Beach Life: Vision

Throughout this “Beach Life” series, we will explore Jesus' mission and values and how he calls us to follow him and make his mission and values our own.

We kicked off this series by discussing the Mission of Beach Church. Our mission is to lead people to a life-changing relationship with Jesus. Our Mission is the reason we exist. Our five guiding values guide us in fulfilling our mission. 

Our Guiding Values are:
1)    Life-Changing Truth
2)    Transparent Living
3)    Uncomfortable Grace
4)    Captivating Celebration
5)    Selfless Service

The Life-Changing truth of the Word of God begins to change a person. They embrace the value of transparent living and understand that when they share their wins, sins, and struggles, they find accountability. That leads to Uncomfortable Grace.  We show grace so powerfully that it's unusual and a bit uncomfortable when we first begin to demonstrate it. And that leads to Captivating Celebration. We celebrate forgiveness, honesty, and reconciliation. And that life of celebration centered on Christ leads us to our final guiding value: Selfless Service. We believe that followers of Jesus best demonstrate love to others through acts of kindness and service.

 Then, we talked about our Anchor Points: How can we know if we are personally living out these guiding values. And today we are in the last sermon from our Beach Life Series…Vision.

One of the most popular television shows I watched as a child in the 1980s was “The A-Team.” The leader, Hannibal, always claimed to have a plan to help the people who hired them, but their "plans" were often chaotic and improvised. They built tanks out of tractors, potato guns from compressed air, and motorcycles from scraps…and they always managed to win. So, at the end of each episode, when everything worked out, Hannibal would light his cigar, grin, and say, “I love it when a plan comes together.” He always made it sound like the messiness, teamwork, and improvisation were all part of His master plan.

 And, in today’s passage of scripture, we will see that God’s vision for followers of Jesus will ultimately come together, even if we are stubborn and do all we can to see our plans unfold.

Acts 8:1-3 (NLT2)
1  Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen. A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria. 

Roughly three years had passed since Jesus had ascended into heaven.  Three years from the time Jesus gave them a vision for the mission he had given to them…

Acts 1:8 (NLT2)
8  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

 The vision Jesus had for his followers was that they would tell people about Jesus, not only in Jerusalem, but also in Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. What we have just read in Acts 8 is a clear example that sometimes…

YOU HAVE A PLAN, BUT GOD HAS A VISION

The disciples’ plan was that Jesus would establish a POLITICAL kingdom on the earth and rule over all other nations. They were waiting for a REVOLUTION. But Jesus had plans to ascend into heaven, give them the Holy Spirit, and that THEY would lead people to Jesus in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and throughout the ends of the earth.

Throughout the Gospels, the disciples never seemed to fully grasp that Jesus wanted the message of forgiveness of sins to go outside the city of Jerusalem.

Notice that in Acts 8 everyone was scattered EXCEPT the Apostles. While God used persecution to push ordinary believers outward, the Apostles…the very ones Jesus had personally commissioned…stayed put in Jerusalem. The movement Jesus envisioned was happening, but not because the leaders he trained chose to initiate it.

 They understood the mission to tell people about Jesus. But until persecution, they missed the vision and never took the good news of Jesus out of the city of Jerusalem.

The Apostles loved Jesus.
They believed Jesus was the Messiah.
They told others about Jesus.
They gathered together and prayed, worshipped, and did many good things.

 But there was a problem. They became too comfortable doing God's work in a place they loved.

 Jesus had clearly told them the message was supposed to go beyond Jerusalem into Judea, Samaria, and eventually the ends of the earth. Yet three years later, they were still in Jerusalem. They settled for something smaller than the vision of Jesus. And honestly, we often do the same thing.

 We have plans for our careers, marriages, retirement, and our children. We have plans for where we want to live, what we want to accomplish, and how we want our lives to unfold. But if God's vision is not part of the plan, eventually we will find ourselves frustrated, stuck, and wondering why things are not working the way we expected.

 And I am grateful that God is committed to His vision even when we are not.  When followers of Jesus stop moving toward His vision, God has a way of getting them moving again.

GOD USES THE HARD TO PUSH US FORWARD

 As we read already in Acts 8:1-2, God allowed the persecution to scatter believers and the message of forgiveness of sins was carried throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria! God waited for the followers of Jesus to move into the vision, but they would not leave their comfort zone. And, since they would not go, God used persecution to scatter them outward.

Have you ever stopped and asked yourself: Am I pursuing God's vision for my life? Or am I simply asking God to bless my vision for my life?

The Apostles wanted JERUSALEM to know Him. Jesus wanted the WORLD to know Him. And sometimes the tension we feel in life comes from the difference between our plans and God's vision. And if you have been experiencing hard things in your life, it may be because God is trying to push you out of your comfort zone to get involved in his vision. Because…

WE WERE NEVER MEANT TO STAY COMFORTABLE

Most of you know my personal story of how the Lord brought me here to Beach Church. Between 2014 and 2018, I was recruited by the Lead Pastor of a church in Arizona to be the next Lead Pastor when he retired. Instead, he returned from a sabbatical and told me God had called him to stay and called me to leave.

We were friends. I trusted him. I did not want to leave.

 The transition was painful for our family. It felt like a setback.  In many ways, emotionally, spiritually, financially, medically, it was. I can honestly tell you that God used the HARD to push me toward His VISION to reach the people in one of the fastest-growing communities in America for four years running.

 We are watching lives change, people surrender their lives to Jesus, and God do things that none of us could have imagined. We have become one of the fastest growing churches in America…for two years in a row!

 And, you were never meant to stay comfortable either.  But God will use the things in your life – even the valleys you don’t want to walk through- to eventually bring good results. That’s why the Apostle Paul said,

Romans 8:28 (NLT2)
28  And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

So, you can take a deep breath and trust him as you walk through the hard and challenging. You can’t see the end good just now, but God does. And you are going to be okay. 

 I also want to tell you that not every hard thing in your life is God redirecting you…Sometimes the hard is just hard. Sometimes loss is just loss. But God is asking that you trust Him through the hard anyway. 

 If we only focus on growing a church we can get comfortable in, we will be just like the Apostles were in the first church, and we will miss the vision for what God wants to do with Beach Church. Over the last year, I have been sharing with you that I believe God desires Beach Church to launch campuses along the Eastern Coast of the USA. I believe God is calling us to launch campuses in cities LIKE North Myrtle Beach, Surfside Beach, and Sunset Beach, NC. 

Just as Jesus wanted the first church to carry the mission into neighboring cities, I believe God desires us to move beyond our zip code.

 But before we can launch campuses there, we must continue strengthening the ministry here.

 When Beach Church averaged 700 people each weekend, we could organize and lead ministry one way. Today, we average more than 2,300 people each weekend. And what worked at 700 will not necessarily work at 2,300.

 As God continues to entrust more people to our care, we must continue aligning our staff so we can help people follow Jesus. Every healthy organization eventually reaches a point where yesterday's structure cannot support tomorrow's mission. And I believe God is preparing Beach Church for what comes next.

That is why we have created two Pastor positions to help:
An Executive Pastor who will help us strengthen leadership, develop staff, and prepare for future growth.
And a LifeGroups and Discipleship Pastor who will help us continue developing disciples, leaders, and healthy LifeGroups as more people connect to our church.

 These Pastors will strengthen our church for the  future God is calling us toward. So, will you please join me in prayer – and ask God to bring the right fit, the right people at the right time. And, because of the vision God has given to us – please understand how important your role is: 

When you get involved or lead a LifeGroup with transparency, you are helping us raise up our next leaders.
When you serve on the First Impressions team, you are welcoming our future campus pastors.
When you serve consistently, joyfully, and selflessly, you are helping raise up leaders.
When you give generously and celebrate through the good times and the bad, you are helping us create a culture that raises up leaders who strive to become more like Jesus.

 I don’t know yet where or when our next Beach Church campus will launch, but I know I must lead our church to be faithful and be ready to go when he leads. 

 I am 53 years old now.  I want to remain here until I am in my early seventies, and for the next twenty years, we partner together to raise up leaders, launch campuses, and impact future generations with the life-changing message of Jesus. 

God’s vision is always greater than we can possibly imagine.