We start this new sermon series. If you get it,
you get it. If not, that's okay. But we move
now to the beginning of the book of Acts. And
one of the things, as I crafted this sermon series,
as the Holy Spirit was at work, one of the things
we're going to set every sermon up with is just
an oldie but a goodie hymn. And that is because
we find a lot of truth in our hymns. A lot of
our hymns are just wrought with Scripture and
with boldness. One of the things I love about
a good hymn, it's like a good cut of meat, right?
It's dense. There's a lot there. You feel very
full after you eat it. And we sang one of my
favorites. Why? Well, because I'm the pastor
here. And it's an understanding of be thou my
vision. What a beautiful hymn, right? But it's
a bold prayer. And I don't even know if you realize
what you were praying. We didn't just sing a
nice song, but we asked God to reshape. Our sight.
Think about that. We asked, we just, not begged,
but we sang to God, we pleaded to Him to give
us vision, to give us His vision, His wisdom,
and His presence at the center of our lives.
Think about that. For some of you, that might
make you uncomfortable because you love the way
you see the world, you love the wisdom that you
have, and you want to be the center of your life.
Guess what? This is the start of the church,
and we're already calling it out that it is not
about you or me. It is not about elders or deacons.
It is not about ministries or ministers. It is
about God's vision, God's wisdom, and his presence.
That apart from him, we can do nothing. Seven
of you got it, right? That's exactly where the
disciples found themselves in Acts chapter 1.
We all think that the beginning of Acts comes
with... The whoosh of the Holy Spirit and the
flames on the head and what we call the day of
Pentecost. It doesn't. Let's dive in. The first
eight verses of chapter one of the book of Acts.
And again, just mind you, I have never preached
through this in 20 years. I am so excited. And
Lisa, hopefully you're okay with Lighthouse starting
at noon. In the first book. O Theophilus, I have
dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach
until the day when he was taken up, after he
had given commands through the Holy Spirit to
the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented
himself alive to them after his suffering by
many proofs, remember that word, appearing to
them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom
of God. And while staying with them, he ordered
them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait
for the promise of the Father, which he said,
You heard from me. For John baptized with water,
but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit
not many days from now. So when they had come
together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this
time restore the kingdom of Israel? He said to
them, It is not for you to know the times or
seasons that the Lord has fixed by his own authority.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit
has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses
in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and the
ends of the earth. It's exactly where the disciples
found themselves, what we just talked about in
Acts in the beginning. Jesus had risen. He'd
spent 40 days. And I don't want to just go by
that, Jesus rising from the dead, because that's
the greatest thing the world's ever seen, right?
And it really has impacted all of us. It's why
we're here. And if you're not here knowing that,
let's have that conversation. I would love to
sit down and have a cup of coffee with you and
talk about that. But he spent 40 days teaching
them about the kingdom of God. Now fully established
with Christ's death and resurrection. But then,
gone. He ascends. The one who had been their
leader, had been their rabbi, had been their
teacher, their anchor, is now out of sight. It's
one of the reasons why it's so powerful when
John talks about, you believe because you have
seen. But blessed are those who believe when
they don't see, meaning it takes faith in the
word of testimony. But now they're standing at
the Mount of Olives, looking up, probably wondering,
what now? Who's leading us? Where do we even
go from here? And I think we all know that feeling.
I think we all know that feeling, you know, maybe
in times in life when we feel a little lost or,
you know, we've been following maybe a project
manager and then all of a sudden the project's
over and you're kind of, for some of you, you
want to go, how many of you just want to get
right back into the next project? Raise your
hand. Yikes. How many of you just want to take
a day or two off? Wow, some of you actually rose
your hand. Okay. But we find them, you know,
the disciples found themselves in a very weird
place and it wasn't just them. It was more than
just the 12. Well, it was 11. And then those
that have been added on. But when leaders move
on, when seasons change, when life feels uncertain,
it can feel like the ground is shifting. And
I don't know about you, but I'm feeling that
about Munster Church. I'm feeling that about
the mission and vision of 214 Ridge Road as I
pitch. Maybe that's the wrong word, as I walk
through some ideas for a new mission and vision
for our church with our admin council this week,
or in two weeks. I am so excited, but part of
me wants to throw up as well, because I put a
lot into this, because I love all of you, and
I want us to all be going the same direction.
And remember, it's not that the bounds of the
river are this big. They're wide, and we all
have a chance to play and dance in what God is
doing here at 214 Ridge Road. But just as the
ground is unstable for the disciples, change
is scary. I could ask you how many of you love
change and ask you to raise your hands, but you
probably won't. But a lot of us don't. We don't
like change. The now what, the what do we do
now can really plague us and it can keep us kind
of frozen. Maybe for some of us we scramble for
stability or security or direction. But Jesus
doesn't leave his church without guidance. He
gives them and us a vision. This is visionary.
This is what the church is going to be doing.
We have had for years kind of the mission and
vision of this church has kind of been combined
in loving God and loving people. Or loving God,
loving people. Whether you have comma in there
or not, that's kind of been the mission and the
vision. And it's a good one. It's very biblical.
But Jesus is giving them a specific vision. He's
telling them you will receive power when the
Holy Spirit comes to you. and you will be my
witnesses to the ends of the earth. That should
be so important to us that that is our jobs.
Notice, it doesn't mean you need to be a catechism
know -it -all. It doesn't mean you need to be
in that emotional testimony globbing all over
people. It doesn't mean that we do the drive
-by evangelism where we go in, beat people up
with the gospel, and flee. No, all we are called
to do, all the church is called to be, is witnesses
to Jesus, witnesses of your testimony, of my
testimony. What is a testimony? It's your life
before the cross and now your life after the
cross when you profess Jesus is Lord and Savior.
The Belgian Confession, Article 27, reminds us
why vision matters. The church is not something
we invented. pews, chairs, organ, guitar, it's
not what we invented. Sorry if that just triggered
half of you. And it's not something that depends
on human strength. It's the work of Christ himself
who gathers and preserves his people through
the Spirit. He is our foundation. So as we move
from singing, Be Thou My Vision, into this text,
the question I have for you. Munster Church,
from me, Pastor Jim, as we start this book of
Acts, what is our vision? Is it our own preferences,
our own plans, our own comfort, or is it Christ
himself? I wrote this sermon series, and Mike,
even though he's on vacation this week, Mike
can attest to it. I wrote this sermon series
before we had any building plans, just so you
know. This is not a tie to potentially having
a meeting about the new building in the coming
months. But what is the vision of Munster Church?
Because when Christ is our vision, then our calling
as a church becomes clear. And the book of Acts,
how it starts, really has been the foundation
for how I'm seeing this vision rise up for all
of us here at 214 Ridge Road. The heartbeat of
Christ should be our heartbeat. As well. For
his people. And we are called. We're called to
four very specific things. We see it in the book
of Acts. They greet one another. They gather
together. They grow with the Holy Spirit. And
then they go out to the ends of the earth. You're
going to hear that a lot. It may get annoying.
I love you, but I don't care. So let's dive into
the text a little bit. Verses 1 and 2, as we
go through the start of chapter 1 through chapter
8 over the coming months, we're going to see
the continuation of Christ's work. Luke begins
in this first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt
with all that Jesus began to do and teach. Key
word there, began. His ministry didn't end at
the cross or even at the resurrection. The wages
of sin changed. Because the wages of sin was
what? Death. Now, because of Christ's death and
resurrection, it doesn't have to be. Those of
us in Christ, death is not the final say. Oh,
death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where
is your sting? Thanks be to God, because we have
salvation in Christ. Jesus' ministry didn't end
at the cross or even at the resurrection. It
continues through the church by the what? Who's
going to be doing the leading now? Thank you,
I knew you'd get that, right? The Holy Spirit,
the paracletos, as John calls it, the advocate,
the Holy Spirit is the one guiding the church.
Why do you think I'm big on spiritual gifts?
Because spiritual gifts helps you in your profession.
No, though it might, it first and foremost leads
the church. The spirits of God, the gifts of
God from the Spirit lead the church. Those with
shepherding gifts, let them shepherd. Those with
teaching gifts, let them teach. Those with cooking
gifts, Jim, let's out us cook. Right? We all
have gifts. We are called to use them first and
foremost in the church. The Belgian Confession,
Article 27, the Holy Church is not confined,
bound, or limited to a certain place or certain
persons, but it is spread and dispersed throughout
the entire world. Jesus is still at work through
his church today. How do we know that? Let's
just for a second look at us. During coffee hour,
go and look at the history board. This church
has been through a lot. It's still the church.
Not all churches last forever. When I say that,
a class of silly animators, people throw things
at me, right? Because some of us get so tied
to our brick and mortar, so tied to our name,
so tied to the one or two things we're doing
as a church, we can never let it die. You didn't
breathe life into it anyway. It is not your call
whether it lives or dies. The faithfulness of
God's people is something that God keeps track
of, absolutely. A church that's not doing anything,
as we see in the book of Revelation, gets snuffed
out like a wick. False teaching, heresy, hurting
people. The church has never been or bound or
confined by us. It's always been by the Spirit
of God. It's always been Jesus at the helm. And
it's based on proof. There are people in my life
that think the church is a joke. Some of them
are in my family. And again, it's not awkward.
We don't walk on eggshells around it. We talk
about it honestly. I have proof. You have proof
that Jesus exists. We have proof historically,
theologically, throughout time that the church
drives that, but the church is also broken, but
that every one of us has jobs to do. Proof of
the resurrection in verse 3. I love how Theophilus
doubles down on this because it's so important.
For 40 days, Jesus gave many convincing proofs
that he was alive. Christianity is not built,
even though at this point it was called the way.
Christianity doesn't really get claimed for a
couple more hundred years. It's not built on
myth or wishful thinking, but on historical bodily
resurrection. That's a big point. We don't believe
in fairy tales. We don't believe in what the
world thinks God is and all the things that they
think about him. We believe in the bodily resurrection
of Christ. If you don't believe in the bodily
resurrection of Christ, then you are not part
of the church. You should not have taken communion
because you are not a believer. The church had
these people all come together. Now, pause. That
was an aggressive statement. I get it, but it's
true. You may You may not have all the, you may,
I just got to take it on faith. That's how we
all do it. We all have to take it on faith. But
that is, Paul makes that very clear in his epistles,
that if you don't believe in the bodily resurrection,
then you don't have belief. You believe in something
different. Christianity is not built on myth,
wishful thinking, the stars are a crystal ball.
but historical bodily resurrection. The Heidelberg
Catechism, question answer 45. Christ's resurrection
means we are made right with God, raised to new
life, and guaranteed of our future resurrection.
This is the rock on which the church stands.
Jesus is alive. First and foremost, Jesus is
alive. And he promises something. And this is
where I wish Theophilus would have said more
about that conversation, because we still had
doubting time, even though Thomas did see the
Lord and all that, but you still have him in
the room, you still have Peter in the room, Judas
not so much, but you still had all of the disciples
that have fled, but they hear now this promise
of the Holy Spirit. Jesus commands them to wait
for the promise of the Father. They were not
going to be allowed to do this on their own strength.
I think about that and go, what if they would
have just started that day? And Jesus says, wait.
The Holy Spirit's coming. You're going to be
directed how to do this. What does this mean?
We don't have to make it up. We don't have to
do it on our own accord. We don't have to do
it on our own strength. Belgian Confession, Article
27, the church is gathered, protected, and preserved
by Jesus Christ through his spirit and his word.
Without the spirit, without his word, church
is just another human organization. It is just
another non -for -profit. That's what makes the
church different. Christ's spirit, right? The
Holy Spirit and God's word. And right off the
bat, what is Jesus doing? Oh, and we struggle
with this all the time. Struggle with it even
in this week. That we are a group of people,
200 -some households, whether you're a widow
or you have a family of 12 -ish, we come with
our own expectations. You wake up with expectations.
Whether you know it or not, you do. You wake
up with expectations of how your day is going
to go. And some of you type A super planners,
Anybody? Yeah, half of you are lying so bad.
Right? But you're type A super planners. You
go exactly what your Google calendar tells you
or whatever calendar you use. People in the church,
they're human. Right? We're fallible. We're sinners.
We're going to come with our own junk. And some
of that is our own expectations and our own agendas.
That's going to get called out in a couple weeks.
But verses 6 and 7 corrects expectations. I love
this. The start of the church, it's right there.
It is right there. The disciples still ask, will
you now restore the kingdom of Israel? They still
don't get it. But they were not made to get it
yet. Because guess what? If they would have had
it all figured out, I don't think they would
have actually gone. I think they would have looked
at the road and said, it is too hard. Because
they were trying to do it on their own strength,
their own volition. They're still thinking politically.
They're still thinking nationally. Then Jesus
redirects them. The kingdom is not a political
project. It's not about Israel's borders or Rome's
downfall. It's about the reign of Christ through
what? His people. Not through brick and mortar.
Not through canvas, tents, whatever they had
in the first century. It's about the reign of
Christ. It's submitting to his lordship. You
can't come to the table today. If you did not
submit your life to Christ's lordship. If some
of you just got tense because you don't know
if you've done that, if you profess Jesus as
Lord and Savior, then you have to submit to his
lordship. If not, you're going to be in great
tension, my friends. The Belgian Confession Article
36 reminds us that Christ's kingdom is spiritual.
It's not tied to earthly governments or cultural
victories or brick and mortar or blacktop. but
rooted in the reign of Christ. I'm sorry, no
one ever looked at brick, mortar, or blacktop,
sorry, site services, and said, my Jesus is real.
They say that when they see the testimony and
witness of your life in my life. And now comes
the vision. Oh, I love this, and then I'll start
the sermon. The vision. You will receive power
when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will
be my witnesses. Oh, we don't like this. Oh,
we really don't. It's not you might be or on
a good day or on Sunday. Nope. Not try to be.
Swing and a miss. That would be me. You will
be. And notice the scope. I love this. Jerusalem.
Let's just do it here. Again, this is Jerusalem
back then. 214 Ridge Road. Then Northwest Indiana.
Then Chicagoland, Samaria. I think that fits.
But then the United States or the Midwest. Then
the globe. Why do you think we do global missions?
And we hope that our mission relationships, we
can go and be hands and feet with them. But that's
why we support them. That's why we try. That's
why we try to be missional in the here, the ridge
roads of our lives. Your schools, public, private,
or home. Your work, whatever it is. That is the
scope expanding. Jerusalem, right where you are.
Judea and Samaria, the nearby even uncomfortable
places. He hasn't stopped there. The ends of
the earth. We're going to hear a story in a couple
weeks maybe of one of us from our own who is
feeling the tension and the call to go to what
really is the ends of the earth in mission. I'll
just leave that dangling carrot there. The church,
this is the church, what I called Catholicity,
right? So when we said it in the Apostles' Creed,
we believe in the holy. Catholic Church. Notice
small C, not big C. This isn't St. Anne's. This
is the Church Universal. Every other time we
have communion, I usually get a text or an email
about it. Let's just set the record straight.
This is about the Church Universal. The Catholic
Church. Church Universal. Not Catholic denomination.
The Holy Church is spread and dispersed throughout
the entire world. Alright, so these are the first
eight verses. Friends, lock it in. This is just
the beginning. So where do we go from here? What
do we do with this? This vision that God gives
us. First and foremost, we need to wait at times
for tariffs. No. We need to wait on God's Spirit.
And we can engage that thinking that you're more
spiritually attuned than your neighbor. or you're
more spiritually tuned than your elder or your
deacon. If the Holy Spirit is the one moving
all of this, he's moving the church as a corporate
body. In Acts, he does give ways that we govern
the body and we order the body. Why? Because
God is not a God of chaos. He's a God of order.
That should be a warm blanket on a cold night
when you look at the state of the world. Because
that is the definition of God's sovereignty.
We need to wait on God's Spirit. If God is sovereign,
if His Son is sovereign, guess what? His Spirit
is sovereign. We live in a culture that hates
waiting. Amazon promises us, like within hours
of delivering, right? Man, is that not going
to be the tool of the Antichrist. I don't know.
Maybe it is. But they promise next day delivery.
Phones give us instant answers. When all of a
sudden your network goes down, you fall apart.
Man, that early Churchill, they dealt with all
that stuff too, right? Networks down and Amazon,
no. They were like, no, we're just going to sell
all of our stuff and we're just going to do this
together. We even microwave coffee instead of
brewing it. What a shame. And disgusting. But
Jesus tells his disciples, do not move. Do not
pass go. Do not collect 200 denarii until the
Holy Spirit comes. What is he telling us? You,
me, Munster Church, Faith Church, First Church.
Wow, those are, man. We got to get to those Lutheran
churches, right? Good shepherd, Jesse, right?
We get some of that meat of those. Munster Church.
We're not doing the ministries on ourselves.
We're not building it. The Holy Spirit is building
it. We don't build ministries. We don't make
decisions. We don't run ahead without prayerful
dependence on the Holy Spirit. And I know I just
ticked off half of you because you don't like
to wait. I think this building project has shown
us that sometimes we need to wait. Amen, Paul?
Amen. The church belongs to Christ. Sometimes
we act like the church rises and falls on our
programs, our planning, our preferences, having
the right people in place. But the Belgic Confession
puts it right here this morning. The church is
preserved by Christ's hands himself. He may call
us. I don't think he is. But he may call and
say, get rid of Lighthouse. Get rid of youth
ministry. Get rid of the nursery. Your kids are
going to have to sit with you in church. And
if he's the one that's calling it, again, I said
I don't think he is here. Calm down. But if God's
going to call it, if he's going to bring us to
it, guys, I've said it before. I'll say it again.
A God that brings you to it is a, the same seven
people from the beginning. You're still awake.
Thank you. Right? The God that brings us to it
is a God that brings us through it. And he may
call the church to do some crazy things. How
do we know? It's in the book of Acts. There's
a history there. Think of the global church today.
In Iran, house churches are thriving under persecution.
In China, Christians are gathering underground
for fear of persecution. In Africa, the gospel
is spreading rapidly because of the power of
God's word and the power of witness. Christ is
building his church even when we don't see it.
And I don't think we have... The same issues
as those underground churches. Oh, all the kids
hang out by the bathrooms. That's weird. We shouldn't
be a church. No. But parents, just watch, because
a lot of kids do hang out by the bathrooms, and
it is weird. But we can make all of these little
molehills of our preferences mountains for the
kingdom, and they're not. They never have been.
Guess what? You and I are not important to let
those will -be problems. That will never happen.
Though we can make it that way. We can trip up.
Council room, committee room, lighthouse room,
youth group room. We're going to make mistakes.
But Jesus is the one that is preserving it. I
love how Jesus starts with Jerusalem because
he's basically saying, witness starts at home
first. For us, that means start where you are.
The family God has put you in, the job that you
have been called to, your school, your classroom,
your homeroom, your gym teacher, whoever it is
that God has brought you there, it is so freeing
to say a sovereign God has set my life the way
it is now. And for some of us, we go, ooh, but
that hurts because I don't like my life right
now. God's going to preserve you. That's one
thing we get in the first eight verses of the
book of Acts. Your neighborhood. We prayed for
the annoying neighbor down the street. Maybe
they're praying for you because you're the annoying
neighbor down the street. Check your heart. That
people need to hear the witness and see the witness
of Christ in us. Sometimes we talk about missions
as if it's only happening overseas. It's one
thing I love about this church. I'm not going
to lie. In the call process over seven years
ago now. One of the things I loved is the desire
of this church to get missional locally. I thought
it was great because CRCs aren't good at that.
Because a lot of times CRCs is kind of our own
group, our own little clan. No, it's about the
outreach. I look out and see people that are
part of this church because of that outreach,
because of that mindset. But mission starts in
your home, in your street, in your town first.
That's what he's telling the church, the start
of the church. And all throughout, and some of
you are going to get exhausted by this as I am,
but it's going to challenge our expectations.
The disciples wanted Jesus to overthrow Rome.
They were like, okay, you did all the sin things.
Now do the battle. Like, oh my word, you missed
it. They wanted Jesus to overthrow Rome. We often
want Jesus to fix our version of the world. Jesus
come and fix our politics, fix our discomfort,
our finances, our reputations. We miss it. If
it's not about you, it's never going to be about
that. It's going to be about Jesus' reign in
the world. Jesus says, my kingdom is not of this
world. Are you willing today to let him reshape
your expectation, to lead us into places we wouldn't
necessarily choose? Guess what? I am a 40 -year
-old fallible man. You all know this, right?
What I'm going to offer our council in a conversation
in a couple weeks is an idea of a way to kind
of revision what we're doing here. And one of
the main reasons why is because I think we're
stuck in some areas of this church. I look at
our kid in our youth ministries and I go, wow.
I mean, we are doing right by the over 70. babies
that have been born in this church over the last
eight years. That's about right. At that point,
babies, I wish you all would have started crying.
But some of you are seven now, and that's weird.
But understand, the growth of this church, we
are doing a great job of making sure our kids
and our youth are being taught, have witnesses
of adults teaching them. But then I look at our
adult ministries, right? And as the chair of
the Chris Ed Committee, I'm putting three mirrors
on me first as the pastor of this church. We
have some that are working. We have a lot that
are not. Right now, we account in our adult ministries,
we account for maybe... 12 % of our adults are
studying God's word together or getting together
in God's word week to week outside of Sunday
morning and outside of council meetings. I want
to get that to like 60 or 70%. And my good friend
Joe is sitting right over there, right? And he
is one of the leads of BSF that meets on Monday
night starting tomorrow. Giddy up. You saw the
video a couple weeks ago. Men, if you want to
study the Bible, Joe, raise your hand. Wave it
like you just don't care. But he does. Come find
him. I can't believe he did it. But come find
him. Talk to him. He'll be over here in the coffee
area. Men, if you want to study God's word, he
probably can help direct women to the studies
that are around the area for that as well. Men
and women of the church, adults of the church,
we've got to get into God's word. We've got to
start praying over our kids more. The church
can offer programs, but guess what? If no one
comes, that program doesn't go. So part of the
vision is that we need to gather and grow together.
Because God might just be leading you into a
place you wouldn't choose. And you can go ahead
and wrestle with him. You go right ahead. Let
me know how that goes. Because one of the things
that we're going to move on now with this understanding
from these eight verses is that Christ is our
vision. That hymn, we sang it. Be thou my vision,
O Lord of my heart. In Acts 1, it's not a business
plan. It's a vision plan. And that vision comes
from Christ. If Christ is our vision, then our
church's mission isn't to build a brand, but
to be a faithful witness to him. You see... The
be thou our vision thing, kind of that idea,
it's going to take us through the sermon series.
The disciples looked at Jesus and wanted him
to act on their vision. It doesn't work that
way. They wanted Israel's restoration. They wanted
Rome overthrown. But Jesus looks back and gives
them his vision, a spirit -empowered church sent
to the ends of Ridge Road, whether it's blocked
or not, to the ends of the earth. And he promises
us we will never go alone. Munster Church, our
vision is not about maintaining traditions for
their own sake. Believe me, I love that we stand
on a century and five decades with five extra
years. I think that math's right, right Dan?
Yep. Of good things that have been done. But
we also stand on bad things that were done. We
also stand on strikeouts as a church. So we will
stand on the good things. We will maintain what
God calls us to maintain. But we're also not
going to chase after the world's instantaneous
whatever for the church. That instantaneous success.
Our vision is Christ himself. The risen Lord
calls us to witness in the power of the Spirit.
And here I land the plane. So when Christ is
our vision, whether you're a part of our church
or not, The path forward becomes clear. One beautiful
thing that I love about this church is that we
are a greeting church. Karen and I saw that when
we came over seven years ago to kind of an incognito
dinner that you guys put out on the parking lot.
We were greeted like crazy, and I don't think
anyone knew that we were in the conversation
about becoming your next pastor. But this church
greets. We hear it time and time again. And it's
not just Doug. You all do it. We start and begin
with our own Jerusalem, welcoming our neighbors
and friends with gospel intentionality. We do
it because we're called to do it. We gather together
on Sunday mornings and hopefully moving forward,
we all be gathering one or two other times during
the week. And I know some of you just got freaked
out because you go, how in the world can my family
schedule another meeting or two with all our
other meetings or twos or threes or responsibilities?
God will preserve a way. But the uncomfortable
thing is, he might ask you to drop a couple things.
But that's between you and the Lord. We will
gather, just as the disciples did for prayer
and worship, anchored on the apostles' teaching,
the breaking of bread in our homes, at the coffee
shops, at the bars, at wherever God is calling
us to go, and we will grow together, allowing
the Spirit to deepen our faith and transform
us to the likeness of Christ. The Belgian Confession,
Article 27, reminds us that the church is sanctified
by the Spirit, and then we will go. not only
to Munster, not only to Northwest Indiana, but
to the ends of the earth, carrying the good news
of our risen King. So, the question before us
is this mission of the book of Acts is before
us. The question is simple for this series. Who
is your vision? Is it your own kingdom, or is
it Christ's? Is it your own comfort, or the cross
of Jesus? The hymn we sang says it well. Be thou
my vision, O Lord of our heart. Let's pray that
as we step into this new season at Munster Church,
the Spirit will make Jesus our vision, our wisdom,
and our strength. So we can greet, gather, grow,
and go for the glory of his name. Not ours, not
Munster Church, but his. So please stand if you
are able. And one of the things we're going to
do differently in this series, we're all going
to close in prayer together. And then I'm going
to give you the benediction. So let us pray together.
Lord, be our vision. Forgive us for chasing after
our own kingdoms. Open our eyes to see the risen
Christ, to trust your spirit and follow your
mission. Make Munster Church a light in our Jerusalem
and use us to carry your gospel, to the ends
of the earth. Amen.