Vision Casting Sunday

Rev Gideon Lee

This morning is vision casting Sunday. I will be talking about our theme for the next two years. We have a new theme for 2016 and 2017.

Ephesians 4:14-16

14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

I want to talk about change. The portion of scripture we read talked about change. Change is inevitable. We go through change in life. Sometimes we are comfortable with it but in general we don't like changes. We are creatures of habit. I have had the same hair style for the last 20 years and my wife asked me to try something new. I told her I'm like Jesus.  I'm the same yesterday, today and forevermore. We are creatures of habit.

How many of you were a little upset your seat is taken this morning? This is a combine service so the Hokkien will probably be seating where they normally seat. Change is important. We all go through changes. Whether we like it or not.

We are talking about change in the early church in Ephesus. They were looking at the coming Messiah Jesus. They are saved and come from a system of priests. With their religious sacrifices. They believe in circumcision. But now they believe in Jesus and all these are done away with. They are now in a new church.

The don't know the system of the new church. They don't know what is expected. And now Paul gives instructions of what to do. He told them what is expected of them as new believers. What they were used to they no longer follow. Talk about change, that is a big change.

How many of you remember when you first became a Christian? You were used to do the things you did before. Some of you were Buddhists before. Like going to the temple. But now you are no longer practicing what you were used to. And many things became new to you. And that's what Paul told them to do as a new believer.

You may ask why change is necessary. Well it is because it is necessary in the Christian life.

Ephesians 4:14

that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,

Paul is telling them change involve growth. They need to grow and cannot be babies anymore. But why is Paul saying this? As children we are vulnerable to the scheming and deceitfulness around us. Children easily believe. And they get wrong information. And believe in the wrong things. But Paul is saying don't remain as a baby. You'll be vulnerable.

The Bible says we must be childlike. I'm not talking about being childlike. There's a difference being childlike and childish. You need to grow and mature.

When we were young we played with toy cars. Like those Matchbox  cars. We used matchboxes to make cars. Then came those made out of cast iron. Then came the plastic ones where the doors can open. It's okay when we were children. But now that you have grown up, can you be playing with all these things? We move on to bigger things. Now we want to drive a car, not play with toy cars. Don't remain the same. Don't be a baby. You got to mature. To want the things God has for you.

You started with milk but as you grow you need more meat. Babies are cute. You saw Gabby. She hasn't a care in the world. So nice to kiss. So cute. But can you imagine at 20 years she remained the same? She has grown bigger but she still behave the same. I hope we won't be like that. We need to change.

Paul says they are new believers and they have to continue to grow.

Change is a lifelong process for a Christian.

Our goal is to be like what? To be like Jesus. Tell your neighbour you are work in progress. WIP.  Tell your neighbour I think you need more work. We are not perfect. We go through changes. The Bible calls this transformation. Came from the word metamorphosis.

All of us are growing. Some grow taller. Some grow sideways. Some grow forward but in everything all of us grow and there must be changes. This morning tell your neighbour get use to change. Get use to it.

I want to tell you our fourth floor is ready. We just put in the sound system. The hall is awesome. I do not know how to tell you. I'll talk to Bro Wilbur next week we may have a tour of the place. I want you to see that change is good. It may not feel comfortable but it can bring forth good fruits. Remember the stained glass? It's still there but now backlighted. It's beautiful.

We need to grow. We need to serve and we need to transform.

Change is also a lifelong process for the church.

The church needs to change. It is a lifelong process for the church. If we don't change we become irrelevant to the community. I hope we don't become a museum for believers. But that it will be a hospital for the needy. Not just a place for good people but a place where all can see Jesus.

Ephesians 4:14-16

14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

What the scriptures say is that the church is linked to the head and it will grow or work properly, or it will impede the growth of the church. We need to work together. All these are tied up to the word love. We want to grow. There must be changes and we want to serve one another. When we do that the church becomes a very powerful force to be reckon with. What the world need is the love of Christ.

We must be transformed.

The board went for a planning retreat. And we brainstormed for a theme for the church. We listed down the things that are considered the strength of the church. The list was not exhaustive.

One of the strength is that we are a caring church especially for the community. We are also strong in the word. Very word based. People in this church likes to study the Bible. They go for the Bible study class and also ICI. Bro Vive just graduated from ICI. There is a hunger for the word of God. Some say we are a giving church and a family church. And our worship team is excellent. People have commented on our worship. It's not just the skills but also the presence of God.

We also used to raised a lot of Pastors in the past. Also a publication that was the talk of the town. What's the name? Lighthouse. Praise Update. A lot of Assemblies of God churches looked forward to the publication. And this church is also supportive of our leaders.

Our weaknesses. We need to grow our Christians. In terms of their walk with God. We looked at evangelism and discipleship. Prayer, missions particularly in going. We have no problems giving. Also we felt the church is complacent. We want more people serving in church and also our online presence.

We.wanted to celebrate our strength and work on our weaknesses. So we came out with a theme to do that.

Our theme is to Grow, Serve and Transform. GST. This is to help you to remember. To GROW, SERVE and TRANSFORM.

When we talk GROW, is to grow in the word and the keyword is discipleship. We know if we grow in the word, all else will follow.

When we talk about SERVE, it's serving one another in love. The keyword is love.

When we talk TRANSFORM, it's to transform the community, the keyword is evangelism.

And this is how it looks like. We want to grow our prayer meeting. Also the Bible study class. And the cell group. And to increase the cell attendance by 20%.

Remember I preached about the cell and why it's important. When we say grow this is what we are talking about. We want something to aim at. We must try to get there. We have talked to all the ministries in the church to work towards this vision.

We want to serve one another. A 10% increase participation in all ministries. One person at least one ministry. You can also serve in special projects. Like Easter or Christmas. We want to serve one another in love. To achieve this we must all be serving. In some part of ministry.  50% of congregation to at least serve in one ministry. 6 mission trips, even short term overnight or day trip ministry. I like what some cells are doing. Where they went on day trip to minister to the orang asli.

Lastly, we want to transform the community. We want to look at our salvation and baptism. On average our whole year is about 10 to 12 gets saved. We want to increase that. We also wants to strengthen our cell model. To get one assistant cell leader and to groom up another potential leader. If we do that we can transform the community.  I'll put this up on our Facebook page. To remind ourselves.

I ask that you'll come alongside to work with the church. That all of us play our part. Can we do that church? Let's play our part so that the church can grow and we'll need one another.

Let's not say let the pastor do this. We need one another. How many of you agree this is your church? You are all part of it. It's not the building. It's you and me. Let's play our part.

What's out theme? GROW, SERVE, TRANSFORM. Grow and the keyword is discipleship. Serve, the keyword is love. And transform, the keyword is evangelism. Work with me and the leadership. 

We will do a survey. And ask you in what ministry will you like to serve in if you are not serving. And we will try to help you to serve. I want you to be serving in at least one ministry. Everybody to be in a cell. Everybody to go for Bible study and the prayer meeting. And also we want to change the format of the prayer meeting. To make it more vibrant.

Amen? Work with me. Are you ready to grow church? Are you ready to serve. Are.you ready to transform the community? Let's all do our part.