The Vision Every Church Needs

0:01 You see, the Bible says, God hath said every member of the church as it hath pleased him. Every member is a cell or a part of the total body. And we want a church where no one is overlooked, no one is lost, strayed, or stolen. A church where everybody is some body. THAT IS WHERE EVERY MEMBER IS LED TO DISCOVER, TO DEVELOP, AND TO DEPLOY HIS OR HER SPIRITUAL GIFT. EVERY ONE OF YOU LISTENING TO ME TONIGHT HAS A MINISTRY. YOU MAY NOT BE PRACTICING THAT MINISTRY, BUT YOU HAVE ONE. YOU MAY NOT HAVE FOUND IT, BUT YOU HAVE ONE. GOD DID NOT CALL YOU TO COME INTO THIS CHURCH TO SIT, SOAK, AND SOUR. GOD called you to come in this church to surrender and serve.

1:01 That's why you're here. That's what it's all about. God hath said every member of the church as it hath pleased him. The Adrian Rogers Pastors Podcast is a wellspring of biblical encouragement specifically for those called to preach the Word, love the church, and lead with integrity. Listen now and be strengthened for the road ahead. We as a church need to know who we are, what we're up to, what God's plan, God's will for the church is. And I want to share that with you, at least from a pastor's perspective. Proverbs chapter 29 and verse 18, Where there is no vision, the people perish. But he that keepeth the law, happy is he. Now the word for vision here is not the normal word for vision.

1:55 that means to see, but it actually, the Hebrew word means where there is no revelation of the will of God, where there is no open revelation, where God is not speaking and people are not hearing and heeding what God is saying, then those people perish. We need to hear from God. Now, a holy church is an awesome, awesome weapon in the hand of a mighty God. And if there were ever a day and age in which we need churches like this one needs to be, and all churches ought to be, holy churches, this is the day and the age. I have in the things that I've jotted down here a litany of the problems that we have in America today. And I'm going to just skip through all of those.

2:48 Why? Number one, I just don't even like to talk about them. And number two, you probably already know them. And I don't need to tell you again, folks, that we are in a mess. So I just saved you ten minutes. Now, listen. America has been warned. Put this verse in your margins. 2 Chronicles chapter 36 and verse 16. But they mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people till there was no remedy. Now that tells us there is a point that we can go beyond and there's no hope. Listen to that verse again.

3:42 They mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy. That is, they passed the point where there is no medicine that can do any good. Now, I believe that God wants Bellevue Baptist Church to have a vision. not yesterday's vision, but today's vision for today's need. And I've been searching and praying as a pastor to know what God wants me to say to you, what kind of a pastor I need to be, what kind of a church God wants me to lead this church to be. And I told you some time ago that vision has been defined this way. A vision is foresight based on hindsight with insight.

4:45 A vision is knowledge, but it is more than knowledge. It is knowledge on fire. And our great failure is not that we do not realize our vision. That's not the great problem. The great problem with most churches and many churches is they don't have a vision. And remember what Helen Keller, who was blind, said. What could be worse than being blind? She said it would be to have sight and to have no vision. So what is vision?

5:24 Vision is a purpose with a passion. Vision is knowledge on fire, and it involves creativity. It involves courage. What does God want this church to be? Now, we said that vision was foresight with hindsight. I think in order to look forward, you have to look backward. And you have to look backward all the way back to when our Lord founded the church. And the New Testament church. One of the great dangers is that we compare ourselves with other churches in this city or other churches in America and say by that standard we're doing pretty good. But when we compare ourselves with the New Testament church, we're not doing so good, folks.

6:22 Now let's do a little hindsight. What was the New Testament church like? Well, in the first place, it was a very rigid church. Now, rigidity is not looked upon today as a virtue. But the first church, the church that Jesus founded, the apostolic church, was not a broad-minded church. It was a very intolerant church. Now, I'm not talking about Pharisaism, And I'm not talking about a lack of love, but let me just tell you some of the things that they were intolerant of. They were intolerant of any way of salvation apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle said in Acts chapter 4, verse 12, neither is there salvation in any other. For there is none other name unto heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. There are those who are telling us that Jesus Christ is one of the ways to heaven and not the only way.

7:17 And yet that is coming in. IT WILL NOT COME INTO THIS CHURCH SO LONG AS YOU HAVE THE ONE STANDING HERE AS YOUR PASTOR. But they were an intolerant church. No other name than Jesus. And not only were they intolerant of any other plan of salvation, they were intolerant of sin. They didn't put up with sin. Sin was not glossed over. It was not excused.

7:44 In many churches today, almost anyone gets in and no one gets out. And churches have gone from being a sheepfold to a zoo. This New Testament church was rigid, but I'll tell you something else, it was respected. It was a respected church. The problem in America today is that evangelical Christians have been made the butt of many jokes. Jesus said, when salt loses its savor, it's good for nothing but to be cast out and be trodden underfoot of men. and that is happening today. There is no respect for the true church of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't expect them to love us, but I do expect them to respect us, to know that we're here.

8:38 In Acts chapter 5, don't turn to it, but in Acts chapter 5, the judgment of God was so much upon that church that when God came in in mighty power, the Bible says this in verse 13, and of the rest, no man durst or dared no man join himself to them, but the people magnified them. That is, they didn't just waltz down the aisle to join this church easily, thoughtlessly. And then verse 14 says, And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and of women. So a respected church repels and attracts at the same time. If we try to please everybody, we'll please the devil most of all. Now, it was also a revolutionary church, an early church. They weren't out to enjoy the world.

9:38 They were out to change the world. And the early church had a head-on collision with the Roman Empire. And it was said of them that they turned the world upside down. They were not middle of the rotors. They were not moderate about the Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and other things. But not only was it, uh, rigid and respected and revolutionary, but it was a responsive church. They were not just occupying pews, thinking they'd done God a favor when they come and listen to a sermon. they were always at it, and they were all at it.

10:30 We have raised in America today a generation of spectator Christians. Every church is motivated and driven by something, some overwhelming purpose. And I've been thinking about what we need is not primarily a church that specializes in this thing or that thing, but a wholesome church.

11:04 And the word whole, W-H-O-L-E, is the basis for the word wholesome. And that word whole, as I began to think about it, Thank you. is in all of the Bible. It's used many ways. But it speaks of balance, and it speaks of health.

11:29 Let's think just a little bit tonight about wholeness and see what we need to be in this world today, in this precarious, treacherous, dangerous world in which we live. Number one, I want you to think about the whole Bible, the whole Bible. We need to be a church preaching, presenting all of the Word of God. The Apostle Paul said in Acts 20, I believe, I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God. I don't believe we can have the luxury of a preacher or teachers who pick and choose. I believe the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is the Word of God.

12:29 And I believe that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. God inspired it all. It is all profitable. And I don't know whether you analyze what you hear from the pulpit from time to time or ever think about it, but one of my goals, one of my aims, is to preach all the counsel of God. Not just to zero in in one area or one section, but to present the whole counsel of God. that's part of the wholesomeness that I have on my heart. But not only the whole Bible, but out of the whole Bible to present the whole Christ. The whole Christ. Now, in many churches, we only hear part of Christ.

13:24 For example, we hear people talking about receiving Christ as your Savior. Well, in a sense, that's right. But you know that's not Bible language. The Bible never teaches you to receive Christ as your Savior. I've been guilty of saying it, you have, and I don't think there's anything overtly wrong with saying it. But you don't receive Christ as anything. You receive Christ, not as your Savior. It's be like a man going to get married, and the minister says to the groom, do you take this woman to be your wife? You say, well, I take her as housekeeper, or I take her as lover. No, you take her, all that comes with her. Jesus is Savior, but he's more than Savior. We call him in the Bible the Lord Jesus Christ.

14:22 The Lord means what? Master. Jesus means Jehovah saves. And so that means he is the mediator between God and man. Christ is the Greek word Christos, which means the Messiah. He is master, mediator, Messiah. That's the whole Christ. Some people today have actually gotten the warp theology that you can receive Christ as your personal Savior and then later on make him your Lord. If I understand anything about the Bible, if Jesus Christ is not your Lord, He is not your Savior.

15:03 Salvation is not a cafeteria line where you say, I think I'll have some Saviorhood today, thank you, but no Lordship. The Bible says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, literally, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth that Jesus is Lord, Jesus Lord is what it literally says, and shalt believe in thine heart, that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. And so we're going to take the whole counsel, the whole Bible. And out of the whole Bible, we're going to present the whole Christ. And actually, the whole Christ is found in the whole Bible. Jesus said, search the Scriptures, for these are they which testify of me. And if you read the Bible and you don't find the Lord Jesus Christ, you better go back and reread it. standing somewhere in the shadows, you'll find Christ. He is there in poetry.

15:57 He is there in precept. He's there in prophecy. He is there in parable. He is there somewhere, somehow, you're going to find the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, not only are we, therefore, going to be as a church preaching the whole Bible, presenting the whole Christ, but next, we're going to be doing this to the whole church. And this is going to be the most difficult. You see, the Bible says, God hath set every member of the church as it hath pleased him. Every member is a cell or a part of the total body. And we want a church where no one is overlooked, no one is lost, straight, or stolen, a church where everybody is somebody.

16:55 That is, where every member is led to discover, to develop, and to deploy his or her spiritual gift. Every one of you listening to me tonight has a ministry. You may not be practicing that ministry, but you have one. You may not have found it, but you have one. God did not call you to come into this church to sit, soak, and sour. God called you to come into this church to surrender and serve. That's why you're here. That's what it's all about. God hath said every member in the church as it hath pleased him. And so there's the whole church. And so we have the whole Bible. presenting the whole Christ. to the whole involving the whole church.

17:52 ministering to the whole man, to the whole man. First Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 23, and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sitting in your seat is spirit, soul, and body.

18:16 That's the whole person. Now the spirit is that spiritual part of your nature that makes you different from animals and enables you to worship God and know God. For God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Your soul is the emotional, volitional part of you, mind, emotion, and will. That's your soul. That's your sense of humor, your personality, your intelligence, your likes, your dislikes. That's what makes you, you, and me, me, that we have a soul, a psyche. That's the emotional part of us. And then we have a body. Our bodies are not evil. We're to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service. We are spirit, soul, and body. 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 23. Now, what are we to do as a church? We're to minister to the whole man, minister to the spirit.

19:12 That's our worship and our praise, and enabling us to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ. Minister to the soul. That's the fellowship aspect of the church. That's the educational aspect of the church. The mind, the emotion, the will, that's the soul. Minister to the body. We're building an activities building back here. And we have a dining hall. And some people say, oh, I don't believe you ought to do that. Why not? Jesus ministered to the whole man. We ought to minister to the whole man. And we don't want to be out of balance to reach the whole man. And so we take the whole Bible and present the whole Christ, utilizing the whole church, ministering to the whole man, and going to the whole world.

20:10 to the whole world. Now, what are we to do? Our task is to impact the world for Jesus Christ, but not to neglect right here. Ye shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you, Jesus said. And ye shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem. If he'd been preaching today, what would he have said? I mean, here, from this pulpit, he'd say in Memphis. in Memphis, in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth, in Memphis, in Shelby County, in Tennessee, in America, and in Tanzania. That's what he's saying. It's not either or. It's not either evangelism or missions. It is presenting Christ everywhere, taking Jesus Christ to the whole world.

21:08 Do we want to be a missionary church or a strong church here? Yes. Yes. And that's the reason we must build a base here and keep building the base here. It's not selfish to build a base here. It's reasonable. Jesus said we're to be a witness in Jerusalem. And very frankly, if we can't be a witness in Jerusalem, we won't be much of a witness somewhere else. This city is our responsibility. And this city needs the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we ought to be as though we're the only church that can do it. And if anybody else just comes to help us, that's a bonus. But we ought to just say that's just our responsibility to take this city for Jesus Christ. And if there are ethnic groups and other groups that we cannot reach, or socioeconomic groups that we can't reach, then we have to help those who can reach those so that the gospel of Jesus Christ gets out to this whole city and then to this whole county and this whole state and this whole world.

22:08 and then anybody else who helps us to do it, that is the bonus that we get. We're going to the whole world. We ought to be presenting the whole Christ from the whole Bible to the whole man so that the whole church is equipped to reach the whole world. That's what we ought to be. That's what we're doing. presenting the whole Christ from the whole Bible to the whole man so that the whole church is being equipped to reach the whole world. And this is the whole duty of man. That's wholesomeness. Now, I believe when we do that, I believe when we do that, I think the 10 things will characterize this congregation.

23:03 I'm just going to name them. So don't get frightened. Let's take about three minutes. Number one, we'll have a congregation committed to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Number two, we'll have a godly pastor. As a matter of fact, all of the rest of these things are desires. I have one goal, and that is to be a godly pastor, to be a godly man. The others are desires. I can't control the rest, but I can, by the grace of God, be a godly pastor. Number three, a congregation that is growing in Christlikeness. The test of this ministry is not the size of our buildings, our budget, but are we growing in Christlikeness? Number four, a congregation that's learning to worship God. Number five, a congregation discovering, developing, and deploying spiritual gifts.

24:03 Thank you. Number six, a congregation caring for the needy, the hurting, the weak, the forgotten, the lost, the last, and the least. Number seven, a congregation discipling and disciplining its membership.

24:24 Number eight, a congregation strengthening the family. Number nine, a congregation reaching out to evangelize those around it and a congregation with a worldwide missionary passion, vision, and outreach. And number 10, a congregation reaching out to and fellowshipping with other congregations to help bring this world to Jesus Christ. Where there's no vision, the people perish. What we need now... IS A NEW BIRTH OF VISION AND DETERMINATION TO BE WHAT WE CAN

25:14 BE AND OUGHT TO BE FOR THE GLORY OF GOD. WHERE THERE IS NO VISION, THE PEOPLE PERISH. BUT THE BIBLE SAYS THE PEOPLE WHO KNOW THEIR GOD SHALL DO EXPLOITS. I LIKE THE WORD EXPLOITS. SHALL DO EXPLOITS. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? I DON'T KNOW, BUT I LIKE IT. IT MEANS ANYTHING. IT MEANS THEY'RE NOT GOING TO BE JUST PLAYING LITTLE GAMES IN DESPERATE DAYS.