So today is Vision Sunday and I want you to do me a favor here as we get things started is go ahead and turn to your neighbor and ask the question. Do you see it? Good? Thank you. Now, there's a lot of different ways to ask that question. If you're seeing a sunrise or a sunset or mountain top or ocean, you can be like, wow, do you see it? Right? When you lock eyes with your loved one love at first sight for the first? Wow. Do you see him? Do you see her? Maybe you got a pile of dirty laundry or dishes at home and to your spouse or to your kids? Like, do you see that or maybe you're watching the Big Game and you can't believe they missed the call. And so you yell at the TV, screen refs. Come on. Did you see that? See, vision is an interesting thing. And today we wanna talk about something that's even a little bit deeper. And so when you talk about physical sight, it's really what you see with your eyes open. What I wanna talk about today is spiritual vision and where physical sight is what you see with your eyes open. Spiritual vision is what do you see when your eyes are closed? So we wanna talk about the vision that God has for our church today. Now, before we jump into a specific theme for this year, as we are just wrapping up today, 21 days of prayer and fasting and been praying through and processing, where is it that God would not only lead me, but where is it that God would lead us collectively as a church family? And, and before we jump into the direction for this year, we wanna set a little bit of the groundwork. So we understand where we are and where we're going see first, there is a vision or a purpose for all Christians and it comes from scripture and really it is to love God, love people and to make disciples, comes from the great commandment and the great commission. So the great commandment found in Matthew 22 also found in Mark 12 verse 3031. People are asking Jesus what is the most important thing? And he says to love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and then to love one another as you love yourself. And that above these, there is no no commandment greater than these together. And so Christians, all Christians people who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, all of us should understand that our purpose is to love God and to love people. And then when he rose again, in those last 40 days with the disciples, he's getting ready to leave. He gives these words in Matthew 28 verse 19 and 20 that all authority in heaven on earth had been given to him. And then in that authority in that power, he tells us therefore to go or as we are going to make disciples baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We're doing some baptisms here next uh in two weeks, it can be a lot of fun and then it says, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you and I will be with you to the end of the age. And so this is a challenge. This is a task given to all Christians. And so it's important to understand this, that it's not just that the church has a mission, but rather the mission of God has a church. So he gives this purpose to all believers. That's why you see these phrases, love God, love people, make disciples across many different churches. And in fact, if you don't see churches living this out, it's time to find something different to be a part of because as believers, we're all called to do this. This should be the same everywhere. But the natural question, then if we're called to love God, love people and make disciples, the na the next natural question is what actually is a disciple. And so Jesus offers a little insight to what a disciple is. It's really described as an apprentice or somebody who follows after somebody. And he gives us a description when he called his first disciples, Peter and some of these other fishermen and guys. And in Matthew 419, Jesus does these words, he said to them follow me and I will make you fishers of men. And in this one verse, we see three primary roles of a disciple. First, a disciple follows Jesus. So like an apprentice, if you think about a trade, whether you know plumbing or air conditioning or carpentry that you don't just sit on the sideline with information. But rather you follow and do as the master trainer does. And so we're not following as Christians. It's simply a set of ideas, but we're actually following the very person of Jesus. And so that's the easiest description of a disciple, someone who follows Jesus. But then secondly, Jesus didn't call people just by themselves. He said to them, which means Christianity is a team sport. And we're called to fellowship with believers that we need community, that we need family, that the church needs you and you in fact need the church. If you take a campfire and you pull out an individual log, that individual log is gonna go out way faster than the rest of the campfire because we need each other. In fact, there's over 50 maybe 59 1, another passages that talk about the value of relationships that people who say, well, I love Jesus, but I hate the church. We have to remember that Jesus died for the church. Jesus called the church his bride. And I don't know about you. But if someone comes to me, he's like, hey John, I like you but I don't like your wife that I'm not OK with that. You know what I'm saying? And so if Jesus died for the church, if Jesus calls the church, his bride, we have to understand that as the church, we need to value one another and we need to value church itself. And so we follow Jesus, we then fellowship with other believers because we're called into community. And then the last thing is that a disciple fishes for people. Now when we say fish for people, one I literation, you know me by now. But two, it is a metaphor for spreading the good news of the gospel. For the people around you see, they were primary fishermen when they were called into that. And so Jesus said, hey, I'm gonna take your previous purpose and I'm gonna give you a new one in which you're gonna share the gospel, which literally means good news with the people around you with what you say and what you do because the message of salvation isn't meant just for us alone, but it's meant to be shared with the world. And that we are God's plan a that the plan to get the message to the ends of the earth are disciples and Christians. And there's not a separation of, there's not like, OK, I'm a Christian and then now I'm gonna get serious and become a disciple. There's not levels to that, that if you call yourself a Christian, the point is to be a disciple or someone who follows Jesus fellowships with other believers and then fishes for people. So this should be common for all Christians. Any church you go to it were called as believers to love God, love people, make disciples. But now the question is, what is it at Mission Grove that sets us apart? What is it? What is our feel? What is our flavor of ice ice cream, so to speak? What is the way that we cook the food? How, how is it that we live our purpose out as an organ? Because just as every family is different, every church is gonna be a little bit different. And so what is it that makes us unique here at Mission Grove? And that's where we get into our vision mission and things like that. So our vision here at the church is that we exist to help every man woman and child experience Jesus. I remember sharing that with some people that were, some of them are actually in this room when we were at my in-law's house back in the end of February in 2018, when we were praying for God to start this church. And so that vision to help every man woman and child experience, Jesus is big. It's inclusive. It is, it's really audacious. It's catalytic. It's this, it's this feeling of we want to share Jesus with the world and that we don't need another program. We don't need another policy. What we need is to expose people and connect people to a transformational relationship with the God who created them and a God who saved them. This is our why this is, this is our North Star. This is why we exist. And for the last five years, we tried to live this out. Now, the question then is how do we live this out? So vision is the living picture of a preferred future. Our mission is what do we do to accomplish that vision? And so we will accomplish our vision through planning the gospel growing in community and multiplying through service. And so this picture here of plant grow multiply. It's what we invite you to do as an individual as well as what we do here as an organ. So on Sundays, our goal is to plant the gospel into your heart and into your life. So very word centric, we preached through the word next week, we'll jump into a series through the book of Colossians. I'm excited for that. It's my favorite book of the Bible. So I'm amped up for that and I'm on my third cup of cold brew. So um might have a little bit to do with that. But uh so we wanna plant the gospel in music, in preaching in hospitality, in kids ministry. We want the word to be in your life. But then secondly, we want you to then to grow in community. And so we have a series of groups that meet throughout the week and the groups all look different, but they have three common components. They help you really discover truth because it's based on the word nurture relationship. How do you love one another? And then affirm mission to then go and make disciples. And so those components to follow Jesus fellowship with believers fish for people, our terminology, right? Because every family has terms that they use, right? And so same here at church then is we take that OK to plant, grow multiply. And so that's the picture for us. Now, the motive, the reason we do these things really comes from Romans 831 where, which says if God is for us, who can be against us. And so you'll hear me say all the time. In fact, it's even printed on our wall right here in the lobby that we believe God is for you, which means we are for you together. We can be for the community at large. We think too many organizations are known by what they're against. And so as a church, we decided, you know what we want to be known by who we're for. And so this idea of planting, growing and multiplying and doing so through acts of kindness, through acts of service, getting out into the community and looking where you can bless, even if they never come to this church that we want to be people who bless this community. Why? Because Jesus first blessed us. And so that is the foundation of this church. Hopefully, you've experienced that you felt that we want to invite you into that process. Now, every single year though, we have picked a different theme. Now, why do we do that? Why do we pick a vision theme each year? The reason we do that is because we understand there are different seasons in life just as parenting little ones are so cute and it's so fun. I remember those seasons and it's uh sometimes I wish I could go back and then I smell a diaper and I'm like, yep, I'm ok that we're not in that season, you know, uh but, but you're in, in, in diapers, you're in elementary, you're in teenage years, you know, out of the house. Now you're in the taking care of your parents phase where season you're in, it looks a little bit different, right? And so we understand that and actually as a church, we are in different seasons as well. And so we determine a theme each year to describe the season or the direction of our church. So here's how this looks like on a practical basis. So, coming on the other side of COVID, we decided to pick a word for each year to provide some alignment and direction as we move forward based on the season of our church. And so in 2021 we picked the theme empowered and it was to really be empowered by the Holy Spirit, then to empower others to lead as well. And at the end of that year, we actually brought on Craig Klauke, who then uh we did a three month residency, we set it up, set him out with roughly $50,000 from donations that have come in and helped launch called Grafted Church that's still up and running right now. And so we're excited to ex you know, begin kind of planting that grove because that's why we're called mission grove. That no single tree makes a grove, but a grove can start from just one tree, just an extension of plant grow multiply. So that was 21 in 22. Our theme was more really based on this idea of Paul's prayer in Ephesians chapter three to a God who can do immeasurably more than anything we can ask, think or imagine. And we talked about wanting more God, more love, more disciples. And it was at the end of that year, that God opened up the opportunity. We received some donations. We laid out the vision that we actually locked in a lease or for this very building. And so it was pretty cool at the end of the year, that's what happened. And then last year, our word for the year was new based from Romans chapter six verse four, where we're called to walk in the newness of life. And so it was a new season for our church. We spent most of last year uh building out this facility as well as repairing our people, teams leaders for this facility here. And so it was kinda like preparing the building for the people and then preparing the people for the building. And then in August, we had our grand opening and we launched a bunch of new things and then we had our largest Christmas ever. And actually, we saw more decisions and more baptisms uh than ever before. And so we saw more people walk into the newness of life. That was pretty cool, wasn't it? Last year? We can clap for that. You can see the progression here as the organization. And so as we prayed through, uh really, what is the season that we're in now that we're in this space? What is it that God has called us to do? Who is it that God has called us to be? And as we're going through this, the word that God has given me that I think can honestly unlock some potential in your life and then unleash empower in this church is the word stronger, is the word stronger. You see all throughout scripture. There is this thread of strength that runs through it. In fact, in the great commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with your soul. And all your strength actually comes from the Shema found in Deuteronomy chapter six. And that word for strength is used 300 times in the, in the Old Testament. Uh May ode. And actually the translation of that word is actually not just a word in and of itself, but actually an additive to the other word. It's a descriptive word meaning very or much. And so what it does, it takes the totality of something and adds it to the verb. In other words, in this particular case, it says to love the Lord, your God, then with all your very muchness, that kind of cool to love the Lord, your God, with your very muchness. In other words of all of who you are with all of your will, with all of your power and all of your might. And I was like, wow, that's pretty cool. Right. Let's look up some more words for strength. And I looked up these other words and there's a bunch of other really cool Hebrew and Greek words for strength. And then I looked it up and you know what, what they meant in, in Hebrew strong. OK. And then I looked it up in Greek and these words too for where they had strong and I looked it up the meaning and they said, ok, you wanna know what it means in Greek? And I was like, cool. What is it? Strength? And I was like, oh, ok. So the word we translate as strong back then also meant strong. I was like, OK, so, so what does this actually pan out to be? How, how can we love God with all of our very muchness? How can we grow in this? And we see all kinds of examples. First example here, Joshua 19, it says, have I not commanded you be strong and courageous, do not be frightened and do not be dismayed for the Lord, your God is with you wherever you go, Moses had just passed away. Joshua was now stepping into leadership and he was supposed to lead the Israelite people across the Jordan river into the promised land. And in order to do that, he had to be strong and, and courageous. Now, a few notes here, notice that God doesn't command him to do strong but to be strong and that you have to be really before you can, you can do in this case. And so this is an identity thing. And also if, if someone is telling you to be strong, what does that imply that you are weak. We love to say, be strong and courageous. But what that actually means is, hey, Joshua, you're weak and afraid. Here's the reality church that we are, we are weak and we are fearful by default. And God knows that, but he doesn't leave us as that. And it's not just a command for Joshua. You see in the New Testament, Paul's writing to the church in Ephesus talks about the spiritual battles that come. And in Ephesians 610 writes finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. What's also interesting to me is that many of the battles that Joshua faced were actually after he crossed into the promised land, what it recognized to what occurred to me and what I recognize is so much of last year's energy went to getting into this physical space, right? And I, I'm just being real with you. I was happy and I was exhausted at the end of the year. And at some point, I just realized though that wait a second, we didn't reach the finish line. We actually reached the starting line and then I'm not sure what's coming down our way, but we got spiritual battles coming. And I'm guessing you've got some spiritual battles coming and if you're gonna be ready, you've got to be strong. Who is our example of strength? Proverbs 18 verse 10 says the name of the Lord is a strong tower that the righteous man runs into it and is safe. So Solomon writes, Proverbs David writes in Psalm 3124 says, be strong and let your heart take courage. All who wait for the Lord. So if we're called to be strong, who is it? Exactly that provides our strength? Thankfully, it's God, it's not some self actualization technique. He's not just saying, just grind a little harder. He says, no, I'm going to give you the strength that you need. If I called you to something, I'm gonna give you the strength and the courage to do the thing that I called you to, right the world. I'm just telling you, it's gonna get crazy like grab your popcorn here for 2024. I don't know what's coming, but we're gonna see it right, culturally, financially, politically. But here's the thing we have to remember that none of this surprises God and he is preparing and positioning his church to be in the exact spot that He needs us to be to be the light to the world. So let's talk about God. If God's given us the strength, what is God's resume of strength? Well, let's go all the way back to the beginning in Genesis. Jesus creates the world. How does he create the world? He speaks? And it comes into existence. How strong is God's word? God's word is so strong that He commands nothingness and nothingness obeys him. The other thing that encourages me is that in from nothing. He created everything. And sometimes I find myself feeling like I've got nothing left to give to God. Have you ever been there? God, I got nothing left. If I were to turn off, turn off my spiritual car, the needle would go up to e you've ever been there? I actually had a car that did that like so low on gas that you're on fumes. Like II, I think it's running on faith. I legitimately think my car is running on faith. I know here's the beautiful thing that if you got nothing left to give God, he can work with that because everything we see came from nothing. But he didn't just stay create it and walk away. He then sustains the world as we know it. We don't tell our hearts to beat. We don't tell our lungs to breathe. He is sustaining our very existence. Now, our sin has separated us from God and we continually fall short and fall short and fall short. So now he says he gets off the throne, comes down to earth lives a perfect life, then dies on the cross as payment, not just for our sins, but for the sins of the world, everything that had happened and everything that was going to happen. And then not only does he take on the sins of the world, he actually takes on the very wrath of God and then rises again on the third day. So how strong is our God? Our God speaks everything from nothing. Our God sustains our very existence. And our God defeated Satan and death itself rose again and says, hey, I'm gonna give you my power. And if we have a God who creates the world, we have a God who overcomes death. Do you think you can offer a little strength? Like, imagine, imagine being in the gym you're trying to bench and like you had the world's strongest man or world's strongest woman behind you? Like, hey, can I get a spot? You know, I'm just gonna do the bar, you know, and you're like, let's have it for me, right? You go in and like we have to understand that what's heavy for you is not gonna be heavy for him or heavy for her. Well, I want to tell you, is that what's heavy for you? What's heavy for me is not heavy for God. David Mathis put it this way. Satan may seem strong, sin may seem powerful, shame may be enslaving, but Jesus is stronger. How strong is Argan? I know that Jesus is stronger than fill in the blank that whatever battle you're facing right now, health wise, cancer, physical financial relational anxiety, stress, overwhelmed, whatever it is that you're facing, whatever you're going to face in 24. Understand that Jesus is stronger than, and that our strength doesn't simply come from within, it comes from God who is within so once you take strong and you switch it out for strength, you see it in a different light. Let me show you Philippians 413, Paul's writing from prison. He's writing to the church and he says, I've experienced everything, every success, I've experienced every failure. I've had everything. I've lost everything. And then in verse 13, he says, I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. See, we are on the receiving end of strength. It's God who strengthens He is the subject. The verb is strength and then we are the object. We are receiving that second Timothy 21. He's writing to his spiritual godson, Timothy who's leading the church at Ephesus, who was worn out, who was exhausted. And he says, you, then my child be strengthened by the grace that Christ Jesus. He will strengthen you. He will fill your cup. He will lift you up. He will hold you close. The prophet Isaiah writes this in Isaiah 40. He says in verse 2031 have you not known? Have you not heard that the Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth that he does not faint or grow weary? His understanding is unsearchable that he gives power to the faint and to him who has no might. He what he increases strength says even youths, faint and be weary. Even young men shall fall exhausted. I still wanna count myself as young men. Probably not but I'm gonna include myself there. All of us. Ok? Says, even young men get tired, says verse 31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up on wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary that they shall walk and not faint. I wonder how many in the room need some renewed strength today, right? God's strength is eternal but it's daily and it needs to be renewed just like our mind. Same prophet. Next chapter chapter 41 verse 10 says, fear not for I am with you do be not dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Colossians 1 1011 says, so walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him bearing fruit in every good work increasing in the knowledge of God. Why being strengthened with all power? The same power that conquered the grave, the same power that created the world can strengthen you according to His glorious might. Why for all endurance and patience with joy? He doesn't strengthen you so that you can avoid the valley of the shadow of death. He strengthens you so you can walk through it and you can walk through it with joy. Joy is not something you get at the end of the journey, but that's something you choose in the middle of it. And then in Romans 1625 says now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, the power of the gospel is available to you. And to me one more verse here, Ephesians 316 that according to the riches of his glory, that he may grant you to be strengthened with his power through his spirit, in your inner being. You got a spotter that created the world and defeated death. You would be wise to lean into that strength. Imagine the difference between just trying to drive a car or just pushing a car. Some of you are trying to push your car up a hill and Jesus says I gave you the engine, I gave you the vehicle. I'm inviting you to come in, just get in the car. You, you don't even have to drive, just get in, go for the ride like I'm gonna give you the strength. Yeah, you're gonna have some stuff to do, but it's a whole lot different doing it in the power of God than the power of self. I want to share a phrase that's been helpful to me comes from Pastor Craig Rochelle and if it's helping me, maybe it'll help you that we've got to stop trying. Start training, stop looking like you're just trying, right. I'm trying to quit. I'm trying to grow in my faith. I'm trying to do this. You're not trying, you're training, see training implies failure. Training implies that failure is going to be part of the process. Training involves that you got a bigger goal in mind. It implies adversity and resistance. How do you get stronger? It's pushing against resistance. We need to stop praying that we don't have resistance and start praying for the strength to overcome it. People that run marathons, I don't fully understand. Right. But what I know is that a person doesn't just say, oh, I'm gonna run a marathon and the next day run a marathon, they have to train for it, put in the time, put in the work, right? And build their way up. You know what's harder than a marathon marriage, financial stability, mental capacity, physical health, you know what I'm saying? Like we just say, oh, I want a good marriage. Ok. Well, here it is, gun goes off. You're like, wait, I gotta run 26 miles. What? It's difficult but you don't, you don't try to run a marathon. You're trained to run a marathon, right? And when you train and you fail and you fall, you recognize that. Oh, that's part of the process is a little step in a little step and a little step. But what if you were stronger physically by the end of this year? What if you were stronger mentally? What about emotionally, financially, relationally like church? I'm excited for this year, but we got into this building. It's the starting line, not the finish line. But if we're gonna do what God's called us to do, if we're gonna be who God's called us to be, we gotta get stronger. How let me give you five ways we're gonna work through this year, five ways. We get stronger this year. Number one, we gotta get stronger in our character. We gotta get stronger in our character. It's in our faith in our love and our integrity. Some people out there searching for Mr or Mrs Wright. Meanwhile, they're just living as Mr and Mrs Bron. Are you gonna be the person that you're attracted to will be attracted to? You know what I mean? Like if your spouse is gonna change, your kids are gonna change, let's, let's start by the whole length of the mirror. Are you gonna change? Right? Your family, your organization, your team is only gonna grow as far as you grow. And so we got to get stronger in our character. And I love that in that Joshua passage and in so many other passages that he attaches not just character and being strong, but then secondly, our courage, we gotta get stronger in our boldness and in our courage. If you get that super fast car, do you really get the most out of it by leaving it in the driveway? You know what I'm saying? Like if you're that sports team and you're working out all the time, but you never get in the game, you're like what's the point like spiritually speaking? Right? You gotta take your faith for a spin, y'all, you gotta get in the game. We're not working out simply to work out. We're working out because we're in a spiritual battle. And I've been told through scripture that the gates of Hell will not prevail against us. And that means that the Kingdom's playing offense. I wanna be a church that's on offense this year. Right? Then we're going out to bring light in the darkness. Darkness cannot overcome it. I'm not afraid of what's to come. I'm not afraid of the election coming up. I'm not afraid of, of where the world's gonna be. It's scary. But I believe in a God that spoke everything out of nothing that defeated death itself that I read the end of the book and he wins. So let's not walk with timidity and fear, but empower and love and self control that as we grow stronger in our character, we'll then grow stronger in our courage and in our boldness. And the third thing that leads us then to a stronger community because you are not called to go through this life alone that we need each other, that we need you in this church and that you need us in this church that collectively we're not trying to build a crowd, but God's building an army. We want Kingdom outposts in every workspace, every community, meeting, every sports team, every school where we see the light of the gospel, transforming life after life after life and marriages are healed and relationships are restored and forgiveness is offered and purpose and peace have been found that we can be changed by that. And we grow collectively together that when one person is down, not just one, but 10 people surround that person and lift them up and we're praying for and we're lifting up and we're stirring one another on why? Because we need each other and we need the Gospel because we are plan A and there is no plan B. And for whatever reason, God placed you in this community in this time zone with your family, with your extended family. Yes. The one that you're thinking are they Yeah, God has you there for a reason and that person for a reason because He has called you to make a difference that when we get stronger in our character, that we get stronger in our courage, we get stronger in our community. The fourth thing that we can grow in is that we're gonna grow stronger in our competency. And what I mean here is you're gifting, what gifts has God given you? What strength is our God already given you? How can we strengthen our strength, right? How can we go further and use our personality, our mindset, our gifts, maybe financially, physically, emotionally counseling, teaching, serving evangelistically like if we can grow in our competency that we can be the best in every area. Why? Because everything you say and do is an act of worship. What would it look like if you got better in teaching this year? If you got better at business this year, if you got better physically, this year, if you got stronger, why? Because you got the power of God in your soul. And then the last thing then is that if you grow incompetency, we're praying that God will grow in our capacity because we're gonna reach more, do more than we've ever done so before. But we will not do so in our strength, we will do so in His. I don't know what battles are coming your way and I don't know what battles are coming this way. But I'm just gonna put my faith in the one who calls himself the way, the one who says be strong and courageous. I am with you. And he took this ragtag group of disciples and fishermen who had no political power, no building structures. No, no, nothing of seemingly worldly value and turned the world upside down. Why? Because they were strong and courageous. Let's be that kind of church this year. Will you pray with me dear heavenly Father. We pray for strength today and not in our own strength, but rather your strength, God, the same strength that created the world, the same strength that conquered death that now you offer into our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit. God, I pray for stronger relationships and stronger convictions and courage and marriages. God, strengthen our body, strengthen our finances, strengthen our lives, strengthen our witness. God. I don't know what battles are coming our way. But God, we humbly place our trust and our faith in you to strengthen us for, to be ready for anything that comes our way. May we be the light? May we reach more people than ever before this year? May we see revival break out in this community and beyond? And it starts here in this room with those watching for those praying and may you use and work in our lives and may we grow stronger for you so we can give glory and reach more people for your kingdom. God, we love you. It's in your senses and we pray. Amen.