Welcome to the Illuminate Church podcast.
We hope today's message is encouraging to you.
Well, today is Vision Sunday. Everyone say vision.
Yeah, Vision Sunday. What I hope to do today, the
goal of today is to show you what I believe the Lord has
given to us to give to you and really beyond you to give to you
so that you would give it to the region.
It doesn't end with us. The purpose of those people
around us, we just happen to be God's useful servants.
And not only just to tell you what the vision is, but also
tell you why vision matters and how to get it today so that you
don't just hear vision for my mouth for you.
You hear vision for yourself and for your relationships.
As I do every year, I went away in August for a week, a week
away, and I got a chance to pray with the Lord, worship the Lord,
speak to the Lord, mostly listening to the Lord, and I
repeatedly ask questions like God, what is it that you want
for the people? What is it that you want us to
grow? And what is it that you want us
to know so that our knowing becomes doing?
The most important question and the most often question I ask
is. God, what's the desire of your
heart like? Just reveal your heart to us so
that we can go and reveal your heart to others.
Like what is on your heart and mind?
Put it in my heart and mind so that I can put it on other
people's hearts and minds. And so he spoke.
He always does. He's never not speaking.
The problem is we're not listening.
Even in the 400 years of silence, do you think that God
was silent or the people were deaf?
Just wondering. So why does vision matter?
Well, this is the. Season turn to the calendar.
Everyone's thinking it's time to it's time to start something
new. We make these resolutions.
You know what resolutions are? They're vision.
Resolutions are vision. You say I want to see this in my
life, so I make this resolution so I can see this happen in my
life. It's vision.
But I want to tell you, and I say this gingerly to you, I
don't mean this to hurt. Anybody's feelings are hard.
But there's only one kind of vision that actually produces
that's actually effectual. You can find this in the
scripture. I'm going to show it to you in a
second. But it's a famous scripture, so
famous that people quote it not even knowing that it's
scripture. It's said in like CEO
boardrooms, you know, like the director, the whoever's the
leading the organization. They say these words.
People say it over themselves. But the familiar phrase is this
where there is no vision, the people perish.
You ever heard this before? Have you ever heard this before?
Yeah, so people say it. They look in the mirror like,
man, if I don't get a vision for my life, I'm just going, it's
not going to go well. If we have a vision for this
organization, it's going to go off the rails.
And we need vision, vision, vision.
And so organizations make vision statements.
You make vision statements, we call them resolutions or vows or
whatever you want to call them. We make them all the time.
But where the vision is, where there's no vision, the people
perish. That's from the King James
Version, and I don't think that they got it right.
Can I say that? I think they're missing an
incredibly important word that the English standard version,
the translation of the Bible called the ESV gets exactly
right because they add 1 adjective 1 adjective.
I want you to see it. Proverbs chapter 29 verse 18.
Look at this where there is no prophetic vision ever.
Go the people. Cast off restraint, but blessed
is he who keeps the laws. Did you see the adjective?
Come talk back to me church where there is no prophetic
vision, Prophecy, meaning from the Lord's mouth to us, the Lord
speaking to us through his word, through his Spirit, through
other believers full of the Spirit.
This prophetic word coming to us, it is from the Lord and from
the Lord only. It's not from a self help book
or a self help podcast or from any social media influencer out
there who's trying to disciple you with the rubbish vision that
is Spirit aided. And able to be accomplished with
the God of the impossible is vision that comes from the Lord.
All other visions you wonder why your resolution sometimes don't
work as because maybe they're not from the Lord and maybe
they're not spirit aided. And so even before you begin,
it's not going to work out. In the first service they told
me resolutions last usually till January 6th.
That's Tuesday. What's up with that?
It says that without prophetic vision.
So even if you have just earthly vision, that's without prophetic
vision. Without prophetic vision, people
cast off restraint. The old King James Version says
that where there is no vision, the people perish.
And it doesn't mean physical death, although it can be that.
It's more spiritual death, mental health death going
downhill. The people lose their minds.
To cast off restraint is to have no self-control.
It's what happened way back in the book of Exodus.
Moses, who's the leader of God's people, if you're not familiar
with the name, he's leading 2 million people.
They've been in slavery for 400 years and God empowers Moses to
lead them out of slavery. He leads them out and then they
come to the Red Sea. They got the army of Pharaoh
coming to chase him down and kill him and the the Red Sea
here and Moses through God's power parts the Red Sea.
They walk through the Red Sea, then the water, the Red Sea
crushes Pharaoh. You remember the story, the
Prince of Egypt. And then they get to the other
side and then Moses goes to Mount Sinai.
It's covered in cloud and Thunder and lightning.
God says Moses come up here and Moses goes up Mount Sinai to do
what? To receive vision, to hear from
the Lord, to inquire of him in his his temple.
This holy Mount Sinai. The rest of everybody else is
down in the valley, and as of yet they don't have vision.
So what happens down in the valley?
They cast off restraint. They go bonkers.
The reveling and the partying and Moses comes back down and
boom, the people have. Taken their gold, melted it down
and make a baby golden calf. A baby golden calf?
Is that redundant? Aren't all calves babies and
they're worshipping it? Can you imagine Moses, or even
more so the Lord God? Like, didn't I just get you out
of slavery and part the sea and now you're worshipping this cow?
You know the cows name Chick-fil-A.
That's not in the notes, clearly.
Yeah. They cast off restraint.
They lost their minds. They lost their self-control.
The people were perishing in that way.
Now, On the contrary, look at the rest of the scripture says.
But blessed is he or she who keeps the law.
Blessed Order and life come from the law.
Order and life come from the words that proceed from God's
mouth. This word right here, which has
been given to us so that we could live rightly.
Let me, let me say it to you this way.
Any anybody drive in here like a vehicle, a car.
Remember, we're, we're talking back today.
Yeah. OK.
Praise God, we're talking back every Sunday.
By the way. Can I count on you?
Can I count on y'all? How about y'all students?
Can I count on you? Hey, that was pretty, pretty
energized, you know. Can I count on the mezzanine
students? You want a second chance, huh?
Are there people in overflow? Overflow.
Can I count on you? Was that a sheep?
What was that? We are so lost.
OK, back to driving. Imagine with me.
You're driving. But it is a night, OK?
And at night you're driving and there you're going down the road
and another car comes in this direction.
This happened to you if you're a driver.
And suddenly their headlights, whether or high beam or not, you
come around a curve, whatever happens, at one point they're
pointed directly in your eyeballs.
Your pupils are huge, or they go shrink, dilate or whatever
happens. And you're like, I can't see.
And you're moving at a rapid speed.
You're thinking I'm in a car that's going to crash.
So when I was in driver's Ed class, I learned something way
back in 1990 if you want to do the math.
They said, hey, anytime you get blinded and you can't see, just
look for the stripe. You know what I'm talking about,
the stripe on the right. And if you follow the stripe on
the right, it will guide you to safety.
You already know what I'm trying to say.
Can I get kind of cheesy preachy with you?
We're talking back when life tries to blind you, when the
distractions come, when the defeats come, they're in the
fullness of the view of your scope and they're blinding you
right here. The Lord has given us a stripe
on the right that if you will look to the stripe on the right,
it will guide you to safety. Without the stripe on the right,
you're going to lose your bearings, lose your ability to
know which way is which, and the car you cast off your strength
be crashing, your life can be crashing.
The stripe on the right is God's word, and God's word is vision.
I'll say to you another way. And in our lives, we often do
look for vision. And we say, God, what do you
have for me? What do you want me to do in
this situation? What do you want to do with my
life? How do you want me to spend
2026? And he says, I'm glad you asked.
Here's the answer. No, no, God, I know you have the
Bible, and the guy on Sunday will teach me the Bible.
But I'm asking you, what's your vision for my life?
I've given it to you, you, you want a new word and you're
forsaking the always word. Thank you brother.
It wouldn't shouldn't surprise us that when we seek vision and
often just sound like scripture, it will often just be scripture
and use the word just feels like it's demeaning to the word of
God. In a world full of self help
visions. This proverb, proverb 2918
redirects us that true life, true order, true blessing and
happiness comes from the word of God.
Not our own dreams, not our determination to change what we
see in the mirror, but straight from the lips of God.
Keep the law in 2026 and you will live holy, Holy New Year.
Now back to the vision that God has given to illuminate church.
What I heard when I went away in August that he's been kind of
speaking over and over again from that day till this day
here. And it shouldn't surprise you
that the vision is Scripture. There.
If you would turn with me in your Bibles to Philippians
chapter 3 is where we're going to be.
If you need a Bible, just raise your hand and one will appear in
your hands out of heaven from one of the ushers.
You can keep that Bible. Philippians chapter 3.
It's one of the letters that Paul wrote to the churches.
Corinthians then you get Galatians, Ephesians,
Philippians, Colossians. I memorize that by saying go eat
popcorn. Just helping you out so you can
know your Bible. Galatians, Philippians,
Philippians, Philippians. Chapter 3, we're going to read
what Jesus was speaking through Paul to the church in Philippi,
verse 17. Are you ready to say yes, join
together and following my example, Paul says, brothers and
sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on
those who live as we do. In other words, he's saying this
is the vision. You see how we live, live like
us according to the law. For as I've often told you
before and now tell you again, even with tears, many live as
enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction,
their God is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame.
Their mind is set on earthly fangs.
Paul is echoing a sentiment of Proverbs chapter 2918.
Where there is no vision, the people will perish.
Their destiny is destruction. Do you see the similarities?
We're talking back. Paul is doing some reverse
engineering here. He tells us the end and then he
tells us how it happens. The end is destruction,
destruction of your peace, your relationships, your mental
health, all of it. And how did it happen?
He says three ways and they're kind of all the same, just
different so that we get the full picture.
He says first, their God is their stomach.
The Israelites built a golden calf.
He's saying that most people in the world and the time of
Philippi, and I would dare say today, their God is not the
golden calf, that God is a stomach.
For some people, literally the stomach, but in general what he
means is the desires of the flesh.
I have made the desires of the flesh my God, and whatever's my
God orders my life. So whatever my flesh is crying
out for is going to order me, help me make my decisions, help
me tell me where to spend my money, help me tell me where to
spend my time based on who my God is.
And so if my God is my flesh, then my flesh is telling me what
to do. This is the instant
gratification culture. This is where flesh overcomes
spirit. And can I just do a side note
here until you come back next week, because next week we're
going to talk about fasting. And fasting is this incredible
tool that God has given us to help us learn that our Spirit,
His Spirit can overcome our flesh and He's given us a tool
to do it. So if you're struggling with the
flesh. You're constantly sinning and
you don't, you know you don't want to be.
You keep going back and back and back again.
It's because your flesh is telling your spirit what to do
and fasting will the Spirit will tell your flesh what to do.
We'll come back next week. You hear more?
He goes on to say their glories and their shame, meaning that
they were boasting in the disgusting practices as if they
were good. Look at these terrible things
we're doing as an affront to God.
Check us out. Aren't we awesome?
Let me blast it so the whole world can see my debauchery.
I'm proud of it. Their glories and their shame.
What we boast about often reveals our true identity, not
our true identity. Because your true identity is
Christ. Followers is in Christ.
But the enemy wants to confuse your identity and make you
believe a lie. What are you boasting about?
The things of heaven or the things of earth.
And then he finally says their mind is set on earthly things.
Very similar to the last two. I have this obsession, this
fixation with the things of the earth.
They drive me. Money, power, lust, ego, greed,
comfort, they drive me. Just want to do a little litmus
test today. How can you know what your life
boasts about and what your mind is set on?
What could you? How can you tell?
I mean, certainly you could ask somebody, but you could just
find out for yourself by looking at two things.
Number one, your checking account, see where your money
goes. That's what's important to you.
And #2 y'all love me? Will you still love me in 20
seconds? Look at your social media feed.
What are you boasting about? Because that's where we boast.
That's modern day boasting, right?
Social media. Show the best, hide the rest.
You heard it before. And so it's not a problem to use
social media to share what's happening in your life.
Here's where we went. Here's my fitness journey.
Here's what I'm changing to my outfit.
My fit check. Is that.
Is that a thing? My daughter was looking at me
like, shut up, dad. Shut up, dad.
Is that if it's fit check a thing?
OK, Bless you. But isn't Jesus part of your
life? Hope you said no, Jesus is not
part of your life. Jesus is the essence and the
fullness and the all-encompassing thing in your
life and yet your social media says nothing about him.
Are we ashamed of him? Are we boasting about him?
Do you still love me? Your social media feed will tell
you what you're boasting about. Does it say that you boast about
heaven or do you boast about earth?
Do you boast about God's Kingdom or do you boast about yours?
Now look at the juxtaposition. Paul goes on and he gives us
verse 20. This is the verse for the vision
of illuminate church. But our citizenship, say our
that's us, is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior
from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that
enables him to bring everything under his control, will
transform our lowly bodies, Hallelujah, so that they will be
like his glorious body. We're looking for physical
transformation. And Jesus says, follow me and I
will make the transformation that you really need.
He also says this. There's one place where the
Savior comes from, the Kingdom of heaven.
And we eagerly await the Savior from there.
The Savior. Is not the person looking at you
in the mirror? The savior Is not the person
sitting in the White House? The savior is not your favorite
football team, your Hollywood idol, your social media
influencer. There's only one savior, and he
does not come from earth. He comes from another Kingdom, a
glorious, holy Kingdom. And Paul says when you believe
in him, you become citizens of that Kingdom.
Do you know, maybe you got tripled dual membership or
citizenship, but if you only have one country that you're a
citizen, you actually have dual citizenship.
Your country of origin, USA for me.
And now I'm also a citizen of heaven, OK?
More about that in a minute, but I got to tell you this what Paul
is saying in this letter to the specific locale of people, it
matters intensely. It's no small thing.
Philippi was this Greek city that was led by ruled by two
guys named Brutus and Cassius. Anyone remember these names?
Yeah, in history, Brutus and Cassius at Tubutte remember this
line. These are the guys that stabbed
Julius Caesar in the back. A friend of theirs, but they
took him down and now they're leading Greece and they're
leading the city of Philippi. And along comes a Roman emperor
named Octavian, whose name eventually becomes Augustus
himself. And he defeats them and takes
over this Greek city called Philippi, a very important trade
city along the Via Ignatius, this important Rd. trade Rd. in
the old way, back when days. And he makes this proclamation.
I have to read it because it's not in English, but he says of
this area of land, he granted the area of land the title of
Eus Italicum. It's in Latin, the highest
status for a provincial colony, making this colony equivalent to
Italian soil, so that the people that live there now have become
Romans, which doesn't matter very much to us, but to them
it's like one in the jackpot. Rome was the jam.
Rome had everything that all the other countries didn't.
The best education, the best armies, the best
infrastructures. You all heard about the roads
that Rome built, the best wealth, the best buildings and
architecture, the best entertainment.
According to them, the best of the best of the best.
Everybody shouldn't say everybody.
A lot of people wanted to be Romans, just like a lot of
people want to come into the United States of America.
Do you understand? Do you understand?
And so these people were delighted to be Romans.
But the interesting thing is they're 1000 miles from Rome.
It's not like Rome just took over a little part of their
country and just added another little part to the what was
already here. There's 1000 miles away.
That's the distance between here and New York City, roughly.
We getting back and forth to New York City in 2 1/2 hours on a
plane ride. We go up there, eat Magnolia
Bakery. Chocolate cake, anybody?
Glory to God, you'll try and you'll you'll see heaven and if
you get a lot of it you'll see heaven quickly. 1000 miles away.
2 1/2 hours for us by planes, 8 weeks for them by foot, donkey
and boat. So it's worlds apart.
Didn't have any telecommunications.
The only way that a letter gets there is by 8 weeks foot, donkey
and boat. But yet in this little section
of Greece that's now Roman, these people are Romans.
The laws, the customs, the practices, the protection, the
affluence, all of it is given to them.
All rights and privileges, all the way where they lived as
Romans even though they were far away from their homeland.
And Paul says, I'm glad you like your Roman citizenry, but I have
something better for you. That same mindset that you have
as being Romans here now transfer it to the Kingdom of
heaven. And they're like, but we love
being Romans. We.
Proudly stand up next to you and Defenders Still Day.
Now listen, I'm not making a political statement here.
I love our country. My dad was in the Army 26 years,
my grandfather in the Air Force for 20 plus years.
I'm as patriotic as they come. This isn't really about the
United States at all. It's about earth and about
heaven. And we have been indoctrinated
with earthly citizenship as if it's paramount when Jesus has
given us heavenly citizenship. And here's what Here's why that
matters. Earthly citizenship is binding.
Heavenly citizenship is free. Earthly citizenship looks like
walking in darkness. Heavenly citizenship looks like
walking in light. Earthly citizenship looks like
walking in limited power. Heavenly citizenship looks like
walking in unlimited power. Riches of heaven, Presence of
God. Where am I at?
Here's the vision for 2026 for Illuminate Church based on
Philippians chapter 3. We're going to eject our earthly
citizenship and embody our heavenly citizenship by knowing,
living and exalting the Word of God.
That's what we're doing. Paul contrasted earthly Roman
citizenship with heavenly citizenship so that he would
reorient the believers identity and allegiance.
And I believe God wants to do the same for us, that we would
reorient our identity and allegiance from being earthlings
to being my friend. In Texas.
He calls it Heva Kins. Pastor Juan Martinez, you
remember him, Doctor Love? He's got a whole shirt brand of
things. Like all Heva kins, we're Heva
kins members, citizens of heaven.
What I'm going to do this year is I'm going to open the Word of
God and ask you to BYOB, bring your own Bible.
To church with you every Sunday. Then when you're walking in,
everyone's got a Bible. Like this everyone like I got my
phone, like, you know, actually get a Bible, right.
The Bible's for convene. I mean, the phone's for
convenience. I use it sometimes.
I get it. I'm not anti phone on the Bible,
Bible on the phone, but have this and walk in with it.
And together we're going to open the word of God and we're going
to look inside and we're going to see what does it look like?
What are the rights and the privileges of a citizen of
heaven? That's what we're doing this
year. We're going to open the Word of
God together. You're going to open your word
and read it of it yourself and learn from it yourself.
What are the duties and obligations of a citizen of
heaven? What power rests on and moves
through a citizen of heaven? What should a city of heaven be
doing on a daily basis here on earth, not awaiting some grand
departure? What does that look like?
And we're going to be studying that in 2026.
The goal at the end of the year is that you understand God's
Kingdom even more and that you would reveal His Kingdom to the
earth because it's here and it's growing.
And it's our job to do that. How are we going to do that here
at Illuminate Church? For essential things that I want
to give to you today that will help us understand and embody
our identity as citizens of heaven #1 the local church is an
embassy of the heavenly Commonwealth, The Commonwealth.
That's not the name we use very word we use here in the United
States, so that it was used a lot in like Britain, those kind
of places. But it's commonly together.
We are wealthy together, specifically as citizens of
heaven. We are wealthy because of our
king, for he shares everything from his throne to us.
We share in this Commonwealth. The Bible teaches us in first
Peter that we are foreigners, that we are exiles on earth.
Some Bibles use the word aliens. You are ET as citizens of
heaven. The earth is no longer our home.
We are foreigners here. Yeah.
So what does that mean? That we are the Bible teaches.
I'm about to read to you that we are ambassadors from a foreign
land living here in Florida on mission.
Listen to the heavenly mindset here in Second Corinthians
chapter 5 S from now on, we no longer regard anyone from a
worldly point of view, I've. Transferred my citizens to
heaven. I'm looking to the eyes of
heaven. Though we once regarded Christ
in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in
Christ, the new creation has come, the old has gone, the
earthly has gone, the new is here, the heavenly is here.
All of this is from God who reconciled us to Himself through
Christ and gave us all the ministry of reconciliation, that
God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting
people sins against them. Hallelujah.
And He committed to us the message of reconciliation.
We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were
making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's
behalf. Be reconciled to God.
Jesus reconciles us by his ultimate sacrifice on the cross.
We put our faith in Jesus and he forgives our sins.
The debt is paid, we are reconciled.
And then he says, now that that's happened for you and me,
go and make it apparent to others that they too can be
reconciled. And that's why we're called
ambassadors. He's given us a mission to
accomplish. Every ambassador has a home in a
foreign land, like in the Japan. There's the American embassy in
Israel and Jerusalem. I've seen it with my own eyes.
The American embassy sitting there, the home of the
ambassador, I just said the word 600 times.
Isn't is embassy? Embassies are places where two
things happen. Number one, in an embassy, even
if you're in another country, within the walls of the embassy,
the laws, the practices, the customs of that of your
originating nation are practice there.
So in Japan in November, the Americans are celebrating
Thanksgiving in the embassy. They're speaking English.
They're practicing American customs, and from that embassy
the ambassador fulfills the desires of the one who appointed
them. Translate that easily to us.
Here we are as foreigners in this land, and your embassy,
your local church, is Illuminate Church.
And in this place we will speak the laws, the language and the
customs. Of our homeland of heaven.
In this place we will together learn our mandate and mission,
the desire of the One who is sent us.
His name is King Jesus, or call him President Jesus.
You ever thought of him that way?
Because we don't understand kingship.
How about General Jesus? It's easy for me to understand
because my dad was in the Army. But when the general said move,
you moved and we moved. North Carolina, Alabama, Alaska,
Alabama, Kansas, Germany, another Germany, Texas, Alabama,
Florida. By the time I was 14, we haven't
left 1987, the general has assigned you to Central Florida.
Do you not see that? Do you not recognize that God
himself has said, I want you in Central Florida as my
ambassador? I picked you.
There's other people in other parts of the world and that's
their job. But Central Florida, the people
here that are perishing outside of the gospel are your
assignment. I'm entrusting it to you.
The general has spoken #2 corporate worship, rehearses the
values and languages, language of our homeland.
Just going to summarize this again.
In Philippians chapter 3 verse 20, the Apostle Paul reminds us
that believers, their true citizenship is in heaven, and he
does it in Philippi, which is a Roman colony where residents
adopted Roman customs, language, values, despite being far from
Rome itself. Similarly, as citizens of heaven
living here, as colonists on earth, Christians, followers of
Jesus, are called to embody and practice the priorities, the
values of their eternal homeland.
Corporate worship. What we're doing right here and
right now serves as the key arena for our rehearsal,
practicing our values and our customs.
Corporate worship, gathering as a congregation to sing, to pray,
to rear. Read God's.
Word and participate in stuff like not stuff, ordinances,
communion, baptism. All of this acts as a foretaste,
a dress rehearsal for the eternal worship in heaven.
We're praise to God as the central activity of all
believers. Corporate worship is training us
to align with heaven's values. I'm going to give you 3 of
heaven's values that we're training for every time we come
together on Sunday mornings #1 is unity and diversity.
You say it. Unity and diversity.
Yeah, in heaven. Our homeland, what they do and
what we should be doing here is they worship involves a vast
multitude from every tribe, tongue, every people, every
nation. They're all joined together in
perfect harmony surrounding God's throne.
So earthly worship rehearses this by bringing together
diverse believers in one singular pursuit, one body,
fostering communal bonds, fostering mutual edification of
one another, which is completely countercultural to what's going
on in the world. Hey blacks, you stay over here
and be black. Hey Browns, Latinos, y'all over
here, stay to yourself. Hey whities y'all, keep inside
your boundaries. Do not intermingle.
In fact, if you do intermingle, the rest of your tribe is going
to be like, what are you doing? They're not us.
Now look around this room man.
May the silos that us humans put on ourselves be broken down in
the name of Jesus. One body, 1 Lord of all, every
tribe, every tongue, every nation.
And when we gather like this on a Sunday, we gather with people
that you might not normally gather with, and maybe that
changes for you and your normals change and you're gathering with
people, not colors. We rehearse that in here because
that's what heaven looks like, Holiness and worthiness focused
on Christ. This is the other value, another
value that we practice every time that we gather on a Sunday.
Heavenly values Center on the exclusive worthiness of the Lamb
of God, who receives all power, riches, wisdom, strength, honor,
glory, and blessing. Because of His sacrificial
redemption, He deserves it all. Corporate worship like this
rehearses by directing all attention to God's glory, to
Christ's work in the power of Holy Spirit.
We do this by confession of sin, by the proclamation of the
gospel, by the expression of gratitude, all of this
cultivating a heart posture, and all of us of reverence, a heart
posture of dependence that mirrors eternity's unceasing
adoration of the King. Can I just say this?
None of this is for us. We come here thinking that
church is something for me and all of this is for Him.
We're coming here to become better, not for ourselves.
It's a byproduct. God's goodness that He blesses
us and does things in our lives. But the purpose of all of this
is to give Him glory. That His name will be known,
that His name will be heard, That His name will be called
upon holiness and worthiness focused on Christ.
That's what we're doing when we come here.
When we come here, we also learn about the enthusiasm and longing
for God. Enthusiasm means in pheos, in
God. Unlike apathetic or
self-centered earthly pursuits, Heaven's worship is marked by
genuine, loud, go read your scriptures and eternal praise.
There's no mixture of boredom and no mixture of distraction
when we are at our on our knees in front of the Lord.
In corporate settings like this, believers together practice this
by passionately singing, by reading together the Word of
God, by collective amens. All of this builds a deep
satisfaction and all of us of God and his goodness as he
prepares us for that moment that we're with him face to face.
And when you're with him face to face, you can't help but
worship. You'll say holy, holy, holy, or
look away because he's too holy. Then you look back again.
You're like a holy, holy, holy over and over.
You'll be stunned by his glory the same way you feel every time
you see a sunset. You ever get bored like seen it
before? You're like, whoa, look at the
sunset. Imagine seeing God face to face.
I told you there's four things that are essential to us
becoming citizens are living out our citizenry is heaven #1 your
local church is the embassy #2 corporate worship we rehearse #3
Church discipleship mirrors Kingdom standards.
Write it down, you'll forget it by January 6th.
Church discipleship. Church discipline mirrors
Kingdom standards. Discipline is an undervalued
word in our generation. Would you agree?
Discipline, according to the deceiver, is going to cramp your
style, hem you in, bind you up. Discipline, according to the
deceiver, goes against the prevailing notion that you just
need to do what feels good for you.
Do it because it feels good. Consequences.
But discipline is a hallmark of the Kingdom of heaven.
It's why Jesus's followers are called disciples, because they
are disciplined to follow the rabbi.
It's why we exist at the church. We help people find abundant
life in Jesus. Yes, but how?
Make disciples not Christians, not church country clubbers,
people who follow Jesus. How?
Meet God. Discover who you are in Christ.
Become like Jesus and lead others to do the same.
Meet, discover, become, lead. You say it now.
Say it like you actually care about it.
Praise God. Matthew chapter 28, Some of
Jesus's last words. Therefore, go and make
believers, Christians, churchgoers, disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son of the
Holy Spirit, and teaching them, disciplining them to obey
everything that I have commanded you.
And surely I'm with you always to the very end of the age.
Jesus says that our job on the earth, my job as a pastor,
certainly everybody's job together out in whatever place
you working or live in, is to teach people to obey this word,
to obey His commands, to follow Him with discipline.
The world reviles it. We will live by it.
I want to show you very briefly the series that God put on my
heart back in August for this coming year so you can get a
picture where we're going and how all of this ties together
with the citizenry of heaven. Amen.
The first one, which is the first thing and the massive
thing that we would be doing in heaven, is a series based on
worship called Abandoned. What would it look like if this
church was a worshiping church? And worship, yes, is singing,
but worship also, according to Romans chapter 12, is to offer
your body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to him.
This is your spiritual act of worship.
What does it look like? Sometimes I'm back behind the
platform here watching the TV screen of all the cameras
because I can't see you all because there's a curtain there.
You know what I'm talking about. And I watched the crowd.
And I think, man, I wonder if this congregation cares as much
about Jesus as they do about the Gators or the other teams that I
cannot mention. Not that team is especially not
that team. Yes.
Yep. Were you that loud for Jesus?
I'm OK. I believe you.
I believe you and you. It's an overstated point, but it
it's just so true. We show so much passion for so
many things. And we come in for the House of
the God and we stand like statues.
We're no different than the chair.
What if we, with great fervor, came to Sunday morning ready to
pour out our offering of praise to the Lord, and you couldn't
keep me quiet. You couldn't get me to stand
still because I have so much gratitude in my heart for the
Lord. What would that look like?
That's what that series is about.
I didn't mean to talk that much about it.
The second series is called Community, because guess what?
In heaven, you don't live by yourself.
You have brothers and sisters in this room, brothers and sisters
that you're still treating, I'm still treating like strangers.
That person sitting behind you never met, that's your brother,
that's your sister, actual family.
And the reason it says restoring original design is because you
were always built to live in community.
So if you're living outside community, you're not operating
in your original design. You're flapping in the wind.
We're going to we're going to talk about that Citizens of
Heaven together. Then we're going to jump into a
massively long series, maybe the longest 1.
You thought Weeds in my Garden was long?
Thank God for that series. Was that a great series or what?
Hallelujah. It's a series called Meta, and
it's not that meta. It's the meta narrative.
It's the singular story from Genesis to Revelation that God
has put together for our sake and for his glory that we might
understand what he's doing. It's a three-part series that's
broken down into miniseries, I guess you would call them.
The first one is called Faith Begins the Genesis Story.
The book of Genesis is so profoundly important to our
faith and our heritage. How did it all begin?
Why did it all begin? And what's been set in motion
from the very beginning? That's being fulfilled in our
time and will be fulfilled certainly at the end of times.
We need to understand these things.
Citizens of heaven should understand these things.
Then we'll move on to a series called The Kingdom Unveiled,
which is a study for the parables.
When Jesus speaks the parables, these are teaching stories.
That's what a parable is. He begins them the same way he
says the Kingdom of heaven is like.
The Kingdom of Heaven is like, and so as citizens of the
Kingdom of Heaven, we ought to know what the Kingdom of Heaven
is like. So we're going to study the
parables and understand this great Kingdom that we're a part
of. And then we get to the last part
of this long series, many series called The King is Coming,
Living in Light. Of the Book of Revelation.
There's a lady in one of our life step two groups.
She said, man, when churches start speaking about Revelation,
I get like hooky, spooky, weird, terrified.
A lot of people are terrified and confused by the Book of
Revelation and God said that all scripture is useful and we know
like 90% of the Bible, we get the Book of Revelation like I'm
out right. We're going to do a deep dive
into the Book of Revelation. Be praying for me in Jesus name
and then we have one final series after this called answer
the question because the citizens in heaven.
You ought to be able to tell people that you're king and
people are asking you whether you know it or not.
They ask in all sorts of different ways, Why'd you do
that? Why do you feel great?
Why are you able to keep your head up when things are so
negative? Why is your household so
peaceful? Why your kids turn out decent?
They're. Asking.
You the question and we don't know how to answer it.
We're an unequipped church. So we're going to equip
ourselves, let the Lord equip us through his word and be able to
answer the question. And then, then we'll have a
Christmas series, but only God knows what that is at this
point. In Jesus name.
I told you there was 4 things. This is your embassy, the local
church. This is the place that we
rehearse the Kingdom values, the Kingdom ideals of of heaven.
This is the place of church discipleship where we're going
to discipline ourselves in the Lord.
And then finally there's this. The Lord's Supper reinforces the
interim status of all of us as pilgrims until the day of his
return. First Corinthians Chapter 11
verse 26 says For whenever you eat this bread and drink this
cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
Meaning that from crucifixion to final victory that this is our
story, this is our Savior, this is our singular focus, our
crucified yet risen King who will one day return.
We're just in the middle. Community can mean a lot of
things to a lot of people, but one thing it certainly should
mean is that it reminds you that the King is not done yet.
The story's not over. He shed his blood, He bought
victory over sin and death, and one day he will conquer it
forever. So many things that come along
with this that are just blessing after blessing after blessing
his return. If you need communion elements,
just raise your hand and we'll bring them to you.
Might have missed you at the door in the mezzanine.
We'll get you as well. We're coming to you, Bella
Varis. If you need gluten free
elements, just wash the window like this and we'll bring you
those. I want you to know, and I don't
mean this in any other way except biblically, that
communion is a privilege of the citizens of heaven.
The Bible makes it clear that it's for believers.
We have an open table, which means if you believe in Jesus,
there's no other rituals or rites or anything you need to go
through to celebrate communion. However, it's reserved for set
aside for believers. Now what kind of rude church
will we be to have communion and talk about the citizenry, the
Kingdom of heaven, and not give you an opportunity to believe
yourself, to join the family, to become a citizen of heaven, to
place your faith and trust in the one who paid the price so
that you and I can live forever more.
So if you would bow your heads and close your eyes, I'm.
Just going to have the whole church pray this out loud and
maybe you're praying this prayer for the first time to receive
Jesus as Savior. Church, say with me, Father, in
the name of Jesus, I recognize that I'm a Sinner in need of a
Savior. And today I confess and I
believe that Jesus is Lord. I receive him into my heart.
And I ask you, Jesus, to live your life through my life, all
the days of my life. Hallelujah, just with your heads
bowed, your eyes closed. Somebody here today is making
that prayer for the first time. You're like, yes, I'm crossing
the line of faith. I'm all in Jesus, I believe.
And if that's you today, I have something I need to give you,
and I need to give it to you now.
So I'm going to ask you to do 1 bold thing.
I'm going to count the three. And if you prayed that for the
first time, you're going to raise your hand as high as it
can go so that one of these ushers can give you something
that's crucial to get to you right here, right now, today.
Don't be ashamed. You just made the best decision
of your entire life. 123, anyone believing on Jesus for the first
time today, we're going to bring that to you right here, right
now. And even the balcony, the
mezzanine, come on. Excellent.
Bless you, God, if everyone now would stand with me as we
receive community together. If you want to go ahead and
prepare the elements, opening the top layer and the the juice
layer, be careful. Take the bread and hold it up.
Let's pray with our eyes open. Father, we bless you and thank
you for the bread. We believe that you're a broken
body healed ours, and we know that it was no easy sacrifice
for you. We remember that you were
crucified, but we also remember you're coming again.
To you be the glory we remember, and we thank you for the cup,
the cup of the New Covenant, for the remission of sins, for the
wiping clean of our slates. That our sins you remember no
more by the shedding of your Son's blood, we remember with
gratitude. Thanks for joining us today.
We hope God is speaking to your heart through this message.
If you'd like to connect with us, you can text connect to
407-588-0115 or visit Illuminate dot church.
Have a great week.