The Mission of More | More Life | Pastor Zach Weihrauch

Genesis 15:1-6

Genesis 15:1–6

After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision.

Fear not, Abram, I am your shield.

Your reward shall be very great.

But Abram said, O Lord God, what will you give me?

For I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus.

And Abram said, behold, you've given me no offspring,

and a member of my household will be my heir.

And behold, the word of the Lord came to him.

This man shall not be your heir.

Your very own son shall be your ear.

And he brought him outside and said, look toward heaven

and number the stars, if you're able to number them.

Then he said to them, so shall your offspring be.

And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Revelation 7:9-12

Revelation 7:9–12

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude

that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes,

and peoples and languages, standing before the throne,

and before the lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches

in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice.

Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne and to the lamb.

And all the angels were standing around the throne, and around the elders,

and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne

and worshiped God, saying, Amen, blessing and glory, and wisdom

and thanksgiving, and honor and power, and might be to our God forever and ever.

Amen.

Welcome to the weekend gathering here at Christ Community Chapel.

My name is Zach.

I'm one of the pastors here,

and I'm so glad that we get to be part of your weekend.

Smart move by you.

You come on Thursday night, and then no matter what happens on Sunday,

it's not your problem, right?

Very smart.

And hey, if you're watching this online, it's

because the roads are shut down and we couldn't be open,

and thanks for watching online, we'll see you next week,

and you should have come on Thursday night.

All right, listen, 2026 is the year of More

Life here at Christ Community Chapel.

That's the theme of our year.

That's the theme of this sermon series is what we're praying for.

It's what we're expecting.

More life in everything in our families,

in our marriages, and our careers, and our relationships with God.

We're expecting it because Jesus told us to.

And John 10:10 Jesus says, I have come

John 10:10

so that they may have life and life more abundant.

And so we're saying, hey, if that's what you're about, that's

why we want more life,

but not just for you and for me.

Not just for our families, not just for our marriages,

our children, our careers, our relationship with God.

I think we're going to see this weekend is that God wants more life

for more people, in more places.

He wants more life for everyone all over the world.

And he wants us to be part of that.

So in fact, if you have a Bible, would you open it up to Genesis chapter 15?

Genesis 15 · chapter mention

Put a finger there.

Also open it up to Revelation chapter seven, we'll be there.

I recognize that's the two extreme ends of the Bible.

Good luck figuring that out.

If all that sounds way too problematic for you,

it's going to be on the screen behind me, so don't worry about it.

When I reference it, it'll be up there.

But to guide our time together

and talking about more life for more people in more places.

I have four points I'm going to use as an outline.

Very simple.

They go like this I want to show you that God has a mission.

It will succeed.

We can miss it.

Why would we want to?

God has a mission. It will succeed.

We can miss it.

Why would we want to?

All right, let's start with the first one.

God has a mission.

I love vision, I love strategy,

I love dreaming big, I love it, I mean, when somebody says, let's do this.

And even if the this is just absolutely bonkers, I get excited.

Like I believe that we are hardwired to want a big idea to

to to collaborate together in something bigger than ourselves.

I think psychology tells us

that sociology, anthropology, we are wired for vision I.

In fact, I think that's one of the problems

with our country these days, is we just lack some kind of rallying vision,

like I would have loved to have been around when President Kennedy said,

we're going to put somebody on the moon, like, I would have been fired up.

I would said, man,

I mean,

I'm really not good at math or science, so I wouldn't have got to be part of that,

but I would have been fired up about it because I love vision.

You know, even in business, there's this idea

that if you want to galvanize people, if you want to rally people,

you should use what's called a B hag, a big, hairy, audacious goal,

like a goal so big that that we have to get started right now.

A goal so big that if we don't work together,

it isn't going to happen because you're just something about a dream,

a vision, a bag that excites us well.

And if you resonate with that, then I'm happy to tell you

that God is a vision kind of God.

God is a dreamer. He. He's a visionary.

God has a bag, a big, hairy, audacious goal.

In fact, the Bible is really the story of God

establishing his big hairy, audacious goal.

And then fulfilling it throughout human history.

You can actually find that big goal in Genesis 15.

Let me read it to you and see if you notice what I'm talking about.

Genesis 15 verse one says this.

After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision.

Fear not Abraham, I

am your shield, and your reward shall be very great.

But Abraham said, O Lord God, what will you give me?

For I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus.

And Abraham said, behold, you have given me no offspring,

and a member of my household will be my heir.

And behold, the word of the Lord came to him.

This man shall not be your ear.

Your very own son shall be your heir.

And he brought him outside and said, look toward heaven and number the stars.

If you are able to number them.

Then he said to him, so shall your offspring be.

And he believed the Lord, and he counted to ten as righteousness.

The story of the Bible is the story of God coming to an elderly,

childless man named Abraham, a man who had been married for a long time.

He and his wife, Sarah, had been married so long

and were so old they had long since given up the dream of having children.

And God speaks to Abraham and he says, not only am

I going to give you a son, but your family is going to grow.

So large that you can't even number them.

They're going to be like the stars in the sky.

In fact, in Genesis 12, God will say, not only is your family

going to be big, but through your family.

I'm going to bless all the families of the earth.

In other words, what God is saying is that I'm going to do something incredible

and that something is going to affect

every single family on earth.

It's going to change all the peoples of the earth.

God is thinking global.

God is thinking big.

God is being a big, hairy, audacious God.

After all, he's saying this dream to a childless elderly man.

He's talking about global and Abraham doesn't even know

what's ten miles in any given direction.

God has a mission, and God's mission is more life

for more people in more places.

You see, God is an exciting, action oriented, visionary kind of God.

Is that what you think of when you think of God?

Is it that maybe the

first thing we're learning in 2026, a year of more life, is that it?

One key to experiencing

more life is we're going to have to change our understanding of God.

We're going to have to break out of the mold that we have put God in.

We're gonna have to let God speak for himself.

And if when you think of God,

you don't think of bags, when you think of God, if you don't think

of dreaming a vision of global, then you're not thinking big enough.

God has a mission.

But let me show you something even cooler.

Here's the second point it will succeed.

You know the thing about big, hairy, audacious goals?

If you buy the leadership books, the business books that talk to you about

setting these goals, what they'll say is it doesn't even matter if they succeed.

Like if you set a goal big enough,

then even if you get halfway there or three quarters of the way there,

then then you still have experienced something really incredible.

So when you set an impossible goal, you kind of do it with a wink

like, hey, don't worry about it. We'll give it our best shot.

It's going to be great.

Like here at KCC, we use the iOS operating system.

Some of you may be familiar with it.

We set quarterly targets and our goal is to achieve

about 80% of our quarterly targets every quarter.

If we only complete 60%, we probably didn't work hard enough.

But if we complete a 100%, we didn't dream big enough.

We want some goals that are so big that maybe we never get there.

But even by trying, we see something incredible happen.

Maybe your organization is like that, so it could be tempting then to think

when God sets a bag that he doesn't really intend to get there.

Then when he takes Abraham out, he says, look at all the stars in the sky.

He's being metaphorical that when he says in Genesis 12 that through your family,

I'm going to bless all the families of the earth.

He just means, hey, if we if we aim high enough, then

even if we get half the families, that will be incredible.

But that isn't what he means.

Let me put it this way.

Have you ever seen a movie that starts with the end?

Like maybe it starts the opening scene?

Is this kind of average looking guy, and he's got a beautiful girlfriend

and there's a voiceover and he's like, hey,

you're probably wondering how I got this girlfriend.

And you're thinking, I was wondering that you're kind of ugly.

And he goes, this is the story.

And then they go all the way back to the beginning.

And the movie takes a lot of twists and turns,

but you're interested because somehow it results in a pretty average looking guy

ending up with her.

The Bible is that kind of story.

God tells you the end so that you'll know it's coming.

Look at revelation seven.

I want you to see the connection.

I don't want to go Bible nerd on you,

but I want you to see the connection between revelation seven and Genesis 15.

Here's what it says.

After this I looked, and behold,

a great multitude that no one could number.

You see the connection God takes Abraham out and he says,

look at the stars.

If you can even count them, you're going to have okay,

I look at it, see a multitude no one could number.

Listen from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages,

standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed in white

robes with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice.

Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the lamb.

And all the angels were standing around the throne,

and around the elders and the four living creatures,

and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, Amen.

Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving, and honor

and power, and might be to our God forever and ever.

Amen. Do you see what that is?

Revelation seven.

The book of Revelation about the end of all things, tells us

that human history exists between two points.

The promise God makes to Abraham, and the promise completed

and the end of all things.

The revelation passage says that I look.

Can I see a multitude that no one can number?

And it's from all the nations, every tribe, every tongue, every people.

Let me explain that to you.

So you and I think of ourselves as Americans.

That's it.

Like my my dad is German, my mom is English.

But I don't think of myself as German English.

I just think of myself as an American.

But around the world, that's not how it works.

Like if you go to Africa, they won't say, oh, I'm from Ghana.

They will say, I'm from this people.

I'm from this tribe.

What, what?

The Bible is telling us is that in heaven there will be someone from every people

group, not every country, every people group, every language, every tribe.

Now, there are two reasons why that's significant.

Here's the first one.

When God made this promise to Abraham, Abraham had no idea he's

going to shock you.

He had no idea where Hudson, Ohio was.

The fact that you are hearing the gospel tonight on a Thursday

night, is God keeping the promise that he made to Abraham.

But here's the second thing.

Let me just give you an example.

One people group in the world are the mock Ronnie Bowker and people

they are in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan.

There are 10 to 15 million people in this people group.

There are at present not a single Christian among them.

The Bible does not exist in their language

and there is no church around them.

Meaning, as we sit here right now, 10 to 15 million

people have no access to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But here's what revelation seven is saying

that when you're in heaven, you're singing praises to Jesus.

Someone's going to bump into you and it won't bother you because it's heaven.

You'll say, oh, you bumped into me.

And I'll say, oh, where are you from?

And you'll say, Northeast Ohio notes.

Never heard of it.

You'll say, that's a little hard to believe, but okay, where are you from?

And he will say, I am a macaroni

bowl Quran from Afghanistan,

because someone from that people group is going to be in heaven.

You see, it isn't just that God has a mission

to get more life to more people in more places.

Is it is it?

The Bible tells us he will not fail, which means when we join

God in his mission, we give our lives to something that will succeed.

Do you know what this means?

By the way, if you're here this evening and you're like,

dude, I'm not even a Christian, this is all a little much for me,

that's fine. Here's your only takeaway for this evening.

You are part of God's plan.

He wants more life for you.

God is always looking for who isn't here, always looking for who

he can bring any promises to fill a heaven with every kind of person.

God isn't setting a goal and settling for 70%.

God will succeed in his mission, which means

that the local

church should be a place of joining him in his mission,

which means the local church should be the most

exciting place on the planet.

But is it?

Why don't we have this view of God?

Why are we excited

to join him in his mission to reach people

all over the world, including our friends and family and neighbors?

Well, if you wonder that it's my third point, God has a mission.

It will succeed.

But we can miss it.

Jesus tells a story in Luke 14 that I think is appropriate.

Here. Let me read it to you. Here's what he says.

But he said to him, He is Jesus.

He said to him, A man once gave a great banquet and invited many,

and at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say

to those who had been invited, come, for everything is now ready.

But they all alike began to make excuses.

The first said to him, I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it.

Please have me excused

and another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them.

Please have me excused.

And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.

So the servant came and reported these things to his master.

And then the master of the house became angry, and said to his servant,

go out quickly to the streets, in the lanes of the city,

and bring in the poor, and the crippled, and the blind, and the lame.

And the servant said, sir, what you commanded has been done.

And still there is room.

And the master said to the servant, go out to the highways and the hedges,

and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.

For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.

Jesus says, the kingdom of God.

The mission of God is like this.

God is throwing a party.

And if you're too busy, he'll just do it without you.

Isn't it funny that in this

story he says, I invited all the people you'd expect to be there?

They can't make it.

So go out and get the poor, the crippled, and the lame.

Did you know that Christianity is exploding in South America,

exploding in Asia, exploding in Africa,

and dying in America?

Because, you see, God is throwing a party.

And if we're busy,

he'll just do it without us.

You know, you read the story.

If you're an introvert, you're like, I don't get it.

These are great excuses. I don't.

One guy throws his wife under the bus like, look, man, I would come.

You know how she is,

right?

But the party goes on.

Listen, if you and I

feel as though God is not dynamic, God is not active.

God is not visionary.

It's because we are not at the party.

In fact, 20 years of ministry.

Let me give you a four step cycle for why American churches

are missing out on participating in the mission of God.

It goes like this. I've seen it a million times.

It goes like this.

Number one, God gets small.

You see, if we don't immerse ourselves in Scripture,

acquaint ourselves with a God who is active and powerful

and promise making and promise keeping, he becomes something less than that.

And all of a sudden, if you don't have a really big God,

you stop showing up to church expecting anything to happen.

You just kind of show up and go through the motions.

God is small, and when God is small, here's the second stop.

When God is small, I get big.

I have my own plans,

my own dreams, my own bags, my own vision.

And so when I show up at church, not only do

I not expect anything to happen,

but I'm like, just stay out of the way of those things.

Church becomes about me.

So the church is no longer a battleship on the mission of God.

It's a cruise ship.

A place where Christians expect the music they like and the chairs they like

and the food they like, and we just decide which church we go to based on

where the preaching is good or the music is good, or our friends go.

Because after all, God is small and we are big.

And the result of that third step is if God is small and I'm big,

then we start to fight

because I come looking for my preferences.

But my preferences aren't your preferences.

I don't like the music you like.

I don't like the chairs you like.

That's why in any given town in America, there are 50 churches.

Sometimes it's theological differences, mostly

there's a group of people who fought with each other and started a new one.

Because when God gets small and I get big, who are you to not give me what I want?

And then here's the force that makes sense.

If God is small and I am big and we are fighting, they don't come.

Why would our friends and family and neighbors

want anything to do with that?

And then churches die.

You know, I was a church planner in Cleveland.

My wife and I long time ago moved to the city to start a church,

and we started one, and we never really had a lease.

It was kind of like we weren't squatting, but whatever.

One step above that is,

I hope there's a statute of limitations.

And so we'd occasionally go to other churches to, to visit their property

to try to figure out, hey, could we ever use this in a pinch if we needed it?

And we visited one church and lovely lady showed us around.

She was great, but I hadn't seen a nursery.

So I said to her, hey, do you have a nursery?

And she said, I think we do.

And we go down to the basement and she opens the door and there's a room

with like Noah's Ark wallpaper, and it's full of storage.

And I said to her, well,

what would you do this weekend if a family with young kids came?

And she said, oh, we haven't had a family with young kids in three years.

That church is on Cedar Road.

It's a doctor's office now.

Because you see, when God gets small and we get big and we start fighting

and they stop coming, God takes the party somewhere else.

And I know you think, well, that would never happen to this place.

Look how big it is.

You ever driven through Akron?

Some pretty big mausoleums.

I mean, old churches.

Testimonies to the fact

that God will say, if you guys want to fight,

if you guys want to make things about your comfort,

we'll just take the party somewhere else.

God has a mission.

It will succeed. But you and I,

we can mess it.

So fourth point, here it is.

Why would we want to?

You know, have in my mind this week, 30 years from now,

two Christians of my generation sitting in rocking chairs and one

Christian says to the other, you know,

I read the Bible for 30 years and I see all these incredible stories,

and I just wanted so badly to see something like that in my lifetime.

But I never did.

And then the other Christian saying that that Christian really

I saw

all kinds of incredible things that God did.

Which future do you want?

Who do we want to be?

You see, if we want more life, God says, great, I'm all about more life.

But if more life means you and I and not them, God says you're not invited.

More life for more people, in more places.

God's eyes are always on who isn't here.

So you say, well, if I don't want to miss the mission of God,

how do we make sure as a church that we don't miss the party?

Pretty easy.

You reverse those four steps.

Number one, we commit ourselves to making sure

God stays big.

We read the Bible.

We sing the Bible.

We pray the Bible. We know the stories.

We worship a God who changes the world.

We say, God, you stay big.

Here's what happens when God stays big.

I get small,

see if I show up to worship

a God who is amazing, I become acquainted with the fact that I'm not that amazing.

And that's okay.

And all of a sudden

I don't care if the music is my favorite or the chairs are my favorite, or

or whether we got the best boba tea or or whatever is going on.

What I care about

is that God is being made much of and people are coming to know him.

Do you know,

can I just tell you, one of the more privileges

of being a pastor is I know more people than you do

who go to church here, and it would blow your mind.

We have people here at this church whose jobs would amaze you,

and they're taking out the garbage

they're serving you Thursday night dinner.

It would shock you to know who they were.

You know how you get that?

God is big

and I am small.

And when I'm small, guess what?

We don't fight

because I didn't come expecting my preferences to be met.

It's not about me.

And so all of a sudden, I can think about you

and you can think about me. And we begin to love each other.

We begin to serve alongside each other. And you know what happens?

God gets big, I get small, we work together,

and all of a sudden they go, what's going on there?

They start showing up.

I want to be part of the party.

I want to see God move, don't you?

I want more life for more people, in more places.

And not just the mock Ronnie Barker and people,

but your friends, your family, your neighbors.

And that's who God is.

And that's what God is about.

Let me let me kind of conclude with this thought.

You know, the best relationships I've ever had in my life

are the relationships

where I'm partnering with someone to do something bigger than us.

That's what I think.

Marriage is so great, but my wife and I are working together to raise

five incredible children to serve the church.

We're teammates. Right?

I think about back to playing sports in the locker room and and the atmosphere

that is built. I love the people I work with.

We come in every day trying to figure out how to help.

You know that God loves you and grow in that knowledge,

and there's just something powerful about a relationship where you're pulling

in the same direction.

What I'm telling you is that's the relationship God wants with you.

He wants you to partner with him.

And getting more life

to more people in more places.

Don't you want that?

I know I do.

I know I do.

And if you

if you're not sure, consider this.

How many people had to want that

for the gospel to be preached

in Hudson, Ohio?

How many people had to die

so the Bible could be translated into English?

How many people had to give their lives

to getting the gospel to this continent?

How many men and women have sacrificed and and given

so that this building could be built so that you could hear the gospel?

You know who's behind all of that? Not men and women.

If they were here, they would tell you, don't talk about me.

Don't focus about me.

It's a God who is never content with who's

here, who's always looking for who isn't.

And here's what I believe in 2026 God will blow the roof off this place

if we will join him in not looking in the mirror, but looking to the horizon.

Who isn't here?

Who should be?

How do we get to be part of that?

More life for more people

in more places in 2026?

Let me pray for us. Father God,

thank you for your incredible back

you that you spoke to

a childless elderly man.

Talk about impossible.

Thank you for the promise of revelation seven.

You are outside of time and space.

You know there's already a throne room

filled with people of every tribe and every tongue and every nation.

Thank you for the opportunity to partner with you through global

missions, through church planning, through inviting our friends

and neighbors to church to partner with you in the space

between the promise to Abraham and the fulfillment of revelation seven.

God, we want to be part of what you're doing.

We want you to be big.

We want to be small.

We want to work together

to reach who isn't here.

God in 2026, you know, last four years, God, we we baptized 912 people.

It's been incredible.

We want to baptize 912 this year.

We believe that's who you are.

Help us

to be part of the party

in Jesus name. We pray. Amen.