Ps Darin Browne @ Ignite Christian Church
Religion & Spirituality:Christianity
Ephesians 3:20
Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly more than we can ask or think, according to the power at work within us,
Today we celebrate God doing exceedingly abundantly in obtaining for us this wonderful building.
When I took office a year ago, the purchase of this property was by any human measure impossible. Our small body of believers would have to give more than 4 times what they had given over 7 years, in the space of only one year to even come close.
Matthew 19:26
But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Today, we celebrate the purchase of this building, and the God of the impossible! But this morning I ask you church, Where to from here?
GOING FORWARD
As I quoted once before, when Winston Churchill celebrated the first allied victory of the war in Africa, he said, “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end, but perhaps it is the end of the beginning.”
Purchasing this building is not the end game, it is simply the first major financial hurdle we have faced as a church under my leadership, and by God's grace and your generosity, we stand together here today in a building we actually own.
Coming up, there will be more challenges, more tests and therefore more opportunities to stand together shoulder to shoulder in faith, to believe our God and to see Him provide exceedingly abundantly beyond all we can ask or think.
Malachi 3:10, talking about giving says,
Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Ok, we own the building, and this is what we celebrate today. Woo hoo! But this is not the end of the story, it's just the beginning.
Here's a promise…
Job 8:5-7
If you will seek God
and plead with the Almighty for mercy,
if you are pure and upright,
surely then he will rouse himself for you
and restore your rightful habitation.
And though your beginning was small,
your latter days will be very great.
It is tempting to look around and say to ourselves, “We've arrived!” But brothers and sisters, we haven't arrived anywhere much! We are still on the journey, like being on a journey from the Sunshine Coast to Melbourne, and we've just made it to Caboolture..
So I'm hoping that none of you guys will be like my kids were, who asked me before we reached the end of our street, “Are we nearly there yet?”
Were nowhere near nearly there yet! We are on an incredible journey, and we have only just begun.
I don't know what the future holds, but I do know who holds the future, and as we have explored in recent weeks, God is awesome, all seeing, all knowing, all powerful, all present and ALL FOR US, exceedingly abundantly all for us.
We can trust Him on this journey. And as I look around at this church, the people not the building, I recognise that He has done something wonderful in our hearts as well.
Wonderful, but not enough, because the Bible says,
Haggai 2:9
The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts.
That's our prayer Lord for this community of believers… let what is to come be greater by far than anything that has come before. Let it be exceedingly abundantly beyond what we can ask or think, and I can think quite a bit!
Ahead, I have a vision for this church. I want to see us become a church that empowers each believer to reach their full potential in ministry. I would love to see us sending ministries all around the country and across the world. I want to see us ministering to our local people, restoring families and lives I want this church to be a safe place of learning, growing, empowering and equipping, where people who've been hurt elsewhere can find a home, and where those who have sat in a pew elsewhere can find a place to serve and GROW their ministry. And yes, I believe we all have a ministry!
My job is to let you reach your full potential in Christ.
So, folks, today we celebrate God’s faithfulness and blessing in obtaining this building, but what is the way ahead? Let me challenge you church on how we should keep seeking the Lord from here.
THE 7 MAINSTAYS OF THE WAY AHEAD
1. STAY THANKFUL
Colossians 3:17
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Today we are thankful to the Lord, but we need to continue in this attitude ad infinitum. We should always be thankful for all the blessings we receive in our nation, we should be thankful for the blessing we have as families, as friends and as a church.
The children of Israel whined and complained, and suffered as a result. Bill Newman says the greatest sin of the western world is an ungrateful spirit, and he is so right.
So going forward we need to stay thankful for what the Lord has done. This is especially true for me, when I visit other pastors in their churches… thou shalt not covet thy neighbours crystal cathedral, right!
2. STAY HUMBLE
1 Peter 5:5-6
Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,
I confess, I want God to raise our church up. I have a vision to become a church that releases people into ministry all around the world, that impacts its area, its nation and across the globe for Jesus.
The only way God will raise us up is if we stay humble!
Humility is a funny thing. I once was awarded a badge for humility, but they took it off me because I wore it!
As I share with other pastors that journey we have been on here, how the Lord brought in nearly a quarter of a million dollars in just one year to allow us to purchase this building, I am greatly humbled, because I realise I haven't done this miracle… God has!
People say, you must have loads of rich people in your church. I reply, if we do, please point them out for me, because this miracle is not the result of having rich people in the church, it's having humble, generous people and a rich Heavenly Father!
So never lose sight of the fact, this miracle is not from you or from me, it's all about Him. To move ahead, we need to stay humble and serve…
3. STAY SERVING
Sometimes we start to serve, then after a while enjoy it when others start serving us. Then before you know it, you're bossing people around or getting upset when they don't do things your way.
You might call this pedantic, you might call it struggling for excellence. I call it selfish and controlling, and God calls it sin, plain and simple as that!
Mark 10:42-45
And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
To become great, to reach our full potential as believers and as a church, we need to keep serving. Serve the Lord, sure, but let's serve each other with humility and dedication.
Philippians 2:3-4
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Being servants means laying aside your own rights, your own agendas, your own ambitions and serving selflessly.
In our society people are always on about rights, always fighting for their rights. Gay rights, women’s rights, gender rights, land rights, worker’s rights, save the whale, save the koala. As Christians we should wrap them all together and have land rights for gay whales and then be done with it.
When you become a believer you have to give up pursuing your own rights and agendas, and become a servant. You get one right… the right to serve. As we move ahead, we need to stay serving.
4. STAY TOGETHER
All of us, you and I, have been brought together by God. If we fragment, if we drift away, if we get slack about meeting and attending and being a part of things, we will miss out.
Hebrews 10:24-25
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
We need to keep meeting, we need to encourage, we need to serve together. God isn't just obtaining a building here, He is building His body to reach the world.
We may not see eye to eye on every issue, but we can stand shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand and arm in arm together as we serve God and see Him do exceedingly abundantly.
5. STAY FOCUSSED
Hebrews 12:1-2
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith,
There are so many distractions, so many things screaming for your attention, and even as a church this is true. If we are to move into our destiny, we need to throw off the things that encumber us.
So what encumbers us? What weighs us down? SIN, yes, so we must stay clear of sin. But also, internal things in church can cause us to take our eyes off the destiny Jesus has for us. We can get so distracted by relationships, agendas, opinions and judgements that our ministry, our destiny as a church can be lost.
We need to love each other, overlook the faults, bear with one another, put our personal agendas and desires aside and join together in unity to move forward into our destiny together.
6. STAY SEEKING THE VISION
Proverbs 29:18
Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint,(or perish)
If I don't have a vision for Coast Church, It will perish. If I have no vision for the future, we will start to die, drowning in a pool of mediocrity. We will just become another church, playing church week by week, having a form of godliness, but denying the power.
I don't want to do that. I can't afford to do that. I will not leave you stranded drowning in averageness, playing church while the world perishes.
We need to not run ahead, not lag behind but stay with the vision.
Amy Carmichael, a missionary to India early last century, saw a vision of a grass slope leading to a sheer drop into infinite depths, and files of people walking over the edge. Occasionally a person stood on the edge trying to stop people falling over the edge, but most of the Christians were sitting around making daisy chains, oblivious to the lost, deaf to the screams of people perishing.
God has given me a vision for the future of this church. I've set in place leadership and structures that will allow the Lord to grow and direct our way forward.
And the way forward is to reach out and love people into the Kingdom.
We call people non Christians, unchurched, unbelievers… but they are just lost… the lost are lost, forever if people like us don't reach out.
And this generation of believers, you and I, are responsible for this generation of souls all over the earth.
Bill often says, Moses was turned aside by a bush on fire. It will be a believer on fire, a church on fire that will turn a world aside that's heading to hell fire.
Whatever happens, church, we must stay seeking the vision God gives us.
7. STAY THE COURSE
2 Chronicles 16:9
For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.
God is looking for faithful servants… He was back then, and He still is now. There's not many, but I aim to be one and I hope you do too.
If we as a church are to move ahead, we must stay committed. We've given generously and faithfully, but it doesn't stop here. There's more we need to do, and into the future we need to give even more of our time, our money, our talents and everything we have.
And God will bless us exceedingly abundantly in return.
God is still looking for faithful servants, committed people and inspired leadership, and He promises that, if we stay committed, He will strengthen us for the tasks He has laid out for us. And so...
Galatians 6:9
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
As we celebrate today, let's look to the future.
We live in a society where we seemingly have lost the ability to see things through. We start things and drop off, commit to things then fade away. People drop out of school, uni, jobs or life! One recent Hollywood marriage pledged, “I promise to love you until I no longer find you attractive.”
The road ahead will not be easy, but neither was the path to obtaining this building, right? Yet if we stay the course, if we keep on keeping on, giving and serving and looking to Jesus, no matter what comes against us, we will prevail!
STAY CLOSE TO GOD
As a church, as families, as individuals, we must stay close to God. All this year I have been banging on about staying close to the Lord, and that's why we have so many people doing the daily Bible reading.
Why? Because living for the Lord is not just a Sunday thing. Staying close to the Lord is a daily walk with Him, that's why Jesus asks us to take up our cross daily. Don't turn up once a week for a big rev up, but decide right now, commit right now with me to live, and GROW and seek God daily, indeed every hour of every day.
As a church we've focussed on giving and seen God provide exceedingly abundantly beyond all we could ask or think, but we mustn't stop here. Our focus going ahead must be on reaching our community for Christ, and I’ve asked my friend, my co-labourer and I believe Australia's most anointed evangelist to share a few word to encourage us in the road ahead as we seek to share the exceedingly abundant blessings with our community...
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