Jimmy's basically like we're just gonna leave this world this world is not savable it's not salvageable it's too evil it's too dark it's too broken so we're gonna take our Scrolls and we're gonna head out we're gonna form our own little community here and we're gonna do our deal and Jesus rejected that in his time and I don't know if you're noticing this but but the the brothers and sisters here in acts 2 they have not withdrawn from culture or Jerusalem they're right in the middle of it see they're embodying Jesus's plan of being in but not of being in the world but not of the world being salt and light being other than living by a different set of metrics what was what was the early church's metrics together sharing loving serving one another in in such a way that was disruptive to the status quo like a church that made sure no one had any needs like that that's crazy and that's what was going on that's what we worry that's what the kingdoms do it's not withdrawing it's dead in the middle of the brokenness of the world shining like a light in the darkness Jesus and the Apostles and the testimony of the early church is that the kingdom is taking place now in the midst of our everyday lives and that God will use the ordinary human means of work neighborhoods and play as the conduit through which his holy spirit breaks forth the kingdom into the domains of life that we live in so here's the tension I'm gonna constantly ask you to walk in and I know it's attention 1 the most significant shaping's of your life are going to take place over a period of decades in ways that you cannot perceive you are being shaped at the time right so way two minutes I'm gonna preach on this in three weeks with just a couple of sentences way too many of us look at the Apostle Paul and ignore Peter we look at Paul in an instant preaches his first sermon 48 hours later and nary shows a weakness his whole life feuless look at Peter who has these high highs and then just epic crashes and then another hi-hi word then people get around go oh my gosh maybe he's finally learned his lesson it looks like we're not gonna have to talk about him again nope right we we don't even pay attention to Peter we just look at Paul who's like on a high-rise with a cape and the wind the only thing he ever says is not that I've already obtained all these things like who has to say that Peter doesn't have to say not that I've already obtained all these things Paul does right and and so you and I we're in the ordinary and God forms and he shapes us in the ordinary you will get up and you will read your Bible and you will read your Bible and get up and it's not like these profound moments where you open the Word of God mouths and there's an angel standing to your left it's like I'm glad that you decided to spend time with our Savior this morning he sent me here today I've got some things I want to talk with you about like that's not gonna be most of our experiences or maybe any of our experiences all right we're just gonna read our Bible we're gonna pray I'm gonna try to live faithfully and I'm gonna come to church I'm gonna worship and sometimes it's not wrong for us to come expect it we're gonna come being expectant sometimes I feel like yeah I was good all right I like the music sermons okay I mean you know as far as like it wasn't certainly one mistake it was more like ramen noodle but whatever but but ramen noodles are sustain you till you can come back together right this is how God works not a lot of silver bullets in the kingdom progressive sanctification and yet as I preach for you to never despise the ordinary I want to ask the Bible commands me point out that there are these moments where the Holy Ghost breaks through and brings about that future Kingdom that we looked at last week in the here and now we want to expect that and pray for that and longed for that and hope for that and rest in the tension that's created when you see both in the Bible gosh we've been together long enough we we have seen God heal people miraculously and we have prayed and fasted and sought his face to do the same others and he has said no I don't pretend to understand those knows I don't as I said last week there are probably 20 stories I could tell you where I can't fathom how God got glory from that death or that tragedy or that and I still can't but we're gonna be a people that prays and expects and holds with open hands the results because God is God and we are not and that's life in the kingdom in but not of ordinary with supernatural breakthrough right and and so with these things said I want to talk about what this would look like organically and then how the village church has tried to organize around being in but not right when we have talked about what it means to participate in the gospel of kingdom that the week that we introduced the Sermon on the Mount we said living in the kingdom has everything to do with your relationship with God and your relationship with one another so so living in the power of the kingdom has to do with relationship with God that leads to right relationship with others so on that relationship with God if we're gonna be walking in the kingdom there's some things that we've got to consider think about and cultivate here would be the two in relationship with God that if we're gonna walk and the power and joy of the kingdom we must cultivate lives that long to be in its presence right we want to organize our lives and cultivate in our lives a desire to be in the presence of God by faith not by feeling but by faith rooted in the Word of God it means that our pursuit of God probably goes past ten minutes of quiet time in the morning which by the way we need a better word for that it sounds like punishment right like like what does it look like to give myself over to in the transitions of my day reorient my heart around who I am in Christ and what God has called me to does it look like to build into my life natural rhythms that lift my eyes up in all I'll be teaching on that later also so no more on that and then the second thing not do we need to cultivate a life that's serious about being in the presence of God by faith and not my feeling although when the feelings come that's pretty sweet in it but the second thing is to really believe and embrace in the deep parts of our soul that God is not disappointed in us listen you will never know the joy and freedom of the kingdom if you think the King is perpetually disappointed in you like when you think about God if his arms are crossed and he just can't wait for 10 years from now concerning you and I just don't know how you would ever walk in the joy of the Lord don't know how you do it like what you're banking on if that's the way you think that God thinks about you that there's some future version of you out there that he's crazy about but you right now just really difficult season for him the only way that that could possibly be true is that if God thought 2,000 years ago with all of your screw-ups in sight that you were going to be worth his sacrifice for his glory and your joy but then as he got closer to you turned out to just be a lot less attractive than he saw 2,000 years ago like 2,000 years ago he sounds like ah alright I like that guy like that woman and then as it got close he's like oh yeah nah Mulligan do-over I'm not purchasing this fool with my blood no no we know that God is not inside of space and time but outside of space some time he is here and he is there he is with us today and he's 20 years in our future not as something he knows but a place that he is if that makes your mind hurt you're feeling the right thing and so God knows like you you've got nothing but he doesn't know and Christ went to the cross and he paid that bill in full and we know that because Jesus isn't in the grave but is alive and risen and so you will not experience the joy of God's grace and kingdom if you think the king is always disappointed in you he is working on you growing you shaping you under the or in covering of his love he needs not you to get your act together he is helping you get your act together this doesn't mean that we don't repent of sin that this doesn't mean that sin doesn't grieve our hearts this is not permission to walk in rebellion God disciplines those he loves it does mean God is for you not against you loves you so this must be cultivated in his presence cultivating know he's for me he's not against me I don't want every time something bad happens to let my imagination to immediately go God's upset with me and that's why this happened but isn't that where we naturally drift but I'm being punished and then that should lead to an overflow and how we love one another this kingdom stuff this is organic we can't orchestrate around this you'll have to orchestrate around this so then what does it look like to love one another that's an outflow of that right relationship and love for God well we talked about it a few weeks ago is both awesome and awful the golden rule right do unto others as you would have them do unto you a kindergarten teacher didn't meant that no if you know that that wasn't like Miss Hancock when you were five there's like here's the cool phrase let me put that you know that's actually the Bible and Jesus said that that little golden rule sums up the law and the prophets rather you want to sum up the law and the prophets do unto others as you would have them do unto you now this is why that's both awesome and challenging to modern sensibilities the impulse you have of what would be nice is actually the Holy Spirit revealing to you how you might serve others right now in that awful so like you're driving through your neighborhood God's men sure would be nice and pick up all the trash these people are throwing around here guess what now think about if that's how you live in your neighborhood if that's how you live at work if that's how you live at church but instead of your posture being why don't these people you instead become what you wish people were like what does our criticism and harshness towards anybody creating and building I like like who's ever been nagged into the kingdom of God right you know anybody that just got nagged to death and they're like you know what I love you and I love your God let's do this so how our people will remember back to acts 2 how is it happening they're eating they're loving they're serving they're giving and day by day God's adding what does it look like at work for you to be sitting at work whatever you do and go you know it'd be nice and then just do that if it's legal would it be like in your neighborhood if you looked around your neighborhood with you know what be nice like and it could be something as Ranas man be great if our neighborhood felt like a neighborhood you know man go grab some hot dogs and and and just throw a party in your neighborhood just be what you want everybody else to be for you this is what it looks like to one another one another now organizationally what does that mean for the village well in in some ways we want to build environments where these things can be cultivated we're gonna be really serious about our gathering we're gonna preach the Word of God unapologetically we're gonna sing and make much for the Lord elder led prayer is gonna become what we call encounter night so it'll be an hour and a half long we're gonna worship and sing and ask the Spirit of God to heal our diseases and ask him to move in ways that are miraculous and out of the step of human ingenuity but just by his power we want to put you in group life because we know group life is not easy but it provides you an opportunity to one another one another and then we're gonna give ourselves over organizationally to the mission of God as the kingdom of God expands in every direction to the ends of the earth we do that primarily through church planting we do that through global missions and we do that by giving away a ton of money to that end right and so we have planted a ton of churches in the last 15 years here's just some of them in fact this year we God by His grace gave us our great-great-great-granddaughter Church can you believe that we in a church that planted a church that planted a church that just planted a church that's crazy with each one of these yeah you can celebrate that because that's crazy with each one of these people from our church left our church to be a part of these plants and we financially have given to these planters and then we've given people and money to the plants of those plants and even now we sit with four of our gifted godly pastors in the next twelve to eighteen months about to roll out and plant four more churches that will be church planting churches so here's a brief kind of four minute video on those four brothers and then I'll come back talk about the global peace talk about the dollar piece and we'll leave rejoicing that God's been so kind to us multiplies our vision as a church body to directionally move forward with campus transitions where we take our five current campuses and prepare each campus into becoming an autonomous local church multiply also includes church planning which means that we long to start new works new churches to start new local churches both here in dallas-fort Worth and beyond and we find ourselves in this exciting time we're preparing a four new church planners were preparing for new families and not just those four men and their wives but their families and they represent many many more here at the village church who are preparing to go out there's relatively few gospel-centered churches that we'd say are doing the kind of work that we'd like to see done in our own neighborhoods so that's all part of why the Lord has put on a song put this on our hearts to start a new church over there to say let's be a church that wants to reach the incredibly diverse population socioeconomically and ethnically of this side of town and to be a church that cares about those things in really obvious ways to demonstrate we're disciples of Jesus Christ and you can tell by the way we love this community one of the most challenging aspects to planting in California is the fact that most people are fairly costal to the gospel and we want to confront that with the true and beautiful story of the gospel of Jesus Christ and and through that we want to continue to make disciples that will live as family belong to God and one another that will be servants of our city and and of those who exist and dwell in our city and then are sent out from there as missionaries from the unreached people groups that live in Rancho Cucamonga to the nation's and will plant more and more multiplying churches and when we think about going to the ends of the earth it might not sound like Richardson as the ends of the earth or California is the ends of the earth but what it is is it gives an opportunity for the gospel to be localized in those particular areas in that particular context to create an outpost to create a gathering point for people who are there that love a particular neighborhood love a particular region love a particular area of the city or the country where the gospel can take root and begin to expand out from there [Music] I pray in the next seven or eight years that we're baptizing Muslim background believers and we're praying over them as we send them either back into their neighborhoods or into the nations with the gospel of Jesus Christ I'm praying that we'll see more churches planted in the Metroplex through mosaic Church I'm spraying that will see missionaries sent two hundred people groups through mosaic Church because we believe that that is what the gospel can do it's not because we have a great plan or a great model or a great strategy we just believe that Richardson deserves a gospel centered people begging the Lord for that hope to become a reality [Music] we want to reach our neighbors we want to reach our communities we want to be involved in the schools we want to shop in Lewis Field we want to gather in Lewis field so that this church Christ freedom Church could be a city on a hill that we will be soft to the earth of Louisville so that people can taste and see that the Lord is good and and not only that but because the nation's gather in Louisville and live in Louisville we would love to see and hope to see a multi-ethnic multicultural church plan where we figure out how to do life with brothers and sisters of different ethnicities where they see themselves as value and that they are a part of the worship environment and Christ freedom Church I personally didn't have to travel to the Middle East to hear the message of the good news but that that message of the good news came to me and it took the courage and the bravery and the sacrifice of men and women and families you saw the gospel leave this central location and move out to the perimeters we want to be a part of that we want to be a part of planting churches that plant churches because we want to see men women boys and girls come to faith we want to see the gospel proclaimed and heralded not just in this church but in new churches in other cities in DFW and then beyond that so our past our present I pray are indicative of what our future will be that we will be a church who plants churches [Music] one of my favorite things culturally about the village church that I certainly didn't bring here 15 years ago with me is Highland Village First Baptist Church now known as the village has always been serious about global missions when I became the pastor here there was a committee called the missions committee that a woman named Deborah ran and and she was easily the most powerful force here other than the Spirit of God himself and this church has always just been really serious about this issue if you were here when we were in the red brick building and we had 440 seats and we blew out the back walls to move to 725 seats anybody here for that when we raised money for that you know the biggest question we had is this gonna affect our missional giving is this gonna affect our capacity to send out missionaries when we were at six services and turning away and needed to raise four million dollars to buy this building what do you think the question was about missions about our missionaries about whether that would Stinney when we raised the ten to retrofit this so we would have a space to me what do you think the question was right this has always been when we do our little budget town-hall I know there's only like 16 of you that show up every year for that but the people that show up they have literally done the math on our budget which is a massive complex budget and they want to tease out every little penny and where it's going to the nation's and what and then I love that about us I don't want that to ever change about us those are the right questions to be asking and because by the grace of God that's been our culture here's a map of where all of our long-term missionaries are so these aren't go trips these aren't people that are there for six months things or people who have embedded their lives among the unreached peoples of the earth and they're sharing the gospel and they're planting churches and they're doing profound things for the gospel of the kingdom so we we start here and then maybe God calls us up and calls us to go but man this is just out of our church this has nothing to do with our partnerships with acts 29 but like I said is seven hundred churches globally like 23 thirty something different languages on six different continents I mean we are all in on this on top of all of the since 2012 the village church has given eleven point eight million dollars to missions and church planning globally so you have done that now keep in mind this is just organizationally so if you have given anything personally to any kind of ministry global or local none of that is included in the organizational um of believing that the gospel of the kingdom is gonna fill the earth like the waters cover the Seas and you and I have been invited into that that is what our church wants to be about this is the heartbeat of my heart of our heart everything is about this the training program is about this our Bible studies are about this our home groups are about this our worship gathering is about this our hopes are around this the vision of multiply like who purposefully shrinks their church by five or six thousand we do why because we believe in the gospel of the kingdom and we think those campuses becoming autonomous contextual gospel outposts while at the same time planting for other churches like we're morons really lines are hard up with the heart of God and that's where we want to be that's where we think life is that's where fruit is I don't know how you want to spend the days of your life but uh but I'm not interested in giving my life to the building of a brand or the building of anything other than participating in the one thing that cannot fail the expansion of the kingdom to the ends of the earth you should never be bored as Christians let's pray father I thank you for my brothers and sisters thank you for our guests today we love you thank you for the rain just ask that you would bless us as we leave these places of worship more dialed into your kingdom more empowered for willful obedience that leads to a glorious display of your majesty that leads to us happily and join you together as family we love you we bless your name amen

Channel: The Village Church Resources

Views: 11,207

Rating: 4.6904764 out of 5

Keywords: Matt Chandler, The Village Church, The Kingdom Now, Citizens and Strangers

Id: R_zy7_FtNkQ

Length: 47min 36sec (2856 seconds)

Published: Mon May 21 2018