MAY

9th Upstreet
13th Mother’s Day lunch
23rd Upstreet
27h Dinner and a Movie – Journey 2 The Mysterious Island

JUNE

6th Upstreet
10th Dinner and a Movie – The Lorax
17th Father’s Day Pie Buffet
20th Upstreet

Click on the activity for more information.

These activities may change so check back often for updates!

Once a month (September to June) the service is followed by a Church Family Lunch. The Church Family Lunch offers a chance for people to meet in a social setting to build friendships and to strengthen bonds between people of the church, old and new.

Come join us for lunch on June 17th

Click on the links below:

May 27, 2012 Bulletin
May 20, 2012 Bulletin
May 13, 2012 Bulletin
April 22, 2012 Bulletin
April 15, 2012 Bulletin
April 8, 2012 Bulletin
April 1, 2012 Bulletin
March 25, 2012 Bulletin
March 18, 2012 Bulletin

Today we are going to continue to talk about an issue that I think is very relevant to every one of us: money.  Today we are continuing on in our series called “Money Matters.”  It is hard to not have money be relevant to us.  I think it impacts our lives in a whole variety of ways every single day. This is why we are spending a season of time and a number of weeks just talking about money and the issues related to it and what the bible has to say about it.

Last week we stepped into this series and we looked at a very foundational piece by looking at the issue of the attitude of ownership.  In other words, who owns it all?  We looked 1 Chronicles 29 where David was reflecting before the people of Israel and he was pointing them to this reality and this truth that God is the owner of all things. God owns everything. Any money that we have, any resources that we have, any material possessions that we have, they all belong to God.  This is a pretty challenging thought especially in our North American world as we think about these things and we are challenged with this question: Do we really see God in that way?  Do we see God as the owner of everything that we possess and do we see ourselves as merely managers of what God has entrusted us with?  This is such a foundational piece and such an important piece in how we view money and how we handle our money.  First and foremost we need to understand that God is the owner of all things.

Last week we also touched on the issue of where our heart is and how our heart is being drawn in following our treasures. Jesus said in Matthew 6:21,

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

And a few verses later Jesus said in verse 24,

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

We can’t serve both God and money.  It’s not just a bad idea. We cannot do it! They are competing realties and we need to decide who it is we are going to serve.  If we are really honest in our assessment, it’s a challenging thought to ask ourselves if are we just pursuing after the things of this world OR are we truly pursuing after the Kingdom of God and the things that He desires for us?

A good way to find out where our heart is to start tracking our money.  Because our check books, our bank account and our credit card statement will reveal more of our heart than anything else.  We can carry a bible and come to church for decades but if we look at the Scriptures there is nothing that reveals our heart more than where our check book is. So Jesus is pointing us to that truth and to that reality in Matthew 6.

Today we want to shift gears a bit and we are going to talk about bondage and slavery and the wrong paths that we can take in our lives that can be very dangerous and can get us stuck.  Sometimes these paths can lead us to debt and a burden of debt and we don’t know how to get out of it.  We just feel that we are bogged down and we are stuck and we are in this debt and we are not exactly sure how we got there but it can have devastating consequences in our lives.  And that’s what we want to talk about today: the bondage of debt.

You may remember this tragic story from last year about Albert and Rita Chretian who were driving from Penticton to Las Vegas.  They got lost in the mountains of Nevada and their van got stuck in the mud.  Then Albert went for help and Rita stayed behind.  If you know the story, then you know that Rita ended up surviving for 7 weeks in the back of her van with just a little bit of water and a little bit of food and Albert was never found.

I don’t know about you but if you were anything like me when you heard this story, one of the questions that you probably asked was “How in the world did they get there? How did they end up in this place?”  If you read the reports then you heard that what got this couple lost was ironically their GPS.  They trusted the GPS.  They were following it and they thought it was taking them on some short cuts and some detours.  It was just one decision after another, one turn after another and they kept going down the road they were on.  They decided not to turn around and go back but to keep going down the same road trusting their GPS.  Then suddenly they ended up in a place where they were stuck and they could not move and they were in trouble.

When I think of this story I think it relates so much to this topic that we are talking about here today.  Debt happens incrementally. It’s the result of incremental choices and decisions that we make in life in relation to our money and our finances. We start down a path and we make certain decisions and rather than turning around and going back the other way we just think: “Let’s keep going!” So we continue down this path and we take certain turns and we make certain decisions and it leads us to a place where we get stuck. And we end up saying “How in the world did we end up here?”  Well, it’s because of small decisions – decisions of not turning around and going the other way and decisions to continue down paths that are not healthy or helpful.

There are over 2000 verses in the New Testament that talk about money in contrast to about 215 verses that talk specifically about salvation. This speaks to the truth that money was as relevant in Jesus’ time as it is in our day. There are many Scriptures that speak to the snares and traps and unhelpful and even dangerous detours that we can go on in regards to the decisions we make with our money.  Turn in your bibles to 1 John chapter 2 verses 15 to 17.  Let me read these verses from the New Living Translation and then I will make some comments about them.

15 Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. 16 For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. 17 And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.

You know what’s interesting about this passage?  This was written by one of Jesus’ disciples named John. If you go back to Matthew chapter 6 where Jesus was teaching that you cannot love both God and money and He is saying that where your treasure is there your heart will follow, John was one in the midst listening to Jesus.

Picture John for a moment kind of leaning in and listening to Jesus teaching and now here he is writing a letter to the churches that he is pastoring and he is teaching them about Jesus’ teaching from the Sermon on the Mount.   John has taken what he has heard and he is starting to apply it and he makes it his own.  In this letter, this teaching becomes his own sermon to the churches about what he understood of Matthew 6.  John is saying that we can’t love both the world and God because if we have the love of the world in us, we can’t have the love of the Father in us. And so in essence he is saying the same thing that Jesus said, you can’t love them both – it is one of the other. It is not possible!

And then John lists a number of snares, traps and detours that this world offers as he talks about cravings.  He says the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure. What does that look like? It looks something like this: we want immediate gratification and immediate satisfaction so instead of waiting until we have the money for a vacation we just put it on credit and we say let’s go now and we will pay for it later.

Then John says the world offers a craving for everything we see.  Doesn’t that relate to our world today and what goes on in the heart? Sometimes we just see things and we just start to crave them. It is speaking to this truth about our human nature and how we seem to be wired so that we crave these things that we see. John is saying that this is the way of the world – the GPS of the world.

Then he says the world also offers a craving for pride in our achievements and in our possessions. This is another one of these snares, these detours, these things that kind of bog us down. We have a pride in our achievements and in our possessions.  We typically are more concerned by the things that we have accomplished for this world than the things of God.  Maybe our possessions have gained a higher standing in our lives than they should. And so John is challenging us and he is saying: Are these the things you are pressing after? Is it the things of this world or is it the Kingdom of God and having the love of the Father within you that you are seeking after?

So we have this tendency to crave these things. The value system of the world tells us that we not only need these things but we deserve them and this leads us to this topic of debt.  You know what debt is? Debt is just buying something with someone else’s money. When we go into debt we are buying something with someone else’s money and we have this idea that we will pay it back later. But unfortunately later never comes and we end up in a whole lot of trouble. Sometimes we do this to keep up with others. Sometimes we do this to impress others. Sometimes we do this because we are just consumed with ourselves and the things that we see in this world that John is talking about in 1 John 2.

When we look what the bible says about debt it doesn’t say that debt in itself is a sin and debt in itself is wrong. But it definitely warns about debt all over the place and it says that it dangerous. It says we need to be very careful of debt. It says we need to get out of debt as soon as we can. It says that debt needs to be avoided at all costs.

The reality is that we know there are things that we need to go in debt for. Most people would not be able to buy a house if they didn’t go into some kind of debt.  And business people know that if they don’t take on some kind of debt they wouldn’t be able to start a business. So there is a type of thing that some would call “good debt”. This may include an investment in your education and career future. Or maybe it’s an investment in an asset that will hopefully appreciate in value whether it’s a home or a business or other things like that.

But debt when it comes to these cravings after the physical things of this world can become very dangerous.  Especially when we come to a place of consumer debt that has enslaved us and our credit cards have enslaved us in one way or another. I did a little research in terms of consumer debt this week.  According to the Globe and Mail, at the end of 2011, the average consumer’s debt load climbed to a record high $25,960.  This is debt that does NOT include mortgages.  This number is staggering!

Obviously we are moving in the direction to what John is talking about in 1 John 2 in terms of how it is we understand the things of the world and it is a challenge for every one of us.  I really believe we need to look at these things and we need to address these things. I hope and pray that we would ask the Spirit of God what He would say to us about this topic here today.

Turn in your bibles to Roman 13.  In this text the apostle Paul is talking about people in authority and respecting those people in authority.  Then in verse 8 he says:

“Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbour, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law.”

So here Paul is saying “owe nothing to anyone.”  Don’t go into debt!  Flip over to Proverbs 22 verse 7.  This verse says:

“Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender.”

So both of these texts are talking about this truth that we should avoid debt at all costs.  It is a dangerous place to go because it can lead us to a place where we find ourselves stuck and enslaved as seek better, nicer and bigger things.

We know that credit cards make it easier for us to go into debt but credit cards in of themselves are not the evil thing.  They can actually be a benefit if we pay them off every month. There are reasons to have them but for some people the credit card becomes master rather than servant.  They can become this thing that makes it so easy to put our purchases “out of sight out of mind” and we think we will deal with them later.  Suddenly though when later comes it becomes difficult to deal with because it all adds up. Again it comes back to the question of our heart and where our heart is taking us. What treasure is our heart leading us toward?

There are many reasons why we want to avoid debt. One of them is: Debt makes us a slave to someone else. It limits our freedom. So I want to talk about slavery for a minute. That might feel like a little bit of a stark image when you think of the topic of debt but think about it for a moment. When we have this huge amount of credit card debt or we owe a whole bunch of money on a vehicle or something like that, suddenly it’s the bank or the credit card company or the car dealership who owns a part of us. They start to dictate how we will spend our money.  They start to limit the amount of freedom that we have in life and especially in finances.

In biblical times debt was a little bit different than it is today. If you owed somebody money and you couldn’t pay, you either went to prison or you became their slave. Today it doesn’t happen this way. But in a way it does ensnare us, doesn’t it? It does enslave us in one way or another. We feel our freedom slipping away.  We lose the margin in our lives.  We lose the ability to live generous lives.  We see Scripture over and over again pleading with us and encouraging us not to live like this but to regain our freedom and not to be in slavery in that way.

I want to conclude with a few practical steps that I would like to leave with us to discern and pray about as we go from here today. The first step is to pray.  The first step is to pray and to step out and to pray in confession and come before God and confess that we have been irresponsible with our money.  We should come to God with humility and confession.  We need to ask God to help us restore self-control in our lives.  This first step of prayer is so critically important because we need to ask God to give us the strength to regain self control and to see our situation accurately.

The second step is: Stop it! There is a Bob Newhart skit where he is a counsellor and a woman comes into his office and she starts to divulge her deep problems and he says he has a simple solution that works and takes less than 5 minutes.  His solution is: Stop it! So everything she comes with he just says: Stop it!  This is important advice to heed as we talk about this subject. If we find ourselves mired in debt and we are in a place that we don’t know how we got there and we don’t know how to get out, one of the first things that we can do is stop it.  Stop adding to it! And for some of us it might mean actually cutting up some of our credit cards so we don’t do any further harm in these areas.

Thirdly, get outside help and accountability.  For some of us it is very hard for us to look at this objectively and we might be in to it so deep that we kind of go: I don’t know where to go or where to turn? We need some outside help and accountability.

Fourthly, develop a plan.  What are the steps that you need to take?  The reality is that we drift into debt but we’ve go to dig our way out. We drift into debt one turn at time, one small decision at a time, one purchase at time and the reality is that we have to have a plan of intentionality, determination and hard work in order to find our way out of it.  Because the way we got into it – incrementally one step at a time – is also the way that we get out of it, incrementally one step at a time. One day at a time. Address the issue and work the plan.

Finally, practice contentment.  We need to learn to be content where ever we find ourselves in life. In Philippians 4 the apostle Paul talks about this and he says to the church:

“I have learned to be content with whatever I have” (vs. 11).

Sometimes it’s the people who have the most who are the most discontent.  It is not only those who have little who are discontent. It is not about the dollar amount. We can be equally discontent with much or little.  It is a choice to be content where we are.  Be content with what God has blessed you with.  How much is enough?  We have normalized debt in our society in way that is really unhealthy.  How do we step back from that and ask ourselves how much is enough no matter where we are at in this stage of our life.

In closing, in a moment I am going to ask us to have some time in silence and prayer and allow the Spirit of God to speak into our life about what we have discussed this morning.  Then I am going to lead us in a time of corporate prayer.  As we do this I would also ask you to avoid this tendency toward comparison.  One of the ways that the enemy uses to really keep us from ever letting any of this ever sink in and affect us personally is that we compare ourselves with others. We sort of look at others and we say, “They have more of an issue with this than I do.” This comparison thing really neutralizes us from having the Spirit of God work in our lives and challenge us. As we spend some quiet moments in prayer I would ask you to allow the Spirit of God to speak to your heart about these areas that we have been discussing this morning.  Would you pray with me?

Today we are making a transition.  Over the last while we have been in our “Attender or Belonger” series learning about the blessings of being part of a church family.  Today, we are making a shift to a different series.  One of the many things I love about the Gospel is that as we read the Word of God and as we understand the many aspects of the Gospel, there is such a wonder and a mystery to the Gospel of God as we learn about who God is and we worship Him. But at the same time we also learn that there is practicableness to the Gospel and a relevance to it that is so real and so tangible that it connects to our everyday lives.  This series is going to touch on that practicableness and relevance as we talk about money.

This morning we are going be starting a new four-week series called “Money Matters.”  I am meaning this in a couple of different ways.  First, just the very different matters of money. And second, the fact that “money matters”.  In this series we will be seeking God’s wisdom on money by searching to see why it matters. We want to explore how this connects to us on a whole variety of levels.

There are levels that we are aware of and we see just sort of intuitively on a daily basis as we look at our bank accounts and as we look at our wallets we recognize the relevance of this and the practicalities of this on those levels.  But there also deeper levels that money connects with us sometimes in ways that we are not fully aware of or conscious of.

As I was thinking about this series I thought that this is probably one of the most difficult topics for us to talk about as Christians.  Would that be fair to say?  As I was thinking about it, in general we can talk about a lot of different subjects.  We can talk about relationships in certain ways.  We can talk about our travels and recent trips that we’ve made. We can talk about purchases that we’ve made and those kinds of things. We can talk about our favourite sports teams. We can talk about challenges in our relationships or intimacy issues in our relationships. We can even talk about politics.

But there’s just something unique that when it comes to talking about money.  When it comes to talking about money we just sort of get quiet.  We aren’t really open about it and we just kind of muddle our way through it on our own.  It is a topic that we don’t talk well about.  Is that fair to say? This has definitely been true for what I have seen with my life as I have related with others.  It seems to be this private area in our lives, and in many ways we try to separate it from our faith.  We sort of say “This is the God aspect of my life and this is the financial or business aspect of my life” and we try to keep them kind of separate.

My contention would be that we have probably meshed these two together more than we realize.  I mean if you have ever prayed for the sale of a house you have meshed these two things together.  If you have ever prayed about a major purchase of something (i.e. a new electronic gadget, vehicle, recreational vehicle, etc.) you have meshed God and money together.  And if we are really honest, when we are talking to God about these types of situations regarding money we are usually asking God to bless these situations in the direction that we want to go.  We want God to bless our money but we really don’t want give Him full control of it do we?  We still want to hold onto to some control of our money don’t we?

But what about the open-handedness of just coming before the Father and saying “All of this is Yours and God I want to honour You with everything.” That is what we want to talk about over the next several weeks as we dig into this topic of having a desire to honour God with our money. What does that look like and what are some of the things that challenge us in this area?  We are going to begin this series by looking at the attitude of ownership.  You know, who owns our money?  Our answer to this question determines not only what we will give to God but how we will treat Him too.

Our text this morning is going to 1 Chronicles 29. This chapter is about the gifts for building the temple.  The first nine verses specifically talk about the different gifts that were given. Then verses 10 to 20 are David’s prayer of praise and thanksgiving for the incredible generosity of the people.  This is where we will be focussing our attention this morning.  In verses 10 to 12 David praises God for who He is.  He says:

“Praise be to you, LORD, the God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendour, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honour come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.”

Then in verses 13-16, David tells us why he and the people gave to God and this is very important.  In these verses David prays to God:

“Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name. But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand. We are aliens and strangers in your sight, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope. O LORD our God, as for all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name, it comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you.”

David said he gave – because he believed the money belonged to God to begin with.  The money hadn’t been David’s. The offerings hadn’t belonged to the people.  Everything belonged to God.  Why is that important?  Well, first – it’s true.   And David acknowledged it by saying in verse 14:

“… who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.” (1 Chronicles 29:14)

Or as James in the New Testament wrote:

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:17)

Why is that true?  Why would I believe that everything I have comes from God?  A scientist once approached God and said, “Listen, we’ve decided we no longer need you. Nowadays, we can clone people, transplant hearts and do all kinds of things that were once considered miraculous.” God patiently heard him out, and then said, “All right. To see whether or not you still need me, why don’t we have a man making contest?”  “Okay, great!” the scientist said.  “Now we’re going to do this just like I did back in the old days with Adam,” God said.  “That’s fine,” replied the scientist, and bent to scoop up a handful of dirt.  “Whoa,” God said, shaking his head. “Not so fast, pal. You get your own dirt.”

The point is this: we can’t do ANYTHING without using something God has created.  Whether it’s the dirt at our feet, the metal in the ground or any other commodity that we might use to make a living – it was all created by God.  Even our skills, our intellect, our physical ability: they’re all from God because God created us in His image.  All of the things that we use to make a living … have been given to us.  Now, this idea that God has given us everything is NOT ONLY true… it is pivotal  It’s critical. It’s highly important. BECAUSE it effects how we behave with what we have.  It effects how we TREAT God.

Several years ago at a conference John Maxwell told the story of a congressman who took his son to McDonald’s. The father bought his son a Coke and a large order of fries and they went and sat down at one of those table not built big enough for people to sit in.  The father took a drink of his Coke and reached over to get a fry from his son, and his son put his hands around the fries and pulled them back. The father was in a state of shock for a moment.  He could not believe what had just happened.

And as he sat there he started thinking to himself, “Doesn’t my son realize I’m the one who gave him those fries in the first place? Doesn’t he realize I can take those fries away from him any time I want? Doesn’t he realize I can go up to the counter and I’ve got enough money I can buy all the fries I want? I can tell the people at the counter, ‘Go out there and bury my son in French fries.’ Doesn’t my son realize I don’t need any of his fries? I can go get my own.”

As the Congressman thought about it, one or two fries really would not have made much of a difference for him that day. What he wanted was for his son to invite him into the wonderful little world he had made possible for his son.

And then the congressman realized: his son was simply acting like he’d been acting with God.  His son had forgotten who bought the fries to begin with.  And BECAUSE he had forgotten who really – by right – OWNED the fries he treated his father badly.

That doesn’t just happen to young boys.  It can happen to any one of us when we forget that God truly owns all that we possess. And there are two reasons why this is true. First, there is the “Golden Rule” – He who owns the gold makes the rules.  That little boy thought HE owned the fries; therefore he believed he had the right to decide whether his dad deserved them.  If we who are Christians believe we “own” our money then we get to decide NOT ONLY whether God gets a share… but what is done with that share, right?  But if God owns it all then He gets to decides what happens with our money, right?

The second reason we MUST believe that what we own actually belongs to God is because of… the “Praise Factor.”  He who owns the gold gets the praise  If I “OWN” my money… if the money I have BELONGS to me… then the more I give the more likely I am to receive praise. And thus, the richer I am and the more I’m capable of giving the more acknowledgment I’m likely to receive.  Notice what David says in 1 Chronicles 29 verses 16 and 20:

“(16) O LORD our God, as for all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name, it comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you… (20) Then David said to the whole assembly, ‘Praise the LORD your God.’ So they all praised the LORD, the God of their fathers; they bowed low and fell prostrate before the LORD and the king.”

They praised God for the Temple that was to be built.  They praised God for His kindness to them as a people. BUT most importantly, they praised God for the abundance of the offerings they gave.  David’s one focus was that God should receive the praise for the offering that was given.

This idea – that God owns all our possessions – is a critical measure of our spiritual maturity.  This truth should not only affect how I give my offering to God every Sunday… it should effect the very way I handle my finances throughout the week.  Since all my money belongs to God, I should examine everything I buy, rent or lease asking if such an expenditure would please Him.

Thus, it is essential for we who are Christians to realize our possessions belong to God.  In fact it is SO critical a measure of our spiritual maturity that King David said God “tests us” in this.  LOOK AGAIN at 1 Chronicles 29:17

“I know, my God, that you TEST the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things have I given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you.”

DAVID SAW HIS OFFERING AS A TEST OF THE HEART.  Let’s be honest… money is a big test us. We can be asked to give of our time and we’ll gladly give of our spare time to help in various projects.  We can be asked to share our talents and we’ll gladly sing, teach or whatever. But when we are asked to give of our money … now we’re getting personal.

Now don’t get me wrong… how much we give monetarily WILL NOT effect our salvation.  We can be saved without ever giving a dime.  However, until we’re prepared to acknowledge that God owns everything and we are willing to commit ourselves to giving back to God a portion of our income we haven’t begun to be mature in our faith.  Jesus said in Matthew 6:21

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Jesus wants what our heart to be fully committed to Him.  And one of the ways that we do that is by fully committing our treasure/our money to Him.

We give to God because God owns it all.  Everything we have comes from God. This truth is critical because it affects how we behave and how we treat God. If we own everything then we get to decide what is done with what we have and we get the praise when we give any of it away BUT if God owns everything then He alone gets to decide what is down with what we have and He alone gets all the praise.

Here is the challenge that I want to leave us with this morning:

Over the next 4 weeks of this series I want to challenge us to consciously think about who owns everything that we have and then take a moment to thank and praise God for those things.

Here is how this will look: when you wake up in the morning thank God for providing the bed that you slept in, as you take a shower thank God for providing the hot water, as you eat breakfast thank God for providing the food, when you get into your car to go to work thank God for providing your vehicle and so on.

I believe as we do this throughout our day it will affect the way we view and use what God has give us.  We will recognize His ownership of everything and we will become much more willing to share it and give it away because it doesn’t belong to us to begin with!

Today we are continuing on in our series called “Attender or Belonger?” In this series we have been looking at the benefits of belonging to a church family. So far we have learned that belonging helps us face life’s problems – we don’t have to do life alone.  Belonging helps us focus on God both in our personal worship and in our corporate worship.  Belonging helps us fulfill our life mission which to share the Good News of salvation to everyone who comes across our path. Belonging helps us fortify our faith – it helps strengthen our faith as we allow other people to come alongside of us and help us grow.

Today, as we conclude this series, we are going to learn that belonging helps us find our ministry.  his may come as a surprise to some but we weren’t put on earth just to take up space. God expects us to give something back.  He expects us to make a contribution with our life. He gave us certain abilities, talents, gifts, background that He expects us to use to help other people.  But doesn’t expect us to do this alone.  He has given us a team of people (our church family) to work alongside of us and to help us minister to the people around us. God says, “I want to use you in ways you’ve never expected, but I want to do it in relationship to other people. I want you to be on a team. I want you to be in a group together, and I want you to serve with others.”

I love the concept of a team and the images that come to mind with that word.  But what is a team?  When you think of a team . . . probably the first thing that comes to mind is a sports team who is made of many players on the same side and who work together to win a game. A definition of a team is: (1) a group on the same side and (2) a group organized to work together. This definition can be applied to our church family: a group on the same side and a group organized to work together. Our church family is a team!

The fact is WE GET MORE DONE together.  We all know this. This is not news. Teamwork multiplies effort. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter 4 verse 9, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work.” One person can only get so much done. We get more done together.

Maybe you have some fond memories of being on some team. Maybe it was a sports team or a choir or a chess club or something else. And you can probably think about some team that you really enjoyed working on a goal or a project or a desire or an ambition, and that made you feel fully alive. Why?  Because on a team, you get closer, you get more done and you have more fun.   Serving together in a group will draw people closer than anything else. Doing something together draws us closer.

This morning our theme passage for this message is going to be Ephesians 2:19-22. These verses say:

“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”

Verse 21 says that we are joined together, that means, closely jointed together; organized; to be fitly framed together.  We are a team!  This morning I want to use the word “TEAM” as an acronym.  Our acronym for the word “Team” is Together Everyone Accomplishes Ministry. So, let’s talk about T.E.A.M. life.

Let’s begin by looking at the “together” aspect of T.E.A.M. life.  This is talking about a unified life. God desires that we be unified.  Snowflakes are one of nature’s most fragile things, but just look at what they can do when they stick together.  And it’s the same when we are unified together as a team! There are times when a sports team plays poorly (out of sync) and someone says, “They just couldn’t get it together.” It is said that a successful team works together toward a common goal. As God’s TEAM working together there has to be desire and determination to help us reach our goal.

So, what should our desire be?  Our desire should be to be unified in our passion and in our purpose.  What is our passion as followers of Christ? Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-40

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Our passion consists of two things: loving God and a loving people. Without this passion we will not be able to effectively serve others because our motivations will be wrong. Our service for others should come out of a love for God and a love for others. This should be our desire as followers of Christ.

We also need to be unified in our purpose.  What is our purpose?  Jesus told us in Matthew 28:19-20

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Our purpose is to make disciples!  Our purpose as followers of Christ is to make followers of Christ! We do this by winning people to Christ, building them up in their faith and then equipping them to reproduce this process with their friends! So, in order to be a team we need to be unified in passion and purpose!

Now let’s look at the “everyone” aspect of T.E.A.M. life. In the world of sports when a player hits a home run, runs for a touchdown, or scores a goal to win the game . . . I like to hear them say, “It was a team effort.”  Why? Because out in the field were 8, 10 or 4 other players on the team and it took every team player to win.  We need a growing sense of “needing” everyone.  The need for everyone is a vitally important concept to a team. It is said that a team develops its member’s skills by efficiently using its time and talents while embracing the diversity of each member. God never intended that ministry was going to be a one-person show!

Let’s look at some verses that talk about this.  First, turn in your bibles to 1 Corinthians 12:12-31. I am not going to read this whole section. I only want to highlight a few verses. Verse 12 tells us that the body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts. According to verse 18 we see that it is God who has given us our various functions. Verse 22 tells us that no parts of the body are  dispensable.  Verse 25 tells us that God’s desire for the body if for it to be unified. Verse 26 states that we are all inter-related to one another. Verse 27 tells us that each one of us is a part of the body of Christ.

Ephesians 4:16 tells us:

“From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”

According to this verse, the body grows as each part does its work.  All believers are part of the church team!

Ephesians 2:10 says:

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

The Bible says here we are God’s workmanship or masterpiece. The Greek word for “workmanship” is the word “poiema.”  It’s the word we get “poem” from. In God’s eyes you’re a work of art. You’re one of a kind. There’s nobody else like you.  If you don’t be you, nobody’s going to take your place.  You would be missed.  You’re the part of the jig saw puzzle that would be missing.  You are a masterpiece.  There’s nobody else like you.

God made you.  The Bible says He designed you. Regardless of the circumstances of your birth, He knew the two people who would have just the right gene mixture that would make you. He wanted you on this earth for a purpose, for a ministry. Then He says, “I want you to make your life count.” Everyone has a part to play in the church!

Now, let’s look at the “accomplishes” aspect of T.E.A.M. life. Every team wants to accomplish what it is purposed to do. In other words a team stays on task.  A team uses its resources wisely and communicates openly.  In order to accomplish something we need a strategy, right? I am sure that none of us here would try to build something without first having a plan.  We are in the middle of a building project right now. We didn’t just start by randomly doing things. No, we had to have a plan and we needed to follow the plan. Imagine if we didn’t what we would end up with.

Unfortunately, it seems as churches in general we feel that we don’t need a plan in order to accomplish anything. We need to understand the importance of vision and setting direction. Here are some quotes on vision:

“The saddest thing in the world is people who can see but have no vision.” – Helen Keller.

“Give us clear vision that we may know where to stand and what to stand for; for unless we stand for something, we shall fall for anything” – Peter Marshall

“Few words are bandied about and misunderstood as much as the word vision. For some people it means jotting down a few lofty goals once a year and then tossing the piece of paper in a desk drawer. For others, it connotes a mystical experience that transcends everyday experience. Both miss the mark. A vision is a guiding light to live by, 365 days a year. It is the reason you go to work and the reason your organization exists. A real vision gets tucked away in the mind, not the drawer; it shapes every thought and decision. At the same time, a vision is a spiritual statement of one’s relation to God and the rest of humanity. It is this very quality that makes it so relevant to our day-to-day experience; a true vision is a blueprint for daily action.” – K. Blanchard “Vision Driven Leadership”

Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”  Vision provides a sense of direction to life, a sense of discipline to life and a sense of dynamic to life.

Without vision:

• We can become passive
• It is impossible to do any real evaluation
• We can also fall into the trap of doing something just for the sake of doing something – it is difficult to state why we are doing this or why we are not
• We lose leaders because they are not challenged
• It becomes easy to settle into maintaining a ministry rather than developing a ministry
• It is easy not to plan ahead and the emphasis becomes upon activity rather than output.

These are issues that as individuals and as a church that we need to wrestle through as we seek to accomplish ministry.

As a church we have a mission and vision that we seek to live by. Our Mission statement is this:

Port Hardy Baptist Church exists and is dedicated to be a caring community where people can find love, acceptance, help, guidance, encouragement and, above all, HOPE in and FORGIVENESS through Christ.

Our vision statement is this:

To achieve this, PHBC will minister to the spiritual, emotional, physical and social needs of our church and our community by:

• Supporting and building healthy marriages, families and relationships.
• Having an emotional support ministry to connect people with the appropriate resources within our church and/or community
• Developing people’s spiritual growth while continuing to support mission work around the world.

 

To enable the fulfillment of this vision statement, PHBC will develop a comprehensive strategic plan to be implemented over a five year time frame.

Everything we do should reflect our mission and our vision.  God has given our church a unique ministry for Port Hardy and we need to be doing everything we can to accomplish it!

Finally, let’s look at the ministry aspect of T.E.A.M. life.  What is ministry?  I think a lot of times we try to make this more complicated than it needs to be. God did not put us on earth to live a self-centered life.  He put us on earth to make a difference.  He wants us to make a contribution with our life. He wants us to give something back. Whenever we use our talents, our abilities, our background, our experience, our time, our energy to help somebody else and we do it in God’s name; the Bible has a word for that. It’s called ‘ministry.’ And contrary to popular opinion, everybody is a minister. Everybody is to serve using the abilities that they’ve got.

Psalm 139:13-16 says:

“13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

God knows that each one of us is unique.  There are also many different jobs that need to be done in order for the work of the kingdom to get done. One of the greatest frustrations a person can have in trying to serve God is to be pushed into an area of service that we feel that we cannot do.  Now I do not want people to use this for an excuse for not reaching out to people or trying to stretch themselves. We are to all witness to people, although we will all do it a little different.

As you look around us, you will notice that each of us has a different shape. Did you know that your ministry or area a service should be determined by your SHAPE? Rick Warren uses the word SHAPE as an acronym for:

• Spiritual Gifts (How God has gifted me)
• Heart (passion) What do I love to do?
• Abilities (What natural talents do I have?)
• Personality (Where does my personality best suit me to serve?)
• Experience (What experiences have I had?): Education, Vocational, Spiritual, and Ministry. (how you have served in the past), Painful (What problems, hurts and trials have you learned from)

We are all different because God made us that way.  Your personality will affect how you use your spiritual gifts; your passion will affect what you place as important. Too many times we go about things backwards. We feel that since we do not know what we are gifted in, we do nothing.  We think that we can take a test to find out what our SHAPE really is.  The best way to find out where your gifts, talents and heart is, is to serve in many different areas and from that you will settle into what you are good at. Find your ministry and do it. Then you’ll be saying, “This is what I’m here for.”  You see your value. As a Christian you were made for ministry.

It is only as we work together as a team that we will be successful.  Unity is essential in being a winning team. We need to be unified in our passion and in our purpose. We need to have an “everyone is needed” approach to ministry. Every member of the body is essential to the successful working of the team. We need to be focussed and directed in order to be a successful team. We need to plan and have direction and vision. Finally we need to be making a contribution with our lives.  We need to be serving others. As Christians, we get the privilege of being God’s hands and feet here on earth! Let’s remember that together everyone accomplishes ministry!

Today we are continuing on in our series called “Attender or Belonger?”  In this series we are looking at the benefits of belonging to a church family.  In part 1, we learned that belonging helps us face life’s problems.  We learned that we don’t have do life alone; God has given us a family to be a part of During the times when we are overwhelmed by trials, heartaches and the burdens of life we need to be strengthened and encouraged by fellow believers.  But we can only experience this blessing if we are willing to share what is truly going on in our hearts.  We can’t expect other people to read our mind.  We need to be willing to take the risk and let others see what is going on in our hearts and say: “This is who I am. This is my heart. These are my fears. These are my hesitations, and I trust you to love me as I am.”

In part 2, we learned that belonging helps us focus on God.  We learned that the essence of the Christian life can be summed up in two words “love affair”.  God wants to have a love affair with us.  We looked at 5 ways that we express our love for God corporately: SINGING to Him, TALKING to Him, LISTENING to Him, BEING COMMITTED to Him and by GIVING to Him.  We were challenged to make the choice to worship God in everything that we do and to choose to do this together!

In part 3, we learned that belonging helps us find our life mission.  We learned that we were created for a mission and that mission is to share the love of God with everyone who comes across our path.  We looked at 6 ways that we can partner together to share the Good News of salvation: Pray together, Appeal to common interests, Reach out in love, Tell our story, Nurture relationships, Expect God to act and Represent Christ with our life.  We were challenged to pray this prayer daily for the next month:

“God, use me. Use me to show Your love to people who don’t know You love them. Use me to show Your purpose to people who don’t know that You have purpose for their life.”

Today in part 4, we are going to learn how belonging helps us fortify our faith.  “Fortify” means “to strengthen, to develop, to reinforce.”   We have breakfast cereals that are fortified with vitamins.  We have Twinkies that are fortified so we can eat them without guilt!  We have Pop Tarts that are fortified with Vitamin A so we can say they’re health food. It means something has been reinforced. As followers of Christ our faith needs to be fortified! With this in mind I want to share six truths about our spiritual growth.

First, spiritual growth happens best in community.  We don’t grow in isolation of others; we grow in the context of community.  Hebrews 10:24-25 says:

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Relationships are the glue that keeps people connected to our church.  But relationships play an even more important role in moving people to maturity.
- Relationships are absolutely essential for spiritual growth.  John, in 1 John 1:7, tells us that the proof that we are walking in the light is that we have “fellowship with one another”. If we don’t have regular fellowship with other believers we should seriously question whether or not we are really walking in the light.  The quality of our relationship with Christ can be seen in the quality of our relationship to other believers.  We need other Christians to be speaking into our lives.  We need other Christians to be holding us accountable.  We need other Christians to spur on toward love and good deeds.  This is why God has given us a spiritual family!

Second, spiritual growth is not automatic.  Spiritual growth does not just happen once we are saved, even if we attend lots of church services regularly. Churches are filled with people who have attended services for their entire lives, yet they are still spiritual babies.  Spiritual growth is not automatic with the passing of time.  Hebrews 5:12 say:

“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!”

Spiritual growth is intentional.  It requires commitment and effort to grow.  A person must want to grow, decide to grow, and make an effort to grow.

Philippians 2:12-13 says:

“Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed-not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence-continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”

Notice that it says “work out, “not “work on,” your salvation.  There is nothing we can add to what Christ did for our salvation.  Paul is talking in these verses about spiritual growth to people who are already saved.  The important thing is that God has a part in our growth but so do we. Becoming like Christ is the result of the commitments we make.  We become whatever we are committed to.   Without a commitment to grow, the growth that does occur will be circumstantial, rather than intentional. Spiritual growth is too important to be left to circumstance.

A barrier to spiritual growth for many people is not lack of commitment, but over-commitment to the wrong things.  We have got to learn to make wise commitments.   Jesus always asked for a full-hearted total commitment.  Christ’s aim was not to gather appreciative crowds, but to make true disciples.  He never adapted His message to majority preferences, but always plainly declared the high cost of discipleship. Jesus often pushed the crowds to either sell-out or bail-out.  Jesus always asked for a commitment clearly and confidently. He was not at all reluctant to ask men and women to drop everything and follow Him.  It is an interesting phenomenon that, often, the greater the commitment you request, the greater response you will get.  People want to be committed to something that gives life true meaning. They want to be committed to something that is real and consistent.

So, what will you commit yourself to?  Here are a few suggestions. First and foremost, we need to commit ourselves to Christ. We need to commit mind, heart and soul over to Him to remain under His authority and control.  Second, we need to commit ourselves to developing good habits/disciplines of maturity into our life: prayer, Bible reading, fellowship, serving and tithing. These habits are not an end in themselves; they help us live the Christian life.  Third, maybe we need to commit ourselves to baptism.  Baptism is where we declare publicly our commitment to Christ. Baptism is where we publicly identify with what Christ has done for us: His death, His burial and His resurrection.  And fourth, we need to commit ourselves to our church.  This is exactly what this series is all about.  We need to not just attend a church but we need to belong to a church.

The third truth is: spiritual growth is attainable for everybody.  Unfortunately, many Christians feel that spiritual maturity is so far out of their reach, they don’t even try to attain it.  They have this mystical, idealized image of what a mature Christian looks like. Maturity, they believe, is only for “super saints.” Some Christian biographies have been partly responsible for this myth by glossing over the humanity of godly people and implying that if you don’t pray ten hours a day, move to a jungle, and plan to die as a martyr you may as well forget aspiring to maturity.  This can be quite discouraging to the rest of us “average believer”. It makes us feel that we must be content with being a “second-class” Christian. But we don’t have to feel this way because Philippians 1:16 reminds of this important truth: “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”  God is working in each and every one of us!

Fourth, spiritual growth is very practical.  Any believer can grow to maturity if he or she will develop the habits/disciplines that are necessary for spiritual growth. Paul often compared training for the Christian life to the way athletes stay in shape.  1 Timothy 4:7 says: “Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.” We need to take the time and the trouble to keep ourselves spiritually fit. The path to spiritual fitness is as practical as the path to physical fitness. Anyone can become physically fit if he or she will regularly do certain exercises and practice good health habits. Likewise, spiritual fitness is simply a matter of learning certain spiritual exercises and being disciplined to do them until they become a regular part of our lives. Character is shaped by the habits we develop.

Fifth, spiritual growth is a process that takes time.  Just as God allowed Joshua and the Israelites to possess the land “little by little” (Duet. 7:22), He uses a gradual process of change to develop us into the image of Christ. There are no shortcuts to maturity. It is a slow process.  Although we have instant coffee, instant potatoes, and now even instant weight-loss methods, there is no such thing as instant spiritual maturity. It is taking one step at a time. Sometimes it’s two steps forward and one step back. It’s an ongoing process.  And it never ends!  We never come a point in our Christian life where we can say “we’ve made it!”  We need to be committed to be continually growing step by step!

Finally, spiritual growth is demonstrated more by behaviour than by beliefs.  Although knowledge of the Bible is foundational to spiritual maturity, it isn’t the total measurement of it.  The Christian life isn’t just a matter of creeds and convictions; it includes conduct and character. Beliefs must be backed up with behaviour. Our deeds must be consistent with out creeds.  God is not as concerned with how much of the Bible I know as He is with what I do with what I know. James 3:13 Paraphrase: “If your faith hasn’t changed your lifestyle, your faith isn’t worth much”  Me must not only learn the Word, but also love it and live it.

The words most used to describe the Christian life are love, give, believe, and serve.  Jesus did not say, “I have come that you might study.” When our Christian life consists completely of receiving biblical input with no outflow of ministry or evangelism, our spiritual growth will stagnate.

Here’s the bottom line: God wants us to grow up!  He wants us to mature. He doesn’t want us to be a 98 pound spiritual weakling, a spiritual wimp. He wants us to be a spiritual Schwarzenegger, with spiritual muscles.  He wants us to grow up and have spiritual muscles. He wants us to be continually growing into Christlikeness.

And how can we grow spiritually? We need to find others to partner with us in our spiritual growth because spiritual growth happens best in community. We need to commit ourselves to growing spiritually because we become whatever we are committed to. We need to remember that spiritual growth is attainable. We need to know that spiritual growth is practical. We need to know that spiritual growth takes time. We need to remember that spiritual maturity is demonstrated more by behaviour than by beliefs.

Here’s the challenge that I want to leave us with this morning: Will you commit yourself to grow spiritually and what are you going to do to make that happen?