This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Avalon Park Orlando. Visit us online at christkingdom.org for our calendar driving directions and more audio recordings. So turn to your bottles in Acts chapter 2 verses 41 through 47 which is our text this morning. The real treat and opportunity we have is we are starting a sermon series and we do every August it's called visionizing. That basically is vision plus exercising and award I made up which if you know me I like to do a lot. It makes visionizing it's not a dictionary but it should be. It's a reminder to us that vision is so incredibly important for us to have and as you know probably too vision has a tendency to leak. You know you think you kind of fill yourself up with vision or something but before time much like the air in your tire or the oil in your car. Over a period of time it will go away and you'll need to add more to it. Same thing is true with that and so as we go through this month next four weeks we're going to be talking about our vision as a church. Specifically today we're going to focus on who we are as a church. So look at this text it's a very popular text and one that's well known because it is a glimpse of the church. Right after the Holy Spirit has been poured out Jesus months earlier has sent it back to heaven. He's poured out of spirit as he promised and things begin to change radically for the church. Followers and believers are radically empowered to live for Jesus Christ and it affects first off who they are. So look at this this is God's holy and inspired word. It's printed in your bulletin I think it's also going to be on the screen as well X2 41 through 47. Those who accepted his message were baptized and about 3000 were added to their number that day. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching into the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common selling their possessions and goods they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. This is God's holy and inspired word. We will be following along in the outline that's in your bulletin you might want to pull that out that would be helpful as we go along here looking at that. One of the things that caught my attention though is we're talking because what we're really going to talk about when we say who we are is really going to talk about things like values with that. I was beginning to think in my own life and in yours as well too one of the first places that impacts you is with your parents. All of us had parents whether they were adopted parents, step parents, whatever the case might be they had a huge influence on our lives and they helped create for us at least to start off with and may have shifted from them over the years but they had created for us the beginning values that we begin to have. Well parents are known for lots of different things as well too some that are more popular than other things as well and I was reading and actually hearing about a late night with Jimmy Fallon show which I'm not usually up to watch but he had a question on there where he invited people to email in their responses. Here was a question you think you got weird parents well and they could fill in anything they wanted. So people sent in these messages about basically responses either where things their parents did or where things their parents said. What might caught my attention was some of the weird things that they remember that their parents had said and continued to have an impact on their life one way or the other. Here I just picked some of the top three. First one was this from I'm not sure if it was a mom or dad that said this but they said this you got baked beans you got a party. I thought that was deep and profound. The next one that came across here this girl wrote in and said my mom dances when at the ATM machine because there's a camera in there and it gives the security guys some entertainment. Again I'm not sure what that would look like exactly but another one that came in here I thought was interesting to say this my dad buried my hamster in the backyard after it died. He tells me three years later it was just about dead when he buried him. Those are the kinds of things that you don't want to hear and let me just clear up for the record Connor your hamster was dead when I buried him. I just want to clear that up and he rests in peace with that. But parents are it's amazing the things that will remember some that are more serious and more important than others but one way or the other your parents have had an impression on you with your values because every family takes on values. And again they could be positive it could be negative they're always some mixture of both because no parent and no home is perfect but they are imparted to you nevertheless. Well the same thing is true when it comes to the church because the church is a family. We're told that we're brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ if we have faith in Jesus Christ if he is our Lord and Savior. And so that makes us family and by the way we spend eternity together in the new heavens and the new earth that makes us family. And it's actually thicker than blood because it's of the spirit and it lasts for eternity. So churches take on values as well too. And there's some mixture of good and some mixture of bad but we want to be gathering moving towards those that are imparted to us and taught to us through the scriptures. So we're going to look at this morning what we as a church value and this is extremely important and this hopefully if you're new here this will give you an idea of who we want to be and where we feel like we're going. And if you're not new here and you're regular here this will hopefully be a refresher of kind of yeah this is what we're about. I remember hearing I'm not sure I don't see the Xerbians here but I just remember hearing about them over this past summer they had somebody make a artistic design of their last name Xerbian. And each letter stands for something they value as a family which is a great idea and I stuck it up on the wall so Z stands for a thing like Xerian on Christ and so on. And what a great reminder with that and of course I'm sure the Xerbians would say well they don't always look like they value everything on that wall there but they know what they're shooting for. They know what they're hoping to be and the same for us as a church. And we have worked on that in fact we had nine official values when we first started the church but the elders and officers that we've newly elected last December worked very hard very keylessly over the spring to pray and considering to refine those down to four core values which were actually sharing publicly for the first time today of who we are as a church. So pay close attention to this as we move forward and I'll think that you'll see these coming out as very text here. Well number one and first to begin with we as a church value gospel centeredness gospel centeredness. Now look here in verse 41 where Isaac starts off those who accepted his message were baptized. Now if you know the context specifically what's happened here is Peter who has just been like the rest of those followers filled with the Holy Spirit. Preaches is incredible sermon. Yeah the same Peter who denied Jesus three times just weeks earlier. Yeah the same Peter who was afraid to get his you know that he might be exposed and during the same persecution that Christ is is now preaching boldly and we're told that like 3000 people come to faith in Christ. It's the message that he is sharing about who Jesus is what he came for what his gospel message is of salvation. That's what was accepted here and you begin to see play out here. So the gospel to be gospel centeredness means that that message and by the word gospel means good news. The good news is at the center of who we are as a church. Now let me break let me give you another example in here it goes on to talk about in verse 46. It says every day they continue to meet together in the temple courts and they broke breads in their homes and ate together. Breaking bread here probably is referring to the idea of coming to celebrate the Lord's supper and they ate together. They also share common meals but they came when they broke the bread. Another way of them saying they're coming and celebrating the Lord's supper of the broken bread and the wine. They're coming remembering the gospel message. It's infiltrating it's important to who they are it's in the very heart of who they are as a community and it's what the Holy Spirit uses to transform them as he pours out his power in their lives. Well let's unpack it a little bit more because this is where gospel centered you might say yeah. Because we're Christians we believe his message where gospel centered unfortunately that's not what that value totally entails. Most people in the church especially in the recent decades have looked at the need for the gospel being simply the message that kind of gets you started. It's your plane ticket that you get that says yeah I'm on the plane I'm going I got my ticket. But in contrary to that the scriptures are really teaching you know the gospel is not just what gets you started. It's not just a message of hope that you start and you begin to begin to believe and then you go on trying to live a good life the best way you can on your own. The gospel message is the very airplane not the ticket. It's the airplane you get on that you ride every step of the way. You understand that the basics of the gospel are what you need not just the day you became a Christian but each and every day thereafter for the rest of your life. That is what we mean by being gospel centered. So unpacking it a little bit more the good news of this and it really is good news. The first part of that is that we're abandoning self righteousness. There's nobody that comes to faith in Jesus Christ that doesn't first have to abandon something and what that is is your own self righteousness. Now there's different ways that people come at that some people are coming at that through their own self religion that's been generated whether it's Islam whether it's Buddhism whether it's some kind of a other variation or a form of a religion or whatever it might be Judaism whatever it might be your other form of religion that you've chosen to adopt. And but we know are meant very popular around the world as your own attempt to in your own righteousness reach a holy God or you can come at a point where the people who totally reject morality of religion and say hey I'm going to create my own way of being a good person and feeling and valued and important and controlling my own destiny and shaping that I don't need some world or even telling me about that I'm going to simply do what I think is the right thing to do. Follow my own value system discover things for myself and part of my own self discovery is part of what is my very salvation and process finding who I am as a person. So you can go the religion route of self righteousness or you can go the what we more call the self discovery route of self righteousness but both are attempts to find a way to satisfy who they are as a person where the universe came from what their purpose is here on earth. What's going to happen to them after they die why they have value why they have assurance that they're going to go to some positive place after they die. All those are based on some form of righteousness generated by yourself or generated through Jesus Christ. So when you come to faith in Jesus Christ you are banning yourself generated righteousness and instead you're clinging to a Christ righteousness. Listen what St. Augustine said fourth century one of the first great theologians of the New Testament after the New Testament. He says this he says if you believe what you like in the gospels and reject what you don't like it is not the gospel you believe but it's yourself. What he's saying here too look he's saying look you can't just come and look at the gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John and pick and choose what you want to believe about who Jesus was and what he said. Because then you're just believing in yourself just like these other forms you've got to instead believe it as a whole believe the message that he had. And think about this for a second when you abandon self righteousness there is a level of joy and comfort that you cannot imagine having. If you've been living solely in a self righteous perspective that you've got to keep up the good work in order to find favor with God that you've got to keep up to your own standards. And you know what's worse is not just when you've disappointed other people but when you disappointed yourself because you thought you were a better person than that. And the importance to hide your own private life and your personal thoughts because there's where you're really exposed. There's where you have to kind of ignore it in your own heart because you know if people were to go there people knew what was really going on in your heart. You'd be fully exposed for the fraud that you are. Can you imagine when you can come and hear a message that says look even on your best day of self righteousness this is what the Bible says. Your righteousness is as filthy rags before a holy God on your best day you are worthy of eternal damnation because it doesn't match up to a holy and a righteous God who can't have sin. Even the most might new piece of it in his presence at all and never can.
So quit playing the game and rest in the fact that you got to abandon your own self righteousness. And what in turn you can embrace instead the righteous of Christ the he and only he lives a perfect lived a perfect life here on earth and continues to live perfectly the right hand of the father that you can trust in him that you don't have to be trying to perform to earn God's favor because Jesus already did. And instead he'll take on your guilt and condemnation which by the way self righteousness this is hard for a lot of people. A lot of people will go I know so many good people are you telling me I know some people that are so devoted to their other religions are you telling me that they are if they die they're going to spend an eternity in hell. Why not telling you that that's what the Bible and that's what God is telling you but understand why that's so that's so damnable that's so detestable in the eyes of God because it's self righteous. It is finding your approval before God in your own effort when God when God God looks at you and you can't just stop at the surface he looks at you and he goes right to your heart every single time he goes right to your motive every single time. And when he sees your stubborn independence and denial of him and you mask it with self righteousness it is detestable before holy God. And you are most eligible to be danimal by God because of self righteousness it is what happened in the garden of Eden. It was even it was Adam saying you know what God has said one way but we've got another idea it looks good to us this fruit to eat why would God be withholding it from us unless he's holding something back. And there's something better that we can become and be if we eat the forbidden fruit. It was self righteous right in the garden and it continues today it just takes on various forms and looks differently. And the most anti religious person that you know in their heart of hearts is just a self righteous as the most religious person. So to say your gospel centered means that you understand that coming to faith in Jesus Christ is embracing Christ's righteousness that he alone satisfies a holy righteous father. You abandon your own self works and you embrace say hey it is the righteous of Christ I'm cleaning to alone to save me and to get me to heaven. And as we've already talked about that's not a one time thing but it's something that you must start and embrace each day. Listen to what Colossians two six through eight says this is very important. It's going to talk about not just the day you receive Christ but what should happen after that. Listen so then just as you receive Christ Jesus as Lord continue to live in him rooted and built up in him strengthen in the faith as you were taught and overflowing with thankfulness. See to event no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. Just as you receive him so walk in him don't let anything take the place of Christ being the center of it all every single day. Martin Lloyd Jones the late 20th century Welsh Protestant pastor of Westminster chapel said this he said have you realized that the most that most of your happiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself. Let me read that again have you realized that most of your happiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself. What does it mean by that I think he means what Jack Miller another pastor who came after him came up and said you know what you must preach the gospel to yourself daily. Why because you are going to forget it why because default mode doesn't want to believe the gospel default mode in your heart and life wants to believe that you are good enough and you can do it all by yourself. And yeah you're going to go to God in prayer when things get really tough but you're not going to go to God in prayer every single morning because you really don't think you need him that much not every single day certainly not every single morning maybe as the day comes up and something bad happens. Preaching the gospel yourself every day is understanding that I will continually to fall back into the fault mode of self righteousness instead of trusting the righteous of Christ. I'll continue to walk and operate out of guilt in living my life rather than walking out of grace that I've received richly from God. And let me tell you you may not notice it the first time but if you live or have a beer outside in your family or a friend you can smell guilt a mile away over time. Can't you when somebody does something good to you or is nice to you at a guilt after a while you can begin to smell it before it even comes before you even see it. Because it feels totally different than when somebody who is truly serving you out of a heart that has received the grace of God in their own life and is overwhelmed with gratitude about a God who has sent a son of diaphragm on a cross. That changes everything and you can smell that too. We're talking about living like this on a daily basis. Here's the point it doesn't come naturally you must daily remind yourself of your complete inability to live right in your 100% need for Christ every single day. That means one of the greatest things that can happen in the course of your day is to take an honest look and to see just how sinful you are. Why is that so good? Because it's honesty and it's self-exposure and it realizes that that man I'm really a mess and I really need a big Jesus. Most of you can get away with the Jesus about this size. The kind that fits on a little Sunday school paper that your child is going to bring back from after their class here this morning. You need a Jesus that can take care of the big sins that can give you assurance that when you're going to die one day you're going to go to heaven. You want that kind of Jesus but most of you don't need the big Jesus. The big Jesus is going to help you how to love your spouse who you're really secretly thinking about wanting to separate from a divorce. That takes a big Jesus. Well the big Jesus is going to come in and be there for you when you get the pink slip from work unjustifiably as a friend of mine did this past week. And you're going to have to think, man, you need a big Jesus. Or when you're going to face and hear the news that a loved one has cancer, you're going to need a big Jesus. But the truth is you need a big Jesus every single day. And realizing that creates a gospel-centered life and realizing that will set you free. And you know what? You will be joyful in ways that you didn't even imagine before. You will experience peace and rest in ways that you don't need to. You would need less prescription drugs and so will this community. And they begin to realize that the gospel is a thing that's going to heal their soul rather than simply cover up something that never heals deeply. That's a gospel-centered church. And what does a gospel-centered church look like? It looks like Acts 2, 4147. It looks like people humbling being humble before God and being other-centered. It looks like people who have a passion for prayer. It looks like people who are drawing the lost people around them to themselves. Why do most people who are not Christians in this country in particular not like Christians? Because they're so self-righteous. What will draw them like nothing else is that they're Christ-righteous. If they're one beggar simply showing another beggar where to find food, as it's been said. That will draw people in this community around. That will draw your neighbors, your relatives, your co-workers, your classmates, and ways that you've never seen before. That is why it's so important. And why we believe God's called us to be a gospel-centered church. Well, the second value that we have is authentic community. Authentic community. If you look at beginning of verse 44, all you got to do is read it. And all the believers were together and had everything in common, selling their possessions and goods. They gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes. They ate together with glad and sincere hearts. Praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. You can't help but see this is a real authentic community that's happening here. I looked up in the dictionary just to see how it would define community. I thought I had a pretty good definition. It says this. It says a community is a feeling of fellowship with others as a result of sharing common attitudes, interest, and goals. I thought, yeah, there is something about that. Something makes you a community when you have shared common attitudes, interest, and goals. And we as a church have that. And our service of the Lord and King, Jesus Christ. But notice this is not just community, it's an authentic community. Because I bet most of you here have experienced community on some level. I mean, shoot, my kids play little league sports. And all of us parents every Saturday morning were on the sidelines. We have a level of community. We're cheering for the same team. We're coming and bringing snacks every week or taking turns doing that. We're all there for them. We're waving our banners in the stands or whatever else. There's community. But that's not necessarily authentic community. Authentic community where people can come with a lack of pretense. Where people can come and be honest and can be transparent where they can be real. Now that's a different kind of community. And one that you don't experience in most bleachers on the sideline on a Saturday afternoon. It's a different level. It's sharing honestly and openly your hurts, your struggles, your needs. It's caring and having compassion with one another. It's things that would compel you to sell your possessions and goods and give to anyone that they had need. That's a totally different level of community here. See, we as a church, we share a common story being brought from sin and death into life through Jesus Christ. We share a common journey of where we're going. We share a common destination. We share a common family connection as brothers and sisters in Christ. Well, one of the times I remember most as I was thinking back is I don't know how many of you were living here in 2004. Okay, we weren't looking, nobody was set out to say, hey, we need to have, we need to have a more authentic community. But all of us by default were thrown into it, right? When was it three, four hurricanes? At least three that came right through our area that touched things here. But that was the last time I remember seeing a community-wide sense of community that went deeply, that entered into people's lives in transparent ways, difficult ways, in a more authentic way than I've seen in a long time. For example, I was out of town for Hurricane Charlie. I was actually out raising support trying to start this church. And then I hear about this hurricane coming through Orlando area and I felt terrible. Here I am, the husband, the father, the man of the house, and I'm in safe Atlanta. Okay, as as Hurricane is now turning with not much notice coming right towards Orlando. Well, Laura and the kids, thankfully, to the Selig family, were adopted to come over and stay at their house that night with that, which was really a scary night. You were here for Hurricane Charlie with that. It was an authentic community happening there and stepping up. People checked on each other. I remember, again, I was out of town going to get back in for a couple of days, because the airports were shut down. I remember hearing people saying, going around and saying, hey, have everybody called so and so? Have you checked on so and so? Well, the phone lines have been down there, but I heard that so and so. Everybody started checking on each other, making sure I was okay. People were knocking on doors. Not just our church, but people in the community were doing that with one another. People began to help each other. If they had a fallen tree in their yard, you know what? People were, they called them like the, you know, what do you call that? The chainsaw brigade. People were saying, look, I got a chainsaw. Yeah, chainsaw, let's get out there. People were walking around just finding trees to cut down and helping neighbors. Our neighbor behind us, their whole screen enclosure, totally imploded on itself. And we weren't me, my boys, we went over there and we just started helping to tear it out and walk and carry it to the street. We never even met them yet. And we started doing this kind of stuff. It brought a level of community there that was profound. We helped cut boards up and the preceding, the hurricanes that came after that, you know, we all got smart enough to buy boards at that point. I remember we went around to different people's houses. We were drilling holes, putting boards up for each other at that. We shared stories and experiences. Even now today we can talk about 2004. We can all go, yeah, I remember. Because we were an authentic community in much more real ways than. God intends and desires should have to be the norm to be living and doing life like that. Thank God for 2004 giving us a taste of what that can be like. But we never continue to be complacent that it's not okay that that shouldn't be the norm in the church. For us to be living and caring for each other that way. And I'm going to be telling you about the next few weeks a chance to be involved in small groups. And some of you will have a real choice whether or not you're going to choose to put yourself in a position to experience authentic community. It's going to be a little bit scary. It's going to be a little bit unknown. You're going to say, well, I'm not sure I like those people. They may not like you either, okay? But as you come and you share together, when you come and realize that we have a bigger foe than hurricanes that we need to pull together on. And this one that seeks and prowls around like a roaring lion according to the Scriptures. We share a common enemy. We'll be sure a common hope. As you come together, you're going to have an opportunity. And I hope that you'll be thinking even now, if you're not committed to or a part of a small group, that needs to change. And this is your church home. I want to say as your pastor here, you need to change that. If you need to change a work schedule, if you need to cut out some extracurricular activities, you better do it because it will serve you and your family in ways far more than a little extra money. Far more than your kids having a little bit more entertainment during the week or more activities. Being serious about experiencing community. Well, a third value, boldness and belief. Boldness and belief. Looking verse 43, I love how it says here. Everyone was filled with awe. How are they filled with awe? Look, because many wonders, miraculous signs were being done by the apostles. There was a work and a movement and a power of the Holy Spirit that was present there. Yeah, there was some unique things that were present going on at that time because the uniqueness of having apostles and there was certainly a timeframe that was happening there. But there is still the presence of the Holy Spirit here today that expresses himself and works and powers in our community with that. And that comes as people boldly believe God. Notice in verse 45 it talks about them selling their possessions. You don't sell your possessions and give them to others unless you have a level of faith and belief that those things really aren't the most important thing. That there's something more important than your possessions. That came from a boldness and belief that they shared. Verse 47 goes on and says they enjoyed favor of others and were even drawn to, and these others were drawn to faith themselves. Why? Because they saw a reality of faith that was real and that was genuine with that. Acts 429, if you go on a couple chapters later, the same group of Christians who had just received the Holy Spirit, it says this. After they had been experienced some persecution, look what they said, they said, they're praying. They say, now Lord, consider their threats. Those who were threatening them as Christians and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. What happened when things got tough and difficult when people threatened them with persecution and even death, they prayed to God, God, give us more boldness. If it was me, I'd be praying, God, protect me. But that's not what the Spirit leads you to do when you're following boldly after the God who gave his life for you. You pray for more boldness. And we long and want that as a church. See us, Lewis, in his book, A Grief Observe says this, you never know how much you really believe anything until it's truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life or death. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong as long as you're merely using it as a cord to wrap a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn't you then first discover how much you really trusted it? You have no boldness and belief until your boldness of belief has been put to the test until you've had to step out on it in faith. Do you've had to take some risk that you wouldn't normally do if it wasn't for your belief in God? You know, one of the things I'm grateful most about the church I grew up in is that they adopted a quote from a guy named John Haggai, a pastor. But they did it at our church and talked about it, and they said this quote all the time. Attempt something so great for God that it's doomed to failure unless God is in it. That was everywhere. That was on printed publications. And the church lived that out that I grew up in. Attempt something so great for God that it's doomed to failure unless God be in it. Now, how's that for a business plan? Try to present that to some top Fortune 400 company. Here's my plan. This is doomed to fail unless supernaturally the God of the universe intervenes. What's your likelihood of getting money backing for that? Yes, zero. But this is the life that God caused you to invite you to. Why? Because it puts yourself in a position to be totally dependent on Him. Again, that's gospel-centeredness. But it leads and expresses itself in a boldness and belief. Well, probably not many of you have heard of a church called Sherwood Baptist Church. It's a little town called Albany, Georgia, about 80,000 people. Which is not much bigger, by the way, than the area that we live in right here in East Orlando. But this is the whole town. But if you go to Sherwood Baptist Church's web page there, and you look on their list of ministries, you'll hear things like this. This is a real list. After school program, alpha, children, college and career, daycare, media, men, missions, mother morning out, prayer, preschool, recreation, SCA, senior adults, Sherwood pictures, single adult, students, women, worship. A pretty common list that any fairly large church would probably be offering many things like that. But did you hear me read Sherwood Pictures? You'd be like, what is that? Well, Sherwood Pictures was a vision of a guy named Alex Kendrick, just one of the associate pastors of the church. But he had a passion for making movies. And that passion began to grow and others began to share in it. And they began to think, how can we make some radical steps to use this passion and some of the gifts that God's given us to glorify God? So they made a movie. It's called The Flywheel. It costs $20,000 to make it. Now imagine trying to present that in most church budgets. Hey, we got this $20,000 idea. $20,000 idea we think it's going to be really cool. All right. I proposed ideas like that in the past. And I remember the faces I got from people. Now, how's that money going to come in to pay for it? Well, they earned from that one $37,000. Well, pay for itself, almost doubled. In fact, they sold 300,000 DVDs of this video that this church made in Albany, Georgia. Well, one thing led to another. And then they put out a movie called Facing the Giants. It cost $100,000 to make Facing the Giants. They made 10.2 million. They sold 2.3 million DVDs alone. One thing led to another. And a movie called Fireproof came out. Big budget, $500,000. I put that in Hollywood terms. Okay, $500,000 is probably what it cost to rent the trailers for the actors for the shooting of a movie. $500,000. It opened fourth in the box office. It's opening weekend. To date, it's grossed about $33.5 million. Albany, Georgia. Sherwood Baptist Church. 90% of all the actors and actresses are people like you and me in a church. Church staff, church secretary. People that just live in the community. Here is a church that had a desire and a vision to reach the world. Listen to a quote from the pastor. Our work ultimately belongs to the kingdom. And we want to touch the whole world with the whole word motivated by a passion for Christ and compassion to all people, he says. Share this film part of our ministry is fun and a real joy. But more than anything, our goal is to reach the world from our little city of Albany, Georgia. Well, just about 10 years ago, that was just a vision. That was just somebody sitting in a meeting like this talking about what if we really boldly believed God. And here is a church in Albany, Georgia that is truly reaching the world. Some of the movies have already been shown in 51 different countries. It's a bonus and belief that led a church in real Georgia that think they could have an impact on the world. Some of you heard that even this past week about a story got named Tom Little. Tom Little was 61 years old, 61 year old optometrist. One of 10 aid workers killed by the Taliban just this past week just a few days ago. They're in the northern section there. He could have been making, I just looked up online what an optometrist makes later in his life. He could have been making easily $100,000 up to $150,000 a year working in some nice suburban community as an optometrist. But that wasn't his vision at all. He was a medical missionary for 33 years in Afghanistan. Afghanistan has only been in my radar really ever since the invasion of Iraq and since 9-11. Before that hardly ever thought about it. They've been there 33 years working there as well. They lived underground to avoid bombings on a regular basis. That's where their home was was a built-in underground shelter. His wife Libby says we had 100 rockets a day on a normal day and that was a good day. It's only have 100 rockets buzzing over your head to hear. She said sometimes we would hike 40 miles one way over mountains to help remote villages. Libby went on and she said we went and we thought it was going to be a two-year commitment and it's turned out to be 33 years because we fell in love with the people. These are missionaries there that are serving there, helping those there. Another article said about Tom this week. He said Tom little knew the dangers. He lived through them through three decades. But the man who brought eye care to the most remote places of Afghanistan couldn't see his life any other way. CNN went on to say this. We had 40 wonderful years together observing together all those years doing what we thought we should do. And that's enough for a life. How's that for a response from a widow whose husband's body hasn't even made it back home yet? Why? Because of a bonus in belief that there was something more important. That means just content with living a nice safe suburban comfortable life making $150,000 a year. Let me ask you some honest questions. Are we going to play it safe this coming year as a church? Are you going to care about a friend, neighbor, or relative that if they died tonight who would spend an eternity in separation from God? Are you going to kind of block that out of your mind for the most part? Are you going to position yourself to really take following Christ seriously this year or settle for mediocre and a marginalized faithful living instead? We have a choice to make. We have a year ahead. God has called us to bonus in belief as a church. Lastly, God's called us to be kingdom focused. If you are gospel centered, you will find yourself before long being an authentic community. If you're experiencing an authentic community in our gospel centered, the reality of a bonus of faith, the bonus of belief will automatically follow and your bonus of belief will always compel you to be kingdom focused because it comes from God. At the core of being of who, but being kingdom focused is, I can summon up by saying this, it's all about Jesus Christ. It's not about you, it's not about your family, it's not about our church, it's not about our denomination, it's not about your political preferences, it's not about your fears, it's not about your gifts, it's not about your recognition, it's not about your comfort, it's not about your abilities, it's not about how you feel, it's not about you, period. It's about Jesus Christ, and he is the king of kings and Lord of lords, and he has one kingdom, and he has one church. Patrick Henry, known as the founding father of our country, Governor of Virginia, for several terms, also the guy that said, give me liberty or give me death, probably his most favorite quote. Near death, you know he left so much of a rich inheritance to his family and friends by way of honor, by way of tradition, by way of a new country, small things like that. Here's what he said before he died. He says, I have now disposed all of my property to my family. There is one thing more, I wish I could give them, and that is faith in Jesus Christ. If they had that, if they had that, I had not given them a single shilling, they would have been rich, if they had not that, and I had given them all the world, they would be poor indeed. Patrick Henry understood that it wasn't about him, and you know what? It wasn't about his country, as close and dear to his heart as it was. He knew it was all about Jesus Christ, and that put things in perspective, and by the way that makes for a great country, and great churches, and great families, when that's in perspective as well. This is the part of the reason why we're committed to things like cooperation and partnership, and working with others, and working with our, as a team here as a family, but also working with converge in other churches in our area, because you know what? It's not about Christ's kingdom church, and it's not about the preservation of church in America, it's much something committed to both of those things. It's about the kingdom of Jesus Christ and him, that's why we need to work together, to partner, to serve, and work with one another with that. This is why we provide and blanket schools with backpacks. You'll see an announcement in your bulletin again, we do this every year. To provide backpacks for kids that don't have the money for it, and we'll partner with churches all around the community to do that. While we help feed hundreds in our community food banks every single week, and when you bring canned goods in the first Sunday of each month, it does make a difference. Somebody eats that food that needs it. It's why we work, and we, around Christmas time, we support hundreds of families that would normally have a less than good Christmas. They'll become and provide food and gifts and extra help during that time of year. It's why we're working as a group of churches to start a Samaritan's Resource Center, which Orange County is working alongside with us now trying to help by land, as offering to buy the land and pay for the building if we will come man it. How about that? To serve the people in this community. You know, it's why John the Baptist, I think, had it right, and why Jesus says, you know, of those born of women, there's no one greater than John the Baptist. I always eat so great, relatively not very well known. His ministry time was very few short years, kind of a centric to say the least. Here's, let me read from John chapter three, they came to John, John's disciples and said to him, rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan, Jesus, the one you testified about, well he's baptizing and everyone is going to him. To this John replied, a man can receive only what is given him from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, I'm not the Christ, but I'm sent ahead of him. The bride belongs to the bridegroom, the friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and it is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and is now complete. He must become greater, and I must become less. John the Baptist understood, and he had it right, and it was kingdom-focused on the king, on Jesus Christ. That's why that's a value for us as a church. Let me just wrap things up here really quick. Our values as a church must reflect our holy God and the high calling we have in following Jesus Christ. It must, because he is the king, he is the Lord, he's the one that we're following, it's why we call ourselves Christ kingdom church by the way. I know that's not the coolest name around, it's not very popular, but it's summed up what we're trying to do to bring his kingdom to be a part of serving him. You know, you always, what you believe will always determine your values. It always works that way. April 14th, 1912, at approximately 10 p.m., the Titanic crashed into an iceberg in the mid-Atlantic, and four hours later it sank. There's a story about one woman who was actually about to board a lifeboat, and just remember that she had some valuables back in her room that she needed to go collect. So she was told by the people there that hey, you've got three minutes to go back and get whatever you need and get back here before the lifeboat's going to launch. So she quickly went back, she had to go through the gambling halls in the areas where there were still stacks of money in places piled up there that people had left in abandoned. She went back to her room or whatever you want to call it to get her stuff, even though she was a pretty well off-lating, had diamonds and jewelry and things that were there for her to take. So she came back and she grabbed four oranges, four oranges that she knew might be critical, might be really helpful because she had some food that they could take with them. They didn't know how long they'd been a lifeboat, and she got back in the lifeboat. Your values will change based on what you believe about your situation and your world around you. Let me tell you something, I don't think any of you here would bought a ticket knowing what you know now for the Titanic. Let me tell you, you've already bought a ticket, the ticket living today in 2010, you're already on a trip that is more doomed than the Titanic. What I mean by that, I mean the ways of the world, the ways that are contrary to God in the Scriptures. That is more doomed and has been from the beginning of time since the Garden of Eden than any Titanic trip ever was. When you understand that, when you understand that your hope is in Jesus Christ and Him alone, your beliefs will affect your values and likewise. We need to be a church that believe boldly, and our values reflect that, that there is a living God who loves us and gave his life for us. Let's pray. God, I pray that as we transition now, God, to come to your table that you remind us, again, just how desperately we are needed, need to know and believe the gospel here today. God, there's people here that I know that carry heavy burdens about struggles and areas of sin in our life. God, may they find release of that, resting those on you, knowing that you promise to love and forgive. May they find hope instead, God, after banning that in the righteous of Christ. God, there are those of us here who can't think of much sin in our lives because we think we're doing so good on things that need a reality check to realize that the pride beneath that is as damnable as the most blatant sins that we could be performing as well. We need brokenness and we need to come and confess that before Holy God and acknowledge our need for you. God, would you come and make us an authentic community as a church? God, would you from that transform us to be a people that would take bold steps of belief and faith, to be kingdom-focused and kingdom-minded, because that's what Jesus was, the king that we serve was very much that. So God, would you come, would you work, would you minister, God in our presence here this morning, and would you come and make us to be who you've called us to be. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.