Highlands Fellowship Vision Sunday Transcript
Well, happy new year everybody and welcome to Highlands Fellowship. I'm so glad that you're here today. I hope that you've had a great time celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And that you and your family didn't just survive the holidays, but that you truly were blessed by the time and the connection that you had with one another. And as we step into a brand new year, my hope for you is that you're ready for a fresh start. That you're feeling renewed and you want that renewed focus and maybe you're ready for more spiritual discipline than you had last year. So whether you're joining us at one of our locations, watching online, or tuning in on TV, I want you to know this, and that is that I love you. And I want you to know that I am extremely grateful and genuinely grateful that we get to spend these times together and share in these moments. And this church family really means more to me than I could possibly put into words. And it truly is what we often say around here, and that is that Highlands is home. And so, welcome home today. And if you happen to be new with us or maybe you're not plugged in in the way that you know you need to be, I would like to invite you to a short 45 minute class that we call welcome to Highlands. That is a great next step to get engaged by getting to know a few people here at the church by getting to know who we are and what we're about at Highlands Fellowship. And that's going to take place right after this service at your location.
And guys, today really is a special day because we're kicking off this new year with Vision Sunday. And this is one of those moments where we just pause and we zoom out a little bit and we ask, "Where is God leading us? And how do we move forward together?" Because here's the reality. For a lot of people, church can feel a lot like a routine. You come to church and you go home. You come to church, you go home. You know where you sit. You know when to stand and you know when to sit down. You know exactly how long each sermon is usually going to last. But often what we do is we miss the why, the heart and the value and the direction behind what we do. So today what I want to do is I want to pull back the curtain a little bit and I want to remove some of the blinders and help us all to see a little bit more clearly what God has placed in front of us as a church, not just where we're going, but why it matters. Why it matters and how every single one of us fits into it. And my prayer is that by the end of today, we're not just informed, but we're actually aligned, ready to step into this new year together, united in purpose, and trusting God for what's ahead.
I also believe what the Bible says when it comes to vision, I believe it to be very true. Proverbs chapter 29 and the first part of verse 18 it says where there's no vision people perish. And then in Habakkuk chapter 2 verse two, scripture says, "Then the Lord replied, write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it." Like we need vision and we are the herald. We're the ones that run with the vision that God has given to us, but we need it to be clear. So I'm going to share with you the mission of our church and then I'm going to share with you the vision, or you could say how we're going to fulfill the mission that God has given us. And then I'm going to share with you how important it is that you are engaged with the mission and vision of the church.
And so the mission of Highlands Fellowship is to help people experience life with Jesus. So actually let's all say this out loud together. So no matter what campus or venue you happen to find yourself at, I want everybody to say this out loud together. So the mission of Highlands Fellowship is to help people experience life with Jesus. And this is a phrase that you've heard quite a bit if you've been at Highlands for any length of time. It's also a phrase that we live by. Like we truly desire to help people experience life with Jesus. The issue is that's a pretty broad statement, isn't it? I mean, it's pretty broad. Like, how do we narrow that statement down to where we can wrap our minds around it and to where we can have just a few things that we focus on over the next year or two to where we can see the progress, we see the fruit, we know what the wins are, and we can actually celebrate those wins together. How do we get focused? Well, that's where our vision comes in. So, the mission is to help people experience life with Jesus. Like, that's where we're going. But how are we going to get there? That's the vision. And it's going to take us to where we desire to go.
Now, I don't know about you, but I like things to be simple. I don't want things to be complicated. I don't want something that sounds clever, but I can't really understand it. I want to be able to remember it. I want to be able to share it. I want to be able to have it motivate me to live beyond myself. And that's really what I need from a vision. And it's probably what you need, too. So, my prayer today is that you would hear the vision that I believe is what God desires for us to do as a church and that we will do everything that we can to live a life that God has called us to live by fulfilling the vision that he has for us, because it comes directly from God's word. So, here's the vision for Highlands Fellowship. It's that we as followers of Jesus would do what he teaches us to do in scripture and truly focus our efforts to make disciples, love our communities, and change the world. So, let's all say this together. So, at Highlands Fellowship, we are going to make disciples, love our communities, and change the world.
So, here's something that I want you to understand because it's very very important. We're not about making a name for ourselves. We're not about building denominations or just building buildings. What we're about, our mission is to help people experience life with Jesus. And we're going to do that while we make disciples, love our communities, and change the world. So, let's unpack this just a little bit. We'll start with the make disciples portion. So this is what Jesus teaches us to do in the great commission in Matthew 28:19-20. It says, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age." This has to be part of what we do.
And I think a couple of criticisms of the church as a whole would be something like this. One, the church does a good job of reaching out to people, but after they accept Christ, doesn't do a very good job about helping them grow deeper in their relationship with the Lord or growing deeper in their faith. Or there's another side of that, that the church doesn't do a very good job of reaching out, but just grows deeper, but becomes more inward focused. But we have to consider both of these things and realize that we are called to reach out to others who don't know Christ yet. And we're called to grow deeper in our faith. It's not one or the other. It's both of these things. So the method that we're going to be using to make disciples, we're going to continue to focus on small groups where you grow spiritually and you're cared for. So growth and care are going to be our focuses within the small groups. And our plan is to constantly be looking for small group leaders by investing in them through training, providing small group resources and materials to our leaders. We'll supplement small groups by having a spiritual formation course twice a year. And we're actually going to be having a spiritual formation course starting the week of January the 11th and we'll go for three weeks. And we're going to be going through Psalm 23. And we're calling it Walking with Jesus. And I hope that you'll make it a point to come because I believe that it'll speak to your heart in a great way. And then we're going to be launching our small groups the week of February the 15th. And this past year, what we've done is we've been working on developing a rhythm for small groups because I really believe that we were designed by God to live in community with other believers. So, we're going to keep building on the foundation that we have and we're going to grow together. We're going to care for each other in small groups. And if you desire to be in a small group or you think that you might want to lead one or to host a small group, I want you to write that down on the card that you received when you came in today or check out our welcome center as you leave and let them know that you desire to grow and to be cared for and to connect with people and other folks that are believers in small group.
The second part of the vision is that we're going to love our communities. We're going to love our communities. And I believe that God has strategically placed each and every one of you in the community that you live in for this specific time in history to fulfill the purpose that he has created you for. And I talked to so many people who are having a hard time trying to figure out what God has called them to do, wondering if they're actually in the right place. And here's what I would say to that. Are you being obedient to what God has called you to do today? Are you walking in relationship with him? Are you looking for ways to care for people? Are you sharing your faith with the people that you're around? Are you connecting with other believers? Are you worshiping God both privately and corporately? Listen, you can be obedient to Christ wherever you are. So, start by doing what God has called you to do in his word to do today. Start doing it today. Do what he teaches. And I believe a big part of being obedient to him is by loving our communities in tangible, practical ways. Matthew 5:16 says this: "In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven." We love our communities so that God will be glorified. So when we work in the food pantry or we fill up backpacks with food and take them to different schools so that kids can eat while they're at home, we do that to bring glory to God. When we wrap around the families who are fostering children or who have adopted children, we're doing that to bring glory to God. When we care for our first responders, those who care for us so very well, we do that to bring glory to God. We desire to truly love our communities. We need to constantly be thinking of ways to show the love of Jesus in the community that God has placed us in.
And then the third part of our vision is this. We're going to change the world. Like with the power of God at work within his church, we are going to change the world. Acts chapter 1 verse 8 says this: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth." And we've already talked a little bit about being witnesses in our Jerusalem and our Judea and Samaria. But I want to talk for just a minute about the idea of being witnesses to the ends of the earth. And one of the things that I love so much about Highlands Fellowship is the heart that you have for reaching the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Like we're going to continue to change the world by investing in our global partners to do discipleship institutes around the world. We're going to provide opportunities for short-term mission trips where you can go and you can share the gospel and you can work with people who are different than you and you can see and you can taste and you can smell poverty in ways that you've never experienced before. We're planning to continue investing in pastors with our G3 conferences to teach and to train them in how to be more effective in their leadership. And we want to continue to expand our network so that we can find out where God is working around the world and we can meet him there.
So this vision is something that you're going to hear a lot about as we move forward. Like we're going to make disciples. We're going to love our communities and we're going to change the world. So be praying about how God would actually use you to see that this gets done. Let it become part of your language. Talk about it with your friends. Talk about it with your families. And so, let's give this everything we've got because I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is what we are called to do as followers of Jesus Christ.
So, if this is our mission, if our mission is to help people experience life with Jesus and our vision is to make disciples, love our communities, and change the world, then the question becomes this. What does it look like to live with clarity and focus when God gives us a calling? Because vision doesn't fall apart due to a lack of passion. It really doesn't. It usually falls apart because of distraction. That's why the story of Nehemiah in the Old Testament still matters so much to us today. Nehemiah was a man who was focused on God's call. Nehemiah was not a prophet or a priest. He wasn't a king or a military leader. He was a cup bearer, a trusted but a very ordinary role serving in the king's palace. And he was serving that role and he had heard that the walls of Jerusalem were broken down and the people were living in disgrace and it absolutely broke his heart. So scripture says this in Nehemiah 1:4, "When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven." Before Nehemiah ever picked up a tool, he bent his knees in prayer. Before he led his people, he sought God. His calling was born in prayer and fasting. The vision didn't even start with strategy. It started with surrender.
God placed a burden on Nehemiah's heart. And Nehemiah didn't ignore it. He didn't explain it away. And he didn't wait for somebody else to fix it. He let it change him. And it became so clear to Nehemiah what he should do. And I hope that it becomes clear to us. That's what we need. That's what we desire is clarity. And so here's what I want you to get from this. And that is that clarity comes from time with God. That's where our clarity comes from. And after a lot of prayer, God opened a door. And Nehemiah, he asked the king for permission to go to Jerusalem and to rebuild the walls. And against all odds, like nobody would have ever thought that the king would actually let him go, but the king said yes. And when Nehemiah arrived, he didn't rush to action. Nehemiah 2:12 says, "I set out during the night with a few others. I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem." So this tells us that he inspected the walls at night quietly and carefully. He assessed the damage before he cast the vision. And this matters for us. Like vision isn't about hype. It's about clarity. And clarity comes from time that's spent with God and really honest evaluation of our reality. The reality that God has us in right now and where we actually are. We have to be honest about this. Nehemiah knew what God had called him to do. And because of that, he knew what not to be distracted by.
Another thing the story reminds us to do is this. It's to stay focused in the face of opposition. We have to stay focused. And as soon as the rebuilding began, opposition showed up. Sanballat and Tobiah, they mocked the work. Others threatened violence. There were some that tried to intimidate Nehemiah. Others tried to lure him into distraction. In Nehemiah 6:3, when his enemies tried to pull him away from the work, Nehemiah gave one of the most focused responses in all of scripture. He says this: "I'm doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?" Now, that's focus. Nehemiah understood that every distraction is not an opportunity. Not every voice deserves your attention. Not every invitation is actually from God. He knew what God had called him to build, and he was focused. He was so focused that he refused to come down from it. And we have to have that type of focus.
Also, vision requires shared ownership. You know what's incredible is that Nehemiah didn't rebuild the wall on his own. Nehemiah chapter 3 shows family after family repairing the wall side by side. Everyone had a section. Everyone had a role. And that's how God's vision works. A God-sized vision always requires a unified people. Nehemiah 4:6 says this: "So he rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height. For the people worked with all their heart." The wall was rebuilt not because Nehemiah was strong, but because the people were committed to the vision that they had. That connects directly with our vision as a church. We don't make disciples alone. We don't love our communities alone and we certainly don't change the world alone. God calls his people to build this together. And as we build together, we do so with guarded hearts and with focused lives.
As this work continued, the threats increased. And Nehemiah 4:17 tells us that those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other. In other words, they built while they were staying spiritually alert. We have to stay alert. And that's a picture of living life following after Jesus. We build God's kingdom with compassion and truth, but we stay alert to discouragement. We stay alert to division. We stay alert to the distractions. Vision requires both passion and protection. Nehemiah constantly redirected the people back to what God had for them. And when fear arose, he reminded them in Nehemiah 4:14, "Remember the Lord who is great and awesome and fight for your families." Vision stays alive when God stays at the center of everything that we do.
And here's something that we have to remember. The work is completed by God's power. Despite all the opposition, the wall was completed in 52 days. And Nehemiah makes it very clear as to why. Nehemiah chapter 6, the second part of verse 16, it says this: "They realized that this work had been done with the help of our God." That's the goal. Not that people would say, "Look how strong Nehemiah is," but "look how faithful our God is." That's our prayer as a church. If we help people experience life with Jesus, if we make disciples, love our communities, and change the world, it will not be because of our talent and our effort, but it will be because God was with us and he was faithful. Nehemiah shows us that when God gives vision, he also gives focus. And when his people stay prayerful and stay united and stay committed, God does what only he can do.
And that's why I want to challenge our church to do a few things together here at the beginning of the year. First, I want to challenge each of you to join us in doing a short 4-day reading plan to get all of us into God's word. And this will be Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of this week. And then on Friday, I want to challenge us, each of you, to join me in fasting from food on Friday all day long as we pray and we seek God and we assess our spiritual lives. We want to be like Nehemiah. The vision he had, it came directly from God. But it didn't start with strategy. It started with surrender. And he fasted and he sought the Lord and then he assessed what needed to be done. And it was after that that the people came together and they worked to fulfill the mission together, the vision together with unity.
So let's talk about fasting for just a moment, okay? Because fasting is one of those spiritual disciplines that I think gets misunderstood a lot. And for some, the word immediately brings to mind images of extreme hunger or maybe even for you, religious obligation of some sort. For others, it feels a bit intimidating, maybe even unnecessary or potentially legalistic. But biblical fasting was never meant to be a punishment or a way to earn God's favor. Instead, fasting is a gift. It's a purposeful practice that helps us to align our hearts with God and it opens us up to his presence in a much deeper way. And so at its core, here's what fasting is. Fasting is the intentional abstaining from food or something else of value for a spiritual purpose. That's what fasting is. It's a way of saying with our bodies what we truly believe in our hearts. And that is that "God, you are more essential to me than anything else in this world." Jesus even assumes that his followers would fast when he says "when you fast," not "if you fast" in Matthew 6:16, but he expects this. He assumes that we're going to do it. And fasting doesn't make God love us more, but it does position us to experience him more fully.
So let's talk for just a moment about why we fast. We fast because it strips away the distractions and it reveals what truly has our attention in this life. And food is not just fuel for us. It's comfort. It becomes a routine. It becomes celebration. And sometimes we even use it for coping, don't we? And when we temporarily lay it down, we quickly discover how often we rely on it for more than just our nourishment. And that awareness, it drives us toward dependence upon God. And throughout scripture, fasting is connected to repentance, to humility, to guidance, and to spiritual breakthrough. The people of Israel fasted when they needed God's direction. David fasted in repentance. Esther called a fast when they were stepping into a moment that could change the future of her people. Jesus fasted before beginning his public ministry. In each case, fasting wasn't about manipulating God in any sort of way, but it was about positioning the hearts of God's people to hear him more clearly because fasting slows us down. It quiets the noise. It creates some space for us. And in a culture that teaches us to immediately satisfy every craving that we have, fasting teaches us to wait. It restrains our appetites so that our spirits, not our impulses, are leading us.
And there are a few things that fasting produces within us. One of the first things that it produces within us is humility. Like when our stomachs are empty, we're reminded how dependent we really are on our good God. And hunger has a way of exposing pride and the self-sufficiency that we have. We come face to face with our limitations when we're fasting. And scripture tells us that God gives grace to the humble. Fasting softens our hearts so that we can actually receive what it is that God wants to give to us. Fasting also produces clarity. When the body is quieted, the soul becomes more attentive to what the Lord has for us. Many people testify that during times of fasting, scripture actually feels more alive and prayer feels more focused and God's voice feels less crowded out. And it's not that God just suddenly starts speaking to us. It's that we finally slow down enough to actually listen to what God has to say.
Another fruit of fasting is self-control. And by saying no to a legitimate need for a short period of time, we strengthen our ability to say no to illegitimate desires. Fasting trains us to trust that we're not ruled by our cravings or emotions or even our habits. It reminds us that the Holy Spirit is truly at work within us, producing discipline and producing strength. And perhaps most importantly, fasting deepens our dependence upon God. Hunger becomes a physical reminder for us to pray. And every ache points us back to the truth that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God, as we see in Matthew 4:4. Fasting focuses our lives around the presence of Jesus Christ.
And there is power in fasting together as well. And while fasting is deeply personal, scripture also shows us the power of corporate fasting like we want to do together as a church. And when God's people fast together, something absolutely beautiful happens in the life of the church. Fasting together, it really cultivates unity. When we choose to deny ourselves in the same ways for the same purpose, we are reminded that we are part of one body. Our individual prayers become a shared cry. "God, we need you." Walls come down and our preferences, they fade away and the focus shifts from me to we. Corporate fasting also creates spiritual alignment. And as a church fasts together, hearts are turned to the same frequency and we begin praying similar prayers, sensing similar burdens and longing for the same movement of God. It fosters agreement. And it's not manufactured unity, guys. This is spirit-formed unity.
Fasting together builds empathy and compassion. And as we feel hunger, we become more aware of those who live with it daily. Our prayers expand beyond ourselves and beyond our church. And our hearts grow more tender toward those who are broken and needy. And finally, corporate fasting strengthens our expectations. You know, there's something powerful about knowing that you're not seeking God alone. When a church fasts together, faith rises. We believe that God will move, not because we fasted, but because we sought him together with authenticity and with trust. Fasting is not about willpower, but it's about desire. It's about wanting God more than we want comfort, more than we want our routine, more than we want control. It is an invitation to experience his closeness in a deeper way. When we fast, we aren't twisting God's arm, but we're opening our hands. And when a church does that together, God often meets us in ways that shape us and unify us and draw us closer to his heart. Fasting reminds us of who we are and also whose we are. And it leads us back to the simple but powerful truth that God is enough.
So I pray that you'll join us as we get in God's word together for 4 days and then fast together on Friday as we seek God and assess where we are spiritually. And I believe with everything in me that as we submit to God, he will be glorified. And that is our desire. Would you pray with me today? Lord, we thank you so much for how you teach us in your word about what we're called to do as your followers, the mission to help people experience life with Jesus, and the vision to make disciples, love our communities, and change the world. We believe this comes directly from scripture. And God, we've got to stay focused. We really do. And in order to stay focused, we've got to keep you at the center. And in order to fulfill the mission and the vision that you've called us to, we've got to be on task. And so God, as we come together over the course of this week, digging into your word and truly seeking you with everything in us, laying the essentials aside and understanding that you are more essential, you are more necessary than anything that we have on this earth, we lay that aside to spend time with you and to seek you. As we do that together, I believe with everything in my heart and in my soul that you will begin to do a work that we will not be able to explain other than to say it was God. He was faithful. He showed up again. He continued to work. He's the one who transforms lives. So God, my prayer today is that we would be faithful servants, faithful followers of your son, Jesus Christ, and we would fulfill the mission and vision that you've called us to as a church because we believe that we are to do what you've called us to do in scripture. Not just hearers of the word, but doers. And God, we're in this together. And I believe that as together we focus on you, it truly will change our hearts and it will spill over into the world around us. And you have strategically placed us where we are at this point in time to fulfill the mission and vision that you've called us to. So God, we accept it and we give our hearts and lives over to it and we want to follow you with everything we've got. God, we love you. We praise you. It's in the name of Jesus we pray. And everybody said, "Amen."