Vision 2020
Possess the Land
Introduction
Welcome and prayer
BEGINNING AGAIN
The opening lines of a poem by Louisa Fletcher express this plaintive wish:
I wish that there were some wonderful place
Called the "Land of Beginning Again,"
Where all our mistakes, and all our heartaches,
And all of our poor selfish grief
Could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door,
And never be put on again.
One of the staples of life is that, in moments of weakness or poor judgment, we say and do wrong, hurtful things. In marriages, friendships, work associations, and other relationships, our actions sometimes give offense or cause harm to others. Or we may have sinned against the Lord and be at odds with our own conscience. Wouldn’t it be fine if we could just start over? Turn back the clock, rewind the tape, erase the error, or however you like to think of it. It is what David fervently desired as he cried in Psalm 51:10-12
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from Your presence,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
Is there a person anywhere who has not wished for this very thing?
The good news of the gospel of Christ is like discovering a “land of beginning again!” And access to it is easily obtained. Jesus told Nicodemus, a Jewish leader who came to Jesus, “You must be born again.” The new beginning Jesus offers is so thorough that He speaks of it as a new birth, or a rebirth. Paul wrote about it to his Corinthian converts, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
And if washing away the ugly past were not enough, He continues to renovate our hearts and souls as He walks with us along life’s journey. If we stray, there is a path to return to God. Writing to his “little children,” John wrote in his first letter chapter 1 verse 9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” He cleanses us from unrighteousness by giving pardoning grace to poor, humbled sinners who confess their sins before the Lord.
Even at the last supper, Jesus knew Peter would fail a crucial trial that very night. He also knew that Peter would be restored and rehabilitated for useful service, for even as Jesus told Peter he would deny Him, He said, “once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” Whatever our failures of the past may be, and how hideous they seem, and how unworthy we feel, all is not lost, nor are we banished forever from God’s presence. For it is not our talents, accomplishments, and victories that make us precious to Him, but that we come to Him in simple trusting faith with a broken, contrite, obedient spirit.
Can any of us hold the year 2019 up to God and proudly claim that we have given Him an untarnished year? Not likely. But He offers forgiveness sweet and free, with our sins removed and remembered no more. He gives us each a new, unsoiled year, like a loving parent repairing a tearful child’s broken toy, handing it back and saying, “Take care of it now, my child.”
Last year is gone, as we continue into 2020 we will look back and evaluate what God did in the previous year, and we see how God is moving! As I have prayed for vision for the next year. I kept hearing the Lord say “Possess the Land….Possess the Land…Possess the Land…” I then started reading the passages where God tells the children of Israel to possess the Land, but I didn’t feel that was exactly what God was talking about. This church has seen God move in the past…the church has needed to grow as evident when looking around at our property and history… (intro from Sam McCormick sermon Central)
I found this picture in our archives here at the church. This is the original original building. Back when the parsonage was the church, but it has grown and needed the first addition—the old sanctuary and then you outgrew that building and needed this building.We have been a church that used to possess the land, but we have let it go, there is a need in Tok to once again possess the land, to once again grow as God intended for us to grow. To rebuild what was once here.
As I prayed for the future of this church I felt God lead me to Isaiah 60:21-22
21 Then all your people will be righteous
and they will possess the land forever.
They are the shoot I have planted,
the work of My Hands,
for the display of My splendor.
22 The least of you will become a thousand,
the smallest a mighty nation.
I am the Lord;
in its time I will do this swiftly.”
Isaiah 60:21-22
Isaiah was written to Israel after the exile. After the time of Solomon’s splendor—the times of the glory days of Israel and though they had gone through awful times, they had fallen and been taken captive, God had not given up on them and Isaiah’s prophecy was to give them hope in a dire situation. Israel had to take a stand, they had to once again return to what God desired for them.They had to go back to their roots and follow God once more. There are many books of the Bible written during the exile where there are leaders that God raised up to follow Him despite the circumstances these men and women found themselves in.
God’s promises depend on 2 things
Obedience by us
Faith in God
Look again at Isaiah 60:21
First the people will be righteous—righteousness takes two parts first it takes repentance and forgiveness from our sins through the blood of Jesus and second it requires us to live a life of holiness—a life following the Spirit.
Second look at the promises from God…they will possess the land forever why? Because they are the shoot I have planted, the NKJV says the branch of my planting…church, as gentiles, we are the shoot, the branch that has been grafted into the vine as discussed by Paul in Romans 11. The church is a work of God’s hand and this church is no exception as a part of the great mighty church—the total body of believers everywhere. This church grows and thrives as a work of the hand of the almighty for the purpose of his Glory and Splendor.
We are in a season of rebuilding. As I prayed for what I should speak about on this Sunday, I felt God saying it is time to rebuild…just as God laid upon Nehemiah the desire to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.I want to look at Nehemiah this morning and what he did when he was rebuilding the walls and how that applies to us rebuilding this church. If you have your Bibles with you this morning please turn to Nehemiah 1:2-4
Read Nehemiah 1:2-4
Before the desire to rebuild the walls was ever in the mind of Nehemiah, he first needed to know the need. He asked about the survivors, those that were left behind or had gone with Ezra to rebuild the temple. He heard the need before he moved he stopped and spent days fasting and praying.
This last week, I spent time praying, last week I asked you to pray that God would allow you to once again dream dreams, to once again Chase the Lion, this was a Lion that was bigger than Nehemiah could fix by himself. He was a servant held in a foreign land working as the cupbearer for King Artaxerxes. Listen to what He prayed
Read Nehemiah 1:5-7
He is saying here Lord listen to ME! I need you to hear me, this was not a prayer done for tradition or religious purposes, it was not done before meal time or bed because he was taught to do so, it was a prayer prayed in desperation a Prayer that needed to be heard, that needed to be answered he was inconsolable, wretched and forlorn over the walls because he knew without God’s intervention nothing would change.
Have any of you gotten to that point about Tok, about Tok Assembly of God? Have you said God Listen to ME! Hear the prayer of your servant, we need you to move, we need you to change the things around us….
But Nehemiah doesn’t stop there, he takes responsibility for his actions, He doesn’t point the blame to others, he says I have sinned, we have acted corruptly against you…He pleads to God. One the biggest reasons people leave a church his dues to the hierocracy they see in the church…and all of us are guilty of it to some extent, me included. None of us are perfect, and God doesn’t ask you to be, he askes you to follow him with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength…no more…no less. We will at times fail, will our strength fail us? Yes!But we can’t quit, we have to continue to go after him every day! When we do fall we have to get back up and start again. God knows where we are weak and asks us to allow him to be strong for us in our weaknesses.
Let’s continue reading…Read 8-11
Nehemiah ends his prayer by reminding God of His promises, because He knows that God’s promises are true. And God does hear him. He gives Nehemiah favor with the King…the King allows him to leave, gives him wood from the King’s forest to help rebuild the wall and letters to permit him to travel through the land. Nehemiah gets to Jerusalem he views the gates and speaks to the people there and they respond to him in Chapter 2:18
So they start to rebuild the walls and they start to make progress but before too long, they find opposition
Read 4:1-6
As soon as Nehemiah starts, the enemies of the Lord rise up against him. They start to taunt and reproach those building the walls.This is the same thing that happens within the church when God starts to move, when churches start to grow, strife, opposition starts, someone doesn’t like what the pastor is doing, or they start to berate the new commers because they do not dress or act like church goers.What should we do when these people show themselves?
What did Nehemiah do? He prayed?This brings us to our first point:
Guidelines for Growth
1.Return to the Lord, Trust in God’s justice and faithfulness and pray for those who persecute you.
When people rise up and start to talk dissension in the church—no matter who they are—they are not talking about the will of God for the Body of Christ. Over and Over in the Bible Unity in the Body is emphasized not division. Listen to What Paul writes in Romans 16:17-18
17 Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. 18 For those who are such do not serve our Lord [a]Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.
When we deal with people who wish to cause division and offense, it doesn’t say argue with them, but rather our response should be to avoid them. Nehemiah doesn’t argue with those that are shouting threats and insults to them, instead He returns to the Lord, the one who has already granted him favor with the King and he prays. He doesn’t fight with them, he brings them to God and lets God handle them. That is the only way to deal with those that are trying to stir up offenses because there is nothing you can do to convince them to see things from another angle, they are looking for reasons to divide and cause offense. Return to God and trust him to deal with it! God planted with church with His own hand and He will nurture and grow this church, no one will stand against what God is doing here in Tok Alaska at Tok Assembly of God when we give it over to Him to grow!
Nehemiah prayed and they went back to work. And that is what we need to do, we need to return to the work of the church…of the body of Christ
Recognize that the enemy will try to attack and bring confusion.
Read 7-9
Just because they prayed does not mean the enemy was no longer a problem. When you are doing the will of God, those that wish to oppose you will be furious when they see you prosper for they wanted to see destruction not growth. These people may change, but there will always be someone that does not want to see the church grow, that doesn’t want to see God move.
Even though these people got angry with Nehemiah, they did not let it bother them because they had already prayed about it, but they did not ignore them either, the still prepared for the attack and set our Guards.
Church the enemy does not want us to succeed. There is a darkness here in Tok, here in Alaska. We lead the country with suicide rates, sexual assault and abuse the enemy has a strong foothold here in Alaska, we cannot be ignorant that he will overlook us but rather we need to be on guard against the attack on the enemy.
Realize that all ministry involves spiritual warfare.
Read 10-23
Every one of the builders carried a sword, they were all ready for the attack. They were ready to move and rally together to defend the walls, but they knew verse 20 “God will fight for us.”
Church, Spiritual warfare is going to happen. The enemy does not want us to succeed. He does not want us to flourish. He wants to steal, kill and destroy, but we are called to possess the land. Joy and I don’t drive every week around Tok like we used to, but the first time was an act of war. We were engaging in spiritual warfare and claiming the land that we have been called to possess. Church we have to be ready to bring the fight to the enemy! We have to always be prepared, the girded up and ready to fight. Nehemiah and his men were always ready…they even slept in their clothes…church we need to sleep in the Armor of the Lord…the be ready to fight with Him…He does the fighting, but we need to stand against the attach of the enemy…as we grow, at each stage of our growth…attacks will come, we have to be prepared for them.
Ephesians 6:10-17
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the [b]wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of [c]the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; 18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.
Let Nehemiah’s war cry to the people be our spiritual war cry for this church. Read 4:14 again…,
Church when we stand united, as one body, ready to go into spiritual warfare, God will bring the enemy’s plots and schemes to nothing just as he did for the enemies of Nehemiah.
Then all your people will be righteous
and they will possess the land forever.
They are the shoot I have planted,
the work of my hands,
for the display of my splendor.
22 The least of you will become a thousand,
the smallest a mighty nation.
I am the Lord;
in its time I will do this swiftly.” Isaiah 60:21-22
All of this starts with God…I want to close this morning, worship him…we need more of God because He is the one who planted, it is by His hand for His splendor that this church may grow.
Let’s close with this song
