Vision Sunday 2026 | 2.22.26

Welcome to the Journey Christian Church podcast.

This week's episode is a special sermon for Vision Sunday 2026.

So so powerful.

You know that that second song Matt uh wrote, and such a beautiful song.

Fantastic job with it.

And singing that last song, it is so clear that Jesus is worthy of our very best.

Our King is coming.

And he is worthy of all we are and the best of what we have, what we have to offer him.

So it's amazing how the Lord works.

The King of Kings has offered his life for us, and we need him.

And on the flip side of that, our King has chosen to use us.

And it's incredible that he allows us to serve him and gives us meaning in our lives as we serve him.

So this is Vision Sunday.

And this is something this has been in the works.

We've been planning for this for the last eight months.

We've been working on it, and I'm so excited to share with you what God has given to us, your leadership, and the direction that He has us to go.

And I hope and pray that all of us will come along with this, and God will use this church in a powerful way.

So, Elizabeth and I, we've been watching this show alone.

I don't know if you've seen it.

Survival show.

Okay, there's one.

It really is.

And you know, it's not like a lot of other reality shows.

There are no games, there are no challenges, and and uh, you know, there's no drama between people because they literally put people out in the middle of nowhere all by themselves, no camera camera crews.

Um everybody just has a camera where they film themselves and their activities, and the whole goal is to survive.

And this season they're 125 miles north of the Arctic Circle.

And it is heading into winter, and the temperatures drop to 50 below zero.

And they go in with just a sack of supplies, and they have to know how to build a shepherd where they can survive in those temperat temperatures.

The grizzly bears and the wolves are all around them constantly.

They've got to fend those off.

They have to know how to hunt and fish and trap and uh make sure that they can get their sustenance.

Comes to a certain point where the rivers freeze so deep that they can't even do ice fishing.

And um it is a true survival show.

In this season, just a couple days in, one of the gentlemen he was he was looking to replace to hunt, and one of his arrows fell out of his quiver, and he stepped down, and the arrow went up into his leg about two inches.

And so not only do they have to survive the elements, they have to survive themselves as well, you know.

And the Bible says that there is one thing that the church absolutely must have to survive.

One thing the church needs for its survival, and that is vision.

The book of Proverbs in the King James Version says, without vision, the people perish.

Now, what exactly does that mean?

Without vision, the people perish.

So here's a compilation of several different authors interpreting Proverbs 29, 18, and what they say, this is really good.

Without divine revelation, direction, or a shared purposeful goal, people become unrestrained, disorderly, and lose their vitality.

It highlights that a lack of forward-looking, godly vision leads to moral decay, loss of focus, and eventually destruction.

The church needs vision.

Now God called people to walk a lot of difficult paths, but right at the beginning of their journey, he always gave them a vision, something to keep their eyes on, something that was going to happen in the future, that through all the difficulty, if they would just keep their eyes on this one future event that was coming, they'd be able to face anything.

Abraham was called to be the father of a great nation, and God, right from the start in Genesis 15, gives him this vision that you're going to have a son, and through this son, a nation will be born that will bless the entire world.

And then what followed after the vision, uh, the son didn't come for many, many years until he was old, and he went through problems and difficulties, and he made the mistake of marrying a second wife.

And if you want a good marriage, that's the first rule.

Don't marry somebody else while you've got this wife.

And uh that caused a lot of problems and a lot of household problems, and and um he went into battle, he fought wars, and yet the one thing he had was that vision to look look to.

One of these days, my purpose in life is to birth a nation.

Isaiah was another man of God who was challenged to live a very difficult life.

In Isaiah chapter 6, God calls him, and Isaiah sees the Lord on the throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple, and then the calling that Isaiah had on his life was this.

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

God spoke to him and said, You are going to preach to people who will never listen to you, and you won't make much of any difference in this generation.

Your entire ministry, not one soul is going to be converted.

He says, You will preach to people who have ears but do not hear, who have eyes but do not understand, lacking vision, lacking understanding.

And Isaiah said, How long?

That's his first response.

How long do I have to do this?

And God said, Until Israel is destroyed and its people are carried off into exile.

And so Isaiah did that for 40 years.

I don't know how he got out of bed every day.

Except in his prophecies, God gave him a great vision of a day when Israel would be restored, and through Israel the Son of God would come into the world.

He had that vision.

This is what it's all leading to.

The Apostle Paul had a very difficult life as well.

God called him to a difficult ministry, and he lists several of his difficulties throughout his ministry.

You know, he was beaten many times, scourged with the cat of nine tails, and he was imprisoned several times, and eventually he was beheaded, he was shipwrecked, he was bitten by a poisonous viper.

He went through one thing after another after another, and God gave him something to keep him going.

He described it in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, where he said, I saw this vision of heaven.

2 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

And I heard things inexpressible to tell, things that I'm not permitted to talk about.

And that vision of what it was all leading to, where it was going, kept Paul going through some of the most difficult times you could possibly experience.

Every town he went to, he would preach as long as he could preach until they ran him out of town.

Every town he went to, it was a difficult ministry.

But that vision kept him going.

This is what God does.

When he calls people to his purpose, he gives us a vision of what we are heading towards.

And so, as our leadership, as we have met over the last several months, we've been reading and discussing, and it culminated in a retreat that we had with uh the leaders and wives and staff and wives, and and we came together to solidify the vision that God's putting on our hearts, and we bathed it in prayer.

Every week we've been praying about this.

And when we came together, we had listening prayer sessions where everyone listened with a pen and paper in their hand and tried to decipher what is God leading our church to do.

And as we studied and prepared for this, one of the things that we noticed is that Jesus likes it simple.

Jesus was the great simplifier.

At one point, Jesus was asked, What is the greatest command?

And not only did he give the greatest command, he said, really, there's only two commands.

In all the Old Testament, there's really only two commands, two foundational commands.

And it says In Matthew chapter 22, verse 34, hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.

Matthew 22:34

One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?

Jesus replied, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

This is the first and greatest commandment.

The second is like it Love your neighbor as yourself.

All the law and the prophets hang on these two commands.

In the law, which is Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, first five books of the Old Testament, the books of Moses.

In the law, there are six hundred and thirteen commands.

Jesus boiled it down to two.

Love God, love people.

And what he's saying is that every other command in Scripture is an explanation how to love.

Every command in Scripture is either how to love God or how to love people.

Jesus was the great simplifier.

This is the heart of the church.

Love God, love people.

The mission of the church is equally simple.

Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he gave the great commission in Matthew chapter 28.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

And what he said, it is so deep, but it is so very simple.

He says to his disciples, these are your marching orders.

This is what you are to focus your time and energy on.

Church, these are our marching orders.

This is what we are to focus our time and attention on.

It says, then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

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, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.

Now, when I study and preach on the Great Commission, a lot of times I kind of gloss over the very first part of that.

But the first part of that is incredible what Jesus is saying.

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Do you understand the nature of the world that you're living in?

Do you understand the nature of the spiritual warfare that's been going on from the very beginning of time?

Larry Choinard, in his commentary on Proverbs, talked about the fact Jesus said, all authority has been given to me.

What is Jesus talking about?

He says, now Jesus claims a transcendent, all-encompassing authority.

The authority extended Jesus signals a critical turning point in God's redemptive scheme as Jesus becomes the one through whom all God's authority is mediated.

I want to pray with you right now for clarity on what I'm about to share.

Because if you understand what I'm about to share about the nature of this world, everything will start to make sense.

Pray with me, please.

Father in heaven, we are thankful that your desire is to reveal your truth to us.

We're thankful that you give us your spirit to teach us all things.

And Father, this is just so important that we grasp what you have been doing in the world from the very beginning, what the nature of spiritual warfare is, and how we participate in it.

Father, I pray that you would give us spiritual minds to grasp spiritual truth, that your spirit would lead us into your truth.

And I pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So in Genesis chapter 3, sin entered the world.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

And what that was was a rejection of God.

It was a rejection of God's ways.

And so as a result of the fall of mankind, Satan was given tremendous authority on this earth.

The earth was cursed.

And Satan immediately set out to establish his kingdom on earth.

And we have still all of these ancient structures that represent the kingdom of Satan that he was establishing on this earth.

There are ziggurats, steppe structures, pyramids that cover the face of the earth on five continents, and multiple of these structures on the continents, and every single one of these structures was built to a false god, an idol.

Every single one of them was.

They were all spiritual structures.

And these are evidences of the fact that Satan was establishing his kingdom on this earth.

So, you know, sometimes as Christians we think, well, you know, idolatry is really nothing because it's not a God.

But the Bible says actually that behind every single idol is the demonic.

Every single one.

Psalm 106.

Verses 36 and 37 says they worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them.

They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.

Paul confirmed this.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 18, he says, consider the people who, or excuse me, start down in verse 19, he says, Do I mean that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything?

1 Corinthians 10:18

No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God.

And I do not want you to be participants with demons.

And so everything that sets itself up as a God that is not the one true God, that does not acknowledge Jesus Christ, this is Satan's kingdom here on this earth.

And when Jesus was born into this world, it was a world that was firmly held in the grasps of the devil.

And so at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, when he is baptized, he immediately then goes into the desert where he is tempted by the devil.

And the third temptation of Satan is very telling, describing the nature of this world, the nature of the world, especially when Jesus was born.

It says in Matthew chapter 4, verse 8, again, the devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.

Matthew 4:8

All this I will give you, he said, if you will bow down and worship me.

Satan shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and all the splendor of the world, and he says, all of this is mine to give.

And Jesus doesn't disagree.

Jesus knows this is the nature of the world.

He knows that Satan has incredible authority in the kingdoms of this world.

But during the ministry of Jesus, something amazing happened.

He started making disciples.

And disciples started making disciples.

Starts out with five disciples, the number grows to twelve disciples, and then the number grows to 72.

The disciples are now multiplying, and the multiplication movement is already happening.

And Jesus sends 72 people out in pairs to go and preach the good news that the kingdom of God is breaking into this world.

And when the 72 come back and talk about their successes and their rejoicing, Jesus says something fascinating.

In Luke chapter 10, verse 17, it says, The seventy-two returned with joy and said, Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.

Luke 10:17

And he replied, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy.

Nothing will harm you.

And at that point, it was just in Israel.

It was just in one nation.

And then Jesus gives this command to his disciples that they are to go into the entire world.

And when Jesus gives the Great Commission, he says to him, Now there is another major sea change that has taken place.

The biggest of transitions occurred when Jesus died for the sins of the world.

He defeated death rising from the grave.

Satan's most powerful weapon is death.

And Jesus defeated death so that death no longer has any sting.

And the authority that Satan offered to Jesus at the beginning of his ministry was now firmly in Christ's hands, having torn it from the grip of the devil.

And so in the Great Commission, when Jesus said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, what he's saying is that this day forward, the world is a vastly different place.

And he told his disciples, Your job is to conquer the world for the kingdom of God, but you're not going to use the weapons of the world.

You're going to use reason.

You're going to use love.

You're going to demolish strongholds by offering freedom to every prisoner that is held captive by sin.

And he said to his disciples, Satan will not be able to stand against you.

In Matthew chapter 16, verse 18.

Matthew 16:18

He says, And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

The church's job is to go and invade strongholds, to push through the prison doors and set captives free.

We are to go to Satan's stomping grounds and undo all of his work.

And if every Christian, two billion people claim Jesus as their Lord on this planet, if every Christian made it their goal that I'm going to lead one person to Jesus before I die, this world would see the peace and freedom of Christ wrap around this world like never before.

And then you have the church, the reality of the church.

And a lot of times the reality of the church does not reflect the way that Jesus talks about the church.

Some churches have bake sales.

Some churches have daddy-daughter dances.

The church I preached at before, they used to have a haunted house every year, and they talked about, you know, how how it was just amazing, and they would decorate the church real big and everybody would dress up and they'd just they'd scare the kids to death and it was just so much fun.

And and one one deacon was telling me about this, and he'd been with the church for about uh 50 years, 60 years at that time, and he said, you know, it was such a blast, we used to do this, and then a preacher came and told us it was all of the devil and he got real somber.

My point is the church in the mind of Christ exists to charge into Satan's stomping grounds offensively and release the cat.

The churches a lot of times friggter their time away on leisure night.

What if the church behaved in the reality?

Advertising them and teaching them to obey.

Jesus demonstrated that he loves simplicity.

He boils it all down.

The heart is the heart of love, and the mission is setting captives free.

It is it is so simple.

The way that Jesus constructed the church and the mission of the church is simple.

And so as a leadership, as we've been working and praying through this vision, we wanted to come up with a very simple mission statement that encompasses the Great Commandments and the Great Commission.

And most organizations they'll have a vision statement of where we're trying to go and a mission statement of how we get there.

But we wanted to bring them together and have one statement that both describes uh where we're trying to go and how we get there so that every one of us could know clearly this is the goal, this is what we're working towards.

So without further ado, here is the new vision statement for the church.

The Bible says that unless the trumpet sounds a clear call, no one will get ready for battle.

The leadership at Journey Christian Church has felt the call to update our mission statement so that it sounded a clear call.

Clarity is key.

We've been praying to develop our mission statement over the last six months.

Our goal was a statement that tells what our mission is and also the process of how to accomplish it.

So, first of all, we asked the question: what would the Lord want a disciple of your Christian church to look like?

What's the outcome?

Jesus was the great simplifier, and he provided us with a couple of things as guiding lights.

The greatest command and the great commission.

The first greatest command is that we love God and we can love him by worshiping him and obeying him.

The second greatest command is we love one another.

God has given us the context of the church where our loving relationships grow as we fellowship together.

The Great Commission is that we make disciples everywhere we go, using the Great Commission and the Greatest Commands.

Our new mission statement at Journey is this.

Journey's mission is to make followers of Jesus who gather together, grow together, and go together.

So what do gather, grow, and go mean here at Journey?

These three actions are the growth track at our church.

This is how a person grows in Christ at our church.

We believe every Christian should prioritize gathering together in worship.

We believe every Christian should prioritize joining a small group where we can grow together in relationship and in our knowledge of the Lord.

And we believe every Christian should go together, finding a place to serve in the church and also finding the best ways that we can reach out to our family, our friends, and our neighbors.

We are excited for the future of Journey Christian Church as we gather together, grow together, and go together.

This is how we love God.

We love God by lifting him up in worship and praise, giving him our attention.

A disciple at journey grows together in relationship with one another, and also going deeper in the word as we meet together in community groups, journey groups.

We're getting ready to kick off a new way of dirt of doing our journey groups in March.

And Dale's gonna talk about that a little bit later.

But this is how we grow.

And then we go together by finding a place to serve in the church.

We've got all kinds of places.

We're working on really beefing up our groups, and we're working on really beefing up our ministry teams, reevaluating everything.

We're gonna be adding several new ministry teams this year as well, giving an opportunity for everybody to go together as a church, but then also it means the people that are in our lives, the people that God has placed in our sphere of influence, our family, our friends, and neighbors.

How can we make sure that they are saved?

How can we make sure that they are released from the kingdom of this world and ushered into the kingdom of heaven?

And so we pray that you will join us in this vision.

We have one ministry that's going to be dedicated to each aspect of this vision.

We make disciples who gather together in our Sunday worship gatherings, grow together in our connect groups, and go together in finding a place to serve and learning how to share our faith.

I'm excited about the future for our church.

I'm just I am thrilled.

Um my goal is to leave journey better than I found it.

Um my time here is done, that we have laid a foundation that generations to come in the future could continue to multiply.

My goal is not that we are a church that just kind of sustains itself.

My dream is that we are a disciple multiplying movement, that Jesus uses us to advance his kingdom in places where the devil currently has strongholds.

I am so glad that you are here with us.

This is a start, this is a beginning, and I cannot wait to see how God uses each of us to accomplish his purpose for our church.

Let's pray.