Pastor Tony Ashmore recasts the vision of LifeGate Church in this Sunday morning celebration.Vision Sunday
Pastor Tony Ashmore
Sunday, May 06, 2012
www.mylifegatechurch.com
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Sermon Notes:
Philippians 1:9-10 I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return.
“Christ loves us and by his blood he set us free from our sins. He lets us rule as kings and serve God his Father as priests. To him be glory and power forever and ever! Amen.” Revelation 1:5b-6
Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
A Church that loves to Worship and therefore loves to Experience and Connect.
A Church that loves the Word and therefore loves to GROW and Serve.
Benefits and Obstacles to Loving the Word:
• Immediately challenged. How many times does the Holy Spirit convict us and challenge us during a celebration and we respond yet there is no follow through because we talk ourselves out of the ‘supernatural’ aspect of what happened? (Matthew 13:19)
• The Word reveals our innermost desires and thoughts and we either don’t like that level of honesty with ourselves, or we do like what is there and don’t want the ‘lies we have chosen to believe’ to be challenged. (Hebrews 4:12) If we continue in deception, we think we are “not responsible” for our choices. To deny responsibility is to deny whose image we are made in. We develop a habit of avoiding responsibility and we become “unable to respond” (Response-ability). Our hearts become hardened to His leading and, even though He is still leading, we can’t hear and respond, sinking deeper into our quicksand of wrong choices. (1 Timothy 4:2)
• We are intimidated by the Word and our lack of understanding. 2 extremes result:
- We use it as an excuse and choose to remain ignorant or rely solely upon our experiences (1 John 5:8) developing our own private interpretation (2 Peter 1:20 NKJV, HCSB)
- We begin a quest for ‘knowledge’ and become puffed up and unteachable because we ‘know’. (1 Corinthians 8:1)
• Psalm 111:10 “Fear of the LORD is the foundation of true wisdom. All who obey his commandments will grow in wisdom. Praise him forever!” Those who love to worship and love His Word will not only stand, but will gain understanding and application of the things learned.
• John 16:13 “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.” the presence of God’s Spirit with us and His knowledge and wisdom available to us.
• Philippians 1:6” And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” We are His workmanship—in fact, His masterpiece (Ephesians 2:10).
• John 4:23 “But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way.” Worship draws His attention and creates a place for His presence.
So What:
1. Experience: coming together to experience His presence in the local church. Matthew 18:19-20
2. Connect:Hearing the Word and experiencing His presence in worship are the start, but ‘doing life together’ with other believers is how it is fleshed out. Romans 12:5
3. GROW: In an atmosphere of Experience and Connect, we can seek knowledge without becoming ‘puffed up’. We build on the right foundation, focused on WRM, and become stronger in every area, beginning with leading ourselves and progressing to the place where the Lord is able to entrust His Heavenly vision to our leadership. Philippians 1:9-10
4. Serve: Serving is what we were created to do. It is where we find fulfillment. It is our destiny in God. Galatians 5:13
Which of these four do you need to add to your life today?
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