2nd Anniversary: "The Mission of the Church"

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The Generations Church podcast. Today, we're celebrating an incredible milestone,

our two-year anniversary as a church.

Pastor Jeff is taking this special occasion to remind us of the vision and mission

that guide everything we do.

Rooted in Isaiah 61, 1-3, this calling challenges us to reflect on all God has

accomplished so far and inspires us to press on for his kingdom.

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Let's lean in together as we hear today's message.

Amen. Can we give him praise this morning? Come on, give him praise this morning.

It is so good to be in the house of the Lord together as family to celebrate

all that God has done over the past few years since we opened the doors of Generations Church.

You know, today is officially our third year. We begin our first,

this is our first Sunday of our third year, and we have seen God do so much

in the lives of so many people.

Lives have been changed for eternity because of you guys,

because of the way you've loved, because of the way you've served,

because of the way you've given backpacks or coats or gloves or mittens or mattresses or food.

Lives have forever been changed.

And I also believe that there are future generations, the path of future generations

in Waterloo and Cedar Falls and around the world look differently now than they

did six months ago, a year ago,

two years ago, because of the way that you have sacrificed, the way that you

have given so faithfully.

In the first year, we saw an incredible amount of salvations and baptisms.

And this year, we've really taken that focus and we've begun to focus on what Jesus told us to do.

He said, go and make disciples, baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost.

We are to make disciples.

And so we have really focused on discipleship. I was talking to someone this

morning and was reminded, man, we've had one rooted group that already has finished up.

And I think we had 13 or 14 people that completed that.

And it was amazing. And I don't just say that. It really, truly was amazing.

And what Mason's saying, Mason's a different guy right now. And Lisa can attest to this.

He's a different guy today than he was three, four months ago, two months ago.

Dean too. Me too.

Because of the focus of discipleship, and growing our roots down in the faith.

And if you've been here, you've seen that.

I'm so excited. And Mason brought it up this morning during announcements.

You saw it in the video. But we have two discipleship classes starting up,

two rooted groups that are starting up, one tonight at 5.

So if you haven't registered, I think we've got 11 or 12 people that are registered

for that for Sunday nights.

It's going to be awesome, and I can't wait to see you there tonight.

Night the books if you haven't got a book the books are at

the welcome center and just tell them

hey i'm part of the rooted group or i'm i want to go to rooted if

you haven't signed up and you want to go go tell them and we'll

get you signed up because we believe that it is life changing and then on monday

night we have another group and i want to say there's 13 or 14 maybe that big

or more that we have people signed up guys percentage wise when you look at

the local churches in the country,

to have about 40 people that are going through discipleship classes right now is amazing.

It's amazing. Do you understand the percentage of that? It's incredible,

and I'm just so proud of you guys.

So last week, we started a brand new series called Better, and we talked about

having better priorities in the new year.

And this week, we were going to start talking about better relationships because

how many of you know that the people that you surround yourself with have a

lot to do with what you're going to look like and where you're going to end up?

And we want to encourage each of you to be part of having a priority of you're

going to have a relationship with friends.

You're going to surround yourself with friends that are going to make you more

like Christ because that's what we're all about.

Wednesday night, we were here and we were in prayer with the group of people praying.

And the theme that the Lord continued to push on my heart through scripture

this week and through just circumstances and prayer was a hunger and a thirst for righteousness.

I don't know about you, but I am so hungry for the spirit of God to move in

my life and for the spirit of God to move in your lives.

And so I changed what we were going to talk about. And it really,

I really was not planning on, even though it's our second anniversary.

I was not planning on talking vision at all, but the Bible says where there's

no vision, the people perish.

Well, I thought to myself, I don't want that for you. So I'm going to talk about vision this morning.

When Jan and I answered the call to plant generations a few years ago,

we knew without a doubt that God wanted us to plant a church that would be active.

That would be the hands and feet of Jesus. That would be no longer just people

sitting in pews or chairs focused in a holy huddle. You know what I mean? You've seen them.

You walk into churches and everyone's gathered around in a huddle and they're

talking to each other. We wanted to be a church that didn't soak,

sit, and get sour pusses. We wanted to be active.

We wanted to be the hands and feet of Jesus in our community.

And I think we're doing a great job of that, but I know that we can do better.

And so I want to revisit with you the vision that we have, the mission that

we have for Generations Church, because we are all the church, amen?

You are just as much part of the body of Christ as I am.

All of us together, God's family, we make up the body of Christ.

And it's not something that you just come and do on a Sunday once or twice a month.

It's something that is every day of your life.

And so we want to challenge you

to get off the sidelines, to get off the sidelines and get in the game.

Because you'll never set records and you'll never get everything accomplished

you want to do just by sitting on the sidelines. and I'm so proud of a lot of

you who are no longer sitting on the sidelines.

So many leaders, so many volunteers, so many of you are no longer on the sidelines. You're in the game.

And so I wanna just say thank you. And I wanna say I love you.

And I wanna say I am so proud of each and every one of you.

So here's the mission of Generations Church And you should have been handed

a handout when you came in. If you don't have one, raise your hand and we'll get you one.

Mason, get your own. There's back here. Just grab a few and just keep your hands

up if you need one, because I don't know about you,

but I'm so ADD that I need to be writing and I need to write it down so that

I'll remember it and so that I'll pay attention.

But here is our mission at Generations Church.

The first thing that we want for everyone is this, for every single person to know God.

Isn't that what it's all about? We want everyone who comes into this building

to have an opportunity to hear the message of salvation and for everyone to

have an opportunity to respond to the gospel. That's salvation.

We want everyone to know that they can have a personal relationship with the

very creator of the universe.

And he made a way through Jesus Christ. You know, there are churches everywhere

that are filled with people, yet they may not know God.

They might know about him, but we want to make it impossible for you to walk

in these doors and then walk out and not know that you can go beyond knowing about him,

but that you can have a divine relationship with him and know him.

Just like I know my spouse or I know my dad. God, I can know the Creator,

because He longs to be in relationship with you.

So we want first, everyone, to know God.

The second pillar of our mission is that once they know God,

they're able to find freedom.

And again, I've got to dote on you.

I've got to just say I'm so proud of you. There are so many people that I look

at now, when I look at you, your

life is completely different than when I first met you a year or two ago.

Some of you were on drugs. Some of you were battling addictions.

And now you've been set free. That's what the gospel is all about.

And it happens. It doesn't just happen by coming once a month or by just,

you know, coming here and there. It is a workout.

We spiritually get stronger and our relationship gets more and more close to

the Lord as we pursue him hard.

We believe that a lot of people come to Christ and they may know God,

but they don't ever get to that next level of finding freedom through their

community. It's doing life together.

That's what Acts 242 is all about, that they're doing life together.

And we have some groups that are doing life together.

And if you want to look for where the life change happens within this body of

believers, odds are it's going to be in the environment of a group,

of a group of people that are loving each other, that are pushing each other,

that are holding each other accountable, that eat together, that celebrate together,

that go to concerts together, that do everything together.

Because life change happens most in the group community. And so we want to challenge you this morning.

Get part of a group.

If you haven't gotten into a group or you don't even know where to start,

I'll see you at five o'clock.

And if you're not signed up, I'll buy you a piece of pie. How's that for bribery?

You know why? Because Muggs gave me a coupon for 20% off. I think it's on my desk.

And let's even make this sweeter. If you are planning on coming to a group and

you aren't signed up, but you come to the Monday, I got another one because

it was one for you. And then it said, here's one for your friend.

So thank you, friend, for giving me that coupon.

So we, I just, you know, we, we laugh and we have fun about those things,

but we want you to do life as a community because that's where the life change happens.

You don't change my son hudson is playing football

trey trace here trey is it do

you grow more as a football player when you're

doing the sport as a team or when you're by yourself when you're with your team

when you're doing it with your team when you have workout partners right hudson

hudson's at the sportplex all the time that was his christmas gift sportsplex

pass and he goes and he runs routes and he lifts weights,

that would be pretty hard to get better at throwing passes if you have no one to throw the ball to.

And that's what it is when you do life in a community of believers,

but you aren't part of the community.

I wanna challenge you this morning to get part of the community.

The third step is that we want you to discover purpose.

The Bible teaches us that he has gifted you and he's given you spiritual gifts

and it's not for your own glory. It's not for your own purposes.

Your purpose was written down in his book, Psalm 139 says, before you were even

born, before he created you, before he knit you together in your mother's womb,

he had planned out every single day of your life.

And so we want you to stop wondering what your purpose is.

We want you to find and discover what your purpose is because your purpose is to be used, guess what?

In community, in the body of Christ.

And some of you, you're living with more purpose today than I've ever seen you live for purpose.

I point out Dean all the time because I love Dean. He's my second dad.

See, told you he loved me.

But Dean will tell you, we were at men's breakfast yesterday,

and he can't stop talking about this newfound purpose that he has for his life.

And it came when he realized he was supposed to get off the bleachers and get

into the game and start serving with the gifts and the talents and the passions that God has given him.

And we desire that for each and every one of you.

It's not enough just to know God from a distance.

He wants you to be free through community and relationship.

He wants you to discover that, but he wants you to live out your purpose.

And then lastly, as we discover our purpose and we use our gifts, guess what?

You are going to be a difference maker.

Don't you want to be a difference maker?

Don't you? I know I do. I want to get to the end of my life,

and whenever that happens, whenever the Lord calls me home and I stand before

God, I want to hear, well done, my son.

Man, you did it. You ran the race.

You accomplished the purpose I had for your life. I don't want to stand there.

And be full of regret or I wish I would have. I wish I could have.

I wish I would have done this.

I wish I would have been obedient. it.

Guys, I had other plans than being a lead pastor and a church planner. What in the world?

Who would want to do that?

That's why I ran from it. But at the end of the day, I want to live out God's

purpose, and I want to make a difference in the kingdom.

We used to sing a hymn growing up called, I don't even know what it's called,

but I just remember it was, Rescue the Perishing.

Maybe, is that what it's called? Rescue the Perishing? Pauline,

you can get your hymn book out after lunch today.

And as you and your husband sing hymns this afternoon, you can look that up.

But I want to make a difference for the kingdom of God. And I want to rescue those who need rescued.

Because the truth of the matter is, is that Jesus is coming back and we are

going to get into the word today. So bear with me.

It's our birthday. We can go long, right? The Vikings aren't playing today. We can go long.

Listen, how many of you have been watching the news about the fires in California?

It's incredible the number of houses and businesses that are destroyed.

And how many, I don't even know, it's probably thousands and thousands of families

that have been displaced.

It's, it's just watching it. You just think, man, this is like the apocalypse.

It's crazy what's going on there. But the thought occurred to me this week, there was,

there was a house that was standing and there was a fire that came down and

it, it got every house on both sides of it, but one house wasn't touched.

And I was just thinking, what if you're in that house and you know that the

fire's coming down the street and your neighbors are in their house and the

fire's coming. It's coming.

But what if you decided to say, I'll take care of my house, but I'm not going to warn them.

How cruel would you be to not want to warn others that devastation and complete

and utter destruction is headed your way.

But here's the good news. You can escape it.

You can be free from that. You don't have to perish in eternal fire.

Jesus came to make a way out.

But yet we don't invite people to church because we don't care if they go to hell or not.

You know, Jesus talked a lot about hell.

Because he doesn't want you to go there. And he doesn't want your neighbors

to go there or your spouse to go there or your kids to go there.

So we will do everything we can to say, hey, your house is on fire. There's a fire coming.

Jesus made a way. You can be rescued. You can be free.

That's why we do what we do. And some of us need to regain the urgency of the gospel.

We've got to invite, like their lives depend on it. Why? Because they do.

Their lives are hanging in the balance. And we have to do everything we can

with all of our might to bring them in. We have to.

If you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to turn to the book of Isaiah.

We're not going to be much longer. We're going to take communion in just a few moments.

But this is the passage that I was just mulling over this week.

And I want you to see this picture of the gospel.

Isaiah 61, 1 through 3 says this, The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,

because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. What kind of news?

Good news. That's right. We have good news to share. He has sent me to bind

up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from

darkness for the prisoners.

That's what the gospel does.

Then it says, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God.

Day of vengeance? Really?

Yeah, they need to know what's at stake. To comfort all who mourn,

to provide for those who grieve in Zion, to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,

the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord,

and here's the key, for the display of his splendor.

Generations Church was planted because we want to be all of those things and

we want to do all of those things for the poor and the hurting and the abused

and those that are in bondage and in prison.

But guess what? As we work the playbook, as we run the play of the gospel and

the great commission and the great commandment of loving the Lord God with all

of our hearts and our minds and our soul and our strength, guess what?

Something happens. you become oaks

of righteousness oaks of

righteousness a planting for the display of pastor jeff's glory and splendor

no a planting of the lord for the display of his splendor it's all about the

glory and the majesty and the honor and the display of his splendor not ours.

The display of his splendor. And this morning, I just want to pull a few takeaways,

and then we're going to have communion together.

And here's the first thing I want you to see, and it's in your notes there,

that you have been empowered for the mission.

God gave us the great commission and the great commandment, and he's empowered you.

As you read through the text, there's several descriptions for the believer.

It's very interesting to me when I read scripture. The thing that I saw about

this passage is how many times do you see the word me in it?

There are several times where the author, Isaiah, writes the word on me.

And Jesus quoted this in the New Testament as well.

And as Christians, because it was his mission, it's our mission.

Christian means little Christ.

And so the first one is this. The spirit of the Lord is on me.

You have been empowered because the Spirit of the Lord is on you to carry out

the purpose that he has for you.

You see, at the moment of salvation, God gave you the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Listen to what Paul says in Ephesians 1. He said, You also were included in

Christ when you heard the message of truth and the gospel of your salvation

and when you believed. Let me pause there.

There's a lot of people that hear it that don't have the Holy Spirit.

You have to hear and believe.

Hear and believe.

He says, when you believed, you were marked in him with a seal,

the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit of.

You know what a deposit is, right? We put a deposit in the ATM.

We put it into our account.

The Holy Spirit's been deposited into you.

He's our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession.

Here it is again. To the praise of his glory.

You were empowered and the spirit of the sovereign Lord is on you if you are

a believer, if you are a Christian.

So the spirit of the Lord is on you and me. But second, the next statement of

empowerment here is he says that the Lord has anointed me.

What does that mean that the Lord has anointed you and me?

In the Old Testament, being anointed for ministry signified being chosen.

You remember the prophet came and he looked at all of Jesse's sons and he looked

at all the strong ones. and then he looked and there's one missing because the

chosen one who was David had not been there.

But David was the anointed one. It means he was the chosen one.

It was for a specific purpose and a specific mission.

And so they would anoint people and it represented the pouring out of the Holy

Spirit to equip them to do the work and to empower them to do what they were called to do.

You and I have been anointed.

Chosen. God's spirit is on you.

You've been chosen and empowered, and he has set you apart for this purpose and for this mission.

God has chosen you, he's empowered you, and he's set you apart for this purpose and for this mission.

The next one that you see in Isaiah 61 is he has sent me.

So his spirit is on you his anointing is on

you you've been chosen you've been empowered but he

has sent me he has sent

you why did he place you exactly where you're at in your life right now could

it be that he has anointed you empowered you called you to minister right where

you're at, in your business,

in your family, with your coworkers, in your school.

God has put you where he's put you and he's empowered you.

He has sent you to work for his glory.

And so let me just wrap up with this.

Here's the mission of the gospel. And I took these verses and I put them in

just the jobs of what we're called to do, what we're empowered to do,

what we've been sent to do. And here's what he says.

In the context, our mission is this.

To proclaim the good news, the gospel, to heal the brokenhearted,

to proclaim freedom to the captives, to release prisoners from darkness to light,

to proclaim the year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God,

to bring comfort to those who mourn, to provide for those who grieve,

to trade ashes for beauty,

to bring joy and praise instead of despair.

To be oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor and his glory.

Think for me with just a moment do you know someone that needs to hear the good news of salvation.

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Just kind of reminded me of this. There's a dear couple in our church,

and Rod and Lori, they haven't been here for a few months because Lori has been

battling Alzheimer's, dementia, and she's been doing pretty good.

And last Friday, she took a turn for the worst, and it became obvious that she

was headed to glory, and it happened quickly.

And so Lori went home to be with the Lord on Thursday morning at 12.20 a.m.

Rod said she was holding on until Thursday because it was their 44th wedding anniversary.

And so Lori is in the arms of Jesus.

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One of our jobs is to help comfort the morning.

To comfort rod to comfort those who are broken,

to provide for those who grieve to trade ashes for beauty to bring joy and praise

instead of despair are you in despair this morning?

I'm offering freedom I'm offering joy I'm offering praise I'm offering goodness.

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Our penalty, to take my penalty. And that if I believe in him and I confess

with my mouth that he is Lord, that he rose from the dead.

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Then we can have eternal life with him.

Just say, God, save me. I believe. I believe.

If that's you, I'm not going to embarrass you. I'm not going to call you out,

but I do want to pray for you. Will you just slip your hand and just say, Jeff, I prayed that.

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I want to know God. That's me today. I just want to know God. Go ahead. Slip it up.

For some of you, you might have a relationship with Jesus, but you've never

grown because you're a Sunday-only Christian.

You've never taken that step to get out of your comfort zone to join a group.

Some of your next steps, for you right now, your next step is just to come to

Perkins tonight and start your journey with a group.

Or come Monday night and start your journey with a group. And you need to be obedient to that.

I say it all the time, but this is not about what Pastor Jeff wants from you.

This is what we as a church want for you.

We want you to discover your purpose and to live a life of joy and peace,

making a difference, where you can stand before the Lord one day and you can.

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Hear those words, well done.

Enter into glory, my good and faithful child.

Father, we love you so much and we're so thankful that you care about us, that you love us.

Would you give us a hunger and a thirst, not just for righteousness,

but for you so that we can know you more.

Empower us to invite, to share the good news of the gospel.

Because it's life and death. It's heaven and hell.

And you don't want anyone to perish. Thank you for sending Jesus. We love you.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

You've been listening to the Generations Church Podcast. If you'd like more

information about Generations Church, feel free to get in touch with us at info

at generationchurch.us or head over to our website, www.generationschurch.us.

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