Vision........

You are here today because you have passion; you will be here tomorrow because you have vision.

Most often we read the Bible for comfort, assurance, and certainty, but not for courage-------at least not in the truest sense. We’re willing to engage in battle if we believe that God has promised ultimate victory. We have somehow convinced ourselves that God has signed a contract with us, promising that we will never fail. Implied in that is that we will never suffer, go through disappointment, or even be inconvenienced in the journey.
What does it really mean to live by faith? THE RESPONSE OF FAITH IS NOTHING MORE THAN OBEDIENCE. Faith begins with God speaking and materializes when we RESPOND. Somehow we’ve come to believe that faith removes ambiguity rather than calls us to live in it.
The starting point of living by faith is recognizing that God has revealed so much of His will that we have plenty to live by without ever hearing another word. Some things you simply do not need to pray about. When God has spoken and commanded His people, praying sometimes becomes a way of resisting God’s will rather than a way of responding to it.
A church doesn’t need to pray about whether it should pray. It doesn’t need to pray about whether it should serve. It doesn’t need to pray about whether it should evangelize. We somehow believe that God is more interested in our comfort and our prosperity than His purpose in human history.
What took faith yesterday is sight today. When we live by faith, we allow God to take us into new experiences of who He is and how He works. The church cannot live on the faith of the past. The church is called to be the living expression of faith.
A community with the servant heart of God knows no limit to sacrifice, and when its people are doing what God created them to do, there is no limit to impact.
Character transformation is more than the elimination of sin. God is about reclaiming the divine potential He has planted within each individual.

You are here today because you have passion; you will be here tomorrow because you have vision. Vision is birthed through relationship. Passion is kindled in relationship. Mission is accomplished through community. Relationship with God and relationship within the community of God.
Falling hopelessly in love with God and staying hopelessly in love with God are the keys to discovering His loving action flowing through you as it fosters passion and maintains vision. Love is central to the heart of God and the ethos of the New Testament church without it we have no claim to be the disciples of Jesus Christ. In the end love manifests itself in sacrifice. John 13:34: The world will know that we are His disciples because we have love one for another. The practical expression of love is servanthood, love begins to change everything about your relationships. The church erupted out of an act of love. Love produces servanthood. Servanthood sees sacrifice as a privilege.
Love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. This is the culture of love established in the New Testament Church and in need of reclaiming in the contemporary church. Without loving, caring, serving and sacrificing relationships; the church ceases to exist.