Clear Thinking About Our Future II

Move into the message this morning and hopefully get a little farther than I did in the first service because the Blahniks were here, we just took a little more time to have ministry and so on, but I want to get through this today because it's an important Sunday. If you're a guest today, I want to again extend my welcome and remind you that there's a little card in your notes called the communicator. If you're a guest, take a moment at any time to fill that out and let that be your only offering today when we as a church family honor God at the end of the service. We'd like to receive that card from you and certainly join us for some refreshments and we have a gift copy of cassette tapes for you from our friend Dr. Kevin Lehman. If you're single, we have a tape, we just had a great singles event this week called New Directions. I understand from the folks, it was a wonderful event that just happened Friday and Saturday, well over 125 or so single adults were here. So it was just a great, great week, but to begin with a question, how many of you have one of these somewhere in your home? This is, I point you on the spot and say quick grab me a photo album, but how many of you have a family photo album like this? How many of you have vowed that you'll never see the light of day when another person other than your family member is in the house? There's some incriminating evidence in most of these for a lot of us and I think it's the clothes more than anything, it's just really flipped me out. I have something here, I can't believe that anyone would let me out of the house wearing that kind of plaid, and I think it's polyester plaid as I look at it probably, but you still have your leader's suit don't you Gene? Oh yeah, your leader's suits are coming back, that's why you're keeping yours. That and your fat ties will eventually make it back and we all hang on to those things. Those photo albums, they're kind of precious, studies have been done that people have said in a fire, if a fire happened in your home today and you could grab one thing out of your home, a lot of people said it would be that album, it wouldn't be your CD collection or your television, it might be your dog, it might be your closest call there, but most of us would take our photo albums because those are memories captured, it's your life story in a lot of respects. Here at North Way we've had an amazing life story and I could, it goes without saying, we have thousands of pictures of our history over the last 19 and a half years, unfortunately we couldn't find them, that was one of the things that happened this week, we only have a handful to show you, so indulge us here, I know family movies can be boring, but our life has been just unpredictable, we've had some great moments together, let's just flash up a couple of these, shall we? This was a group about 11 years ago, 12 years ago now, who knew that the building that we were worshipping in wouldn't suffice for the future and they became the core group of what was called Prayer to a Promise. Look at that nice looking guy, where's my little pointer here? Oh yeah, we're going to pick on him, there he is, look at him right up there, that's Paul, he hasn't changed at all, well, a little bit, but this group of folks had a lot of faith to believe God and because of them we moved forward, but there was a lot of other things that happened along the way, there's some wild, that's Grant, he looks happier there than I've ever seen him in church, doesn't he? There's Pastor Scott, holding up those fish, notice that I'm standing behind them smiling because I think, you two idiots, look at them, I don't fish that much, but they were really proud of those, I was correct, those are bass, those are pretty nice sized bass though, aren't they? We're going fishing trips now, and then here's another one of Susie and Mack McCabe, that is Susie, someone said that's not really Susie, it is Susie, this was years ago, one of the first years in our church life, this is a typical of a work day that we would have, just keeping our property, this is the old property, keeping it attractive and welcoming to folks, notice we have the women shoveling the manure, I wasn't sure about what that meant and it wasn't a very complimentary picture as I thought about it, but go ahead, building a deck out in the back, one of the things we've always valued is fellowship and we created a space outside of that building to have fellowship together and to share after the services and we would recruit even the youngsters. Next one please, that one you may recognize, my son now, quite a bit older, this is a picture of the David O. Lawrence Convention Center in 1989 when we fed 4,000 inner city people, our church family would rise up and pull our resources together, serve them a wonderful dinner, give them some things to take home with them, it was quite an event, it caught the attention of the entire city when we did that as a celebration of what our ministries were doing throughout the year. Here's one of our in command elders wives telling the rest of the elders what to do, get your buckets and get to work. A lot of these things show hands on kind of deals because we do a lot of things around here, we're not afraid to just get down and help things to happen because we have a lot of people like this next one that we love, we have a lot of kids around here who are enjoying themselves. So things have really changed, haven't they, as the next picture shows, I don't recognize that person, let's go, that's me but let's go, let's go, thank you, get back there, what are you doing, what are you doing up there, there is a sign, eight and a half years ago when we moved here, and I'm going to tell you that story in a moment, that was a sign that talked about, what does it say, the future home, well you're in the future home now. And we know that God has other plans for us, plans to give us a future and a hope, we've had a wonderful journey, we've cried some, we've waited a lot in the Lord, we've shared, but look at the first verse in your outline, we need to learn from these things, let's remember what you've learned about the Lord through your experiences with him, all these things that have happened have been designed by God to teach us something, and that's what I want us to focus on, when Moses wrote this, he was saying to the children of Israel, don't miss the lessons, they're very important, you want to be able to build upon the things that God has taught you, and so remembering is the basis for renewing, and God is renewing his people, we sang it this morning, God is now reviving his people, he's renewing our spirits, there's four kinds of renewal, I might jot these down, four dimensions of renewal I call them, there's personal renewal, that's when you and your own individual walk with God, find a fresh breath of passion and commitment, there's corporate renewal, when an entire church body ignites a fire of love and commitment and expectation in the Lord, but there's also missional, that is to say the direction and the strategy of the church, and there's also a structural renewal that takes place in the churches that God is restoring and renewing. Now folks, almost invariably I hear people talk about number one and number two up there, the personal and the corporate, and very little do I hear them talk about the missional and the structural, but may I say this quite candidly, number one and number two are exciting, but without number three and number four they are passing. I can take you to churches from Canada to Florida, are you hearing me? Do you know what I'm talking about? From Canada to Florida, from California to New York, that have been in renewal and revival, but it's passed away, and the reason is they haven't paid much attention to number three, missional, and number four, structural renewal. Without one and two, three and four are just a lot of hard work. But let me just say that we need all of those to take place, and I am here to tell you, I believe all of them are taking place in your church home right now as I speak. We are going to see God do some incredible things in the coming months. I'm very, very excited about it, probably more so than I've been ever since we moved into this building. I'm confident that God is about to release some great things. So what are we going to do? How can we move forward with this? Well last week, and I won't take time to review this other than just to say we talked about our five priorities. If you're a guest today, you need to know what this church believes. I want to encourage you, just stop at the tape ministry through those doors and say I'm a guest and they'll give you a free cassette tape from last week. North Way's five priorities, and if you remember them, just nod your head. What's the number one priority here? Exalting the person of Jesus. That's right. Jesus Christ will be the center of this church as revealed in his word. Second, we talked about the purposes of God and how we as a church family are going to be committed to developing those purposes. I'm going to start a series next Sunday for five weeks along with Pastor Dave. We're going to talk about those five purposes of God and how we as a church can grow in them. Then we talked about the people of God. That's you. You're a priority in God's mind, and you're more important than any of the programs that happen in the church. In fact, the programs serve the people. Then we spent just the closing minutes talking about where all this takes place, at least in terms of a launch pad, and that's here on the property that he desires. I'll give you an update on that in a moment. Those priorities are in that order. That's how we're to function. If you want to learn more about what I said, just pick up that tape. I want you to know that's how we're going to structure everything that happens around here. If it doesn't fit those five priorities in that order, then we're not going to do them. You see, once you start to work that way, these things become sort of an experience. They begin to take place in your life, and you get excited about it. You can have people talk to you about renewal, and you can have people talk to you about great things that are going on, but it's until you own it that you...it's their thing. When you own it, it's your thing. For a long, long time, Gina and Arlene would tell me about Brewster's great ice cream. I got some amends on that one. Yeah, some great ice cream at Brewster's. They'd tell me about it, and they'd frequently tell me about it just when they were coming back. Empty-handed, they'd tell me about it. They'd say, you've got to go and try Brewster's ice cream. I said, fine, fine. I remember one day, this was probably not that long ago, within the last year, I drove by the Brewster's. There were several of them. I was the one over here on Brant School Road. There was a line of people to get ice cream. I said, well, I remember them saying, I've got to try it. I went in and got one of those giant waffle cones with that, whatever they call it, I don't know, something, black cherry bananas or something like that. I got it. That was good ice cream. They were right about that. But I moved from vicariously experiencing their joy to having my own joy made full. That was the way it worked. We've learned some things as a church, sort of vicariously, but today I want you to remember some of them so that you can begin to own them, because listen, in the future, you're going to experience them. That's the point. You're going to experience them. So let's look at these quickly. Number one, what has our experience taught us? Well, it's taught us a whole lot about God. And it's taught us that God is always in control. God is always in control. He doesn't always appear to be in control. I have to tell you, there were times in our journey that I wasn't sure where God was. I couldn't figure out what was happening. But I've come to discover that He's always in control. And friends, you might be here today and your life might be going very, very well. You might just be riding the crest of a great sort of rising tide of recognition in your company. Maybe you're setting new records for sales. Maybe you're recruiting great people. Maybe your family's doing super. But I want you to know something. If you're serious about growing in God, there is in God's pipeline something coming that will prove to you that you are not in control. God's on a mission to teach you that He is in control. And He is very faithful in every one of our lives to design those things which will prove to us we can't do it without Him. But on the other side, the moment we get to that point and acknowledge it, He is quick to come and show us miracles and demonstrate His compassion for us and provide for us and open the doors for us. And that's what I love about our God. When He puts us in those circumstances, even if they don't turn out the way we thought they should, He never fails. He has it under control. And we have a long story of changed lives here at North Way. You've heard those testimonies. People who, I mean, you've heard them. People who, well, their relationships were on the rocks and God restored them. Or people who were lost. I had folks in the first service came up after me and said, you know, two years ago when I walked in here, I was totally clueless. I didn't know what you people were doing. I didn't know. And some people had their hands up. What was that about? We had some people, you know, clapping. I've never been in a church where people were, and so on. They said, now, I love Jesus Christ the way you're talking about, and I love to tell Him that. And now I know what my life is about and where I'm going. Well, two years ago, that wasn't true. God is in control. He's moving in people's lives. And look at this. You are the God of miracles and wonders. You still demonstrate your awesome power, Psalm 77, 14. So He's still working. He hasn't stopped doing it. We don't live in the past. We learn from it. Eight years ago, just eight years ago, we were burned out trying to figure out what to do with our church. We were worshiping in the old restaurant building that's now Max Planck's down there, if you're familiar with Wexford. Well, I mean, it just wasn't working. We had three services and then four, and the lumber yard was beginning to spill over, and it was just a mess. And we tried everything. We tried to buy the building where the lumber yard ended up, and we tried to buy property, and it wasn't working. How many of you know what it's like to go for years and not see something happen? What do you tend to think? It's not going to happen. That's what you think. Where's God in this? I guess I'm just destined to be stuck here. And then one day, we were just driving down Route 19, coming from Cranberry with a friend. We stopped in that little shed out there, and a guy was working on automobiles. It was a body shop, and he took this greasy rag and cleaned it off his hands. And we just said, well, sir, any chance you ever want to sell this property? It was a drive-in theater, for those of you who wouldn't know. And it had the little mounds of dirt and rock, and then the little speaker things and all. And he said, well, Sonny, if you've got a million-some dollars, I'll sell it to you tomorrow. And I said, well, sir, we haven't. And he said, you do? I said, well, almost. We worked with the bank, and we came up with it, and within 30 days of when we first met this gentleman, we closed on the property, after three years of trying. Now, I want you to know, that was God intervening. But here's the good news. Some of you say, well, okay, great. Thanks for telling me your story. God is not done yet. You're about to see Him do the next level of miracle. You're about to get ready, because in the next weeks and months, you're going to be part of the next miracle. And that's what's exciting, friends. It doesn't end now. And I don't know what happens after that, because God is now reviving His people. That's what I want you to hear. We learn from the past, so we can build on it together. Look at Psalm 78, verse 7. In this way, each generation has been able to set its hope anew on God and not forget His glorious miracles. That's rain. That is not the air conditioner this time. That is this heavy rain falling on that metal roof. And you can look up. Unless you get wet, don't worry about it. Okay. So number one, God is in control. Number two, or letter B, I should say. Letter B is that His desire is for abundance. His desire is for abundance. Wow. Perhaps the fundamental misunderstanding about God that most church people have is that they have not grabbed onto the reality of what God's purpose is for His people. They don't see that God wants to do exceedingly abundantly beyond that which they can even ask to think. Jesus came and said it this way. He said, I have come that the thief, He said, comes to steal, kill and destroy. But I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly. And I have made that verse, the theme verse of my last phases of my life. Because I don't believe that I've even begun to see the fullness of what God wants to do. Now I'm not talking about material abundance. I'm not talking about financial abundance necessarily. How many of you know there's a real danger with wealth? What is that danger? What's the dangerous attitude that comes with wealth, friends? Pride. It's pride. Greed is just fueling more of the wealth. But pride that I don't need God because I'm set. And any of you who are honest, think about people you know who are wealthy. They tend to be, not always, but they tend to be prideful people. Independent people. I don't need God because I can secure my own path. And does that mean God's against rich people? Not at all. It just means that wealth can only be entrusted in God's kingdom to certain people who are humble enough to be able to be channels of it rather than to be reservoirs. But I believe God wants to bless many of his people with abundance. Abundance of relationship. Abundance of friendship. Abundance of ministry. The gospel that God has given to us is one of great abundance. More than we imagine. I want you to hear from one couple, Paul and Linda Gregg. They came to North Way and according to Paul's testimony, they were expecting God to do some things but in their minds it wasn't exactly what I would describe as abundant. It was going to be okay. Give Paul and Linda a hand as they come. Is Paul going to come? Okay. I am blessed to be here. You are blessed to be where you are. And I am blessed to have been here for this 19 years. 19 years ago, this group of couples knew that we knew that God was calling us to financially back a new ministry, but the fact is my thought process at that time probably was a much smaller box than God's. Because my thought process at the time was probably that North Way Christian community was going to develop from a small group of families into this probably really neat church of a couple hundred people. God's box was obviously much, much larger than Paul's thought process. Fast forward 19 years later and we see that we've come through lots of choices, changes, stretching changes, and I come to the conclusion that we, for the most part, fall into one of three camps. The first camp is that we would embrace and participate in that change as God calls that change forth. The second camp would be, and I think we've probably all been there at one time or another, even those that are fully participating, is that we would watch it and perhaps we would dabble a little bit from time to time as God would call us forth. And the third choice that some of us make, unfortunately, but we're all growing, is that we kind of ignore it and just watch it go by and we're really not changed. So I'd like to just give you a couple instances of my past 19 years of some change that's profoundly affected my life, which just backs up my opening comment. I am blessed to be here. Two of those changes actually came through death. That would be the death of Dr. Fred Sale and Paul Moduleski, brothers that I knew that were strong brothers, and yet as I saw them go from health to ill health and they're not with us today, I watched and just the word integrity just was all over these men. And their deaths, as they were promoted into heaven, if you will, profoundly affected quite a few men in this congregation. So you can learn and change is stretching and it stretched me, but I just learned a lot from these two men and are very proud to have known them. Also, I've learned from change from birth. Just this year alone, there's been a birth of a couple at North Way and a little baby named Maddie who has a disease. And the Lord just from time to time will just put someone on your prayer list and Maddie's on mine. And Maddie has profoundly changed my prayer life. I have interstate 79 prayers. I have shower prayers, but she's plucked right there and she's there for a long time until she's healed. And it's a stretching thing when we pray for someone like that, but it's changed my life. We're also affected by unanswered prayer. I can tell you that my family this year is being probably a very stretching year. We've spent more time with my son in the hospital than all the years of his life. We're seeking prayer for his healing and it's been stretching. But let me give you some positives of the past 19 years of being in this fellowship. I am blessed with an absolutely awesome marriage that's of God and that's because Linda and I and God form that triple braided cord that's been preached from this platform numerous times and God has blessed us with an awesome marriage. I can tell you that my career has been changed by this church and in particular from a profound prayer of a small prayer group in another building a few years ago by a lady with much authority that morning prayed that the men of North Way would not be addicted to their jobs and that they would be let loose to be all that God would want them to be. And I started dealing with that and that profoundly affected my career path and for all the better as we look back. So when we see ourselves here today, we're still in kind of a box because we don't get to look at the whole spectrum. But it looks to me like that we're with the ground available next door, we could be back where we were because just as I saw that small box of a couple hundred people, as I look back now I realize that God had much bigger ideas. And I guess my question to you is, as we step forth in the next few months and few years, how big is your box of faith of what God wants to do? Because I can tell you looking back 19 years it's been an awesome trip, but I wasn't even close. So I'm looking forward to how I can look back another 5, 10, 15 years from now and see as we were obedient and participated how that God has blessed us and all the people in the process. I would like to close with a prayer with each of you. It's just one of those simple prayers that the Lord just continually dumps on me. So if you could just close your eyes, I'd like to pray for you. Lord Jesus, as we choose and it is a choice, how each of us will make the decision to participate in growing with you and how you will stretch us if we will let you stretch us and change us, Father. It is my prayer for each and every person in this room, Lord, that you would grow them up to be all that you call them to be, that mighty man, that mighty woman, that mighty daughter or son of God, that your will would be done as we loose your Holy Spirit to change us in this place and our destiny. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Amen. Thank you. Thanks, Paul. So difficult to condense all that history into just a few moments, but I appreciate that, Paul. So the Lord, you see, is blessing us by providing in abundance more than we can possibly even ask or think if we'll be open to that. Next thing the Bible says that all of us can expect is learning things about ourselves, and I've learned this, letter A of number 2, that we grow by making and keeping commitments. You see, one of the things that is sort of a mystery out there, people say, well, I don't know how to go on spiritually. I'm just kind of stuck. And what I've discovered is that over the years, many of you have come to the place of realizing that the only way you're going to progress in the Christian walk is by making a commitment to do so. And I will tell you, there are some folks, when they look at that word commitment, they get frightened. And they look at their schedules, and they look at their priorities, and they say, I can't do that. And so they back off. And you know what? I could take you folks to individuals who are stuck and who have been in the same place spiritually for the last ten years. And when I encounter them someplace in a public forum, and I say, well, how are you doing? I can pick up in no time flat that they're in the same place, basically. They're wandering. They're listless. They're not fulfilled. And the reason is they haven't learned that the only way that one makes progress in the Christian life is by making commitment. Jesus said it this way. He looked at a group of people who wanted to know how they could find eternal life. He said it in two words. He didn't just say, believe me. He didn't just say, acknowledge me. He didn't say, pray to me. He said, what? Follow me. And that implies a journey of commitment. Follow me. And I want to say, I'm so proud of so many of you who have chosen to do that. And the time is coming once again in these next weeks when you're going to have an opportunity to do just that, to follow Jesus into commitment, into a small group. And the next Sunday, we're going to kick off a whole new panoply of opportunity for you in small groups, for you to choose a group that's going to challenge you and stretch you and give you an opportunity to serve. And there's an abundance of those, but you need to take those opportunities because the benefits are so significant. If you don't, if you don't, you're basically choosing to remain stagnant. And I know that that's not your heart. Why do you have to do that? Because it requires faith. And what does faith do? Faith demonstrates to God that you're serious. Look at the last verse from the front part of your line. See, faith, the Bible says, by itself, if not accompanied by action, is dead. You can talk all you want about faith, but you know what? Here's a church, you're in a church where we believe enough to act. And that's what I'm excited about. And people say, well, you know, I hear you, but I'm not sure I'm ready to act. I'm not ready to get committed yet into a group. I'm not ready to do the discovery class. I'm not really ready to serve yet. Well, you know what, friend? It's time. It's time that you step up and get into commitment because your commitment will determine your character. Let me say it again. Your commitment will determine your character. And your commitment will be an indication, flip your outline over, of your sacrifice. Your sacrifice will have your personal signature on it. Your sacrifice will have your personal signature on it. What do I mean by that? Everyone is called to sacrifice in a different way. You know, it's interesting. People often get very, very, very, very uptight when you talk about money with them. And they don't want anyone to know what they're giving or how they're giving it. But they don't have any explanation for the verse that's up there on the screen. Because the Bible says that Jesus stood at the temple treasury and watched people put their offering in and knew exactly how much it was, even if they put it inside their offering envelope. And the little widow lady put two pennies in. And Jesus turned to the disciples and said, That woman has given more than all the rich people who dumped in a whole lot more money. That's a tough verse, friends. That's a verse that cuts to many of us. And Jesus said, That woman has demonstrated what? Sacrifice. Look what it says. This poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth. It's not how much you give, friends. It's how much you have left. And I'm not just talking about money. I'm talking about your energies. I'm talking about your commitments. I'm talking about your service. The Lord is calling us to do that. He's going to call some of you to sacrifice your comfortability. Some of you, not as much in this service, but really in both services, you find it very comfortable to arrive right on the money. Eleven o'clock, you're storming in expecting to find a parking spot right here, you know, right where there'll be one. I want to tell you, in two weeks, just hear me well, that parking spot will likely not be there. We are just about ready to launch, and the church is going to, you're going to say, What happened around here? On September 10th, you're going to say, Where did all these people come from? They've all been here, but they've just been dispersed a bit. They're all going to be here. And you might have to walk a little farther than you want to. You might have to get in that little shuttle bus and get shuttled over here. You might even have to carpool. I mean, you might have to bring one car instead of four, because that's the only way we're going to make it work. You might have to, or you might choose to, say it that way, be part of the team that's going to help to launch a Saturday evening service that's going to give us some extra space so that we can grow our ministry in the coming years in this location. Whatever it's going to take, it's going to take some sacrifice. And you know what? It's going to cost a little something, but it'll be worth it because you will benefit. You will grow. What's our model? Well, our model is Jesus. Look at the last verse. Brothers and sisters, since God has shown us great mercy, offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to him. Another one of our Servants Council members who probably got in a little bit more than he expected is Jay Dawson. Jay and his wife Sue were gracious enough to let us use their home as a meeting place early on. We didn't have any place to go, so we would go to basements and storefronts to meet. And we would meet there for hours and hours. If I recall, those were long meetings. I remember Gene Rink drank a gallon of coffee one night, and we just wondered how in the world could one person consume that much coffee and stay in the meeting the whole time, if you get my opinion. He did it. Jay's going to come and share just some of the things that he's learned about the journey, so let's welcome him as he comes up here. Good morning. A couple of weeks ago, you may recall, Jay spoke about some of the dynamics of growth. And he reminded us that no growth will happen unless there's change. And there can never be change unless there is loss. And you'll never have loss without some pain. And when I got the message from Susan McCabe on Friday that I was going to be asked to speak for a couple of minutes about my perspective on North Way, past, present, and future, I knew what I was going to speak about right away, simply because it's an experience that my family's been going through over the last couple of days. Yesterday, Sue and I and our girls took our eldest, Julia, to college. And we came home without her. And it's been a tough couple of days for our family. As I think back to over the years here at North Way, 20 years ago, 18, 20 years ago, Sue and I were our family, our immediate family. We entered into this adventure at North Way just by ourselves. One of the very first things that I can remember is a Bible study that Sue and I were involved in just before we got together with Jay that really introduced us to the things of God. Over the years, we now have a family, a beautiful family of three daughters, and have seen them grow up in the church. 20 years ago, 18 and a half years ago, I guess it was, Julia was one of the very first babies dedicated here at North Way. Yesterday, we took her to college. Her whole life has been a part of the family of believers here at North Way. And we're looking forward to seeing our other daughters, Elisa and Christiana, grow up in the same way. As we look back here at North Way, 20 years ago, getting ready to, one of the key tasks of a teacher getting ready to teach a class here was to go around and make sure y