S.A.L.T. II

Okay, all right, we have plenty more here, Russ, you want some more? Plenty to go. Now we're going to talk for about the next 35 or 40 minutes, maximally. And we'll be done a little bit early because I want to give ample time for questions and answers and be done by 10. And if you'll allow me, I'll lead you through this. And I left enough blanks that even Einstein couldn't figure out what he wanted to say here. So I'm trying to go together. I'd like you to pray with me, please. Let's bow our heads and ask the Lord to anoint this time. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for these servants. And Holy Spirit, I ask you right now, despite our unworthiness or whatever mental or emotional loads we have in our beings today or physical ones, that you would visit us by your spirit and allow these next moments to be impactful and life-changing to us as we look again at what you're doing to prepare this church for the great work that you've called us to, Lord, our destiny in Christ. Again, I thank you for these, Lord, who've made a priority of being here today, Lord. It is never easy, but I thank you, Lord, that it's always worth it because you are here. In Jesus' name. Now, this is the second installment. Jean, I have a question. Well, now I guess it's too late. I mean, now everyone will wonder what it was until I'm done. Hold the tape, Dean. No, please, come on up. This is the time to do it. And do put this on the tape, please. It's been a long time since I've given a word from the Lord, so I've been very hesitant and just waiting on the Lord. But I wasn't even going to come this morning because I went to hear Malcolm last night and was up till all hours of the night, and so I was awakened at quarter after eight this morning, and I figured I'd better get here. But this is the word that the Lord has been dealing with me for three weeks, and He's been improving it in my heart and just settling it down in my heart. And the one thing is that there is a tremendous transition that's beginning to take place in this church, and it's beginning to take place in all the hearts of those that God has called, not only here in this body but universally. You're going to see some tremendous changes begin to take place, and it no longer will be that you can sit on your knees anymore. God is going to thrust us into the vineyard of the Lord in a way that you've never known before, and part of it's going to be because of the outside pressures, the pressures of the world, the pressures of, quote, our presidents and our governments and the things like that. And so God is forming a people that's going to be close-knitted together, and what the Lord is looking for is that we understand that even as He started out the ministry with Moses, the first thing that Moses did in his ministry was to anoint Aaron as priest. And this is what the Lord has been dealing with me, is that there is an anointing that is coming, and when the anointing was poured upon Aaron's head, the first thing that he received was the mitre to put on his head, which was to cover his mind and his ears so that he would only hear, and he would only understand what the will of the Lord was, and he could not be a people-pleaser, and yet Aaron failed because he listened to the people. And so one of the prayers that you need to be praying for in this transition is that the leadership will not lose their anointing nor be led by the people, because during this time of transition, there's going to be murmuring and complaining, and because of things that are not going to go the way you want and the way you like, and it's going to be an inconvenience, and it's going to be a struggle. Some will just be lost in the transition. We will lose some of them in the transition, and there will be others that will come along. Now, when the church is built, there will be a tremendous influx of people, because people like a winner. But you see, it's got to be the crowd that understands from point A to point B how to get there, and that's what God is saying, that the anointing is the thing that we don't want to lose, and we've got to pray constantly that we understand what the anointing is. And last week when I was praying, because, you know, I'm teaching, and I said, Lord, what is the thing that I need the most in teaching? And he said, the anointing. You can get up and say anything. You can say a cow is a cow, and if God anoints it, people are going to get saved and healed. And so if it's the word of the Lord. So we need to understand that you as leaders, and myself and Jay and the leadership here, the one thing that we want to pray for is that we don't lose the anointing, because, and I've seen it down through the years, people can learn how to minister, and they minister without any anointing, and most people don't even know it. But we don't want that. We want to be able to say we know that the anointing of the Lord is here, and that the anointing is going to lead us. All right, that'll be part of this take, and we'll get that word transcribed to us as well. On your green sheet, if you'll walk through this with me, I'm going to kind of review a little bit because it's brand new for many of us, and then I'm going to introduce some new things to you today, and we're just over the next month going to be soaking in this. And actually, in my spirit, part of this transition of which Gene just spoke is a transition in our understanding of how disciples are made. How many of you want to make disciples? I mean, that's what this church is about. Look at our vision statement. Let's put it up just in case they can't read that small print. All right, it's to raise up a local body. Read it with me. To raise up a local body of disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, who will be loved, nurtured, and equipped to minister to God, to one another, and to the lost of the world in the power of the Holy Spirit. I rejoice in that statement. If we are successful in doing that, I believe we're going to hear, Well done, good and faithful servant, when we stand before Jesus Christ. That is a powerful statement. When you pull it apart, it's equipping, nurturing, and loving people in ministry to God, in worship, in prayer, to one another, in love, and to the world that's lost. That's what we're here to do. And the way we're going to do that, the how-tos are empowering God's people for effective ministry through community groups. We believe that people cannot be lone ranger ministries. I love the fact that the deacons as a whole are going to work toward opening our doors and our arms and hospitality to the new people. I think that's what's been missing in many ministries. Some of you are burning out because you've tried to do it, or you've had such a great burden, but nobody's come alongside of you. I know what that's like. And I want you to know that God wants groups of ministries together. That's what's going to sustain you and carry you through. Let's look at the biblical foundations of this. I ran into Grant Smith last night as he was preparing to go on a week-long business trip, buying some odds and ends. He had the creepy crud. How many of you had the creepy crud this last week or two, the kind of flooey thing that's sort of moving around? Well, let's rebuke it together. When someone says, that's going around, I always say, it's not coming this way. I'm usually right. This time I was wrong. But anyhow, Grant said, we've been hearing a lot about a paradigm. He said, basically what we have is a paradigm in the rough. It sounded better when he said it. Our belief is that the Christian faith is a lifestyle. What we are into is a lifestyle. We're not into just a church and a creed. We're a lifestyle. And this lifestyle has four key components. Number one, every believer is a member of Christ's body. Last week that was our message, a member of the body of Christ, connected one to another in service, each one bringing a gift. If you missed last week's Sunday morning gathering, tonight I'm going to bring the same message on Saturday night. And then tomorrow Pastor Jeff's going to bring the message that he did last Saturday night that we just kind of flip-flopped for the weekend. Every believer needs maturity. It's not enough just to be a member. You need to be maturing. You need to be growing in your personal disciplines, in the stewarding of your resources, and in your involvement in the lives of others. Every believer is a minister. How many of you know that was the outgrowth of the Reformation? The priesthood of all believers. Every one of us has been called to be a priest and a minister in the house of God. These are words unless the Holy Spirit writes them on your heart. But once he does, you're changed. And number four, every believer is involved in mission. The Great Commission didn't just go to a handful. It went to all believers. And that's why some of you are so devoted to your call, because you know there's a call in your life, a call to serve God. Now these components, if you really follow them through, they meet basic needs in our life. This stuff fits together once you start understanding it. You see, everyone needs people to live with. Folks, it is very evident. I write about this in the cover of your notes tomorrow. How many of you have heard about the information superhighway that's being constructed and the fiber optic network and the blending of computer and video technology? You're going to be able to shop and recreate and communicate and never leave your home. And how many of you know that the way things are going out there, that's what you're going to probably want to do. You're going to be afraid to. Yet the hunger in every human being that I run into, regardless of their socioeconomic scale, is for community. They want to be with people. I mean, there's a hunger for that. And these specific components minister to the fact that people want to be connected out there. These give us principles to live by. There's a pattern that's developing here that you're going to see. I mean, one of the things I'm so excited about is you will understand what this church is trying to do in a way that you can walk out there to a brand new person and share it with them, and they're going to understand it. And that will give you a whole lot more security in knowing what your church is about. And I think after our first discovering the way, I have never had more affirmation from new people and from a couple of veterans that went through just to sort of check it out that we are now moving in a direction that people will understand what North Way is about and how to move through the process of being involved and maturing. A profession to live on. In other words, stating and declaring what it is that you are all about. If you're a minister in the gospel, it is important for you to know this is who I am, this is what I'm about. You're professing that which you know God is doing in your life. And number four, a purpose to live for. Moving from success to significance. I want to write that down. Moving from success to significance. It's one thing to be a success in this world. It's another thing to know that what you're doing has significance and an abiding sense of worth. Now, what we're doing is learning commitments. And I want to commend you. I want to thank you for being here today. You're saying by your presence, we're committed. This is what you're saying. And I want you to pray with me today. I'll just write this up in the upper right-hand corner of this page. Pray that the other hundred or so people who really ought to be here, as SALT members, know that November the 6th, we're going to be together again. And we're going to do it every month. We're going to be faithful about it. Because what's going to be transmitted here is of crucial importance to the core of this church. Very, very important. Remember the last time we were together. If you weren't here, do we have that? Okay. If it's not in there. It is on your notes. It's in your notes. The target of ministry. And we talked about this last time at length. And our goal is to be moving people from the outer periphery of the uncommitted, the people in the community, on into the core of what we're all about. We talked last time about the crowd being those who come from being just out there to start attending. I don't have the list in front of me. I wish I did, Arlene. One of the marvelous things about this new name tag deal that we're doing out here is that we kind of know who's not coming now. And it's a scary thing. It is a scary thing. There are hundreds and hundreds of people who are still identifying with us on a given weekend who don't come. Now, what we're going to be able to do is we're beginning now to be able to put sort of a tracking system in. So if someone, let's say Greg Young, gets offended. This is an impossible scene, so I'll use Greg. Well, you wouldn't. You're not easily offended, brother, as the scripture says. But let's say he gets offended. And he and Joy decide to stay home and pout. And they pout for three weeks. We will be now able, because of this system, after three weeks, a little flag will come up beside their name like, Greg and Joy Young haven't been here for three weeks. And we are going to have ones of you who have a heart to care for people equipped to be able to phone call them and say, Gee, Greg and Joy, we've missed you. Anything we can do? Is there something on? And then it's up to Greg to say, Well, you know what? The pastor there walked right by me in the hall, and he offended me, and I need him to come work this out. And this is a very important thing. Lots of folks can have a bona fide something happen, and we don't know about it, and they don't call us. And now we'll be able to have a system in place where we can do that. So that's really exciting. That will help move people, you see, from just being out there in the crowd attending now and then into the committed membership. And as I just mentioned, I'm... not because this numbers thing is a big deal, but because I think it's a signal from God to get ready. As Gene said, Get ready now. Folks, when 15 people are baptized on a Sunday morning, as last week, if you weren't here, 15 baptisms, when 100 people go through Discovering the Way in two months, that's a message. Get ready. Because one thing that we've discovered over the years is those 100 people are the most effective evangelists new to our family. They're going to go out and tell other people what's going on, provided they continue to feel part of things. So we're moving them toward the core. And then comes after the congregation is the committed. Those who are committed to maturity, the three marks of being committed to maturity, personal disciplines. How many have had a good week of quiet times? Let me see your hand. It was a good week. How many didn't have that great of a week? How many just downright need forgiveness today? Don't be embarrassed. I mean, the grace of God is that he says, if you blew it this week, come. I had a tough week. Just had a tough week of getting along with the Lord. Boy, and you get to... How many of you get into the thing of, I don't deserve to be blessed now? The Lord reminded me this morning. He said, you know, I don't recall that you ever really deserved to be blessed. It makes it a little easier. But nonetheless, I want to get back on. That's the way we think, though. And then the core, those who are committed to the ministry and mission of our church. So the goal is to be moving people. Folks, you know, by faith, can you see 800 people sitting here on a Saturday morning at a salt meeting? Can you see that? That's where we want to be. That's going to be a couple of years in the coming, but that's what we should see. That's where we need to be going as a church. So that's just in one little symbolic form, a little bit of a picture for you, what we're trying to do is move people together. All right, now, strategically, how do we do that? Well, Arlene, would you... I do want the overhead for this. It's in the Discovering the Way brownfold or whatever that is in there. Well, this is the diamond. And how many of you were not here last month? All right, so there's a handful of you that don't know this. But even if you were, it won't hurt you to review it, because we're going to... By the way, I'm not going to teach this on a Sunday morning. The only place this is going to be taught is here and to our Discovering the Way folks, and maybe on a Wednesday night at some point, if I feel like we want to involve the next level of folks. This is going to be more assimilated than it is proclaimed, because I think that's what God wants us to do. But this gives us an idea of how people progress. And here's what I want you to notice about this. There's kind of four things that go on here, and there's a lot that can be said, but draw a dotted line down the middle of your diamond, right down the middle, that's right. Vertical, a vertical, top to my right, from two to four, right down the middle. Everything on the right, now on the right-hand side of that, put input. Input. And everything on the left, you can write output. I didn't do this, but let's go ahead and flash that up there. Thank you. So, let me see. So everything on this side here, you want to put input. Because everything that's coming on, people coming into the body, becoming committed, they're receiving, growing, they're receiving instruction, and training, and equipping. But when they cross second base, then they begin the serving and the sharing mode. Then they begin to be trained and equipped for ministry and giving out. Now, I want you to write the number, 60%. 60%, right there in the upper right-hand corner, right here. We estimate that about 60% of our church is right there, and probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 10% to 20% is down here, coming into the body. It may be 15% and 65%, but folks, about 70%, roughly, of our church is on this side of the diamond. Now, I'm thankful that we have those people here, but I want you to know that many more of them need to be rounding second base and getting on the output side of the diamond, because that's where fulfillment begins, and that's where a release of the anointing of the Spirit for ministry. Why is the anointing given? So we can all feel better about our... No, it's given for ministry. The Spirit of the Lord has anointed me, the prophet said, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and so on. So what we need to pray is that God will show us the ways to cause this 60% or so, 10, 60, 20, 10 is about what I see. 10, 60, 20, 10. 10, 60, 20, 10. That's what I see. That God would enable some of that 60 to round the base and begin to be on the output side of things. That's when the audience becomes an army. That's when we start to really move out and see things happen to the grassroots. And so write this around the base paths. Down here I want you to write this. This is basically in a nutshell what we're doing. Write, Bring them in. Bring them in. That's what's happening down here. Bring them in. Bring them in through the men's breakfast. Bring them in through the morning services. In two weeks we're starting a new series that will be targeted, focused, on issues that people are facing in relationships of any sort. If you've been following with me the last two months, in August I talked really about your relationship with God. Running on Empty was the title of the series, and I talked about walking with Him, trusting Him, and so on. Very vertically related. All through September and October we've been talking about the church. These have been messages people have been saying, well, not a lot of evangelism. Well, they haven't been evangelistic messages. They've been about the church. But starting mid-October we're going to move into a more evangelistic mode throughout the balance of the year. If you know anybody out there that has some relational struggles, you're going to want to pray about bringing them over those next about nine weeks as we look at things that everyone's facing. Anyone know anyone having a relational struggle? These will be things that you'll be able to benefit from, but you can bring folks from your family, your neighborhood, your business place, wherever. So bring them in, and of course as we come to the holidays, it's a great time to bring them in. Here we want to write, build them up. What happens between first and second days? We build them up. We edify. We input into their lives. Wednesday night is a component of that. Our training sessions, other opportunities that are happening with Emmaus and all those ministries, that's part of it, and so forth. All of our home group input is building people up, caring for them. Then you round the base. The next thing that happens is you train them for. What happens there is you're starting in the training mode, and at third base you're really training people for ministry. We do some of that on Wednesday night. We do a lot of that in special seminars and gatherings. We're doing it this morning. It's part of what's happening here, is you're getting equipped and trained. Home group leaders are going to meet for half an hour after this gathering to be trained for what they're going to be doing and so on. And finally, you send them out. You send them out. You see, ultimately, ultimately the ministry that I'm most hungry to see isn't just what happens here. As wonderful as this can be for us, but folks, some of you know the greatest mission field is not in these walls. The greatest mission field is out there, where you run into people. I mean, sending people out. And see, the vision of this paradigm is that when people have been brought in and folded, moving in maturity in the disciplines and in the commitments of maturity, and then equipped for ministry, that they start sharing Christ, heading out into the marketplace. And if I had a marking pen here, I'd just write for you. Just sending out, and then ultimately bringing people in with them. You see, they come back around, and they move back around the base paths with somebody new. So you can be running those paths a number of times with somebody else, just getting them through. So there they are, four things. That's those four. Did you get those down? I'm going to take a minute on the answer and put those up. You want to bring them in, build them up, train them for, and send them out. Let's say it together. Bring them in, build them up, train them for, and send them out. Very simple. I know this is simple. This is kindergarten, but I would venture to say that most of our people don't quite understand what we're trying to do here. There it is. Bring them in, build them up, train them for, and send them out. All right, pause. Questions about this to this point. Do you see how this... And you see, if you follow this, this is moving people toward that target. These four basic steps move people toward the target. We're bringing them in. That's going from community to congregation. Do you see that? Then as we start training them, we're building them up. They're going from the crowd, rather, to the congregation. Then as you train them for, they're going from the congregation into the committed core, and then you send them out. That's just moving along that target. Pretty clear? Got it? All right, you got it. Yes, ma'am. Good question. The question is, is there a mean average time that it takes a person to kind of make this journey? My answer is no. I can't tell you that. It depends on two things that I see. Number one is the hunger of the person. If a person has been dramatically converted and they tend to want to grow quickly, that can expedite the process. The second thing is whether or not an individual comes alongside of them and walks with them. If they are left to flounder, this can take five years. If they're directed, it can take one year. I would say best case scenario would be nine to 12 months. You can get a person... Now, they can fumble their way into reproduction. I mean, they can do that. In fact, one of the most dangerous evangelists out there is a new Christian. They can... You need to put them in jail sometimes just to calm them down. But materially speaking... I mean, I'm not saying you can be mature in Christ in a year, but you can really literally be moving around that path in a year's time. But that's only if someone's walking with you and answering your questions. I remember Stephen and Mary here about three or four years ago. I mean, there'd be a time when they were really up and excited and fired up. And that's one of the marks of a new Christian is they just go up and down and they're wondering, why can't I get this right? Oh, man, did I really get it at all? Then the dips start leveling out and it doesn't mean that... But now you'd probably say it's a lot more steady than it was three years ago. There were times when they'd say, man, I just don't think it ever really happened to me. Well, yeah, it did. It just... Now, let's be real clear about this. This is just a way of thinking about things. This is not a mechanism that has to work this way every time. Someone asked me once, well, gee, what if I came to Christ and I went through discovering the way and made that covenant to be part of things? Couldn't I get involved in a ministry? Absolutely, you could. Chances are you'll get over there and maybe get trained and maybe your ministry is to be trained to be helping in the children's ministry. Well, you may go along and suddenly realize, boy, I need some discipline in my life, and so you may want to come back to this base. So it isn't like you have to do it this way. It's just a way of thinking. It's not a form that... You know, we're not talking about soldiers marching around the base path. Is that clear? That's real important. This is just a way of thinking. It's not like, well, if you don't... I don't want anyone running to somebody that's in a ministry and you say to them, you haven't gone to second base yet. Ideally, they'll want to... and you may find someone that's out there just sharing Christ with a lot of people, but you see some immaturity in their life. Well, it's not your place to say, you know what? If you don't get yourself involved in a home group, you can't share Christ anymore. They'll come to the place where they realize if they're not involved in a small group someplace that they don't have balance in their life and they need that. So it gives a way to think about that that's clear. Now, let me just move on quickly here. I'm only going to get through half this outline, it looks like. Let me just end maybe with these four purposes. Four purposes. This is frustrating because this isn't... I'm not going to get anywhere near where I want to be. You know this, but I want to underscore it because people ask, well, what's North Way really all about? It's these four things. If someone were to take you out to lunch and say, you know, I've heard a lot about your church. What's it really all about? Four things. Celebrating God's presence. That has to do with worship. That has to do with the presence of God. One of the things that I am very pleased in my spirit about, I don't know about you, but I sense that in our worship life there are moments in every service where we sense God's presence there, and there are things that are happening in our spirit. I've heard people say to me, you know, there were moments when I just knew the Lord was there, where I came kind of down, and God lifted my spirit in the worship time. I've been hearing that kind of thing. That is a major reason why we exist. We exist to celebrate God's presence because how many of you know, it doesn't matter about buildings. It doesn't matter about programs. If your heart, if our hearts aren't being touched by God, we will dry up, and we will just be as lifeless and stale as the dead kind of religious operations that we see all around us. I could say a lot about worship to this group. I don't need to say a whole lot except that please don't assume that just because once you were there that you always will be. I just want to check this group because I expect more of leadership. How is your personal worship? When was the last time you were prostrate before God in worship? Just you. Just because you were in awe before your creator. It doesn't happen when you're in a hurry. It doesn't happen every day for me. But if it hasn't happened for you in the last week or two, I need to just ask you to give God some time and worship Him. Greatest revelations I ever receive are when I'm in worship. God goes from, I mean He just, He opens up my understanding and that's a thing that I want to just always encourage you to be doing. The second reason why we exist is to communicate God's Word. Evangelism. Why doesn't God just take us home after we come to Christ? Have you ever wished that would be the case? I have a lot of ministers tell me they would rather just be taken home to be with the Lord than make a mistake to embarrass the kingdom of God. I've had that. A lot of people tell me that. And I have a lot of people say, you know, if I knew it would have been this rough I'd ask God just to take me the minute I was saved. Why doesn't God do that? Well, I mean there's a lot of pain out there. There's a lot of, in case you haven't hit this age yet, the body starts deteriorating. Scott, right around 40? It's coming. November 30. You'll see black drapes here in the auditorium. Okay? Because we're believers doesn't mean we don't have heartbreak and we don't have struggle. There's two things you can't do in heaven. I mean, we're going to fellowship together, we're going to sing together, we're going to experience the glories of God and the mysteries of God together. We're going to rejoice. I think we're going to rehearse some of the great things that happen in our life, but there's two things you can't do. One of them is to sin and the other one is to witness. Which of the two do you think the Lord left us here to do? I mean, it's why we're here. Now, part of the reason we're here is to mature in our Christ-likeness. If you've never read Paul Bilheimer's Destined for the Throne, that's one of my top five books of my life, Destined for the Throne. You've got to read that book. They told me they just read it and couldn't get over it. I'm here, yeah. It's an incredible book. It tells you... I mean, the theology is stretching. It's why we're really left here. But I believe we're here to witness to others about the grace of God that we've come into. And we commit to this personally and daily. I don't know about you, but it is so easy just to be comfortable with you Christians. You know, I go into the locker room at the health club and it reminds me of where the world's at. I mean, I hear a different language than I hear up at the office building. I mean, I hear people drag through the mud. I hear words I only hear there. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I hear these same words. I'm trying to just rehearse and try to learn how to communicate in all the midst of that stuff. But we have got to see, folks, that we are here for the purpose of those people. And I just thank God for every once in a while I find some of you who bring me to someone and you introduce me to someone and someone I can tell is so uncomfortable. Oh, they're here for the first time. Oh, man, this is so weird. And then, you know, a couple of weeks later they're a little more relaxed and the next thing I know they're in the baptistry. Next thing I know they want to be out there serving God. And that's a wonderful thing for me to say. And we're committed to keep growing here. Three reasons. I don't have a place to write this down, but just three reasons why we're going to keep growing. Number one, God loves people. Check it out. Second Peter 3.9, He said the only reason why He doesn't bring things to the end is He's patient. He doesn't want any to perish. He loves people. Luke 15, the three most powerful parables that Jesus gave us, the picture of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son, gives you an idea of how much God cares about lost people. Number two, God commands us to reach out. Number one, He loves people. Number two, He commands us to reach out. He says in Luke 14.13, Go out into the highways and byways until My house is full. And I want you to know I affirm what Jean said. There will be a day that, and it won't be long, that we will see t