-
If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far, go together.
“Okay Terry, you’ve said that a million times…honestly I want to go fast.”
No…you really don’t.
Fast doesn’t last, that’s the whole point.
To take that approach is to sell out your future…it is the guarantee of stacking up regret.
One of the hallmarks of generational poverty is what is called a short time horizon.
How far into the future do you look or consider when making your choices today?
I would say this is true not just for poverty of possessions and money but for relational poverty, or for spiritual poverty.
You can live wisely with money…and foolishly with your life.
A very small child lives largely in the moment…no time horizon.
As the child grows the wise parent utilizes everyday life circumstances and creates some circumstances to extend that time horizon out farther and farther.
Because the wise parent knows that wisdom in their child and a thriving life for their child will require them to have a long time horizon.
Years ago, I told the story of a good friend whose 16-year-old son, made the momentary decision to climb out of his window one night jump into a car with a foolish friend and as a result spent the next 20 years of his life in prison.
A good kid, but just a kid…with a very short time horizon.
The lack of a long time horizon…can lead to long term regrets.
Look at what Proverbs, the book of wisdom says about this.
Proverbs 6:6-11
Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest— and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.
An insect lives with a long time horizon…it is built into them by God…we call it instinct.
Unlike Ants, Humans, have the capacity to choose to do dumb things…like sleep when it is time to work.
The price for that short term decision is long term hunger.
Proverbs 24:27
Finish your outdoor work and get your fields ready; after that, build your house.
In principle this is about rightly ordered priorities.
Prioritize long-term thriving over short term comfort and pleasure.
In our Old Testament reading we have seen this principle played out over and over.
Foolish Esau literally selling his future for a single meal.
*It is one of the greatest examples of a short time horizon in Scripture
Israel longing to go back into slavery in Egypt…why, because they were tired of the food God provided.
Never mind that the long-term plan was abundant food…if they would just keep going.
Then Israel refusing to go into the Promised Land because it was going to be hard…so they made their lives so much harder…and they made the hard last so much longer.
King Saul, too impatient to wait on God and do the right thing, threw away the kingdom and his sanity in a moment.
Having a long time horizon means that we live faithfully IN the moment, but we do not live foolishly FOR the moment.
What is the difference?
They are different ways of living entirely.
“In” the moment means we make the most of the opportunity before us…this may mean saying “no” to temporary pleasure, to what we are feeling, to peer pressure.
“For” the moment means we are not living with wisdom…we are giving into the immediate demands of physical pleasure, to our fleeting feelings, and the pressure of those around us.
Ultimately, as Christians we know that having an eternal time horizon is crucial for temporal wisdom.
There is no longer time horizon than eternity…and so there is no greater perspective for daily wisdom than that.
Psalms 90:12 “Teach us to number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
We live with our end in mind so that we will live with eternal priorities in our day to day lives…this is essential, scripture says, in order for us to be wise.
When adults live for the moment, not just in the moment…they make foolish and sometimes catastrophic choices.
Suicide is often said to be a permanent solution to a temporary problem.
There is also a kind of moral suicide…to commit adultery, or a crime.
There are many ways to sell out the future for a temporary solution.
The short time horizon solution to a problem…multiples the problem exponentially into the future.
When adults fail to have an appropriate time horizon…they can sell their futures for a single, fleeting moment.
So part of an extended time horizon is learning to measure larger life movements not just passing moments.
Now let’s shift to the positive, the potential good results of a long-time horizon.
I started planting trees the first year we moved into our house…25 years ago.
I wanted shade before I was dead…I understood that shade, is was a long-term project.
So I started right away.
The trees I planted were mostly bare root, inexpensive little “sticks” from the State forestry department.
Back then I could buy 20 little tree sticks for about $25.
They sat there for several years, nothing happening on the surface…roots establishing underground.
Then, they began to grow ever so slowly.
The funny thing is, I have never seen one of my trees grow and yet somehow they went from 1 foot bare root plantings to forty-feet and taller trees.
How is it possible that I have never seen a tree grow and yet…they have?
We have to measure movements not moments.
Make the most of the moments…by measuring life’s larger movements.
To live this way takes a lot of help…a lot of help.
*Especially when the moments get hard, confusing, distressing, boring, unfulfilling…you name it.
We need so much help to stay in the plow…to keep planting…when plowing is just so hard.
But gaps in planting lead to future gaps in harvesting…to measure long is hard in the short term.
On our own, we are not likely to live this way.
As we had read the Old Testament we have seen God’s people continually forgetting what God had done.
Continually turning away to foolish idols.
Forsaking the well of living water for broken, dry wells.
We don’t want to and we don’t have to…live that way.
God has graciously given us three key resources to live a thriving life…to live with a long time horizon.
To live in the moment, but not for the moment.
He has given us his Word, his Spirit, and his People.
We must continually access all three in order to live a long-term resilient life.
If someone were to tell you that they hit 2 out of 3 baseballs in a game you would say “not bad…well done.”
What if someone said, “I know I need food, water, and air…but I got two out three.”
-You would say, that’s bad, really bad!
Two out of three is bad when three out of three is necessary.
To thrive as a follower of Christ we need steady intake of God’s word…so we can know how to live lives of wisdom.
We need to stay plugged into the Spirit’s power…this is a component of obedience, the realm of the Spirit’s power in in our lives is the realm of God’s will for our lives.
We need one another, to live fully and faithfully as members of the Body of Christ…we cannot do well all by ourselves.
A hand is a thing of beauty…it can do amazing things…play piano, throw a ball, build a house, comfort a friend, feed a child.
A hand disconnected from the body is a thing of horror…terrible to even contemplate it.
It can do nothing dismembered from the body, and the body suffers because of the loss of a key member.
So, we want to go far.
We want to live in the moment, but for eternity.
God is all for it…it remains for us to be for it as well.
We are to see to it…that we live with long term faithfulness.
This kind of decided life is difficult, if not impossible all by ourselves.
See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
Hebrews 3:12-13
People will sometimes say things like, “I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“Maybe, but you didn’t mean for it not to happen.”
You did not put steps in place to see to it, that it didn’t happen.
There are things that can and must be done to proactively make sure that we do not turn away from the living God.
We are to “see to it”
*I was talking to friends last week about our commitment to be faithful to our wives.
We talked about how it can feel arrogant to say, “I will never do that.”
-“that” being marital unfaithfulness.
So we say things like, “Anyone can fall.”
OR
“We are all sinners.”
This is true, but entirely beside the point.
A marriage vow is where we literally say, “I will forsake all others.”
Meaning: “I will never do that.”
I officiated a wedding yesterday, and the vow was not “I am just a sinful man, so who knows what might happen, but yeah, okay…till death do us part, let’s give it a go…see what happens”
It is not arrogant to say, “I promise, I will keep my promise.”
It isn’t saying we are so great and so strong, or that we are not sinful.
We are not strong, we are sinful…and yet we are responsible to “see to it that we do not turn from God.”
Joshua challenged the people with…”Choose, today…I have and I have chosen to faithfully follow the Lord.”
The people didn’t say, “Don’t be arrogant Joshua, you are just a man, how do you know you can be faithful.”
He didn’t say, “I can’t fall…but I will give a shot.”
He did say, “I choose Faithfulness.”
I have decided…I am going to lived decided not deciding.
This is what “see to it” means.
We can be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness…now “see to it that you don’t.”
How?
We are to pursue the encouragement of others and pour courage into others.
Notice I said “We are to pursue.”
We are to “see to it.”
We must not wait for others to do this for us.
We must not blame others when they fail to do this.
We are to “see to it.”
My good friend Brett challenges me all the time by texting me when he needs prayer, is discouraged or struggling.
This challenges me…because I am prone to keep my struggles to myself…until I have a handle on them.
He challenges me because he is self-aware of his struggles and his ongoing need for encouragement.
He is unafraid to “see to it” that he stays encouraged to stay faithful…by asking for help, prayer, encouragement.
Information + Application + motivation = Transformation
We need information. We need the truth of God’s word to know how to live.
We need application. Jesus said that if we obey his teachings then we will know the truth and the truth will set us free.
-We have to apply the truth in our lives, or we will not see the power of the truth in our lives.
We need ongoing motivation in order to endure in application all the way to transformation.
Because this is a long term project.
This motivation is internal as the Holy Spirit empowers us to endure, and it is external as God’s people pour courage into our hearts to endure.
This is God’s design for change, sanctification, training in godliness, become more like Christ…different ways of saying the same thing.
When soldiers train and deploy as smaller platoons the desertion rate in combat goes way down.
Because when bullets are flying, and things become enormously difficult…men stay in the trenches for their battle buddies, not some patriotic idealism.
You may sign up for an ideal, but you will stay in the fight for a friend.
This is how God has designed humans to operate…it is how he has designed the local church to work.
Different churches approach living life in community in different ways and call it different things but to be fully effective they will have the same basic components.
We call them the four “m’s”
Meetings
-You have to actually get together at a time, in a place to build trust relationships.
-Showing up isn’t everything…but it is a lot of it.
*We turned off the life stream after we cleared Covid…why?
Because church is not an event to watch, it is a people to join in with.
We still stream it, after the fact…for the sick, those out of own.
But we have to meet together…and to see to it…we have to meet together in small groups.
Show up good things might happen, don’t show up and good things can’t happen.
Show up and in time, we grow.
We grow like trees…it is usually impossible to see in the moment, but it is clearly seen in movements over time.
Mission
-We are not just hanging out, like folks at a local bar, or a community group built around common interests.
-We are a missional people.
-We cooperate with other like-minded churches stateside and overseas for the Great Commission.
-We operate together as a local church under the mandate of the Lord Jesus…to make disciples of the nations.
-We work together in small groups…to reach our friends and families with the gospel.
Mission is non-negotiable…it is our mandate from Jesus
In the next two years we are going to focus more intentionally as a church on our mission mandate…more to come on that.
When Christians meet together but lose the missional mentality…mission drift occurs…then relationships devolve, and life becomes more about personal preference than the glory of God and the good of others.
Many of the NT letters were written to address mission drift in the churches.
Mission drift shows up in all kinds of stinking thinking, and dysfunctional relationships.
We have been given a GREAT commission.
There is no greater mission than to join God in what he is doing in the world to bring people to relationship with him.
Member Care
Member care is about all the many New Testament “one anothers.”
We have a missional mandate…the Great Commission
We have a member care mandate…the Great Commandment.
Love God, love others.
Love for God is best revealed in how we treat each other.
- Love one another: (John 13:34-35).
- Serve one another: (Galatians 5:13).
- Bear one another’s burdens: (Galatians 6:2).
- Forgive one another: (Ephesians 4:32).
- Build one another up: (1 Thessalonians 5:11).
- Be kind and compassionate to one another: (Ephesians 4:32)
- Confess your sins to one another: (James 5:16)
- Encourage one another: (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
- Pray for one another: (James 5:16)
These “one another’s” happen best at the level of personal relationships.
Trust built over time empowers these “one another’s” to become integral and possible in our lives.
Mentoring
The Great Commandment is to make disciples (this means, students, learners, apprentices) teaching them to obey everything the Lord taught.
This is about life-on-life impact…in becoming more like Christ.
More mature believers helping younger believers grow in their faith.
Coaching, training, encouraging others in godliness.
This happens best in personal, organic ways…not in overly programmatic fashion.
Programs are fine…but the Lord’s program, his method…was life on life.
I don’t have a program to mentor my grandkids…I am intentional about it.
If I am going to the store, and one of them is available…I take them with me.
*And as we go…we talk.
If something is organized but non-organic…it is a machine.
If something is organic but not properly organized…it is a cancer, a tumor
If something is organic and organized…is a healthy, growing body.
Scripture commands organized and organic life together.
God is a living being whose church is his living Body…and he is a God of order not disorder in his body.
We have, for 35 years been organized in organic ways as a church around small groups.
We began with two small groups…Christy and I led one of them.
All the groups have come in some fashion from those first 2 groups.
We focused on those four M’s…and as God multiplied leaders we multiplied groups.
As we head into the Fall I want cast vision for small groups.
For our church and for our culture as a whole…fall is more of practical new year, than January 1.
Practical in the sense that more things change for us now, than they at the beginning of the Calendar year.
Let me address three potential categories of perspectives here today.
-Because
-But
-And
- I am not in a group BECAUSE…
-I don’t feel the need
-I tried it, it didn’t work
-I Don’t have time
-I Just don’t want to
-It makes me nervous to be that open
I’m not going to address those honest “because’s” one at a time.
I will just say, I understand…but I remain resolved in my conviction, that being a part of a small group is essentially to your long-term growing and thriving.
- In a group BUT…
-I am not seeing results
-I don’t like it some or much of the time
-I do it out of duty
Again, I can relate…but can only say…keep showing up, a continual harvest requires continually sowing of seeds.
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
Galatians 6:9,10
So, if you are showing up mostly to do good for others…well, good for you.
That is a Biblical motivation.
- In a group AND…
– I like it
-I see God at work
-Do it because I see the value
To you I would say, stay faithful.
Look for opportunity to tell your story, to cast vision.
In my role I hear the stories on both ends of the spectrum.
“This doesn’t work.”
AND
“My life is changing!” “I see lives changing.”
Because of the negativity bias…we need to hunt the good stuff…and talk much about the good stuff.
Tell good stories of God’s goodness.
Let me say, as I close…I am not selling, I am telling.
-I am convinced, I have led groups, or been in one for forty plus years
-If you are not in a group, I wouldn’t even know it…I don’t have a tracking system.
-It really is between you and God.
I am telling you because I believe it, after all these years, that this is how growth, change, best happens.
-But like all disciplines…physical, spiritual, mental, and relational…it has to become who you are not just something you try…if you are going to endure in it.
*Trying will often end when things get hard, or boring.
*This is about training for godliness not merely trying something to see if it works.
You have never seen grow, but you have seen plenty of grown trees.
What is true for a tree, is true for you and me.
Christy has been leading groups at River for 35 years, that’s how old River is.
I have never had her speak about her experience on a Sunday morning that I can remember.
Partly because, “Come on Terry, She’s your wife, of course she leads groups.”
Couple of things about that.
- She isn’t paid to lead a group; she gets paid to teach piano. She does it because she wants to.
- She doesn’t’ have to lead a group. I don’t make her. You can’t make her. She does it because she loves it. (most of the time). More specifically it is one way she loves God and people.
- She is a much better group leader than I ever have been or will be…no false humility…just simple fact.
So, I thought you would benefit from hearing her heart…I get to hear it often.
- Why do you have such a heart for small group?
- What has been the hardest thing for you over the years?
- What has kept you going over the years?
- Anything else?
If you want information about small groups…to our website…or talk to a leader of staff member. website information for small groups