A Vision For Growth

I promised you. Let me start there. We promised you last time that we would kind of share a brief overview of where we are right now and what we believe the Lord is doing with us. And I feel like we have some very fresh and extremely poignant illustrations of some of the points we're going to make tonight. And I think this will go quickly and I trust will give you some focus in your own personal prayer, burden and vision and so forth. I guess I want to start by saying to you that over the last few months, I guess since 1985, I really can't pinpoint a specific time, although I would have to say it's not insignificant that it's when we started to meet to pray with the concert of prayer that the Lord has begun to open a number of doors that I think are quite relevant and significant in terms of where we are going as a people. And I've made note of several things that we've committed ourselves to that I believe are of all the things that we've done. Key attitudes in the advancement of the kingdom of God at North Way. And why don't you jot these down on something? Which one is that? Not the back of your diploma? No, not allowed to do that. These are significant attitudes. Okay, Paula. Ah, there she comes. Significant attitudes that I believe will serve to guide us in future months and possibly years at North Way. Number one. And. Did I spell that wrong? Very importantly, I can't overemphasize how this has affected what we're doing here. We have agreed as elders, in the beginning, actually was in the. In the autumn, and when the new elders came on, so it was late November, we agreed that we would adopt a posture before God of committing ourselves to grow, a commitment to grow. Now, that's a different posture than we kind of had initially. Whereas before we were saying, lord, we'll just take whatever you bring, and so on, we are now saying, lord, we believe that your purpose for us is to grow. Grow first of all as believers, that is to say, strengthening the saints and edifying the church, but also to grow in the impact that we are extending into the world, reaching the lost, winning others for Jesus. And we're talking here not just about making room for some to come, but literally to go out and find them. And I want you to know that I don't believe we've begun to scratch the surface of that. Let me just give you a little warning here that after the season of teaching on prayer, sometime in probably early May or so, I believe the direction of the Holy Spirit is to begin to address outreach and evangelism and boy, is that going to get some people somewhat stirred. And I trust that many of you will be motivated like you've never been motivated before by the Holy Spirit to exercise that step of faith and sharing his word and going to have some of our evangelists share. We have evangelists in this body, did you know that? Really gifted evangelists. And they're going to be sharing from time to time their heart. So that's coming. A commitment to grow. Alright, Number two, we have. And this is, these were coming to me and I put this one sort of out of order. So this is going to make the whole overhead look sloppy. I hope that doesn't destroy anybody. But the second thing is we have moved to regain lost territory. We have determined to regain some of the territory that we lost and have been falling woefully behind from the enemy. Two specific examples, most powerfully, number one, the North Hills Crisis Pregnancy Center. We are making a determined stand to go in and begin to regain the ground we've lost, the darkness, the lives of women and unborn babies that have been just callously disregarded by the church. We are going back now and saying, lord, we repent of our indifference, we repent of our lack of action. We're moving ahead. I'm going to say something in a few minutes about what this is already meaning in terms of impact. And number two, Eden Christian Academy, we are making a determined effort to establish an alternative to secular education. And again, we have seen. I need to tell you, you leaders need to be praying for Eden Christian Academy. It is making a difference in the lives of the children. How many of you have children at Eden? About five of us, five or six. Eden is committed to grow next year through sixth grade, the following years, hopefully more rapidly, even as facilities come available. But would you pray for one thing, Just make a note here. Pray for unity among the churches that support Eden. Jim Franks isn't here and Dave Lloyd isn't here. But I think they would tell you as members of Eden's board that that is an ongoing, and I know Dave Purvis would say that is an ongoing struggle with the eight or nine churches that support it. We, you know, we have some who are quite skeptical about we charismatics and pray for that, would you please, that God lets the vision move ahead in unity. All right, next, an attitude of a growing commitment to pray. And I want you to know I'm excited about prayer. I'm excited about what's happening in people's Lives because they're starting to pray regularly. And I just. We beloved. Get happy, would you? This is going to make. We are going to see so much take place because of a commitment to pray. And right now we're just starting to see the first rumblings in the spirit of God. Just the first rumblings. Ken came up just before the meeting started. He said, we had the best prayer meeting I have. He wanted to say, ever been to, but he said, been to in a long, long time. Down in downtown Pittsburgh in the Clark building today at 12 o', clock, God's moving. We had 24 people praying this morning in Wexford, and we have groups all over. Joel Bowman started a Saturday morning meeting here now at the community house. Some of you might want to come. What time is that, Joel? Seven to eight. Saturday morning right over here. Is that open to everyone? Men only now, huh? Okay, girls. Honor that. Okay. I think, as the Lord put that on Joel's heart that way. Let's honor it that way. Okay, you can have one of your own right in here. Okay, so we have prayer meetings going every day of the week now. Every day of the week, we have a meeting for prayer. No one can say, well, you don't meet when I can get there. All right, Every day of the week. Praise God. How many of you are finding your personal prayer life just beginning to be refreshed? I just pray that you give the Lord a chance to open that up for you. I've been getting mail from people just encouraging words, not, jay, you're wonderful. But Jay, I'm excited about praying. I'm thankful for what you're teaching because I needed my prayer life to be revived, and it's happening. So we're committed to pray number four. We are committed to wholeness. We are committed to wholeness. What I'm saying here is that we have made a renewed commitment to not just help people get saved. We made a commitment to help people become whole. And this is where the counseling ministry, the healing ministry and so on is not accepting people's token recognition of Jesus, but rather we're saying, what does it mean to be whole in the inner man? And that wholeness is an expensive proposition. I mean, there are days that go by and the phone never stops ringing. How many of you find yourself wondering, how much more can I do to help people? Because you're spent in helping people. It's a commitment to wholeness. It's tonight, a brother in the Lord, his daughter just going into teenage years, just fell into a time of rebellion and ran Away. Nicole just broken up in his heart. He just couldn't believe. Well, praise the Lord. He found her and brought her home tonight. And they're having a time of healing. But wholeness, we're committed to wholeness. And finally we're committed to integrity. We've made a renewed commitment to, to not deal on the surface level in our relationships. We're committed to authentic Christian life together. How many times we've talked in our various pastoral and elders meetings of the fact that you know something. I believe that it would be not a difficult thing for us to get promotional around here and do the things out in the public that would draw the crowds in. It would not be a difficult. I mean, I'm not saying in the flesh, I'm saying. But God said no, you're to build on lasting foundations and build with integrity. And we're seeking to do that with honesty between us, with an open door of communication between you and the leadership. Not with heavy handed spiritual authority as we've established in the last weeks, but with mutual submission committed to each other. Now, beloved, those five things are significant attitudes that God is unloosing towards us right now at Northwest. And I want to ask you, as leaders, pray for every one of those areas, pray that God would move in the hearts of all the people. Because I believe you have the vision for these things. But I'm not sure that if I look around this room on a given Sunday morning that all five or six hundred people have that same vision. And we need to pray that the whole body grab a hold of this because God wants it to sweep over us. We're going to be different. I'll tell you something, you're not going to recognize us. I don't believe in six months we're going to be very, very different. If you look around here on a Sunday morning, how many of you see a lot of people? You don't really think, you know. No, no, it isn't guilty in that sense. It's reality. I mean, I have in my briefcase our visitors list from Sunday. We had 25 names on that visitors list. And that wasn't everybody because I know a couple people who were visiting that wasn't including the Ohio group, which was another 15 or more families, whatever it was, 10 or 15. So God's just bringing people in. They're coming to see what is the spirit of God doing here, what's going on, this weird church, right. And I see these as opportunities from God. Now, along with these significant attitudes. The second thing I want to just briefly Touch today, tonight is that they result in opposition and we need to expect opposition. Those attitudes are so important. I want you to know my heart is just coming over, just spilling over with anticipation. But I know it's going to be tough. And as I was just putting this together today, in fact going over these things, I feel like the Lord gave me a progressive. Now this is important, progressive development of opposition. This is how the enemy is going to move to ruin what God wants to do in those five areas. Number one, we're going to see distractions. Distractions. You know, in the book of Corinthians, Paul reveals. Well, let's use an illustration right out of the early church. Let's talk about Acts 15, where when the body of Christ was growing and the gospel was going forth, what distraction came along that caused a lot of confusion in the body of Christ. Acts 15, anyone remember that? Now that was Acts 6. That was before this even. That was a good illustration of the same problem though. That was a distraction of sorts. This is where some were demanding that those who believed in Jesus be circumcised. Remember that? And this became a big distraction. They had to have a big counsel to deal with this distraction. And I believe that what is happening, what you're going to find happening is when God starts drawing you off to prayer, you're going to be distracted. When God gives you your ministry, you're going to be distracted. You're going to have more work to do. You're going to come home and say, honey, gee, there's so much I want to do with the home group and I get all this stuff that's falling in on me. Anyone feel like that got so much going on and you just distractions pulling you away from what God wants you to do. It is wisdom to know the difference between God ordained interruptions and distractions from Satan. Do you know the difference? What's the difference between a God ordained interruption in your schedule and just a distraction to pull you away? If you don't know the difference, you're going to run around doing everything that happens and you're not going to know when to stop. Yes. All right. You wouldn't get all ruffled and uncomfortable with it. That would be something. Jerry. I think not. Or name would be positive something. Otherwise it would be a negative. Okay. A chance to minister positively versus being thrown into turmoil and thrown off base completely. Right. You need to learn to say no sometimes, folks. No, I've got something. I'm sorry, I can't help you right now. Or no, I Just can't do that this week or whatever because of, not because I want to go do my own thing, but because God's put me on a course, Steve, now, not a God ordained distraction, interruption. You feel like you're just weakening. That's right. All right, so this is going to happen. Number two division will come. Satan wants to destroy what God wants to do through divisions and divisions start, start with just the smallest little thing can become a big division. You know that the smallest little misunderstanding. And one of the things I'm going to make a plea tonight for all of you in leadership to do is not to pass on an evil report. Learn the wisdom of just stopping an evil report when it hits your ears. When someone accuses someone else of unfaithfulness in terms of a responsibility or, or maybe bad judgment, you learn to say, well brother, I don't know that that's true. And I think we ought to just commit it to the Lord right now and maybe go to the person involved and not say, yeah, I've seen him do that too. It's so easy. Now I know that we are, all our relationships are close at North Way, so it's kind of easy with our friends to accept an evil report and not even understand it as that. But one evil report perpetrated all throughout the body can create a whole division. And I'll tell you, churches have been destroyed by that kind of thing. And what happened to Paul in Acts 15 when this whole issue came up, there were those who stood up and opposed one another and there was a possibility of a division. Much like what happened in Corinthians when Paul said. Some said, I'm of Paul and some of Apollos and some of Cephas and a whole faction started sprouting up. You want to know how this work could be destroyed or at least sidetracked factions. I'm of this elder, I'm of this pastor, I'm of this God. There's one person, there's one name that we're lifting up around here. Whose is it? Jesus name. And that's our banner and that's our protection. These are progressive. Now here's the third one. Destruction. The third way that Satan will move if he doesn't stop us with distraction and division, he'll move in destruction. What do I mean by that? Well, I mean that Satan is out. The Bible says to steal, kill and destroy. And if he can find a way physically to destroy, he will do it. If he can find a way to dismantle a ministry, he'll do it. I believe one of the ministries that Satan wants to destroy literally to undermine the confidence of a prime minister in my spirit as I pray about its home groups because it requires so much to be faithful in a home group. Satan says, I'm just going to make it miserable for some of you. I'm going to destroy it. I'm going to tear it up. And if he can get that and he gets his foot in the door there, then it'll spill over into some other things. And I've just seen destruction. I'll tell you one of the things you need to bind up when you pray. We're going to talk about lead me not into temptation, deliver me from evil in about three or four weeks in the prayer teaching. But we need to bind up that destruction that Satan wants to perpetrate. I've seen different ministries. I look around and I see people. I know you've gone through a period where you feel like you were being destroyed. I think TJF went through a period where you just felt that you've had it. Satan wanted to destroy that ministry. And beloved, finally Satan wants to move in death. And in the last. It's only been two weeks, right? We've been involved in two direct deaths and one indirect and one near death. Fortnight was very, very close to being killed. I don't know about you, but I don't. I mean, we ministered here for four years and we didn't have. I had one funeral in four years and that really wasn't someone that came to North Way. That was a relative that I did because someone asked me to do that. You think about what I'm saying. That is not coincidence by any means as far as I'm concerned. And I just believe that this, you know, all this says to me, beloved, is that God is moving and Satan is angry. He's angry. He knows what God can do through a body of people that are committed to him. And I want to be that body. Don't you? I want to be part. I have not lost the vision that God gave us to reach this city and impact this city for Jesus Christ. And I believe that many of you share that vision. But we need to bind that spirit of death. We need to bind the work of destruction and death or otherwise we will find ourselves just constantly having to deal with problems rather than opportunities for ministry. Now, let me stop here. Why are we. Let me reiterate. First of all, why do we need to guard against these things? Because God has given us a positive vision. He's Refreshed us and renewed us with new commitments and new insight. This is where we're going as a people. Satan doesn't bother a group of people that aren't doing anything. He's perfectly happy to let some sleepy, you name it, church somewhere do nothing and he won't bother them. But he is going to be around. And I want to just tell you folks, I'm counting on you. We believe that God is going to just overrule in these things, but you need to stand firm in your faith and speak to these issues. All right, do you have any questions or any comments at this point? A couple of you look like you wanted to share any thoughts right now? I'll go on. And I have one more thing to share before we're done Sunday about praying your priorities. That gives you a lot of discernment when you've prayed your priorities into place. When these things come along, it's easy to. It's easier, I should say, to be able to discern. Wait a minute, Lord, this thing is coming at me from the wrong perspective. This isn't a view. Some of you will be so much more peaceful and so much more effective if you can learn the difference between distraction and God's hand giving you an opportunity. Okay, did you have something? Who else had something? Ron? That's the question. Maybe a lot of people are, and admittedly here for all of us, this is an area where no one has the right. This is what God said. Answer, but share a little bit here. Let's have a couple more people. What do you feel about this, Gene? That God has his ideal life. I'm going to start using Fred's terms of a few weeks ago. But he has a will for your life that he would purpose, but underneath that you have, because of the implications of your free will, the authority to receive that and to secure it by faith or to forfeit it. I think it's very, very important. Beloved, you see that God gives you a lot more responsibility than you might be ready to take for yourself. And so it seems to me, according to what I understand in scripture, that, yes, God is on the throne. He is the God of life, death, death. Satan will not come in and sneak anything. Satan's not going to sneak someone away from God. But God's hands. Listen to this can be tied by our presumption, our unbelief, our choices and our disobedience, our lack of faith. And beloved, I just, with all my heart, I. I believe that God has given us his word to direct us as to how to live a full life. Now, that isn't to say. And again, this is where I'm not. I don't pretend to know all the answers. I have known godly people who, as far as I could tell, were seeking to be in the will of God and suffered an affliction and died. I don't know the answer to that. But I do know that we are if we forfeit what God has ordained as our means of protection. Look at Psalm 91, for example. There's a classic illustration of what God says about his keeping grace. All right. Would you look at this with me? This is worthwhile tonight, in light of all that we're going through. Would you? You see, this is a very clear promise of protection and keeping. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, who abides in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust. Now notice there's a condition to that, is there not? For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions. This is just beautiful poetic language. And under his wings you will find refuge. His faithfulness is his shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, 10,000 at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. Now look at this. Because you have made the Lord your refuge, the Most High, your habitation you see, dwelling in the presence of the Lord, no evil shall befall you. No scourge come near your tent. Because you made him your refuge, the Most High, your habitation. For he will give his angels charge over you, to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent, you will tremble underfoot. Now look at this next verse. Because he. This is the Lord speaking now, witnessing to this. It's almost prophetic. From the Lord, alright. Because he cleaves to me in love, I will deliver him. I will protect him because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and honor him with long life. I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. I don't know what could be more profound and clear than that promise. That's not right on the point right now. The point I want to make right now is that it is our responsibility to establish that covering that hedge. Now, how many of you are parents tonight? I trust that you are praying with your children, teaching them to pray that hedge around their lives. There is a real strategy of Satan to take little children right now and to destroy them. And I just pray you're doing that, That God can use someone's death. He can always say that he has a purpose in it. Okay, so it's never a waste when that person's in God. It's never a waste. And he uses that. And as I say, and I can't, you know, I can't refute that, but I don't think that that really says. To me that's not the norm. It seems to me that from what I need to read the context and so on, but it just sounds to me like that wouldn't be God's normal plan. There would be something in that that he understands. And again, this is where sovereignty rules. Okay, I understand that. The problem I have, though, is if we build a theology on that point, we. What we end up doing is saying, well, gee, I guess it was time for so and so. And I don't believe that you need to build one and allow for the other. That's where I'm coming a little bit different. Build one and allow for the other. Maybe that would help us. I say one of them can I say it's just kind of like people in the Holy Spirit. They need to come down on a firm commitment. And what we end up doing is we vacillate because we're afraid of turning somebody away. I guess I'm just saying the sum of Scripture to me, Marion, would indicate that God purposes for us to live a full and satisfying life. That's the normative will of God. To be sure, Jesus didn't. Right. Could we say that? Was he out of the will of God? So there is our consummate illustration. And I guess I just can't be dogmatic about it. Maybe that's the point you're making. We don't know. But I know normatively, I think God purposes for us. From what I read of all the patriarchs and all the people that were living in the covenant of God, they lived a full life and they were blessed of God. And I think that was, you know, that's the norm that we should pursue. And then we have the sustenance of hope and grace to assure us of that. If they are taken in what seems to be prematurely that they didn't necessarily. Now, if maybe what you're saying is. I'm not saying necessarily that that person was wrong, that might have been taken early. I don't. Not necessarily so, but I would like to know and see, folks, this is important. What do you think as a norm should be the right thing there? That's what we're trying to establish. Well, I think the way that we establish that is by looking at our children. What do we want for our children? We want the best. We want long life. We want happiness, health and security. I think that's the kind of father. Let's do. Let's all think about it some more. Let's all think about it a little bit more. Because I don't think we have a loctite answer, but I hope you understand. Our spirit is to set a course and allow for God to be God. But we know our course. It's like healing. All right, folks. It's like healing. People could say, well, some didn't get healed in the Bible. Well, what's God called us to do? He's called us to heal people. I'm committed to healing. If God doesn't choose to heal some the way I think the Bible teaches that he should, He's God. He can do that. But I'm not going to stop praying for people. And I think that's the pathway we want to walk on. Okay, couple quick comments and we're going to go on. And I think maybe implied in that, Jerry, is that it may not just be the kind of death we've been experiencing, the physical death, but it could easily be the death of a vision, a death of a ministry, a death of a relationship. Do you all see that? That's a good point that Jerry's making. Maybe if you thought of it just in terms of physical death, you might miss one of the strategies of Satan. And how many of you were here a couple, maybe more than two years ago when I. I had a teaching one night on how Satan designs the temptations and the destructions and the divisions just for you. He knows what gets you and where to get you. How many of you believe that? Yes, that's right. They all know it and they are learning to stand against it. Okay, any other comments or questions? I mean, it is because Satan is a powerful foe, but he is a defeated foe. Remember, his only power is accusation and deceit. Everyone stand up a second. All right? Let me touch these points and all you need to do is write down a couple of scriptures and I'll go through them very, very quickly. What can you do now as we conclude this leadership series, Can the 60 or 70 of you that are committed to faithfully discharging the call of the Lord, can you really make a difference? I just believe so strongly in this. Beloved, this has been a sacrifice. I know it has. It's been one for me, Fred and I, many times. We're just as tired as you are on Tuesday evenings. Just about my longest day of the week too. And yet I think it's been so important in establishing in the spiritual places a commitment to care for people. Let me give you these things. They're all on your sheet. What can you do? First of all, pray for the ministry of the church. First Thessalonians 1:3. I never ceased giving thanks for you when I prayed night and day, Paul prayed for the church. I am so expectant in my heart as more and more of you are praying. We had about 75 or 80 at the last concert of prayer. I'm asking the Lord to give us 100 people at this next concert of prayer. And just how many of you were here last time? It was just. It was. Obviously that's why you're leaders, because you're here praying. And I know that if you can possibly make it, you will because that's a time we set course in prayer direction. It's just a valuable time corporately. I trust that each of you are trying to meet with one prayer group a week, just at least one time to pray with a group of people for the community, for the work of God in the nation, around the world. And of course personally we're developing that. Secondly, faithfully support the ministry you've been given. You know, one of the things that I'm concerned about. I'll just dump this out right now. Get this kind of off my heart. I wonder, I wonder if we're. Ever hear of athletic teams hitting their peak? You brothers that are in sports, what does that mean when a team hits its peak? What's that mean? Okay. That's right. They're going to be at their maximal effectiveness, right? And I just see the spirit of the Lord moving us. And you know what I see coming? Just coming right around the corner here pretty soon, summer and all the things we've come to depend on for support and for personnel and so on, it just becomes a big haze of I don't know how that's ever going to happen. And the Lord knows we need rest and we need vacations and all that kind of thing. We all need it. We do need that. But would you just begin to pray now that summer won't be a time of just sort of putting God's move on hold? I know I have a reputation that some of you for just being too obnoxiously intense. But, you know, I just see God moving us, and I'm ready for. I want to be ready. I want to be ready to say, lord, it's your vacation schedule. Give me the time you want me to go. And so let's just pray and believe the Lord for that. Be faithful in supporting your ministries, in attendance, in ideas your ministry needs, your ideas, things that God gives you and in your follow through. How many of us. How many times I've been so discouraged when follow through should have been there and it wasn't there? We need to encourage one another. Write down Galatians 6, 9, would you. Galatians 6, 9. Put a circle around it now, would you please let me read it to you? And let us not grow weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Hallelujah. I enjoyed it, Lord. Okay, Okay. I know it's late. All right, number three, Exercise initiative in meeting needs. This is something. If you don't do it, it just doesn't happen. If you see someone who's visiting or you see someone in your ministry group, that's just not right. Philippians 4:14. Paul said, thank you for. For seeing my need and moving to meet it even before I ask, Take the initiative. I appreciated Joel so much coming up several weeks ago and saying, you know, I think the Lord wants me to have a prayer meeting on Saturday morning. And he just. The Lord gave him the bird. Lord gave him the vision. We just gave him a key. I just pray that God really blesses it. There's just a million illustrations like that. Fourth model, your wholeheartedness. I don't mean show it. I don't mean, like, get up and wave a big flag and say, look at me. But I mean, don't shove down what God's doing in your life when you're around others. How many of you have gone, this is very important right now. Now, how many of you go to the 11 o' clock service? Put it up. 11 o' clock service. Okay, you people, you need to be praying about that service, and you need to be modeling your wholeheartedness at that service. There is a remarkable difference in services right now. Way More dramatic than it was at Bradley's. Right. People in music ministry know it. People who are in both services know it. There's no responsiveness. Some of you have got to just begin to allow the spirit of the Lord. And you know what it is, because when the people around you aren't responding or with it, you just tend to say, I don't want to stick out. I had someone tell me the other day, well, I wanted to affirm what was happening, but no one around me was. So I didn't want to make a big secret. Well, I'm not talking about making you scenes, but folks,