What On Earth Is God Doing?

Let me try that again and get your outline out of your notes, that's what I meant to say. And we're gonna look at the state of the church today. I've titled the message, What on Earth is God Doing? And not a few people asked me this week, does the message have anything to do with the State of the Union message that was given by President Clinton just this past Thursday evening, and any similarities? And I said, well, I mean, a couple of things right off the bat are different. I mean, I didn't come walking down the center aisle having someone say hear ye, hear ye, you know, that kind of thing. There isn't gonna be a mountain of statistics and quotes, this isn't gonna be partisan. The only real similarity that I can see is it's gonna be about 98 minutes long, just like President Clinton's. Unless you cheer, and then it'll be about half of that, so it's up to you. You don't know how demoralizing that is. I mean, I think if you really shouted, I could make it 15 minutes, is that what you'd like? But what we're gonna look at today is so very important, Church. I have a hunch that after this morning, some of you are gonna see more clearly than ever what it is that God's doing here, and how you can be part of it. And you're about to make a serious decision about your investment. I just did a little calculation. If you come every Sunday morning for worship, that's about a hundred hours a year. If you're part of a small group, that's at least another hundred or more hours a year that you're engaged in a small group. If you're in a ministry, that's probably another 50 to 100 hours of service that you're offering. Roughly speaking, you know, if you come to an alpha class or a cafe class, could be another 50 hours or so. Looking at at least 300 hours a year of being involved, and that's just in the programming sense, not just talking about friendships and relationships and all that. And that works out to approximately 48 hour days that you're gonna commit to this ministry. That's significant. Is it worth it? I mean, that's a question you have to ask. If time is money, as it's so touted in our culture, then you need to be sure you're investing wisely, and what you're investing is going to return a benefit to you. But one of the things that I want to say, going right out of the box, is one of the best pieces of advice. Geneva students, when I was a college student, someone said this to me and it made a huge impact in my life. They said this, if you want to know God's will, if you want to find God's direction for your life, discover what he's doing in your local area and get in the stream of it, and you'll be blessed. In other words, don't just go out and create something new because you think you're the only one that has it. Find out what he's doing. Find out where lives are being changed, where people are encountering God, and get in the middle of that, and the blessing of God will come down on your life. And I want to say, I believe this with all my heart, being part of a vital local church is critical to your life experiencing the blessing of God. I don't know lone ranger Christians who are prospering in things of God. I don't think it's possible, because God ordained for us to be part of a body. And so what I want to share with you today is what I think God is doing here. And I want to say from the outset that what I offer is not a prescription for your success or a promise of somehow North Way, you know, breaking all attendance records. That's not what this is about. It's not some kind of word of inflated prophecy that only I have or someone else has that that's going to kind of determine our future. It's not a hyped or sort of trumped-up sort of rhetoric thing. Friends, what I'm going to share is simply what I believe, based on the best counsel I could gather and prayerful times with the Lord, I believe God is doing in our church. And I want to say this, it's an awesome thing to be part of a church with so many people who want to do God's will. It's so invigorating to awaken, to realize that I'm not here trying to convince you that it's a good thing to walk with God. That most of you realize that this is the way and the truth and the life and you want it. And I'm, you know, we're surrounded by gifted and talented and devoted and committed people. Now, I know some of you are still seeking and you're not sure where you fit in all this or where your relationship with God is. I know some of you are probably here even under duress, perhaps, because your spouse said you're going to go to church with me today. But I want you to know something, this is a terrific place to be. And what I'm going to share is my perspective and admittedly, I'm just one guy and I'm fallible and it may well be that what I share today isn't what you feel is the most important thing. And I want to apologize in advance. If I leave out what really causes your heart to beat fast, please don't take that personally. This is my perspective, but I will tell you it's deeply thought through and considered and I believe it captures the essence of what God wants to do. And I got to tell you, I feel not a little unworthy providing leadership here. I don't feel alone in it, however. I'm surrounded by a great group of folks that have a passion to see God's best for this church. So what is he doing? Well, number one on your outline, he is building a kingdom. And by the way, that particular slide that's behind the graphic there is, well, that's the last Super Bowl the Steelers played in. And you know, I'm surprised it's not in black and white. You know, it was before color photography. But it's coming back at another time. I should say the last Super Bowl they won. They did play not that long ago. But there's a reason for that. It's more than just the football. I'll tell you about it in just a second. God is building a kingdom. Did you know that Jesus referenced the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven? They're synonymous. A hundred and fifty-seven times, actually in the Gospels and in the New Testament in total, a hundred and fifty-seven references the kingdom of God. It was the major theme of all of Jesus' teaching. He always would say things like, the kingdom of heaven is like this. The kingdom of God is like this. He was talking to people about something that they couldn't really see. And you know what? That frustrates us. When we can't see or feel or get a hold of it, it makes, you know, we get a little uncomfortable. Why? Because we want to control things. But Jesus said, no, I'm bringing a kingdom to earth. A kingdom like you've not seen before. Now, since we're not used to the idea of kingdom, you know, we've grown up in a democracy. It's a little difficult for us to understand. But in essence, a kingdom is a place of rulership. It's a place where authority rules. Look at your outline and look at the first verse. God's secret plan has now been revealed to us. It is a plan centered on Christ, designed long ago according to his good pleasure. Isn't it cool? Let me just stop right there. Isn't that cool? A long time ago, God thought about us and he thought about this plan. And what's happening today? This day that we're living in, God planned. This is the plan. At the right time, he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ. Everything in heaven and on earth. Friends, listen. Despite how divergent world events may be, despite how unexplainable things like, you know, the massacres of this century past, despite the pain of kids who contract illnesses and cancer, and despite all the sadness of life and all the victories of life in the high moments, God's weeding that all together to come under the authority of Christ. And one day it's going to make sense. One day we'll see Jesus rule over everything. What is the kingdom of God now? Well, the kingdom of God is where Jesus is ruling. And the number one place that Jesus rules is in our hearts. Luke 17, 21 says, the kingdom of heaven is within you. It's also in the church, the church that truly follows Christ. It's in the earth wherever Christ is embraced. And it's certainly in heaven where Jesus sits right now at the right hand of the father. But it's not a political kingdom. And it's not a geographical one. The disciples pushed Jesus. They said, when are you going to overthrow Rome? When are you going to bring your kingdom? Here's what he said. Look at John 18, 36. My kingdom is not of this world. In other words, God didn't come to set up a rule under some form of government that we could all vote on. And I want you to know this. The kingdom of heaven is an invisible kingdom, but it's a real kingdom. And even though it's not political, even though it's not something that is going to be established and voted upon, the kingdom of heaven will outlast every other kingdom. The kingdom of Rome has come and gone, the kingdom of Nero, the kingdom of Greece, the kingdom and so on and so on. But the kingdom of heaven will never pass away, the Bible says. That's the authority upon which we submit ourselves. Now, Jesus did say that the kingdom of God needed to be proclaimed. Look at the next verse. The good news about God's kingdom will be preached in all the world to every nation and then the end will come. Many people ask the question at the turn of the millennium, is this going to be the end of the age? Is this going to be the end of the time of the church? Is Jesus going to come back? And all we know is this. One of the key signs of his return is that the kingdom of heaven will be preached to every nation in a moment that God only knows, when the last person that he's ordained to be a member of the kingdom of God yields their heart to Christ. We don't know when that moment will be, but when that last person somewhere around the globe says yes to Jesus and the maximum number of people who can be saved will be saved, that's when God will initiate the close of the age. That could be a hundred years from now, it could be this year. Only God knows. But he's building a kingdom and you and I are privileged to be part of it. Number two, how is God doing it? Well he's doing it through people. He's doing it through people. Now the Lord could have chosen to establish his rule using angels or other supernatural kinds of beings, but he said I'll partner with the people I've created. Look at the next verse. We are God's co-workers. Turn to someone right now and tell them. We're God's co-workers. All right, tell them that. We are God's co-workers. We're not used to being called that. It sounds like something that only a few people should do, but in fact we're all called to partner with God. Now here at North Way we've been given by God's grace a wonderful team of people to help establish the kingdom. Not perfect people by any means, not superstars, you know, not people that try to bring a certain amount of glory to themselves, but very committed, very devoted, very gifted people. And we have a wonderful team of elders and pastors, as you know, and spouses that serve alongside of us. And today I want to introduce to you a new member of our North Way team, a member who's come through our membership and served in our church family and now is being called by the Lord to become a full-time member of our team. And I wanted you to meet Dan because he's going to have an influence, an impact on a lot of what's going to happen with us. Even though we're not calling him as a pastor, he's not going to be ordained as a pastor, he is coming to serve our pastoral team to help empower them to be more effective. And the other members of our leadership staff, Dan is coming on with gifts that give him a tremendous insight as to how people can be effective in the utilization of their gifts and calling. So I want you to give a warm welcome to Dan and Leslie Chavron as they come to say, give them a welcome. Good morning again, thank you for staying. I bet it was hard leaving the kids for the second service, wasn't it? Not hard for me. Not hard for mom. Real quick, tell us about the kids. We have three boys, a lot of testosterone in my house. They're six, four, and seven months old. Not a lot of sleep though, huh? Not a lot of sleep. A lot of diapers. Not my thing, diapers. Well, this is great, Dan. It's a moment that we've prayed about a long time, but a lot of it's your personal journey. Talk a little bit about when did the light go on from, okay, I'm a Christian, you know, to, wait, I'm really called to follow Jesus. What's that about? How'd that happen for you? Good morning, everybody. It's great to be here. I had an opportunity a number of years ago to receive some mentoring and some great teaching, and it was truly nuts and bolts, but it revolutionized my walk, and I'm sure many of you have had a similar experience of someone who's really truly influenced you. And I met a man who helped me understand the difference between religious activities and knowing Jesus. And he pointed out the difference between knowing about Jesus in my head informationally, and knowing that he lives in my heart, and having an understanding of the fact that he loves me unconditionally. And one of the biggest parts of that that I still quite haven't comprehended yet was the fact that I didn't have to continually try to keep being someone that God would like, because this man helped me discover that God already liked me, and he liked me just the way I was. And that there was nothing I could do to make him love me more. I couldn't earn any more love because he loved me ultimately, and there wasn't anything I could do wrong that would make him love me less. And that totally blew me away, because that kind of love doesn't, it's not human love, it's God love. And as I began to apprehend that, I realized that my only response to that would be to follow him. Most religion, most of us who grew up in some kind of religious background, we've been programmed to think that our activities need to be approved by God so that God would smile upon us. And if we were in line, then we were in God's favor. But if we got out of line, we were under the...and there's a lot of damage in that. Now, you're coming out of a pretty intense corporate world, and I think it's real important that folks know you're not coming to bring the corporate world into the church, but you're coming to bring what into this? What's going to happen here because of what you've been gifted to do and learn to do? Well, I'm here because we went through a process that you were very gracious helping us through to understand what the Lord had planned for us. And quite honestly, it is just a matter of us trying to follow Jesus in where he wants us to be. And really giving the Lord...and Jay, I respect you a lot. You give the Lord space to work in us. And I really come to try to augment that and to really bring freedom and joy as well as some good planning and some good thinking as far as how we really can deploy the great people here. I mean, we have an incredible resource of folks sitting right here. And really support the pastors to make sure that they get the encouragement, they get the resources, that they get everything that they need to really have their ministries empowered. Great. Leslie, you guys prayed a lot about that. It was a tough decision. You know, it was tough, Jay, but in some ways it was also very simple. That when it came time to make the decision through that transition that the Lord, just in his loving, kindness way, it made sense for us. So we're just thrilled. Dan, just in closing, if you have a prayer for what's going to happen, what would you want to see happen? What's the best thing you can believe for Northwood? One thing. I said this in the early service. Telephones. Telephones that work. Telephones that work. If anybody has a telephone ministry, just give me a call this week. No, really just the fact that, first of all, we're honored to be here. And it's a tremendous joy and honor to work under Jay and serve him. And to be with incredibly talented, gifted, hard- working staff. And I can't tell you how cool it is to see. I mean, I was, you know, two weeks, I started two weeks ago. So I was sitting where you were two weeks ago and saw this incredible place and said, wow, you know, there's an amazing thing. Two weeks I've been watching the amount of work that goes into making even a Sunday happen, let alone the dozens of ministries. So my appreciation for that and how people really run to get this stuff together is really great. But my prayer is that we would continue to simply focus on Jesus Christ and keep any distractions and religion out of it, focus on the person of Jesus, understand his love, understand that he lives in our hearts, and be empowered by the Holy Spirit to be wherever we go in your ministries, in your work, and in your families, in public places with your friends and neighbors, that wherever we went, people would just smell the aroma of Christ on us. And that they would be blessed by our love because we simply can't help but let the Lord's love leak out of us. And that people would just ponder. What I want them to say is, what the heck is going on down there? And I just have to go get some of that and have them come here and just be blown away by what we've been given. Let's pray together. Can we do that? Lord, I wanted to thank you just publicly, and we pray together for Dan and Leslie now to be anointed by your spirit in this calling. Equip them, Lord. Help their transition to be one that's filled with just moments of encountering you and your presence and all that they do. And we thank you for what they bring, and we thank you for a church family that embraces them now in the name of Jesus. Amen. Let's give them a hand. Thank you so much for being up here, guys. Thanks, Les. Now, not everybody that follows Jesus is going to be called into full-time ministry. It's wonderful when that does happen, but it's not the norm. It's just in some cases. But look at the next verse. It says, God made peace between us and himself, and God gave us, that's all of us, the work of telling everyone about the peace we can have with him. So we have been sent to speak for Christ. I want you to know this. Part of our vision of establishing the kingdom is that every one of you see that you have a ministry and you have a mission. In fact, it's not a stretch to say that you're all missionaries. The Bible really uses the word here that says you're all ambassadors, and that word can be translated missionaries. Now, some of you are thinking, I'm not a missionary. I haven't been overseas. I have a statement for you. You might want to jot this down at the bottom of your page. You don't become a missionary by crossing the sea. You become a missionary by seeing the cross. You don't have to go overseas to be a missionary. You just simply have to see what Christ has done and then open to the flow of God's life through you to another person. That's what a missionary is. A missionary is someone who sees the cross and sees the difference it can make in a life and then sells out for the sake of having others come to that same experience. And it's not an easy thing to do. Most of us would agree with Dan that, you know what, a lot of people are into doing the religious thing but haven't gotten a clue yet about the grace of God. Most Americans are living in a world that's oriented around works. One of my pastor friends was telling me just the other night that he had done a survey in his church and in his community at large, I should say. And he was asking people, do you believe in heaven? Yes or no? If you think you're going to heaven, why are you going? And when he tabulated it all to his astonishment, 97% of the people said in one form or another, I believe if I'm going to heaven it's because I've done a pretty good job with my life. I've done the right things. I've done this. I've done that. I've done, I've done it. Friends, it's not something you've done. It's something Christ has done. That's a message we've got to get out there. And it's a huge thing, not just at the point of salvation but throughout the journey that's called your Christian walk. Now, the problem is a lot of people out there are already turned off to church. And we've got to find some common ground. Look at the next verse. We've got to find some common ground with everyone so that we might bring them to Christ. And one of the great resources we have here are people like Pastor Dave who has the ability to speak to people who are maybe, you know, out of the box of the normal religious experience. So, Pastor Dave is going to come and share with you something that he and I and our team have worked on for a number of months. We're going to look at a transition here of how we establish the kingdom and what's happening with our evening service. And this is an exciting moment because it's a change. I like change, Dave, but some people don't like change and they're going to say, Right, right. You only stop changing, I guess, when you die. That's the only time change is over. So, that was exciting. They like that. But change is part of life and learning how to adjust to that change is part of life. And I remember when I was learning to drive as a 15-year-old, I had this tendency to drift to the right on the road, which is not a good thing. And so, it taught me immediately about driving that driving is a series of adjustments. It's a series of corrections along the way. And now, at 35, I'm learning that's not just true about driving. That's true about life. And it's true also about vision and visions that communities are seeking to fulfill together. And we, over the last several months, have been looking and asking God, God, what do you have for our Sunday night service and the Kairos ministry, as you've known it over these last couple of years? And where is that going? And as we looked at what's been happening and what God's been doing, we also sensed that as a leadership, the North Way leadership, that maybe God was bringing a bit of a change based on one thing. We felt, and Pastor Jay, you know this, we've talked about this, that from the inception of Kairos, our desire was that the people who came to that service would do community together. At a verb level, there would be community going on. But it was never our intent to see Kairos as a separate community in the noun sense of the word, but rather a unique expression of our community. And as we've been sort of taking the temperature and asking ourselves questions and reflecting on it, we feel that maybe the Kairos community has grown a bit too separate. And that was never our desire. And so we've been asking ourselves and reflecting on, God, how can we do a better job of making that service a unique expression of the community we're all part of? And that's North Way. And so we've been talking, and I shared last week with the evening service, that we're going to make some changes that are hopefully adjustments that will just keep us more aligned with the mission of North Way, which is to reach and empower the next generations, and really to reach and empower all generations through that mission. And through information and different pastors being involved in our service, and events, and connecting points, and small groups, so much of the systems that are, as Dan mentioned, that are needed to really unleash ministry are already happening at North Way. And we've been trying to develop some of those as well at Kairos. And we just said, you know what? God is just saying to us, you already have such a resource of wealth in systems and ministries. You need to just simply align with those and see that the Sunday night service will be just that, a service with a different style than the two morning services, but along with the two morning services will still be an expression of North Way on Sunday. And we're kind of excited about this, and we've been talking about it for some time, and hoping that this will really bring more of an integration to Sunday p.m., and we will see it as part of what God is doing here at North Way. Yeah, let me jump in, because one of the things that folks may be wondering about, well, the name. I mean, we've called Kairos, which was, I think, a very appropriate, kind of intriguing name, a moment of God's encounter in some, but we're going to shift away from that. We are. And I was telling the group again on Sunday night last week, that nobody's invested more in our name than me. But I really felt, and it was sort of, you know, a few of us were talking, and yet really, I felt strongly, God say to me, it's just time to release that name, not because it's a bad thing, it's a great concept, but because the new name, which you can see behind you here, North Way P.M., reflects more of the desire of what we want to see happen, and that is for North Way to have a p.m. service that reflects integration into the larger community, but a particular target, you might say, that we're trying to reach. And we've even thrown around this phrase, postmodern, before. Let me ask you a question. Yes. How many people know what postmodern means? That's great. About 15. Help folks grab that. What does it mean? Well, postmodern is a cultural designation that historians and sociologists and others talk about a particular segment of our culture, seeing things from a postmodern way. And it has to do with the way a person perceives the world, perceives life. It has to do with maybe a bit of skepticism towards institutions. You already mentioned that. And don't tell me, but show me. Wrestle with me. Don't give me pre-digested truth, but help me to really wrestle through the claims of Christ. And we all feel those kinds of resonation points. But in a postmodern mindset, those are heightened and accentuated. And so what we've been doing and want to continue to do on Sunday night is sort of target, it's not an age group as much as it is a mindset. And so what we're doing is creating another container like the a.m. services, but just with this group of people, this kind of person in mind. And same message, but just a different wineskin, really, that will hold the message. And so the name reflects not only when we meet, but what we're really trying to do and how we align. And this is, I think, probably the most important thing, how we align with the overall mission of North Way, that this is North Way's p.m. service to reach others for Christ. And just one other thing, if I could say, you know, you hear, sitting here this morning, an announcement like this, and obviously we can't give you tons of context, because it would just take too long, because, you know, we've been wrestling and praying through this for some time. But I do want to say that I just have been proud to be part of the team who has walked through this. Because this idea and the shifts that are coming and happening, I just want to say, from being intricately involved in them, that you should be proud of your leadership here. This was done very well and very sensitive to God's voice. And it just makes me proud to be part of our leadership team here. And I just wanted to affirm that to all of you. Thanks. Okay. Now, as God uses people, things happen. Look at the last verse in the front. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, and though it is the smallest of all seeds, when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants. What happens is, when we do things well, the kingdom grows. The church is affected. And the Lord has told us years ago that he would send us all the people that we would care for. And friends, that means making room in our hearts, in our groups, in our wineskins, and certainly here on our campus. We're in this building because we made room. And I want you to, in just a moment, look up here on the screen, and I'm going to put up a slide that's going to tell you about what can be happening in the next season of time, the next five years. This is really huge, because it represents a major investment of who we are. Let me go ahead and get that pointer, please. Thanks, Darren. Up here on the screen, you'll see, this is just a real quick little sketch of our campus. There's Route 19. There's Geneva over there somewhere. And down here is on the way into Pittsburgh. And you turn in here to Wallace. For those of you who are newer, when we first bought this piece of ground, we didn't have this little piece right here and all of this. And we thought, well, that's going to be enough forever and ever. Amen. Well, a little over a year ago, we were able to purchase this last little bit of frontage, so now we own this. And because of SOAR and your faithful giving to SOAR, we have the money in the bank to buy another eight and a half acres right behind us. And these buildings represent, I want to say again, represent potential, potential growth opportunities for us. Some people have in mind a vision to see a world missions training center that could be housed in one of these buildings. We could see a kids development center. We could see a counseling and training area and any of these particular opportunities. This right here represents the shack, which is going to come down. That beautiful piece of architectural excellence is right here. That's going to be moved over here. But here's the great thing, friends. Again, I want you to know, we're just going to submit this plan. None of these things are locked in. We have not committed, but we have to tell Pine Township that we might do this and thereby gain permission to pave and do some other things. But here's the great thing. When God does your real estate development, when we bought this piece of ground, we paid $1.3 million for it. A lot of folks, I found out after the fact, thought I was nuts, thought I was leading the church over the cliff, thought that we were out of our minds. How could we spend that much money? I want you to now know that this little piece right here is worth $1.5 million. Well, I got a little more thrill than that. This one little piece is now worth more than the whole thing in seven years. Would you wish that your house did that? I mean, to put it in that frame of reference, how would that do? You see, when God's doing it, it works. We are primed here in a wonderful position, and I'm so grateful to God. Now, what does this mean to you? It doesn't mean anything other than just to pray and to thank God for His provision and to make sure that you faithfully trust God for His plan of growth. You see, the worship team is going to come up. We're going to do something right now just to remind you that this is a generation that's on the move. When they drive by here and see all this stuff going up, they're asking, What's going on? What's happening? As Dan said, what's taking place? I like to tell them, that's housing for the pastoral team going up over here. Those garages are for the fleets and the buses that we're going to have for our ministry or whatever. But the fact of the matter is, we're on the move. And the worship team, well, let's stand together for just a second. Lord, right now, I want you to impart a vision about what this generation could be. Lord, I want you to take us and help us to see that if there's obstacles, we can see them fall. Lord, if there's things in the way, you can bring them down. Help us to embrace what we can become. Lord, you want to see us move on the offensive and to take back that which has been lost. Let us be part of this Joshua generation in Jesus' name. Receive and share grace. Friends, there's nothing more revolutionary in all the world than the grace of God. How I wish someone had told me about grace long ago, the way I understand it now. But grace is best captured in the face of a couple that is here this morning at North Way. I'll use their names, not their name, but I'll use the name Jim and Lisa. Jim and Lisa, three years ago, walked into the North Way service because they had kids that they wanted to take to church. They hadn't been in church much. One of them had not been in church at all. The other is just nominally church, but their kids were little. And they said, well, we got to have a place for our kids to go to church. And they didn't know anything about following God. They'd never heard of the gospel of Jesus Christ, really. And they struggled along at first to make sense of what God was doing. And then they came to understand the message of grace. They came to realize that there was a love in heaven with their name