Believe

All right.

Well, good morning, Church at the Grove.

Happy New Year for many of you.

My name is Russ.

I'm one of the pastors here, and we're so glad that you're here.

Whether you are here for the first time, uh regular tender, um, you've been a part of our church for a long time.

Um, I'm gonna uh we are broadcasting the sermon down the social circle this morning.

So I ask you to do something with me here in Walnut Grove.

Let's welcome our church family to join in with us.

Um one church, uh two locations.

So here in Walnut Grove, give it up and let's welcome social circle into the sermon this morning.

Give it up.

Yes, yes, um welcome uh social circle, and so we're gonna be doing uh we're in this vision series over the next four weeks.

We're talking about what God has led us and called us to do.

We're really gonna be talking about the uh in the next uh year, but also over the next three to five years, what God has called us to and what He's it, uh what we are anticipating and expecting God to do.

Uh, you know how you have a conversation with somebody, and sometimes uh they will begin the conversation with this I've got some good news and I've got some bad news.

Which do you want first?

Um what what do you like?

What do you like here first?

The good news, the bad news?

Yeah, I'm I'm with I'm with you.

Most of you are saying the bad news.

I want the bad news first.

So I'm gonna give you a little bit of bad news and and then we're gonna talk about some good news.

But the church in um in America um and the church uh in our culture is in decline.

The church and and Christianity is in decline in the United States.

And so that that's some of the bad news.

Um uh in-person attendance is down 34-35 percent.

Um, and of course, that's been accelerated uh by uh COVID the last couple of years, but even before COVID, attendance was in decline.

Baptisms are down 50%, uh, which is representative of how many people are coming to Christ.

And um and so uh numbers are down.

First-time attenders uh to a church are down uh to almost 20%.

Um, giving is down, volunteerism is down.

Let me bring it uh close to home.

We as a church are part of a fellowship of churches on the East Metro side of Atlantis called the Stone Mountain Association, and pre-COVID, there were about 120 churches that were part of that fellowship.

Um as of this past fall, it was down to 79 churches.

And that many churches have have closed or shut down.

Um that means points of gospel representation, uh points of light, city, cities on a hill are down.

And so that's a bit depressing.

It's a bit discouraging to hear this kind of news.

And it feels as if we as a church, or maybe us as Christians or believers, we've been in this wilderness experience.

We've been wandering in this wilderness experience for the past two years.

How many of you would identify that?

Man, it feels like the wilderness for us the past couple of years.

We we just don't have traction, we don't feel um secure, we don't feel safe.

But let me give you some good news.

And the good news is this is that God is sovereign and God is in control.

And even though there's uncertainty and there's decline, that we know how the story ends.

And specifically, God has positioned us as a church and as a representation of the gospel here on the east side of Atlanta.

God has positioned us for great influence as a church.

Um Walton County and some of the surrounding counties are are growing.

There's lots of opportunities for us uh to share the gospel and to see um Christianity, see the gospel affect people.

And our attendance, this is exciting.

Even with COVID, this past fall, we saw our attendance reach pre-COVID numbers, and even on some Sundays, we exceeded pre-COVID numbers.

We've seen more people this past fall come to our church for the first time than we've seen probably since we planted Church at the Grove.

That's exciting, and that's good news.

We see that God is at work.

There are neighborhoods and developments that have already broken ground within a rock's throw of our both of our campuses.

God is bringing people to Walton County, to East Metro Atlanta.

God is bringing people, and that is an opportunity for us.

How many of you have seen some of these developments?

You've seen the construction, you know that the growth is here already, and it's going to be coming at a more rapid pace.

And I've been trying to be quiet about this news, but now it's public.

I can talk about it.

But there is a it's been announced publicly.

You've probably heard about it.

There's a new auto manufacturing plant that has been announced that is coming to our community.

And it's going to be literally down the street from our campus in social circle.

The name of the uh the company is Rivian, and they're going to be making electric vehicles.

And so when they build that plant, they're going to be bringing 10 to 15,000 jobs.

And with people coming for jobs, it means more people moving to our community, more people moving in within a stone's throw, um, uh affecting the growth in our community, but creating opportunity for us to reach people.

And so the question I have for us, the question I have for you is will we as a church be ready?

What will we do to prepare to reach the people that God is going to bring?

Now I'm going to tell you this that most people aren't going to church now.

Most people aren't connected.

85% of the people in our community on any given Sunday are not in church.

And that's why you don't have traffic jams on Sunday like you do during the week, because people aren't out.

Nobody's scrambling to get to church like they do during the week to get to work or get to school.

People are relaxing, they're doing other things, they're going to the lake, they're going to the mountains, they're doing other things rather than going to church.

And so, what will we do as a church?

What will we do as God's people to respond to this growth, to respond to the opportunity that God has given us to advance the kingdom of God, to build God's kingdom in this community and literally around the world.

That is good news and that is exciting.

And you don't look very excited.

I hope social circle is more excited maybe than we are.

I don't know if it's the 9-15 New Year or whatever, but but we ought to be excited.

Yes.

Thank you.

Somebody.

Things are changing.

Our culture is changing.

We've got advancement in all kinds of ways.

We've got technological advancement.

We've got um we've got um uh you know all types of advancements in our world, in our lives, but there's a few things that haven't changed.

That people are broken, people are hurting, people are enslaved to sin, people are dealing with addiction, they're trying to escape the hurt and the pain.

Um, and individuals and families are broken and fragmented, people are far from God, people are in need of Jesus.

And the question is, who is gonna step up?

What is the church gonna do?

Is the church going to be God's people and answer God's call and reach out to these people who've been paralyzed by fear and anxiety and brokenness?

The last two years it's been accelerated.

Are we as God's people gonna step up in brokenness and respond with hope, respond with joy, invest and invite, invite people to come and see Jesus, come and experience Christ.

People that are coming to our community are not gonna be leaving their brokenness behind.

They're gonna come with it.

Their pain and brokenness comes with them.

New job, new beginnings, whatever it is, it doesn't, it doesn't heal or remedy the brokenness that comes when people are outside of Christ and in need of hope and joy.

And so people are gonna bring every bit of their pain, every bit of their hurt, every bit of their desperation, looking for community, looking for hope, looking for joy, looking for peace that only God can provide.

And the question is, are we gonna be ready to step up and answer the call that God's given us?

I said it has felt like a wilderness the past couple of years.

So the backdrop of the next four weeks is this story found in Joshua chapter one.

And I want you, if you've got your Bibles or you want to look that up down in the social circle, if you want to open up your Bibles, um, whether it's electronic or paper and leather, open it up to Joshua chapter one, and this is a great, great passage as a backdrop for what we're gonna be talking about over the next four weeks.

Joshua 1, verse 1.

Joshua 1:1

It says, After the death of Moses, the Lord's servant, the Lord spoke to Joshua, son of Nun, Moses' assistant.

He said, Moses, my servant, is dead.

Therefore, the time has come for you to lead these people, the Israelites, across the Jordan River into the land I am giving them.

I will be on land.

I promise you what I promise Moses.

Wherever you set your foot, you'll be on land I have given you, from the Negev wilderness in the south to the Lebanon Mountains in the north, from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, including all the land of the Hittites.

No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live.

Here's what he says, for I will be with you as I was with Moses.

I will not fail you or abandon you.

And he says, Be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give them.

Be strong and very courageous.

Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you.

Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left.

Then you will be successful in everything you do.

Study this book of instruction continually.

Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it.

Only then you will prosper and succeed in all you do.

This is my command.

He says it again for the third time.

Be strong and courageous.

Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Now, this point is significant in the life of God's people.

Because they've been waiting for this moment.

And the question is, are they going to step in faith or continue to be paralyzed by fear?

See, if you jump back a generation, they were at the same place 40 years earlier.

And Moses sent a group of 12 spies across the Jordan River into the promised land.

And 10 spies bring back a negative report.

They're paralyzed by fear.

And two spies bring back a good report, Joshua and Caleb.

And so God says, 10 of you will not make it into the promised land.

As a result of your lack of faith, you were going to wander in the wilderness for a generation.

Joshua and Caleb will be able to go with my people into the promised land 40 years later.

They're here.

And it's the same question.

Are they going to step in faith or they continue to be paralyzed by fear and anxiety?

And so they sent some spies ahead and they went and spied out the land and they run into this prostitute named Rahab.

And we many of us know the story where she helps them and hides them and protects them, and her faith saves her.

And so they come back and they say, We can take this land.

We can follow God's leadership.

We don't have to be afraid.

God is with us.

And so in Joshua chapter 3, 5 and 6, it says, then Joshua told the people, Purify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do great wonders among you.

Joshua 3 · chapter mention

In the morning, Joshua said to the priest, Lift up the ark of the covenant and lead the people across the river.

And so they started out and went ahead of the people.

I love this story because it gives us an equation.

It gives us a formula, if you will.

It's strength plus courage plus trust equals God's promised presence.

And that's why we can rest in the good news that God is in control.

God is sovereign.

God is leading us.

In the 21st century, God is with us.

In East Metro Atlanta and Walton County, God is with us.

He's given us a fresh vision.

We can step out in faith and say yes to God.

We want to be part of what you called us to.

We don't want to miss out what you called this church to.

We don't want to miss out on what you call this generation to.

My two kids went to passion conference January 1st and 2nd, and I watched it online.

I'm too old to go.

They won't let me go.

And so when I watched it streaming online, and it was, I mean, there was it was packed, sold out, 55,000 college students, young adults.

And as I watched it, I just I became emotional.

Because I thought, God, you're pouring out your spirit.

The rest of the world is missing out.

They're going on about our business.

All of us are just going on about our business when the next generation is saying yes to God.

I said, God, please allow us, old people, to not miss out on what you're doing.

Let us at least grab a hold of the coattail of this next generation who are who are seeing the Spirit of God being poured out upon them.

And let us say yes to God.

And see, listen, God's called us to move beyond spectator positions or or or um posture.

And to say yes to God, to step into the water, if you will, to step out of the stands onto the field and say yes to God.

No more spectator.

We're going to get into the game.

We're going to participate in what God's doing.

No more just sitting back on Sunday mornings and filling a seat up.

Let's jump in and see what God wants to do.

Attendance is not the measure of success.

Attendance does not equal availability.

God says, I want you to move beyond attendance to make yourselves available to what God wants to do.

It's time for God's people to lead the way.

It's time for God's people to step up.

There's too much at stake for us to be spectators, to appear to be uninterested.

There are people that are waiting for us to step up.

There are people that haven't crossed the line of faith.

They're either uninterested, they don't even know what they need yet, or they're spiritually curious, but they can't find somebody that will speak truth into their life, that will demonstrate by how they live what it means to be sought and light and to have hope and joy in the midst of a difficult wilderness time in the history that we're in.

And so the question is: are we going to step out in faith?

Are we going to engage people that are without Jesus and lead them across the line to the point that they move from being uninterested or spiritually curious to the place where they believe?

Now the Gospel of John gives us a little bit of a roadmap to how we can begin this journey, how we engage people that are outside the faith.

And so the question is not whether or not God is God for us, he is for us.

The question is: are we going to walk in the identity that we have in Jesus and make ourselves available for his mission that he gave us?

And so John chapter 1, verse 35.

John 1:35

I love this because it gives us a roadmap for how we can begin to engage this lost and broken and hurting world.

So it says the following day, John, and he's talking about John the Baptist, not John the Apostle, John was again standing with two of his disciples.

As John, as Jesus walked by, John looked at him and declared, Look, there is the Lamb of God.

When John's two disciples heard this, they followed Jesus.

Now I love this because it shows you the humility of John the Baptist because he points at Jesus and he's willing to let his disciples go and so they can become disciples of Jesus.

Jesus looked around and saw them following.

He says, What do you want?

What do you want?

He asked them.

They replied, Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you saying?

Now I love these next three words.

Because sometimes people are waiting, simply waiting for us to speak to them and to say, Come and see.

Jesus says, Come and see.

You want to see where I'm standing?

You want to see what is happening in my life?

You want to see what it means to follow me?

You want to have answers for your questions?

You want to you want to replace despair with hope?

You want to just replace um uh hopelessness with joy?

You want to you want to replace the voids in your life with something that will give you eternal hope?

Come and see, he says.

And it was about four o'clock in the afternoon when they went with him to the place where he was staying, and they remained with him the rest of the day.

Andrew, Simon's Peter brother was one of these men who heard what John said and then followed Jesus.

And so Andrew begins to follow Jesus, but Andrew doesn't just just avoid uh inviting his friends and family.

He says, Andrew went and found his brother, Simon, and told him, We found the Messiah.

In a sense, he's saying him to him, Come and see.

Then Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus.

Looking intently at Simon, Jesus said, Your name is Simon, son of John, but you will be called Cephas, which means Peter.

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee.

He found Philip and said to him, Come follow me.

Philip was from Betheda, Andrew, and Peter's hometown.

Then Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him, We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about.

His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.

And see, our faith, our belief leads us to naturally overflow and to invest and to invite others to follow and to believe.

There's people that are on the other side of faith.

They're curious, maybe they're not even interested yet.

And they, like these disciples, are waiting for somebody to say, Come and see.

Come and see what we have found.

Come and see where hope lies.

Come and see the Messiah, the one we've been waiting for, the one the scriptures prophesy to.

Come and see.

And so part of that is we've been changed.

And out of our selflessness, we partner with Jesus to invest and to invite.

I say this and I learned this uh from one of my pastors years ago.

Most people come to Christ on the arm of a trusted friend.

That's how it happens.

I mean, some people can go to an event, then go to a revival, then go to some type of meeting.

That happens.

It does.

Most people, even in those situations, are coming to Christ on the arm of a trusted friend who says, simply, come and see.

Come and see.

Come and see.

And as a result of that, people are open, their hearts are open to believing and trusting.

And in belief and trust, they become a part of God's family.

John 1.12 says, but to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.

People go from being orphans to being adopted into God's family.

And here's what I believe.

And you might think, well, I'm not a theologian.

I'm not trained.

I don't know how to talk about the things of the Bible or the gospel.

I'm very insecure about it.

And I'll leave that up to the professionals.

But here's what I believe.

Everybody can help somebody get to heaven.

Everybody can help somebody get to heaven.

You don't have to quote scripture.

You don't have to be a theologian.

All you've got to be willing to do is to care.

To care.

And to trust the Holy Spirit.

And so these uneducated fishermen go from being the invited to being the inviter.

The fish become fishers of men.

Here's another gospel reflection of that.

Mark 114 through 18 says later on, after John was arrested, Jesus went into Galilee where he preached God's good news.

And he says that the time promised by God has come at last.

He announced the kingdom of God is near.

Repent of your sins and believe the good news.

One day Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

He saw Simon and his brother Andrew throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living.

Jesus called out to them, Come follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people.

Other translations say, you will become fishers of men.

And they left their nets at once and followed him.

See, we're all called to fish for people.

We're all called to engage people.

And then we're called to follow up with people.

See, believing always leads to belonging.

And so it's not about just getting a name on a card.

It's not about somebody walking down an aisle.

It's not even about somebody getting baptized and then just going about their life as if nothing happened.

It's also about them becoming connected to the family of God.

Believing always leads to following.

It always does.

There's an ancient practice called infant exposure.

It's practiced, it was prevalent in the Roman Empire, other ancient civilizations where if a baby was not wanted, maybe a baby was had some type of illness or some type of condition, and a family didn't want to keep the baby, rather than thinking about adoption or other means, that they would they would take the baby out into the woods and just leave it.

How tragic, how sad.

I mean, it it probably would make some of us sick to our stomach to think of that.

But in a spiritual sense, that's what many of us do when we bring people to the point of faith and we don't follow up to help them become authentic, genuine disciples of Jesus.

We we birth, see them birthed into the kingdom, but we leave them and we don't connect them in belonging.

And so if you if you look at the Great Commission, it says this Jesus Jesus says, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

There's a few or several verbs in that command.

He says, go, that's a verb.

He says, make disciples, that is a verb.

He says, baptize them, that's a verb.

He says, uh teach them, that is a verb.

But one of the things I learned in one of my first seminary classes, a professor challenged me.

He said, which one of those verbs is most important, more important than the rest?

And he said, and so we all had different ideas, and he said, make disciples.

It's the only imperative in the Greek language in that verse, those few verses.

And so we're to go and make disciples.

It's not an option.

We're not going to make conversions.

We're not going to just get people to repeat a prayer.

We're called to go and make disciples.

Believing always leads to belonging.

And so here's what I want to ask you, church.

I want to, I want in a second, I'm going to talk a little bit more specifically about what I believe God's called us to over the next three to five years.

But I believe that the first step is for us to recapture in a fresh way this passion that God gave us 15 years ago to plant a church and to and to just go after people.

No holes barred.

I mean to just go after people with the gospel, to reach people, knowing, knowing that people are desperate for Jesus.

And so I'm going to turn things back over in social circle to Pastor Nathan.

And so for you guys to walk through the application of this.

And so I'm going to turn things back over to Pastor Nathan in Social Circle.

Now, it's just me and you guys and those that are still watching at home online.

And I want to encourage you with what I believe God's called us to.

I believe God wants us to see afresh this revival, this refreshing, this Spirit poured out upon us that would move us toward compassion for people that are without Jesus.

And there's a couple of practical tools I want to kind of give you that we've talked about before, but maybe some of you haven't heard if you're rather new to our church.

There's an online tool called Bless Every Home.

And it's blessedome.com.

And so when you go to the app or go to the website and you put in your address and you sign up, it will show you immediately all the neighbors around you.

I think it's automatically set for like the 40 homes that are closest to your home.

And it will show you, and this is public information that comes from the census, and it'll give you the names of your neighbors.

I live in a neighborhood and it gives me the names of my neighbors so I can pray for them.

And I get an email, I can set it up however I want to.

You can set it up however you want to.

And so every morning I get an email with five families and their names so I can pray for them by name.

And God has blessed us in our neighborhood and seen several neighbors come to Christ because myself and those that are part of our church are praying together for people in our neighborhood.

Now I like to walk, and in this cold weather, I haven't been walking as much, but when it's warm weather, I walk in my neighborhood and I literally just pray for these neighbors by name as I'm walking in the morning.

And so I love this because it's a practical tool where you can lift people up by name and pray for them.

Another tool that we have are simply invite cards.

We have some new invite cards that are out in the lobby, and they on the front of it it says, we have a seat for you.

And on the back, it's got our service times and our address.

And this is just something simple for when you run into a neighbor, you run into somebody and as you're out and about or eating or something, and you can put something in somebody's hands.

You can put a practical invitation card, an invite card in somebody's hands, and invite them to come, to come and see.

And begin to pray.

We as a church are in a season of prayer, 28 days of prayer and fasting.

Asking God to pour out his spirit, a fresh wind over our church and in our community.

This past week, we were Jill and I were sitting at the table, and it was just she and I, which we've got three kids, and they've all been home over the holidays.

We were just sitting quietly at the table, and she says, She says, What are you praying for?

And she was referring, we both spent some time away from food and fasting, and she says, What are you praying for?

And I said, Well, there's there's several things specifically, but really I'm just praying for God to pour out his spirit.

I'm praying for revival.

I'm praying for God to work in the hearts of our church family for us to move past this mediocre, just spectator faith, to where people will step into the water by faith into what God wants to do.

I'm praying specifically for God to show up in supernatural ways, healings, miracles, things that would make us uncomfortable.

Some things that you Baptists would really be uncomfortable with.

I'm praying that God will just pour out his spirit.

I'm praying for the Holy Spirit to lead us to sacrificial investment.

To be willing to step up and say, hey, I'll serve and I'll make myself and our resources available.

And I'm praying that God will move us beyond attendance to really availability.

And here's what we're believing for over the next three to five years.

That more people will be baptized at a higher rate than we've ever seen in our church.

And we're not about numbers at our church, but I like tangible goals.

We believe that over the next two years we'll see 100 people baptized.

That's just what we're believing for.

That's what we see.

Specifically, we we want to see 85% of our church to move into community groups, move into discipleship.

We're probably 50%, maybe even below, especially with just adults.

We want to see that increase 15% to 85%.

85%.

And so, thirdly, we want to see people engage into a specific discipleship path and process.

The language that God's called us to use is we want to see people believe, to belong, to become what God's called them to be, to become disciples, and then to build, to see the kingdom built, to advance the gospel.

Fourthly, we want to see one new church in a growing community planted, sending money, people, and resources to make that happen.

We believe also that we'll plant a new campus in one of the areas that's growing rapidly close to us, where we'll invest and send people.

We believe that we'll send over a hundred people in the next three years on short-term mission trips.

Now that's a that's a huge step of faith.

We know that COVID has affected our ability to travel over the last couple of years.

We've got partnerships in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and it's been hard not being able to go, not being able to support them.

And we know that we we might be limited, but we believe outside of COVID's influence that we can send a hundred people over the next few years on short-term mission trips.

Some of you don't know, but you'll be entering into a different culture, sharing the gospel, help planting churches in places like Hay or the Dominican, other places that we partner with, helping us lead people to believe, to belong, to become, and to build.

But before that's going to happen, I believe that we need to pray and ask God to pour out his spirit.

Fresh wind.

A move.

A move that would move us into uncomfortable places, but a place where God can use us.

A place where God can lead us.

A place where God will be glorified.

And his people will be sent.

And a community can be changed.

And that's what we're praying for.

That's why we're gathering tonight in Social Circle, two campuses together.

That's why we'll gather tomorrow night.

And Tuesday night.

Let me go ahead and address the elephant in the room.

You say, Russ, we're going to pray tomorrow night?

Yeah, we are.

6.30 to 7.30.

I know, I know what's happening at 8 o'clock.

I'm a bigger fan than you are.

The one thing they might need is prayer.

And I'm like, you know what?

If God pours out his spirit, I'd rather see the goodness and the grace of God than a ball game.

I'll sacrifice.

And you record it anyway.

So would you pray with me?

Let's pray together.

Father, we pray for your spirit.

We pray, God, that you would show up in a way and literally just level us, undo us.

God, demolish strongholds.

Break down barriers in the name of Jesus.

God, I pray that you would break the power and the bondage of religion.

God, would you break the chains of addiction and enslavement and sin?

And God, would you pour out and breathe your spirit upon us?

God, I pray.

Just, God, I pray for something that would be so tangible, so significant, that we would refer to it possibly in the same way as the disciples experienced in the upper room.

God, that would move us to a place of discomfort, but a place of availability.

God, that we would be moved, that we would be called to a holiness, but we would also be called to mission, and that we would see people not by race or ethnicity, not by economic status, not by religious denomination, but would see people simply as this either they are in the faith or they're out of the faith.

And that we would be moved toward those that are either not interested or spiritually curious.

And we would engage them, invest, and invite to simply use the language of the disciples in Jesus to simply say, come and see.

Come and see Jesus.

Come and see what He has done, what He is doing.

So, Father, would you pour out your spirit?

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.