God's Blueprint, Your Future

The Lord was beginning to move me away from the direction I had set for today, and I had originally planned, as you know, to talk this final Sunday morning on the family series about abortion. And I began to talk to the Lord about this and sort of even argue with him just a little bit about, let's not change direction now, Lord. Many of you have affirmed this family series and told me how you thought it's been timely. And so I was saying, Lord, I'm prepared. I already have my research done, I know what I'm supposed to talk about. And have you ever discovered when you argue with the Lord that it's very difficult to prevail? I lost, and I sensed the direction was to go today in talking about the church on this 4th of July, because I believe that the church of Jesus is the only hope for this nation. I believe that. And in light of our groundbreaking and our being on the verge of this major commitment together for our future, and in light of our summer dispersion, which is already beginning to take place, Bill, it's not 10 or 15, it's 30 to 35 percent in the summer months of people who won't be here. In light of my study break that's just about to get going for a few weeks here, I said, Lord, you're probably right. I should change you as relief to know that I agreed with him. The two texts I was drawn to were these. Let's read the first one, please, Matthew chapter 16. If you don't have it, you can read it on the overhead with me. Jesus replied, Blessed are you, read it with me, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of heaven will not overcome it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound on heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. In this text in Matthew, we hear spoken from the lips of Jesus, both an affirmation of his identity. This is when Peter said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus says, You're right, you've identified me. But he also states very clearly his intention, his identity and his intention, clearly stated right here. I have a question for you this morning. What is Jesus Christ doing today? You on vacation? Is he milling around in heaven? What is he doing? He's building his church. I mean, he's already been incarnated. He left the glory of God's right hand. He came down, took on this mantle of flesh that we all bear, lived an obedient, sinless life, was crucified and buried for our sin, and then raised again to the Father's right hand. But today he's not just sitting up there waiting for something to do. The Bible says that Jesus is building his church, and it's quite a mission that he's undertaken. He today is about the business of building a living, growing, dynamic, healthy, interactive, powerful organism that's permeating the world as we know it. And best of all, dear ones, you and I have been called to be part of what Jesus is doing today. That excites me. I got something in the mail a few days ago, one of those things from one of those American family publishers, or one of those groups, that says, Mr. J. Passovan, you've won a million dollars. And my son David said, yeah, Dad, it says there, if you meet the criteria in this envelope. You know what? There are no fine print clauses in the promises of God's Word. We are part of the family of God. We've been born into it. If you know Christ today. And so we're part of this church that's, by the way, doing a lot better than the blue chippers on Wall Street. It's making more inroads in the dark places in the world than even Coca-Cola and McDonald's. The church is growing and impacting the world in ways that we can't imagine. Jesus, why? Because he's doing it. He's building it. I came across this verse in Hebrews 11, verse 10, that said, God is the architect and builder of the city of God. And if you relate that to Hebrews 12, 23, it's talking about the church. So God is the architect. Jesus is the construction firm, if you will, the builder. And what's the blueprint for this church? Where's that blueprint, Scott? Did you hand it to me? We couldn't really quite reproduce a blueprint to put on the overhead, but we have something, don't we, Lee, that looks like a blueprint, sort of? Well, it's blue. Yeah, we'll put it up. Here's a real live blueprint. You've all seen these. This is one right here. What's the blueprint? This is the blueprint of our property and later on in here of our building. What's the blueprint of the church? Someone? The Bible. Right. Very good. We've made real progress here. So the Word of God is the blueprint. The Word of God tells us how Jesus is going about the process of building the church. Where? Well, Ephesians 4, 11-16. Now, we're going to end there. Let's look at it. Ephesians 4, 11-16. Here's what the Bible says. Paul gives us the details. Now, folks, listen. You're not going to... This isn't going to be a message for you to just kind of... You've got to tune in here and stay with me on this, because it's very important. It's going to impact where we go. This blueprint is spelled out by Paul. He says this, verse 11 of Ephesians 4. He was he who gave some to be apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men and their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the head, that is Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work. What would this church look like that Paul describes here? Well, interestingly I think it would look like something you'd want to be part of. This last weekend I was down at a conference, my favorite gathering of pastors annually. It's sort of by invitation gathering about 250 pastors gather together from all around the country, and it's challenging and stimulating. I'm there to hear what the Lord is doing in other places. How many believe we need to be connected with what's going on out there? One of the things that was affirmed over and over again was the need to listen to your people. Now we try to do that very faithfully here. I know we're not the best. We don't do it perfectly. Ed, if you'll give me your notes, North Way notes, right there in your left hand. Left hand. That's your right hand, Ed. It's on your left hand, right there. All right. North Way notes, we have this communicator right here. We like to hear from you. We have town meetings with our elders. We make ourselves available as pastors. We do everything we can. Let me share with you three things we think we hear you saying about what you want the church to look like. All right? Would you test me on this? Would you? I want you to just either nod or shake your head if I'm hearing you correctly here on this. All right, ready? One thing we hear you saying is we want our church to be a place where we grow in Christ. In other words, we desire maturity. We want our relationship with Jesus to go on. We're, in fact, even hungry to do so. We want a place where dynamic worship is part of what goes on in the life of the church, where people are learning to be open and expressive before God, to invite His presence. We want sort of a diverse and dynamic teaching of God's Word at different levels so that people can come in at one level and go on up to another and keep on going. And we want some touch point. Here's what I hear you saying. Some touch point with the supernatural. Some place where the mysterious, what you cannot explain, is happening. Jack Hayford says it this way, "...the key for the empowerment of the church is the moving of the Holy Spirit in the midst of a worshiping, praying community of God's people. Only then can the church be the church. The truest measure of the church, therefore, is supernatural, that is, whether or not it's under the seal of the Holy Spirit. It began that way at Pentecost, and it must..." Hello? "...must function that way today. When the church ceases to be supernatural, it's no longer the true church." How'd I do on that one? Is that...? Okay. Number two, I hear you saying, this is what our, if you will, it's not really our research. Here's what we hear you saying. You're saying we want meaningful, authentic relationships with other believers. As our culture increasingly isolates us and depersonalizes us, I'm hearing you say, we want to be plugged in meaningfully with people. Have you noticed, by the way, that increasingly your social security number is no longer your point of identification? Have you noticed that? Look at your new driver's licenses and so on. It's becoming your credit card numbers. And that's all just... Pretty soon, you know, you won't have to leave your home to go shopping. You'll be able to shop groceries and clothes and stuff right from your TV set. Boom! And someone will get delivered to you. And we're going to be increasing... And see, Christians are hungry, like the rest of the world. They really want some meaningful relationships. And as the pace increases, we don't have a lot of time to keep, you know, trying everything and being with... So we have to find key relationships and build them. Relationships where our values are shared, where priorities are built together, that are supportive and meaningful and caring and loving, where you know that you can go and be accepted, but also challenged to keep going on, because you don't want to stay in that rut. Meaningful relationships. Authentic, where people aren't, you know, fakey and pious and, oh, praise God, but they're really there for you. A place where you can feel connected and you can grow together, not just sharing your ignorances, but growing together in the grace of God. True? All right. Not quite as strong an amen on that, but I know that you're... Number three, I hear this over and over again. I hear people say, we want to be part of a church where we, here's the key word, participate in the development of our spiritual gifts and in the activity of God through that church. I hear people saying over and over again, I don't want to sit and be a spectator. I only have one life to live, and I want to invest it in something that's going to have an eternal reward. You know, folks, you're pretty smart. You realize that the Bible says in Matthew 25 that you've been given some talents, and that if you use those talents, there's going to be a reward, and if you don't use them, there's going to be a consequence. And I hear people saying, I want a church where I can find my gift, if I don't know it, and develop it, and help me to be a player in the things of God. How about that one? Now, how are we going to get there? How are we going to move along to that kind of a church? Well, I believe if we look here, Paul gives us some clues. Now, stay with us. It involves three groups of people responding appropriately to the architect's design, to the builder's direction. Who's the architect? God. Who's the builder? Jesus. What's the blueprint? All right, and the first group of people that God talks to here are the leaders, and Pastor Scott, I need that hat. Thank you. If you missed me in this hat yesterday, you're going to miss me in it today. This is our hard hat that we used yesterday at the groundbreaking. The Bible talks about leaders, or I'm going to use the word foreman. I guess I should say four persons, huh? Okay. The Bible would talk about a group of people who are charged by God to be the action-makers or the vision-casters, if you will, for what this church is going to look like. And I'm not talking about the physical building here. You know that. I'm talking about what Paul describes. What I perceive here in Ephesians 4.11 is not an exhaustive list. This isn't all the four persons. I can't do that. All the foremen. It's talking about some, and you can extrapolate it out if you read 1 Corinthians 12 and other places. It talks about apostles. What are apostles? Do you know any? Well, apostles are people who have been given a gift by God to envision what a church or a ministry should look like, to rally people behind that vision, to help them to galvanize and come together, and then to step out in faith and create, literally, the incarnation of what that vision was. And I'll tell you something. You look back at every church that you know about that's going anywhere, and you'll always see that it goes back to a person or a small tiny group of people who were apostolic. I believe there are apostles today. If you ever hear someone say, Oh, I heard so-and-so on the radio, so there's no more apostles. Tell them to get a shower. Okay? They're wrong. There are apostles today. There are also what? Prophets. What does a prophet do? Well, a prophet is one who reads the culture, and goes to God, and hears a word from the Lord, and then comes back and speaks that word boldly to the church and to the culture, and tells them, This is what God says. And I'll tell you what. Prophets create action. When you get complacent, when you get just a little bit indifferent, you send a prophet on the scene, and they're going to stir up. Some aren't going to like them. Some are going to love them. But prophets are necessary, because they cut through and expose and stir up. And then there's evangelists. And what do evangelists do? Well, they're gifted by God to clearly and boldly proclaim the simple gospel. You know something? I love as complicated as our world is getting, the gospel is so simple. Anyone can understand it. And evangelists have the faith to believe that when they share it, someone's going to respond. And I also believe that the gift of evangelism, or the gift of an evangelist, is one who can help the rest of us feel more equipped to be evangelistic. We're not all evangelists, but we're all called to be evangelistic. I want to commend some of you who yesterday used that picnic as an opportunity to invite a neighbor or friend, first time, met a lot of them, first time ever been to North Way, a North Way event. That's the beginning of evangelism. And you did exactly what God's called you to do. Then pastors, well, pastors are called to care for people, help them along in this journey, and feed them, and organize them so they can move. And teachers, we're not talking about boring lectures. We're talking about people who have a gift to make the Word alive. Ever met someone like that? I mean, you sit down and say, wow, I didn't see that. Where'd you get that? Teachers who inspire us with God's Word. There are other leaders. And by the way, these leaders don't give orders. They give their lives. And there's a big difference. Don't misunderstand. It's not like the foreman saying, go do this while I go have some coffee. It's people who give their lives in service to see that the work of God gets done. And they do it without recognition sometimes. And I want you to know there are people like each of these in this church, who just give themselves away 100%. Now, if they're functioning as the architect and the builder say, what's going to happen? If these leaders are doing what they're supposed to do, what's going to happen? Well, you're going to be really interested by this, I think. Number one, it says right there in verse 12, that they will equip or prepare God's people for works of service. You see, what they're going to do is help people to find their gift and develop it and use it regularly and cheerfully, much like Bill did today, using his gifts, sharing with us, much like Doug Boyd did yesterday in helping to get that whole groundbreaking thing going, much like some of you did today, greeting. Some are doing today, teaching our kids. If the vision casters declare the vision, the apostles call people to it, the prophets declare it, the pastors lead people to it, folks will get involved in the ministry. They'll find their gift, and they'll use it. The Bible knows nothing of a paradigm where 20% of the people are doing all of the work. And sadly, folks, it's happening everywhere I look. I don't know if I brought the article in with me, but I was saddened. I read in Expression magazine this latest issue. An outreach concert ministry called Dance and Celebrate ended here in Pittsburgh, and here's what the folks who gave much of their lives and livelihood to this said. There's an apathy here. 20% of the people in the Christian community do 100% of the work, and it's not going anywhere. You see, that's not God's vision. That's not what the architect said. That's not what the builder wants, and that's not what the blueprint calls for. But that's what's happening, and it can't go on like that. The second thing that will happen... By the way, what does that look like? What is that leader moving in that direction? What does that look like? It looks like number three on there, doesn't it, Lee, from that first list of things? It looks like number three. He's going to help people to develop and use their spiritual gifts. Isn't that something you said that you wanted? The second thing that I see a leader doing here, verses 13 and 14, is building maturity, people growing up to be like Christ, in the fullness of stature of Christ, the Bible says. Walking in this world with their roots so far down that when the winds come and blow, they don't get toppled over. Down in Florida last week, they had twisters. They had several tornadoes touch down and trees just laying over on their side. But you know one thing I noticed about those trees, most of them? They had shallow roots. They didn't go down very deeply. People who go over spiritually, invariably it's because their roots didn't go down deep enough. And a good vision caster will be sure that people have their roots down deep in Christ. They're not sucked in by lesser things. They know when to not look at something, when to not participate in something, when to not take this or say that. They know because their roots are down in the firm soil of Christ. And they celebrate this fullness in worship that is from the heart and open, much like many of you today were participating in our worship of the Lord. What does that look like, that whole provision of maturity? Well, doesn't that look like number one on that list? Doesn't it look like what you said you wanted, a place where you grow in Christ? Well, see, as leaders lead, you'll grow in Christ. And number three, I want you to see this. Hopefully you're getting the vision here now. The third thing is that relational maturity will result. Look at verse 15 and 16. Why are your Bibles closed? Verse 15 and 16. We'll speak the truth in love, and we'll grow together as the body of Christ, working together as a community in love and participating together. We will become what God wants us to be in relationships, sharing burdens and needs and visions and dreams. And that sounds like number two, developing authentic relationships. Do you see my point here? If the vision casters, if the foremen do their job, the church will look like what I heard you say you were looking for. Isn't that something? So what's the problem? Well, one thing. There's a whole other group of people that have to be on board with this. And that's the workers. That's what the Bible would call here, the saints. And if the foremen are represented by the hard hat, Pastor Scott, one more time, please. I didn't know what else to do, so I picked up this. This represents the workers. This is a bona fide, genuine thing. Carpenter's tool belt. I grabbed the vision and passed it on. There's got to be some people to catch that vision. There's got to be some people to say, that's right. That is the vision that we're to follow. And they jump on board with wholehearted cooperation and begin to get in line with the intention of God. And when this plan is embraced, it begins to rise up out of the ground, and you see this living, dynamic thing called the church happening, because God is at work building it. And it's visible to the people around. It's visible to the world. And it's visible to you, because you see it happening. But I have a question for you this morning. How is it going out there in the world of church building? Did you know that even as I speak today, fully 80% of all churches in America are plateaued or declining? Most denominations have lost membership at a rapid rate over the last 20 years. I heard a conversation with a man from Texas who'd been in ministry 30 years in this nation. He's leaving America to go to a foreign field, because he's given up on the church in America. People just aren't responding. People just don't have any place anymore for the church. And if we're really honest, folks, there's not a lot of people lining up for what we have. I've heard people say that the revival that God is sending to the world has passed America by. Do you believe that? There are places right now, and some of our missionaries can tell you, where just people are flocking. In the former Soviet Union right now, they are running to be saved. They are walking miles just to hear the Gospel. And all around the world it's that way in different parts. But right here, have we missed that last move of God? I want to say to you, not necessarily. And I don't believe we have to miss it right here, or I wouldn't be here. You see, if the foremen continue to lead, if they continue to search from God, to hear His Word, if they continue, if the apostles continue to grasp that vision for what God is doing, if the prophets continue to hear from God about what He's saying, if the teachers sharpen their skills and gifts and use them, if the pastors lead with sacrificial love, and if the evangelists proclaim boldly what God is doing, it all gets down to the followers, the vision catchers. And can we talk for just a couple minutes about this? Because very few things burden me more right now than what I perceive is the mood of the vision catchers. Someone asked me two weeks ago, are we going to have enough money to build this new building? And my candid answer was, you know something? This new building is not a money issue. It's a ministry issue. The real question is, will we have enough ministry to see this building house what God is expecting? What is He equipping us to do? Will we have the heart to grow in maturity and passion and celebrate in worship and so on? Will we be relating authentically throughout the church? Will we be growing in the exercise of our gifts to the place where we'll want to be extending the gospel? You see, if the foreman comes up and leads in worship, and if the teacher comes up and declares the Word, and if the prophet speaks the Word of the Lord, and the followers or the vision catchers sit there with their arms folded and just say, hey, don't bother me with that. I've got a lot on my mind today. Or if they yawn and say, well, you know, maybe I'll get around to it just as soon as I get my yard work done. Well, maybe that sounds okay, but you know, I've got a lot on my plate right now. No thanks. The plan breaks down. The architect has done his part. The builder has given us the direction. The blueprint is clear. The leaders have called forth, but the followers have got to say, yes, I'm on board, or it just doesn't happen. And I might as well tell you how I really feel about this. I believe if God, the architect, looks down, and Jesus, the builder, is in our midst, and the blueprint is in your hands day after day, and the vision catchers are being faithful, if these elements are in place and it's not happening, look out. If you just come every week and hear the message and have already resolved in your heart that no one's going to move you into involvement, and that you're just kind of here because you're supposed to be. If you're sleeping right now, I want to encourage you to do something. Find another place to go sleep, because your absence of response does something to the rest of us. You cause us to sag in our spirits, because we sold out to this thing. We believe in it. We live for it. And we need every one of you to say, I'm going to do my part. I'm going to be there. The whole thing, you see, hangs together by a very narrow strand or thread of one human dynamic, and that's trust. Either you trust that the vision casters are hearing from God, the blueprint is right, and the builder's at work, and God has designed it, or you don't. And if you don't trust it, then you need to go someplace where you can be just undisturbed, because I want you to know something. It's not going to be that way here. As long as I have breath, I'm going to keep encouraging you on to find your place, to grab hold and get on board, because it's what God wants for you. It's what He's designed for us. It's what I believe God has ordered for the church in these days. Someone's saying, you know, that's really heavy. Didn't He just say to leave if I don't want to get on board here? Yes. You say, well, I just had a baby, you know, I can't do everything, a new job. Hey, there's grace here, all right? This is not a legalism type church. No one's following you around. Well, they didn't have a quiet time today, Gene. Let's write that down. But if your attitude is, I'm just going to come and take my seat and fold my arms and yawn and just sit there, you are basically in the wrong place at the wrong time. And if you're thinking right now, well, I guess that's it then. Then I bless you. I bless you. But if there's one little drop in you that says, I want to go on, maybe I just don't know how, then you're in the right place at the right time. Because we're going to do all we can to move you on into God's purposes in your life. And I want you to know, when we kick back in here, there's some exciting things God's already fashioned in our staff that's coming up in this fall. We've got some things that we're going to roll out, we believe God's already fashioned for us, that you're going to just say, that's right. That's part of the blueprint that I've seen. I want to be part of that. I want you to know something, it's only going to happen by a third group, and that's prayers. Prayers. Those are the people that are going to make it happen. Who are the prayers? Oh, not a new group. The prayers are the foremen and the workers coming together to pray. Pretty simple. It's everybody. And Bill, thank you for quoting me correctly, because you're absolutely right. It's the people on the bank committee that ask me, how are we doing today in our prayer life? I couldn't have been quite as positive as I was. I think we need a renewal in prayer. And I'm happy to say we're starting that. And we've been seeing some things take place recently. Some exciting things that are starting to take place. Prayer is so pivotal to us, church. It's our lifeline. That's how we know that we're hearing from the Lord about these things. And I want to share with you, just real quickly as time's about gone here, that for the next eight weeks, one of our elders, and Dan, I'm not sure if you're here in this service. Are you, Dan Teller? Oh, he was at the picnic. I'm sure he'll be at the second service. Dan heard from the Lord about this. He did some vision casting and shared with all the elders, and we affirmed, here's what we're to do for the next eight weeks. Can we flash that up, please? Three sort of parts of our prayer life. Tuesday evening, every Tuesday, we're going to meet to focus on celebration. Just coming before God for who He is. For an hour, hour and 15 minutes of prayer. Just no other agenda, but just say, God, we're here for you. To grow in our love for you and to exalt you. Every Tuesday night, what time? Seven o'clock. Can you be here for that? To pray? To seek the Lord? Those of you who have morning commitments, you know, you've got seven kids, or you have a job that starts at 6 a.m., you can't come. So we're having one evening meeting, and then Thursday at 6 a.m., we're going to focus on community. We're going to pray about that number two, or number three thing, the authentic relationship part. We're going to pray about our home groups. We're going to pray about our community groups. We're going to pray about all those things. And then Friday morning, at what time? 6 a.m., we're going to pray about using our gifts, employing who we are in the cause of Christ. Now, I know that many of you look at this and say, well, what's new about that? All that I can tell you is, it's a word that God has spoken for today. It starts this Tuesday. You don't have to come to all of them, but how many of you could come to one? You can't come every week and say, I'm going on vacation this week. Have a wonderful vacation. When you come back, that schedule will be right there. It won't have changed. And I believe God will use that to breathe vision and to breathe life on us all together. Let's stand, please. You see, in the end, in the end, church, stay with me now. Service isn't done. I'm going to share the final point here. In the end, one year from now, I have no doubt that we're going to have a new building. The only question I have is, will we have a new church? And I have hope that we will. That because I'm looking into the eyes of hundreds of devoted vision catchers, God's going to do something. He's going to change us and He's going to move us ahead. And I want to be there with you to receive all that God has for us. Let's join a hand with someone and pray this prayer together. And let's sing the prayer that we're going to sing. And in my life, Lord, be glorified. ...values about Jesus Christ in there with you because you won't make it through if you're surrounded by people who don't have those convictions. And you know what's going to happen? They're going to jump out of the raft just when you need them the most. There's just one other thing I want to touch on tonight before I close, and I know that many of you would agree with this. If you're going to make it, you need to leverage your strength. That is to say, you need to participate in some way. Every person in that raft has a particular role to play. Sometimes they'll throw the life jackets out there and you'll have to put them on. Sometimes when you're going through a particular narrow opening, you know, you'll have to shift your weight around. Every once in a while we'll even throw an extra paddle or two in there just to help get us through and that kind of thing. But can I say, a person who gets off after high school and doesn't do anything but worry about themselves is likely to begin to get upside down. I discovered something that was very strange. There's a tremendous propensity to get very selfish in college and early adulthood. Very selfish. Whole world revolves around you and your college career or your newly married. I just want to say, the best thing you can do to be directed in God and grow is to find some way to give of yourself. Some way just to plug in. Some way where you are not there just for you but you're there for someone else. Where you're serving as a volunteer at a local handicapped center. Where you're working. I have to tell you, the thing that kept me kind of on the cutting edge in college was the fact that I worked with some young men to start the first Christian fellowship on our campus. Fellowship of Christian athletes. I was one of the two and so I was able to help pull it together. Just being out there, giving of myself and then I started working with a youth group as a volunteer. Now I didn't have any more time than anyone else but you know what, it got the focus off of me and it enabled me just to keep moving ahead. You know what tends to happen a lot of white water rafting trips? You get sideways and when you get sideways what happens? You lose control and when you lose control what happens? You flip. That's it. Pretty simple but you know what, when you get right down to it, there's really only three things that matter in life and that's loving God and loving people and giving something of yourself. Or you can use these three words, have a guide, have a group and have a