VISION SUNDAY 2002

Casting the Vision for 2002

By Pastor Delbert Young

Life Gate Ministries

204 North Main Street, LaFayette, GA 30728

706-638-7620, www.lifegatechurch.com

The year 2001 was a great year for Life Gate. We did much. Some of our lives were eternally changed for the good. The year-in-review video was full of images of good things and good music from 2001. But, what lies ahead in 2002 and beyond? What will we do this year that will set the direction for the rest of our lives. What will we be saying this time next year as we cast the vision for 2003? Will we have touched lives? Will we have helped bring people into the kingdom of God and into a relationship with Jesus? Will we have grown in the things of the Spirit and in our personal relationship with Jesus? What new horizons will we have seen? What new adventures will we have experienced?

Today I want to cast the vision for 2002. I want to talk about some things that I know will happen and talk about some things I pray will happen.

We truly want to be a "Church At Its Best." If we are going to be a church then why not be a church at its best? Allow me to run through our "G's" for aspiring to be a church at its best. We believe there are two very distinct and dominate parts to the "Great Commission" that Jesus gave to his church. I relate that as the "Front Part" and "Back Part." Also we refer to them as "Going" and "Growing." We also say "Reaching" and "Making." It is taken from Matthew 28.

Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

Matthew 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

The Front Part is developed around "Go" and the back part is developed around "Teaching." We believe that our church vision must be active in these two dominate parts if we are to be a church at its best. That is why our mission statement says, "Life Gate Church, reaching people and making them devoted followers of Jesus Christ." Here is how we project a church at it's best.

1. GOOD NEWS or GOSPEL. This is a value to us. It is a value to Jesus and the New Testament church.

Matthew 4:23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

Please notice that it is not just any message called a gospel. It's the gospel of the kingdom. Paul said there were many messages called the gospel, but if even an angel came and taught something other than the true gospel, let the angel be accursed (Gal 1:8-9).

Gospel -2098 euaggelion {yoo-ang-ghel'-ee-on}

(1) the glad tidings of the kingdom of God

(2) the glad tidings of salvation through Christ

We believe that a church at its best must preach the Gospel of the kingdom. The kingdom is good news. We have salvation and an abundant life available through Jesus. It's not bad news. It is Good News. God loves us. It's not his will that any should perish. He sent his son to make it possible for man to be reconciled or be at peace with God. As believers, we really can talk to God just as Adam did in the garden. We can be healed physically, mentally, and spiritually. We can prosper financially. Our families can really be happy and rejoice together. Life can really be fun. Jesus said,

John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

The thief in the passage and context is not the devil. The thief is a false religious system that takes away life and abundance by preaching some other gospel. Jesus brought a kingdom of GOOD NEWS! A church at its best must bring the Good News of the kingdom. We do that as good as anybody I know.

2002: Every Sunday during 2002 you will hear the Good News of the kingdom. Any person that shares here will tell you that God loves you and desires that you have an abundant life. Every teaching we have will tell us how to be overcomers and conquerors. Every dance will bring Good News. Every drama and drama skit will express Good News. I promise a year of Good News.

2. GIFTS. Another value at Life Gate is "Gifts." Gifts are valuable in the scriptures and valuable to the Lord. On the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost fell and divided tongues came on each believer, every one of them received a "piece of tongue." That piece of tongue empowered and provoked them to function in their gifts. Every church in the New Testament operated in the many gifts of the Holy Spirit.

We are told about the grace gifts of Romans 12 (Serving, Teaching, Encouraging, Giving, Leadership, Mercy, Love). We are told of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 (tongues, interpretation of tongues, prophecy, faith, healing, miracles, word of knowledge, word of wisdom, discernment of spirits). Both grace gifts and spiritual gifts are given to minister to people. This is true even with tongues when interpreted (1Co 14:3, 5). The gifts are for ministering to people.

We believe a church at its best will operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. As a church, we do fair at this. We do well as we operate in some gifts, but poorly in others. I encourage each person this year to stir up those gifts that are in us. We do that by praying in our spirit language and praying with our minds. We do this by singing with our spirit language and singing with our minds (1Co 14:15).

1 Corinthians 14:15 So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind.

2002 I want to ask a question. If you were able to spend one day with Jesus, do you believe you would observe gifts operating? The answer is of course you would. We do not plan on teaching the " . . . and he gave gifts" series this year. However, I will teach an eight-week Wednesday night series called "An Ordinary Day with Jesus."Jesus has invited us to do life with him. This series will begin Wednesday, July 31. Jesus had the ability to make the ordinary the extraordinary. Water became wine. The blind received sight. The spiritually dead were born again. Are we ready to experience an extraordinary life?

3. GATHER. Another value we have at Life Gate is one we call "Gathering." Gathering people is a value to Jesus and is a value in the Bible. Gathering people is a value to a church at its best. Jesus was constantly going out and gathering people into his kingdom. He told his disciples to go into all the world and make disciples.

In the Bible, a church at its best would preach the Good News of the kingdom and release gifts, there was always a gathering. It happened every place that believers ventured. It happened from Jerusalem to the uttermost parts of the earth (Act 1:8). Every place that Apostle Paul went and preached the Good News and operated his Gifts, there was a Gathering. Every place Peter went or Philip went there was a gathering because the Good News was preached and gifts were released.

2002 - We will do many things this year which will give us many opportunities to Gather. We are going to do one thing that seems somewhat radical, but will help show us the degree of seriousness I have about gathering. We are establishing what we will call "Evangelistic Point People." Lance and I discussed this last year. I wanted someone or some people who would constantly keep outreach and evangelism before us at Life Gate. Evangelism will never become the value I want it to become unless it stays in our faces. K.C. and Ales Campbell are going to try and do this for us. I approached them with the idea at the end of last year before I began the evangelism series and asked them to be praying about it. They have a heart for those far from God. Ales is president of the woman's club and she is very aware of city events and activities. She has expertise in organizing events. Both K.C. and Ales are well known in our region and are respected. We are going to give this a chance.

We met with them this past week and we met with the elders. You have been given a calendar with the things we want to do in 2002. More may be added. Let's take a look at special opportunities we will have to Gather in 2002.

Feb-3-02 Super Bowl Sunday - Life Group event to invite people to a more "Super Bowl Party" setting.

Feb-17-02, Mar-3, 10, 17-02 Financial Principles teaching (How many of us know some people that could use a little more knowledge about Financial things? Invite them to the teaching.)

Feb-6-02 Easter Drama practice begins and goes every Wednesday night through 3-27-02. (Do you know someone that would like to be in the Easter drama? Invite them to come and be in it. Ales invited the entire women's club.)

Mar 29-02 Easter drama on Good Friday. What do I need to say about the Easter drama? It's fabulous.

Mar 31-02 Easter drama on Easter night.

Apr-10-02 Contagious Christian class begins and is every Wed night for eight weeks (know someone who wants to be a better witness for Jesus? Invite them.) We are going to get K.C. and Ales to teach it.

May 12-02 Mother's Day - Hopefully we can have a special day for the Moms.

May 23-02 is Beautiful Feet Dance recital. (Do you have some friends with children and especially young girls? Bring them to the recital, but get here early. Bonnie packs this place out. I told someone last year that I should let her to be the pastor. Bring the children if the parents won't come.)

June 12-02 Terry Williamson will have a four-week Wednesday night teaching.

June 16-02 Father's Day. We will have a special service to honor Dads.

June 20-02 Academy graduation. Every year they put on a spectacular presentation about patriotism. They were doing this before the September 11 attack last year. Ask someone to come with you to the Academy graduation. A lot of you gave money for the Academy. Come and enjoy the fruits.

June 28-02 Freedom Festival at the park. This is the weekend before the 4^th of July. Our praise team will be singing along with a lot of other groups. Our church will have a booth with books, tapes, videos, T-shirts, etc. We will play our services on a TV. The Academy will have a booth. There will be fireworks after the last singing group. Bring a family or two. Find me and introduce me to your friends.

July 21-02 Student Sunday - We are raising our young people to minister. They will do the service. Bring uncles and aunts and grandparents and cousins.

July 22-26 King's Kastle - Hundreds of children will be in this room. We will buss them in from all over this region. Find some children to bring. Often in the kingdom, children produce parents.

July 32-02 Ordinary Day With Jesus. We begin the eight-week teaching

Sept 2-02 Labor Day BBQ - Here on our campus we plan to have live bands and sell or give away BBQ. We have talked about having booths and "cook offs" and all sorts of things. It's new for us! Surely we can get someone to come and listen to music and eat BBQ. While here, take them through the facility. Show them the school and church. Show them the big fish in my office.

Sept 8-02 Grandparents Day - That one is not blacked out on our calendars, but I have a sneaky suspicion that this year we may observe Grandparents Day. I didn't even know there was a Grandparents Day. Let me tell you something. If Jack and Max (my grandchildren) told they were having a special day at their church for grandparents and wanted me to come, you would get to hear someone else that Sunday.

Oct. 31-02 Gathering of the Witnesses - This is our method of touching people on Halloween. Instead of ghosts and goblins, we project Jesus as King of kings.

Nov. 10-02 Veterans Day service - One of our most powerful services last year was Veterans Day.

Dec. 22 -02 Candlelight Christmas Service.

Dec. 29 -02 New Year's service

All of those will give us opportunities to gather people.

4. GROWING. Growing or maturing is a value in the kingdom of God. Jesus expects fruitfulness. The only thing he ever cursed was the unfruitful fig tree. Growing spiritually is a value for a church at its best. The apostle Paul spoke about how we should mature. We should pass from needing milk to needing solid food.

Hebrews 5:12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!

Hebrews 5:13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.

Hebrews 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

It is impossible to mature without solid food. When I talk about spiritual growth, I am not talking about how well we can talk in tongues or how much of the book of Revelation we understand. I am talking about a life that is conforming and changing to be like Jesus. That means a life that is obeying his commandments.

This begins the "back part" of the commission. Jesus said

Matthew 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

A church at its best must provide teaching that will feed the believer solid food. It is the solid food that will help and encourage us to observe the things that Jesus taught which will produce an abundant life. That means more than talking about the Hebrew and Greek. It means we teach things that challenge and change lives. Solid food guarantees changes in the physical body that milk is incapable of producing.

2002 We have scheduled three Wednesday night series to help in this area. This will keep us aware and growing. On Sundays I try to keep it simple enough for those on milk, but put something in the talk for those who need solid food. Sometimes I do well and sometimes I don't. We are looking more and more at Wednesdays being a regular time for teaching.

5. Giving. Giving is a value for a church at its best. It is a value for Jesus. The Bible tells us that he watches how people give.

Mark 12:41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts.

Mark 12:42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.

Giving is a value to Jesus. The Apostle Paul spoke frequently about giving and the rewards of giving. He said if we give bountifully we receive back bountifully. If we give sparingly, we receive back sparingly (2Co 9:6).

Last year we had no outside ministries. We received no special offerings other than the school and the Gideons. Usually there is about $5,000.00 to $6,000.00 every year given to outside ministries. That's not to say that our Foreign Missions and Benevolence giving went lacking. I have the financial report for 2001. We looked over it at the elders meeting this past week. I will be giving it to you. I want to use it when we discuss our financial liberty series.

We did all that and more with no special offerings.

2002 However, this year we will be receiving for some special occasions. We felt last year to concentrate on what we believed the Lord was telling us to do in our region. I am not planning on any outside ministries at the moment. We may have some, but it's not planned at this time.

A church at its best will have sufficient resources to accomplish all that the Lord has called it to accomplish. This is done through the giving of the saints. Without the giving of people, very little can be accomplished. Without giving, the Good News of the kingdom cannot be preached as it should be preached. Without giving, the Gifts cannot be taught and released as they should be taught. Because of this, there will be little gathering. No one will be properly prepared to expand the Growing. Giving is a very important value if we expect to reach people with the Good News. In fact, the only reason we do not reach our region with the Good News is because we do not have sufficient finances to do so. One of the most important aspects of what you and I do is to make certain that we combine our resources.

The book of Revelation speaks about a great city called the holy Jerusalem that descends out of heaven. A lot of people are told and taught that this is heaven and the place we go when we die. That's not accurate. I believe the place we go when we die to be with the Lord is better than that. Let's read the passage.

Revelation 21:9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.

Revelation 21:10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,

Revelation 21:11 Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;

The passage goes on to talk about great walls of jasper, gates of pearls, twelve foundations, a crystal river, a tree of life, and a street of clear gold. If it's not heaven when we die, then what is it? We are actually told. It is "the bride, the Lamb's wife" (Rev 21:9).

The Lamb's wife is the church (Eph 5:23-27).

Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

Ephesians 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

Ephesians 5:27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

The church that comes out of the spiritual to bring the glory of God to the natural is beautiful. She has no spots or wrinkles. The book of Revelation takes great time and goes to great lengths to express her beauty. A point that has always amazed me is that she is inviting and the same on all sides. She is beautiful and inviting with open gates on all sides.

We did a lot externally in 2001 to make Life Gate a beautiful bride for Christ. However, our vision is to make it so beautiful that people are attracted to the bride as they drive. This should be true if they drive by on Main Street, Duke Street, Culberson Street, or Dickerson Street. We are not there yet.

2002 In 2002 we will continue our beautification program. The front will be renovated and we will finish the entrance. We must get the walkway completed. The Academy has a plan for renovation also. It will have a new roof and new front.

This year I want to do a lot of landscaping. I took some pictures and want you to see them.

PICTURE

To me, this does not project the Lamb's wife. It does not project the kingdom of God. It is not inviting. The gates are closed on some sides, but by the end of 2002 I pray they will swing wide and Dickerson will invite as many into the kingdom as does Culberson or Main.

When you get someone to come to church, I want it to be impressive. How many believe the New Jerusalem is impressive? Have you ever been to Disney World? The Disney World experience begins in your car before you get there. You tune to a radio station as you drive in. You get out of the car and music is playing and directions are being given to help. Everything is spotless. There is no spot or wrinkle. Why can't we do that? Is it wrong to want that? Can we do better?

How many believe we need the Good News of the kingdom every Sunday?

How many believe we need the Gifts to operate every place we go?

How many believe we need to Gather this year as we have never Gathered before?

How many believe we need to Grow in our observing all the things that Jesus taught?

How many believe we must Give our resources, time, and talents to make it happen?