2 Timothy chapter two, verse one says,
you therefore my son be strong in the grace
that is in Christ Jesus.
What you have heard from me in the presence
of many witnesses commit to faithful men
who will be able to teach others also.
Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
No one serving as a soldier gets entangled
in the concerns of civilian life.
He seeks to please the commanding officer.
Also if anyone competes as an athlete,
he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.
The hardworking farmer ought to be the first
to get a share of the crops.
Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you
understanding in everything.
This is God's word.
Will you join me in prayer.
Father, I thank you for this day
and for the opportunity that we have this morning
to receive from your word.
We pray that your Holy Spirit would speak to us
according to your will and your good purposes
and that we would walk in the strength
that we receive from you and you alone.
We ask this in Jesus name, amen.
There is one thing which gives radiance to everything.
It is the idea of something around the corner.
There is one thing which gives radiance to everything.
It's the idea of something around the corner.
Those are words from the English writer
and philosopher G.K. Chesterton
and I think they're fitting for us
as we welcome the year 2024.
Personally, I am eager and excited to see
what the Lord has in store for his people this year.
Maybe the words from the Psalm Amazing Grace ring true.
Through many dangerous toils and snares,
I have already come.
Twas grace that brought me safe thus far
and grace will lead me home.
For us here at Village, we are just eight months removed
from stepping forward into a fresh mission in vision
and a name to mark the change.
Only eight months have passed.
Since that time, some of you have joined us
here in our fellowship worshiping with us on a weekly basis.
Some of you have become a part of what we're doing
and are now an integral part of the family
and fellowship that we call here.
We welcome you and we're so glad that our family grows.
You are part of what God is doing here
and even though you're not here,
you are part of what God is doing here
and even more so what he is preparing to do here
through us and the work of ministry here
at 4458 Street and the people who go out from here.
2024 begins a new stage in the life of our fellowship,
I believe.
And it will not be without its own difficulties
and struggles, its dangers, toils and snares,
but we are each invited to be strong in the grace
of the Lord Jesus, for his grace has brought us thus far
and his grace will lead us on.
In the Book of Second Timothy,
it is the second letter between the Apostle Paul
and Timothy.
And Timothy is someone that Paul has invested his time
and his teaching and his life into
and is like a son in the faith to him.
He is a fellow worker in the Gospel
and he was sent by Paul to go aid the church
in the city of Ephesus.
Now the church in Ephesus is encountering all kinds
of hardships like the reality of doing ministry
and living life in a city that's renowned for idol worship.
Add to that the many different teachings
and myths that seep in.
The fledgling church is also infiltrated by teachers
that one must keep the traditions of Judaism,
the dietary and ceremonial laws,
in order that they would be saved.
And so Paul in his letters to Timothy
puts a great deal of emphasis on the need
for sound teaching and for sound and qualified leaders
to do the teaching.
And he encourages Timothy to lead by example
and to live the exemplary Christian life
in view of others who are to then imitate his life and faith
as Timothy has imitated the life and faith of Paul.
And that work is not easy, the opposition was real.
But the Gospel is also real and the good news,
it is worth giving all for.
And you see that even in verses eight
of that same chapter that we read,
shortly after the next verse where we stopped,
verse eight of that same chapter says,
"'Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead
"'and descended from David according to my Gospel,
"'for which I suffer to the point
"'of being bound like a criminal,
"'but the word of God is not bound.
"'This is why I endure all things for the elect,
"'so that they also may obtain salvation,'
which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.
"'This saying is trustworthy,
"'for if we died with him, we will also live with him.
"'If we endure, we will also reign with him.
"'If we deny him, he will also deny us.
"'If we are faithless, he remains faithful,
"'for he cannot deny himself.'"
What promise, what hope,
what grace and strength for us today
to remember, Paul tells Timothy that in order to fight
the good fight and to stay true in the face of great hardship,
you will need to remember something.
You will need to remember something.
You'll need to remember Jesus.
You'll need to remember his death and his resurrection.
You will need to remember that he is the Messiah
who has brought with him all the promises
of the Old Testament.
You'll need to remember that the Gospel is unstoppable.
The word of God cannot be bound.
My body may find chains on it someday,
but no chain will ever restrain the word of God.
You'll need to remember that enduring means
doing the hard work for the sake of those
who have yet to believe, but will one day believe
that they may have salvation.
Remember those things.
Remember.
My chains, my hardship, my sacrifice is for them.
And so just before this, Paul instructs young Timothy,
verse three, share in suffering
as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
What does Paul say to Timothy?
He says, take your share of hardship.
Take your share of hardship.
Take your share of suffering.
Take it as is fitting for any soldier,
any good soldier.
Paul loves the military metaphors.
There's all sorts of cross references we could go to
where Paul draws on the imagery of the military
but you might think, oh, I shouldn't have a share
in hardship.
I shouldn't have a share in suffering.
I like to just watch.
I'm just gonna hang out and watch a little bit.
Could you imagine a soldier saying that?
Or even more so, could you imagine a commanding officer
buying it?
No. Take your share of hardship.
Take yours.
Hardship is a feature, not a bug,
of the Christian witness.
A feature, not a bug.
Unless you think that hardship or suffering is only
a thing for your missionaries in a third world country.
I'll tell you that I know pastors,
I know the missionaries in the third world country.
I'll tell you that I know pastors, I know lay leaders,
I know just regular old church folk.
I'm sure Pastor Mike could tell stories too.
Who faithfully endure the hardship of the gossiping,
complaining, all talk, no work, church goer.
And they do it with the grace of Christ strengthening them.
In fact, one of the greatest hardships you may face
in the faith is learning to be one of a new community
with other Christians.
What does it mean to be a part of this new kind of people?
That's hard work.
I don't know if you've experienced it.
Some of you have been at this church for a very long time.
I'm sure you've gone through a lot of hardship
just trying to figure out what does it mean
to be the new people of God?
What does it mean to be the new community?
But Paul says, take your share of suffering.
Take your share of suffering like a good soldier of Christ.
Share in the work, share in the cost,
share in the suffering, share in the reward.
Verse four is also interesting.
After saying to endure it, he says,
no one serving as a soldier gets entangled
in the concerns of civilian life.
He seeks to please the commanding officer.
Now, most of us only know the soldiering life
from movies or from stories that we've heard.
Some of you, I know, have served in the military
and you know it firsthand, but most of us,
we watch a movie or we hear a story.
So I did what anyone would do nowadays,
and I went to chat GPT, the AI,
and I said, hey, chat GPT,
write me a poem about the soldiering life.
Here's what the AI gave me, all right?
In the clasp of duty, their youth is spent
on unknown paths with resolve unbent.
And the quiet whispers of the night,
they dream of home in the pale moonlight.
Their uniforms, badges of honor and pain
in the dance of war they don't refrain
through the echoes of gunfire, loud and clear,
they face each challenge despite the fear.
In camaraderie, they find their strength.
For one another, they go to any length.
In the trenches, amidst the mud and the rain,
they share their hopes, their loss, their gain.
Under the vast unending sky, they ponder deeply
with a thoughtful sigh about the world,
so complex and vast, and moments fleeting
that quickly passed.
In their eyes, a story untold of bravery,
young and bold, with every step on foreign soil,
they remind us of loyalty's unending toil.
With honor they serve, with courage they stand,
guardians of peace in every land.
In the annals of time, their tales will survive,
eternal and proud of the soldiering life.
Not too bad for a computer, huh?
Make that up.
But do you know what it is to live
the soldiering life of faith?
All those themes stir up all kinds of things
in your heart.
The camaraderie, the gains, the losses,
the toils, the courage, the tales.
Do you know what it is to live
the soldiering life of faith?
Paul says that soldiers don't get entangled,
and this was a term that basically carried with it
the idea of a civilian's cloak, the outer robe,
and a sword getting all wrapped up.
Don't let your sword get wrapped up in civilian clothes.
A good soldier doesn't allow ordinary things of life
to become the main thing.
A good soldier does not allow ordinary things of life
to become the main thing.
Why do I work?
I work to the glory of God and for the work of the kingdom.
Why do I spend time investing and pouring
and loving my boys?
To the glory of God and for the work of the kingdom.
It is not my greatest joy or hope
that they would make a lot of money
and have a nice house and a lovely wife and two kids
and go on two weeks long vacations every year
in their mobile home.
That's not my greatest joy or hope.
My greatest joy or hope is that God would be maximally glorified
in their lives and that they would give themselves
to the work of the kingdom of God.
That's my hope. That's my joy.
Poverty or riches? Nah.
Are there things to take care of? Yes.
But if my calendar looks like a lot of civilian affairs
sprinkled with the occasional kingdom seeking,
then I need to reevaluate.
Paul's schedule was cleared when they slapped the change
on his hands and threw him into prison.
Paul had all the time in the world suddenly.
And you know what he did?
Sing songs of praise, wrote books of the Bible,
made sure to connect with those that he had left
in different places, to make sure as he yearned
and ached to be with them and to see the advancement
of the gospel or to help the fledgling church over here
that was dying or on the edge or the word that he heard
about the church over here that false teachers
had infiltrated in his heart broke and ached
as he's in prison.
Friends, we are called to a life that is preoccupied
with gospel concerns.
We are called to a life preoccupied with gospel
concerns to be single-minded.
Why? Because Christ has a claim on his people.
Christ has a claim on his people.
Because Christ has purchased his people for himself
and his people will be preoccupied with him
and his mission.
You don't get the crown unless you compete
according to the rules.
It's the hardworking farmer that has the right
which the indolent person forfeits.
This is Paul's instruction to Timothy,
be a good soldier.
Don't get tangled up.
And this is our encouragement this morning.
Is the Christian life a checkout counter?
Or is it an altar?
Is it a checkout counter where I go to get what I want?
Where I pay and then I need the goods?
Or is it an altar where I come to lay everything
that I am down on?
Is it an altar like Romans 12 says that in view
of God's mercy we offer our entire self,
our whole bodies of living sacrifices,
holy and pleasing to God?
Or is it a place that I go, get my goods?
Is the church an audience or an army?
Is it an audience here to spectate?
Ah, worship was okay.
I didn't really like the songs that they chose.
That pastor bugs me.
Why does he yell all the time?
Is it an audience or is it an army?
Am I sitting with an army or an audience of spectators
who want to be thrilled, entertained?
Throw that next one up, Jerry.
Are we a cruise ship or a battleship?
On a cruise ship, a select staff of people
serve the passengers, entertain them,
put together shows.
You guys want to do line dancing today?
Let's do line dancing, keep you happy.
Let's do the limbo now.
Right?
Stock the bars, bring you towels, room service.
You file a complaint, they want to come
and do their best to make sure that you're satisfied
with everything, mister or missus,
by creating a fantasy world with no problems
where everyone exists for the passengers' comfort.
Or are we on a battleship where everyone has a job?
Everyone has a purpose that is vital to the mission,
the mission that has been received by higher ranks,
higher command outside of the ship.
Are we on a battleship where discipline is required?
Where we work for the good of the whole and for the mission?
Where the individual is subordinate to the group?
Is there a sick bay for the sick and injured on a battleship?
Yes.
But it's a purpose to get them restored
and back at their station ASAP.
We're on mission.
Is there learning and growing?
Yes.
But with the purpose of better accomplishing
the mission objectives.
Are we an audience or an army?
Is this a checkout counter or is this an altar?
Are we playing cruise ship or battleship?
I believe that 2024 is the year where we must make a shift
at a cultural level in our church from cruise ship mentality
to battleship mentality.
That's why we call it all hands on deck.
From audience to army, from checkout counter to altar,
on September 15th of 2024, we will be reintroducing ourselves
to the community and to the greater Sacramento area.
September 15th, 2024.
This will be a relaunch.
A relaunch.
We will be deploying a massive coordinated mailer social media
and boots on the ground campaign to reach people
in our neighborhood and in our city.
We are going to use that moment, September 15th,
as a catalyst for momentum and for growth.
We will be aiming to double, triple, even quadruple our reach
through these efforts.
We want to see people reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
When Jesus returns, when the skies part and the trumpet sounds
and he looks down at Village, I want him to catch us red hot
with passion doing the work of the kingdom.
And he goes, yeah, ready.
Come on.
Good job.
Red hot.
What does all this mean?
It means that you and I, we are the launch team.
We are the launch team.
You thought you were just here to attend
and slip out really quick, right?
You got signed up in the army now.
You are the launch team.
We are the launch team.
We are the people who have been given the opportunity
to make this something.
You might be asking, what is a launch team?
I signed up for it, I guess, but I don't know what it is.
I'm going to give you four words to contemplate as we think
about what we as a launch team might look like.
Number one, it's prepare.
Prepare.
We make preparations beforehand for what we will be at
and after the launch.
We begin to make preparations now.
Just like if you had a dinner party of 20 guests coming
to your house, you would make all kinds of preparations
to accommodate and serve them, wouldn't you?
You'd be running with a, like a chicken with your head cut off
trying to get that thing ready, right?
This includes addressing our building.
Addressing our building and how we look to our neighborhood.
Addressing things like how the bathrooms function.
Kids' classrooms, sanctuary, and so on.
We could go into all sorts of details.
If I keep going, every one of you will have something wrong with it.
We'll stop there.
But that's what preparation means is you get things ready beforehand.
How many of you guys, you know, men out there,
how many of you guys have ever got the honeydew
before the big dinner party, right?
The light bulb needs to be changed, this needs to be swept off,
this needs to happen?
Yeah, that too.
We make preparations.
We prepare beforehand so that we are who we want to be
when we get to the date.
And we are who we want to be after that date.
Number two is lead.
I don't know if you caught this yet, we call our servant,
we call our board members servant leaders
because leading is serving.
Leading is serving.
And we serve people that we haven't even met yet
by helping to build structures of care and service
and by everyone gladly participating in them
so that as people arrive, they can immediately join
a caring and serving community.
You know the last, you know the most terrible moment
to be thinking about how to be caring and serving and loving is?
Is the moment you need to be.
But if you think about it beforehand, if you make preparations
and you lead, not just think about it, but you lead with your life,
you lead with your actions and your choices and your decisions,
then we can be made ready to receive new folks
who can be cared for, who can be loved,
and who can be thought about and considered and taught
and raised up in disciples.
But that's not going to happen if we wait till they're here.
If you wait till they're here, they're gone before you get it together.
Make preparations and then you lead the charge individually,
each one of us.
We lead, I lead.
We make preparations.
We help to build the structures of care and service.
It is no trivial thing that we are launching small groups.
It is no trivial thing because those small groups will represent
the primary location of care for the folks who come into our congregation.
This is the biggest obstacle to any growth in any church
by all the people who know what they're talking about
is lack of growth in care to meet the need of the people who come in.
People hit the door when they don't feel cared for or they don't feel loved.
People hit the door when they feel like they can't get in.
They can show up and fill the pews, get marked down as attendance,
but they can't get in to the community.
We remove all that friction when we build structures of care
like small groups and we have a clear way, come on in,
and we're excited about it, and we're all there.
We're all there.
It's not for them.
Remember, that's not cruise ship, cruise ship mentality.
They serve me.
No, battleship.
We serve the greater purpose and mission.
Lead, number three, act.
Prepare, lead, and act.
Give of your time.
Give of your talent.
Give of your treasure.
Give generously to see the gospel initiative advance.
The local church is the instrument that God has chosen to reveal the kingdom of God
to be a different kind of community on display.
That is the instrument.
Don't hear me wrong.
I love parachurch organizations.
I love outreach organizations.
I love food banks.
I love Diamond Arrow, our camp, but that is not the church.
The church is God's chosen instrument for reaching communities.
He planted us here.
It would be a travesty to support all of these other things without first giving
and contemplating how you might generously reach the folks who are in the pews next to you,
create places, spaces for care and love, and reach the community around you.
We act by giving generously of our time, our talent, and our treasure.
The local church, where people are known and loved and cared for,
where they can use their gifts and talents,
where they are accountable and submitted to godly leaders who faithfully teach the word,
this is the instrument God has chosen to reach the world.
And so we act.
We prepare.
We lead.
We act.
And finally, we nurture.
Genuinely love each other.
We've all had the easy conversation.
You know, I'm naturally, I would consider myself naturally an introvert.
And so I got my bag of tricks.
I got my five intros into a conversation.
And then when they run out, I'm like panicked.
What do I do?
What's next?
Pull out chat GPT.
No, that's naturally how I am.
But I know that that doesn't serve.
Relationships that doesn't serve knowing one another.
That doesn't serve loving one another.
It actually takes work to genuinely love each other.
Lots of churches claim to be loving churches, a lot of them.
And what that means is probably that they love a few people and they want to keep it pretty small
so they don't lose them in the crowd.
But people can tell when they come in the door.
And one of the greatest marks that a church can hear about a success is that they love each other.
About a success in mission is wow, that's a loving church.
The moment from the moment I arrived to the moment I left, I felt love for one another.
I felt like I was being drawn into it.
That church has gravity.
They're pulling me in.
I want to be a part of that.
And so we nurture, we nurture the love that we have for one another.
Nothing is more of a spectacle to this world than an odd group of people who for all intents and purposes
should not be together.
Look around the group, look around the room, a bunch of oddballs.
People you just select, right?
This is totally a randomized test, you can tell, right?
The Lord's doing something funny here.
A group of odd people who get together and love each other.
Some of y'all are old.
Some of you are young.
I'm somewhere in the middle.
This is a weird group.
This ain't a seniors ministry.
This isn't a kids ministry.
This is not a youth ministry.
It's a church.
And it's beautiful.
And we nurture our love relationship with one another because God has commanded it and it's so.
They will know you are my disciples by the love you have one for another.
Love considers the other before self.
Love gives the benefit of the doubt in a disagreement or argument.
Love covers over a multitude of sins.
Love thinks about what kind of chairs the people we are trying to reach want to sit in,
not the chairs that mean the most to us.
Love thinks about the people we are trying to reach and how do we love and prepare for them,
not just what we like or what's sentimental to us.
Love asks us to set aside all kinds of things for the sake of the mission, for the sake of the gospel.
That those who will have faith might hear the gospel and come to salvation.
This is why Paul said in 2 Timothy, I'm in chains and I'm happy.
I'm in chains and it's all good.
I do it all so that those who might have faith will hear the gospel and come and experience salvation.
We are the launch team and we have eight months, eight months, eight months since we had cast vision
and we marked it with a name change and now we have eight months to make Village ready
to swing wide the doors and see what God does.
Swing wide the doors.
So what is the ask?
What's the ask, John?
It's a big ask.
I know, I'm looking out here.
It's a big ask.
The first ask is join a home group.
Join a home group.
Go be known and go know some folks in a genuine way.
Join a home group.
Home groups are where we care for one another.
They are where you are cared for and where others will receive care from you and that's just as important.
Don't deprive others of the care that you have to offer.
They're a place where you will talk in a more casual dialogue about the message that's heard on Sunday morning
that everyone is hearing.
They're a place where neighbors and friends can easily be invited into.
Hey, my neighbor wants to come over.
Is that cool?
Yeah.
Home group, come on over.
It's not a church building.
Come on over.
Little or no friction and where meals can be shared with one another and we can live the acts to life together.
They will be the people who will check on you when you're out.
They will become the people who visit you when you're sick.
They will be the people who organize a meal train when tragedy strikes your family.
They will pray for you and with you.
Join a home group.
And number two, join a service team.
Service teams are where you take a small piece of ownership in the mission, where you become a partner in the mission.
It's where you exchange the checkout counter mentality for the altar.
It's a place where you serve this church, these people, these needs.
I've heard it.
I've heard it before.
Oh, I'm really busy.
With the 13000 people I meet with over here.
Look around.
These people, these needs.
They need to be cared for.
This is the instrument God has chosen to reach the world.
The service team is where we buy in to the mission and we serve a little bit.
This might mean joining a team of folks who disciple and teach the next generation of believers in our kids team.
They're always looking for folks.
Any church you've ever been to is always looking for folks to volunteer to train the next generation of disciples.
And it is a noble task that is necessary.
Right now, as we speak in here, we're sitting in here, our kids are being trained by the next generation being trained to be disciples of Jesus Christ.
In his word right now.
And that team can always use folks.
It might be our worship team who faithfully lead us in songs with rich doctrine and praise of our God.
It might be our guest services team who aim to make everyone feel welcome and who help new folks navigate life at Village.
It might be joining a prayer team or committing to pray for the people and the work of the ministry.
Facilities, maintenance, men's, women's, youth take ownership.
Take ownership.
Battleship, not cruise ship.
As a part of this, one of the ways one of the ways that you you form culture as as any organization, it's in the way that you celebrate things.
You communicate.
It's in the way that you embody.
And it's in what you tolerate.
What you tolerate, what you celebrate, what you communicate, what you emulate.
That's how you set culture in any organization.
And one of the ways that we want to celebrate where we're heading and what the Lord is doing is we're launching what's called a team night.
We have the graphic for that team night.
It will be the fourth Saturday of each month from four p.m. to six p.m.
What is team night for?
It's for anyone who's on a service team, anyone who's bought in, anyone who's an owner, anyone who's bought in can come to team night.
It's for them and it's for their family, their whole family, kids and all.
We celebrate a team night.
We're going to celebrate the God wins from that past month.
We're going to look at what God is doing.
We're going to talk about how he's moving and we'll celebrate those things.
We will also be re-energized around mission and vision through some talks and some opportunities to communicate about leadership and where we're heading.
We will have fun together by eating good food and providing you unique fun experiences for our kids.
And we'll also have a time.
Any of you guys, any office fans out there, you watch the show Office?
Remember the, was it called the Dundee's?
We have the Dundee's for Village, haven't figured out a name yet.
But we're going to honor the standout servants, those who have given of their time through our mutual voting.
We're going to honor the servants and give them a traveling trophy that comes back each month.
And so maybe that trophy could sit on your mantle for a month.
Our service teams.
Join a home group.
Join a service team.
Come out to team nights where we will continue to put gas in the tank to move this thing forward over the next eight months.
Next week, we have a very special announcement in regard to our ministry partners in Guatemala, Village of Hope.
Don't miss next week.
That's all you get.
The week after that, we're going to be sharing about our next step in our connection with Alternatives Pregnancy Center.
Alternatives Pregnancy Center here in Sacramento.
So you don't want to miss that either.
I'm going to end with this.
I hope you guys can hear the heart behind what I'm saying.
I hope it doesn't come off too harsh, too heavy.
But I hope that you can see that the field of opportunity before us is great.
Maybe you don't know this, but I went into this year with this knowledge.
This year marks the 110th anniversary of the gospel ministry through this congregation.
110 faithfully years of preaching Jesus.
It also marks the 70th anniversary of the dedication of the sanctuary.
70 years ago, the sanctuary was dedicated for gospel ministry at 4,458th Street.
And so we stand on the shoulders of men and women who have faithfully pledged their lives, their time, and their riches to see the kingdom come in Sacramento.
And my friends, the ball, like I said, we're over in the corner waving.
We're open. We're open. And the ball gets passed to us.
Basketball. Yeah. Sorry. Inside joke.
The ball's passed to us.
Time to take a shot. Time to take a shot.
I've got faith. You got faith. He's got strength. He'll give it.
Let's go. Let's take the shot.
It's time to risk it all for God's glory.
There's an author by the name of Beth Moore. She posted this at the very beginning of the new year.
Caught my attention and I'll read it to you.
Whatever the Lord's will for each of us in 2024, it will exceed our natural strength, skills, talents, levels of experience,
areas of expertise, intellectual acumen, and worldly wisdom.
It will exceed it.
But the beautiful way Jesus set this faith thing up is that we can't serve Jesus without Jesus.
And we need more Jesus this year.
And so do our neighbors and so do our friends.
And if we can believe it and we can begin to act, if we can prepare, we can act.
Right? We can begin to move toward that, leading with our own self and nourishing our love for one another than we.
We just might see something extraordinary in our time.
We just might see something to talk about.
We ought not be wishful people.
Just challenge us that we would be faithful people.