Moving toward the Millenium

Let's take our outlines out of the notes and follow along together. You've probably noticed that those outlines are dated January the 3rd, is that correct? Because this was the message, although I've changed it just a bit, but in essence the message that I wanted to give two weeks ago, when it was really bad. I mean, it was like, we probably had about 500 people that made it that day, a third of our normal adult attendance. Let's read those two scriptures on the top of the outline. For God has given us the privilege of being born again, so that we are now members of God's own family. And that family is the church of the living God. If it's true as they say that adversity builds character, how many of you are willing to say to the Lord, you know, I'm just right on my way, God. I'm about as mature as I want to be after these last couple of weeks. You know, we celebrate this year our 18th birthday as a church. And I have a sense that it may well be our most dynamic year ever. And if the weather is a harbinger at all, it could be also the most unusual year that we've ever had. I want to remind some of you who are newer to us, and that's quite a portion of folks as you saw when we raised our hands a moment ago, just a little bit about where we've been. Look what it says on your outline. Remember what you've learned about the Lord through your experiences with him. Experience is a wonderful teacher, isn't it folks? How many of you have learned things through experience that you never learned in school or any other way? That's why you know more than your kids. We started with a vision, nine couples. In 1981, we met in the basement of a home of a current member of the church to explore what would a church look like if we set out to be a New Testament style church. And God gave us a vision to experience his power and his presence as we have already this morning. If you've had a sensitive heart this morning, you've felt the Lord here already in this place. And we had a vision that God would enable us no matter how many were there, whether it be two or 2,000, that we could be with him and know that he was with us. We set out from the beginning not to build a big church. That was not really our vision, but to build big people. People whose hearts were growing in their capacity to love and to understand and to know God. People who wanted to know his plan and his purpose and his will for their lives in accordance with his word. And that's why everything we do in this church, everything is based on the word of God. If you see things that you don't understand, don't just count them as somebody's own little kind of idiosyncrasy. It's something that we've probably taught from the word of God. Those early years, they were wonderful years. We began just to feed the people good things. In fact, we fed them Danish and French pastries, as I recall. And those of you who were part of the original crowd, remember that? When we had the break between services or whatever, we'd have Danish, French rolls, donuts, coffee, and orange juice. Now, what do you get? Yeah, cookies. Well, the problem was we paid $2.50 a person to get that because that's what it took in order to use the restaurant. But people came. They came in significant numbers as we just simply did what God put before us. Eighty percent of the people in those early days were in small groups. Eighty percent. Nearly everyone shared in the ministry because they had to or we wouldn't function. Our Sunday morning service routinely went well over two hours. And people weren't in a hurry to go anywhere. Nearly everyone gave of their financial resources because they knew that if we didn't pay the rent, we wouldn't have a place to meet. And over the years, we saw hundreds come to Christ and grow in relationship to the Lord Jesus and discover the person and the work of the Holy Spirit and open to God in worship and prayer and learn to care for each other as the Scripture teaches for each of us to do. God said that he would send to us all that we would care for. And so we made the focus our ability to learn to care for each other. By the late 80s, friends, we'd entered into a new phase of life as a church where we were no longer first generation people coming. In other words, you brought a friend and so on. People just came because they heard about us. People saw something that we did on television or heard about a report of a ministry or whatever and they just started coming and they didn't know anybody. And it created great challenges. Learning how to assimilate people and to integrate them into the life of our church and to empower them for ministry. Increasing numbers of non-Christian and non-church people began to come to Northwood because they knew that there was something missing. I've heard this hundreds and hundreds of times. People who were sometimes going to church but really didn't get anything out of it. People who wanted to know the real God in their life and not just some religious substitute. And they came in significant numbers. 1991, listen to this, we had 1,200 recorded conversions as a church. More than half of those, by the way, occurred during Strike Force. Just to give you an idea of the power of that ministry. And so we set out at that point. We knew God was doing something a lot bigger than we planned to relocate onto a new piece of property. What a challenge that became. As I won't recount how we ended up here, but the past several years we've given ourselves to the holding forth of the hope of the gospel here in this piece of property. And God has been bringing people from really all over the region. But can I just say, you know, when I sat here as I did on Wednesday night and watched a family like the Merzlachs stand and give their testimony to the grace of Jesus and say to their co-workers and their friends and neighbors, we couldn't stand here, we wouldn't have the strength if it wasn't for the grace of Christ in our lives. And five years ago or so they couldn't have said that because they didn't know the Lord. Someone in this church shared Jesus with them. Led them to Christ. Watered baptism. And the things of God. I just want you to know, friends, that's worth it to me. Take all the rest of it away, that's worth it to me. What's caused this growth over the years? Well, on your outline, just want to fill this in, we don't really have a space for it. Just three things I've identified. Number one, we've had a divine purpose. This is still under Roman numeral one. A divine purpose. God's given us a clear vision that hasn't changed to make disciples of Jesus Christ who are loved, nurtured, and equipped to minister to God and one another in the laws of the world and the power of the Holy Spirit. We have a divine purpose. Second, we have a divine power. We've been a church that's been committed to worship and prayer all of our life. And the prayer flame has remained on. It's waned and waxed at times. We are about to do some more things, which I'm going to tell you about in a moment, to sort of rekindle that flame. But we've counted on God because we know we can't do it on our own. And thirdly, friends, we're here today and we've grown because of dedicated people. Write that down. Dedicated people. People who've learned to sacrifice for the things of God. You know, we all benefit at one time or another in our lives from someone's sacrifice. Isn't that right, parents? Our kids don't have a clue. Do they? You know, we recently got a puppy. And my two boys are still at home. My daughter, who tricked me into getting the puppy, isn't there anymore. And the boys are just amazed at how much work that puppy takes. And they're moaning about taking the puppy out and cleaning up the puppy and all that kind of stuff. And I said, what do you think we did with you? See, they forget all that. And there are teachers out there who sacrificed that we could learn things that we know. And there are coaches out there who sacrificed so that we could become more proficient in particular skills. And there's pastors and youth workers and others, volunteers, who've helped us to grow because they sacrificed along the way. And there's soldiers who gave the ultimate sacrifice that we could enjoy freedom today. Many of us are here today reaping the benefits of those who sacrificed before us. I remember when we were much smaller. We gathered out in 1988 at the Sheridan North. It was at that point we realized that things were happening. And about 400 families, without any specific particular piece of property or building or anything, committed a million dollars, sacrificially. A million dollars in 1988. To what we called a promise that God was going to provide. We called it Prelude to a Promise. And then in 1992, nearly 600 families committed a million and a half dollars to opening our doors so that we could get underway to get this building up. A lot of you who raised your hand, you weren't here for any of that. But you've got to know that someone did that. Two and a half million dollars started coming in before this was ever even constructed. Because people cared about other people. I remember at that 1992 Opening Our Doors commitment, I remember we were down at the Allegheny Community College North, that great Sunday morning, I remember when one of our seniors came forward and just gave an unsolicited testimony, spontaneous testimony, that she didn't have much to give, but she'd give up her Diet Coke and her pretzel every day in order to give her five dollars a week. We affectionately called her the Pretzel Lady, and it caused many people to realize that every little bit mattered. I'm telling you, friends, it takes sacrifice. Dedicated people. People who demonstrate that where their treasure is, that's where their heart is. You know, the parking lot is kind of iced over and messed up as they are. All of this out here, it takes an enormous amount of sacrifice for this to happen. Somebody put that all out there. You know, there's a half million dollars worth of parking lot and all that we had to do just to get the permits to get in here. I mean, when you come across there in the morning, you should thank God that's holy ground. What are you saying, Pastor? See, I'm saying, friends, that we can't forget what it took to get us here. And I want to say to those of you who've been here through it all, thank you. And those of you who've just come on in lately and enjoying the ride, well, welcome. But remember, it's taken someone who was dedicated. And I want us to just thank God for His faithfulness through the years. But I also want to say, well, what's ahead for us? Because I want you to know something about me. In case you don't already know this, if you look at my gear shift lever of my internal functioning brain, I don't have a reverse. I say with Paul in Philippians 3, I forget the things that are behind. Let's pull it up there. I look forward to what lies ahead. I strain to reach the end of the race and to receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven. I tell you, after 18 years, I've not lost one ounce of that passion. Not one ounce. I may not have quite as much energy as I did then. Although sometimes it takes more than I even have. But I'm committed to going forward. And I believe with all my heart. Listen, here's the good news. I believe the best days of this church are ahead. We've had some great days. But we haven't seen the best days yet. It's been prophetically announced that the best days are ahead. But I know in my heart that as we align things around here, the best days are yet to come. And if you're not ready for that, get ready. And if you think that seat you're in is like your seat, you better get ready to come in here a little earlier to get to it. Because God's got some plans ahead for us. The past is prolonged. But there are going to be some challenges. In Roman numeral 2, let me talk about where we're headed. I shared two weeks ago that there's some challenges ahead. 1999 is going to be an extremely volatile year. I mean, if you look back a thousand years, I'm not a history buff, but I've done a little bit of reading. Did you know that in 999, yeah, 999 A.D., there was all kinds of fearfulness that the end of the world was about to happen? There was all kinds of things that were being said about, well, this is the cataclysmic end, and kind of like what's on Time magazine. If you get Time, it's the end of the world, and this is January 18th. A thousand years ago, it was all the same. They didn't know what to do, so they lit three candles at night. That was their big preparation for the coming of the end of the world. I said in that snowy morning a couple of weeks ago that these are clearly unusual times. And Jesus warned us in Matthew 16, 3, this isn't on your outline, but He said, you know how to interpret the appearance of the sky. I'm not sure that's true of our weather people, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. In other words, He's saying, look, you know, you kind of make sense of what's going on out there. You need to look and see what's going on in the circumstance of life and understand that I'm about doing things. And then He goes on to say in Matthew 24, 20, watch and be alert that no one deceives you. Friends, there's a lot of deception out there. A lot of people with their heads kind of like clouded over, and they're just sort of blankly going along. I mentioned four things that I think are critical right now. We're in a season of moral crises in America. Judge Robert Bork, not known to be an outspoken believer in Jesus, said this, America is in a moral freefall that only a spiritual revival can correct. And everything that I read... Now, I'm not saying the sky is falling. I'm just saying that everything's slipping. It's slipping. It's slipping. Did you know that fewer than one of every ten born-again Christians possess a biblical worldview that impacts their decisions or behaviors? In other words, a lot of people say they're Christians, but it doesn't really affect how they live their life. Those people who believe that Christianity is losing its influence in our society outnumber those who say it's gaining influence by more than three to one. Morally speaking, we're slipping. We're slipping away. Second, we're in what I call a leadership crisis. This entire thing that we're watching day by day in the television is far more than just sort of political posturing. Friends, this is a critically important thing that's happening. I hope you're praying about it. Because I believe that the dissolution of trust in government will affect future decision in a big, big way. Third, I talked about the fact that economically speaking, though we're enjoying this prosperity that just seems to be going on and on and on, most savvy people who watch markets around the world realize just how tenuous the whole thing is. And it wouldn't take a whole lot of loss of confidence for the whole stack of dominoes to go down. And then I talked a little bit about how we're in a spiritual crisis, as America slowly but perceptibly drifts away from God. Again, this isn't something that you really read about or see a whole lot, but it's very true. Did you know that even as we meet here and we think, wow, look at all the people and this is great, that after 18 years and $500 billion of expense since 1981, did a little calculation here, the total number of people who profess to be born-again Christians in America has not changed. We're not gaining any ground. In fact, some studies show that we've lost ground. Interestingly, people are spiritually hungry. They're looking for answers, but they're not finding it in the Church of Jesus Christ, and I believe there's a reason for that. And by the way, those four things that I just mentioned, moral, leadership, economic, and spiritual, I still haven't mentioned the one thing that's probably the most volatile issue of 1999. What's that? Well, I think it's Y2K. I mean, that's what's going to be the most volatile issue. That's the one that's going to probably push all the other ones around. And I'm not going to talk about that a whole lot right now. I do want you to know that I have asked about 15 leaders of our church to come together to help bring some sane, balanced wisdom to this subject, and we're going to be doing that. And on February 21st, I want to bring a message about Y2K and what it means to us in this year. But I just want to say one thing that I'm pretty confident about today. I do not believe, listen, I do not believe that Jesus is coming back on January 1st, 2000. And you want to know why I believe that? Because so many weird balls are predicting that it's true. That's why. And scripture says that no man knows the time or the date. Nobody does. Our leadership retreat had to be postponed because of the bad weather, and they gave me an opportunity to watch some television on Friday night. I mean, there's some very strange people saying some strange things. There's a lot of extreme positions out there, and you just need to be very prudent as you're watching and understanding that stuff. But we're going to talk more about that on February 21st. 1999 will be a year of challenge for all of us. Jesus said, watch and pray. But I want to share some of the positive changes that I see that we need to take. And actually, they're not changes as much as they are just reinforcements of what has brought us to where we are. And I want you to write these down with me. See, these are the things that grace, according to 1 Corinthians 15.10, grace at work in us is going to bring to pass. And because this is, listen, when I left the traditional church, it wasn't because I had some bone to pick. If you've been here a while, you know that I was raised in a denominational church. I didn't leave that denomination in which I was ordained because I thought they were wrong. I didn't have a big quarrel with them. I just wanted to be able to pursue the serious things of making disciples without all the limitations, all the bureaucracy, all the layers of stuff and haggling that was going on. And as we've grown, as I've shared with you, the complexity of doing this, of making disciples has grown. Now it's a network of people. And now you tell me about your brother's family that's having issues going on, or your boss's marriage or whatever, and there's thousands upon thousands of relationships that are affected by this church. And I have to admit to you, it's been difficult to maintain focus. And some of you write to me these lovely little letters of concern. And I appreciate your concerns. But you have to understand, our mission is to make disciples. I mean, that's what we're about. And when you hold up that light, it's difficult to meet all the needs that are out there and still focus on what the main thing is. But I'm committed to it. I just want to ask you a question. If you knew that Jesus was coming back, let's say, October of 1999, what would you do? I mean, if some of these people are right, what would you do? Well, I'd go on a cruise because, you know, I haven't seen a lot of the world. Is that what you'd do? You know what I hope you would do? I hope you could say with a clear conscience, you know what, I'd do what I'm doing right now. In fact, C.S. Lewis said it this way, all that really matters is that when Jesus returns, that he should find us at our posts, whether it's leading a great crusade or tending to the ordinary things of life. In other words, be faithful. He could come at any moment. Let me just share with you the five specific things that I'm recommitting us to by grace as we move forward. Number one, that we incorporate, flip your outline over, incorporate every member into a small group. Don't let this get lost in you if you're newer to us. Don't let this be a sort of a back burner issue. Every person who calls this their church home needs to be in line with some small group. Friends, what is our name? It's North Way Christian Community. Boy, does that cause some people... I'd say 80% of my mail doesn't get it right. It's North Way Christian Church. It's North Way Community Church. They've got to put church on there because they don't know what a community is. But a church, if it's anything, is a community. And those nine couples that met in 1981 chose that name because we wanted to say, this is a community. Now, it can't be a community of 2,500 or so people because we just can't all know each other. I got a letter from someone just this last week who told me they were leaving after seven or eight years and I had to search way back to remember if I'd ever even met them. And then I remembered I had. But I just didn't know them that well. And that's how large this church is at this point. But community happens not when we all gather. It happens in small groups. It happens when we sit down around a table or in the living room together and share the things of God. And if you're not in a group, you've got to find one. And I want to say to every leader, listen to me, how many soul and small group leaders are here in this service? Put your hand up. Admit it. Go ahead. Your mission is to multiply that group this year and make room. You know, we have 25, 35, 40 people every month looking for a group. And we're sitting in our groups and saying, no, can't let you in here. Leaders, you've got to hear this. You need to multiply that group and we need to start new groups. Why? Because if something happens to people, who's going to know about it? Friends, if you come here week after week and you don't get into a group and then you stop coming and you wonder why no one called me, the pastors didn't call, the pastors don't know you weren't here. We don't go out and look at the name tag bin and just go over all this. It's impossible. We tried that for a while. Too many people. But your small group will know. And more importantly, your small group is a place where grace is in place to help you to grow, to help speak right into your life, to help you to grow to the next level, the next level, the next level. You've got to be there. And I want to make a little prophetic word here for you. If you don't join a group, you'll be gone in two years. You won't. Well, you say, I've been not in a group. He doesn't know me. We've been here ten years and we've never been in a group. Well, you know what? Change that. Get in a group. Make a difference in someone's life. Second, we want to initiate a fresh release of the spirit of prayer and intercession. And more about this in coming weeks, but I just want you to know that it isn't as though it's something we ought to. It's something that God enables us to do. We're going to be transforming our prayer chapel into more of a prayer chapel and less of sort of just a general meeting room up above. But more than that, we're going to upgrade our communication network of prayer. The first Wednesday of every month is going to be a time of healing, prayer and fasting for our ministry and lots of other things to just let prayer be released. Because prayer, friends, is God's way of getting things done. As Paul Bilheimer writes in his wonderful book, Destined for the Throne, prayer, therefore, is where the action is. Any church without a well-organized and systematic prayer program is simply operating a religious treadmill. Would you like to stand up right now and just do this for a while? I do a treadmill thing once or twice a week. You know, it's boring. But you do it to stay in shape. And I don't want to do it in church. How many of you do? How many of you want to make progress? Well, it takes prayer. We're going to initiate some things and re-fire some things in our prayer life. Number three, we're going to activate every member for his or her ministry. Activate every member. The Lord spoke to us three years ago very clearly. He told me the greatest resource in this church was the Holy Spirit's life at work in His people. And you know, I believe that we've tapped some of that in some of you, and a whole lot of you. A lot of you back up in the corner up there who got in late because you were dropping off your kids. And a whole lot of you over here who maybe are just back in the back because it's safe. And some of you right in here in the middle that have just been sitting here for a while. God's got a gift. He wants to flow through you. He wants you to give something of yourself to the up-building and encouragement and strengthening of His body. And I'm calling us to renew and re-establish our commitment to discover and empower ministry in every person. Just before Christmas, we didn't tout this and make a big deal of it, but we did a major renovation of a home of a woman who was widowed this last summer. And a lot of folks gave a lot of energy. And I got a wonderful letter from one of those people who just gave of himself. And he said, you know what? It was a lot of work. And I mean, they did major work in this home. Major work. And they said, thanks for the privilege of letting me serve. Wow. Why? Because it gave, I mean, they get so much from that. How many of you saw Christmas Eve? Well, you know, that great presentation was the result of many people bringing their gifts together. How much more so if the whole body of us bring all of our gifts and get them to work on the mission, vision God's given us. Can you see the potential strength of it all? I just want you to know if you've been sitting week by week, watching this happen and just saying, I'm going to put a bullseye on you. Okay? I just want you to know that your seat is in jeopardy. It's time you get moving. Because this place is just, there's too much happening here for you just to sit and evaluate. Don't send me your evaluations. Number four. This is going to be a year when we saturate our community with the good news. Friends, we have such good news. Oh, God. When people hear the simple gospel, when they come to understand it, lights go on in their hearts. They understand that they don't have to work at being assured that they can be with God for eternity. When they realize that there are answers to life's most difficult problems, they respond so willingly. And you know what? You're the key to that. I want to take you back. That invitation you have to strike for. So your invitation to a Sunday morning or even to a small group. Your word of mouth is so critical. It is the difference between people feeling secure to come and just staying away. And I want you to know that as things go along here and uncertainty increases, more and more people are going to want to know, well, who's got some truth here? I believe as this year unfolds, more and more people are going to say, well, I've got to really take a look at some things and understand what's going on. And when they come in here, they may not understand everything. And you know, that's okay because what they sense is authenticity. They sense that we are real and they want that and they dial into it. And as I have seen many, many times over the years, as conditions change, hardened hearts become soft. When people lose something, when people go through strife, their hearts change. Just a little suggestion. When we encounter people, if there's one basic simple step that you could take, even today, that would begin to change things, it's how you encounter people. When you meet someone new, here's an overhead for you. When you see someone new, whether it's after the service today or during one of the events you're attending or whatever, just a few things. I've watched this now. Step toward them, not away from them. Reach for them, don't recoil back from them. Initiate conversation, don't hesitate. Become proactive, not reactive. It makes such a huge difference if you decide, hey, I'll reach out to them and if they've been here longer than me, no big deal. Just say, well, I just never met you, just want to say hello. You'd be amazed how many people are looking for someone to include them. I had a great experience on New Year's Eve. We had, as you know, the Kairos community put on a great New Year's Eve dinner dance thing and it was really a wonderful evening. Carol and I got here a little late and we walked in, oh, I guess maybe 8, a little after 8 or so and it started at 7.30 and most everyone had gotten here on time and we came in and had our little noisemakers and all and started looking for a table and we walked down one row, all the tables were taken, people saying hi, hi, up another row, hi, hi. A lot of tables went by that didn't even say hi, hi. And I remember thinking, probably after 5 or 6 minutes of not having any place to sit, this is what it feels like to have everybody around you feeling at home and you have no place to go. We sat by ourselves. Then I paid for someone to come and they joined me. It was fun. It was a great evening. But you know what? It was an awkward moment. Not one person said, hey, we can slide another chair in here. We can make it. This is my table. We got here on time, you didn't. Okay. Okay. Just reach out to people. You'd be amazed at how hungry people are just for you to say, hey, good to see you. I'm glad you're here. Can I help you find something? Number five, I want to see us accelerate our giving and completing of our church campus. I want to say, first of all, thank you, those of you who have supported the ministry this last year so wonderfully. Many in this service, you have been great in that. But don't let it prevent you from going ahead and don't let the fear that you keep hearing over the airwaves stop you from giving to God. Remember that the ministry will not go forward unless you take it forward with your tithes and offerings. And I want to say to the scores of you and maybe hundreds of you who are coming here regularly but do not give with any regularity, I want to say, just think about what you're doing. The entire scriptural basis for the sustaining of the ministry of the local church is from your giving. It's not from foundations. I repudiate that. I don't want to go ask some corporation for money. The church has the money. God's put the money in the church. The Bible teaches clearly where to bring our tithes into the storehouse. And for you to benefit from the ministry week after week and for you to drop your children off and then come in and not to support this ministry with your tithes and offerings is according to Malachi 3.8 to rob God. And you've got to do business with God about that. Bring up those stacks of cards, please. The last time I talked about this openly was on November 23rd of 97. I did a message on tithing. I want you to see something here. I've kept these cards since then. This is a stack of cards, and just think of proportions. This isn't absolute numbers. This is the stack of cards of people who said, I am currently tithing and supporting the ministry. This is the stack of cards of people who said, I'm thinking about it. You'll see that? It's 60-40. That's what it is. 60% of us are caring, the other 40% of us. I don't want to motivate you from guilt at all. You need to know the facts. Because I think one thing that happens is we look around and say, well, there's a lot of people here and they've really got things pretty well in order. They don't need it. We need you. We need every one of you. You know, there are ministries right now that aren't happening because we don't have the resources to release them. You say, well, you know what? I don't like what you preached three Sundays ago, so I'm not giving. Well, you're missing it. God, you give to God. You give through the church, but you're giving to God. And then we're accountable to God to use your resources in a biblical fashion. I want to implore you, even for your own benefit. Look at 2 Corinthians, if you'll put that up, Lee. The Bible says that you're going to reap what you sow. If you sow generously, you're going to reap generously. Each man should give what he's decided in his own heart to give. Not reluctantly or under compulsion. For God loves what kind of a giver. All right. So let's smile when the offering basket comes by. All right? And God will take care of you. You need to understand it's such an important thing. New families, we need you. If you've been here for any length of time, you're part of this team now. So what is the choice that you're going to make? Well, you've got to make it. I've been pretty tolerant over these last cou